Gpx-6000 1st Trip To The Gold Fields (part 1 Of 2 - Long Read)

[Gerry in Idaho]

My 1^st in the field trip review of the new GPX-6000 and what I experienced. 

The info of my learning, field observation, side by side comparisons, thoughts and comments are in no means the final verdict of the GPX-6000.  The reason I say this, is the way my staff/I 1^st started training customers on the GPZ-7000 is not how we train them today.  Things could change, software downloads might come and as we spend more time in the different gold fields our knowledge goes up.

I had the opportunity to hit the hills and that’s exactly what I did as I jumped into the truck and took off 1000 mile drive (one way) for some new gold fields.  These were not just any gold fields but of locations and states I have never hunted Au nuggets before.  I was able to spend 5 days in lush green forests in Black Hills of Dakotas and also the high rolling exposed bedrock grizzly bear country near 8000’ elevation in WY.  Both of these states are on my check list of “Needs to find a Nugget” states, as I am a man who enjoys the phrase “been there – done that”. I don’t think it makes me a better nugget hunter, but I do feel it makes me more rounded and educated as a knowledgeable Gold Detector Dealer.

Day one was a soaking wet ground day and I was sure the capabilities of the GPX-6000 were going to be diminished as it had rained all night long.  The nearby creeks were chocolate brown in color and swiftly running to their edges, which is pretty rare the end of July.  Either way, I was going to do it as I’d already drove 1000 miles, the schedule was already made and I had 2 other Dakota prospectors eager to chase Black Hills Gold with their detectors.  For this story, I’ll make up names as I don’t want to expose their identities and or ruin the permissions on the lands we were granted.

Common names are great for such times like this so I’ll use the names Dan & Brian.

Dan was stepping up his game from a proven VLF, the Gold Bug-2.. but we all know it’s limited depth, inadequate capabilities in mineralized soils and liking of hock rocks,  to a new shiny Pulse Induction GPX-6000 (yes I personally delivered all the way from Idaho).  When we arrived at the site and I was shown the actual patch (quite small in size maybe 20’ x 10’), I was impressed at the location and amount of moist green vegetation around us. The surrounding mountains and area was quite different than what my mind expected and the movie series (Deadwood) I watched.  The actual patch had been cleared though and we were down almost bare ground but some areas had about an inch of grass root systems.  Funny how a couple pieces were actually in the roots.

Dan certainly was the eager one as he scored 1^st gold of us 3 and in fact, I was still trying to understand my new 6000 when I heard him holler “gold”.  It was nothing big, but it was his first gold in his first 15 minutes with his first PI, a new GPX-6000. 

 

Not long after, I had my first signal and when I called Brian over with his GPZ-7000 he could not hear it.  Interestingly the first 2 targets I called him over, his 7 missed though they were not gold, but actually small lead bird shots.  Then my 3^rd & 4^th signals were small gold and still this GPZ was silent.  Now we are starting to see a pattern.

Another Dan nugget.-  In the back ground I hear Dan yip yip like a little kid and I thought, oh my they do have 1 ounce nuggets in the Black Hills, but quickly see, not the case.  It was very impressive though and weighed over a gram, which was actually his biggest gold nugget in his young Au chasing career with a detector.  How his face was shining, I could see he was totally on board with his new high end PI detector, which made me feel good.

Finally Brian hollers gold and I could see a nice picker of .2 gram from distance.  No, it was not the area I was swinging as he wanted me to be on the exact spot of his so called cleaned out patch, so I did not get to see if the 6000 could have heard, but I’m most certain it would have.  The one thing about having 2 GPX-6000’s and 1 GPZ-7000 in a 60’ area and a power line running no more and 150’ from us, it did leave the GPX-6000 needing the Noise Cancel about every 10 minutes.  Once I realized this and how fast the “NC” is complete (approx 5 seconds), I had no more issues.  Yes the GPX-6000 needs to have the Noise Cancel done more often then I did with my GPZ-7000, that does not make it a bad detector, it’s just the best way to handle EMI. 

