Search the Community

I am new here. Want to buy a GPZ 7000, but also want to wait until the next model of GPZ technology coming out. It would feel horrible to buy GPZ 7000, and new model come out in half a year. So does anyone know or hear anything about when new GPZ metal detector will come out? Thanks a great deal.

Came across a post on Facebook, about this gentleman testing a few aftermarket coils. This really opened my eyes this morning. I was under the impression that the Minelab coils were chipped and no aftermarket coils could be used. If this was the case? Why did they wait so long? The smaller coil would suit my needs just perfectly. http://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t26022-gpz-18-coil-test-report

Certainly not my first finds but have been out today and might as well start an album. Especially with these beauties!! Now with a thread name like this you might think it will rival the Reg Wilson album?? Sadly you will be disappointed at present but don't worry as my plan is to start small so the gold in the album can do nothing but get bigger. A cunning stunt if ever I saw one Off an old area where the gold has been washed/rockered/something. Have found quite a few other little bits there but the one to the right of the echidna's nose would have to be the smallest. To give the non-Aussie's an idea the 5 cent piece is our smallest coin and on another Aussie gold forum really small gold is often measured against the nose of the echidna. Amazing to think the 14 inch coil can pick this stuff up. High yield, difficult, sensitivity 15, volume 1, B&Z booster working nicely Retirement.......a long way off at this rate.

Hubby evens the Score! 😆Enjoy! Ig

This year has not been going exactly as I imagined it would. My stated goal for the year was to set a new record for days in the field detecting. So far however, it has been anything but that. No complaint - I have been devoting myself to visiting family and other things that took precedence over prospecting. Weather has also been a bit dodgy this spring leading me to sit out things a little waiting for better conditions. What time I have had for prospecting has mainly been spent in northern Nevada. I am really taken with the desert and am very partial to the sagebrush and grassland country. It reminds me a lot of the time I spent in Australia with huge wide open spaces to wander. I enjoy the idea that gold can be found nearly anyplace, the exact opposite of Alaska, and I love just wandering from valley bottom to hill top because, well, you just never know. There is some old and interesting geology here that leaves nuggets in what might seem to be pretty unlikely locations. I did find one nice little patch that produced about half my gold this spring, but the rest were just strangely random isolated nuggets. I would find one and get all excited, then after several hours of methodically gridding the area wonder why that one nugget ended up there all alone. My largest nugget, at 3/4 oz, was just such a find. I wandered out of what looked to be the "good area" and just lucked into this nugget all by itself on a hillside far above the valley floor. Where did it come from? Why nothing else near it? I like to wander around freely but due to the nature of the gold deposits I am relying heavily on the GPZ 7000 map screen and GPS track to attack areas in chunks. I just start someplace and then use the GPS mapping screen to fill in all the pixels as completely as I am able in a given area. My goal is to completely hunt that area and then write it off forever as being hunted. Each hunt area is dumped to X-Change building my master map of hunted areas. I am approaching it much like building a jigsaw puzzle, each planned hunt taking in a segment and filling it completely. I still like to wander around a lot but the main focus is long term - the many years I have ahead of me hunting these areas. I could just do what I have always done and hunt piecemeal but I decided it is time to switch gears and get more methodical about things. I figure there is a lot of that random "scattered gold" out there and that a slower long term goal to gather it up is a major part of my plan going forward. Using GPS mapping is key to getting good coverage while eliminating the chance I might waste time hunting and rehunting the same locations over the years. The GPZ is also critical to this effort as I have great confidence in its ability to sniff out almost any gold that finds its way under the coil. Small gold, flat gold, wire gold, deep gold - the GPZ is my gold vacuum. All detectors miss gold, including the GPZ. But right now if I have to hunt an area once and once only, and have my best shot at finding what might be there, I do not know of a better option for me than the GPZ 7000. One detector, one coil, one pass over the ground ever - what are you going to use? If gold is found a person of course has the luxury of coming back with different coils and different detectors and trying to find gold missed before. The problem is finding that first nugget. If it does not get found, you just wander on, never knowing that maybe you just missed a great patch, for the lack of finding that first, most important nugget. I am convinced there are many undiscovered patches out there still. The patches with the big easy to find solid gold may be very rare now, but "weak" patches comprised of smaller, or deeper, and harder to find specimen type gold surely exist. They will be found by people hunting outside the commonly known popular areas. That is what I have been doing. Hunting locations where other prospectors are rarely if ever seen. I honestly think I have been a bit lucky as of late but the methodology is sound and it is what I will be doing for as long as I have left to swing a detector. I continue to follow the various posts around the world about the GPZ 7000 and people's experiences with it. Mine are pretty boring. I turn the machine on, maybe do a quick ground balance routine, and go detecting. I may not even go through the ground balance motions. I just turn it on and pick up from where I left off the previous day. I usually run in High Yield, Normal Ground, Gain of 12, Smoothing Off, Ground Tracking On. I leave most audio settings alone. The detector will often run noisy with these settings, especially in alkali locations. I may lower the threshold to 20 to knock out some excess noise, or just lower the overall volume level using my headphones. The GPZ lacks a master volume control that lowers all sounds at once, and so benefits from the use of an external booster with master volume control. The problem for me is that is one more battery operated gizmo, and so I often just use my headphones instead to gain the overall volume control I crave. I tend to run my detectors noisy but like it to be quiet/noisy not loud/noisy. When the ground responses get a bit much, as is the case with ground salt, I react more by slowing down and modifying my swing than changing detector settings. So far I would say about half the gold I found was pulled out of fairly high salt response ground with the attendant moaning/groaning or hee/haw responses the GPZ produces in that type of ground. That seems to be a show stopper for a lot of people but I don't pay much attention to it myself. I have this theory that killing those responses might kill my gold finding capability on this ground to a certain extent, as I know some of these locations have seen other detectors that ignored the salt. They also missed the gold. Coincidence? Maybe. I have plans for more experiments regarding this but have had a hard time tearing myself away from my limited detecting time to do more comparative tests. Later. Anyway, I have quietly picked up just over a couple ounces of gold with my GPZ 7000 so far this spring. The largest nugget is 3/4 oz and there are several other nice pieces I am very happy with. Nice solid, clean gold, my kind of stuff. An odd mix from very worn appearing to rough. I am unfortunately getting waylaid again with things I must attend to before I can go prospecting again and so I decided I may as well post this update now. It could be weeks before I get out prospecting again. Until then, here are some happy pictures to enjoy. More Information on Minelab GPZ 7000 Click photos for larger versions... This post was promoted to an article

