GPZ Settings Vs. The GPX 5000

[Rob Allison]

Hello All,

   Just a FYI, make sure you understand the settings and what is working best.  I just realized the first day out, even though I found 8 nuggets, I was running settings that were no better than the GPX 5000 after some further testing.  What I would consider a large nugget, the GPZ considers it a "small" nugget, which is best for High Yield over General.  

I also realized "Difficult" soil really makes the unit purr, but takes a lot of performance away on the ground I was hunting.  I was trying to find a happy medium from a noisy Normal to a Difficult soil setting with a higher gain.  

Experiment is the key.  What I originally thought was good, wasnt ..... 

[Steve Herschbach]

The settings are not small nugget, medium nugget, big nugget. Ignore that aspect of the icons.

From JPs Treasure Talk blog at http://www.minelab.com/usa/treasure-talk/introducing-the-gpz-7000

"GPZ 7000 Search Modes = Similar GPX 5000 Timings

High Yield/Difficult = Fine gold

General/Difficult = Enhance

High Yield/Normal = Sens Extra

General/Normal = Sharp/Normal"

However, the GPZ IS NOT A PI and so these are only approximations, guidelines to help you on your way.

My recommendation so far for the U.S. is always use High Yield. Use Normal Ground if you can, Difficult Ground only if you have to, and leave Smoothing Off. Sensitivity as high as is stable.

I always use the ground tracking system. I only use the Quick Track button when hitting a totally new area, otherwise I have just been letting the automatic tracking build a good set of data points to work with for any given area and leave it alone. When I turn the machine off I just turn it back on and get to work, and my unit has been happy and stable doing that. I do not do another Quick Track just because the unit was turned off and back on unless I have moved to a different ground type condition.

If the machine ever gets weird, just do a factory reset and start over fresh.

That said, there IS NO MAGIC SETTING for all locations. If there were, the settings would not be needed or included. The GPZ would just have a power switch.

Severe ground such as found in Australia calls for settings more designed for taming the ground than what we have in the U.S.

[strick]

I was in the foothills Sat and could not use normal "ground", it was reacting to hot rocks regularly.  Put it in difficult  "ground" and it was much quieter.  I had smoothing off sensitivity at 9-12.  I buried a target (bird shot) about 8 inches and tested the unit in the three different ground types. Big differences in what you hear. It's going to take some getting used to. It's heavy, bulky, hard to fit into tight places especially on the side of a hill filled with manzaaneta.  But it is very sensitive and I found some very deep bullets deeper then I have ever found. No Gold. It was hot and I was sweating like a dog. It is not a machine that can be used were there is much trash. At one point I put it back in the truck and grabbed my 2300 just so I could have something easier to swing with a smaller coil as not to hit so much trash.  I'm thinking the GPZ 7000 is going to be my "wide open places machine"  what ever that means.

 

strick

[russ]

I've run my GPZ the same way Steve recommends, only switching General/Normal where the ground is deep and big nuggets were found. You can run the sensitivity a littler higher the General/Difficult mode all depends on your ground condition. 

 

​Nenad has a very good explanation on the GPZ settings here...

 

http://phasetechnical.com.au/putting-minelab-gpz-7000-gold-test/

[Steve Herschbach]

I agree Russ, I would run General/Normal or General/Difficult if hunting an old patch looking for missed bigger, deeper nuggets. For most regular detecting High Yield is still likely to nail the big nuggets while doing much better on our more common smaller nuggets. In other words, people should not be afraid of missing larger gold when in High Yield.

As strick notes sometimes you just have to use Difficult Ground. That is what it is for.

[russ]

The settings are not small nugget, medium nugget, big nugget. Ignore that aspect of the icons.

 

 

Very good advice Steve. The first time I turned my GPZ and looked at the gold mode settings I thought now why would I want to find small gold? 

[LuckyLundy]

I'm experimenting with Auto Smoothing. This really settles the 7000 down and haven't noticed a loss of depth, but much easier to hear the small changes in the Threshold.

LuckyLundy

[Steve Herschbach]

The names are not very good. As good as can be is a couple words maybe but too much left unsaid.

Very Deep does not really appear to be very deep. More like "as deep as possible in really bad ground". It is instructive that Very Deep is the best setting for salt ground. This means it has a relatively long time constant, which in turn simply means it is less sensitive to all but the largest nuggets.

Still learning myself though. Is it better to run High Yield at moderate Sensitivity, or General with max Sensitivity? Better to run Smoothing off at lower Sensitivity, or Smoothing on at high Sensitivity?

[LuckyLundy]

Also, using Very Deep it will skip a bunch of Bird Shot! Which is great in a few locations for everyone

Rick

[Steve Herschbach]

I was wondering about that - thanks Rick! Probably not so hot on the tiniest surface ferrous trash either.