Condor

A few years ago I could detect old placers 45 minutes from home in AZ.  I considered 2 grams a day average and it paid for gas and slowly paid off a few detectors.  Nowadays, 2 grams a week seems to be a good haul.  I don't think that there are many of us who would consider detecting as supplemental income, just a hobby with lots of exercise and fresh air.  

Now that we're back online I'll share some info from my last adventure.  As with all my adventures it was not without its mishaps, all part of the journey.  

I had read about Zortman somewhere online, then saw a YouTube video from last year.  Then Beatup mentioned having been up there dredging some years back, so I thought I'd give it a go.  The attraction is that you can dredge on the local claims for a fee that runs from free to $20.00 a day.  There are no permits needed because the stream doesn't feed into any gamefish waters.  The stream has an intermittent flow that in places disappears underground.  There is barely enough water to dredge and you need to set up a dike and pond for any real success.   I assembled a small 2" dredge but never had a chance to test it before the trip.  As it turns out the carb on my dredge motor was fouled and I never got it to run.  I watched 2 groups dredging, one with a 4" and one with a 2.5".  They seemed to be averaging about a gram a day.  

Zortman is pretty remote with a population of about 100.  They are well set up with 2 RV campgrounds with full service.  There is a motel of sorts and a variety of cabins and trailers that can be rented.  The general store is well stocked with all the necessities and they have fuel at a reasonable price.  The proprietors/claim owners are super nice people and will go out of their way to make sure everyone has a good time.  Lots of wildlife, we saw deer and turkeys everyday.  There didn't seem to be a problem with bears, the RV campground I was in didn't even use bear proof trash cans.  

My only real success came from detecting.  Some highbankers had worked down to bedrock undercutting the old washed out road.  They were long gone so I detected the bedrock with my new GPX6000.  I first ran the 6k in Auto+ with the speaker on and pulled up 2 quick nuggets.  There really should be no EMI in a place as remote as Zortman, but that speaker setup would get sparky especially if I laid the machine down while digging.  Mosquitos drove me off the first day, forgot the bug spray.  

The next day I came back with bug spray and my in ear monitors instead of headphones.  I cranked the machine up in Auto+ and added the threshold function.  In quiet ground, that is the absolute best setting.  I went over the exact same ground and pulled up 4 more nuggets.  The deepest was probably down 5 inches in a bedrock crack.  The down side is the machine is so sensitive it will find the tiniest of tiny pieces of old ferrous trash.  

I explored around the rest of the claims but really couldn't find any ground not littered with old ferrous trash.  Not a detectors paradise for sure.  The grandkids drove over from Spokane for a few days and we spent some time digging and panning.  Everybody found a few flakes to take home and I salted as many pans as I could to keep the interest up.  

We had a good time, and will probably go back with a functioning dredge next time.  Coming home was when we had near disaster.  I had stopped right near the ID/NV border to let the dog out for a run.  As usual I did a walk around the truck and 5th wheel to check things.  I noticed the drivers side tires on the 5th wheel had some sudden and severe wear patterns, all the way down to the steel belts.  I limped it to the RV park in Jackpot NV and set about to find the problem.  I pulled the worst tire and saw that the brackets for the leaf springs were bent.  There is no repair facility in Jackpot so I thought I could put on the spare tire and limp 60 miles to Wells NV for repairs.  Nope, the spare tire was unusable, heat and age had damaged the sidewalls.  I took the damaged tire to Wells Chevron, the owner mounted a used tire for me to limp the rig in for repair.  The make a long story tolerable, the Wells NV Chevron is tourist RV repair trap.   After 3 trips back and forth from home to Wells in 9 days, the inflated invoice came to $6500.  I paid them $1800 and came away with my RV, we'll leave it at that.  I am a retired federal criminal investigator and my methods are not for the faint of heart.  

It's always an adventure.  I'll start another one soon.  

We have a fellow prospector whose wife passed after several weeks of an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder.   He lost his job during the pandemic and has a teenage daughter scheduled to attend Kent State University this fall.  He lives in PA, but spends his vacation gold prospecting every year either here in NV or at my place in Yuma.   Lucky Lundy frequently guides him around the goldfields to help make the best of his limited time out prospecting.  He could use not only our thoughts and prayers, but a little financial help through a GoFundMe page established in his family's name.  