Back to the cleaned out GPZ-7000 patch Brian put me on.  So far the targets I have been finding, the signal responses are all pretty clear/loud and I was impressed how easy the 6000 was indeed outperforming the 7000 in wet saturated soil with the detector settings running NORMAL GROUND, THRESHOLD ON, and SENS at 4 – 7.  After a couple more nuggets his 7000 missed, I decide to go back over the patch, but this time I adjust the settings on my GPX6000 and adjust the SENS to 10 ( Not Auto +1 ,but actual 10, which is MAX).  I am not recommending newer users of this detector to go there right away, as my ears have been listening for gold targets in mineralized soils with a Minelab PI for 25+ yrs and I usually can pick out odd sounds and patterns quite easily when compared to most newer hunters.  Yes the detector is much harder to understand and more noise coming from it, but a trained ear helps.   With the new HOT settings and me going back over the same 20 foot square, I get a really weak iffy signal that repeats half the time.  I call Brian over and his 7 does hear something, but it’s just about the same and he says he would not have stopped.  Well the one thing I know is when I get in a patch, I don’t leave any odd noise undisturbed.  2” later off the top and I am most certain to dig a nugget.  Another 4” deeper (now I have removed 6”) and the 7000 is still having issues, but the 6000 is easily singing the Au tune.  2 more inches deeper (total of 8” depth) and I have the little solid .3 gram nugget out of the hole, most impressive.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATION - One thing I noticed when I swung the 6000 outside of the patch area and into deeper wet soils at this site.  The GPX would hear saturated reddish soil pockets and the narrow pocket ones did sound like a really soft deep target. I dug a few down 4 to 6” only to have the signal disappear.  After doing this a few times and even on the actual patch I was fooled, I decided to test the assumed target spot in the “DIFFICULT” Soil Timing before I dig.  Wow, what a difference that made.  Each time there was a target, the DIFFICULT would still hear it but when it was just ground noise, the DIFFICULT timing cleared the assumed target and response was gone.  I would love to hear others observations on this as I am sure there has to be a breaking point?

The afternoon ended with my GPX-6000 TRUMPing the 7000 as I scored 11 nuggets in about a 20’ area of the old 7 patch.  Brian did score a few on the outskirts with his 7 and Dan also dug a couple more.  The 3 detector total was around 17 Black Hills Gold Nuggets, 1 happy customer Dan and a stunned Brian with a heavy GPZ-7000.  The moral of the story, Brian is now swinging a GPX-6000 and finding more Dakotas gold pickers. Dan is in heaven as at one time he was trying to justify a GPZ-7000.  I accomplished part of my goal, to prove the GPX-6000 will get most folks in the US more gold in their pockets with a better user friendly, lighter and less exhausting detector.  And… I was able to check off the gold nugget recovery for Dakota “been there, done that”.

Later on in the trip and after Brian witnessed the extra gold I was getting from his patch with my GPX-6000, he decided one needed to be in his hands.  He also realized the majority of gold nuggets the people in the USA find are smaller gold of less than a half ounce, so the GPX-6000 will do him just fine.  Would you believe me if I said, I just so happened to have another new GPX-6000 with me…SOLD.  Just to give him some love, we did detect another site and he was the bread winner that day scoring 3 nuggets to my ZERO.  I was busy stuffing my cheeks with nice sweet wild raspberries, they were everywhere at that site.

Part #2 to come when I get more time…hopefully worth the read.

[oneguy]

"The GPX would hear saturated reddish soil pockets and the narrow pocket ones did sound like a really soft deep target. I dug a few down 4 to 6” only to have the signal disappear.  After doing this a few times and even on the actual patch I was fooled, I decided to test the assumed target spot in the “DIFFICULT” Soil Timing before I dig.  Wow, what a difference that made.  Each time there was a target, the DIFFICULT would still hear it but when it was just ground noise, the DIFFICULT timing cleared the assumed target and response was gone.  I would love to hear others observations on this as I am sure there has to be a breaking point?"

Nice gold Gerry....

The other day I decided to play with the normal/difficult setting on the 6 (always ran difficult previous) and almost thought machine ran smoother in normal but too early to tell as I haven't used it for any real length of time?  I came to no conclusion one way or the other what little I tried?  My trying the difficult/normal was to try and settle the machine down more. So thanks for bringing up the soil pocket info...I'll keep that in mind on future hunts with the 6 and test it more on some actual targets.  I don't have a ton of time on the 6 so far but 39 gold pieces, lots of real small crap at impressive depths for the size and a 1.7g nugg at 12".

So far biggest bitch I have is is air traffic and truck traffic EMI that seems worse in the morning but eventually the machine seems to settle down....

