Its not just depth

I picked up my Z on sat afternoon and on my way home I stopped past Mt Doran, I had never been there but it was the closest goldfield along my way.
The weather was coming in and I knew there wouldnt be much time but wanted to get it switched on and make sure everything seemed to be running ok.
As it turned out I only got 15 mins of running time and only swung it for about 5 min the other 10 was spent fumbling with my harness and stumbling thru the menu.
After getting home and actually reading the instructions I know I did plenty wrong from the startup but that dosnt matter in the context of the video.
What is interesting is that I was able to detect in a thunderstorm and the machine was very stable as far as i could tell with only a spike here and there right on the lightning strikes
even with my inadequate ground balancing and not having performed the noise cancelling part of the startup sequence until after I had found the bit of gold.
Ive had a 4500 and still have a 5000 and can tell you no way I could detect with a storm like that overhead and more and more I hear complaints from fellow prospectors that they had to
give up at some stage of the day due to too much noise and interference. So what im getting at is depth is only one part of the possible advantage you want from each new detector upgrade,
If I can stay out there longer and be less fatigued from re checking false signals then my limited time in the bush detecting due to living in Melbourne and working M-F becomes more effective.
Secondly as its been pointed out by JP the efficiency is multiplied again by the fact that using the Z Im covering ground with effectively 3 different coil sizes at the same time.
Many comments are being made when seeing deep gold being detected with the Z that the 5000 would have gotten that with an 18" or
that an 8" is just as sensitive with the right settings on the small stuff it picks up.
Well again with my limited time if I can get pretty good depth on bigger gold at the same time as still picking up the small stuff with one coil, one swing then Im pretty happy.
Here is my vid, I cut it down to 5 mins the other bits as I said were fumbling and stumbling as well as picking up a bit of steel on the tracks next to my car.
the bit of gold was only a scrape down and in what looked like an old scraping already and weighed in at 0.22g

Thanks for the vid

Congrats on your finds.

Blimey! Found that one without even trying.

great find polak
and if ya can find that one inside 15 mins then how much you gonna find
giving the area you full attention for a day or 2
you will find lots more with your Zed just keep swinging it
mick

Great find Polak, that Zed seems to be deadly in your hands.

Nice find and thanks for sharing. Congrats on your find and I hope there is many more waiting your return.

Cheers.

Mike.

Thank you polak for sharing.
I watched your video a few days ago when you posted it and it's now good to read your comments about the Z too.

I see another advantage along the lines of what you stated. Each coil/timing combination has a band of nuggets within a certain size that are not detected to the fullest possible depth. The reduction will vary upon mineralisation and other settings but could be in the order of up to 40% or more less depth. These deadened areas are known as detection holes, and they can be so effective that nuggets in the 8 to 12 gram range can be missed with an 18 - 20 inch coil at quite shallow depths and overlap on different coil/timing combinations.

From what I can see so far, the ZVT technology does not have detection holes, so not only are you covering the ground with 3 different coil sizes at once, but you are detecting to maximum possible depth across all target sizes.

I think it will take a few months before the full strengths of the 7000 become evident.

I hope you do well with your new machine polak, and good on you for avoiding those lighting strikes when you have a conducting rod in your hands  

Thank you polak for the vid and for sharing, congrats for your find.

on a side note i wonder how long b4 someone is struck by lightning using a 7k in a storm now that it wont stop you detecting.

I agree with what you said about detecting holes. These gaps that the other detectors couldn't find gold were these holes occurred. The Zed has now filled these gaps and can see the gold that was not seen because of the gaps. Hope that makes sense. Only today I had more success with the Zed. Inside bend in a gully. I had found good gold with the 5000 in the gully wall and gully bottom. Swung over one of my refilled holes and got a good target. Undug the hole to the virgin ground below swung over hole and target still in hole. Mate came over with 2300 could here targets. Not one but three small nuggets. all up three grams. Further along a four grammer under a huge bolder in the side of the bank. This area had been detected low and slow. You can make your mind up if the Zed is any good.

Hi Basada
Congrats on your finds

I think the ones that now have their gpz7000 
are starting to work out the best way to run them.
Slowly more and more info and finds are coming in.

alchemist wrote:Thank you polak for sharing.
I watched your video a few days ago when you posted it and it's now good to read your comments about the Z too.

I see another advantage along the lines of what you stated. Each coil/timing combination has a band of nuggets within a certain size that are not detected to the fullest possible depth. The reduction will vary upon mineralisation and other settings but could be in the order of up to 40% or more less depth. These deadened areas are known as detection holes, and they can be so effective that nuggets in the 8 to 12 gram range can be missed with an 18 - 20 inch coil at quite shallow depths and overlap on different coil/timing combinations.

From what I can see so far, the ZVT technology does not have detection holes, so not only are you covering the ground with 3 different coil sizes at once, but you are detecting to maximum possible depth across all target sizes.

I think it will take a few months before the full strengths of the 7000 become evident.

I hope you do well with your new machine polak, and good on you for avoiding those lighting strikes when you have a conducting rod in your hands  

Very well put

Thanks for the story and Vid

Since using the Zed I have played around with settings. just remember I have mild soil were I detect not like Vic. I think General is the best setting. I cant use normal soil timing Difficult seems good. Threshold 30, Volume Limit 10-12 but like 12, Volume I run 15 with a B&Z Booster Dual Speaker. I do this so I have no warble in the threshold. Sensitivity is a can of worms. My findings are as follows. the higher you put the sensitivity the more erratic the detector becomes. I have tried 20 in General with the above stated settings. the targets jump out but you get sick of the erratic threshold. I like threshold at 16 for General and 16-18 in Highyield and 8 in Extra Deep. I have found if I use Auto Smoothing Low the Threshold volume drops. I havn't played with High Auto Smoothing and prefer to run with it off. With it off you get better depth I believe. Pin pointing is a bit of a pain. Best response has been on each side of the coil were the high ridges that protrude to the outer edge of each side of the coil. I use Auto Ground Balance most of the time and have found pumping the coil as you do with the 5000 works. Hop[e this helps some of you out there.

Basada wrote:Since using the Zed I have played around with settings. just remember I have mild soil were I detect not like Vic. I think General is the best setting. I cant use normal soil timing Difficult seems good. Threshold 30, Volume Limit 10-12 but like 12, Volume I run 15 with a B&Z Booster Dual Speaker. I do this so I have no warble in the threshold. Sensitivity is a can of worms. My findings are as follows. the higher you put the sensitivity the more erratic the detector becomes. I have tried 20 in General with the above stated settings. the targets jump out but you get sick of the erratic threshold. I like threshold at 16 for General and 16-18 in Highyield and 8 in Extra Deep. I have found if I use Auto Smoothing Low the Threshold volume drops. I havn't played with High Auto Smoothing and prefer to run with it off. With it off you get better depth I believe. Pin pointing is a bit of a pain. Best response has been on each side of the coil were the high ridges that protrude to the outer edge of each side of the coil. I use Auto Ground Balance most of the time and have found pumping the coil as you do with the 5000 works. Hop[e this helps some of you out there.

Nice information Basada!!!!!!!!!!

Have you dug any that just make you go WOW !!!!!!!!!! yet??????
Yeah i know you most likely say wow when you realise what you missed with that "no good bucket of bolts the GPX5000" but deep good lumps????
In al fairness to the claimed 40% improved depth!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you get stuff the GPX's missed, well arn't you getting 100% increase in depth?????????????

Hi Lee All I know since using the Zed is it picks up gold that the 5000 missed. Hope to be doing tests with a 5000 with my settings and a LuckyLark and after market coils. Should be interesting.

Basada wrote:Since using the Zed I have played around with settings. just remember I have mild soil were I detect not like Vic. I think General is the best setting. I cant use normal soil timing Difficult seems good. Threshold 30, Volume Limit 10-12 but like 12, Volume I run 15 with a B&Z Booster Dual Speaker. I do this so I have no warble in the threshold. Sensitivity is a can of worms. My findings are as follows. the higher you put the sensitivity the more erratic the detector becomes. I have tried 20 in General with the above stated settings. the targets jump out but you get sick of the erratic threshold. I like threshold at 16 for General and 16-18 in Highyield and 8 in Extra Deep. I have found if I use Auto Smoothing Low the Threshold volume drops. I havn't played with High Auto Smoothing and prefer to run with it off. With it off you get better depth I believe. Pin pointing is a bit of a pain. Best response has been on each side of the coil were the high ridges that protrude to the outer edge of each side of the coil. I use Auto Ground Balance most of the time and have found pumping the coil as you do with the 5000 works. Hop[e this helps some of you out there.

Hi everyone
I rang Minelab the other day to ask about whether the difference between Auto and Manual Ground Balance is similar to Fixed and Tracking on the 5000. We have always run in fixed believing it gives us more depth and it is simply a matter of ground balancing more often to keep the balance smooth. I spoke to a nice Irish chap who said that while they were similar, the settings in the Z were more sophisticated than the fixed and tracking in the 5000 and it wont `balance` out targets by swinging repeatedly over a target as it may have done in tracking with the 5000. He also said that running in auto would not compromise the depth performance. He did say however, not to pump the coil when using the quick track button but to sweep the coil side - side and that pumping the coil would `disturb the balance rather than fix it`(not his exact words but in words to that effect). Not pumping the coil is a hard habit to break and I was interested in Basada`s comments. Has anyone had time to work out their preferences as to auto or manual yet?
Cheers
Jane

I know the manual says to sweep the coil. Try pumping the coil and see if it works. To prove that it works go in to manual hold the quick track button in and pump the coil. You will see on the screen a nice big tick indicating you have just ground balanced the machine. When in Auto you will notice the threshold quieten down when you pump the coil. The detector seems to keep up with the ground when in Auto and needs very little adjustment. I change to manual ground balance and pump the coil on iffy ground targets. Seems to work for me.