A Few Nuggets For The GPX 6000 And GPZ 7000

[afreakofnature]

I find myself doing the same thing to that you stated above Steve. It always seems like the volume starts out right but then it’s just too loud and I have to keep turning it down.  I’ve been starting with just having the volume at one on the 6000 and then adjusting with the headphones. If I need to crank the volume up, then i go to two on the unit then I turn the volume all the way down on the headphones first and then adjust from there. And I always run it with a test just to make sure that I can hear targets.  But this method for me seems to pseudo adjust threshold level and emi noise.  Works well for running 10 or auto +.  I have heard some very faint tiny targets this way that i missed first go around re going over a patch found with the 6k initially. I wish I could borrow a Z again to see if I missing anything deep at this patch that the 6K did not get. We have gone over this so many times with all the coils this is going to be a good test patch for new machines or old ones lol 

[Jonathan Porter]

I think Simon has done a brilliant job of this thread, he’s written his POV and it has polarised some pure gold in the form of conversation and interaction, I for one thank him for having the courage to express his opinion in a visually enjoyable way. 😊 

Many years ago a person who I respect told me that ‘opinions are like backsides, everyone’s got one’ 😝 (guess who? Hint his name starts with S 😊), so long as those opinions are not expressed in a way to cause another harm then you have a right to them including expressing them.

Back to volume, Steves method IMHumbleO is best used with elevated Gain/sensitivity, you can kind of do this with the 6000 by using Auto+ in the hopes that the ground conditions will allow the auto sensitivity to rise above the pre-set level of the manual mode, the best way to confirm this is to listen to the variation of the threshold, if its gets a jitter going in auto+ mode then that suggest there is a bit more EMI flutter that becomes evident with elevated sensitivity. DO NOT be afraid to use the Manual control with the volume method described by Steve, I find I can run a lot more Manual sensitivity control with the volumes down. 

The other thing I have found is the BT volume of the standard headphones is pretty powerful so I tend to set them half way (push the - button until the volume is at it lowest level then slowly push the + button till it reaches its highest setting then divide by 2 (10 from memory)). The 6000 has a very dominant threshold so I recommend you set the volumes with the coil held flat in air as movement signal variation adds to the base threshold position. As Steve has said so long as you can hear the threshold you are good to go and you will be amazed how low you can run the volume before it starts to impact on threshold volume. I actually prefer to use the standard headphones direct wired so there is only one volume control, I do not like the way BT compresses the audio.

The advantage of the lower volume is it smoothes out all the dross in the base threshold, all the imperfections that are not target related, the 6000 is a very nervous twitchy hyper sensitive detector and you need to train your brain to ignore a lot of the variability, when I see complaints about EMI this usually suggests poor coil control and too much volume being used as a sensitivity control which is back to front for good detecting.

The above methods I’ve described are slightly different to what I’ve been playing with on the 7000 branching out from what Steve has touched on but in principle it all ties in extremely nicely when you think about it logically, where I was coming unstuck was not being prepared to increase Gain/Sensitivity on the 7000 sticking to more conservative operations and not taking advantage of the ‘pop through’ that Steves method achieves with high sensitivity, with low volume being the key. Once I combined the insane sensitivity with much lower volumes everything just fell into place. 

Once again thanks to Simon for creating this thread it has galvanised some good discourse on the subject of metal detecting and I hope he can forgive with all the drifting away from topic.... 

[phrunt]

Thanks, I'm all good, the gold in threads like these isn't so much the original post, it's the comments that come after it and the information contained in those comments, a lot can be learnt when a good discussion starts up.  It's not really drifted off topic as part of the problem if you could call it that, or more so part of the reason I much prefer the GPZ is how stable I can run in by comparison to the GPX which was more of a rowdy noisy unstable machine and I prefer the stability of the GPZ especially when by what I was seeing the performance difference was minimal if any between either on the gold we were chasing in the ground we were hunting, and in fact I would not be surprised if the GPZ was the leader due to it's superior EMI handling which a fair bit can be put down in this case to the concentric coil as using other coils in this same location doesn't provide the same stability as the concentric coils do. 

In saying that the 11" was working normally with the normal GPX sort of less stable threshold, it's the 17" that was quite bad.  14" DD worked quite nicely on the GPX and still had very impressive small gold performance, it was interesting seeing the hotter location on the DD coil and being able to use that as a bit of a pinpoint method or at least making finding the little gold easier in the scoop, a bit like the hotter zones in the lumps on the Z-Search.

