Minelab Minelab GPX4500 tips, settings, questions

[Tathradj]

Bit of advise from a 4500 owner.
The commander mono coil supplied is a very capable coil.
Good idea to learn on how to setup and use the machine bog standard.
In the mean time,
Keep an eye out for these 3 coils.
Nugget finder,
Sadie,
17 x 13,
15 Spoked mono.
Really depends on where you are going and what you want to do.
But those coils will give you a pretty darn good versatility.

 

[old hand]

12 Evolution is a good way to go you will get many different views on your question I manly use 12 evo and 15 spoked evo I find they do all I need regards john :Y:

 

[YellowFever]

Unfortunately there is no best coil for your machine or any machine.
You can run older coils like coiltek goldstalkers etc and outperform other operators who are running the "latest and greatest" coils.
It mainly comes down to learning what your machine is trying to tell you and your knowledge of the area you are in ie reading the grounds.

Tathradj makes a good point, the stock commander coil will and does do just as well in the hands of an experienced operator.

Cheers
YF

 

[mxt sniper]

I use the Nugget Finder Evolution 14x9 most the time then do cleanup of producing areas with my Coiltek Elite 14" round mono. Been very satisfied with this combo of coils.

 

[Chuky boy]

If you're just getting into detecting. Put some hours on the 11" commander mono. I have about 5 different coils. If I'm having a dry spell on the gold I chuck the commander back on and it usually finds me the right stuff in a couple of hours.

 

[Baldy]

Mate it totally depends in which state and different terrain you will detect in..The conditions..mineralisation..wetness of ground..size of gold you expect to find..and depth..Many variables..Thats why there are many coils..

 

[peterau]

The 11" coiltek mono elite is like the standard minelab 11" on red bull

 

[Wimbo]

As a fairly new 4500 user myself I have found the standard 11inch commander very good, it's seems very stable and less likely affected by bad ground conditions. I'm sure my 17 X 13 evo goes deeper but it's a little less smooth running. I found my first gold with the commander so I'm using that more often until I get more experience. Good luck

 

[PhaseTech]

Yes so many good coils and all have different uses

8" Detech mono - for very tight areas, very good emi immunity, very sensitive and stable in hot ground

14x9 Evo - the closest thing you'll get to SDC style sensitivity, but also may struggle in hotter soils, but nothing a few setting tweaks can't fix, eg Sens Smooth

11" Detech Ultra - sits exactly in between the 14x9 and 12" Evo in depth/sensitivity. Runs great on the 4500.

12" Evo - brilliant all-rounder. Sweet spot is all the bread n butter gold, 0.2 - 2 gram range.

15" Evo or 15" Detech Super Deep mono - both of these are excellent and turn your GPX into a true powerhouse, and similar to a gpz in the sense that you can get small and deeper gold all with the one coil.

17x13 Evo - awesome patch coil. Very light (especially the spoked version), sharp signals, good depth. I prefer this to the 15" rounds when scouting virgin ground.

15" Detech Ultimate DD - excellent utility coil. For areas where your monos may be struggling a bit with emi or unusual ground conditions. Also when intending to use the full depth timings of Normal or Sens Extra.

 

[Gunter]

Hi guys

I hear people on forum saying they hear a slight change of tone, and then dig up a deep , or small nugget !

Im just confused as the machine has a discernible target response signal thats impossible to ignore !

Is it that the machine does not correctly identified the target , and thus only has a slight change of tone ?

I may have missed a lot of nuggets ! Gulp !!

Thanks

Gunter

 

[Heatho]

The signal given is relative to either the depth, the target size or both. These are not beep and dig detectors, you are listening for any repeatable change in the threshold tone whether it be obvious, very slight or even subliminal. That's why it's so important to get the detector running a stable as possible threshold tone and to tune that tone to where your hearing is most sensitive.

 

[Jarrod84]

The machine never identifies the target (unless dd with discrimination), it just responds to metal. It's the targets size vs distance from the coil that determines the response, a target right on the edge of detection depth gives a faint response.
That's why when people get a faint signal they take a couple of inches off the surface and that should be enough to make the signal much stronger.

 

[Gunter]

Thanks guys ,

Thats much clearer now !

Now to go back to all those nuggets I left behind !

Gunter

 

[Northeast]

Hi Gunter,

The vid I'm linking is obviously a "what not to do" video re: ground balancing but it displays that subtle threshold change.

At about 1.15 into the video he goes over the target and there is a change to that constant hum/mosquito sound. In this video it is actually reasonably pronounced and I think everyone would dig that signal.

Try to imagine that same signal but much, much softer. Almost to the point where you stop and say to yourself "was that something or not?" That is where taking all of the leaf litter and a half an inch of dirt can help determine if it is a signal or not. Try not to take too much dirt away at first as you may be scraping away a tiny nugget that is going to become hard to locate.

Continue to scrape a bit off each time and see what the signal does. Maybe it's tree roots, red clay, an ants nest? Those type of signals tend to remain broad sounds and don't usually get much stronger the more you dig. Red clay for example - the sound will tend to break down as the layers of clay are removed.
Gold and other metal will tend to get louder and sharpen up the closer you get.

The caveat to all of this is that I don't own and have never used a GPX but the above has been observed with the GPZ. Happy for any GPX owners to add to or amend anything I've said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2mXD4jhOb0

If somebody knows how to embed the video onto the thread rather than just a link go for your life!!

 

[7.62marksman]

What about the same way you put a song on here

 

[ProspectorPete]

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2mXD4jhOb0[/video]

:Y:

 

[madtuna]

Hi Gunter,
What youre looking for is anything repeatable, it doesnt have to be an obvious signal. In fact the less obvious the better in my books.
Often I swear you dont even hear them but instead sort of feel them. Again, it doesnt matter what it is as long as its repeatable.

Investigate every ground noise, until you are sure its not a target. Turn a ground noise into a target.

 

[ProspectorPete]

What about the same way you put a song on here

All you need to do is copy the youtube link then press the YouTube tab which is above the message board and paste the link into the field that comes up, press 'Preview' to check if it came up before hitting Submit, easy!!

 

[7.62marksman]

Thanks mate i had a brain freeze and couldn't remember how to explain it :8 :8

 

[Peko]

Some targets will be a slight pause in the threshold not a beep