We prospectors can be a prickly lot, but we pull together for friends in need.  Please help make this trying and sorrowful situation a little better.  Here's the link:

https://gofund.me/9c16aa5c

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Bill Southern just posted on Youtube he received his first 6000 in sunny AZ.  Won't be long now.

1 hour ago, vanursepaul said:

Always an adventure mate.... 🤠----you needed the Old Troopy blowing black smoke!!!

I reckon she would have brought you home----

You know i never had a flat at Rye Patch that I can remember.... And i used to buzz it out there wide open.... ask Michel....lol

 

That Troopy would be worth a minor fortune over here.  I wish I had it right now.  

Well Paul lives a charmed life, as I well know.  I think USAA has a committee meeting this month on whether they can afford him as a policyholder, stolen vehs, detectors, bicycles the list goes on.  

3 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Heck Condor that sounds like a normal trip to NNV to me.... except add 2 blown tires.

Hey,  Your thread was really rubbing me wrong that very 1st sentence, "I was using the only GPX-6000 in the US", but then as I read along, I kind of giggled a little.  Yes that's NNV in May and everyone best be prepared.

I guess the pic of digging holes to drop the tires was pretty good.  Only thing that could have been worse if you dug the holes, dropped the rear tires in them and then got yourself stuck...

Well the good is, you provided us some knowledge, a few laughs and you were able to run the GPX-6000 in the USA.

Hats off to you my friend and thanks for the story/education.

Everybody who ventures out there in the NNV desert finds out about that tire killing black shale.   Last year my girlfriend found an arrowhead, well it looked like an arrowhead sticking through the dead center of a $300.00 tire.  We put in 4 tire plugs and a bottle of green stuff to get it in to town.  Those tire guys in Winnemucca make a good living repairing and replacing tires of the unlucky.  

When I dug the tire trenches I was thinking the same thing.  I hit dry hard pack down about 8 inches, but put the truck in 4 low and bumped up the engine tuner a couple of notches just in case.  

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It was a crazy snowy cold week for sure, and equipment failures sure do not help. In other words, just a normal prospecting trip! It does seem like there are times when nothing goes well, and sorry you are the one that got hit this time Steve.

It's all part of the hobby.  Since I retired from criminal investigations, I need a few challenges and something to outwit.   A certain sense of satisfaction comes of getting through these hardships.  

Which reminds of the most annoying hardship of the whole endeavor.  I forgot to mind the effects of sun and wind and got a bugger of a chapped lip, which turned to a cold sore that seems to replicate itself every couple days.  The worst part is it breaks open and starts bleeding causing my cheapo box wine to taste like copper pennies.   Nothing worse than copper Dago Red wine.   "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome _______" (fill in the blank)

I thought I lost the gold in all the shuffle between vehicles, but here it is.  Just for scale I put 6 of the smallest to get a weight, otherwise individually they won't register.

I am fortunate enough to live close to Steve H when he was otherwise engaged in pressing business, so he loaned me the only existing US GPX 6000.  I loaded up the Toyhauler, RZR, girlfriend and doodle dog for a week or so of detecting at Sawtooth.  Lundy dropped by for a swing or two and we gave the 6000 a pretty good go on some heavily detected patch areas.

GPX 6000 - I won't repeat all the other information already shared by Steve H and Lundy on their views of the 6000.  I had the time to do a little more testing of the other features.

14"DD Coil- I spent most of one day running the DD in the saltiest, most reactive ground I could find.  I found 2 tiny nuggets, depth not more than a few inches.  One thing I noticed on these small targets is too much swing speed and you will flat out miss them.  I'm talking patch cleaning speed, not patch hunting speed.   I'm sure swing speed would not be as critical on bigger nuggets, but these are in the .1 or smaller pieces and a fast swing speed loses them entirely.  It handles the hot ground like a dream, especially if you use the Auto Modes.  There are only 2 DD modes, a cancel EMI mode and a cancel Salty ground mode.  It seems you still have a normal and a difficult setting as well, but I'm not sure of the effect.  I couldn't discern any difference in my short time.  

17"Mono Coil- I think most people are going to want a bungee and swing arm.  It's not the weight particularly, Its the repetitive motion on my feeble joints I felt the most.  The swing arm from my 7000 really takes the pressure of that shoulder joint.  The 17 should do great in normal soils and handled the salty ground remarkably well especially with the Auto features.  I spent another whole day patch hunting with the 17 and I think that back in the Yuma ground it would be the go to, assuming it can handle the EMI from the fighter jet traffic.  

The Speaker- For whatever reason, as has been discussed by JP, the external speaker loads up with EMI noise.  It seems to get better after 30 minutes of run time, but gets annoying initially.  I normally hunt with Ear Buds and the 1/8 connection fits perfect in the 6000 headphone port, but you lose that wireless feature.  I tried the Aventree wireless neckband, it connects and pairs nicely and works great, just not my comfort style especially in the heat.  

Auto+ plus Threshold- I was watching one of the Aussie videos and learned that in Auto+ you can press and hold the Difficult mode button and get a threshold tone in the otherwise silent (Bogenes setting) auto mode.  I'm not sure what if anything this accomplishes, hopefully JP can give us a little more insight.  

I found gold, nothing big and nothing deep.  I spent a great deal of time in areas that just don't have deep nuggets, and the GPZ's had already cleaned out the big stuff.  Then I spent a lot of time trying to find a new patch, always an iffy endeavor.  Despite having the machine for over a week, I probably didn't get more than 30 hrs of pure detecting time.  First was the weather.  I hit N NV desert just in time for a cold front.  One day I was wearing shorts, the next day it was snowing.  One day I saw the storm brewing and tried to outrun it back to camp only to get hit with sideways blowing hail.  I had taken the windshield off the RZR to keep the dust vortex to a minimum, and sure regretted it that day.  

Detecting time also gets consumed by domestic duties, handling the BBQ, entertaining the dog etc..  It's good the have the family along, but you have to make a few sacrifices and pure detecting time is one of them.  

When the weather forecasts looked unsettled for the upcoming week, it was time to take the girlfriend and dog home which precipitated the misadventures.  By then the dog was limping, having gotten a fair share of foxtails stuck between the pads of her front paws.  A quick look showed hot swollen patches where the foxtails had embedded themselves in her skin.  A trip to the vet and $200 later she's on the mend.  

I thought I would load up the whole works and try to beat the weather, nope!  My toyhauler is a 5th wheel and relies on 12 volt landing gear for leveling and hitching.  The internal gear started slipping so I added the manual crank and broke off the main drive shaft.  Internet research reveals this is a common problem, way undersized gears and drive mechanism for that much weight.  New dual motor landing gear ordered, that's more expense.  I left the trailer and brought girlfriend and dog home, then returned to Sawtooth the following day.  I arrived just in time for 2 days of cold wind and rain.  

I waited it out and got 2 more days of detecting for exactly zip, nada, nothing.  Ground was wet and sloppy in places, the 6000 handled it fine by the way.  I just couldn't get the coil over any yellow stuff.  

So, I surrendered and loaded up to come home.  I used some MacGyver tricks to load the trailer.  My hitch is an Anderson conversion and not a true 5th wheel hitch.  It has an adjustable ball height mechanism connected to a bed mounted Gooseneck hitch.  I dug out wheel trenches to get my truck under the trailer's hitch with the truck ball at it's lowest height, once centered I persuaded the ball up into the connector with a few hammer blows. Once the ball was pinned to it's highest level, I used an inflator to fill my truck's load leveling air bags to their highest point, about 2 inches.  That was just enough lift to take the weight off the landing gear and free the extensions up and out of the way.   I fear this kind of functional fixedness may be lost on the next generation whose skill seems to be finger dexterity and computer games.  

 I took the long way on Jungo Road to Winnemucca because it is really well maintained for all the HyCroft mining traffic.  I hit the freeway heading for Fernley and a couple times felt an odd vibration.  I was facing a stiff headwind and the trailer was making that diesel engine work just to maintain 55mph.  I got an error code for excessive engine boost and noticed the transmission temps heating up more than engine coolant temp.  Then stuff happened.  The truck started bucking and hard shifting as I tried to slow down.  The emergency lane is no place to be on Highway 80, when the speed limit is 80mph and triple trailer rigs are zooming by.  I limped it to Rye Patch road and limped down to Dan's Gold Digger Pizza place.  Dan had no trailer space with hookups,  but he let me park it in the back lot.  My girlfriend drove out from Fernley because she has the AAA card and I was going to need a ride home anyway.  

