Weapon of choice around Mount Magnet

Hi guys,

It has been a while since my "Ashburton on a 2100 budget" post. Things have changed and i'm now heading to the Mount Magnet area next month, but with a bit more cash.

I still own a 2100 with 11"DD, but ultimately i'd love to take a 4500 with the standard 11" and possibly a 16" NF to have the option of a little more depth. Unfortunately once i buy that and a hard case for transport i'd be up around the $5k mark, which is getting a little silly for someone on my sort of income.

So here i am, still battling my lowsy prospector brain over whether any detector/coil combo REALLY WILL assist me in finding gold that i've struggled so hard to come across over the past 18 months. So far, i've found zilch...

I've been told that i can expect a lot of hot rocks over there. I've also been told that i may have missed a lot of small gold that the GP series may have picked up. On top of that, if i was using a GPX i could happily swing a mono which could help me find more.

Anyway, i'm tossing up the idea of either a GP Extreme/3000 (no idea what coils) or a GPX 4000 with whatever coil/s i can afford. The 3500 doesn't seem to excite me a great deal as the main improvements seem to be auto tracking related (i'd probably run in fixed). I dunno... my head is a mess and any help would be a huge. I guess my budget would be around the $3800 mark as i'd need a bit extra for hard case.

Cheers guys. I've been waiting a LONG time for this trip!!!!! You've advice in the past was top notch, but i guess the budget has improved, which is why i'm asking again.

Hi AV,

Here's my 2 bobs worth. if you can get your hands on a GP Extreme thats in good condition then ya can't go wrong and you would save some money. Even if ya gotta send it off to ML for a check up.
From what I've seen, there is little difference in depth between the Extreme, the 3000 or the 3500 but that's just my opinion.
My machine works well. it runs CT goldstalker mono's with no problems but it didn't like the new goldstalker blitz series mono. I'm yet to try my new NF mono so I can't give an opinion on that as yet.
I'm sure the guys here will give ya some good advice.

Cheers
Cliff

Thanks for the immediate response Bignuggs! I love the thought of saving some money but still being able to run a mono.

How do you cope with hot rocks? I'm learning how to identify them a little better with my 11"DD, but have never run a mono on anything but a 4500 (when i found my only nugget!). To be honest i'm expecting it to be kinda difficult and/or noisy, so would love to rattle your brain for some real world experience.

I'm definitely looking forward to swinging more and reading less!!

Gday AV
Don't buy a 4000!!
As Bignuggs said, an Extreme, or preferably a 3500 would be the go. Yes, you will get a truckload of hotrocks but unless you go for a 4500 then you'll just have to get used to it.
No model ML goes any deeper than the other.
The 3500 won't run mono's as well as the 4500 but they love DD's. If you can get a good package with coils for around 3k you'll do well. A 4500 will still set you back $4k+ but if you can afford it, they're a great machine and will get rid of 95%+ of hotrocks. I'd be saving my sheckels and getting the 4500 I reckon.
Good Luck
cheers
Brett

Hey Anthony I have a GP 3000 for sale special price 2k and I'll throw in x mark around Magnet where the 3000 found yella, pm me if your interested.


Cheers Kev

thats a good price kev!

I have not run a 2100 my self but it does have a good reputation for finding big deep gold running large DD coils, like you say you will walk over alot of small stuff, but a targeted game plan for big gold may pay off?

Thanks for all the honest, valuable info here guys, i'm glad i put my hand up for help!

Kev that's very good of you to offer the 3000 to me - thank you! The price does look good (as does the X!) but i'll need a few more weeks to scrape up the coins and see how much money i'll have to throw around.

If i have more than i expect i might take mulgadansa's 4500 advice, less and i could even go with flying kiwis suggestion.

I guess one thing i need to remind myself is that the battery on the GPX will give me longer between re-charging, but at the end of the day the generally consensus seems to be to get out there with any Minelab PI machine, do my research, swing low and slow and wear my lucky undies.