Anybody else have opinions on the difficult/normal modes...????

[IdahoPeg]

Great field report and photos Gerry!

[phrunt]

Good to see you out and about looking for gold Gerry and getting some big sales to go with it.

I'm seeing a few reports whereby people say the 6000 is finding gold the 7000 is completely missing, I'm going to have to get a 6000 to see if that is the case for me too.  I have plenty of small gold areas that are well hunted out with the 7000 and various coils, it'll be interesting if any more pops out. If there is one thing I've learnt is I can go over the same ground so many times and still sqeak a few more out, no matter how done I think it is, perhaps that's a reflection on me not detecting the area as well as I think I have 🙂

I'd rather wait a few months for a newer batch and hope some of the issues like the speaker EMI are quietly fixed in the background as I would most certainly be a speaker user.  I wouldn't be surprised if the shaft is improved at some point too as that would be an easier fix.  

Early CTX models had bugs fixed on the fly like the curving screens and the early ones were prone to getting the tearing lines on the screens too which more recent ones don't seem to get due to a screen brand/model replacement, they don't recall them they just hope as few as possible fail within warranty.    You'd think the later Equinox would have the leaking problems fixed that early ones were prone to, and obviously they fixed the wobbly shaft us early adopters all had on our Nox a few months after it was released for new buyers.  The GM1000 even had a firmware update that speeds up the ground balance, early adopters once again missed out as Minelab were not willing to pay the service agents for their time to upgrade our older ones with the new firmware instead telling us we can't have the new firmware.

It's long been said to wait a while after a detector is released to get one if you can so issues discovered after release can be resolved, and for me that seems logical in this case with a few possible obvious problems upon release, hopefully by the time I'm ready to move on one there will be aftermarket coils so I can have my small coil 🙂  I have a funny feeling there will be! 🙂

[MSC]

Good report Gerry, I will be going to some of the Northern, Western states in the warmer months to detect for gold as soon as this darn covid has subsided somewhat. I have a medical issue that requires me to be extra careful. Fuel prices have put a bit of a damper on long distance travel for now, sure hope prices really do come down soon, but will not hold my breath. Will tent camp instead of hauling my 38 ft. toy hauler around for now. Me and my buddy, Perry still enjoy tent camping. I have a 6000 now and will get out in September to give it a go. What a great site for commutating to the really good folks that chose to share life experiences here, all I can say is thanks.  

[Lunk]

Great feel-good post, Gerry! Congratulations to all three on some nice nuggets found. And so very thoughtful of you to think up those fictitious names to keep things on the down-low. 😀

[Glenn in CO]

Great write-up and helpful tips. Congratulations on finding gold in a new area you haven’t been before. Can’t wait for part two!

[Valens Legacy]

Thank you Gerry for the report that you have expertly written again.

You found some nice gold as you were learning the unit and made another sale.

Can't wait to read part 2 of this adventure.

Good luck hunting out there.

[Gold Catcher]

Great report and very entertaining, thanks Gerry. IMO, the 6 is like a PI Gold Monster with an astounding signal response for fast timing gold. Re 7 misses targets, this will highly depend on how you run the 7. In high HY/Normal/smooting off and NF-Zsearch mounted (gain >10) the signal response comes pretty close to that of the 6 IMHO, without giving up the depth advantage that the 7 is having. But of course, the 6 shines for many reasons and is my to go detector any day. Probably the best all around detector ML ever made.

GC

PS: On the 7 there is a much bigger difference between normal and difficult than on the 6, at least from my experience thus far

 

[GB_Amateur]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:16 AM, Lunk said:

So very thoughtful of you to think up those fictitious names to keep things on the down-low. 😀

Wow, it's a small world.  I once had a (not so serious) hypothesis that my brain only had room for about 200 faces and once I filled it up, every new person I met looked like one of the 200.  Another datapoint in the confirmation category now since that 'Brian' (not his real name 😕) guy sure looks like someone I met at one of your (Gerry, Lunk, and friends) field training classes.  And, what a coincidence, his name was 'Brian'!  In fact, another rare coincidence, he looks like a poster here, and that guy is from South Dakota.

Another nice writeup, Gerry.  My only criticism (call it a jab/needle) is that I don't feel too sorry for you having to drive 1000 miles for gold.  I drove twice that far to take your class (and, full disclosure, it was worth it).