I had the truck towed to the only place in Winnemucca who could look at it within the next 2 weeks.  Car Care Clinic near the Walmart, great bunch of people in there.  Anyway, it seems I broke the right rear axle and it was hanging on by a thread.  The repair tally hasn't arrived yet, but it's sure to be further eroding my discretionary funds account earmarked for a GPX6000. 

I try to think positive.  It could have been much worse.  The weather is clear and warm, I'm still upright, the dog is good as new and I'll have a brand new axle.  That dinosaur GPZ 7000 is going to have to carry me through a bit longer.

The sun is out, need a stiff breeze to dry things out.  The ground around Sawtooth soaked down 2 to 3 inches.  The back roads are pretty slimey.

It's been drizzling all day, now turned to heavy rain and thunder.  If you're planning a trip out here plan accordingly. 

7 minutes ago, jasong said:

With every reward seems to come a risk. I made a patch lead 2 years ago now, and my first one had an issue where this tiny, very thin RX wire literally broke on day 1 of me testing it. The solder joint was fine, the wire itself broke when I extended the shaft out all the way. Afterwards, Phrunt posted some ideas about using adhesive backed shrink wrap, wrapping in tape, etc. I did those, and I didn't have an issue for 2 years. I've changed changed coils probably as much as anyone out there except the X Coil manufacturers themselves, as I have a nice stack and I am not afraid to use them, sometimes I'll change 3 to 5 times a day and when testing or showing people coils/comparing I can change easily 10 times a day. Each time extending the shaft back out to maximum. This puts stress on the patch lead.

Unfortunately a few days ago I did have an issue where right after changing a coil the patch lead stopped working. As a result I didn't have a chance to test the concentric against the 6000 on my own machine, so we did a brief test on Condor's machine and then I hauled ass to Winnemucca to try to round up supplies to repair this patch lead before the small amount of stores here with such supplies closed for the day.

Here's my stack. $80 I didn't want to spend, and a half day of detecting lost. This doesn't include the trip I had to make back to O'Reillys to buy an impossibly tiny screwdriver, which thankfully they had in stock and I made it just minutes before they closed.

Luckily I had a multimeter with me as I just installed 1200 watts of solar on the roof of this RV before leaving. I did some quick testing and determed it was the blue shielding wire which had come undone, which was odd since I assumed it must be the tiny RX wire again, or maybe the enameled RX shields.

So chop chop, I cut off the tape and heat shrink, I had added extra hot glue to the outside of the adapter for added strength and pull resistance so I got that cut off to, and then pulled the clamp off. There was no sliding/failure of the strain relief clamp visible, and I could see where the clamp teeth had bitten (and stayed) on the cable sheathing. So, no failure there. (The shield wire was bent by me poking and prodding, it wasn't originally where it was in this photo).

The blue shields wire was in fact broken, as my multimeter had told me. And again, the wires themselves broke, the solder joint was fine and still had wires sticking out of it. Unfortunately, the break meant there was not enough wire left to attach to the connector post, so I scraped the enamel from the magnet wire with the Exacto knife and soldered straight to it.

But somewhere along the way I must have bent the adapter slightly, and it was just enough movement to snap the ultra-tiny grey RX wire in half!! Thankfully I noticed before rebuilding this. 

Yes, my soldering is getting ugly, but I struggled with those enameled red wires at first, and I've now resoldered the blue wire once, and the grey wire twice, with limited tools sometimes and a crappy Big R ranch store soldering iron and tip. Unfortunately there was not enough wire left to peel back insulation and attach, so I had to spend some time creating a solder bridge to the RX, which I already did once before on day one, so it was quite a long bridge now and took some time to get right. This solder is getting quite messy with 2 repairs now, and the wires are getting very short, with the RX breaking twice. I might have 1 repair worth of wire left before I have to buy another coil to cut the adapter off. 

So, I repaired it all. I tested, restested, and then triple and quadruple tested for shorts and opens with my multimeter. And then I hot glued everything inside and reassembled the connector. Then I tested a 5th time after it was reassembled just to make quintuple sure of no shorts.

There is not a single piece of adhesive backed shrink tubing in Winnemucca or anywhere even close to me. So, I 3-d printed a sheath of hot glue over the entire adapter by hand with the glue gun. It's ugly but hopefully it'll hold better than the shrink tubing.

