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My old GMT still works as I gathered up these little pieces last fall in a couple days. Was quite a bit of work digging down to bedrock. I used the 6" DD coil most of the time.

Yesterday it was time to go for a gold hunt. I took the AlgoForce 1500 with the Commander/11/DD and the Nugget Finder/8x6 Sadie. I also took my GPZ 7000 and new to me 10" Xcoil. Thursday I only used the Algo. The first half of the day was with the DD because it was on from beach hunting and the second half I put on the Sadie as I had done in New Zealand with Simon. The location was in Southern California at a spot that has been well hunted and 2/3rds of the time I get skunked! I can't depend on the area to give me gold. Only one area out of many has produced for me. I didn't start in that area with the Algo. I tried a couple of new 'hills' with a friend. We both got trash but no gold. We started about 8 and at mid day we moved to a third location and I put on the Sadie. I continued to find trash. I would go for long stretches of no trash working locations where I was told others found nuggets. No trash sometimes means that it has been thoroughly worked. This is an example of the trash the Algo will see. My hearing is bad so I use headphones, but my hunting partner used the Algo a bit and could also hear these targets while I was on the headphones, and he could of course hear with them on and on the speaker. After the third stop he had found 5 pieces with his 6000 in a different location than where I was hunting. At the end of the day we took his smallest piece and buried it to test the Algo. I tested it much like the video that is posted using the 4 different gold settings. It let me learn more of the Algo's capabilities. I did not make a video of that 15-minute session as it was impromptu and would be incomplete. I'm still a bit jet lagged from my New Zealand trip so we called it a day and I went to go sleep in my 4Runner. I was out from sundown to 4 AM and didn't get out detecting until 6:30 or so. It was a little cool and no wind, but it was warm compared to New Zealand. I had slept near that area where I had found gold in the past. It was time to give the Big Dog a walk about. The 10" round Xcoil was ready to work. My partner of the day before said 'that is a good combination' and you'll find gold with that. This was my first use and I agree. I've found many pieces of gold with its cousin a 15" CC coil but it can't fit around many of these little plants and bushes. The 10" is very well suited for it. I wish I had one for the Algo. We discovered that the 11" Commander DD (only operating on half according to Simon) has touch sensitivity at the point the wire enters the coil. It was not a problem on the beach but it was a problem when hitting the low little bushes in the desert. I'm in search of a bigger coil than the Sadie to make it see a bit deeper and because my coils are damaged in some ways. The Algos DNA is in looking for small nuggets and to put on a small nugget coil makes it a double whammy when patch hunting I'd say. Well, the Xcoil doesn't have that problem and it senses things way off the coil. When the coil is over a target it is very definitive and much easier to pinpoint than the 15CC. Here is the trash I was finding with it. Note some of the same trash but also note the tiny bbs. The ground feedback is better. Both detectors were not bothered by hot rocks. I had more hot rocks in New Zealand. (Don't tell Simon.) This posting is not meant to be a comparison posting. I'm giving the details so that it gives context to the next part of the day. I wanted to find some gold and I could feel that it was going to warm up and I wasn't going to last and I wanted to use my new coil so I did. About an hour into the morning hunt I had collected a bit of trash (some is lost) when I came upon a target that sounded like more trash, but it wasn't. I looked in the scoop and it was a nice nugget. It was only down a couple of inches in dry sand in a place where nuggets are supposed to be. It was at the bottom of a little swail/previous water drainage. This area had been thoroughly detected. How was this missed? One of my first thoughts was I wished I was using the Algo. I just wanted to find a nugget with it. Maybe it would be the first in the states? I don't know. There are probable a few others here. My next thought was ... I could 'act' like the Algo found it. Nah, that is not what happened. So, I did the next best thing. I hiked back half a mile to the 4Runner, got the Algo and reburied the nugget. Could the algo see it now? You betcha. I took a picture of the setting first. After I took this picture I used my phone to create a "What if I had been using the Algo video!" After I redetected this nugget I used the Algo to search the area. I found one piece of trash that is in a video. I didn't make a YouTube of that yet. If someone wants to see it let me know. Other than the piece of trash, everything was gone. I went back over the Algo area with the Xcoil and did not find anything 'missed' by the Algo. Shortly after I decided to leave even tho it was only 10 AM. I didn't want to deal with Friday traffic. It's not possible to get all of the experience in but this is an idea. It is a nice, rough nugget! I see Goofy in it.

