Detecting West Australian Gold
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playing with your machine vs the 6th sense

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Post by Stingray Mon 19 Aug 2013, 10:58 pm

I've noticed a lot of people advising that if you want to find gold you should play with your machine, changing settings through the day as conditions change. I have a slightly different view.

I run a 4500 with a speaker. I just about always run in enhance mode with pretty much factory presets, including a gain of 8, and hardly ever tweak anything. After a lot of trial and error I find it a good balance and 'easy'. But that's just my preference - the settings are pretty much irrelevant, just some background. The important thing is, when its going good, don't mess with it. I think it can be counterproductive, particularly if you are relatively new to this game. Here's why.

You ever thought about exactly how you detect? What it is exactly that you do? Day after day you wave your wand and listen for targets. So it is all about your hearing. Well no it's not. It is a combination of senses - both sight and sound. You are linking the sound to the ground via your eyes. You've seen and heard it all before in a miriad of combinations. You follow the coil and, as it goes over rocks and holes or whatever, you are processing that and 'filtering' it out. You are filtering out the surface - you are trying to 'picture' what is below the surface - in the ground.

Put the two together (vision+hearing) and you have another 'sense'. We only use a small fraction of our sensory capacity, but we are inherently lazy. Remember that children devlop and hone their senses of hearing, taste, touch, to sense heat and cold etc through trial and error and gaining experience over time. Don't just rely on your RX Gain etc to give you that 'edge' - try developing and using your own senses instead.

So, I don't want my vision to change, it would be confusing, I want it to stay the same. Same goes for my hearing response, I want my machine to be and sound EXACTLY the same, every time I use it. Ever seen the 'bat man'. A blind dude that can ride a bicycle and images his surroundings by clicking his tongue like a bat and listening to the sounds bouncing off objects around him. He creates a mental 'picture' using his sense of hearing. Absolutely amazing. But when you think about - we do that with our metal detectors. I do this as a hobby but usually get away for a month or so each year. I am always 'better' in the second week than the first, and better in the third than the second. The neurons reestablish the connections to that new 'sense', it becomes more 'second nature' and you slip into the zone.

When I am looking for new ground I spend a lot less time chasing spurious noises and trying to work out whether they are ground or small or deep signals. I may not get the same depth as I could by playing with the machine but I know my machine and I can cover a lot of ground very effectively. It's not the strength of the signal, it is all about hearing it above the white noise. When you get really atuned it's easy and 'second nature'.

On the odd occasion when I have been on gold and working particularly low and slow, I have decided to investigate 'something', but that something is hard to define. A couple of times I have had someone next to me and they cannot hear it. That is because that something is not a 'signal', not even a murmer, just something that is 'different'. It's made me think. It is what I am hearing through my sensor (the detector), combined with how i am moving the coil over the ground and what I am looking at - put together it doesn't fit and hence it is that which pulls you up. It only becomes a faint 'signal' after a scrape with your boot or your pick. Think about it. If you've been around a bit I reckon something similar would have happened to you too at some point. I reckon that's the sixth sense in action.

Regards
Stingray

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Post by Guest Tue 20 Aug 2013, 7:10 am

Sting,

I've taught beginners how to detect and that phrase of your, ",,,,,,,,something different" is one that I used often in my explanation of "the sounds to listen for". Big pieces find themselves as the noise is obvious. But there's not many big pieces left these days so learning to listen is vital if we wanna get 31. 1 small bits to make up for our big bit. Lesson - there's a lot small bits than there are big bits.

Like you, I don't play around with the detector too much. The people that find gold are those that have their machines covering ground for the maximum time. I've gone back over old patches from my past and found very little. That must say something.

Minelab reckon the factory presets will find 90% of the gold. I agree with 'em. On the odd occasion that I've had a twiddle, other than the RX gain, it's made little or no difference.