I'm pretty sure these wires are breaking by either pulling strain, or from slight bending of the adapter. I am sure I bent the adapter slightly when repairing the blue shields and then promptly broke the gray RX during repair. So, I put 7 layers of Gorilla tape over this whole mess to try to stiffen the adapter up. I cannot put any more tape on without it starting to bind up in the shaft.

So, this is the best I can do with what I have. 

I

It's working good and I'm back running again. But this was a reminder to me that even a properly built adapter can eventually fail with enough bending/pulling strain/constant changing of coils. Just since I've been in NV for 3 days I bet I've changed coils 15 times. 

Luckily I can repair things myself and Winnemucca had enough stuff between Big R, Walmart, O'Reillys, and True Value to fix this. But I was thinking if Mitchel or Condor were alone out here and had a break, they'd probably be driving back home and ending the trip to get it fixed. So, it's something to consider. If I flew to Australia, or treked into the depths of Papua New Guinea, is this what I would take with me? Probably not, too much to lose if something fails. 

I'm dangerously low on bandwidth on my phone, and this RV park Wifi it too slow to even open up the default Google search page, so that internet is useless. So, barring any kind of exceptional finds here, I don't think I'll be posting any more photos this trip.

I had the same problem with the blue shield wire in the past.  It's so thin and I used too much heat that kind of crystallized the wire so it broke just past the solder joint.  I'm leaving my patch lead production to people way smarter and more talented with electronics.  If anyone is interested Mitchel has a guy in Torrance, CA that does a professional job.   

If I was rich like Gerry, 2 machines would be the cat's meow.  I better get out and find some more gold tomorrow.  Where was that patch again Gerry?

My personal observations only, quick testing with no appreciable methodology.  Make no conclusions based on my limited time with the machine.

I had Steve's 6000 for a couple hours this morning.  At sunup I detected up a swale where Jason had found a couple nuggets yesterday.  I gridded a section 6 ft wide and about 25 yds long.  I marked 7 undug targets, 4 definite dig me signals and 3 iffy threshold warbles with the 6000 and 11" coil.  I then covered the same ground with my 7000 and 15x10 Xcoil.  The 7000 had no trouble with any of the 4 dig me targets and found no new targets.  Nothing but Ground and Salt noise over the questionable targets.  I dug the clear targets, first 2 were micro nuggets in the .2 gram range.  Third was a shallow hot rock and the 4th was surface trash.  I ran the 6000 back over the questionable targets and couldn't get anything repeatable.  

I wish I had known JP's thing about the speaker/EMI because I was noise cancelling often, especially if I set the machine down for any length of time.

Jason's summary from yesterday sums up our limited joint testing quite well.  My feeling after this limited time is that if I were 5 years younger, I would stick to the 7000 with the array of X-Coils to suit the conditions.  But, I'll turn 67 years young next month and my detecting shoulder has been nagging me for several years.  I have fashioned a hipstick that transfers the detector weight into the frame of an archery fanny pack with shoulder straps.  I thought it was great until I swung the 6000 with 11" coil.  Regrettably, I decided to run the 6000 with the 17" coil with no bungee this morning.  45 minutes and I was done, hence my abbreviated time on the 6000.  I'm  gonna want a bungee for the 14" DD or the 17" coils.  

N. Nevada at this time of year is tough to hunt.  The weather is great, but the ground has enough moisture to make the salt darn near unbearable in many places.  The 6000 with 11" coil tames it some, but there's no magic absent the DD coil.  Hot rocks are about the same as the 7000, although I found the Auto + with nearly silent threshold chops the tailing edge of a hotrock signal.  You'd still have to dig them, but without enthusiasm.  

Am I buying one, probably.  But I'm not rich and doubt I can justify $13k worth of detectors.  I'm going to need to make an either or decision.  

Fat Bastard Prospecting, all his videos are entertaining unless you're offended by common Aussie prospector language.  He does a quick run with the new 6000, not a great deal of new information but entertaining none the less. 

33 minutes ago, Jonathan Porter said:

The 6000 is all about light weight and amazing sensitivity on the sub gram stuff with good outright 5000 depth performance of which we are already very familiar. This has all been bundled into a modern electronics platform with the inclusion of GeoSense PI so the 5000 outright depth aspect of the 6000 will have a positive effect on its overall use. 

