first go at wa goldfields

well in 2 weeks i will be at Sandstone to try my luck.
just a few questions. before i bought my detector i talked to a fellow who had been prospecting for a number of years and he told me to buy the best machine that i could afford. i ended up getting an sd2200v2.
i have the standard 11 dd but have also have bought an 8 in mono on the advice of the minelab trainer.
also have spare battery etc. while i cant wait to get started, some others have said i will be wasting my time with my machine and should have got a 4500 which was out of my reach. my question is what do you blokes think. and is there any other coils or other equipment that would make life easier.

Sorry haven't been to WA, planning on it one day... just wishing you all the best, hope you pay your detector off on the first day.

Post some pics of your trip when you get back.

Hi Bulzar,
use the search function here and at finders, lots of info on your machine is available.

Bill

Hi Bulzar,had a 2200v2 the same ,and found the nugget finder coil 16in DD the best, sorry I sold it,been over same ereas & found it never missed much,Doug

Hi Bulzar
You have 2 powerfull small coils,if you are there for any length of time you will probably need to get a larger search coil. I wont recommend a larger search coil as I dont know how well a v2 runs with medium mono.Perhaps someone who has run one could advise.As for type of machine in WA,the areas to be searched are VAST as long as you are running a Minelab you are in for show.
Cheers Dig

.

If you are going to the 6 mile diggings they are all under active tennaments

Ive never had a 2200, but from what ive read here its a good machine, and a machine is ONLY as good as its operator, ive been out on several times and saw people with new 45 with all the accessories, and they havent found a thing, because they have been swinging them as if they were using a whipper snipper,Just remembered a time i went out with treatable and he had a 3000 so did his mate and i had a 4000, i never found a thing ,, they did, its just luck of the draw, and at the time they would have had their machine setr up better than me,, Dont let people influence you on what you should have bought ask for advice and look for advice on how best to use the machine you,ve got,, look at dicko finding gold with a whites, (because he did the hard yards and didnt give up) I cant remember anyone finding big gold with a 45 only small pieces,, (correct me if i,m wrong here please as i would like to know). cheers spider

Hi Bulzar,

I ran with a 2200 for 4 years and did one stint in WA with it.

My advice is to learn to dicern ground noise signals from solid signals. The machine will pick up some ground noise but your brain can quickly work out what are good signals. I ran with a 11inch mono with success. It can be a bit chattery is some spots but gold signals will be clearly dicernable.

I used a 14 inch DD coil much of the time to get some ground coverage while patch or run hunting.

Unless you are looking for small gold on known spots i would recommend a 14 inch coil or thereabouts to give some ground coverage.

The 8 inch coil is useful, there are many spots with very small gold missed be earlier prospectors.

Any Minelab gold detector will find you gold in WA. Your aim is to search as efficently as you can covering alot of ground aiming to find one nugget. Then you can slow down and hone in on that area.

Its a big place and many good runs are still found in the middle of so called flogged areas still. You gotta detect efficiently, covering good ground and move around alot until you get a run. There is a vast amount of gold bearing ground that has not had a coil passed over it.
Tributer

G'day Bulzar.

Firstly I'd like to think that you do have some gold prospecting experience behind you and that you've found some gold with a metal detector before.If so,you're already halfway there.I take it that you're 8" round mono coil is a commander series coil,which is an excellent combination on a 2200V2 for the tiniest nuggets,at good depths in low to medium mineralization.However if you intend working large areas of flat ground,with higher mineralization i found that the Coiltek Elite 14 inch round (tan colour)or the Minelab 18 inch round DD Commander series coil,a superb combination (with the later also going greater depths on say 10gms and above) on the V2. Couple all the above to a 7.3 volt regulated battery system,which in turn boosts the machines output power to at least a modest 10%+,and the V2 becomes a serious contender.Use a Hip Stick or easy swing arm,so as to make life easier to swing the larger coils,and you should be well on your way to finding a piece of that elusive yellow mellow.

Cheers kon61.

Gday Bulzar


Dont let other peoples comments on your machine throw you, you will do ok with it but you have to treat the place even if it looks flogged as new ground, its new ground to you and you should work it with the same attitude, there is nothing more satisfying than producing the goods when people have tried to tell you that you cant do it.

If its within your budget it would be beneficial to you to get a mid sized coil as well, preferably a mono, about 14" will do the job, the 8" minelab mono is an excellent coil and the 11" standard dd coil can be used in speudo mono so you already have three choices, the 14" will just give you more ground coverage as there is plenty of open ground over here.

The trick is not to try and cover as much of the ground as you can but to pick a likely looking spot and work it slowly and methodically as there is always something left behind.

Anyway good luck and I hope you do well.

cheers


stayyerAU