Condor

I made a quick overnight trip to Rye Patch to do some more testing with the GPZ and 17" Concentric Coil.  My main goal is to familiarize myself with the Z combination for an upcoming trip to Australia.  This testing was merely for my own edification, not to prove any point about this Machine/Coil vs that Machine/Coil.   I dug the first 2 nuggets last night and it was getting dark so I didn't have time to do any cross checking.  This morning I marked 3 undug targets with the GPZ and 17" XCoil Concentric.  I then went over them with the GPZ XCoil 17x12 Spiral Wound.  That combination picked up 2 of the 3 targets.  I then went over all three with the GPX 6000, 14x9 Coiltek combination.  The 6000 heard 1 of the 3, but while detecting back to the truck it picked up 2 more targets.  I started over with the Z 17"CC and it picked up the 2 new targets no problem.  I then ran the Z 17x12 over the new targets.  It picked them up no problem, but on the way back to the truck the 17x12 picked up a faint noise in an old drywash hole.  I dug down to bedrock and found bits of charcoal and just general noise so I gave up on it.   

The 17" CC relocated the 1 missed target and I dug down a few inches thinking to use the 6000 as a pinpointer.  It still couldn't pick up the target.  I finally dug it out, a tiny piece of steel down about 6 inches.  

I then dug up the 4 targets which included the 2 remaining targets the 17"CC found and the 2 the 6000 found.  2 were bits of steel and 2 were small round nuggets.  Coincidently, the 2 gold targets were the ones found by the 6000, but verified by both coils on the Z.  

By then it was approaching 10:00 AM, and the NV desert still gets hot this time of year.  But, before I left I went back to the 17" CC combination and went over the drywash hole.  A clear tone somewhere in the bottom of that hole.  The unfortunate thing about the Concentric coil is the receive winding is about 8" round dead center.  You're waving 17" of coil with the equivalent of an 8" round receiver.  Nearly impossible to pinpoint in a foot deep hole.  I dug the hole out some more and tried the 6000 over it.  Very noisy, but a faint low tone in the sidewall of the hole.   I dug it out some more and finally got a booming target in the spoils.  Heartbreak, 1.5 inch piece of rusted steel.  

My random thoughts on this little experiment are this:  

1.  The XCoil 17" Concentric will not miss much, "IF" you have fairly flat ground and can consistently overlap your swings to insure you get that 8" receive winding over the targets.

2.  The XCoil 17x12 Spiral Wound coil is nearly as good and will ultimately cover more ground with a whole lot less effort.    

3.  The 6000 with 14x9 Coiltek is no slouch and could save the day if you're old and tired like me.  I would be hard pressed to swing the 17"CC all day.  The deepest nugget the 6000 found was down about 5 inches, very respectable for a sub/sub gram nugget.  

All this is very unscientific.  I'm at mercy of time and weather in the NV desert this time of year.  I did what I could with the equipment I had with me.  Rye Patch is a tough hunt in the best of circumstances, so finding 4 nuggets in about 6 hours of detecting is beating the odds.  I've had more than a few skunk days out there.   

I bought the GPZ XCoil Concentric for my upcoming trip to Australia coming in mid September.  I wanted to put some run time on it so when Steve H suggested we take a short trip to Sawtooth to meet with forum member ABenson I jumped at the chance.  Steve H has an old patch that he has detected for over 10 years, I've detected it for over 6 years.  We generally find a few pickers but it really has been hunted to death.  The benefit of a hunted to death patch is there is no more trash, so any target stands a good chance of being the good yellow stuff.  

I ran the 17" Concentric as hot as the ground would bear, Normal, High Yield, Sens 17.  The ground has a lot of alkali salt, and the upper couple inches was damp from a recent rain so I added in the "Patch Find" setting to quiet the ground a little.  After a couple hours with no targets other than a few boot scrapes in hot ground, I got a good repeatable tone on the slope of an old push.  Since I'm new to the Concentric I had no idea what that signal was telling me.  If I had to guess from the tone, I would say under a gram nugget, 4 to 6 inches down.  So I marked the target and walked back to the truck to get my GPX 6000 and the new Coiltek 14x9 coil.  Steve H was nearby so we decided to check the target with the new Axiom.