The 6000 does an amazing job at what it was designed for, namely pulling gold out of thrashed areas, everyone talks about not wanting to lower themselves to chasing ‘fly chit’ gold but at the end of the day its fun to go home with a few bits and pieces in the jar.

For me the situation has not changed except in one aspect, I no longer carry around an SDC as a mop up beeper for when the tiny pieces are plentiful and instead use the GPX 6000. For those times when I do not want to ‘rig up’ a 7000 the 6000 is just plain fun and if I do get my 6000 coil over a nice piece then at least I am now in with a chance. 

At the moment I’m seeing so many people making little comments about ‘why get a 6000 when I can still get tiny pieces with my GPX 5000 or GPZ 7000?’, it grows so tiresome seeing this type of remark!! The 6000 has not magically stopped the other techs from finding smaller pieces. The 6000 is going to be very popular with the hobbiest who just want to find a little nugget without all the weight and complication of other machines, they just want to switch on and start detecting and have half a chance of finding some gold no matter how small.

In the mean time my main stay detector is the GPZ 7000, it is still king of the mountain in spite of that mountain being huge and cumbersome. 😂 

JP

PS do you have any idea of how repetitive this sounds? 😡  For the past 20 odd years I’ve been saying the exact same damn thing every time a new detector comes out!!! Probably the worst machine in all those years was the GPX 4000 and it was still revolutionary thanks to the Sens Smooth type timings!!! 

JP,

I've followed every one of your reviews and tips way back to the first GPX and I well remember the heat you have taken on each new Minelab release.   The old Finders Forum was a hoot because for me it's a hobby and the unbridled opinions and malice expressed by its members defied logic.   My post was rhetorical, just bringing some of the various internet comments and questions to one place for a little pre-release exposure here in the US.  

Me and most of the DP members are anxiously waiting for your unrestrained views and experiences with the new 6000.  Your expertise is always appreciated.  

24 minutes ago, vanursepaul said:

Her kidney or the 6000????

I'm trying not to fall into the NursePaul philosophy of buy high/sell low and what don't get stolen you can give away.  If I had 20% of the value Paul's stuff that's been stolen, I'd buy 2 6000s.   

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Minelab have made clear that the GPZ 7000 is the top dog, especially for larger, deeper gold. I would expect vey few serious operators to ever take a step down, as the drive is always "more power, more power." JP already made it clear the GPZ is and will continue to be his main machine.

Long story short it will not be a market dump for the 7000. This is not a deal where everyone is upgrading to what is being sold as a more powerful replacement for the GPZ. Most power users will stay with what they have, or maybe add a 6000. I think this is aimed at people who have a SDC 2300 or GPX 4500/5000 etc. type detectors, but for whom the GPZ 7000 was too much weight and too much money. GPZ 7000 owners are last on the potential customer list I would think. The ones that are considering the 6000 are more in my camp I would assume. Willing to give up the chance of hitting a one pound nugget at three feet. Guess I'll only dig mine at 3.5 feet. The 6000 targets the bread and butter around here. I'll not worry about the big one going beep if I get over it.

I'm the target customer, not JP. So where are you? 

You know me, I've got to have all the right tools for the right jobs.  Unfortunately, I've got a champagne taste on a Pabst Blue Ribbon budget.  I've got to keep that Doodle Dog in tennis balls, she destroys 2 a day and I'm buying them by the gross.

21 minutes ago, LuckyLundy said:

Robin, might let you use her’s for 20%.  

I've got some Girl Scout Cookies about to mature.  We'll do some horsetrading.  

7 minutes ago, Ridge Runner said:

Condor

 If you’re the donor it’s said it will take about two to 4 weeks to get back to normal daily activity. 
 On selling your 7000 it may be a good thing because less weight if we talking about the above person being you.

 Chuck 

Hey Chuck,

I only need to sell a kidney if I can't possibly get by with one or the other of these high dollar Minelab tools.  I've already held on to a Deus, a Tarsacci and an Equinox.  Maybe I need to cut back on my detector addiction.  

Are JP et al trading in their Z7000s in favor of the 6000?  Is this the "Go To" machine for everyday prospectors?  From initial reports it would appear the 6000 excels at sub half gram nuggets in OZ soils, but isn't expected to compete with the 7000 on bigger/deeper gold.  Here in the US, will I have to sell a kidney for the luxury of having both detectors?  It may be some time before us CONUS prospectors even see the availability of such a machine, do I sell the 7000 before the market is flooded?  Does anybody know what the recovery time is for a kidney donor?

