8" x 6" Mono Sadie on a 4500 - results

[loamer]

Have not uploaded images or had a weigh in yet (some dollying up to do). Ran an 8 x 6 new sadie on my 4500. Very impressed with the results. An excellent coil on mullock heaps and as a clean up coil on patches.

Plus: Crisp, clear signals - no doubts on targets. Easiest coil I have used for centering but being small that is to be expected. Running on clear mullock and quartz - excellent responses with very good depth.
Minus: weight of coil in comparison to detector can be a pain. Inability to discriminate but it is a mono, so that's always an issue. Difficult to halve given the smaller size of the coil. Ground coverage is minimal, but again, small coil.

Ran in comparison with: a 6" coiltek mono. Sadie wins but the 6" is still IMO a good coil. Ran a 10 x 5 DD Xterra on quartz - I call it a draw.

Results - numerous small wheat sized pieces, usually alluvial but to be expected on mullock. OK on species, OK on fine gold in quartz if there is enough (DD on xterra won this little battle on super small gold through quartz). Did OK on some old patches with small stuff that the bigger coils had missed. Two coins (1800s shillings) and a Dr Holloway token. Usual buttons and some brass padlock pieces.

Overall - a lot of hours for an OK result but would not use as a patch hunter for obvious reasons. It will be staying in my day pack for a quick switch in future - impressed. It paid for itself which is all you can ask I guess.

Cheap coil for the GPXs - and creates another level of small sized gold detecting. I am sorry to say,could not get a 5000 to do any tests, but my guess is they would be comparable.

 

[WalnLiz]

Have to totally agree with you on that one Loamer. Sadie certainly deserves it's status as "Cleaning Lady", and will always pay for itself in no time at all. A must in any arsenal. When the big coils are having a slow day the sadie will consistantly put something in the jar.

 

[Oldfella]

Thanks for the info, very helpful as I have been thinking of adding a Sadie to my arsenal.
looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Cheers

 

[Roscoe]

Good info Loamer, I can't wait for the pictures. Sounds like you have a good plan of attack there mate.

 

[loamer]

Ignore the weight - I forgot to do a tare adjustment on the tray - about 9 grams - there are some super small species the Xterra pinged. The stuff in the yellow box is a quick crush on quite a large piece that the 4500 picked no worries. the quartz species are as is.

As a small sporting historical foot-note - The headline "Bendigo Gold" was the Bendigo VFL club that has just folded (Essendons old affiliated team). Bendigo Gold never won a game - got belted in their last game by Collingwood that night.

 

[Roscoe]

Sorry Loamer you might as well be talking chinese to me than about AFL. I live in QLD you know. But that sweet gold in that yellow tray speaks all languages.. Was all that gold from one quartz lump? That's unbelievable, good stuff there Loamer.

 

[loamer]

It was an interesting piece of quartz - it simply looked different in the respect that 99% of the other quartz was the sharp angular smashed variety, this was clearer, rounded and had a 'soft look' like it had been part of a bigger piece (the old mouse eaten quartz we all love). It was most definitely a throw out as it was on a quartz dump. Apologies - should have done a before pic. The reef is recorded as being a very good gold to the ton records. Lots of blue slates around the area as well from the reef working.

 

[Oldfella]

Great work mate, what was the weight of the smallest nugget that the Sadie picked up out of these?

 

[Roscoe]

Thanks Loamer, no need for Apologies. I am glad you take the time to explain things. I was around some old hard rock mullock heaps the other week and although i didn't get a signal off them they looked so good i took some home. Well last week i dolly some of it, all pieces had gold in them but only a few specks. I must go back up that way again and go through some more lots. The old bloke who lives up that way tells me that if the old boy's couldn't see visible gold in the quartz they weren't interested in it due to the long distance to the crusher.

 

[Fox]

Nice work there Loamer! I am heading to the Vic goldfields in a couple of weeks. Will have to get myself one of those Sadie 8"x6" coils for my GPX 5000.

 

[loamer]

Great work mate, what was the weight of the smallest nugget that the Sadie picked up out of these?

Didn't register at all on the scales. Had to do the old put them all on together to get a weight.

 

[loamer]

Thanks Loamer, no need for Apologies. I am glad you take the time to explain things. I was around some old hard rock mullock heaps the other week and although i didn't get a signal off them they looked so good i took some home. Well last week i dolly some of it, all pieces had gold in them but only a few specks. I must go back up that way again and go through some more lots. The old bloke who lives up that way tells me that if the old boy's couldn't see visible gold in the quartz they weren't interested in it due to the long distance to the crusher.

He is spot-on, it was not worth their while. A test on really rich ground was for the old timers to bounce their diggings on a shovel to 'feel' the weight of gold. No weight - onto the mullock it went. This is one of the key reasons the Chinese were so successful cleaning 'deserted' diggings sites. As a modern example, if we are digging into a reef, quartz etc that is coming out with no visible gold is put aside and checked later with a small VLF and/or dollyed up. They are basically put aside til later.

 

[Goldtarget]

Love that specimen gold. Beautiful mate.

 

[Syndyne]

Beauty loamer! Impressive stuff!

Gotta love the little 8x6 NF. It's been on my 5000 more than any other coil to this point in time. It's the only one I've managed to pick up a little bit of gold with.

Looks like it runs just fine with a 4500

All the best,
Shauno.

 

[Oldfella]

Won me, looks like I'm definitely adding a Sadie to my collection

 

[Nugget]

Another +1 for the Sadie. Although I'm yet to pick up any gold with it, the depth and sensitivity of this coil really amazes me.

 

[loamer]

They are a cracker Nugget. I feel sure that other small mono coils would be within range, its just that I found, that apart from the targets, the coil is easier to use. The 6" round, I have found, is a pain to use. The key reason is that the targets are small anyway, and the distance between the shaft and the edge of the coil makes halving very difficult, without having to flip the detector on its back or rotate the coil around 180 degrees which does neither much good . The extra 1" inch on the 8 x6 either end made a lot of difference. The key issue as I tried to point out is, they are too small for patch hunting unless the ground is really scrubby. I have yet to run them on any old surfacing (this week) but I am sure they will do nicely amongst the dips and crevices on small gold.

They were magic on mullock heaps. I picked the most overgrown, dead-fall covered mullock and quartz I could find and they just pushed nicely in between and under 'stuff' that even an 11" would not fit, 6" width just seems to be a magic distance. They are also great for squeezing into the gaps and cracks in quartz dumps that the bigger coils are missing. Buttons and coins screamed in, even at depth.

One thing I failed to note - they are good fun!! There were a lot of 'well bugger me!!!' moments on the small gold, and it does all add up.

Spoke to a bloke running a sadie on the TDI Oz - he had detected a creek below (downstream) where a shedding quartz reef crossed the creek. he reckons he was getting a 10% strike rate - each 10 targets - one was gold and he had quite a collection of small stuff. This creek has been flogged to death by the way.

Patience with these coils will produce results of that I am sure.

 

[snail]

Using a smaller coil like the sadie seems like a much better option than the SDC2300. People are really talking it up but the SDC seems overpriced for the simple fact that you cant change the coil. While there is no doubt people are finding gold with the SDC, paying a little more (or less depending on the MD you buy) for flexibility seems like a much better way to go for me anyway.

 

[loamer]

Snail, I think a point with all coils is that there is a definite need to be willing to swap coils to suit the ground and terrain. As a test, pick a reasonably sized area and you will notice the many contours sub-surface. This is where an ability to read the ground is vital. As a rule of thumb, if I notice that as my 4500 gets noisier/quieter, there will be a ground depth variation occurring, along with a mineralisation drop/raise. If my 4500 goes dead quiet for a length of time, I do a test hole to check and usually I have moved into a deeper area. If we use a standard coil for all terrain, I feel we are going to miss targets, be it small stuff in shallow ground by using too big a coil, or deeper bigger targets at depth because the coil is too small. The trick is I guess, is to simply get a 'start', that is, the first of many ( I hope) targets in a patch.

Another killer for coils is loam/dead-fall etc and an unwillingness to move/rake this away from promising areas. Simply creating a shallower surface by raking and moving things off mullock was as always the winner. Detecting on top of a simple small branch can raise the detector an inch or more, and when using these small coils, that practice really negates the full potential of any coil. Coil selection, speed and height - the three deadly coil sins as I would say.

 

[snail]

Thanks for the helpful tips loamer.