I should add I never liked using my previous GPX at this location either, JW was using his GPZ here long before I had one and he was cruising around finding gold sometimes even directly under the power lines, and here was me with my GPX having to stay hundreds of meters away from him or dumbing it right down to get any closer thereby losing my ability to find the smaller gold which is virtually the only gold in this spot in he first place.  I would sound like a mixture of a police siren crossed with a UFO if I tried to go anywhere near them and that's what inspired me to buy and try a QED, but that's another story.

Part of that stable threshold would be the way I run my GPZ with the volume level very low letting the booster amplify the signal volume to my speakers, I could possibly replicate that in the way people are doing with the GPX 6000 by using a Bluetooth LL transmitter and some good quality noise cancelling powered amplifying headphones or even the WM12 connected to the same headphones by cable and not even use a booster but I just don't overly enjoy wearing headphones.

I was so happy they put a speaker on the 6000 and now I see it as a bit of a mistake, perhaps they should have just done a WM14 and followed the lead of the GPZ keeping the speaker on a little external box, having the WM14 as a Bluetooth LL device would make that proposition even more advantageous as it could be used on other detectors too.

Sometimes you just find a detector the right fit for you due to various attributes, and for me that is certainly the GPZ, if I was to fault my current setup with it then the weight is the obvious thing that would be the problem, not the performance.

[Norvic]

Aye weight and ergonomics that suits your age/fitness combined with the environment you hunt in, decides the detector you use, Zs the allrounder especially with the X coils. Phrunt I suspect you will one day own a 6K once you adjust to its differences, I am impatiently waiting for the "coming" Z with GeoSense for I feel that is the big tech benefit of the 6K.

[jrbeatty]

On 12/15/2021 at 6:16 AM, Jonathan Porter said:

Steve, that’s the beauty of this forum, it allows for polarised views and also provides the opportunity for people to become enlightened and then change their POV, me very much included. 😊 

As an example I’ve this past season taken on board your comments about running your machine flat out, something I have always discounted as nigh on crazy, because of that walleyed view I was missing a vital piece of information that you’d provided with your insane settings suggestions....... do you know what that is/was? Volume!! 🥴

I totally missed that you run your volume low. Well what a turn around that has been for some of my approaches to certain aspects of my detecting when the conditions allow for it, of course I’ve tweaked the concept to suit my particular tastes but the whole thing has coalesced out of your personal approach to detecting and willingness to share your ideas, so thanks mate. 😊 

JP

 

Well said Jonathan.

 

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

"---and I prefer the stability of the GPZ especially when by what I was seeing the performance difference was minimal if any between either on the gold we were chasing in the ground we were hunting, and in fact I would not be surprised if the GPZ was the leader due to it's superior EMI handling which a fair bit can be put down in this case to the concentric coil as using other coils in this same location doesn't provide the same stability as the concentric coils do" 

It's hard to appreciate just how much more stability and sensitivity the concentric coils bring to the 7000 (especially when running my preferred very hot settings) until one experiences it personally. I'm now very much looking forward to a head to head contest (on gold ground) between my 7000 CC set up (pictured) and Reg's 6000. 

Something to look forward to in the new year!

 

[Gerry in Idaho]

I enjoy reading the comparisons you and JW like to perform and share.  It helps to see/hear/read the comments and yes the pics are just as interesting.  Keep it up.

[MSC]

Nice video prunt, that X coil is amazing. 

[flakmagnet]

I also have had good success running the 7000 with hot settings and low-ish volume. As I say almost every time I post, my hunting place at the moment produces very small gold as a rule. I have had wonderful success with the new NF coil and the settings described just above. Oh, and coil control, working slowly, and staying patient. 

This is a fun thread - for many reasons. Good job everyone of keeping it between the lines.

Happy New Year to everyone, we all deserve one.

👋

[phrunt]

Yes I'm a big fan of the concentric coils in particular although I'm on my way back to my campsite now after a big skunk so it doesn't find me gold everytime 😊

Or is it I don't put it over gold everytime, its more likely my fault, that's prospecting for you. 

[phrunt]

I went back to the exact same location hoping there would be some more myself and JW missed on that occasion and I had a feeling I hadn't cleaned out the area where I found them last time, the grass is often the hindrance but its dying off now and getting easier to get closer to the ground, summer has well and truly kicked in and it was so hot when I went I couldn't even last half a day, I ended up only detecting for about 2 to 3 hours before I said bugger it I'm going back to my campsite by the lake for a swim.