Minelab now have updated the Xchange2 software for the GPZ7000, and it's now compatible with the 7000 upgraded software from 18 months ago. I have just done a download of stored data that was on the 7000 and it worked just like it used to, and it still kept all the find points and stuff from the original xchange2 which was great. Also I was able to restore all the MLX file data that I have been saving on the desktop for the last 18 months as well, this was a bit of a challenge to begin with. What you do is when the 7000 is plugged into the computer, the MLX file that is there, (provided you have saved it) delete that one and copy and paste one of the saved ones from your PC, if you have renamed them just change the name back to GPZ7000.MLX and then just do the normal download form the 7000 to the exchange2 like before, then keep deleting and pasting and downloading till all your files that were save on the PC have been uploaded. Job done. Thanks minelab, I just don't know what took so long. cheers dave https://www.minelab.com/usa/accessories-1/detecting-apps/xchange-2?view=downloads

Davs scores again!💪 Enjoy" Ig

I was one minute into the day when the 7000 lost sound to the WM12`s. This has happened before but restarting the detector always fixed it, but this time the detector wont power off either. The only way I can turn it off is to unplug the battery. Tried everything, turned off the GPS, plugged in 2 sets of headphones, did a full detector reset- Still no sound and wont power off. I phoned Minelab, they seem to know what`s wrong with it and only want the back end of the detector back, not the coil or shafts or battery Thank goodness there is still 5 months of warranty on my detector.

I recently lost sound whilst detecting. The detector was working just fine. I turned it off after finding 3 small pieces of gold to have some lunch. After i turned it back on and went through the quick start process it just dropped sound. Only noise i got was turning the wireless off and on. Then the detector would shut down without removing the battery. I tried to reset, also didn't work. Very frustrating as i was on a good area and had driven 560km. Please advise as im at a loss. The detector hasn't been used more than 20 times, ie brand new.

Published on Sep 30, 2018 by Nuggethunting (Rob Allison). “Here is a series of 3 short videos filmed in Arizona. Not all targets are gold, but at least one was a small gold nugget. I was using the Minelab GPZ 7000 Metal Detector.”

Hii Good afternoon! would you help me regarding minelab Gpz 7000, whether it can detect other metals like silver, bronze, iron, relics, coins antiques other than gold?

So lately I've been noticing when out detecting with Kiwijw his GPZ will find tiny bits of gold quite deep, that weigh less than a shotgun pellet and after often smaller in size, but appears to miss a majority of the pellets very close to the surface, where most pellets call home but not much of the gold calls home. At this one particular spot we went to the other day I decided I'd just use my Equinox and 6" coil, and he used his GPZ with it's 14x13" coil. I had at least 60 pellets by the end of the day, he had about 15 or so, there was no exact counting but the difference was obvious. We were both on the exact same ground, a patch about 20 meters by 20 meters at most as a guess. We both covered a majority of the same ground, starting at one side each and worked our way over to the other person's side. When I got to his side I was digging pellets like mad, even in his dig holes where he managed to get bits of gold out of like the GPZ hardly noticed the pellets. I was puzzled by this as I was wondering how he found the bit of gold no bigger than a pellet in amongst the 6 pellets I got out of his dig hole. John did mention he often scapes away the surface soil and if the signal continues down he'll dig it thinking it's possibly gold, is this the reason he doesn't get as many pellets or does the quirk go deeper? This has had me stumped for some time and John wasn't sure why he digs less pellets as he is getting gold smaller than a pellet very often with the GPZ but we both put it down to the HF VLF sensitivity. It was seeming like the GPZ just loves gold. I've come to the conclusion from my research this afternoon it's due to coil size more than anything. I found a Treasure Talk on the Minelab site that had the information I had been searching for. Here are the key statements from it that make sense to my dilemma and in red are the key points, We all basically know that large coils detect deeper than small coils. Why is that? The relationship between the size of a coil and the detection depth depends on a number of factors related to both the construction of the coil and the particular target itself. Starting with the coil itself, to compare the relative sensitivity of a large coil to that of a smaller coil, we need to determine the strength of their respective transmitted magnetic fields and the receiver sensitivities. These can be calculated by applying the Biot-Savart law, which describes the magnetic field produced by an electric current. For this, we need the exact geometry of each winding, the number of turns and the size of the wire. Once we chose a shape, the number of turns and the wire size depend upon the constraints we apply to the design. For example, we usually require the inductance and the resistance of the transmit winding to be the same regardless of the size of the coil, such that the transmitter electronics operates optimally with any size coil. This leads to a reduction in the number of turns as a coil gets larger or conversely an increase in turns as a coil gets smaller. Based on this, we can understand that a small coil with more turns creates stronger localised fields, while a large coil creates a field that is weaker in the immediate vicinity of the coil, but decays more slowly with the distance from the coil. Thus, further away from the coils, a larger coil has a stronger field. We now need to consider the target, for example a particular nugget: if we use one coil as a reference, at what depth can we just detect the nugget with it? Once we know this, we can utilise the previously calculated relative sensitivity to determine at what depth we can detect the same nugget with the other coil. Doing this for a range of nuggets, we find that small coils are better suited for very small nuggets near the surface, while the larger coils are better for intermediate and deep nuggets. Is this the reason the GPZ is missing the tiny pellets near the surface but getting bits of gold amazingly deep that are smaller and lighter than a pellet? I have noticed a similar quirk on my GPX 4500 with it's 14x9 EVO coil where it will miss a lot of shotgun pellets but find tiny gold deeper but it doesn't seem as pronounced as the GPZ but again that's an amateur operator vs a professional. I will try emulate this on an air test when I get the chance but I can't run my GPX around my property as there are power lines nearby that it really doesn't like. Are the pellets KiwiJW is getting the ones that have somehow made their way deeper and he's missing the more shallow pellets? I understand John's a very skilled GPZ operator and it could just come down to operator skill levels but if I am getting multiple signals with 4 shotgun pellets and 1 bit of gold all under my coil at once I'd just be confused and dig all 5 things, meaning I'd end up with all the pellets in my pocket also. John seems to manage High Frequency VLF performance out of his GPZ but misses a lot of the downsides of using a HF VLF, the tiny nuggets he can find on that thing and the depth they come from are just mind boggling. It has to be seen to be believed. Any help on clearing up this mind boggling quirk would be appreciated. A big thanks to Phil Beck for the info I've quoted from his Treasure Talk for this post. Here is a link to the entire Treasuretalk https://www.minelab.com/anz/accessories-1/gpz-19-1

Published on Apr 12, 2018 by steelPHASE In this video I talk about the settings on detectors, aiming mainly at the Minelab GPX, SDC and GPZ series. My aim is not to tell you what settings to run, but rather give you the knowledge to make informed decisions on settings out in the goldfields. Now I am no Einstein so I do stumble and fluster in a few spots but I have edited in some text to make things clearer (hopefully).

You have a new brother in the family. Special thanks to each of you that gave me advise on this decision. Extra call out to Brian for checking the Zed out for me in person. Lot of respect for the tight group we have here. Feel free to drop tips and hints in here or pm. I have read so many threads my eyes are bleeding lol. Come on 1 oz Nug. JW looking forward to nugget find sharing with you. Fred low and slow, Check! Nenad hit me up with more of those tips, so I can pay for this thing lol lol.

