Jonathan Porter

What I'm describing is very subtle and will only be noticed once operators become intimately familiar with the detector but it does have merit when working in extremely mineralised dirt. From a cold start the electronics will gradually climb to operating temperature which is unaffected by outside ambient while the detector is running. From an operators standpoint the detector will just sound smoother to listen to.

JP 

I'm pretty certain Steve is correct, Whites were offered the PI tech some time around 1988 because at the time Minelab also did not think it was viable.

JP

Hi Dave, plug directly into the WM 12 to avoid damaging the cable. Please see here for preferred GB procedure.  http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/741-warm-up-for-gpz-7000-some-clarification/

BTW The General/Difficult mode is very good and more sensitive than Fine Gold on a 5K and has better outright depth over the High Yield/Difficult on larger nuggets (generally over an ounce), but High Yield/Difficult smokes both the 5K in Fine Gold and the GPZ in General/Difficult on nuggets from around the half ounce mark and down (best on 5 to 10 grams).

JP

If using a B&Z use Threshold at 27, Audio Smoothing Off, Sensitivity 10 to 12 for Difficult modes, sens 8 to 10 for Normal modes, Auto Tracking. Best bang for your buck in noisy ground is High Yield/Difficult, General/Normal for quieter areas and High Yield/Normal for dead quiet ground.Do not use Extra Deep unless the ground is extremely bad,  the naming is a silly. 

Hope this helps,

JP

Even the Aussies were debating that, apparently at least four of them in Australia.

It definitely looks like Vic gold to me Steve, well done to the finder.

JP

Steve, I've noticed a trend on the forums the last couple of days, people are starting to get crabby. Once I'm given the go-ahead on talking about the subject I'll be thinking long and hard about were I'll be spending my internet time.

I flat out refuse to be a whipping boy this time round, if the mods at the various Australian forums I frequent do not keep a lid on the personal attacks then I'll just post elsewhere or not at all. 

JP

That's the country I started my career in, they deserve every gram of gold they get, its some of the most rugged country I have ever worked! Steve you could probably think of it as the exact opposite of the Yukon in terms of remoteness and difficulty in getting around. It's the only place I have ever worked where overnight temps went below zero C and day time temps maxed out at 40C.

The gold is amazingly pure, running in the high 90's (97-98%), and the views are to die for, once the Palmer gets into your blood its for life, from then on you measure everything else by it.

JP

I'm just looking forward to be able to look people straight in the eye and not have to change the subject when asked what Minelab are up to, lots of discussions going on all over the net and I can't be part of any of it just at the moment.... I suspect its not far off now though. 

Steve you commented recently about Minelab porting their new detectors into already used housings and not doing total re-designs from scratch (can't find the actual comment but it was recently), such as the SDC using the F3 Compact housing and now the GPZ 7000 using the CTX housing..... yet I just read your thread where you had this housing on your wish list back on 2012. Just curious where you stand with this methodology? 

JP

Hi Steve, been pretty flat out building boosters (Still not got yours ready to ship, but the curly cords turned up yesterday so once boxed up they'll be good to go... please PM me your mailing address).

I've been out a few times in the last week or so reworking some old ground between the thunderstorms, very humid and sticky but 9 and 8 gram pieces have made it worth while. 

Would have loved to come over for the New Orleans gig but just could not justify the expense for only a few days visit, especially this time of year where the kids have just gone back to school (expensive), say Hi to everyone for me will you?

The CTX is sitting in the cupboard for now and for good reason, there are better things to do at present. :-) But I've still got some oversize piles that are full of trash that I want to check out, once the weather cools I'll give it another shot.

JP

Manufacturers are afraid of negative feedback from customers complaining about noise so opt for the soft solution of providing DD coils only!! Case of not understanding what is required to be effective when searching for gold or worse trying to do too much at once.

If the GB II, an outdated design, can do it effectively and IMHO MUCH quieter than the GB PRO with its DD coil and lower FREQ, why can't the more modern offerings, especially with the benefit of reasonable auto tracking features, be able to do it? 

How bout giving me a GB II in a modern GB PRO housing with a concentric coil and Minelab auto ground tracking with three frequencies say 19Khz, 32Khz and 70Khz? 

JP

I like concentric coils on VLF's because they produce a hotter signal response but also allow you to whip the coil a lot more aggressively compared to a DD, which helps no end in identifying small shallow targets in hot ground.

I had a concentric 10" elliptical coil on my XT 17000 years ago and loved it, problem was they had major issues with them out of the factory so a lot of them were very noisy even in mild ground which then killed them in the market place. Found a lot of gold with the one I had when it was working properly.

To my mind if your using a VLF to chase gold then you may as well use a concentric coil and then just target areas with average to low mineralisation rather than go down the dull muffly signal response of DD coils on tiny surface targets, if the ground hots up too much then by all means put on  a DD or even better just grab an SDC 2300. 

JP

Establishing market share is always a good way to incentivise the marketing arm of any new company, especially if the company is small, being seen to be readily adaptable to customer requirements/needs is money well spent compared to the cost of advertising in major publications etc.

Will be very interesting to see how things pan out when a PI for the gold sector is offered by Nokta, from an Australian stand point that will be the time when I personally can start to look more closely.

JP

It is even more noticeable when things are damp, during rain or just after rain. Best bet is to keep the phone well away or turn it off.

JP

I run my threshold for the SDC up on 4, it smooths things out a lot, I then use the volume control of the B&Z with dual speakers so the threshold does not get too "in your face".

The Sensitivity control on the SDC does a number of things all at once, it raises or lowers the Gain, raises or lowers the Target Volume and also increases or decreases the Stabilizer depending on which setting is chosen. 

