Minelab GPX5000 tips, settings and questions

[Pete_The_Prospector]

Tagalt, did you see the settings I posted up here for the GPX5000

 

[tagalt]

nah i havent Pete, can you point me in the right direction?

 

[Pete_The_Prospector]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=163

 

[tagalt]

awesome, thanks Pete, thats a great help. what coil(s) were you using?

 

[the duck]

and remember that cars and planes overhead wires etc can interfere with minelabs so if its playing up just wait a few minutes and try again

 

[Pete_The_Prospector]

Good point Duck, and also when you tune it in when you first turn it on, point the thing at what ever will cause the most interference like Duck said, overhead wires, and train tracks, telecom towers far away in the distance, cars parked nearby and underground cables. Got caught out with this one on my first trip to Hill End, Thank you Telstra, and I'm only using the standard Mono coil tagalt.

 

[tagalt]

sweet, ill give em a try next week and let you know how i go

 

[dave14110]

tagalt,
Rather than prospecting tour guide which will take alot of your hard earned cash. I've heard $500 & peolple were not allways happy with the tour guide they chose.
Try joining a legimate detecting club, such as V.M.D.&P.A. inc ( Victorian Metal Detectors & Prospectors Assocation) or others. This is the club I joined 12 months ago at a Cost of $40 a year for family.
They have monthly meetings except Jan/Dec & they have monthly camp also Except Jan/Dec members of such a detecting club can show you everything you need to know.
My suggestion is far cheaper with less risk.
They are a non profit club meaning all money raised comes back to members in BBQ's family days etc.
If you require further details then you can send me Private message.

 

[tagalt]

sounds good, where do they meet Dave?

 

[dave14110]

They have meeting at doveton senior citz hall second wed of each month at 8.00pm.
But if this doesn't suit you can go to just camps which are in various location in triangle.
Our club has plenty of members that only go to camps.

 

[WalnLiz]

Hi Pete...run pretty similar settings myself...dropped the stabilizer down to 6 and cranked the gain up to near max... on a small patch the other day and picked up 6 extra bits from .1 to.25 that i missed with a lower gain setting. Soil was fairly quiet....and some of the targets were a bit worbly but when you can get away with it gain up around 17 can pay dividends.....Cheers Wal.

 

[WalnLiz]

A few guys have asked me what settings i use on the Gpx 5000. The long and short of it is...it changes with most gold fields and changes within the same goldfield. For those who are new to the machine you can't go too far wrong with Minelabs factory presets....you won't be using the machine to its max potential...but you will find gold. The biggest reason that many go home empty handed is they don't get the coil as close to the nugget as the guy who's pulling all the gold....crap u might say...but too often the beginner / impatient operator will cover acres of dirt in one hour swinging the coil what he thinks is close to the ground...say..1"...just to find his mate has picked up 4 small bits just metres from their car.....sound familiar...???.

Do some maths...if a small .1 nugget is 1" under the ground and there is 1" of leaf / twig matter on top of the ground with the beginner swinging 1" above the leaf matter....that makes 3" between the nugget and the coil....in most cases the detector will get that piece at 2" from the coil... result....empty handed today...bummer. Now take the guy who only ventured within a 50m radius of the car who found the 4 bits.....same machine ...same settings....he doesn't swing the detector wildly around chasing away the flies...but instead scrapes the leaf matter and skids the coil directly on the leaves....sliding forward then back then side to side covering every inch of ground.....after all ..skid plates are made for skidding....though for some chaps they could be called "L" plates . Now...above equation has a different outcome...nugg. 1" under ground and coil in direct contact with leaf matter = 2"....and wha..lahh....one happy little camper.

For those who want to know what settings I use in most of Eastern NSW...for what it's worth....

[h]Front panel[/h]
Search mode: General
Soil timings: Enhance
Coil Rx: Mono
Ground Bal: Fixed.

[h]Back panel[/h]
Iron reject: off
Threshold: 1 o'clock
Tracking: slow
Response: Deep
Target vol: 8
Signal: 17
Stabilizer: 8
Audio Tone: 50
Audio: deep
Rx gain: 12-14
Motion: slow
Manual tune: as close to auto tune as poss
Special: fine on small coils..sensitive extra on large
Ground Bal: general
Vol limit: 12

Cheers Wal.

 

[Billabong]

very useful info for a newbie like me
Cheers

 

[Pete_The_Prospector]

Thanks Wal I will have to give that a blast next time I'm out. Its pretty hot ground so if I crank it up to far it goes crazy.

 

[TTT]

hi pete thanks for posting these i ll give them a go on the weekend cheers Terry

 

[goldquest]

Hi all, I have a GPX 5000 wich find gold regularly, non a lot but regularly, now I suspect that my machine is working only half of its capacity, deptwise, because thinking back all the gold I found in the past was just below the surface or down only few inches, how can I check that my suspicion is real.
Any suggestion?
Cheers
Goldquest

 

[Mystyk59]

You could always bury a nugget at different depths and test it that way , thats what my mate and i do if we arent sure of the settings for different ground

 

[TTT]

try getting i touch with minelab they may give you some ideas cheers Terry

 

[WalnLiz]

G'day goldquest...There must be someone you know or people you meet when your out on the field. I would find someone who has a 5000 ...set both machines to the same settings and do an air test on the same small nugget. If there's a difference swap coils and retest. Sometimes the coil can be the problem. If your still not getting the same depth don't muck around with it and just send it back to minelab. They'll have it sorted in no time...Cheers Wal.

 

[goldquest]

G'day goldquest...There must be someone you know or people you meet when your out on the field. I would find someone who has a 5000 ...set both machines to the same settings and do an air test on the same small nugget. If there's a difference swap coils and retest. Sometimes the coil can be the problem. If your still not getting the same depth don't muck around with it and just send it back to minelab. They'll have it sorted in no time...Cheers Wal.

Thank you WalnLiz, I think I wil get in touch with Minelab and ask them what is the best thing to do, because I usually detect alone, I started last year after I have sold my restaurant, do not know anyone who shares my same passion for metal detecting. Planting a nugget in the ground is not the same, because when the soil has been moved sound different from undisturbed ground.
Cheers
Goldquest