How hot can hot ground get?

I am still learning my GPX 4500 which I have had for 4 years. Recently bought Evo 12 inch nugget finder and had 2 half days training. Out practicing in Victoria twice a month no gold yet. In an old water course in golden triangle there is a faint target. At 6 inches down it is screaming. At 2 feet it is still screaming. I re ground balance and it’s still screaming. Pointer picks up nothing. I dig another 2 feet and still it is screaming. Pointer still nothing It’s dark I fill in and go home. The hole depth is beyond the range of my gear. Can all the ground be hot? Thanks Lucky Phil

If you have a screaming ‘target’at 4 feet deep with a 12”coil, then it’s probably a huge piece of junk like a sheet of corrugated iron or similar. I don’t think you would be chasing ground noise that deep. If it’s a huge nugget, then you’re a rich man.....

I think you're detecting all that Iron we've been exporting to China, just keep digging but beware, last time those Chinese turned up in the thousands.

Sometimes we miss the target. It might be on one side of your hole part way down. Switch to CANCEL, that will reduce the strength of the detector and give you a better chance of locating the position of the target. Don't forget to switch it back to MONO or you'll not find anything more for the rest of the day.

You would need to put on a DD coil to use Cancel. You can also then switch back to Mono and the detector will only use one side of the DD coil as a mono coil effectively reducing its size.
Have you also gone completely through the wash level and into the natural?
Maybe also do some air tests to see what your detector is capable of sensing and the type of response made at a distance of 4 feet. That may give you more data to make a decision.
Sometimes, as the gambler said " You got to know when to hold and when to fold"
Effective detecting is killed when too much time and energy is spent on trying to recover targets or fruitless digging in unproductive areas as possibly a creek bed with DEEP wash can be.
If you've had no success so far, you maybe might be better off reevaluating your choice of search areas to those with shallower soil or wash profiles, say no more than 12", where targets are more defined and less time and effort required to dig them out.
In short if your approach is not working, take a different one.

Hawkear said:

Effective detecting is killed when too much time and energy is spent on trying to recover targets or fruitless digging in unproductive areas as possibly a creek bed with DEEP wash can be.
If you've had no success so far, you maybe might be better off reevaluating your choice of search areas to those with shallower soil or wash profiles, say no more than 12", where targets are more defined and less time and effort required to dig them out.

Click to expand...

This - 100% this!!

You've got the right equipment and the necessary training in its proper use Phil, so you should be regularly finding gold by now, IMO. Get out of the 'bottomless' watercourses and head for where there's obviously shallow ground: in and around shallow old-time workings. ie. surfacing or low mullock heaps.

It's far from being virgin ground, but it was productive in the past and if you work patiently, slowly and carefully, there'll still be gold there somewhere for you. Probably very small, but that's OK - making a start on finding any at all is the important thing for you at this stage of your prospecting journey. When you've built up your confidence by repeatedly succeeding in this way, then you can think about sometimes venturing into unknown ground.

Go back to ground level above your hole where you said it was a faint signal.
Try balancing it out using the green button preferably with a DD coil.
If it balances out it's ground noise.

Some good advice there from grubstake.

Moneybox said:

I think you're detecting all that Iron we've been exporting to China, just keep digging but beware, last time those Chinese turned up in the thousands.

Sometimes we miss the target. It might be on one side of your hole part way down. Switch to CANCEL, that will reduce the strength of the detector and give you a better chance of locating the position of the target. Don't forget to switch it back to MONO or you'll not find anything more for the rest of the day.

Click to expand...

Thanks P&S, if there is an imminent rush I will post it here. Thanks for skill upgrade and cancel technique. Phil

LuckyPhil55 said:

I am still learning my GPX 4500 which I have had for 4 years. Recently bought Evo 12 inch nugget finder and had 2 half days training. Out practicing in Victoria twice a month no gold yet. In an old water course in golden triangle there is a faint target. At 6 inches down it is screaming. At 2 feet it is still screaming. I re ground balance and it’s still screaming. Pointer picks up nothing. I dig another 2 feet and still it is screaming. Pointer still nothing It’s dark I fill in and go home. The hole depth is beyond the range of my gear. Can all the ground be hot? Thanks Lucky Phil

Click to expand...

