New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi Guys, Got out yesterday arvo for 6 hours detecting. Went to some old flogged sluiced workings where I have used all my small coils. 6" 8" 10 x 5 mono & DD & 12 x 7 NF. All pretty shallow & exposed bed rock from the old timers having sluiced off the over burden. Hence the smaller more sensitive coils. This time I put on the commander 11 mono to hit deeper areas, even though I had been over these with the 12 x 7 NF, hoping for something bigger at depth that the other coils hadnt got down to. I started off with the 12 x 7 NF on the other side of an old tail race where there was some stacked stones & exposed bedrock from the old timers that I had used the smaller coils on but I hadnt found any thing on that side of the tail race with any of the other coils. I have got about 1 ounce from the other side of the tail race & due to the workings on the other side thought there had to be something there with my name on it. The 12 x 7 gave me 5 little bits & that was it in that area. Down about 4-6 inches
I then put on the 11" & covered a bit of old ground that I had flogged with the smaller coils & got 11 pieces that were mostly bigger than what I had been getting with the smaller coils & deeper. Biggest bit 1.09 grams at about 10 inches, smallest .09 that was about 2 inches & jambed in a tight schist crevice. So all up not a bad afternoon.

Gold on the left was found with the 11" minelab commander mono coil & the 5 on the right with the Nugget Finder 12 x 7 mono.



Close up of the 1.09 gram piece. Flip side of the bit from the above photo



And the next biggest .9 grams



I went out today to the spot I went to last weekend as I lost the magnet out of the end of my pick there. Damned if I could find it though. Detector didnt get it so I went back to my wagon & grabbed a shovel & dragged it all over the place hoping to pick it up. Still didnt. I will probably find it has fallen out in my wagon & stuck to it some where. Oh well....while I was there I found three little bits in the area I lost the magnet. I had left the 11" commander mono on from yesterday. The area was quite open so the 11" round coil was fine. The elliptical coils are great for tight spots & poking in between rocks & bushes. I then moved up hill a bit to a new spot & struck a small patch of 14 pieces. They werent deep at all. Some were almost on the suface. The biggest was 2 grams, smallest .05. Wow that 11" commander mono never seases to amaze me. Making a total for the two afternoons of 34 bits for 12 grams. That is the best I have done for a wee while. So I was stoked



Good luck out there

JW :)

Thanks Mathias, It was my best haul for a while & the ground very soft with the permafrost gone. Makes the ground quite light & fluffy when the ice melts making for very easy digging.

Good luck out there

JW :)

Well done JW. Pleased to see you are getting well rewarded for your efforts and thanks for sharing the stories with us.
You'd be getting webbed feet by now if you had stayed up north.

Hi Gary, Yes reports from up "home" tell me the same thing. You know.....we have had no more than three days of rain since I have been in QT....& that is 4 months. The ski fields are crying out for snow but apart from the man made snow there just hasnt been the crap weather to make the natural stuff. Not that I mind...LOL :)

Happy hunting

JW :)

Looks like you're loving your move to Queenstown! Making me chomp at the bit to get out on another mission!

Hi there digahole, Yep.....no one. You will have to get one from Aussie. Take a look at Bendigo Gold. That is where I get most of my stuff from if I cant score it on ebay. You wont have a chance of getting anything in NZ. I have a platypus mono & I have never even used it. I got it for the creeks, which is what I am guessing you want it for, but I havnt got near a creek as I head up into the hills. Oh....ok....I have used my little 6" coiltek mono in a creek. Found some gold too & no adverse effects on the coil either.

Good luck out there

JW :)

G'day mate, The coils are only really water resistant & not water proof. Thay are not recomended to be submered in to creeks. Only the Platapus coil is guaranteed water proof. Hence digahole wanting one. But like you I have used my 6" coiltek mono. & also my 10 x 5 coiltek mono with no adverse effects. I didnt even put any silicon around where the chord comes out of the coil. Bigger coils want to float too much & you will find yourself fighting with them to keep them under water & it is possibly this that leads to damage. I have heard of water getting into coils & stuffing them thoguh so it is a risk.
As to trying to compare the 6" with an 11" ....you cant. Every coil has it purpose of use & advantages & disadvantages over others when it comes to coil size, depth of ground you are detecting & size of gold. The 11" I am using isnt the standard 11" coil that came with the detector. That standard coil is a DD & I dont use DD's as mono's are way more sensitive & will leave a DD for dead. I am using a minelab 11" commander dedicated Mono coil. It is wound with litz wire that is supposed to be the rolls royce of wire for coils & hence the advantage of these coils. Nugget Finder also use litz wire in their coils & are also very good coils. When detecting for gold you want every advantage you can get to find the elusive yellow. You want to buy the best detector for the job that you can afford. For gold detecting the best by a country mile is the PI minelabs. I also use a signal enhancer to boost those real faint whispers.



The proof for me is the results of my finds that I post up here. I have been down in Central for over 4 months & have never missed yet when going out gold detecting. Ok....I have had some days where I have only got 1 or 2 bits but still gold all the same. I know some of the guys are doing ok with their gold bugs......or so they say.....but I dont see many if any of their finds posted up here.
The bugs are limited in their depth. With the minelab PI's & the huge range of coils you can fit to them you can find very smalll gold at shallow depths with the smaller more sensitive coil, just like the gold bugs. My smallest is .04 of a gram. Or you can find bigger gold at way greater depths with the bigger coils. Like a 25" mono or my favourite patch finder....the 24" x 12" coiltek UFO coil.



Good luck out there

JW :)

Edited by user Friday, 10 August 2012 8:22:06 AM(UTC)  | Reason: typo

Hi there element111, Nugget is 13.75 grams & wasnt all that deep either. I thought it was a .22 shell it screamed that much.
I would never be without my signal enhancer. It stays on the detector all the time. Never comes off. An absolute must have.

Your opinion is spot on.

How much is the signal enhancer on ebay that you are looking at? I have a few & may sell one to you if you are interested. I also made a special bracket that fits on to the arm cuff bolts that the enhancer attaches on to.







Better than just sticking it directly on to the side of the control box.

I then made another bracket that sits up higher under the cuff so the enhancer is tucked up & more out of the way. That is the set up in my previous post pic.

JW :)

hay kiwijw i got the enhancer today thanks heaps i copyed your idea (have added a photo of what i did to my detector)


i set it up and then turned detector on in bypass then flicked it into on not relising i had the volume up a bit and shit it made such a diffrence if you wind it up any more than about half it just about blows ya ears off lol that will be so much better with it wound right up to pick up the tiny diffrences in the threshold noises for the little gold

cheers

Edited by user Wednesday, 15 August 2012 6:22:40 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified