I got my GPZ 7000 Today and I am stoked

Will give that a go tomorrow.

Looking forward to it. Thanks again

I will report back

Well today I learned how to dig BIG holes and retrieve some junk and a bugget. I will need a bit of time with the ZED but so far I am liking it. Everything except the need to Ferrite balance....even though I understand it helps a lot.
I went over the 2 ounce patch I found with the SDC and found nothing deeper but junk, the gold I found was in gravel wash and not very deep, max 2 inches and loose gravels. Clean as a whistle. So I have come to the conclusion that it has shed close by, but I am stumped as to where.

I have checked both sides and found 2 little grammers on one slope. Went back with the ZED and NOTHING.

Funny thing is, big gold is usually on the bottom, not the top...and you would expect if there is big gold, then surely deeper there is. So if there isn't, then it has come from recent wash.

That's my 6mths worth of prospecting theory.

Deepest hole I dug pulled out a 1940's Bullet, So I am guessing the old timers raped the gully and left nothing behind. Probably swept the bedrock clean..lol
The gold I found was recent and not left behind. It has me excited that maybe it is a reef the old timers missed....maybe.

I might have to wait for some big rains and see if more gets washed down. I can't think of anything else.

I only used High Yield and Difficult today. Everything in stock settings. And only tracked with Ferrite in that mode so never tried others, but I dug enough crap to know the depth and sensitivity was spot on. Amazing machine. No harness either....and I feel fine. Digging is the harder work.

Welcome to club Z :Y:

Northeast, I will try the General and Difficult/Normal modes next time. I am pretty sure I have seen plenty of footage and read the same thing. General for some reason seems to pick up stuff that High Yield can totally miss.

Keen to put in the hours on this machine to reap its rewards.

hAyyoUinAU said:

Thanks Ramjet.

And yeah Stru, I can't see myself using the SDC unless I want to get wet. And not into swimming for gold. The compact aspect of it is great.
But I agree, I don't think after tomorrow I will be using the SDC again. It's hard using something that you know is not penetrating as deep as the ZED or 4500s etc etc

But the SDC is a proven work horse... tough unit, and it surely finds the gold...and the buggets.. hahaha

SDC 2300 ------------- RIP
GPZ 7000 ------------- WELCOME

Click to expand...

Hi mate,

After using both these detectors over the last week I will be buying my own 7000 in the near future and will be keeping the sdc for the wife. It also comes in handy as a pinpointer for the 7000.

Cheers

Doug

Tell me about it Rockhunter62, pinpointing with the ZED is an art. Guess that is just inherent of larger coils.
Although after a while, not too bad. I can't part with the SDC at the moment. To me, they are the ultimate team.

First time I ever got out my handheld pinpointer was for the ZED the other day, trying to see how much deeper I had to keep digging. lol

I do love the responsiveness of the ZED, no need to scrape the coil at all.

Mate, if the nugget has been dug out, then pinpointing with the Zed is easier than most much smaller coils. That's what I meant by training. Use the little quadrants that you see on Top Left and Right or the Bottom L/R. Centre the target and back off until it just picks up in one of the quadrants. That's where it is. Try on any small test target to refine the technique (a little hard to describe). I was shown that on a tour in FNQ, and it works a beaut with the Zed.
I watched a mate pinpointing for around 10 minutes, picking up scoop after scoop with nothing to show, then showed him how to locate it in around 10 seconds and retrieve on first or second scoop.
There's many tricks like that that a pro (not me) can show you.
Yes - in a confined hole it's much more difficult.
Glad you're having fun with it though, and may the bigger gold flow for you :Y:

Thanks BigWave for the the tips on the quadrants. Will have to give that a try, but yeah, a bit of stuffin around with a test target and it makes sense.
Although in a confined hole as you said it can be a trick at first.

I did find folding the coil and using the edge can help too, if room allows. Just more time with it.
Taking the SDC out tomorrow as I am searching for this shed gold and it has not shed from deep. I will be checking the hill sides and any run offs next to where the deposits were located. AGAIN.

If I find one piece on one of the hill sides or run offs I WILL BE STOKED..as that will finally give me some indication of the source.

