A decent trip.

[Coota]

Arrived home after a quick trip north of Perth, just seven days and three of those taken up with driving there and back. Set up camp on some likely looking ground and keen to try out my discounted GPX4500 with the Coiltek Elite 14 inch coil I managed to get in two hours before dark on the second day for nil return.
I have a Zed but my reason for buying the 4500 was for patch hunting, sweep speed being the determining factor. The GPZ 7000 is unbeatable in the sensitivity stakes but she likes a slow swing so I figured, find the first one with the 4500 and then put the Zed into action.
Next morning I'm off on a four kilometer loop from camp and bugger me my first find is just 100 metres from camp on my return! A nice little .8 gram piece six inches down, the 4500/Elite combination gave a very definite dig me signal, very happy with that setup.
Had a late lunch and then put the Zed into action, several more small nuggets and a nice nine gram piece before the heat got the better of me. I just kicked back and relaxed for a couple of hours before getting back into it, another couple of little ones for a total of 14 grams for the day. Just before knockoff I had what I thought was an iffy signal with the Zed, six inches down still iffy, eight inches and the signal was better but it had been a long day so I knocked off, time for a cold beer, left the hole open to check with the 4500 the next day.
I also left another very faint Zed signal undug to compare the 4500/Elite combo on tiny gold.
Here's a pic of my smalls for the trip.

 

[Chewy]

Well done.

 

[Coota]

Thanks Chewey, I checked the faint signal first thing the next day. The 4500/Elite combo did pick it up but only in the center of the coil, the Zed performed better on what turned out to be a .20 gram piece at two inches.
I also checked the hole I left open with it and gave a slightly better response than the Zed, both definite dig me signals though. It took me an hour to get down another five inches, near on solid rock. Both detectors were blanking at that stage. Nothing response with the pinpointer.
How good is the Zed though? Picked up a .02 gram piece and then a deep one ten feet away with the same settings! You don't miss much with High Yeild-Difficult in my experience. Here's a vidio of my hole and a pic of the nine gram piece.

Vidio won't upload from iPad for some reason, any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Wally69]

Awesome

 

[Coota]

Here's my hole, hard digging!

http://youtu.be/YxnMb-F6x2o

Sick of bouncing my crowbar off the rock I went detecting for four hours, found a couple of small bits and thought bugger this I'm having an early knockoff at 2pm, heat and flies!
I became very restless about that hole a couple of hours later so searched through my toolbox and found an old wood chisel. Back to the hole I go and start chipping away...

http://youtu.be/468QljEY1vo

 

[Coota]

The hole is 20 inches deep now and I'm very close.

http://youtu.be/s3O-UpSUodc

 

[Nanjim]

Coota,

Looks like you gotta chip away a bit more....

Cheers Nanjim
Jim

 

[Coota]

Finally out of the hole.

http://youtu.be/73XCAVGK0t0

 

[Coota]

Sorry about the multiple posts fellas but it takes me over an hour to upload a vidio to u tube, went into my netgear server and found three unknown users changed my password rebooted and all good now.

Finally got the nugget onto the scales and very happy with it, hopefully it will clean up to around three and a half ounces. I ended the trip with 150 grams.

http://youtu.be/qawy9nht9zw

 

[mbasko]

Thanks for sharing Coota! Very nice trip!

 

[GoldProspector]

Awesome coota. Well done.
What settings were you using on the zed?
Did you have smoothing on.

 

[Diggertom]

Nice haul for 4 days of detecting!

 

[AtomRat]

Great big finds coota! I don't know WA that much but are out out detecting those flat plains? Would be hot n hard

 

[Magilla]

Very nice Coota, do you have a photo of the nugget cleaned up?

 

[Coota]

Hi GP, the settings I was using at the time were.

High Yeild/Difficult.
Threshold 26
Sensitivity 12
Smoothing off
Manual GB and I always use the Ferrite.

They are fairly chattery settings but any target is always discernible, I don't mind the noise.

AtomRat the Pilbara is a mixture of flats and hills and getting warmer every day.

Magilla, she's been in Alibright for 24 hours. More Quartz visible now and it's almost like a large specimen, I'm trying to find someone with some HF. The only concern I have is that I'll end up with multiple small nuggets if I do. Not sure what to do

 

[SCROUNGER]

That bottom pic is beautiful Coota. Unless you're desperate to extract all the gold why not leave as it is? You could just end up with just small bits of gold without the character that that piece has in my opinion Your call of course. Lovely piece, well done.

 

[Roscoe]

Some really nice gold there Coota, thanks for posting. I got to get over to west some day.

 

[Redfin]

Well done That man !
Excellent find.
Unless you have the need to sell it, I would leave it as it is.
Maybe get rid of a bit more ironstone.

 

[Guest]

Yeh Coota, ya dead right. Definitely a decent trip. That's a great lookin specie!! Ironstone and quarts looks great. Did ya neutralise the acid after? I use bi carb soda. I put it in with the nuggets when they are ready to come out to neutralise the Alibrite. Rinse and soak with bi carb again. Ya don't want to leave the acid in the porous Ironstone and between the cracks of the quartz unless you want the gold free of it's host rock. I've read that blokes leave it in Alibrite for around three weeks Only if they want a very clean nugget and not a specie.

If ya neutralise the Alibrite, don't forget to do it outside. It will bubble up and release gasses.

 

[Coota]

Thanks Scrounger, I don't sell any gold, grandkids will probably end up with the lot. Will do as you and Redfin suggest most likely. Alibright is doing a decent job so will give it another week and see how she comes up.
Thanks for the tips on Alibright NeoGeo, taken on board.