HOW GOODS YOUR SWING

Hi All
Seriously at times it can be the be all or end all of finding gold.With the advancement of Minelab Machines and the move towards Monos has your swing suffered.You cant swing to fast and too high with a DD and find gold.So to use one it teaches you to be very accurate.I would venture to guess that there are some out there that gold keeps alluding them.With a DD you can run on the deck a mono works well at 75mm .Think about it are you the tiger woods of detecting ,a swing that is Level front to back side to side.Its one of the main differences between part timers and fulltimers.Set up that machine with a slight forward balance on the bungee and roll your wrist on the swing.It can and does make a difference.You wont miss easy gold if fact you will know you have it.But the fact is 70 percent of targets are on the edge of having alll things right.Good Ground Balance,Good settings and a great Swing.
Good Luck off to the West in a week for the season
Cheers Dig

Gday Dig


There is a lot of truth in what you are saying about swing speed, and its easy to get into the wrong way to do it if you are always in a hurry, I have watched some detectorists and they swing away as though they are using a whipper snipper instead of a detector, and it always seemed to me that if they were still able to find the odd piece of gold them if they slowed down they would do much better.

Its a fact that a low and level purposeful swing is going to be the most productive, during the course of the swing the coil will also detect a short way out to the sides and sometimes you will just hear a change in the threshold which is enough to make you go back over that spot and out to the sides of it, and a piece of gold can be found, if you are swinging too fast then you would miss it completely.

I think that in some ground it takes a little longer to get a response back to the coil, with high mineralisation and interference ect the electronics are working overtime, so the faster you swing the less likely you are to be able to hear the response, and a target that is vague will just be swamped by it all and not recognised.

When you are working known ground a slow and steady pace is needed, keeping the coil as close to the ground as you can, and keeping the swing level, if you concentrate on keeping the swing to a width no wider than your shoulder width then it will stop you from lifting the coil higher off the ground at the ends of the swing, if you watch someone else detecting in a hurry you are quite easily able to see them do this, you think you have covered the ground but a lot of the swing has been wasted as the coil was too high.

Most of the best detectorist are the older folk as they are never in a hurry and take their time covering the ground thoroughly, slow purposeful swing and plenty of patience is the key, if you are patch hunting then it is practical to make your swing a bit wider and quicker as you are trying to cover as much ground as you can and you are only really looking for that indicator, the first piece that signals the possible presence of a patch.

cheers

stayyerAU

For two weeks I have been trying hard to find the yellow in a very worked minerallised ground. I have been focusing on technique using slow and low with my gpx4000 with settings on sensitive and trying both fixed and tracking but my chain marks show I have walked over gold only to have my mate pick up the gold after. we are working heavily worked area and they are finding only small sub grammers. You guys are talking about keeping the coil level but what is the technique for heaps? keeping it parallel to heap following contours or running it parallel to the earth ignoring the angle of the slop?

broc113559 wrote:what is the technique for heaps? keeping it parallel to heap following contours or running it parallel to the earth ignoring the angle of the slop?

Broc, Ignoring the angle of the slope will have the same effect as lifting the coil at the end of your swing, keeping it parallel to the heap would be the desired effect in this situation.
The same if you are wanting to check river banks, keep your coil parallel best you can to the surface you are wanting to search.

Does your friend that is picking up the gold behind you run the same machine as you? have you got it set up the same? what about coils?

Cheers

Thanks Goldstalker, My Friend was running a 3500 with a DD coil about 14inch. It's a totally different setup but one would think the more modern machine should give better results so it indicates problems to me and then missing gold is definately errors. I am just in the process of watching JP's GPX Factor DVD again to relate things that I previously couldn't when I first watched it. My friend kept telling me slow and low but with my gpx4000 and goldstalker mono maybe a faster swing would make a more chirpy target response. I have been running factory presets in deep mode and occasionally switching to others, mostly running on sensitive, fixed and mono. I very regularly check ground balance.

I hear (from people in the industry) that the use of even the bungee can interferre with the proper swing motion of the detector although without one, you'll probably suffer sore arms. The use of a hip stick is said to further hamper the swing of a detector and increase the reinforcement of a bad swing.

Working on a slope requires the user to walk along the length of the slope rather than traverse up and down it. Keeping the coil level in such circumstances is going to require some considerable effort by the user.

Slow and steady swings are important and some people just don't get it. I can recall countless times of pulling up a friend and showing him how to swing slowly and to keep the coil on the ground and yet when he he went back to the job, he'd work far too fast and his coil would be an inch or more off the ground. He never did seem to grasp it but then again he always had trouble finding gold. I even saw him walk right over a small (but still sizable) specimen that he missed altogether - probably due to the height and speed.

