nuggethunting

Hello Uncle Ron, I know if I had time to work push 2 or 5 with the GPX very methodically I can find some more. They might not be big nuggets, but I'm certain there are some more 1/4 - 1/2 Dwters at depth there. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Lamar, Small gold? One of the biggest advantages of the GP series detectors (GP Extreme, GP300, GP3500 and now the GPX-4000) is the fact they find much small gold, and smaller gold at depth. I know you know this, but I just have to say it again. I found this small 3 grain nugget yesterday with the Minelab GPX-4000 with the Coiltek 14-inch round mono. The nugget was 3-4 inches in depth, but just a faint target. Uncle Ron and several others were right in the area to verify the find and the depth. I hear from time to time that guys are just hunting for big gold nuggets. I think it kind of silly knowing 90%, if not more, is smaller gold nuggets. The larger the nugget the more scarce they become. Hey, I love the big gold to, but I like the fact I'm finding all the smaller stuff, smaller stuff at depth and getting the bigger ones if they are there to be found. You ordered the following products: Minelab GPX-4000 Complete Otto Fiberglass Shaft Two Hipsticks Minelab SD/GP Handle Minelab Bow Knuckle Four DVD Videos Hello Bob, Are you using a Signal Enhancer with the GPX-4000? Reason asking, the volume seems low when it was set at the factory Preset of 25. Seemed when I cranked it up to the max (40) it helped out. I'm not any Signal Enhancing devices on the GPX. Rob Allison

