Want to be doing the right thing

  Hi all, Just have a few questions I hope someone can answer.
If I had planned a trip to go work an area, and when I got there some other people had set up camp.
What distance away from them should I camp? Just dont want to pi55 people off and get shot at   
I will be looking at getting the GSP5000 with a mix of coils, 3-4 I think I need to do some more reseach on what type are are best for people just starting out. but if someone would like to share their thoughts that would be great!
4 months ago I picked up my new Landcruser, duel cab ute. would this get me to most places or should I be looking at getting a quad bike to take me from camp to the area?

Hey mate welcome aboard,

As far as camping next to others she's a big country I go find another spot. The cruiser will be sweet as long as ya don't mind a few scrapes a lot of the tracks are a bit overgrown
Good call with the 5000 the 11 mono coil that comes with it is hard to beat and a good all rounder maybe a bigger coil for more ground coverage and extra depth

Cheers Tom

Gday mate,

If im ever at a spot and other people are around i generally give them a few hundred meters clearance, i guess it depends on the lay of the land and the size of the particular gold field your working though. Ill generally go up and say hi to anyone i see out and about though, that way you can see how they are doing and find out what area they are working. Its always good to offer up a bit of info on the area if you have any also like" ive seen a few nuggets picked up just over there" etc youll find most people will appreciate that and give up any info they have aswell, thats my thoughts anyway.

As for coils for a 5000, id go with the standard 11" round mono, id also go an 8x6 NF sadie- people swear by them for cleaning the crumbs out of a patch. Also if you plan on detecting some deeper ground with a reputation for large deep gold then a larger coil would also be handy. I went a bit coil crazy when i first started off, probably no need to do that   

hey Oppa , generally chasing new ground myself , you don't see anyone  usally, unfortunately if you are camped on gold , get excited , hit the port till late ,bit of acdc or slim duppy till the wee hours loud  etc ...
& wake up at 9 am  with 2-3 blokes polishing  round your camp  20 metres , its a piss off , alright , but like iv said before , its my own fault .... keep it down while its goin off  mate , albo

Opa wrote:  Hi all, Just have a few questions I hope someone can answer.
If I had planned a trip to go work an area, and when I got there some other people had set up camp.
What distance away from them should I camp? Just dont want to pi55 people off and get shot at   
I will be looking at getting the GSP5000 with a mix of coils, 3-4 I think I need to do some more reseach on what type are are best for people just starting out. but if someone would like to share their thoughts that would be great!
4 months ago I picked up my new Landcruser, duel cab ute. would this get me to most places or should I be looking at getting a quad bike to take me from camp to the area?

Hi Opa

Suppose you could call it bush etiquette, if you turn up at a spot of interest and there's someone else camped up there really the right thing to do is call into the camp and let them know you are about then take it from there, they may offer you to camp up with them and give you the heads up on the area, poor form to camp within close range without saying hello as they might think you are trying to jump their ground, specially if they are onto the gold they could get a tad nervous.  

If they are none too friendly or appear somewhat feral then best move some klm's a away  

As far as coils go its easy to go a bit overboard, as we all do, but what you will find is that after a time you will tend to use one or two coils the most and a couple of the others for more specific uses or ground types, typically either the standard issue 11" mono or 11" dd will be the coil you will use a lot, the 11" minelab commander mono coil is a very good coil and great in our conditions, as far as a larger coils go then either a 14" or 16" round nugget finder mono, or even an elliptical 17x11" nugget finder mono would be a good place to start.

A smaller coil is pretty much a must, particularly when you come across creek beds, rocky slopes and of course dry blowing's and scrapes as the smaller the coil the more sensitive it is to tiny nugget's which are most commonly found in these spots, and its a lot easier to use one in the rubbly or scrubby area's as well, choices in small coils are many, I still use an 8" minelab round mono but also use a nugget finder 12x7 elliptical mono specially in areas of spinifex, the 8x6 nugget finder Sadie is another choice, there are of course many makes of coils and all offer similar performance and similar sizes, I mainly use nugget finders due mainly to their build quality and also because they don't as often become touch sensitive as do other brands when they loosen up inside.(my opinion only)

Many people also carry a salt coil or AI (anti interference) coil as there are many areas of salt lakes or salt effected ground that you can use it on where your other coils will struggle but that's entirely up to you, they go from an 11" round to 40"+ in drag coils, but for general use maybe a 14" round or a 17x11" elliptical would be sufficient, I wouldn't be too worried about getting one to start with maybe later on you might find you want it.

So there you have it, small coil, medium coil, large coil, salt coil, the medium and large coils you will likely use the most and the small and salt coil you will only use from time to time, as far as the size of the coils go you will also have to consider the weight factor and what you find you are most comfortable using.

If you start out with say 4 coils then you will have enough to cover you needs in most areas, two of these come with the 5000 anyway, so you really only need to choose a couple more and take it from there.

au-fever