Cat

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Post by salt-d Tue 20 Aug 2013, 12:05 pm

Stingray I reckon your on pretty right, as a novice to this gold detecting game I spent about three months in WA last year, I think I was very fortunate to get the right advice a setting from a guy well versed and experienced both in detecting and Minelab machines, this proved invaluable in getting me headed in the right direction. My sole goal was to get to know my 5000 and find gold, putting in around eight hours plus a day, pretty much every day, I found after a few weeks that the sounds just seemed to register more clearly and I was picking up on small differences, ie ground noise / small nuggets. I didn't play around with lots of different settings.
Getting to know your machine and have confidence in it and your ability to understand it sets you up for success, other important aspect is your state of mind while detecting, (Er I know I'M old, thick as a brick and silly Sad ) A positive approach, confidence, and knowing you have to stay tuned and keep swinging, and swinging and covering ground to find gold.
I always (well mostly) stop and take a break for a cuppa and bickie every couple or hours as it helps keep me relaxed and detecting at my best. On occasions when I have wandered and that next hill beckons for a look at, the hours have slipped by and I find myself getting sloppy, ie coil of the ground / swinging and not keeping coil flat to ground, hearing but not listening.
I have bought the latest detector, good coils and spent a lot of money in getting to the goldfields. why do all this if I'm not going to give it my best shot. I was happy with my finds for the time spent over there.
For sure I have a hellava lot to learn yet. :study: 
I do enjoy it and its not all about the gold, there is so much more to experience out there. WA I'll be back.
Cheers
Salt-d
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Post by matelot Tue 20 Aug 2013, 12:46 pm

I agree Salt-d, its not all about the gold. W.A. sure is a magic place, and the last free state left.

Regards Roger pirat 

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Post by Guest Tue 20 Aug 2013, 3:45 pm

matelot wrote:I agree Salt-d, its not all about the gold. W.A. sure is a magic place, and the last free state left.

Regards Roger pirat 
Yep -the last free state,,,,,,,,,,and guess who kept it that way by representing us small guys? And without whom it'll be a "lock-out" by the big guys?

Cat

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Post by koeh Tue 20 Aug 2013, 4:21 pm

I prefer to detect at night so sight does not really come into it,
I find at night you don't get distracted by looking at the ground in the distance and marching over there to have a swing, you just walk around in circles I love it,
I did try chaining one night without a headlamp on when there was a little moonlight around and p*ssed myself laughing when I saw all the chain marks in the morning when the sun came up, all the chain marks started out all right but ended up looking like a massive piece of pie all heading to one point.
Note to self use my headlamp next time or do it during the day.

koeh


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Post by Stingray Tue 20 Aug 2013, 8:52 pm

Thanks for the replies Cat and Salt-D, seems like we have similar approach, it basically comes down to connecting with your machine. Once that connection is made you are away and confident that if you walk over it, and it's detectable, you'll get it.

Hi Koeh - I can visualise the chain lines!! I have tried detecting at night a few times, the detector hums. But interesting slant. I find a real tendency to follow the same path when I am wandering through new ground. That's because you are 1. attracted to the traps, to the likely spots, and 2. you take the path of least resistance. It's a combination of being a prospector and human nature. It gets to the point that I have to really force myself to do the opposite - detecting at night would achieve the same result!

Cheers and good luck
Stingray

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Post by Woteva Wed 21 Aug 2013, 10:26 pm

Stingray, I like your line of thinking along the lines of developing a sixth sense and connection with your machine, I have,a few times now, stopped and gone back a step to take another swing over ground I've just covered and picked up the faintest of signals, why I went back I can't say - maybe its that sixth sense thing. Each time its only been sub-grammers but hey, one day it may be that big one down deep.

Cat- Your comment about the last free state... are you refering to APLA ?