We got there and neither the 6k nor the Axiom could hear the target.  I had to go back to the truck and get the Z to verify the target was where I had marked.  A clear and repeatable tone in both Normal and Difficult for the Z.  We pulled a couple inches off the top and started the whole process over.  The 6k gave a faint low tone over the target, but not something that would ordinarily stop me in prospecting mode.  In fact, I dig very few low tones in this ground because of the hot ground and hot rocks.   I'll defer to Steve H for his assessment of how the Axiom was doing over the same target.  

We did a lot more testing, and found a seam of hot red clay on the target, but to skip to the chase, we recovered a 4.6 gram nugget (4.7 on Steve's scale) at a minimum of 13 inches and probably closer to 14 inches.  

We reached a few preliminary conclusions on ground handling, raw detecting power and pricing of the 3 detectors, based on this one unscientific, ad hoc test with the detectors and coils we had available.  Our ideas on detector performance were severely challenged in some later completely unscientific tests.  More to come, Steve H is probably better suited to explain how things changed.  

I did a little nugget hunting in a California Gold Country hydraulic pit using the D2 with the latest update .7 and the 9" coil.  As most nugget hunters know, hydraulic pits are a bugger to hunt, square nails and ferrous trash enough to drive you insane.  I found a decent little spot of packed soil on top of the old cobbles.  Probably a sluice cleanout spot or maybe the old timers were shoveling out a sluice raceway.  Still littered with pieces of wire from steel cables and miscellaneous ferrous trash, but workable.

The D2 update added a notch feature to the Goldfield and Relic programs.  That feature allows you to notch out the ground which vastly improved the coil bump sensitivity.  I notched 00 to 10 which also took out a majority of hotrocks.  The hotrocks played havoc with my GPX6000, so I opted to stay with the D2.  The smallest of nuggets I found had a TID in the high 20's, the bigger ones 30 to 40 range.  22 bullets TID in 50s.  I had occasion to test swing over someone else's .26 oz nugget found that same day.  That TID came in the US nickel range, mid 60's.  I would have liked a 2nd notch to handle another type of hotrock that had a TID of 79.  Well beyond gold nugget range yet still registering non-ferrous.  Not sure what they were, but they were numerous and added a distracting high tone.  

I have used the NOX 800 with the Coiltek 5x9 coil for similar kind of nugget hunting.  I think the NOX would still have an edge in these conditions, but I was impressed with how well behaved the D2 was with the new update.   I recovered nuggets so small they will not register on my cheapo scale.   If Deus builds their elliptical coil for the D2, it will be a very competitive VLF nugget detector.  Even though I have the NOX, I prefer the D2 maybe because its new to me and has a lot of features I can fiddle with.  

Photos to follow.

I have debated writing this but some things need to be aired.  I don't intend to trespass on our forum rules of ad hominem attacks, so I'll be vague (barely).  Last week I did a solo run to Rye Patch, intending to stay 3 days.  For 2 days I hadn't seen a soul except far off dust trails.  On the 3rd morning I saw a dark colored truck due west of section 19 so I thought I would go and visit and see if it was anyone I know.  I found 2 guys with bright colored LSU shirts and a truck bearing Louisiana plates.  The were struggling to assemble a brand new XP Deus I with a High Frequency coil.  We got to talking while I took over the assembly of the Deus, and they told me they had purchased 2 gold claims in the area.  After I got the detector up and running we chatted awhile longer and it was clear they were out of their element.  Very amiable fellows and we continued talking about detecting and the likelihood of finding gold.  I told them while the Deus 1 is a capable detector, it would not be a first choice for detecting Rye Patch.  

It seems that in their haste they had gone to their local detector dealer in LA and told him they needed a gold detector.  He had 1 detector left in his shop, that being a Deus 1.  He demonstrated the detector in his front yard over a man's gold ring.  The detector clearly detected a gold ring and they bought it full retail with a High Frequency round coil and a pinpointer.  In all fairness, the dealer in a southern state knows little to nothing about detecting gold nuggets in the west.  Plus, that's the only detector he had available and they were in a hurry. 