Hello Lamar, The first time out with the Minelab GPX-4000 I used just the stock 11-inch round. I found (2) nuggets within the first hour with it. The second and third time out I was using the Coiltek 14-inch round mono. This is my favorite searchcoil for deep gold. The GPX is able to run a mono coil in places where I couldn't with a GP3500 without a lot of ground noise. I have yet to try a DD coil on the GPX since it run smooth with a mono in all the places I tried so far. I'm hoping I won't have to ever use a DD again. On another note, when do you want the items you purchased shipped? Is your shipper still around? Hate to keep all this stuff here knowing you paid for it a long time ago. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Bob, Congrats on all the nuggets found. I sure wish I had the time to get out like you. I know I'm always waiting for your field reports to come in. I wish I had more free time, but just have too much going on at the moment. I'm hoping after Christmas I will have a bunch of time to really get out and hammer some spots. I haven't hunted anywhere with Basalts or Ironstones of any quantity lately. Most of the places I'm hunting have just moderate mineralization, but I'm able to really crank the GPX to the max with very little if any background or EM Interference noise. Have you played around with the "Specific" Ground Balance mode much? I haven't experimented much with it, pretty much just using the "General" mode. I haven't noticed a huge difference running the "Signal" from 15 thru 20. Just curious what you might be running? I pretty much leave mine on 15 when I'm hunting for deep gold. Also nice to have the "Inverted" response mode for deep, faint targets. I haven't gotten used to the response, so I'm still using the "Normal" mode. However, a couple of new GPX owners at Rich Hill this weekend really liked it. "Some Advice to a Friend" - Get your butt out to Stanton. A bunch of customers are clueless how to run their GPX-4000's. Unfortunately we didn't get the sales, but these people need a lot of help. Funny how customers are willing to buy the best detector, but are clueless how to run it. I spent several hours trying to get a few guys back on track since they got no instructions whatsoever. Oh, let me take that back, the person that does the instructions for them is pretty much clueless!!! I should be nice. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, I actually found the picture on the Internet a long time ago and just decided to post it. When I found the picture it really didn't have much information and I can't even remember where I found it. I believe I was just browsing around on the Internet one night and then found it and saved the picture. These are the type of gold veins that make the gold nuggets we find today. These veins were enriched near the surface and erroded away to leave us those big gold nuggets! Just imagine finding something like this today. Hell, the wash below, if there is one, probably contains pounds of gold. Sure wish I could say I found it. Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Good to hear everyone is doing well with the new GPX-4000. The Australian results show no merit to me or what I do here in the US with the GPX-4000. People put too much faith in what the Aussie's are saying, but don't understand the ground conditions over there are 180% from what we have in most locations here in the US. I'm impressed with the results and I've only have found seven nuggets with the new machine for about 5-6 hours of total use. The Minelab GPX-4000 gives the user many more options than any gold detector on the market today. The user can now pretty much "tweak" all the settings. This will allow you to open up the detector on low to moderate mineralization and turn down some of the settings on the worst mineralization. With the GP3500 and prior detectors you have to work with what is given, you can't "tweak" or "fine tune" the settings to each location like you can do now with the GPX. Today I picked up a 4-5 grain nugget at 4-5 inches at Rich Hill. The GPX-4000 is most impressive to say the least. Montana Bob - Congrats on the 75 nugget run. Are those all from one location or patch, or multiple spots since you've had the GPX? Steve H. - I don't care much for the "Smooth" mode from what I seen so far. You do loose a lot of depth and sensitivity. I don't think the mineralization is bad enough for me to use it, but if I have to that is just another options I have. I like the "Normal/Deep" mode, Volume 40, Fixed Balance, Signal 15, Extra Sensitivity, General Balance, Gain 12-13 and Normal Signal. I picked up a 2.7 Dwt nugget at nearly a foot yesterday with the above settings. The target was just one of those faint whispers though. Roger - You're going to love the GPX. The more I use it the more excited I get. The machine has so many options it's going to open up a lot of spots where you might have been limited or only able to run a certain coil or settings. Now you can really experiment with different coils and all the settings to find the best overall settings for different patches and goldfields. Thanks for returning my PM; I will be in touch with you. Thanks a million for the offer! Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, Leaverite and I spent a few hours testing the GPX-4000 against the GP3500. The first test was to see how both machines sounded on a 1-ounce solid gold nugget at depth. We dug a hole and placed the nugget to where the Minelab GP3500 could just hear a faint whisper type signal. We then buried the nugget back up and leveled out the ground and re-check the response. The signal was so faint on the GP3500, if you didn't know a nugget was there you probably would never even hear it. The next step was to test the GPX-4000 using the same coil and headphones. Since the battery system was different on the both detectors, we couldn't use the same battery. We check the factory pre-set settings on the GPX-4000 over the buried gold nugget. It was kind of discouraging knowing the factory pre-set modes could not even hear the nugget. The "Deep" mode was just able to hear a peep, but for the most part the factory pre-set settings are less than what the GP3500 stock has to offer. Well, we were not really interested in the pre-set modes, but more interested in seeing how you can "tweak" the GPX-4000. We pretty much tweaked the GPX to the point where we could easily hear the buried nugget, and even to the point where it was a very good target. If I had to make a guess how much more depth the tweaked settings were getting, I would say somewhere in the range of 1-3 inches. We pretty much conducted this same test on a smaller nugget at depth. I set up the GPX-4000 in the "Sensitive/Normal" mode and then tweaked the settings for the best results for small gold nuggets at depth. The results were pretty much the same, getting an easy 1-2 inches more depth over the GP3500. Overall, Leaverite and I were very impressed with the results. From reading all the Aussie reports I was getting worried, but now I'm confident enough to know the GPX-4000 is outperforming the GP3500 without any questions. Later in the day I found a nice 2.7 Dwt nugget that I missed with the GP Extreme, GP3000 and even the GP3500. I was just at this location about 3 months ago with the Coiltek 14-inch round and GP3500 and flat out missed this nugget at depth. For all the people that currently own a GPX-4000, start playing around with the settings. I'm not going to just give you the settings, I want you to play around and learn the machine. Everywhere will be different; my best settings could be the worst settings for your ground conditions. You're going to be very impressed with this detector once you get some hours behind it! Check out the pictures below - Rob Allison

Hello All, Just thought I would let you see this picture. Talk about a gold vein discovery? Do you think there are any nuggets below this vein? Hehe .... Rob Allison

Hello gr8goldonly, The Gold Prospectors Assoc. of America (GPAA) is a great club to join. I've been a member in good standings for nearly 15 years now. They have great claims, great outings/events and the best gold prospecting magazine. I'm not sure about the claims in VT or the amount of gold you will find there, but out West they have some very productive gold claims. The advantage of the GPAA is the fact they have claims in nearly every US state. Good luck on your quest for gold, Rob Allison

Hello Uncle Ron, Yes, I will be there tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I'm also hoping once they get closer to bedrock some nice gold will turn up. You just never know with Rich Hill, a couple of barren pushes and then one bonanza! Any chance Nugget Chaser will be there? See you tomorrow, Rob Allison

Hello Bunk, You will have fun down around the Yuma area. I've personally found some nice nugget patches. Yes, the DVD videos promote the External Speakers. If you have hearing loss I would strongly recommend you stick with a good pair of headphones. In my opinion, headphones are much better than an external speaker if you're hunting for faint signals. You can hear those "boomer" signals with or without headphones. Wishing you luck this weekend. The GP3500 is an awesome detector. Rob Allison

Hello Uncle Ron, Ya, I was hiking around up there for several hours, but didn't find a single nugget up there. Later in the day I did locate (3) nuggets, but gave (2) of them away to the guy working the area. I kept the smaller 1/4 - 1/2 Dwter and gave up the 2 & 2.5 Dwter. Glenn picked up one nugget about a Dwt right out of push 2 when he first started. We both tried push 2 for about another hour with no luck. Still a lot of small targets in the pushes, but the gold is getting harder to find now. Yep, know the spot in the picture. Any gold found around there? Rob Allison

Hello Bunk, Hope you scored today with your new GP3500. Did you happen to get instructions with that purchase? The DVD videos you mentioned are very good. Just keep in mind, if you're looking for small nuggets, or small nuggets at depth the "Sensitive" mode works best. If you're looking for larger nuggets at depth, and don't care about the small ones, use the "Normal/Deep" setting. Had great success with these combinations in the "Fixed" Ground Balance setting. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Goldstudmuffin, Like I have stated in the past, the Aussie field tests are irrelevant to what we have here in the US. Our ground is much more moderate. I took the GPX-4000 out again today and found several deep targets that I flat out missed with the GP3500 with the same sized coil. Several of the targets were large pieces of iron (nails, pick tips & tin) found at depth. There is no doubt the GPX-4000 is much smoother and quieter than previous models. You can even make it "PURR" in the "Smooth" mode! Found (3) nuggets today, but gave (2) away. What a nice guy I'm… Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Uncle Ron, Sorry I didn't see this post earlier. I wasn't out on the claims today, had to work. However, I should be up around that area tomorrow morning if everything goes well. I'm sure push 3 will produce some gold once they get near bedrock. It looked like the area was very deep to bedrock there. Good to hear someone found a nugget today. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello ESA, Welcome to my Nuggethunting.com Gold Forums! I will try to address your questions the best I can. There is no doubt the Fisher Goldbug2 is the most sensitivity metal detector on the market. With the detector operating at 71kHz it will find gold so small you have to have eyeglasses to see them. However, in highly mineralized ground conditions this can be a major disadvantage of the GB2 unless you turn the sensitivity/gain way down or hunt with the coil off the ground a big (cuffing the searchcoil). There are two major advantages of a Minelab Pulse Induction (PI) gold detector over the conventional VLF's, like the Fisher Goldbug2. The first major advantage is the fact the Minelab PI's are much more immune to mineralization. This would include iron and salt conditions, which seem to be present in most gold bearing areas around the world. The second major advantage is the fact the Minelab PI's get 2-3 times the depth of a conventional metal detector. In low to moderate ground conditions it might only be 0.5-1.0 times deeper, but in highly mineralized ground conditions the depth could increase up to 3x the depth of a VLF. There is no doubt there is a major difference between the VLF and PI detectors. Another major advantage of the GP series (GP Extreme, GP3000, GP3500 and the new GPX-4000) is the fact the timing is different and you can find much smaller gold that the Minelab SD series detectors. I've personally used all the Minelab PI's for several years and know for a fact the GP series will find smaller gold, smaller gold at depth and I believe even a slight edge on deeper nuggets. There is no doubt if you decided to purchase a Minelab GP3500 or GPX-4000 you would see major differences in performance over the Fisher Goldbug2. However, I wouldn't see the Fisher, I would use it as a backup detector and even use it for places that have very ... very small gold nuggets, stuff under a few grains in size. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello Aurum, I would first like to welcome you to the forums! At this point in time since Minelab changed the connection from 4-pin to 5-pin there isn't anything that will adapt. However, I have heard several companies are currently working on some products that will work on the new GPX-4000. I'm sure if someone wanted to fiddle around they could make something work, but technically that would void the factory warranty. The Minelab GPX-4000 comes stock with Koss UR-30 headphones. They are a good mid-line headphone in my opinion, but not the best. I still have a couple of GPX-4000's in stock if you're searching for one, but don't expect them to stay around long. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello Bob, Well the GPX-4000's are selling well, but still a bit slower than normal due to the lack of field reports. I still get a lot of calls and emails about them, but people seem to be waiting for more reports to surface. I've sold a couple more this week, so I'm hoping these guys will get back on the forums with their findings. I will be out this weekend playing around with it again. I would like to test the "Quiet" and "Smooth" modes over Basalts and even an Iron Stone patch I know about. So far I've been very impressed with the unit. Talk with Steve Herschbach last night and he's also stated he was impressed with the GPX-4000 so far also. Thanks for posting your findings so far. Wishing you the best of success with the new GPX! Rob Allison