Hi Folks, Just thought I’d give a bit of feedback on the 8” X Coil that I pinned to the 7000. Yesterday was its maiden voyage into our local gold country and Joe and I were keen to see how it performed in the field. We decided to go back to a creek bed that was mainly dry to see if we could scratch out a few targets and do some comparison work between this coil and the 10x5 Coiltek that was swinging on the end of Joes 6000. After burying a few targets the day before and running both machines over them, we already had a bit of an idea as to how it would perform but nothing beats detecting in a real situation to see how a machine/ coil combination works. I purchased this coil so that I could give my daughter the 6000 when she comes out detecting and I could then use the zed with a small coil to work through old workings or around rock bars. The 12” ZSearch is a great coil but is a bit too large for this type of work (especially with the thick undergrowth that now exists in our gold fields.) The first thing I noticed was the weight of the coil. It is reasonably heavy for its size. It is of a similar weight to the 12” coil and I’m guessing it is full to the brim with wire. On the Zed it is well balanced and it swings nicely with minimal effort. External build quality looks quite good and it appears that it should be able to cope with a good workout. Joe and I decided to walk the gully well past where we detected on the last trip and see if there was any gold present higher upstream. The first issue with the X Coil is that it’s not waterproof so I was restricted to dry rock bars and banks. Joe was able to do the shallow pools and submerged bars to ensure that we had all bases covered. The area where we started to detect was highly mineralised with hot rocks and noisy ground upsetting both machines. Threshold was stable but false signals due to the ground were an issue until we moved downstream. Apart from a couple of bits of rubbish, nothing of any real interest turned up. We slowly worked our way down stream until we got to an area that had produced some gold on a previous trip. The zed was behaving a bit like a hyperactive kid that had been fed a handful of red lollies. In other words, it was running like a 6000. In a funny, twisted sort of way, it was a good feeling as I knew the coil was right on the edge and was super sensitive. As we had detected this area before, we knew that we had to make a bigger effort to reach difficult spots, move a few rocks and fallen vegetation etc to see if we could uncover something of interest. Joe started detecting a yellow clay bank as it was a good trap for gold during a flood. I decided to try an steep area that was well above the stream bed where there was evidence of past working by the old timers. At the base of a cliff face, I noticed a couple of undercut areas which were gouged out by last years floods. I was able to get my detector coil into one of these holes by lying flat on the ground and reaching forward through some flood debris in order to swing the detector. A very faint moan hit the headphones which wasn’t surprising at all as the hole had a lot of red mineralised soil in the cavity. It sounded just like every other broad, false signal that I’d been getting during the morning from similar material but as per usual, a check was in order. The pick was used to drag out about 6” of this dirt. It was soft and not compacted in any way which indicated it was recently deposited. When the detector was placed back into the hole, the signal had sharpened up and I knew that I had something metallic. I wish now that I’d called Joe over before any material was moved so that we could have done a bit of a comparison between the machines. My gut feeling is that the 6 would not have heard anything at all but we will never know for sure. Eventually I dragged out a nice little nugget of about 3/4 gram. When I ran the machine over the spoils, a signal was detected and another small piece was recovered. Joe picked up a couple of small pieces that were barely a signal so he didn’t call me over to check. You know the ones I’m talking about. “Is that a signal?” One small scratch with the pick and then it screams at you. The typical 6000 small gold scenario. I started detecting a high vertical bank that had washed away badly last year. When I placed the coil under a tree root, the machine screamed loudly in protest. I knew it had to be junk or a shallow piece of gold. One careful scrape with the pick and it fell into the scoop. Couldn’t believe my luck when a nice little half grammer winked at me. No skill in that one. A kids detector could have found it. But in saying that, no one had put a coil in that location before so I took it with a smile. After a brief stop for lunch, we continued to slowly move towards our starting point. I picked up the zed and took one step forward before getting a nice little double “bleep”. It was pointless getting the 6000 to run over that target as it was quite a shallow, dig me signal. Turned out to be a 0.08g piece at a depth of about 1.5”. It was good to see that the coil could pick up bits of fluff with ease. I decided to follow Joe and work the same clay bank that he had just detected to see if there was a deeper target to find. Normally, that wouldn’t be a good idea as Joe is very good on the detector and rarely leaves even a scrap for his mate. About 3 metres from where I picked up the little nugget, I ran the X Coil over some vegetation that had been partially washed away by flood water. I could see the clay bank was about 5 inches under the exposed roots of a small bush. To my surprise, I picked up a signal when the coil passed over the area. The vegetation was pulled out of the way and this is what I saw: Before it was moved, I called Joe over for a look. It was a beautiful little sunbaker. Joe passed his coil over the top of the nugget and lost the signal at about 4”. The process was repeated with the X Coil. It still gave a faint signal at about 5.5”. That was the first bit of information that demonstrated some of the X Coils potential. The piece weighed in at 0.095 grams which is pretty small. Joe picked up a couple of micro bits on a bank during our walk towards the car. He finally found a slight but repeatable signal that he thought might be a good test for the new coil. He put back the scrape of material that the pick had removed and the X Coil was then directed across the area. In all honesty, there was very little evidence of a signal at all. There may have been something but under normal detecting conditions, it would not have stopped me. When the scrape material was removed, a faint signal was heard. It ended up being a really small piece of shot and showed how good the 10x5 coil attached to the 6000 is when the gold size gets really small. It was a day that was hard work and didn’t prove anything much at all except that the X Coil is capable of finding small gold at good depth. Will it compete with the 6000? In some situations depending on gold size and depth, it may do well. In others where the gold is really small and shallow, the situation may be different. From yesterdays trip I could say with confidence that the zed/ X Coil combination is one that I will use in many of our future adventures. Will try updating comparisons as we test over time. Here is a pic of the gold that it found on its first outing. And our tally for the day.