Ok I am just passing this link on, as I found it of interest I feel others on DP perhaps may be interested. This is the first I`ve heard of such thus have no idea if it is for real but I hope it is so, we want lighter, smaller, even bigger coils for our Zs. and as we`ve experienced, with the aftermarket coils for SD-GPX series, increased finds, why not for the Z? http://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t25940p60-aftermarket-for-gpz

Is there anyone out there who is willing to explain a little more in depth about the Sensitivity setting in the GPZ7000 and how works in relation to the other settings? Or perhaps point me to an existing discussion? I don’t feel I know enough to use it correctly and I know it's obviously important. Thank you in advance. David

Evening, I hope this makes sense. I have a GPZ and an SDC and they seem to work pretty good near power lines. Plenty of auto channels to try and find a quiet one. As these are the only detectors I have ever owned I am wondering if other detectors - older minelab and other brands - are as quiet around power lines? Especially the really big trans-country lines. The reason I ask is that I found a nice looking area today that has been worked 'in the olden days' and in the short time available (20 minutes) this evening I found quite a few shallow rust nuggets, small/nice sounding bits of lead and absolutely no tell tale signs of old detecting holes. All targets were so shallow that a Kmart brand detector could have found them. This is all within about 60 metres of some bloody big power lines. Would I be right in guessing older technology might not have been able to handle the EMI so this could be some new ground? Apart from the flogging it got 100 years ago Thanks, Northeast

This might have already been posted I figured it would be faster to ask. I have a potential client who is thinking of upgrading from a 5000 to a 7000. The concern is his knees and he thinks he'll have both knees replaced next Spring. I know a 5000 can be used with long shaft (I have customers with titanium knees), but the 7000 is a different beast. Anyone know for a fact if it is possible or should he stick with the 5000? It would be nice to hear from those who know from experience and have tried it.

What ground balancing mode does everyone use? Only reason I ask, is I recently saw a video with Johnathan Porter on Facebook, , where he got a faint signal, that ended up being a nugget. He mentions if he was in auto, passing over the target 3-4 times, more than likely the signal would have went away. Now I hunt in auto, and I can't count how many times I've come across a faint target, and it went away after a few swipes of the coil. Now I wonder how much gold I've missed....😢 Dave

I have noticed since I have been detecting in semi auto tracking, at the start of the day when I drop the ferrite ring on the ground, I can never hear the ferrite, but I do the thing with the quick track button anyway. My question is: Once I have set up the detector to the ferrite ring in semi auto tracking, if I NEVER touch the quick track button ever again, and never take the detector out of semi auto, do I ever have to use the ferrite ring again? It seems to me if you dont touch the quick track button in semi auto the detector always has the correct ferrite balance regardless of ground conditions. Dave

What would the difference be on mineralized rocks and hot bedrock between these two detectors? Took out my 3k and had a hard time detecting due to these two factors. Hoping a new 7k would solve that issue. Thanks.

Ok to kick this off i have just purchased a gpz 7000 spent my time with a sd 2000, gpx 4000 and a gpx 5000 all good machines if you ask me! But tryin to get a steady rewiew on a zed and bloody hell there seems to be two sides to this argument, A. The people who are dealers and trying to sell and in that case the thing has been sent from the gods to find gold!! B. Those who cant afford one and use the trusty 5000 and rag it down it doesnt perform aswell bad in hot ground misses nuggets just garbage bla bla What i want to know is a unbiased opinion on this machine from an average prospector like what most of us will be at how effective it is in a variety of ground conditions. Coming from north qld the gold can come in a variety of iron rock and minerialized ground. And also any tips people have come up with while using this machine?

I used the GPZ 7000 in the Summer of 2016 (with yellow ferrite ring) but it had so much ground feedback in my detecting area that I sold it. I found that the ground noise on the GPZ was masking targets over the GPX-5000 running in fine or enhance gold timings. (Damp & salty highly mineralized ground.) Question: Has the latest software update with Locate Patch & Semi-Auto Ground balance helped significantly to handle this type of bad ground feedback? I am considering buying another GPZ 7000 this Summer to try again. Also, I found that the 5000 can match or beat the 7000 on larger chunky gold targets when running the larger coils. (And of course, the GPZ was superior on some specimen gold types vs the 5000.) Here is an air test on a 3 ounce wire gold & quartz nugget below. The 7000 was at maximum sensitivity of 20 with the stock 14" GPZ Coil. (I didn't own the 19" GPZ coil to try in this test.) I mostly ran in Difficult/General or Difficult/High Yield as Normal mode was impossible here, too much ground noise! 3 Ounce Wire Gold Nugget: (air test) GPZ 7000: Difficult/General: 18" Difficult/HY: 18" Difficult/X-Deep: 16" Normal/General: 21" Normal/HY: 23" Normal/X-Deep: 20" Severe: 15" GPX 5000: Fine Gold w/12" NF Round EVO coil: 17" Normal w/12" NF Round EVO coil: 21" Fine Gold w/15" NF Round EVO coil: 18" Normal w/15" NF Round EVO coil: 23" Fine Gold w/19" NF Round EVO coil: 20" Normal w/19" NF Round EVO coil: 25" Fine Gold w/25" NF Round Advantage coil: 20" Normal w/25" NF Round Advantage coil: 26" -Don