Iron Disc.

[Idaho Al83226]

This is a question for Rob but I would like to hear from anyone who has input or ideas on this subject. Rob, how good is the iron disc. on the GPX5000, is good enough to work Gains Creek (AK.) and get the deeper gold thet the VLF michines leave behind or would all the trash drive a person nuts?? ........Idaho Al

[adam]

Can I just say a couple things on this?....Ok, Good

If I was in a really really trashy area (ferrous material) then I would use disc. I have on occasion, however I have such a habit of digging everything, that even when it is blanking out on iron or something I always dug it up anyway as habit, and out of curiosity. The machine was always right BTW. Another issue is that I usually have to have the coil very near the target to get is to Disc. out, so alot of the time I damn near had the target almost dug up anyway, and I felt the need to just finish the job, but once again the machine was always right.

Then you have some poeple that will say that you will miss targets that have Iron stone with the gold, and I suppose that would be true especially if the area was known for that type of nugget mix. If it was not that type of area however then it would be an odds game in a really really trashy area. So, your detector mis id`s one iron stone/gold nugget per 20 regular gold nuggets in a really trashy area. That scenario would be worth it to me to use disc.

Then there is Disc. + I.D. on my machine which I have not even messed with yet

[nuggethunting]

Hello Al,

That is a very good question. Well I always say see what others are doing successfully at that spot and that will pretty much give you the answer. As much as I love Minelab's, I spent more time with a White's MXT at Gaines Creek than the big Minelab. Without a doubt, the big Minelab's will find much deeper gold, but you might want to focus more with them around the cobble piles that have less trash. The push piles, runway and such have so much trash you might drive yourself crazy digging deep junk.

Keep in mind, the disc. on the Minelab PI's does not disc. to the same depth you can detect a target. For example, if you hear a faint target and it's a can at 2 foot deep, you won't be able to disc. it out at that depth. You might have to dig down 6-8 before the disc. or "blanking" will even happen.

So my answer in a nut shell would be, use a good VLF with disc. on the real trashy areas and then a Minelab PI on the areas that have less trash. This is not saying that a big nugget couldn't be miss in the trashy area and out of range from the VLF, but that is just the risk you take if you're not digging all targets.

The only way you're going to sleep at night knowing you didn't leave a nugget is to dig all targets.

Now at Moore Creek, I used the Minelab PI's 100% of the time. The trash was real minimal and we were finding nuggets up to 2-3 foot deep in the tailing piles.

Hope this helps a bit,

Rob Allison

[matt]

A few weeks ago I was working an area that I had found some large specimen gold. In a spot like this, I decided to just dig every target.

There was a spot that had three square nails in 18 square inches. Two of them were on the surface and the third was about 4 to 6 inches deep.

Once the three nails were gone, there was still a nice signal directly below the deeper nail. It turned out to be a rather large gold and

quartz specimen at 18". Had I used the discrimination and left the nails, that specimen would still be sitting in the ground. Having never

been to Alaska personally, maybe there is just no way to dig it all. If I was to go, I would bring both detectors and see how it goes.

Cheers.