Hello Guys, The typical turn-around time for Minelab PI gold detectors is 2 - 2.5 years. With the GPX-4000 we won't see another good gold detector for at least two years, maybe a bit longer. The question is, will Minelab discontinue the GP3500 here soon? Typically when a new detector comes out, they discontinue the previous one. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello Shadow, The only "Blasting" I know about is when the detector's searchcoil builds up "static electricity" and then discharges it with a load "BONG!!" This is normally a very loud signal. If you drag or scrub your coil a lot this will happen, but more so in hot and dry climates (Arizona Summers). This might not be what you're even talking about, but maybe so .... Rob Allison

Hello Dennis and others, I've received a few emails stating this is not the "real" Jimmy Sierra. Most said this is not his style promoting on other forums like this just out of the blue. I'm not sure if it is him or not, but he is welcome to share his experiences here anytime. All detectors find gold, you just have to know the limitations of each one and work within them! Dennis - Thanks a million for the business. Hope you really enjoy the new GPX-4000. I've sold a bunch more since yours and hoping to get some feedback on the forum here soon from the new owners. I plan on getting some more time under my GPX this coming Sunday. Wishing you all the best, Rob Allison

Hello Jimmy, Since you're answering questions, just curious if you have tried any of the Minelab detectors before? It sounds like you're partial to the White's MXT. I've personally spent some time with the unit in Alaska nugget hunting and even found several ounces of gold. However, out here in the West (most Arizona) I really struggled with it. This is the main reason I dropped selling White's and Fisher since they really struggled on the mineralization. Has White's ever considered making a Pulse Induction detector for nugget hunting? Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Shadow, Nice display of flake and fine gold you have there. Have you considered a good metal detector? Wishing you the best of luck, Rob Allison

Hello Reno Chris, I have to agree with you on this one even though Jimmy is very well known and a successful hunter. I have found locations where hundreds of gold nuggets have been recovered by detectors and very little, if any black sand is present. I've also found places where the black sand is so thick you would swear gold had to be present, but it wasn't! I put very little faith in looking for black sand deposits. If you want to hunt for gold nuggets, research free milling, pocket type gold deposits. I also like to hunt areas with a lot of errosion or weathering. I have other secrect indicators, but you know ... Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Ruff & Tuff, Until Rattlesnake Jim can jump in, I will let you know my opinions. Over the years using the GP series I found much smaller gold, much smaller gold at depth and even some larger pieces I missed with the SD2100. When the GP Extreme first was released Minelab claimed the GP Extreme would get 55% more depth on smaller gold and 18% more depth on larger gold nuggets. With any of the GP series you will find smaller gold, which is really the "Beans and Bacon" of electronic prospecting. The GP's also have more features such as Auto Tracking, More Settings & Better Tuning for EM Interference. P.S. I can't find them as small as the GoldBug2 with the GP3500, but I have found them under a grain at the surface with the Coiltek Joey Mono. However, I'm really not interested in the sub-grainers with a Minelab PI. I will concentrate on the 1/2 Dwter and up at depth. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison