Finally time to buy a GPX4500

I've been in two minds for a couple of years now about investing in a SDC or 4500 but as it stands I really don't get out enough to justify either.

3 weeks ago I started work with a new company and was chatting with the guy I work with and he has 7 acres of cleared land at Korong Vale. After speaking about detecting he's given me the ok to go there anytime, said no one has detected it as far as he knows but there's plenty of lead bullets as he loves shooting.
I looked up the address and it backs directly onto the state reserve and geovic shows shallow workings and old mining leases withing 100 meters from his block.
He also showed me some pic's of fist sized nuggets the locals have found 'down the back'.
He doesn't get how someone can spend hours walking along swinging a stick in the hope of finding something, he'd rather go shooting.

My plan is to buy a GPX4500 and learn the settings etc on his block, plenty of lead surface targets by the sounds of it and fingers crossed the odd deeper target.
I've always got my Makro GR to quickly clean the surface lead targets and follow with the 4500 'low and slow'.
Said I'd go 50/50 with any gold I find and he's happy with that, I'll throw a slab of his fav beer his way after each trip and I should have some good ground to play on for years to come.

I've just booked in for a full training day next Friday at Coiltek Maryborough using their 4500 and fingers crossed I gel with the machine by the end of day :/

ProspectorPete said:

I've been in two minds for a couple of years now about investing in a SDC or 4500 but as it stands I really don't get out enough to justify either.

3 weeks ago I started work with a new company and was chatting with the guy I work with and he has 7 acres of cleared land at Korong Vale. After speaking about detecting he's given me the ok to go there anytime, said no one has detected it as far as he knows but there's plenty of lead bullets as he loves shooting.
I looked up the address and it backs directly onto the state reserve and geovic shows shallow workings and old mining leases withing 100 meters from his block.
He also showed me some pic's of fist sized nuggets the locals have found 'down the back'.
He doesn't get how someone can spend hours walking along swinging a stick in the hope of finding something, he'd rather go shooting.{

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I don't get how someone can spend hours walking along holding a gun in the hope of shooting something....

In all seriousness good luck with the new spot and detector :Y:

roddosnow said:

ProspectorPete said:

I've been in two minds for a couple of years now about investing in a SDC or 4500 but as it stands I really don't get out enough to justify either.

3 weeks ago I started work with a new company and was chatting with the guy I work with and he has 7 acres of cleared land at Korong Vale. After speaking about detecting he's given me the ok to go there anytime, said no one has detected it as far as he knows but there's plenty of lead bullets as he loves shooting.
I looked up the address and it backs directly onto the state reserve and geovic shows shallow workings and old mining leases withing 100 meters from his block.
He also showed me some pic's of fist sized nuggets the locals have found 'down the back'.
He doesn't get how someone can spend hours walking along swinging a stick in the hope of finding something, he'd rather go shooting.{

Click to expand...

I don't get how someone can spend hours walking along holding a gun in the hope of shooting something....

In all seriousness good luck with the new spot and detector :Y:

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And the blood, way too much blood when hunting animals, I much prefer hunting gold as well. lol

Best of luck with the detecting mate, hope you get some.

I hear you roddosnow, same here.
I just hope it works out as good as it sounds on paper.
The new job also see's me travelling to Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Avoca, Stawell and Bendigo on occasions with an overnight stay once or twice a month so I think I'll be bringing the detector to work most days just in case I get a call to a break down out at those locations.

Edit: Thank's Heatho, much appreciated.

Good stuff Pete, keep in mind if you buy a 4500 you get a free training session with the purchase. Still haven't booked mine yet, only used mine once in the 6 months

He'll really freak out when you walk over the same ground 6 different times with different coils on your stick :lol:

Best of luck mate :Y:

Good luck with it Pete very exciting , there will be no looking back now

Pete
The training day with Coiltek Maryborough are pretty good, me and the digger (Mrs) did one a few months back and by the end of the day you should have a far idea about the basic settings for the 4500. After that its lots of experience.
Best of luck with detecting on the mates property, if you can find lead shot , you should be able to find gold . You just need to swing over it, low and slow.

Thanks guys, getting a bit excited about the training day next Friday then hopefully purchase the new detector in 3 - 4 weeks time.

The change in job and now the approval to camp and detect on 7 acres was all I needed to commit to a new machine, my Makro GR will always be there as a backup for when EMI is too great or heavy trash needs sorting.
Pretty sure I'll grab the Coiltek 14 mono elite as a 'go to' coil and possibly look at a bigger coil down the track if there is actually gold on the property, the standard 11" Commander mono should be good for tighter areas.
I've got to get back into watching all of MinelabGold's video's on Youtube again over the next week or so as he has some great info and results from his methods, and re-read as much info from the good members here on the 4500, oh boy the fun of late night research begins.........again :lol:

ProspectorPete said:

The new job also see's me travelling to Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Avoca, Stawell and Bendigo on occasions with an overnight stay once or twice a month so I think I'll be bringing the detector to work most days just in case I get a call to a break down out at those locations.

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Now that's a job!!

PhaseTech said:

ProspectorPete said:

The new job also see's me travelling to Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maryborough, Avoca, Stawell and Bendigo on occasions with an overnight stay once or twice a month so I think I'll be bringing the detector to work most days just in case I get a call to a break down out at those locations.

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Now that's a job!!

