Another First Use Of The Gold Monster 2000 - Long

[Lesgold]

Just like Aureous, I couldn’t wait to get the monster out for a play. After assembling the unit, a quick test was in order. Didn’t even charge the batteries before heading out. Decided to jump in boots and all and take it to an area where the ground was really hot. Very salty, reactive soil with wet clay and heaps of hot rocks. Didn’t worry about the ear buds it was just a first introductory “turn on and see what happens” sort of exercise. Startup was very quick (about 6 or 7 seconds) and it was then a quick walk to the creek. While walking to the location, the mandatory play with every button occurred.  The layout and options were straight forward and there didn’t appear to be anything that could confuse a techno mug like myself. When I got to the test area and started swinging, the machine appeared to be very noisy especially in the damp areas. After persevering for about 5 minutes, the machine was clicked it down a notch into difficult for a run. The machine became unstable and horrible to use. I moved to some drier ground which improved things but in general, I was a bit disappointed as to the machines noise level. Dropped sensitivity a few clicks which did improve things slightly. One thing that was standing out was the placement of control buttons. Adjusting settings doesn’t even require the operator to look at the screen. It is actually quite intuitive. As it turns out, that’s where a major mistake had been made. Instead of looking at what I was doing, I just assumed that the machine had been placed into difficult mode. When the screen was looked at, it was actually in benign mode. Thank goodness my detecting mate was not there to provide sympathy and support for my rookie error. When  the machine was dropped into difficult it actually ran extremely well. In fact it was perfect and behaved itself much better than the 6000 in the same location. That was impressive. Found a couple of bits of junk before heading home to charge the batteries.

Yesterday was quite a cool day so a trip was made to an area that had given up hundreds of small nuggets over the past 18 months. Was hopeful that this new toy would provide a bit more fun and turn up some small stuff that the 6000 had not been able to “see”. It was a dry creek bed that contained numerous rock bars and I was keen to see what treasure was still hidden in small cracks and crevices. When I hit the creek, the fist rock bar that I came to was actually a cliff face that was moss covered. This area had given us some gold on the past and I was keen to run the monster over this area. The combination of moss, depressions and cracks made this a natural sluice that caught small gold during major flood events. Within a few minutes the first signal was heard. It’s a bit hard to describe but the signal had a nice sounding little trailing tail to it. Sweet to the ears, it was obvious that it was going to be gold. 

Recovery of this piece was quite difficult as it was about eight feet above where I was standing. I can understand why this piece was still there as it is difficult holding a heavier detector well above head height. A bit of climbing was in order and eventually it ended up in the scoop.

This showed up the first big advantage of the monster compared to other detectors. Its weight is a real advantage in this type of situation. Detecting steep country is a breeze as this machine is only 60% of the weight of the 6000. Another nugget was also pulled from this area before moving up the gully. Rock bars, clay beds and other likely areas were detected for no further result. Much of the time the machine was running in normal with changes in sensitivity or detecting mode made according to ground type. The detector was quiet and performed very well. The red and black reactive soils did not upset the machine at all which was pleasing. In saying that, it has been extremely dry and there was no moisture present to test the machines “demeanour”. Tracking worked well all day and didn’t create any issues. Hot rocks were variable in signal and ranged from a low pitched moan to a noisy metallic junk type of sound. They often tracked out and were less of an issue than expected. Later in the day one more piece of gold was found in the root system of some vegetation attached to a small rock. It was actually held up on the vertical face of the stone and was only picked up due to the fact that the detector coil was small enough to fit into a narrow opening. This is the advantage of the small coil.

After about three hours I left the gully and walked back to the ute. First impressions of the monster were quite good. It s very sensitive and discriminates extremely well on a variety of signals. The machine performed better than expected in mineralised ground and ran quietly all morning. Its small coil offers an advantage in certain areas and allows you to detect tight spots with ease. The weight of the monster is brilliant. You can swing this machine all day without getting an aching arm. The audio is actually outstanding. The tones are pleasant to the ear and tell interesting stories. It will take time to figure out exactly what each groan, chirp and fart indicate but that’s just part of the learning curve. What was obvious during yesterdays outing was the quality of the 6000. My detecting mate and I have done a lot of work in the gully and have carefully covered the ground. We didn’t leave much easy gold for the GM to find. The pieces recovered yesterday were not found due to the detectors good sensitivity but due to the machines light weight and coil size. Before leaving I decided to test out the ear plugs on a flat, open area with no vegetation. The sound coming out of the ear plugs was very good. Hated the way the cord dangled and waved about with every movement of the GM’s coil. Don’t think they will be used much at all in the future. Tried a Bluetooth transmitter at home and it seemed to work OK but unless it is really windy, the speaker will be all that I’ll be using as the sound it produces is really good. The monster is a bit unstable on its “legs” and wants to fall over. Cursed a few times but you get used to it and adjust. The legs aren’t all that wide and I believe there is a reason for that. This detector folds up into a compact unit and compromise must be made in order to keep its dimensions under control. (Remember the SDC?)In my situation, it will be attached to a back pack when heading into the bush and will be used as a complementary unit to the 6000 or zed. Surfaced areas, bedrock crevices, reefy areas and terrain with tight spots will see the monster released. If I get a chance today, I will air test the pieces that were found to see what happens to the signal as distance from the coil changes. This will just help to gather a bit more info to lock away in the grey matter as I believe there is a lot of learning and experimenting to follow.

[Aureous]

@Lesgold, I concur. All of those things are totally true....and yeah, dont use 'Benign' mode unless you're in pure sand! With the Nokta stand and Relay transmitter, most of my gripes are solved. Now its just gotta pay for itself!

[Lesgold]

No problems there. I reckon 450 bits should do it. Only 447 to go.🤪🤪🤪

[TheDeepseeker]

Well done Lesgold, as long as it gave you great joy. 

[Aureous]

50 bits to the gram looks about right with what Ive found so far....

[Shojo510]

Nice read, thank you.  Any feedback on the stability of the target ID yet?

 

edit: maybe I need to read some of the other threads haha...

 

[Aureous]

@Shojo510 More hours in the field are needed to be sure but the small targets (#6,7,8 lead shot) and tiny brass/copper boot tacks all ID well under 20. Gold I have found so far (10 bits) I used the echo wave audio response and bar graph to determine 'dig-ability'. Will test on silver and copper coins next day or so. The bigger 10x6 coil would help....but we gotta wait.

[Rivers rat]

Thanks for your report ,always interested by new Minelab machines.

Looks fun to use .

 

RR

[mn90403]

15 hours ago, Aureous said:

Will test on silver and copper coins next day or so.

My test garden will be a kid's sand area at one of the local parks.