phrunt Posted January 7, 2023 Author Share Posted January 7, 2023 Today wasn’t so fruitful, at least it was something. Bumped into JW too, he had one in his bottle with the GPZ and 15” CC I’ve got a torn muscle in my arm at the moment not from detecting so the GPX has been handy being so light but I’ve got a new model 12 inch Spiral for my GPZ I’m desperate to try out. It’s meant to handle bad ground better than my original one. tiny one, smaller than a pellet, deeper than my finger ? 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phrunt Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 I went back to the hot rock hillside today this time to try the DD on the 6000. Sadly it was no better than the Coiltek 10x5, in fact probably worse with the bigger size. I was wishing I had an Axiom or at very least I wished I brought the GPX 5000 with me hoping it would handle them better. I have gathered up a selection of troublesome rocks to take home and test the 5000 on, I already know the Zed can’t deal with them. Here are some photos of the hot rocks the 6000 can’t handle, they come in all sizes from tiny to huge but it’s the buried tiny ones that are most annoying and sound just like gold. they are super tough, I managed to break a bit off this one This sort are lumpy These are screamers This is a big one of the worst sort, small buried ones fool me thinking I’ve got a flake. this is a cut out cliff on the area so you can see the ground type, rounded rocks hundreds of meters up a mountain side. My first nugget of the day, they all seem quite shallow here. This is my little dig hole, I was filling it back in while recovering the nugget, sorry flake. See how only the left of the coil is dirty, thats because the right has next to no sensitivity, if I was left handed I’d have to fit the coil upside down to recover targets comfortably ? My second flake for the day and my third, a quite small one. This is the first time I’ve properly used the DD, runs nice but not near the sensitivity of the 10x5, it only found shallow pellets. Here is my total for the trip so far, notice the little one in the middle from yesterday is a different colour? It was from a different spot about 30 minutes drive from this spot. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valens Legacy Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Very nice nuggets for your hard work, I hope that you had fun on the hunt and learned more about the detectors and coils. That way it will be easier to take the right equipment the first time and find more on your next hunt. Good luck and stay safe out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold Catcher Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Very nice, Phrunt. For me, general/difficult is the way to go, not normal, when hotrocks are an issue. GC 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasong Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Your area sounds geologically similar to a few areas I'm working up in the Rocky Mountains. Yours appears to be an old conglomerate or in some cases what we call paleoplacers, which what I search for here too. Like your place, I find pretty much all flat nuggets, and pieces over 1 gram are rare. The hotrocks in your photo appear to be something closer to basalt, but there are a lot of rocks in that series that can be hard to ID specifically as they blend into each other. They are generally high iron, but some can be conductive as well - the ones with both properties are extremely difficult to balance out with 6's and 7's (curious how the Axiom does here). If it's an old paleoplacer (or a modern placer), the drainages could have brought a number of different types of hotrocks from a number of different areas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phrunt Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 I will try the GPZ again and see how it goes in Gen/difficult as I’ve never tried that. Today is too hot for the hike uphill at 30 Celsius so I will try tonight if it cools down. The bits look like someone flattened them with a hammer. it’s a 2 hour drive each way to go home to get my 5000 so I don’t want to do that I’d rather put up with what I’ve got and bring the 5000 next time if it passes with my test hot rock samples at home. I think there is still a bit of gold in this area due to the difficulty people have had with hot rocks. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davsgold Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 nice work Simon, and what else you you rather be doing anyway. ? cheers dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phrunt Posted January 9, 2023 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 I went early in the morning before it got too hot this time with the GPZ and 8 inch coil, I must say with my sore arm at the moment the GPZ with 8 inch was far easier to swing than the 6000 with the DD, it felt lighter too even though it may not be. The GPZ seemed to halve the hot rocks the 6000 was getting but is still a pain to use, I found myself digging faint sharp targets that were quite deep that ended up being little hot rocks far deeper than the 6000 was getting them, I also picked up plenty of pellets the DD missed, even right next to or in the dug out piles from its recoveries. I tried general/difficult and it quietened many hot rocks down but had me digging more as they became faint signals, this could just be the 8 inch coils crazy sensitivity. I of course tried balancing over them which calmed them right down but couldn’t get rid of the worst types. It appears I did a good job with the 6000 though as even though I found many more pellets I found no gold in the 2 hours I stayed until the heat chased me out. The ground is full of black sand yet normal is fine on both detectors if it wasn’t for the hot rocks. I was hoping the smaller size might give me an advantage but no gold was to be found. Next time I’ll try the 5000. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold Catcher Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 1 hour ago, phrunt said: I tried general/difficult and it quietened many hot rocks down but had me digging more as they became faint signals, this could just be the 8 inch coils crazy sensitivity. I of course tried balancing over them which calmed them right down but couldn’t get rid of the worst types. Yeah it does not get rid of the worst ones, but it cuts out about 80% of what the 6k is hearing. I have only tried that with the NF12 and I can still detect small "flakes" attached to hot rocks that are otherwise quiet (general/diff/semi GB -balanced on ferrite, gain 15, filters off). The same hot rocks would be screaming with the 6k and the attached gold would not be heard. I am sure the type of coil will play a big role in this experiment, and I can imagine the 8 inch XC is much hotter than the NF12. Thanks for following up. GC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now