After owning the axiom for about 8months and only using monos with great success I decided to treat myself in a trashy site to only digging non ferrous targets and hey it worked! In middle of about 20 pieces of trash I could clearly hear something shining thru, low and behold 10 or so beautiful gold pieces. Half went with a friend that was with me, my half in the picture. Ended up digging every target in the pike for 2 day as I thought we were on some high grade ore but all the gold was sitting right on top with lots of trash.lol

Attended Gerry's class this weekend and did not go home empty handed. Found my first two nuggets! A .42 and a .25 gram. Using my Manticore and the M8. Dime is for size reference only. Happy as could be! - Dave

As I told last week, I was preparing the Manti for today's session on the seabed. In a few words, "damn it works"... Even if I abused the machine using underwater the beach LC program, I however managed to take with me three pieces. The second attempt will be with surf and seawater, which I think it is the proper way to use it when diving. Not bad for the day one💣

One of the hardest things to do at Rye Patch NV proper, is to find a specimen gold piece attached to quartz. Not sure how many of my Rye Patch NV swinging buddies are left from the mid 90's but we all have agreed on a couple things when it comes to gold at RP. Chevron gold is the most desired and valuable. There have been some amazing high dollar pieces discovered at the patch. Specimen gold on the other hand (gold and quartz mixed) is most rare to find at Rye Patch than many realize, why is that? I personally have found thousands of nuggets and have seen 10X dug up from all the local legends back then. But to see a piece of gold with quarts on it that came from RP, just does not seem to happen. There's big quartz boulders and quartz pockets scattered all over that area. Heck, one of the locals (Peg-Leg) used to dig out some of the pockets to discover massive beautiful clusters and even single solid monster crystals, but he never found any with gold. This is the largest specimen I have ever seen from Rye Patch proper and it was found in 2005/6 by one of my customers (Scott from Idaho) with a GP-3500 right near the burn barrel. As for me and all the thousands of nuggets I've collected in my 30 yrs of detecting RP, I have only found 2 small nuggets in the 2 to 3 gram range that had a piece of quartz attached. Anyone else seen specimen gold come from Rye Patch? Do any of you geology experts know why we are not seeing it happen more often, especially with all the quartz rocks and crystal pockets that are exposed out there? On a side note - My 1st of 2024 Rye Patch Field Training is coming up next weekend. Anyone wanting to learn some real hands on Field Knowledge and up your chances of finding that beautiful and expensive rare gold, contact Gerry's Detectors at 208-345-8898 for details.