This was my camp site.

and my daughter having a swim to cool down.  Anywhere on the hills in the background could have gold, there is some heavy old timer work all along the lake, including Quartz reef hearingbone tailings that you can go and view which you can read about at the link.

While I was away detecting my wife and daughter decided they'd take my little Keene A51 sluice out, I was pretty proud of them, they managed to get it in the creek and setup and up and running.  They dug a little hole and ran some gravels and found a bit of gold, pretty well done for their first time ever doing it without my assistance and they've never really shown much interest in doing it.  The day was so hot I think they just enjoyed being in the creek.

This is their little setup, and the little hole they dug.

Their gold for a couple of hours.

I ran my settings a little different this time, I usually run in high yield, normal with my gain on 18, and my audio volume on 3, while I was doing that last time and found the 5 bits JW found a very small nugget with his GPX 6000, and we waived it over my coil and the response was OK, then I bumped my sensitivity up to 20 and what a difference it made, it went from a response to a very good target signal so I figured I'd put up with the messier threshold of 20 on the sensitivity and see if it makes any difference for me.  I also ran my audio volume up higher on the GPZ from my usual 3 (when using the SP01) It's surprising the difference a little bit of extra sensitivity can make, not only to target sensitivity but also to how the threshold sounds, on 18 it seems very stable, 20 is a bit messy for me but I can live with it.  I believe these would be somewhat similar to Steve's insanely hot settings which JW runs all the time.

This area has a lot of shotgun pellets so I obviously dug a lot of targets, usually ignoring any target that moves as a near surface find but my first good target was only a few steps away from where I found the nuggets the other week that were earlier in this thread.

This is it's dig hole, it was reasonably deep, just above the part where my scoop turns to it's handle.  I managed to capture it and the second nugget of the day on video which you can view below.

A couple of photos of the dig hole, I'm puzzled how I missed that one the other day, I doubt it was anything to do with the settings, more likely my ability to cover ground effectively.  I'm using the same coil, the prototype 12" Concentric X-coil.  Hopefully this coil comes to market, I've been very happy with it, prior to the 12" CC the 15" CC was my favourite as it's given me very good results but a bit big for a lot of places I detect, the 12" is a reasonably good size and feels very light, but I still need my 8" or other smaller sizes for a lot of places, they can't make Concentric coils smaller than 12" unfortunately. 

This area is wide open spaces with few obstacles so it's proven to be a good place for the bigger coils and with the area having a good amount of small gold at depth so the concentric coils have been working out well.  All the smaller gold on the bedrock areas is long gone from years of JW, myself and others hitting it quite hard so now it's mostly about trying to find the deeper small bits that previous detectors couldn't find and the GPX 6000 and GPZ with Concentric coils seem to be doing this.

This is a photo of the first nugget and it's weight

This next nugget was a real surprise to me as you can tell if you watch the video, I don't know how it's been missed all those years by everyone, it was such an easy target, perhaps it was dismissed as junk being such an easy shallow target.

This was its dig hole, only a few inches down, it was past the point it'd be a pellet but not by all that much, I was expecting a little bit of junk metal to be honest so I didn't do all that much filming on this one.

It turned out to be the biggest one I found in this little patch area

Not bad at half a gram.  Weird it's been missed all these years in such a hammered spot.  Thats nugget hunting for you, it's very hard for a little coil to cover many acres of ground and not miss some of it.

The next good target of the morning was a bit different, I left that spot as it was just too hot for me, I really can't stand heat so I went back towards my car.  You have to cross a little creek to get back to the car and a couple of years ago I found a 1 gram nugget and some other littler nuggets right next to the creek using my GPX 4500 and Nugget Finder EVO coil, afterwards that same day JW checked the area out too using his GPZ and 10" X-coil and found a fair few smaller bits I'd missed in this little 20 foot by 40 foot area between a dirt road and the creek.  I wanted to see if I could find anything we'd both missed and it was cooler by the creek and it has the only shade in the area from the trees lining the creek.

It turns out I had missed a little guy right near where I found the bigger one, only a couple of feet away from my dig hole from the 1 gram nugget.

The coil is sitting where the nugget dig hole is.  Nice and shady.

And this is it, a bit blurry, must be the focus problem from that glorious shade 🙂

And it's weight.

That was enough for me, I was satisfied with my day and figured I had close to a gram so time to leave and have that swim I'd been dreaming of.

My total, almost a gram! 

And my total from this little area... it seems you can never get it all, especially me!