Woteva

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Post by Guest Tue 19 Nov 2013, 6:56 am

I agree with a lot of the points raised here, but I would have to say that from my own experiences that little tweaks and adjustments to your machine on the go are at times necessary, while my settings don't vary a great deal as I also think that if you are finding gold the way its set then its doing what it should be doing.

One thing I have found is that if I am detecting an area with someone else and they are getting bits and pieces and I am not then the tweaking begins, sometimes a bit more of this a little less of that can make all the difference, but once again the changes are minor, but whether its the fine tuning of the machine or your actually fine tuning your mind or a bit of both, I am not sure.

I am a true believer in our senses playing a bit part in finding gold, and think that there are a few factors that can make you either successful or not so successful, the first thing is you have to do when you get into the bush to detect is to tune out of your at home attitude, and re tune into prospecting mode, clear your mind of all issues at home and focus on the gold, relax and just go with the flow.

Sometimes the urge to detect some areas regardless if they "have the look" or not can be very strong, sometimes your successful but other times you are not, but even if you don't get on to the gold the feeling with still linger and sometimes after a couple of times back to that spot you might actually get on to it, one area to another can be quite different in the ground conditions and sometimes experimenting with your settings will make the difference as well, or even simply re working the spot at a different time of the year or in different weather conditions.

There are places that I have worked that the gold did not give positive signals at all that produced many ounces of gold once the secret was unlocked, most signals were so very vague and more in the sub signal range where it was almost just the instincts telling you that there was something there, often a fair amount of digging was required before the signal became in the range of "I think there might be something there", but after you get a few of these and its reinforced in your mind and when you actually dig a nugget up you then truly tune in to it.

Also I think that what we learn along the way can actually play a part in whether we get gold or not, there is of course as mentioned the human factor, we are creatures of habit and we will often go back to places where we have found gold, and then waste time re-going over the old ground when really the time would be better spent trying somewhere new and fresh, sometimes you might have to make yourself go elsewhere and try spots that don't really have the right look according to the "gold spots finds picture library" implanted in your brain from previous experiences, its thought that your brain creates a library of images and that it these images that attract you to certain spots and give you the feeling that there's gold there, if the area does not have a look that fits the bill then all you want to do is walk away from it rather than give it a go.

au-fever




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Post by Guest Tue 19 Nov 2013, 7:22 am

another important fact is that a lot of people who go bush also work for a living and this has a big down side as it restricts them in finding new ground due to the time in the bush befor they have to return home thus the creature of habits always returns..

granted I would rarely go a day without adjusting a setting or two on my machine--if u don't play with the settings u r not going to master anything and thus this single factor could be the reason u walk all day and find jack...mind u if u swing like a person possessed and want to cover as much ground as u can then yes u will miss gold..

regards
oneday

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Post by Guest Tue 19 Nov 2013, 9:14 am

Great post Stingray and all good follow up comments, it installs a lot more confidence in a novice.
akko

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Post by martinjsto Tue 19 Nov 2013, 6:50 pm

we are subjected to a mass of white noise everyday, that is why your ears ring for ages when you are in silence. this includes the high frequencies that we cannot actually hear. a friend who has good experience detecting wont listen to music or the radio for a day or 2 b4 heading out and definitely not on the drive there. he reckons the high frequency sounds can take sometimes weeks to get out of your head, explains a lot of the above as well as once the crap has dissipated you can actually hear again so you start to find small gold.

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Post by hoolahoopa Tue 19 Nov 2013, 9:28 pm

In apost a while back I am sure it was jp that said to wear earplugs when driving to where you were going and it made a big difference. Exactly what you are saying I suppose.

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Post by Bignuggs Tue 19 Nov 2013, 9:50 pm

We have talked about noise here before. Not everyone's hearing is the same. Depending on what you have done for a job over the years, ya hearing can actually be stuffed.

if you do a search, you will find a link, to test what you hear and it will make you wonder more than a lot.
You will say to your self, "why do I have a kettle screaming in my ears" ??

If I find the link in here I'll repost it.

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