How Hot can the Ground Get... ?
a reading of 93.9 °C (201.0 °F) – the highest ever among unverified claims – was allegedly recorded in Furnace Creek Ranch on 15 July 1972.
Just Kidding.... Lol.
You never really know though until it`s dug up.
Stranger things have happened & this Globe has been turned over , washed over , hit by Asteroids on Steroids & blown apart by volcanoes numerous times over.
Anything is possible and i`m wondering if an old VLF detector could distinguish between the metal types for you. ???? ..
Keep digging i`d say the target cannot be much further down seriously.
I`m still learning on the gpx4500 myself to so interested on your progress.
Hope there is a record nugget coming your way you did mark the spot ?

Moneybox said:

I think you're detecting all that Iron we've been exporting to China, just keep digging but beware, last time those Chinese turned up in the thousands.

Sometimes we miss the target. It might be on one side of your hole part way down. Switch to CANCEL, that will reduce the strength of the detector and give you a better chance of locating the position of the target. Don't forget to switch it back to MONO or you'll not find anything more for the rest of the day.

Click to expand...

Just wondering Mr M if a factory Re-set in Enhanse Mode might help him ?

LuckyPhil55 said:

I am still learning my GPX 4500 which I have had for 4 years. Recently bought Evo 12 inch nugget finder and had 2 half days training. Out practicing in Victoria twice a month no gold yet. In an old water course in golden triangle there is a faint target. At 6 inches down it is screaming. At 2 feet it is still screaming. I re ground balance and it’s still screaming. Pointer picks up nothing. I dig another 2 feet and still it is screaming. Pointer still nothing It’s dark I fill in and go home. The hole depth is beyond the range of my gear. Can all the ground be hot? Thanks Lucky Phil

Click to expand...

Lucky Phil, i`ll add to previous. Bob @ Goanna Prospecting Supplies Greta told a story where a target was detected i think with the GPZ7000 way deep down it was. Eventually they used an excavator of such & guess what it was Gold nugget down at around ceiling height depth I`m sketchy on the details.
He maybe is still around to finish the story hopefully ..
Nice fella i thought & i still have his pick he sold to me from the shop.
Shop closed now i`m not shore why.

grubstake said:

This - 100% this!!

You've got the right equipment and the necessary training in its proper use Phil, so you should be regularly finding gold by now, IMO. Get out of the 'bottomless' watercourses and head for where there's obviously shallow ground: in and around shallow old-time workings. ie. surfacing or low mullock heaps.

It's far from being virgin ground, but it was productive in the past and if you work patiently, slowly and carefully, there'll still be gold there somewhere for you. Probably very small, but that's OK - making a start on finding any at all is the important thing for you at this stage of your prospecting journey. When you've built up your confidence by repeatedly succeeding in this way, then you can think about sometimes venturing into unknown ground.

Click to expand...

Here in the northern goldfields of WA I had a hit that was about two foot in diameter, and on a little interweb investigation I found that government and private companies did " air magnetometer" investigations over a large area here. To "control their surveys they buried iron markers that the survey could pick up and so they could accurately locate their surveys. I did think I had a world tour in my future when I first hit the contact but as it turned out I still had to swing across the countryside.

Something the size of a dog bowl can be detected at nearly 5 feet, so a small rusty gold pan or similar may be causing the response. If the material you are removing from the hole isn't responding, then it's a pretty good chance it is in fact something metallic.

My advice is to widen the hole you dug as it could be in the side wall. Also a crowbar is handy aswell. Usually rusty objects are easier to get at great depths because they oxide in the ground and grow bigger in size. On the detector try lower settings (on gpx signal and rx) as it will make it easier to locate targets position rather than dealing with a loud screaming sound. Also move coil in and out of the hole from different positions around the hole to determine the targets position. If its in the bottom then use crowbar to help bust up the ground around it. Also keep an eye on the material coming out of your hole as sometimes you can get a orange rust spot appear, if no rust spot then good chance its something non ferrous. Another method i use is lowering a large magnet into the hole and sometimes it pulls to the side and gets stuck on ferrous metal. You shouldn't leave target behind or go back next morning to dig it. I've found plenty of gold in the side of holes that other prospectors have failed to locate or dig out. I still take out rust objects as i have found gold underneath rusty objects or near them but rust was dominate object due to its size. Or because someone put in hole to hide object they didn't dig or still digging but went home cos it was to dark. If noisy ground still have to dig until it either fades out or gets louder. If its screaming its obviously a target.

It's good advice to dig everything.
On the other hand, i quite like the ferrous discriminator on the 45 if used correctly with a DD coil.
If it's a large ferrous target it will definitely blank.
If it's ground noise it will disappear. If it's alloy or gold it will continue to scream.