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Yeah but I still gotta work, lots of driving and with a little bit of luck I'll get some time for detecting every now and then.
The good thing is I get to see a lot of the country side travelling to and from jobs, my first week saw me at the depot Monday, Corio Tuesday, Avoca Wednesday (and itching to get back as the sub station site is cut into private land with quartz gravels right around the cut, 2 quartz veins on the back cut and shallow alluvial across the other side of the paddock, perfect for the Makro GR to detect around the sub station easement) Horsham Thursday with a overnight stay at Halls Gap then Stawell on Friday. 1600kms in my first week, glad they supply the vehicle and pay fuel.

In total if I had the Makro with me I would be lucky to of had 1-2 hrs spare to detect but come Summer I'll stay out for a few hours and head home late.
In that first week I managed to mark a few spots to return and visit when I get time, seen some diggings along the travels and mark them on my gps and research when I get home.

I'd swap jobs with you though Nenad, I never get enough time to go detecting

Okay fair call but I'd rather 2 hrs detecting around Avoca than 2 days in the Adelaide Hills haha

The 4500 is a top machine Pete. I have had mine since its release date. Paid itself off 38 times. With a small medium and big coil you are set to find gold regardless of its size and depth. When you learn the machine and go slow with a big coil you have a ticket in the draw to find some large deep slugs. A great way to get on top of the machine is to get out detecting with some experienced 4500 users and compare settings/signals over some undug targets. And learn how to save programmed settings (or write them down). best of luck RDD

Thanks RDD, I'm really looking forward to getting to know the 4500 over the next few years.
I think having the confidence that I've got the right tools is half the mental battle won, the rest is learning how to best use and read those tools, should be fun.

I just got back from the training day using Coiltek's 4500 and I should have taken the plunge sooner.
It actually feels as light as my Gold Racer to swing (probably perfectly balanced) and it had the NF Advantage 14 spoke coil, I poked and prodded that spoked coil into as much scrub and surface litter as I could to see how much it would snag and surprisingly it was about on par with my solid 10x5.5 GR coil so no problems there.
The training day was worth every cent, starting with the geology lessons and how to read the ground, I got so much from just this alone as it all started to make sense on where the most likely spots to detect would be. Then we ran through setting up the detectors and going over their target test site.
After lunch we moved on to an area where they had been getting some good gold from recently and funny thing was it is 400m on the uphill side of the diggings where I've done my last 3 camping / detecting trips, we'd come in a different way but when I saw the big mullock heaps from the mines down further and the brick remains to the side I said to the trainer "I camp down the hill near the old puddler" and he laughed, said I should return as soon as I've got the GPX ready to go and gave some good advice on which areas to concentrate on when I return.
Getting used to the setting will take some time but I'll start in factory settings with the Commander 11 mono for the first couple of trips to get used to it.

Also a big thank you to Nenad for his sound advice and promptness with info and replies the past week.
The deposit went down today for my new 4500 and Nenad put together a nice package deal for me, I'll be getting the NF Evo 14x9 mono with some goodies, then get the Evo 15 round spoke towards the end of the year when I've put some trips and hours behind the new detector.

Just got home from work and the 4500 has arrived and is sitting in the lounge room

Very excited about getting out this weekend to try it out, meeting up with a friend who has a SDC so fingers crossed some nice targets hit but I'd just be very happy to come away with feeling comfortable with the settings menu and have it running smooth for the weekend, aim to start with factory settings and if conditions allow I'll tweak it a little towards the various settings I've been writing down while researching the past weeks.
Saturday I'll run the Commander 11" mono and if the 4500 runs well enough I'll try the 14x9 Evo on Sunday and see how it goes but I'll try not getting too far ahead so early.

Just another mention to Nenad from Phase Technical for making this happen, super nice bloke and super fast service. I can't thank him enough :Y:

All the best to you Pete mate.. :Y:

Thanks mate, you've got another little toy on the way as well

Mate well done on getting the 4500, it really is a great bit of kit and what a bonus having a private bit of land to detect on, I would bet a dollar or two a few of us here would wish for the same
When you go with your mate with the 2300, get him to find a somewhat faint but repeatable target, dont dig it or scrape it or anything but test your response to it in factory settings, then if you feel confident put your 4500 into test A in the menu and play with the settings to see if you can improve the response you are getting, test a is a good place to play with settings to learn your machine
Just my 2c but it may help, learning the 4500 in presets is a great place to start, I got my first nugget in factory settings with the standard 11in minelab DD
Good luck and happy hunting mate
Cheers
Jamie

Thanks guys,

Nenad, fingers crossed the post is running on time but even if it doesn't arrive I'll still have enough to keep me busy for the weekend as it is but fingers crossed.

Thanks Jamie and I'll be reading the instruction manual over the next couple of days to really get the info stuck in my brain.
That's a great idea with the SDC and I know my friend is keen to get a GPX 4000 for deeper targets so he'll be keen to compare on un-dug signals/targets we come across.

I'm heading out to Camperdown tomorrow to knock over a quick job and hopefully I'll find an area on the return trip to Melbourne where I can just fire up the detector and start familiarising myself with it for a couple of hours even if it's not gold territory, just get a couple of hours head start ready for the weekend.
On Saturday we're meeting at a spot the friend has been told about then Sunday I'm hoping to get to the block in Korong Vale and start having a look around the dam.
If we do make it to the block then I'll make a test patch near the caravan and leave it there so I can play with settings every time I get back there, the real interest in the block for me is once I've got the bigger coil and have my settings familiarised as I think any possible gold will be a bit deeper, but who knows so I'll start at the dam as that's possibly the best spot to try and it's right on the line of the old creek that runs into the gully that has old shallow workings on it further down in the conservation reserve.