How do you tell the difference between ground noise and a true target signal?

[user 12139]

This is one of the best demonstrations regarding ground noise and overcoming it.

I wonder what would happen if you ground balance over a small test nugget, then try and detect another

 

[davo85]

I suppose we should get back to the real topic here.. how do you tell ground noise from targets?
Well for me, I'll swing over the target in 2 directions like this +
Generally one direction will be more definitive than the other with ground noise whereas a target more often than not will be equally definitive in either direction... but as they say dig all targets

Cool. I'm going to give this a shot tomorrow.

 

[Moneybox]

The GPX6000 is a different animal, angry most of the time. It loves hot-rocks and deep red soil. It doesn't usually ground balance in situations like this so you just have to dig.



Well that's until the rock is so solid that you can't dig any more. This was a very convincing signal with almost no reaction from the dirt pile and the signal was still there after I scraped the rock base bare. Then we brought down the jackhammer and generator but it did little more than bounce off the surface and send little chips of rock flying.

At that point we weighed up the estimated size of the nugget we were likely to get out against the effort required to get it. I filled the hole in

 

[davo85]

The GPX6000 is a different animal, angry most of the time. It loves hot-rocks and deep red soil. It doesn't usually ground balance in situations like this so you just have to dig.

View attachment 5094

Well that's until the rock is so solid that you can't dig any more. This was a very convincing signal with almost no reaction from the dirt pile and the signal was still there after I scraped the rock base bare. Then we brought down the jackhammer and generator but it did little more than bounce off the surface and send little chips of rock flying.

At that point we weighed up the estimated size of the nugget we were likely to get out against the effort required to get it. I filled the hole in

Hello, I'm glad I left this alone after reading your post (it is the rock base you see in the video)



I chipped away the top, but saw no shiny, so I just took it as a giant hot rock and walked away.

I'm in Laverton now, and I know what you mean in regards to hot rocks. I find the sound to be quite different to the good stuff most of the time. Every now and then I have to investigate further though. The ground noise is a cakewalk here compared to where I was in Vic.

 

[Moneybox]

Hello, I'm glad I left this alone after reading your post (it is the rock base you see in the video)



I chipped away the top, but saw no shiny, so I just took it as a giant hot rock and walked away.

I'm in Laverton now, and I know what you mean in regards to hot rocks. I find the sound to be quite different to the good stuff most of the time. Every now and then I have to investigate further though. The ground noise is a cakewalk here compared to where I was in Vic.

That would be hard to walk away from

 

[davo85]

That would be hard to walk away from

Did I make the right move or should I return to it as Schwarzenegger on my last day here and hope I don't break my pick?

 

[Moneybox]

Did I make the right move or should I return to it as Schwarzenegger on my last day here and hope I don't break my pick?

Do you have a pinpointer? I think it's right on the surface and a hammer and chisel is a much better option than your pick.

 

[davo85]

Do you have a pinpointer? I think it's right on the surface and a hammer and chisel is a much better option than your pick.

No pinpointer. I don't have a hammer and chisel either. How common is it for base rock to give off a sound with no gold with a 6000? If it's certainly gold, then I'll be happy to destroy my body to get at it, no matter how small. I'd be pretty depressed though if it's nothing.

This was a unique situation. All the noise I got in the week I've been here were only rocks on the surface.

 

[Moneybox]

There's no guarantee that it's gold but from what I could hear you should have been able to pin it down to a very small spot by carefully approaching from all angles, perhaps with the sensitivity reduced and using the coil on edge. That way you only need to dig a very small hole. However if you can't pin it down to a small spot then the target is usually deeper and that makes the job very difficult. A hammer and chisel is much more affective than pounding away with your pick. Safety glasses are essential

 

[davo85]

There's no guarantee that it's gold but from what I could hear you should have been able to pin it down to a very small spot by carefully approaching from all angles, perhaps with the sensitivity reduced and using the coil on edge. That way you only need to dig a very small hole. However if you can't pin it down to a small spot then the target is usually deeper and that makes the job very difficult. A hammer and chisel is much more affective than pounding away with your pick. Safety glasses are essential

Thank you. It's not too far from where I'm camping, so I'll return to investigate further. Maybe the pastoral manager can lend me a hammer and chisel. From what I remember, the whole area of the rock was screaming (it was a pretty big area too). I think this is what convinced me that it's not gold. It was a few days ago though and will check again.

 

[Moneybox]

If you can't pin it down to a spot then it could just be a hot rock. Mine was difficult because the hole was quite deep so I had no room to move the coil about. The GPZ7000 was worse because the hole wasn't much bigger than the coil. The SDC2300 didn't react much at all but that doesn't tell me much because it has a limited detection range although if the target was big it would have detected it.

 

[davo85]

Okay, thanks for the tips. I'll go to it tomorrow and see if I can pin it down to a certain area. So if it screams all over the area, I should just dismiss it as a big hot rock? I have a feeling when I go over it, it will scream all over like I hit a horseshoe

 

[Hawkear]

The GPX6000 is a different animal, angry most of the time. It loves hot-rocks and deep red soil. It doesn't usually ground balance in situations like this so you just have to dig.

View attachment 5094

Well that's until the rock is so solid that you can't dig any more. This was a very convincing signal with almost no reaction from the dirt pile and the signal was still there after I scraped the rock base bare. Then we brought down the jackhammer and generator but it did little more than bounce off the surface and send little chips of rock flying.

At that point we weighed up the estimated size of the nugget we were likely to get out against the effort required to get it. I filled the hole in

Great Photo. Represents much of what we prospectors go through. Captures the moment when reality destroys our dreams. All the detectors, all the digging gear a big empty hole and one very disappointed prospector.

 

[HarryHoudini]

I would go back and dig. Way too loud to walk away. Friend of mine had a similar problem went back and dug 361gm beast. You never know

 

[ozziegold]

Hello, I'm glad I left this alone after reading your post (it is the rock base you see in the video)



I chipped away the top, but saw no shiny, so I just took it as a giant hot rock and walked away.

I'm in Laverton now, and I know what you mean in regards to hot rocks. I find the sound to be quite different to the good stuff most of the time. Every now and then I have to investigate further though. The ground noise is a cakewalk here compared to where I was in Vic.

Hello daveo85.

Mate, don't walk away from that one! You have a few options to try out. Try turning your settings down as low as you can.

See if you can get a pin-point on the target then. If you can borrow a Pin-pointer, or use another detector, say a GPX 5000, try those.

Its signal sounds to me like what a big slug does, with it blanking out (overloading), the detector, you would be mad to leave it.

A Mate of mine had a target like that and it took him 2 days to chip it out, it was a 16-oz specie at 18 inches.

He had an electric Jack-Hammer too. Dave these opportunities don't come along very often, you will always be wondering!!

Good Luck; ozziegold.

 

[wiley coyote]

Borrow a 2300 off some one. Or, die wondering.

 

[wiley coyote]

Often when you get a broken signal like that it could be a large deep nugget, and the erratic signals you are getting could be that the whole nugget is almost out of range of your detector, and you are only picking up the higher parts of the nugget. As you dig deeper , you'll start to get a more solid signal as you get closer to the nugget. This also applies to specimens, as a big, deeper piece gives off that same sound, as you're again only picking up the strands of gold closest to the surface. I've had another listen to the video, and I reckon it's a target, and if it's a nugget, it will be a large nobbly rough piece. Big specimens sound no different from a bent nail, or a piece of wire. wiley.

 

[staples61]

Checked out the vid and no way would I be walking away from that
Just my 2 cents
Staples

 

[davo85]

So Steve from Erlistoun Station was kind enough to take me back to the spot with his tools. Turned out to be a giant hot rock. Was making sound all over on my machine (zero chance of pinpointing a spot), and he chipped a bit away and it didn't hesitate grabbing hold of his magnet.

He was also kind enough to lend me his rake today, and thanks to him I pulled this one out today.

 

[user 22230]

So Steve from Erlistoun Station was kind enough to take me back to the spot with his tools. Turned out to be a giant hot rock. Was making sound all over on my machine (zero chance of pinpointing a spot), and he chipped a bit away and it didn't hesitate grabbing hold of his magnet.

He was also kind enough to lend me his rake today, and thanks to him I pulled this one out today.

Miss the crazy buggers antics on here