With any coil, you need to read the manual carefully before you use the detector and listen to the advice of the full-time prospectors who always seem to say the same thing: 'Low and Slow'.

Cheers,

M.

How fast is to fast....how slow is to slow, one can go to slow and achieve the same result as going to fast.

FWIW the gauge i use is very simple but effective (for me anyway) if i have to use forearm strength to change direction this tells me that my rhythm is to fast and i need to slow down.

If one gets into a consistant rhythm very little energy is used and the ability to be able to keep track of the surrounds is enhanced.

EDIT : I would like to hear Jonathan Porter's thought's on this subject.

As long as the coil is moving, you can't go too slow with a DD.
With mono's, play with the first target in fixed and you will soon
know the best swing speed for that particular coil.

nero_design wrote:I hear (from people in the industry) that the use of even the bungee can interferre with the proper swing motion of the detector although without one, you'll probably suffer sore arms. The use of a hip stick is said to further hamper the swing of a detector and increase the reinforcement of a bad swing......

Cheers,

M.

wearing tighty whities can affect your swing, wearing a baseball cap backwards can affect your swing....... If using a bungee cord or a hipstick
(or anything for that matter) affects your swing...adjust your swing!

G'day Guys.


Swing speed,Swing speed,Swing speed. I just can't handle it any more, she's breaking up Scotty. Beam me out of here.

Cheers kon61

Hi All, What about the handle.. I found that if placed on a slight inward fix..it made the wrist work a little easier..And didnt tire my lower arm as much..I used to do 8 hours plus a day ..Just my thoughts..I use a 24+12 NF..Mono, Funny how small it feels after awhile , I changed dect. with the wife for a test..she has the 17+10? NF ..It felt like a teaspoon..Bob

G'day guys.

I have found that,by using the "Easy Swing Arm"during prospecting gave me,not only a much better and controlled swing speed,but also superb,level,balanced ground coverage(full 180 degree swing).Hardly no fatigue on back,waist or shoulders,and
without the hassle of continuous connecting and disconnecting bungee strap or ball from ball socket(Hip Stick)when digging targets.
By using two arms and distributing the weight factor,the use of larger heavier coils become a breeze to use.


Cheers kon61.

G'day guys.

Quick! get onto SBS Channel "Survival in the Kimberly's".Good documentary.


Cheers kon61.

Gday


Another way to eleviate fatigue in the wrist for prolonged swinging is to put a wrist strap around the detector shaft just behind the handgrip, you slip your hand through the strap and then hold the grip, it takes a lot of the pressure off your hand, and if you want to remove your hand from the grip and flex your fingers you can still do that even while you are still swinging the coil.


cheers


stayyerAU

kon61 wrote:G'day guys.

I have found that,by using the "Easy Swing Arm"during prospecting gave me,not only a much better and controlled swing speed,but also superb,level,balanced ground coverage(full 180 degree swing).Hardly no fatigue on back,waist or shoulders,and
without the hassle of continuous connecting and disconnecting bungee strap or ball from ball socket(Hip Stick)when digging targets.
By using two arms and distributing the weight factor,the use of larger heavier coils become a breeze to use.


Cheers kon61.

Hi Kon,

The easy swing arm sounds interesting. I haven't been able to find any pictures of it though. Can you point me in the right direction. Anyone else using these devices? Cheers

Waveform wrote:

kon61 wrote:G'day guys.

           I have found that,by using the "Easy Swing Arm"during prospecting gave me,not only a much better and controlled swing speed,but also superb,level,balanced ground coverage(full 180 degree swing).Hardly no fatigue on back,waist or shoulders,and
without the hassle of continuous connecting and disconnecting bungee strap or ball from ball socket(Hip Stick)when digging targets.
  By using two arms and distributing the weight factor,the use of larger heavier coils become a breeze to use.  


  Cheers kon61.

Hi Kon,

The easy swing arm sounds interesting. I haven't been able to find any pictures of it though. Can you point me in the right direction. Anyone else using these devices? Cheers

G'day Waveform, Trev here, I just read your post and am not sure if you are still interested in the "easy swing arm" or not?

You can see a picture of them at Goldsearch Dunolly's website. I am considering getting one myself, it was recommended to me by a seasoned campaigner when I mentioned my back pain. From what I gather, hipsticks help with shoulder pain and these swing arms are good for back pain......others may want to add to that or correct my relayed statement.

Cheers, Trev

Hi Trev

Not sure if Waveform has been looking in or not,
as he sold his detector, not that long ago.

No worries Trev
You never know he might still pop in for a look see..