Hi OldGT
This is one of the biggest 'how to' questions in detecting in the highly mineralised Vic GT. I've spent many hours pondering the matter, re-reading the user manual over and over again, listening to others, and trialling different settings. This is what I've come up with to date, but I'm open to anyone offering up other suggestions. I'm still learning and no expert. But think it's a great topic and I'll look forward to seeing what others think.
I perceive this matter in terms of what to do as mineralisation gets worse. What settings do you change as it gets worse?
This is what I enable in stages and in order of increasing ground mineralisation.
Reduce Rx and Sensitivity set relative to Rx, 1 under where audio response starts to chatter
Quiet Audio
Sensitive Smooth
Reduce Target Volume and Reduce Signal level
Medium Tracking or in extreme situations fast
Lift the coil 10 to 20mm off the ground
All these things are discussed in the User Manual relative to high mineralised ground.
I've played with all these in different combinations. It's good to play with a buried test nugget so you get a better sense of what the impact is.
It's a matter of adjusting these things to suit the area.
In the most extreme mineralisation I find the combination of Sensitive Smooth, Quiet Audio, Reduced Target Volume, Reduced Signal and Fast Auto Tracking all together works very well but you loose some depth. I've been told not to use them together. However for me it works amazingly well on smaller shallow targets in extreme mineralised ground which you do come across in the Vic GT. I certainly wouldn't use this combo if looking for larger deeper gold. I restrict it for shallow small gold.
I suggest you or anyone test this staged process for yourself to confirm performance in your own mind.
Good luck and let us all know how it goes.
P.S Last time out I tried Specific Ground Balance but didn't notice a discernible difference. I'd by interested to hear how you find it.
Cheers Andy
