⭐ Gold Detecting Show'n Tell

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Hi folks,

Well I finally took the plunge and bought a zed. One of my detecting buddies runs one and we do a lot of detecting together. I run an SDC and a 5000 and often compare all sorts of info under a variety of conditions. Undug targets are often compared before they recovered and some interesting details come to light. We often discuss and try to make sense of what we see and hear but one thing has become quite obvious. The zed finds more gold. If I use the SDC, I can occasionally come back with more pieces than the zed but my mate generally has a lot more weight. The 5000 generally grabs the bigger pieces at depth but is still not in the same paddock as the 7000. The biggest issue Ive had with the gpx has been the problems created by the summer fires. The residual deep ash beds can be quite noisy at times and the charcoal can also be a pain if it is damp. Sometimes a change in settings can help but only to a limited extent. Quite often the machine will run quietly but the as the day heats up, it becomes noisy and hard work. In some places, even the SDC had had issues due to the ash created by intense heat. Anyway, I could go into the details of the advantages of each machine but I think they have been discussed to death. I was given a leave pass for an hour or so yesterday afternoon so I decided to take the new toy out and set up the wireless system. Took a small test nugget out just to check the response using factory settings. Went to a spot that a few of us had worked to death with all types of machines. Got the zed fired up and quickly ran through the menu. It was so simple to understand the basic stuff. Having used a 5k made the transition (as far as understanding the menu) a real pleasure. After running through the startup procedure, I couldnt help myself. Thought Id have a play for half an hour or so and see if I could unearth some junk. I was standing about 2 meters from a dig hole that the sdc had found me a small piece of gold and about 3 meters from a gpx hole that had also found a bit. This area was open and flat and had both machines over it a few times. I was sure that Id squeezed every detectable piece out of this small area. I put the coil to the ground and started detecting. Took two steps forward and squashed a small fern with the skid plate. Heard the smallest of changes in the threshold. Ran the coil back over the fern and heard something again. There was ash on the ground but I wasnt convinced of anything at this point. Dragged the ash out of the way with my boot and moved the coil over the spot again. There was still something in that threshold. I knew it wasnt ash so I scraped with the boot again. It was still there but it wasnt really a signal. Out came the pick. Took off about an inch and then tested again. Finally a faint signal appeared. The rest is obvious. Dug down about 6 and this is what popped out.
1594178188_433f694d-8a64-4644-ae5b-1fddf6b44fb6.jpg

Not very big but it was my first piece with this zed. Pleased to score a piece after about 90 seconds detecting. Went home shortly after that scratching my head as to why I missed with my two other machines. After thinking about it, I can understand why the SDC may have missed it. That particular nugget may have been a little too deep for the blue Hoover. The zed only just got it so I could accept that. When the nugget was cleaned, I could see that it had a number of holes through it. In fact it was quite porous on one side. (Something the gpx series doesnt like) so the 5000 was forgiven. Hopefully the GPZ will continue to uncover many more hidden treasures.

Cheers

Les
 
You wont look back now mate. Turn the noise cancelling and ground smoothing off and crank her up to 20 on the sensitivity and you will be smoking the small gold that everything else missed. :D
 
Thanks NG. Will start playing with settings on my first proper play day. Will be just trying to get the best out of the machine according to conditions, ground etc. Will definitely try cranking it up if the situation allows for that.
 
Rockhunter62 said:
madtuna said:
4 days for 51 grams :Y: so I took a couple of days off hence why I'm here all day being a pain in the arse to you lot :D

https://i.imgur.com/WpA9DoA.jpg

You should use some of that alibright on your hands mate. Nice gold. :Y: :goldnugget:

Cheers

Doug
I purposely made sure no finger nails, toes, toe nails, feet or sock tans were visible in the photo....I'll add hands to the list :)
 
Hi All, Have not been on the Forum for months and have enjoyed catching up with all the finds while locked down due to you know what. I had a great year last year spent
my first 12 months as a fulltime pro prosepector and had a very rewarding year. 2020 was going to be even bigger until the buggers locked the borders up so stuck here in Vic. Oh well still managing to snag lots of nice bits in Vic so looks like I will have to finnish the year off here. I doubt I will make it back to WA as they are talking about next April before restrictions are lifted. I hope to spend more time on the forum as I have neglected it with everything that has been happening in personal life.

Keep the Gold Porn coming and I hope to post some too..

Tryhard.
 
Not much getting put up so heres yesterdays.

They are not big. They were bloody hard work, raked a 3 x 4 m area that Id gotten a few pieces from before. Then I raked again, and finally made it look like concrete driveway flat. Then spent a good 30 mins or more listening for the faintest hint of a signal. That smaller one took me 5 or 6 goes to get in in the scoop. Dug up a cpl bits of lead, how it gets so deep in the gravels is beyond me.

Does make me wonder how many targets Ive swung over that must be just out of range.

1595502401_img_20200723_205530.jpg
 
Well done OldGT, doesnt matter on size its the right colour. Yes it has been very quiet on the posting seen, so I thought I would add to the collection.

Picked this nice piece up around Maryborough, SG gives approx 7gramms so very happy, I might not be able to scrape and detect in WA, howerver the
trusty GT keeps giving.

1595726377_nugg_1-min.jpg

1595726377_nugg_2-min.jpg


Come on everyone more pics please

Cheers

Tryhardprospecting
 
Went out yesterday for a couple of hours and picked up these all in the same area so will have to give it some more attention used my sdc with the Coiltek 14/9 most bits in the first 2/3inches with just 2 a bit more all were clear signals very happy with the coil cheers Muk.
1595796285_9f0b7692-5ac8-435a-8606-a0eb20017372.jpg
 

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