Minelab GPX5000 tips, settings and questions

[Heatho]

Hey Shane are you going gold hunting or or just some coin hunting as a test, are you in a rural area or suburbia? If in suburbia I'd use the DD coil or you will probably not get the 5000 quiet.

 

[HeadsUp]

If anyone has some tried and tested settings for the Sadie coil on the 5000 I would like to hear from them.
My area has fairly quiet soil and very fine gold mostly quite deep.

Cheers.

settings for noisy ground below if thats any help as a reference plane

8 x 6 " sadie
special fine
deep
motion v slow
rx gain 8
audio boost
audio tone 38
stabilizer 2
signal 17
target vol 8
response norm
tracking slow

 

[HeadsUp]

dont worry about the noise in your backyard

electricity cables , wireless internet and the multitude of other electrical stuff around suburbia causes too much interference ( EMI ) to be able to use them that close

 

[G0lddigg@]

awesome congratulations mate very envious, i think you will find theres too much emi in your backyard, think plumbing electricity, internet, mobile phones..... list goes on

 

[WalnLiz]

Congrats Shane on getting the best machine for the job on the market mate. The right tools for the trade will always get rewarded in the long run, and nuggets find it very difficult to hide from the 5000's.

Best of luck with it, and look forward to seeing that first nugget in the jar.

Wal.

 

[Horse]

Sweet buy, Congratz and reallly Jealous.....Hope you find heaps of the AU

 

[Guest]

Just a question.

Everywhere i read about the 5000 the size of the nuggets found

Are like .1 to 1 grammers.

Is there more gold being found such as sizes above or larger?

Cheers

Joe

 

[Redfin]

Mid last year a 49 ouncer by a local in Dunolly.
Last 2 weeks a 65 ouncer in the Whipstick.
That is enough to wet the appetite me thinks.

 

[Ben78]

The 177oz piece found beginning last year was with a 5000.

 

[Shane]

Hey Shane are you going gold hunting or or just some coin hunting as a test, are you in a rural area or suburbia? If in suburbia I'd use the DD coil or you will probably not get the 5000 quiet.

It will be rural ground looking for gold. Old ground so I will dig everything because there could be some good relics too.

 

[Shane]

You will have to go out and 'wet the babies head' tonight

I hope you have as much luck on the goldfields as you do on the parks...I would love to see mountains of gold piled up on your kitchen table in your next post

Would love to but rushing to finish my Highbanker and hand dredge build before the weekend so I can give both toys a try on Saturday.
Starting to run out of cash for this hobby....hmmm might have to go coin popping with the 705 to top up the kitty

 

[micks nugget]

I found a 5 and a 3 ouncer this year with one if that counts

 

[Diggerdude]

If anyone has some tried and tested settings for the Sadie coil on the 5000 I would like to hear from them.
My area has fairly quiet soil and very fine gold mostly quite deep.

Cheers.

settings for noisy ground below if thats any help as a reference plane

8 x 6 " sadie
special fine
deep
motion v slow
rx gain 8
audio boost
audio tone 38
stabilizer 2
signal 17
target vol 8
response norm
tracking slow

Stabilizer is way too low, I wouldn't recommend dropping that far. You should run your stabilizer as high as possible. If you need to drop it lower than about 8 use a different timing.

DD

 

[WalnLiz]

I've used stabilizer settings from 2 to 5 on many occasions in extremely hot regions with great success. Though making small targets softer , the resulting quietness of the machine helps dramatically with the threshold stability, and many often undecipherable targets become clear positive signals with the lack of noise, especially if audio is in Boost

Wal.

 

[Diggerdude]

I've used stabilizer settings from 2 to 5 on many occasions in extremely hot regions with great success. Though making small targets softer , the resulting quietness of the machine helps dramatically with the threshold stability, and many often undecipherable targets become clear positive signals with the lack of noise, especially if audio is in Boost

Wal.

If your running the stabilizer at 2 I can guarantee your missing gold. This is seriously dumbing down your detector.
I have just read a post by JP on another forum this morning who also recommends running a high stabilizer to get maximum depth. He actually recommended running it at 17-18, I'm agreeing with him on this one, although maybe not quite so high.

DD

 

[WalnLiz]

Can run high on benign soil, but on extremely hot ground you're missing many more than with a lower stabilizer (IMO). Depends on soil conditions. Tried and tested, like yourself all over the country, and we all have our nuggets from our personal settings.

If JP recommends running stabilizer at 17 or 18.....would hate to see where his gain is set for "hot" ground. Each to their own i guess, so long as you're picking up your fair share of the loot.

Wal.

 

[kazakhstan]

I also use a stabilizer from 2 to 5, it all depends on the soil and noise!

 

[risky]

Well here is my first novice question, i like the idea of using a speaker when it suits so will any speaker like a uhf (gme or the like) do the job? Im assuming as long as the jack is of right size they will work.

What type of speaker do you guys use if at all?

I had a quick scan of the forum and seems the only one mentioned is the rooster booster, which i assume has a built in amp is this correct?

Cheers Risky

 

[loamer]

External speakers are especially made for the GPX series and in my opinion are the way to go. The dealers all sell them. The issue with an external speaker is on very windy days you can lose the clarity of sound in all the background noise, so I usually switch to headphones - I only use Koss brand - very good. Ordinary commercial stereo/ipod headphones are not made especially for detecting and you should only get audio gear that is designed for use with detectors - the dealers are all fairly reliable with recommendations and sales advice (I am not a dealer). The 5000/4500 have an inbuilt amp but I still use the Rooster Booster for an added sound enhancement. The sounds you should be listening too are the slight even breaks in the threashold. 'Screamers' as I like to call them are usually surface rubbish and if they can kicked away, I just keep walking - some people will say to dig everything - fair enough but I have reached the stage where I am fairly confident on what I am hearing. Even with a 5% sound improvement using the best you can afford can be the difference between consistent gold and no gold. Of course ground noise (hot rocks etc) have the uncanny ability to sound like a target and this is something that can only be learnt with practice - I still dig the occasional bit of ground noise. You will learn to recognise hot rocks on the surface very quickly and ignore them. I have tried the underchin ear phones - I do not rate them. It seems a pity that some people will spend big $$ on a detector but scrimp on their audio gear. As I said, a few extra $ can be the difference between gold and no gold. Good luck and a very good question.

 

[WalnLiz]

Soil conditions, especially red clay soils can quite often be hotter than ironstone rich gravels. The 5000 has many timings to cope with a wide range of scenarios, and occasionally it's not just a matter of changing to a "more suitable" timing.

Admittedly by running a lower stabilizer the sensitivity can diminish slightly, but running the detector extremely quiet will net you many more nuggets than a noisier alternative timing. I've picked up plenty of .1gram nuggets with a stabilizer set at 3 or 4 in red hot ground.

Like I always say...settings are used from personal experiences and if you're getting good gold, stick to what has worked for you.

Wal.