GPZ7000

Have been watching the GPZ slowly dropping in price second hand market, are they not as good as people think, maybe operator thinks they too hard to work with. Or is just showing us how hard time are getting for people.
GPZ 7000 minelab
$7,600.00 lilydale
Just for those who might be in the market for one was on GT. have not seen one cheaper than that yet all most brand new in the pics

People may be realizing that a 5000 with a coiltek coil will do as well as a gpz or maybe even better with a good operator

Shane I tend to agree with that statement, the add bonus with the 45/5K is the ability to detect on salt, something the Z cant do as yet and as you know in wa we have lots of salt.

Times are tough and while detectors hold their value, the economy will dictate other. When there's a flood of second hand the price will continue to come down.

From what I have seen and heard I think that the gpz7000 is overpriced and over rated, others opinions may differ from mine but these are my personal observations, from what I have seen for myself the gpz lacks performance and is not living up to the hype, its a cumbersome machine to use and lacks the flexibility of coil choices, unless you consider heavy and really heavy good options, and I think is in the same category as the garrett atx that many of us scoffed at when it came out, and if I had purchased one I would be unhappy with my decision.

I have just come back from a couple of weeks in the Murchison.I was swinging the 5k with a 14'' elite and a mate with the 7k and the 7k was dynamite on anything below .2gm while the 5k struggled.At the end of the trip he had doubled my talley in grams, so it just goes to show all the small bits add up.

Cheers

Phil

au-fever wrote:From what I have seen and heard I think that the gpz7000 is overpriced and over rated, others opinions may differ from mine but these are my personal observations, from what I have seen for myself the gpz lacks performance and is not living up to the hype, its a cumbersome machine to use and lacks the flexibility of coil choices, unless you consider heavy and really heavy good options, and I think is in the same category as the garrett  atx that many of us scoffed at when it came out, and if I had purchased one I would be unhappy with my decision.

Overpriced- absolutley, overrated- not one bit in my opinion. Ive seen the 5k with coiltek elites side by side with a gpz many times, tested quite a few undug targets with the z giving a better response generally and often the only response. A while ago i picked up a deep 29 grammer with gpz 14 my mates 5k 19" elite missed, it was about an inch away from the edge of a few holes he had dug and backfilled- the clear as day zed warble told me it was a good bit at a bit of depth   . And like cruiser1 said, on the really small stuff the z is miles ahead, ive cleaned up small stuff from old patches that the 5k sadie missed on top of getting bigger stuff the 5k 14 & 19s missed- i definately dont miss changing coils all the time. I do have to agree with mada though that they suck on the salt  Anyway each to their own.

We came home with better than 500g, most found with the 4500 and the rest with the 2300. I did quite a bit of research and decided that I most likely would have paid for a 7000 if I'd have had one.

Then I went to the APLA field day and did some comparisons on buried targets. My 4500 with the 14" Elite and the 7000 on factory settings. Firstly I expected the weight of the 7000 to be a bit much for me and it was. I'm sure on flat ground I could work out a suitable bungee arrangement but often we're in rough country where the bungee doesn't help a lot. Then the 4500 came out on top with 20c and 50c coins at 60cm.

It's not that I don't want a 7000, I think I could find the gold to pay for it but it's a hobby so I don't want to work my ar*e off at it.

I know what you mean Phil that the 5000 struggles with under 0.2g and the SDC can't reach it unless it's right at the top so I've just bought an 11" Mono to try to get those and a 19" light weight Mono for the deep big stuff.

Without trying it I think I'm going to be missing the little stuff when I have the 19" on and missing the deep nuggets when I have the 11" on. If I had a 7000 I'd have a better chance of getting most of whatever is down there.

Phil

our last trip the missus got a .17gr and a .12gr with the 4500 and a 14 * 9 elite
I got a .2gr with a 4500 and a 15 evo
the 7000 I saw operating was still having troubles with ground noises ( but he has only just got it and still trying to figure it out) he did pull a 15gr from a spot where a bloke with a 5000 had just been over, but dam they are heavy

I was picking up .05-.06 pieces consistently with 14" round on the last trip. Even pinged a little .16 piece with the 18" elite coil.

I've set up GPZ's for 60+ year old ladies who happily swing it all day. It all comes down to how you support the detector. If your not comfortable you will miss gold with any detector.

JP

Totally agree with JP. It's all down to how you set the 7000 up. Set the Pro Swing harness up as utbn (Jason) suggested in his video and have never looked back since. Sooo easy to swing with all the weight off your shoulders and onto your hips. I'm close to 70 years young and can swing the 7000 all day. I also have the 5000 with the 14" Coiltek Elite coil and the 2300 and they rarely get a run out nowadays. Just luv my 7000. Its all in the setup. Set the harness up correctly and ground balance it as JP suggests and you have one awesome machine.

I have no doubts that the most powerfull detector on the market at the moment is the 7. But..is it the right one for you and is it worth the money?? only you can answer that depending on what it is your after. I love my 7 but I also believe that it is not
right yet for WA (I only detect WA)...you cannot get a quiet threshold to allow you to hear the faint fairy farts. When Minelab gets it right (and they will) then the other detectors can sit in the shed.

pilko wrote:.......you cannot get a quiet threshold to allow you to hear the faint fairy farts. When Minelab gets it right (and they will) then the other detectors can sit in the shed.

I had no problems getting the threshold smooth and stable when I was working in WA. PM me your settings of put them up here, key one to watch out for is the Main Volume in conjunction with Sensitivity levels.

JP

we recently did a trip to yalgoo and went 4 days without any gold. nothing too unusual i guess dep on area etc. i was swinging my 5k with a 14inch elite, my buddy had a 7k and his missus a 4500 with an 11 inch elite. on the 5th day i decided to take the SDC out for a run and struck some nice specimens and a few small nuggets near an old mine. i took the twelve species back to camp and we tried to setup all machines to hear the gold that i found in the area but found that the 5k and the 4500 and the 7k could only pick up two of the 4 species chosen to test on irrelevant of settings tried, the SDC gave off a definite dig me signal on all 4 even at height above them, JP im puzzled here as although the gold was fairly fine, i would of thought the 7k would of got them all. needless to say my buddies are buying a SDC now. i figured it came down to the type of gold being too fine for the other machines although i was picking out nice 0.2 to 0.4g bits when dollying. any advice on settings for the 7k in this situation, BTW, the ground was fairly tame and half of the species were on the surface.
cheers
Martin

Martin this about the 4th story of simular type of results, I wounder if a smaller coil would help gzp7000 with the smaller gold. but in saying that I have seen the 7k pull a .3g (but I was just watching) but now I'm wondering what the 7k might of missed

I have witnessed the 7k retrieving .03 with ease and with the std 14'' coil.

Cheers

Phil

I have managed two .03 and a .04 with 14 inch coil on the 7...the last .03 yesterday was at 8cm.The ground was not the quietest i've worked but over time you learn to pick the 7s warble from target sound.

........and just to add a bit more to the mix.        Found a specie [   containing reddish rock/ small bits of quartz -conglomerate ] about thumb size with visible tiny specks of gold bunched closely together with the 5K +14" Elite.
Not deep, but definitely no sun-baker.
Have since tested [ at home.......not in the goldfields] with the SDC and got no response.
Moneybox [Phil] also put his SDC over it and got no signal.      Both machines work ok and find very small gold.
Hopefully, in the next few weeks can run a mates 7K over it see that result.
Watch this space!!!
cheers,john

martinjsto wrote:...........and the 7k could only pick up two of the 4 species chosen to test on irrelevant of settings tried, the SDC gave off a definite dig me signal on all 4 even at height above them, JP im puzzled here as although the gold was fairly fine, i would of thought the 7k would of got them all. needless to say my buddies are buying a SDC now. i figured it came down to the type of gold being too fine for the other machines although i was picking out nice 0.2 to 0.4g bits when dollying. any advice on settings for the 7k in this situation, BTW, the ground was fairly tame and half of the species were on the surface.
cheers
Martin

The 7 K samples as early as the SDC so in this case I would say it just comes down to coil size on those fast time constant targets that and also the nature of Super D coils compared to a small monoloop.

JP

Mmm well after reading all this , seems like a chase to find the smallest bits ... thats it , im selling my detector & buy a 15 buck dish & hit the creek crevices haha

Was given a sample bag to throw on a gravity table to work out how much this bloke was losing, it dose amaze me how easily gold floats when it get down into microns sizes, I will stick to the detector to find gold that I can see, but I have found it interesting on the comments about the GPZ7000, was looking at to buy one but I think I will wait awhile on that. Its more important for me to just get to the bush and relax and fossick wether I find gold or not, gold is a good by product if you find it in my books.

cruiser1 wrote:I have witnessed the 7k retrieving .03 with ease and with the std 14'' coil.

Cheers

Phil

Surely you guys mean 0.3 gram and not 0.03 I know what a 7000 will do with ease using a 14" coil and 0.3 of a gram it will find but I seriously doubt it will find 0.03 of a gram

AussieAU wrote:

cruiser1 wrote:I have witnessed the 7k retrieving .03 with ease and with the std 14'' coil.

Cheers

Phil

Surely you guys mean 0.3 gram and not 0.03 I know what a 7000 will do with ease using a 14" coil and 0.3 of a gram it will find but I seriously doubt it will find 0.03 of a gram

My first trip outwith the 7k I found a .015 piece of silver admittedly it was only around an inch deep but still pretty good... I hated it when I first used it and was contemplating buying back my 5k but after finding a .2gm at 10"+ I knew my 5K or SDC wouldn't have heard that.... Still getting used to it though...

AussieAu wrote:

Surely you guys mean 0.3 gram and not 0.03 I know what a 7000 will do with ease using a 14" coil and 0.3 of a gram it will find but I seriously doubt it will find 0.03 of a gram .


When the 7K was picking up these .03 nuggets I ran the 5K over and could not get a murmur.Retreaving the target was a different story as it was time consuming considering the minute size of it.

cruiser1 wrote:Surely you guys mean 0.3 gram and not 0.03 I know what a 7000 will do with ease using a 14" coil and 0.3 of a gram it will find but I seriously doubt it will find 0.03 of a gram .
 

When the 7K was picking up these .03 nuggets I ran the 5K over and could not get a murmur.Retreaving the target was a different story as it was time consuming considering the minute size of it.

"When the 7K was picking up these .03 nuggets" That's like 33 pieces to the gram!!!! with a 7000, I have seen a 2300 consistently pick up small pieces that work out at 10 pieces to the gram and they are tiny.