I like the threshold of the SDC, yes its talkative on higher settings but the information coming out is consistent so makes it easier to listen for faint target variations.

Hope this helps

JP

Steve you really should give a HiptStick a try, it worked brilliantly with the ATX when I used one, I use an ex-army utility belt for the lower swivel mount and a CamelBack with the 3ltr water bladder and have no troubles working all day.

JP

The 5000 threshold is stable by comparison because you have access to both the Stabilizer control and also the Motion control, Stabilizer is pre-set in the SDC and is fixed MUCH higher than FP on the 5000, Motion is also pre-set on the SDC and is a lot faster than the FP of the 5K. If you want to listen to a 5K set similarly to the SDC put the Stabilizer on 20 and the Motion on Medium, then cross compare the thresholds. 

There is a lot of extra performance made available by having both those settings ramped up for the SDC, however thanks to new circuit designs the SDC can handle them quite well.

JP

Basalts are one of the big contributors to our red colour here in OZ, but you have to be picky, surface generated basalt flows can weather into blood red soils which are very fertile, the ones we want for gold mineralisation are the sub-ducted basalts that have been metamorphosed into different rocks such as our atypical greenstones of West Australia etc. Basalts can be very iron rich, and a major contributor to gold mineralisation here in Australia.

Once again Chris is the main man for this discussion.

JP

To view some good video material Chris, Steve and I created on the subject go to the link below.

http://www.minelab.com/aus/treasure-talk/the-west-australian-adventure-video-blog-part-6

Coverage and depth are often confused/mixed in together when discussing larger coils. As an example I would take a 14" round NF mono over a 24 x 12" elliptical mono any day for outright depth, especially in gullies/washes etc, but the 24 x 12" kills the 14" round when out patch hunting in flat terrain. This is not to say the 24x12 does not get good depth because they do, but for outright maximum depth always go round with Monoloop coils, they transmit that way and receive that way, uniformity in my opinion is the key with monoloops when chasing depth.

My all time favourite coils sizes are 14" round in tight hard to work places like gullies and washes, 17" elliptical NF for general prospecting chores, 18" round for the general deeper ground and 20" to 25" round for those super deep places that are not too big an area but specifically suitable for careful detecting chasing a lump at depth.

The 25" round requires dedication and the willingness to ruthlessly ignore small signal responses, if the ground is noisy I tend to stick with Enhance over Fine Gold, I'm listening for a lump not crumbing for small stuff. I will also use the DEEP audio filter or if things are reasonable EMI wise increase the Stabilizer and go with the NORMAL audio filter, if you do lift the Stabilizer then be aware the overall volume of the detector will also increase so be prepared to back the Target volume off a bit.

JP 

I use the Minelab one, just wrap the loop around the handle under the Quick-Trak button and then hook the other end up to your back pack, works a treat.

JP

Pic of my son Timothy using the Bungee with a Hipstick.

Great photo Steve, that pic must have been taken on one of those few days the sun came out? Congratulations on making the cover of ICMJ. 

JP

Steve, another reasonably safe way to clean gold pretty quickly is to use an acid proof beaker on a bunsen burner at low heat using Oxalic acid, letting it simmer in a well ventilated area. Oxalic acid also seems to brighten the gold surface compared to other more aggressive acids like HF and HC which seem to etch the surface layer.

I sometimes let things soak in a mild solution of HF for a while if there is a lot of quartz then use the heat catalysed Oxalic method to do the final clean up.

Definitely DO NOT mixed Nitric and Hydrochloric acid together, Aqua regia will be the result!!!

JP

Hey Steve, its been very interesting following this and other threads particularly seeing your train of thought on various detector scenarios as you publicly work your way through your own personal reasons behind why you like a particular metal detector. I think you and I are very similar in this regard, or to put it more bluntly "super fussy about our kit" . At the end of the day a detector needs to be comfortable to use for long periods, I think in the past we've put up with a lot of discomfort purely because the performance is what makes us use some detectors. Imagine a world were a metal detector had grunt as well as being light and having good ergonomics? Bliss!!!

On a side note have you ever spent time with the Xterra 705? They are pretty neat in the way you can just change coils to suit the type of operating frequency required to suit the location and targets sought. I'm partially interested in the concentric high frequency coils for gold nugget searching but have not had time to experiment with them much. Maybe an Xterra 705 and MXT/MX5 shootout is in order?

JP

I wish that large lump of lead I found with the CTX was gold……Boo hoo  , bragging rights goes to Steve this month.   But hey thanks Steve for inspiring me enough to go out and have the experience, this forum is fast turning into my major motivational stop shop!! ? Now all I need to know is the method you used to drop off so much body weight!! Summer is a real pain for me and the gaining of too many kilos.  

JP

That is a nice piece of gold Steve, what a way to top off 2014. Just goes to show, getting out of your chair and leaving your computer is the first step in giving yourself the opportunity of getting your coil over a fantastic piece like this, or at the very least the chance of making that left right decision. 

JP

Gloves are sold in hardware stores for builders and are fingerless on thumb and first two fingers which makes it much easier to pick up tiny little nuggets in a scoop during retrieval. Those are my favourite pair but generally these gloves only last about 2 months before they start to fall apart, although two months for me is an awful lot of detecting compared to most other people.

The main reason I wear them is to cut back on the amount of sun getting to the tops of my hands, sun screen wears off way to quickly to be practical in our hot sweaty environment, after doing this professionally for 21 years the tops of my hands are starting to look a little worse for wear, also the reason why I don't wear baseball caps anymore because the tips of my ears were going down the same path.

JP