Detecting Iffy Sounds/Weak Signals, Ground Noise, What to Expect – Gold?

[Gerry in Idaho]

Detecting Iffy Sounds/Weak Signals, Ground Noise, What to Expect – Gold?

Are you good enough to know those iffy sounds, weak signal from ground noise and know when to Dig or walk?  Are you the one who’s so sure of your detector and skill level, you decide in a few seconds if it’s a genuine target or ground noise and can decide to dig/walk? Do you really have enough experience on your detector to know?  If you don’t, this read is for you.  In fact in my humble opinion, this post is for most everyone because I’m quite certain, each of us has made a mistake at one time or another and walked away from Gold.  But in hunts past, how many times have we done it, will we do it again and how big of gold did we leave behind?  Only if we really knew.

As I’m viewing across the desert flats, my eyes focus on a finger wash coming from the Colluvial fan above.  It’s only then at that time, I decide the area I plan to hunt for a nugget from the depths below. My ZED is purring along with a light decent smooth Threshold.  The only difference from previous hunts for today and at this site, I’m not running the usual optimal High Yield Mode most of us prefer.  I went with my gut feeling and opted for the General Gold Mode, hoping a larger (not a big multi ounce) piece of gold to be uncovered.  My Ground Type Settings is set to Normal which is also my preferred setting for soil conditions and different from the detector Factory Preset of Difficult.

It was only an hour in the hunt and my ears catches the faintest of Threshold tone change. Knowing the time of the year and amount of moisture in the ground in this area, I assume moisture pocket and continue to walk on.  After about 5 sweeps and steps farther up the wash, I stop and think to myself.  Have I heard that same sound before?  We’ll yes and just in fact a day before at another location, I chased a half dozen of such ground mineralization ghost signals.  But something was not right here, it just felt different.  I turned around and walked back.  I swing over the area again and can’t find it?  So again, I chalk it up as bad ground.  But…just as I turn to walk back up, I catch it… again.  I’m thinking to myself… Gerry, are you hearing things again, like you do so many times?  Well yes and no, I reply back to myself, again. But my gut…my gut, is telling me something is different, I just can’t nail it. I’m standing there perplexed and pondering as my mind is racing through memories from past 25+ yrs of swinging PI’s and then DOD technologies. I also realize on rare occasions I’ve been able to sniff out a good nugget at stunning depths.  I did this by investigating some of these unknown sounds and or potential iffy targets.

My ear just barely catches the murmur again. It’s at this time, I make the decision to investigate this particular noise.  I’d like to see and hear from others to chime in and add to this thread, so we are helping each other, as that’s what we should do on occasion here on DP. 

So here goes me.

1.) I come off to the side of potential target and do a Ground Balance to confirm detector is tuned to the soils nearest the iffy sound.  I do such and as I sweep back over the potential spot, I can still barley catch a murmur of Threshold interruption. 

2.) Next step on such iffy targets is to slowly circle while sweeping left to right and back, circle and sweep all the way around.  This helps me decipher from a few ground signals since they sometimes are elongated and not round singular in one spot.  Many times, an iffy is heard swinging left to right… l/r, but when turning 90 degrees, the sound becomes long.  Heck, I’ve heard this many times in a wash and if I keep walking while swinging for 5 feet, it still produces the same sound, which is a long narrow streak of concentrated minerals or moisture.  I know, there is no such thing as a 5’ long nugget, at least not one I’ve ever seen or heard of. 

Back to the iffy sound and circling, I come to the conclusion it’s still worth investigating, so next step on an iffy.

3.) Boot Scrape a good 1 to 2” deep boot scrape of about 1.5X the coil size and just as tall.  Do a nice clean even and level scrape so the coil can get that much closer and a smoother coil control when sweeping left to right and circling again. 

This particular iffy, my boot scrape didn’t change anything?  No cleaner signal response as expected?   But, the iffy never did get worse or much weaker either.  Time for next step.

4.) Remove a good 3 to 4” more down using the pick.  Again make sure the hole is broad and even so the coil can get down in there and be level. 

I do such and put the coil on the spot which now has approx 6” removed. I sweep a few times across and I can hear a slight increase of noise from the “iffy”.  But I still was not 100% sure of a target.

5.) Again, I remove another 3 to 4” and am now at least 8 to 10” deep.  I sweep the coil across and finally get a cleaner signal that gives me hope.

I don’t always do the next step, but this time I remember to.  We usually get excited and miss this step.

6.) I decide to change the ZED operation Mode from General to High Yield and check target again. 

This time I notice, the target is reversed (inverted).  Interesting?

7.) So I add a step and also changed the Ground Soil Timing from my preferred Normal to the factory preset Difficult setting.

I lower coil in now 10” deep hole, and sure enough, the sound is still there and stronger.  I put both Modes back to my beginning settings l as I prefer the standard wee-ooh target response my ears are so much used to when hunting gold.

