A Skunk Rancher's First Time Out With The Nugget Finder 12" Evolution Coil

[TheDeepseeker]

I managed to sneak off to Kingower for a swing for a few hours on the Easter Weekend. I did as much as I could get done on the Rheola Reno with the materials that I had, and my wife and daughters were happy with a girls day out on Easter Sunday. So after the traditional family Easter egg hunt in the morning I headed off with the 5000 and my new 12" evo to give it a run.

Other than a few tries of an NF 20" Advantage five or six years ago, I've never felt confident or competent with a mono coil and tended to stick with mainly larger DD coils.

I started with the settings that JP suggested in an earlier thread where I asked for advice on a good small mono, and I gave it a run on the patch where I found a 1.5 - 2g nugget just before covid came onto the scene a few years back. I seemed to get a lot of noise so I buried my little test nugget and played around with the gain and threshold, & re-ground balanced until I could just hear the threshold and without any of the noise, but I could still clearly hear my test nugget that I had buried about four or five inches down. 

This all worked well except for one nearby area where I couldn't get the detector to settle down (bearing in mind, we had a couple of showers earlier in the morning which JP had warned could affect things, so the ground was a bit more damp than usual, and by comparison to most on here I am a rank amateur), but I referred to one of Steve's old posts for GPX help for beginners, and moved along the timing matrix chart from Fine Gold to Enhance, and then set up the gain and threshold again until everything was running smoothly once again.

Even though I didn't find anymore gold I am amazed at just how sensitive the 12" evo is and how small the lead shot that I found is, and I take comfort from the fact that I now feel confident enough to run a mono coil. With my 25" DD-X only on a couple of occasions did I find a long .22 slug, but some of the lead shot targets I found with the evo are very minute.

Thanks for the help and advice everyone

 

 

 

[Roughwater]

Great job figuring things out. I'm sure had any of those bits of lead you found had been gold you would have detected them also. The fact that you found them means no one previously had detected them or they would not be there.  I really feel like that 12" Evo coil could turn out to be a great one for you or anyone for that matter. Just ask detector Mods about a round coil. It's the ideal shape to give one the deepest detecting ability. It doesn't have such a large footprint that it would be impossible to use in moderetly mineralized soil. Yet it should be fairly sensitive and I would venture to say it is based on the small bits you dug up.  So keep doing what you're doing and when you get that coil over some gold you will likely know it and own it! If your 5000 is not Moded I would look into having that done as well. I was watching a video a month of so back related to a detector hunt that Garret had put on here in the States.  In the first few minutes of it I was Suprised to see the first couple of Detectorist in the video searching by sweeping their coils one to two inches above the ground! I thought OMG who taught these folks to use a detector? I figured those invided would be some of the most experienced detectorist! Dragging your coil across the ground is detector class 101. They definitely didn't go through any of Gerry's Detector classes. This has nothing to do with you mate just ramblings from the mind of a old bloke. Best of luck with your future Detector prospecting! 

Terry 

[TheDeepseeker]

Thanks Terry. Yes I had wondered in the past about getting the 5000 modded, but I'm still not convinced it's the way to go for me personally. I had inquired about getting the mods done through Detectronics here in Oz but the ever-lengthening time frame kinda tells me that there is just one guy doing them, which makes me wonder what would happen if he ever went under a bus, or how he would find the time to back up his warranty if things ever went pear-shaped with my detector. - especially important seeing as Minelab wouldn't touch it if I needed it repaired. Potentially a very real situation implied by the fact that all of the other products that Mick used to make are out of stock, and have been for some months because his time is increasingly taken up with mods.

I also need the 5000 to do what I enjoy doing with it most, and that is searching for the very deep stuff around Rheola with large DD and Concentric coils. A Unicorn hunt to some degree I know, but strangely I really do get a heck of a lot of fun out of doing that when I get the time to do it, and hence why I have accrued enough Skunks to become a Skunk Rancher 🤣. Mick said that his mods would do nothing for my 32" concentric, and very little for my 25" DD-X coil. I admire the man for his honesty.

I'm rapt that I can now find small stuff if I want to with a small mono coil, but I think I'll leave the 5000 as it is, at least until I possibly buy a second high-end detector once I've retired and then maybe what happens with my 5000 is not so critical.

Re- coil on the ground. Initially I wasn't a coil scraper, but then having read the importance of getting the coil onto the ground I now tend to rake an area first if there are too many leaves and branches in the way.

Ramblings are always welcome Terry. If anyone wants to take the time to help me get better at detecting I'm all ears 👂and any advice is much appreciated thanks.

-Gary

 

[mn90403]

I have that 12" NF Evolution and I've found a piece or two of gold with it and the Algo but I haven't used it on my 5000 yet.  I hope to change that in a couple of months when the family is away and that will give me some time for a couple of long hunts.

Maybe someone here will invite me to a western hunt and try it out.  I'll have from the middle of June until the middle of August.

[Roughwater]

On 4/24/2025 at 9:56 PM, TheDeepseeker said:

Thanks Terry. Yes I had wondered in the past about getting the 5000 modded, but I'm still not convinced it's the way to go for me personally. I had inquired about getting the mods done through Detectronics here in Oz but the ever-lengthening time frame kinda tells me that there is just one guy doing them, which makes me wonder what would happen if he ever went under a bus, or how he would find the time to back up his warranty if things ever went pear-shaped with my detector. - especially important seeing as Minelab wouldn't touch it if I needed it repaired. Potentially a very real situation implied by the fact that all of the other products that Mick used to make are out of stock, and have been for some months because his time is increasingly taken up with mods.

I also need the 5000 to do what I enjoy doing with it most, and that is searching for the very deep stuff around Rheola with large DD and Concentric coils. A Unicorn hunt to some degree I know, but strangely I really do get a heck of a lot of fun out of doing that when I get the time to do it, and hence why I have accrued enough Skunks to become a Skunk Rancher 🤣. Mick said that his mods would do nothing for my 32" concentric, and very little for my 25" DD-X coil. I admire the man for his honesty.

I'm rapt that I can now find small stuff if I want to with a small mono coil, but I think I'll leave the 5000 as it is, at least until I possibly buy a second high-end detector once I've retired and then maybe what happens with my 5000 is not so critical.

Re- coil on the ground. Initially I wasn't a coil scraper, but then having read the importance of getting the coil onto the ground I now tend to rake an area first if there are too many leaves and branches in the way.

Ramblings are always welcome Terry. If anyone wants to take the time to help me get better at detecting I'm all ears 👂and any advice is much appreciated thanks.

-Gary

 

I totally understand and your decision makes perfect sense. I hope you find that record breaking Nugget.  It's out there, you just gotta put your coin over it. I was wanting to get a larger coild myself. Right now the largest I have is a Nugget Finder Evo 15".  I wanted to get a 19" Evo but they seem to be sold out everywhere, even in Australia. I tried to buy one direct from Australia but NF doesn't seem to like it's dealers selling direct to customers outside of Australia. I'll pick up a big one sooner or later I'm sure. I don't greatly need one till I leave for the Western part of the US in September anyway. Best Regards, Terry