Id also skip on the hard case.
In my experience a gimmick.
If your working hard for gold your in out the car processing holes...more processing ...less talking....and you will have joy!.
Mt Magnet ...shoot id like to know where the X is to.
Always found it hard here.
My Modded Extreme humms along with the 4500 ,s but wouldnt now entertain the idea of stock version.
If mod s not your thing then the 4500 will meet all requirements.
However the settings????? theres a thing!.
Anyway good luck ...have you bought!

decanfrost, i have the hard case and its definatly no gimmic, its very well built and on long trips traveling on rough roads protects your very expensive detector from being bounced around, also it will take anything stored on top of it.
For the price of the case its a very small amount compared to the detector it protects, Stu

Hi Anthony,
Heres my five cents worth.
I run a 3500 and love it, only have DD coils but have been running them in mono.
Contrary to some believers mono coils do work on 3500's, I have the proof and the evidence, so if your machine can run a DD in mono, that may give you more sensitivity and depth.
I have talked a lot with full time prospectors in the area I go and they all use 4500's and swear by them. They all also say that the weather and atmospheric
conditions play a big part in how your  machine will perform. Ie:A patch I found
with 15 nuggets was more productive at night or cooler conditions. I borrowed a
5000 for a day and found it very nice to use, quiet, but it just doesn't talk to you
like the older machines. And I also found gold one day on a guys chain line that was using a 5000.
A common thing im told by the old timers up here is that sometimes the gold just doesn't want to be found,you might clean up nicely one day, then nothing for a week so be good to ya mother and fill ya holes and good luck.
RW

geez some very interesting comments had by all--at the end of the day it comes down to the person swinging the detector and the configuration of the type of coil on the end of ya stick...let alone the settings on ya machine..
frequency-target volume- rx gain-stability-threshold etc---you have to master these settings to understand ya machine---

at the end of the day if u r in others peoples left overs then that's what you r goin to find...small shite---unless u tweak the machine to talk to u then the darn thing wont--its hard to borrow someone elses machine and then reset his settings..hearing is different and the threshold will be different..

good luck out there..

regards
oneday

Snappa
i to have had a hard case and found it bulky and ugly.By the time you unpack it set up,mates are on there 4th target.Waste of time in my opinion.Sold mine after short time because i to thought i needed one.
Leave it on front seat set up ready to go.....on a cusion...she will be fine

Well here's my two bobs worth
Haven't been in the game as long as some, but what I think is the 4500 is a great machine and the 5000 is even better, marginally.
What I have been experiencing, is patience, low and slow, listen to every little anomaly in the threshold and go back over, test it out, if the signal is one of those where you are not sure, scrape a bit of dirt off. the times I have done that lately and had success proves it. This goes for the fly shite and it could be a lager down deeper

Mate keep an eye out.In the quokka last week for an example there was a 4500 for $3500 if I didnt have a 5000 already I would have snapped at that. There is bargains out there just have to be patient. And quick!
And nothing wrong with a 4000 either for the right price just get a booster if it doesnt have one already. A mate of mine is a genius with his he doesnt miss much.

Yep guys, At the end of the day its the same ol story, Some may well be scratching around in other peoples "left overs". BUT not neccesarily finding small shite as one has said. True or not, stories have been told and experiences been had of prospectors finding large and small nuggets in known and hammered patches following others steps and discoveries. After all if you are a beginner at the game, the first places we try and there is no denying this, is that gold is where you find it or where someone else has found it. This is why we research old gold mines and finds etc. SOOOO many variables to using detectors that you could walk over ground all day/week/month and we all wonder "what if" I had my settings here, had my settings there, different ground different settings, different weather, different settings. However a piece of gold that you found yourself wether it be "small shite" or "large shite" is still a piece of Australian gold that you found yourself. And its a great feeling that only the successful prospector knows, and a dream come true. Your detector is an extension of your body, treat it like your best friend, adjustments always need to be made depending on conditions and territory. I reckon and probably guarantee that I have ignored signals and past them off to be "shite" and not bothered even kicking rocks aside or scratching the surface to investigate through impatience from finding too many hot rocks, that may well be gold. But that's to be expected using a 3500,they don't miss much. The biggest nugget I have found so far was only 300mm from my very own chain line in one direction and about 600mm in the perpendicular direction of chain, but on a different day, so the ongoing question to myself is , how did I miss a 3 gram nugget twice so close to my own chain. Finding gold I feel is a special and mysterious activity and I am the only one in the wheatbelt town I live in that does this. So it makes me feel special and mysterious when they ask me how I went, and say give us a look etc after returning home from a trip. But all they want to know is "how much is that worth", And I usually reply with a casual "oh dunno, don't care, these are real pieces of pure gold, and I found them myself, in the ground, and aren't they just beautiful. I always return from a gold prospecting trip feeling and looking better than I did before I left, and with treasure in my pocket. So whatever machine you use, cherish it and it will make you happier.
Rw

ps been drinkin when writng,apologeez for not makin sense.

I'll chuck another 2 bobs worth in.
We all expect detectors to be the same, no matter the make or model.  
Pitch 2 ML 5000's against each other, same settings and I'll bet ya they are not the same. That goes for all detectors.  
And that's why we all say, you have to play with the machine.  It shouldn't be that way but it is.  Something we live with, and dare I say it, treat the machine like a good lady and it will treat you well.
If I get called sexist now then so be it but no 2 machines are the same.  The user has to learn what the machine is doing.

PS. it's pay day for me also and I've had a couple, cheers

Cliff

AnthonyV wrote:Thanks for all the honest, valuable info here guys, i'm glad i put my hand up for help!

Kev that's very good of you to offer the 3000 to me - thank you!  The price does look good (as does the X!) but i'll need a few more weeks to scrape up the coins and see how much money i'll have to throw around.

If i have more than i expect i might take mulgadansa's 4500 advice, less and i could even go with flying kiwis suggestion.

I guess one thing i need to remind myself is that the battery on the GPX will give me longer between re-charging, but at the end of the day the generally consensus seems to be to get out there with any Minelab PI machine, do my research, swing low and slow and wear my lucky undies.
 

G'day AnthonyV, If you are not getting any gold with your 2100, you could do the same with a 4500.
There is not a huge amount of difference between a 2100 and a 3500 as far as finding gold goes.

When I first bought an Extreme I reckoned it was a great bit of gear.  Out in the bush around Wedderburn
I bumped into a nice old guy (he would have been about 78 I reckon) who owned a 2100, he had a couple of
mates that had new Extremes who were going full time, long story short, we all went out together about 15
times and he kicked our ar*e every time.  One time the 2 full timers spent 3 days going over a once rich patch and
they invited him to see if he could find anything.

They told him they would meet him on a corner but had no intention of turning up, they were going in a
different direction, anyway he got tired of waiting and drove to the patch, walked about 20', got a very slight
signal and dug down about 18" for a nice 10 ounce nugget.

It was really no fluke, the old guy could pull gold out of a flower pot.
He thought his 2100 was special, well I had a go of it and it was a piece of shite, the threshold sounded like waves
coming in, he was what was special, he just knew every murmur it made.  
Have confidence and put the time in.

Great thread on the older tectors , I really enjoyed my extreme with the 17 inch coiltec , deadly it was on deeper larger pieces & small bits also , better than the 3500 I have but the downside was its noisy on hotrocks , real bad . All said a 4500 would be a good compromise cost wise now as they are becoming more affordable.

Hi mate, have you looked into modding the one you have. I have heard there is some things that can be done to get them working better. They punch deeper than the newer stuff too so I have heard. Something about lower frequencies. Google detector mods perhaps and have a read.

Cheers au hunter , did a while back & read the Jack Lang qld blokes report / comments & was highly recommended by him .
don't want to start a mods on tectors yarn on this great forum as iv read it in others & seen where it goes, but yes its a personal thing & there is something in it , cheers mate end of story , albo.