8.) This bit of knowledge for your noggin (brain) is tricky and I’m not 100% sure how to say.  But here goes. - On the majority of my gold finds of deeper nuggets that were weaker signals.  If I had removed 4 to 6” of soil from the hole and I then swing the coil across the target area from the original ground level that I heard the sound, a target response would still be there and at the same signal strength it was from the beginning. Well, I hate to change what I have said for all these years, but I proved this not to be the case this time.  This is the only the 2nd time I can confirm with 100% certainty, the iffy target at ground level from beginning was now totally gone.  Don’t ask me why, but I’m hoping our Australian friend who does it for a living, Expert and DP member, JP can explain?  For some reason, the removed soil above the target has somehow caused said signal to disappear when swinging the coil from the surface level of original ground level height?  What happened this time on this target, is only the 2nd time I encountered such and the 1st occurred yrs ago with a GPX-5000 and an iffy signals I dug down 8” and then it really never got better.  I filled the hole and walked away.  2 days later, I’m walking through the same area and swing over the exact spot I had dug and filled in previous.  It ended up being an deep 20” 7 gram nugget.

For now, I am going to say this.  When in doubt, check it out… more.  If you’re getting stronger signal as you lower the coil into hole, keep digging unless the changing of Soil Timings makes target go away. 

Back to this iffy sound.  I’m now over 10” deep, the different Soil Timings and Gold Modes are checking the boxes.  I’m still not 100% certain though, as I have found a very select few hot rocks at depth that fooled me.  Here in this spot, I’m 50/50 on a real gold target as I have yet to dig a Hot Rock in this wash.  Heck, I had yet to dig a ground noise in the wash as well and that’s what originally tipped me off.

 

Taking a break and trying to gather myself, I see my brother walking across the desert in my direction.  I radio to him to hunt back to the truck and get my Manticore and my pinpointer.  Hopefully those 2 tools will help in educating us more.

9.) Not always possible, but if VLF is handy, use it.  Said detector can do 2 things.  Help Identify true target and also to isolate target (narrow the area down) so it does not get whacked with the pick and be damaged like so many bigger pieces of gold I’ve seen. (in fact a 3 ounce solid nugget came in my shop this week with customers pick signature on it, ouch!!!).

15 to 20 minutes later, I’m swinging the Manticore with M8 coil down in the hole and as I go from left to right, it’s hitting strong with a VDI readout of 27 to 29, which is great numbers for good gold.  Now I know, for sure this is not a big deep hot rock and or softball size pocket of highly mineralized soils.  I’m most certain I have gold and start getting excited.

10.) Pin Pointer – I don’t use one when hunting most small nuggets, but boy is it sure helpful on big deep holes and in bedrock situations for larger gold.

After more picking around and removing a massive 5 pound rock in the bottom of hole, I’m now scooping the bottom clean to remove all loose material.  At approx 20”, I decide the pinpointer can be used.  Hardly a peep but one last run around and pinpointer catches a weak signal with a slow pulse of sound, in 1 little spot.  I use  pick  to remove 2” more around that area and then check with pinpointer and get the strong hit I desire.  Another breaking up of approx 2” more material using pick (it was hard ground) and I now have removed the target from it’s bed of probably 10,000 years.

 

I exuberantly get the nugget in my hand and immediately realize, something that left me feeling a little ill?  It was way to light for what I was expecting.  Mixed emotions running through my head and stomach at the same time.  I just recovered a gold nugget at depths most folks would have easily missed and even though it’s gold, I’m not as happy as I was hoping and expecting.  That’s part of the funniness when you’re used to digging big gold.  You just expect another big one at those kinds of rare depths.

 

11.) Never stop learning. - The best part of the whole ordeal, was me learning from this iffy and not walking away like so many times done before.

Below is a 24" Apex and 20 to 22" deep hole the iffy came from.

Hopefully you folks can learn from this and those who have knowledge to share, please add because I’m just one guy who hunts in the US and I’m sure other parts of the country and or Australia those regions can be different.  Your style and techniques might shine more light and in the end, if we shine on gold at the bottom of a 2 foot deep hole, we’re all winners.

You all have been patiently waiting for this hog in mount pic of 2025 and here it is.  Hopefully not that last for this season.

 

Summary,  nugget weight was 12.4 grams as it came from the ground.  Depth of the hole dug from was 20 to 22” deep.  After I got home and soaked the caliche off the nugget, the new clean weight is only 10.7 grams.  My total of 10 nuggets found in those 4 days = 15.47 grams, just shy of a ½ ounce of gold.  I used both the GPZ-7000 and GPX-6000 detectors and had success with both.

 

Hopefully the field knowledge I used and learned on this trip will help someone down the road find themselves a nice deep nugget that was indeed an iffy of a sound.

Anyone wanting to add some of their own field knowledge, that’s great.  We all know, the manuals and books don’t tell us such.

Thanks for reading and hopefully your next Iffy is a deep Nugget.

 

Thanks, Gerry

Gerry's Detectors

Gold Nugget Detector Field Training

[LuckyLundy]

Great read and I was nodding my head with a smile.  I’m glad I’m not the only one digging empty holes with the occasional prize deep inside.  This storm blowing in might set them deep targets out of hearing range for a couple weeks?  WTG

LuckyLundy

[Gerry in Idaho]

Good to hear from you Lundy.  I know you're another one who has experience doing such. 

What's interesting, is many of the bigger gold I have recovered were loud and easy to hear signals though. Making sure we are paying attention to those iffy sounds, is what really excites me most.

Hopefully in a couple weeks the ground out there will be starting to prime for the season.  Realize, it's still mid March.

[Gold Catcher]

Great job, Gerry! I have encountered these iffy signals before, mostly at RP. What has helped for me is changing the timings from general to normal and back when digging. Only when both modes confirm a clear target while removing layers it turned out to be gold (about 1 out of 4 times). I think the ground processing in both modes changes differently as the soil is being moved, and sometimes signals disapear for one but not the other mode. Using general/difficult rather than normal can also be improving consistency of response. Also, I always keep smooting off, and switch to manual GB which helps in these situations. 

Nice nuggy!

GC

[Gerry in Idaho]

GC -   You said, "I always keep smoothing off, and switch to manual GB which helps in these situations.".  

You and I both.  I learned to turn both the Audio Smoothing and the Ground Smoothing off, early in the GPZ-7000 introduction.  I was running GB in Semi Mode though on this early Spring trip.  I'll try that Manual GB Setting next trip down.

Thanks for sharing your hard earned knowledge, my friend.

 

[Jonathan Porter]

2 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

GC -   You said, "I always keep smoothing off, and switch to manual GB which helps in these situations.".  

You and I both.  I learned to turn off Both the Audio Smoothing and the Ground Smoothing off early in the GPZ-7000 introduction.  I was running GB in Semi Mode though on this early Spring trip.  I'll try that Manual GB Setting next trip down.

Thanks for sharing your hard earned knowledge, my friend.

 

Good read and even nicer find. 🤩 But yeah an edge of detection dig like that deserves a bigger weight payday relative to the hard won and well deserved achievement. Good to read you guys have really tuned in your Zed’s. 😊 Even better to see the Minelab tax even after all these years going both ways the way it was always meant to be, you don’t need too many half ounce days to keep the tax man happy. 😆 As always @Gerry in Idaho love your work and love those pics of picks. 😊 

PS, in all the testing I did on the GPZ there was more max depth available on the HY Normal over General on all target sizes, which is different to the Difficult timings, ground dependant of course. This was on nuggets down to 3 feet and up to 15 ounces in size and also on an enrichment I found that had over 30 ounces in it. So if your ground can handle it always run HY Normal wherever possible, there’s less EMI and Less touch and rub noise. 

JP

[Jonathan Porter]

5 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Well, I hate to change what I have said for all these years, but I proved this not to be the case this time.  This is the only the 2nd time I can confirm with 100% certainty, the iffy target at ground level from beginning was now totally gone.  Don’t ask me why, but I’m hoping our Australian friend who does it for a living, Expert and DP member, JP can explain?  For some reason, the removed soil above the target has somehow caused said signal to disappear when swinging the coil from the surface level of original ground level height? 

This is a common occurrence in deep soils when using Difficult timings, there can be a number of factors one being the Ground Balance condition has changed due to the removal of the surface layer…. To test this I have often scraped an area nearby away from the target but still representative of the localised soils and done a ground balance on the scraped soils (go into semi-auto pump till quiet then swing steadily over the scraped zone then go into fixed to lock the GB, then go back to your target zone), this method has helped somewhat but not always.

Ground chemistry is a fickle thing and explains why when in dozing detect operations you can remove only a few inches and the ground will suddenly liven up with targets everywhere. Ground disturbance alters the ground chemistry, so you really do need to have faith in what you first heard and persist until things prove otherwise as you did.

Also when scraping you need to clear a big enough area that allows you to swing fully through the range of motion without lifting the coil to clear obstacles such as grass tussocks, tilting the coil at any stage KILLS the iffy target signals.

The other method is to approach the target from different angles, in this instance the flat nugget was most likely laying on edge or tilted as such it might present better in a specific set direction of sweep.

@Gerry in Idaho not too sure about the Expert monicker, after all X is an unknown factor and a spurt is a drip under pressure. 😝 

[Norvic]

3 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

Also, I always keep smooting off, and switch to manual GB which helps in these situations. 

Aye, Manual GB is my GB mode for the Z most of the time unless I`m hunting new ground, in which case I mainly use the 6K, wish it had manual GB too. Those iffy sounds in auto GB are more pronounced in manual GB, and the real iffy sounds in Manual GB are not sounds at all in Auto GB, you might double the holes you dig that are false but you`ll double the weight in your pocket.

[jasong]

Nice wisdom, and you find some of the most unique looking nuggets man, righteous find.