My detecting mate and I have been working a dry gully for quite a while using our 6000’s with 10x5 Coiltek coils attached. We had been finding a bit of small gold but lately our returns diminished and we had almost decided to move to a new location. In a bid to squeeze out a few more pieces, we decided to detect the ground with our 7000’s and try to uncover a few deeper nuggets. We weren’t expecting much as we had spent a considerable amount of time working this area on the short gully and thought that if we could come home with a piece or two we would have achieved our goal. The Six with the small coil really suited this area as there were many potential gold traps and hiding spots for the tiny pieces that inhabited this location. The Zed’s were fitted with Nuggetfinder 12” Z search coils and after a ground balance and tune were running exceptionally well. The hot rocks and noisy ground that played havoc at times with the 6, were ignored by the 7’s so we knew that we had a bit of potential to find that really subtle signal. We moved slowly and tried to get into difficult areas and hopefully jag something for our effort. After about 20 minutes we added a couple of small pieces to the rattle jar from steep banks on the sides of the gully. It was agreed that the shallow pieces would have been picked up easily with the 6000 but were now happy that we hadn’t been “skunked” for the day. Joe was working a stretch of ground that had produced well for us in the past so I decided to move upstream about 50m to give him some space. I started at a rock bar that had given up some treasure about a month or so ago. We had pulled about 6 very small pieces on and around the outcrop and made a concerted effort to cover all the ground in that area very well. Every subsequent trip resulted in a repeat of that process just in case we missed something. The same region was detected today with the Zed and to my surprise, a very faint signal was heard. It was in an ideal location next to the rock bar on the inside section of a bend. You can see the hole in the photo. We had hoped to find a piece of gold at a depth that the Six couldn’t see and it finally happened. It must have been on edge as the signal was initially very soft and only increased during the dig. What popped out was a pleasant surprise. The 6000 has dominated our detecting for a couple of years now and the Zed barely gets pulled out of the cupboard. It was good to get its coil scraping on the ground again and put through its paces. We had forgotten how quiet it could be when the ground suited. We had also forgotten about digging deep holes until we were quickly reminded of its power. Rusty nails and bits of steel with soft enticing signals generally resulted in ugly growls and swimming pools being dug half way to China. We moved upstream and continued to detect some old ground looking for that deeper target. I was lucky enough to get a really faint signal behind a large rock. After digging a deep hole, a small, shiny nugget surfaced. I could see why the Six would not see a piece of gold at that depth. When the hole was inspected with the coil, another break in the threshold told the story of a surprise awaiting inspection. When a piece of gold ended up in the scoop, I called Joe over and we started moving rocks and detecting a small area thoroughly. A bunch of small pieces resulted. We had a lot of fun working that area together. Joe finally moved 20 metres upstream and found another patch of deep, small pieces of gold. The river worn gold was often visible in the scoop or in the ground like the piece shown in the picture. Joe pulled a couple of pieces on the walk back including one that was in a pool of water. Boots and socks came off and a slow and frustrating recovery followed. It’s great to see a prize for all the effort put in. The final picture shows the result of our day out. Quite a few of the pieces were so small that they wouldn’t move the scales but they all added up. It is pleasing that the Zed can still earn its keep on the tiny gold. Most of the pieces found would still be in the ground if we had used the 6000’s on this trip. Having a combination of machines has proved to be a winner in this area.

Another great Winter for Northern Nevada and of course it’s still giving this Spring! This is my second trip between Weather Systems this Spring. I decided to keep it simple and hit some sweet spots of old patches with my 6000 with the aide of the little Coiltek Coil. The Hills was alive with fellow Prospectors, we all shot the breeze and caught up on each others life’s. My first 1/2 day, I scored 5 nuggets and was somewhat content. The next full day, I struggled for the next 5 nuggets before heading back to camp. What a workout! I left with many old spots yet to have my detector combo swing on them and one spot I can’t find 🙁. Well maybe next time on another Hunt! There’s plenty of space for everyone at the Rye Patch Gym. LuckyLundy

I was actually wrong saying the camera turned off too soon the last time I had it on my head... So cleaning the card for a new attempt tomorrow, I suddenly found this raw footage. No editing, pure bubbles and fuc#%#g sh## visibility. So this is what I'm usually fighting against. Enjoy the challenge between me and the murky waters.