Minelab GPX4500 tips, settings, questions

Just been through the same issues. New vs Second Hand...........

Ended up buying a new GPX 4500 from Detect a Den in Batemans Bay. (Great service and great comms with Brad)

Price $3500 and $450 for a Coiltel Elite 14" Mono, in camo of course!

I looked at second hand ones and could have spent less but I reconciled that the extra $$$ gave me Warranty, a brand new battery, better resale as its a late model machine and I know it wont have been knocked around or a counterfeit.

Very happy with Minelabs service Dept. I have sent my SDC back twice now for what turned out to be minor issues. They turned it around in a bit over a week and thats sending it from Newcastle to SA and return! (All at no cost, warranty work)

Looking forward to getting onto some deeper and hopefully larger gold than the SDC.

I have cut my teeth on the SDC so the transition to the GPX will be interesting. Not looking forward to scraping/digging a wider and deepr hole compared to the SDC 8" coil where I generally have the target out and in my hand in under a minute.

I have a lot of ground to cover where Ive found gold with the SDC. Interested to see what the GPX can see that the SDC couldnt.

Will I get rid of my SDC? NO WAY!

Cheers

RS

Good onya RS, hopefully some nice gold down there with all of those deep fuggets.

The GPX will make you work a lot harder mate. Best of luck with it though and I'm sure some nice nuggets will be found.

Thanks Heath,

It will be nice to assist cleaning up the Australian bush of all those deep rusty objects!

I will post up any finds or observations of the SDC to GPX transition experience!

RS

She has arrived. A stable mate for the SDC.

First outing in a week and a half.

Results pending...............

Very nice RS. You'll have a lot of fun with it, and I'm sure find some bigger gold. Good hunting!

Thanks mate. Cant wait to get out with it and see what the SDC has missed.

GPX Stupid question time?

We all know to keep watches, rings, steel cap boots and our picks away from the coil. (I have done all and sometimes all at once!)

What effect does having an aluminium shaft have on such a sensitive detector???

They go to all the trouble of suppling plastic bolts for the coil then have a 3 ft long piece of aluminium 2 inches from the coil.

Sorry newbie GPX owners observation. I have read about fibreglass shafts, is this the solution or is it simply not an issue???

Thanks

RS

The shaft isn't really an issue as it isn't moving in relation to the coil - i.e. they move together. Bigger and in particular elliptical coils are likely to "see" the shaft but it still won't give any false signals.

Whether an aluminium shaft will decrease sensitivity or not is often debated. But not wanting to chance it, I have always used a fiberglass upper shaft, and always run the coil cable straight up the lower shaft. I want that coils field to do its thing with no obstructions until it tickles a bit of yellow

Hello gents

is there a detector that is ok for relics and gold. been lookin at the 3030 and reading reviews and tests. then i came to this post, now i am confused, any help greatly appreciated

ray

Thank you PhaseTech that makes sense and for my mental health I will look at fibre glass or carbon fibre if prices are ok.

PhaseTech said:

The shaft isn't really an issue as it isn't moving in relation to the coil - i.e. they move together. Bigger and in particular elliptical coils are likely to "see" the shaft but it still won't give any false signals.

Whether an aluminium shaft will decrease sensitivity or not is often debated. But not wanting to chance it, I have always used a fiberglass upper shaft, and always run the coil cable straight up the lower shaft. I want that coils field to do its thing with no obstructions until it tickles a bit of yellow

Click to expand...

Gilly47 said:

Hello gents

is there a detector that is ok for relics and gold. been lookin at the 3030 and reading reviews and tests. then i came to this post, now i am confused, any help greatly appreciated

ray

Click to expand...

While a relic machine MAY find gold, its highly unlikely in most cases. And dedicated gold machines have little or no discrimination which is no good for relic/coin hunting (although you can use them for relic hunting).

Unfortunately they are 2 totally different beasts.

Congrats RS hope the GPX does you as well as your SDC has

Cheers mate,

Ill report in my observations and hopefully a few larger nuggets!!

RS

Best detector for relics is Minelab explorer 2 imho.

Not good on mineralised ground but npaddocks/ovals/gardens etc this machine will embarrass everything else out there. It's not any easy machine to learn for a newbie but once once mastered it really is amazing what it can do.

thanks steel pat, nice general summary

ray

thnx diggit

GPX 4500 first impressions from an SDC owner.

Managed to get in a few hours at Nundle this morning after nightwork.

• Put the detector together and ventured down to a spot where I have found about 10 small bits with the SDC over the years.[/*]
• Turned her on (in factory preset, normal) and the threshold was all over the place.[/*]
• The spot is very close to power lines.[/*]
• I dumbed the machine down (turned gain right down) (auto tune) and dug a few deeper bits of nail and iron that the SDC could not reach.[/*]
• Had all sorts of false signal issues with hot rocks or when I dug down to a signal and got the target out, it disappeared[/*]
• The Coiltek Mono Elite Coil sees the pick from over a metre away so I had to adjust my SDC routine and keep pick and detector seperated.[/*]
• 14 inch Coil difficult to pinpoint with[/*]
• Bigger holes requires more effort to dig and then refill![/*]
• Nothing wrong with the detector just an unskilled operator.[/*]
• Need to put some hours behind this thing to learn it.[/*]
• Probably easier to manoveve through the bush than the SDC[/*]
• Lighter to operate than the SDC.[/*]
• Coil cable movement sets off the coil[/*]
• Lots of settings and switches to play with[/*]
• Some bumhole has been in there and dug massive holes and made no effort to cover their tracks[/*]
• I thought the bottom shaft was aluminium buts its actually fibreglass[/*]
• It packs up quite small and no trouble to setup/packup[/*]
• More insights to follow[/*]
• No gold today, run out of patience[/*]
• No issues with the harness carring the battery or the headphone setup that comes out of the battery[/*]
• I dont use the bungy, I rest the coil on the ground and sweep the floor with it (Is that an issue for GPX????)[/*]
• If you see something I m not doing right as above please correct/help me out[/*]

I'm thinking of heading towards the 4500 also, to compliment the SDC, so keep 'em coming :Y:

RS
A couple of quick suggestions relative to what I use:
With the 11" Elite I rarely go over 9 with Rx and 8 Stabilizer (but bump it up when I can), set frequency to between 85 and 100, use Enhance, use Quiet Audio. Should help with stability. Cheers

With the new type coils being more sensitive RS I'd be inclined to try it just off the ground too. I know Nugget Finder are recommending it with theirs. In milder ground scrubbing should be ok but if your getting ground noise that could be why.
To allow better coil control I'd use the bungy & even consider a hipstick. You'll appreciate it after a full day with the 14" coil.
A pinpointer can be a good tool for larger coils/larger, deeper holes. Not always needed but comes in handy occasionally. I've got a cheap Mars one that does the job ok.
Agree with Dignit - around Nundle I'd use Enhance. It should cancel most hotrocks.
Auto tune towards the powerlines - might need to try a couple of times to get the best frequency.