2 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Did the heat run you out of Yuma up to Lucky Land and the Gerry and Lunk patches?

Summers here really suck and last summer we spent all our time on the road prospecting anyway.  There's no way I could be cooped up in the heat.   I only moved back to Yuma to provide logistics and support for my son to finish his college degree at the NAU extension.  He's finished, got a great job and his own place, so my work here is done.  I'll come back in the winter, my girlfriend and I both have family and friends here. 

When I get up there I'm going to put one of those trackers on Lundy and plot his movements by satellite to find all those secret patches.  

9 hours ago, Hard Prospector said:

Are you through detecting in Mexico?

Not at all through with Baja, but the Covid restrictions kept us out.  You could fly down to the tourist areas, but you couldn't drive down Baja.  The border areas were open for shopping and medical, but further travel inland was restricted.  Next year hopefully we'll get back down there.  

13 hours ago, Joe D. said:

Great finds, and blow by blow Condor!!

    Do any of the handheld pinpointers work for you at all? Or do you only use the Nox?👍👍

    

 

I should have tried the pinpointer, but generally their sensitivity to small matchhead nuggets is wanting, you have to get right on them.  I had this big pile of softball sized overburden rocks and big chunks of rotted granite to contend with so I opted to stick with the 7000 coil and plastic scoop.  I just got my new Coiltek coil for the NOX yesterday, that would have been a great test.  

We caught a break in the 90+ temps in Yuma for one last trip.  Ostensibly, it was to be a quick trip to the spot we found the bigger gold in Feb and to test the X-Coil 15" Concentric coil over the ground we had covered extensively with the X-Coil 17x12 and stock coil.  It's about a 1/2 mile walk to the spot but I pulled up short to detect a wash we were about to cross.  My friend with the Concentric coil went on to the target area.  I am using the 7000 with stock coil while waiting for some re-work on my patch lead for the X-Coils.  

I had worked the lower sections of this particular wash back in Feb and found 6 little bits in one small area, the rest of the wash seemed barren.  My goal was work the wash towards our target area just to get the machine warmed up and my listening skills tuned in.  I was working pretty quick really looking for a sitting duck rather than slow and methodical because this wash hadn't produced too well.  About 100 yds on, I hit a pretty good tone right up against the wash sidewall.  I pulled out the bigger of non-specie gold in the picture.  From there over about 20 yds I pulled 3 more small pieces then hit the smaller specie gold on an inside bend of the wash.  I continued up the wash and found the bigger specie dead center of the wash down in the bedrock.  I found 1 more tiny bit up on the bank, but then starting hitting a lot of trash targets so I turned around and reworked the wash for 0 nuggets.  Because of the specie pieces I then started a circle on the hillsides all around the area for nothing.  

I put down my gear and walked to the target area to check on my friend with the Concentric coil.  He had found 2 pieces in an area well detected on our previous trips and attributed it to the overall sensitivity of the Concentric on small targets.  Because of the heat and short trip we had no opportunity to make any comparisons on undug targets.  

I worked my way back down the wash to the RZR, over areas I had covered in Feb.  On the last bend I was picking my way down a slick rock slide area and waved my coil over some overburen covering a layer of bedrock above me.  I got a faint tone and started pulling down the overburden and reached some decomposing granite bedrock.  The target sound got better so I ended up busting out the bedrock trying to pick up the target down in a deep crack.  As I got further down, the target got weaker and I thought I was pushing it deeper in the crack, so I busted out some more bedrock.  I finally picked up a half a matchhead size nugget and thought that just couldn't be right.  As good as the 7000 is on small gold, that just didn't seem right.  I then waved over my spoils pile with all this overburden and busted up granite.  Targets everywhere.  The sun beating down on me and I'm on my knees sorting through the spoils trying to pinpoint tiny targets with a 14" coil.  After about 1/2 hr, I got most of them, 6 matchhead size nuggets.   If I had my handy NOX, I could have made short work of this mess, but maybe I'll go back for the crumbs next year.  

I'm moving to Reno in a couple weeks, I'll be a snowbird in Yuma next year.