So, we talked awhile longer and after a little private consultation they offered me the opportunity to detect their claim with them.  We agreed to a 50/50 split and off we went following GPS coordinates due west and straight uphill.  After a time I asked them if this claim had produced any gold, not having seen any evidence of workings, dig holes or old timers camps.  They told me that according to the seller they could expect to find an ounce a week and that it was not uncommon to find an oz a day.  I shook my head an told them I don't think so, since this was way outside the known gold producing zone.  Nevertheless, I detected about a mile in a horseshoe loop back to our starting point.  Not one single target, no trash, no bullets and no evidence of workings. 

I had a pretty good idea that they had been sold on a dream but they were such nice and decent guys I wanted to help.  I called home in Fernley NV and had my girlfriend gather up my GPZ 7000 and Equinox 800 and meet me in Lovelock.  The next day I met with my new Cajun friends and they still had not met with their seller so I told me let's go detect using my true gold detectors.  I gave them some quick lessons and followed along while they detected and dug trash targets.  I detected a few promising signals with the 6000 and had them come and listen with the other detectors.  Unfortunately, none of my promising targets were gold, but they had a chance to learn about the whisper targets, and try understand the loud booming targets were likely trash. 

They offered to pay me for my time and use of detectors and I countered they could pay for my girlfriend's gas for delivering the detectors, but that I was happy to spend time with them detecting.   Mind you, I'm no Albert Sweitzer, but I just felt bad that these guys had been abused trying to join and learn my favorite hobby.  By day 6 of my 3 day trip I needed to get home for some appointments.  They had finally met with their seller and learned that the area we explored was not in fact their claim.   He showed them the claim (from the description worse) although he didn't show them where the gold was, but they enjoyed some sightseeing of Majuba.  I remained dubious, but they had renewed faith and I had to leave.  They detected their new claim (with my detectors) the next morning and found a bullet, and some aluminum targets.  Nothing promising.

I called Lucky Lundy and explained this dilemma of some nice guys getting some bad information.  He was otherwise committed and couldn't help, but made some calls and found another fellow prospector who needed a good excuse to get out for a day of prospecting and agreed to meet my Cajun friends.  He helped them as much as he could, no one found any gold.   All I can say is we gave it a game effort, or an honest effort as it were.   They are on their way back to Louisiana having learned the promise of riches in gold claims out west can be alluring but success is fleeting.  $12k may not be a lot to most folks, but it sure is to me.  

I understand that in the business of selling used cars and gold claims a little puffery is to be tolerated.  I think this went way beyond puffery, I saw the text exchanges.  To add insult to injury, the seller offered to sell them a 3rd claim with a deposit due immediately.   I am personally embarrassed and pissed that this still goes on.   These guys were really nice people and honest to a fault. 

I know, they should have done more research and been more skeptical of the claims made.  They never heard of this forum, but had they inquired here, our people could have cautioned them.  All I can say is thank god they hadn't heard of Long Range Locators, or whatever they're called these days. 

Perhaps the seller came in and tell his version of events.  Unlikely.

As always,  Rye Patch is tough sledding.   I eked out enough with the 6000 to buy about half tank of diesel.  Today's price at Rye Patch $5.19.

I don't know why the photos are always inverted here and I'm not savy enough to fix them.  Oh well turn your head sideways, enjoy.

I took about a half hour with the D2 on visible schist bedrock that was loaded with trash and steel bits from the original blade that pushed this gully. I tested the D2 with a .3 gram nugget.  It hit 33 to 36 TID in the Goldfield program.  The machine ran quiet and separated the trash from nonferrous quite well with the 11" coil.  It locked on 2 small lead fragments that ID'd at 40.  Close enough that that I was pretty confident if any half grammars were present it would have sniffed them out.  Naturally,  it would not be my go to gold detector,  especially in this configuration with the 11" coil.   But, I was impressed with its ability to run in heavy ferrous trash and convincingly hit on the nonferrous lead.