Place like this needs more than one noggin working together

Best of luck finding the source mate :Y:

Thanks BigWave, I'm gonna need some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQvx3sBZ6Uc

Hey this video best sums up detecting with a ZED.... lol. Love it. Nothing like a bit of work.
EARNING THAT GOLD

And detect with a quadrant in one side to side direction, visualise the line, and then move and detect at 90 deg to that line. Visualise the second line and bingo X marks the spot.
I look forward to seeing your next finds. Good luck.

Ok, I didn't take the SDC out. Couldn't do it. Spent my 2nd day with ZED. Today I was using General with Difficult and switched over to Normal with no problems. Only issue I had today was ZED liked some tree roots, but I put that down to me not properly ground balancing and what happens when you have high powered detectors. I had Audio smoothing off as I didn't want to miss anything, and I didn't. I might rename this gully to Trash Gully.. lol
A 22 shell, and heaps of bits of rust. Buried deep enough to get me excited at one stage. lol

I scanned both hillsides and after the 8th trip back (since I found 2 ounces with the SDC) I have decided to move on from this spot until some good rains have come through. Then I will go back and check.

I have logged all my routes and I have scoured this area pretty well.

hmmmmmm... Now where to go next. Might go have a look at "A" Creek

You're dedicated mate. Gold will come again soon :Y:

Some days you win, and some days you lose.

On the bright side, another casing to add to my collection. Great exercise and I'm cleaning up the environment too.

Hey, it looks kinda golden..hahahah

hAyyoUinAU said:

Tell me about it Rockhunter62, pinpointing with the ZED is an art. Guess that is just inherent of larger coils.
Although after a while, not too bad. I can't part with the SDC at the moment. To me, they are the ultimate team.

First time I ever got out my handheld pinpointer was for the ZED the other day, trying to see how much deeper I had to keep digging. lol

I do love the responsiveness of the ZED, no need to scrape the coil at all.

Click to expand...

I never had a pinpointer when I had a 2300, it was super easy to pinpoin with the detector itself. I was using the Z without a pinpointer but I started getting a bit frustrated trying to pinpoint with the 19" coil on, in the end I just bought a pinpointer to save myself the hassle.

Yeah I got my Makro Pinpointer with my Gold Racer but never used it with the SDC either.

I can see where it can be usefull, as I have pulled it out for a couple deep digs just to check, but I have managed to figure out the pin pointing with the ZED now and its easy, can get it in 1 or 2 scoups.... that is good enough.

19" Coil, wow.. that's big. Going from a SDC to ZED was a big enough jump. I won't be greedy and I will leave all the deep gold for the guys with the big coils.

I think the 14" on the ZED is good for matching the SDC and getting more depth too. Along with more adjustments, which can sometime be counter intuitive if done incorrectly.

You mentioned about the tree roots. Again, someone can correct me if I'm wrong but tree roots can be an issue no matter how good you ground balance. The bigger they are and the more full of water they are the more they sound off. And if they are in wet, red clay - Nightmare on Elm St (poor attempt at tree related humour ). That has been my experience anyway.
Switching down to difficult will dull them to a fair degree.

Looks like you are having no issues in finding targets anyway. Persistence pays :Y:

Northeast said:

You mentioned about the tree roots. Again, someone can correct me if I'm wrong but tree roots can be an issue no matter how good you ground balance. The bigger they are and the more full of water they are the more they sound off. And if they are in wet, red clay - Nightmare on Elm St (poor attempt at tree related humour ). That has been my experience anyway.
Switching down to difficult will dull them to a fair degree.

Looks like you are having no issues in finding targets anyway. Persistence pays :Y:

Click to expand...

Yes spot on. I find the worst settings for tree root noise can in fact be HY/Difficult. Many nuggets have been found with the Zed under tree roots, so knowing this fact it can be very hard to walk away from a good signal!

I am finding Normal, General, Patch Locate and lower than normal Sensitivity is handling the tree roots better.

Spot on about the Tree Roots Northeast. And its only in certain conditions. Its not too hard to realise it is not a target, plus I'm not into destroying healthy trees.

All good with dead roots.

:Y:

Maybe morrow I get some yellow with the ZED. 3rd times a charm they say

:Y: :Y: