PINPOINTERS.......good investment?????????

Hi all, Since getting my new Coiltek 14" coil I'm having to dig bigger and deeper holes in the rock up here. Does anyone use a pinpointer to locate the signal? I'm interested how they work in highly mineralised ground around the Pilbara. Any help / opinions appreciated. Regards John.

I do have a Pro pointer but haven't had to use it yet. It's still a good investment to add to your gear.
On one occassion it could have saved me digging a deep hole.

We don't use the propointer to find the spot. The ATX has a pinpointer anyway and we don't need it with the little 8" on the SDC.

Where we've found it really useful is in a deep hole where you really have no idea whether the target is in the side of the hole or the bottom. Without it you can dig halfway to China and then find out you've dug right past the target in the side wall of the hole. Also when you get down a bit you might not need to keep digging a wide hole if you know it's right in the middle.

The only problem is that the propointer won't work until it nearly hits the target so even with it you might find you're digging a big hole deep. Sometimes I'll go and get the little Whites GMT with the 6"x4" coil and poke that down the hole. It has a lot better depth range then the propointer and is small enough to not have to make a wide hole.

I find these gadgets prety much useless in practice. A far better way is to pinpoint the target accurately right at the beginning, by means of the customary CROSS. For deep targets a 6" round coil (Coiltec for instance) is pretty much the best solution to locate the position on the way down. it has good depth; and once close to the target, switching to cancel on a GP or GPX detector will pretty much finish the job off.
  In the past Coiltec used to manufacture a 4" probe with a long handle that could be connected to the box just like a coil; unfortunately they no longer make it. Sill, The 6" coil is the next best solution, and will prevent you from digging past the item.
Of course, a VLF detector, with a small elliptical coil can also be used instead.

Steady Eddie

haha im having the same problem with the coiltek digging bloody deep holes all the time, apart from a bigger pick you need to be able to pinpoint your target to save digging a massive crater. 90% time there are no dramas. I also use a small sadie coil if I have to but it is a bit of mucking around swapping over etc.
I have a pinpointer and unfortunately does not see the light of day often but when it does its worth its weight in gold. and that is when you got to smash a target out of the cap allows you to pop them out without damage and minimal chipping out of rock
heres what im talking about


some of you might recognise this ugly bugger

Flying kiwi wrote:haha im having the same problem with the coiltek digging bloody deep holes all the time, apart from a bigger pick you need to be able to pinpoint your target to save digging a massive crater. 90% time there are no dramas. I also use a small sadie coil if I have to but it is a bit of mucking around swapping over etc.
I have a pinpointer and unfortunately does not see the light of day often but when it does its worth its weight in gold. and that is when you got to smash a target out of the cap allows you to pop them out without damage and minimal chipping out of rock
heres what im talking about


some of you might recognise this ugly bugger

Thanks for the video. I had one like that at Cumborah NSW. I never had a chisel but I hacked away at it with the heavy pick throwing sparks off every hit. I found it just on dark and it was well and truly dark by the time I got down 6". I knew I had something really good because it was deep and although it wasn't solid rock it was hard enough that the pick would only chip away at the surface. That's when I realised how bad a fibreglass handle is. Every hit sent a jar up my arm.

I found the target with the propointer right in the middle of my hole so I worked around it and then broke the chunk out in the middle. When I turned it over I had an aluminium ring-pull

Thanks for all your replies. I think I'll just have to get a bit better at locating the target before I start digging. Usually get a bit excited and start digging straight up, not bad if the target is close to the surface but as the hole gets deeper I pay the price. Cheers John.

Yes I agree the bloke with the hammer is a ugly bugger

HAHAHA

You will keep Kiwi

Peaky