coil for new area

Gday, fairly new to this, learning as I go, Imreally only have myself and forums to learn from, so any help is appeciated, thanks in advance.

When checking out new ground, what coil should I start with. Im using a TDI oz pro, and an MXT.

On the TDI, I have a razorback longreach, 6 x 10 I think, and the other coil is the factory supplied mono.
The MXT I have 950 eclipse, and a DD 16" eclipse (size of a snow shoe!)

Ive been useing the razorback longreach, mainly because of its size, its easy to swing, all im finding atm, is junk, but im finding small junk, bits of foil, boot tacks, small bits of sieve wire as well as huge 44 gal drums that deafen me!

Havnt used the MXT for a while, but just before the wet, found some promising, virgin ground, that I was using it on.

Anyone recomend a better coil for the TDI to cover a larger area? Or is what I have ok? Ta, dave.

If a minelab PI has been there then I dont think any coil is going to help you. A friend of mine ran an Oz TDI Pro with numerous NF coils, sadie, 12 x 7 & 14 x 9. I went over ground after him that he said he had finished with with my 4500 & I was gobsmacked as to the gold I found. So was he (I am sure, but he didnt say) & he is a good operator. He sold his TDI & I bought his sadie & 14 x 9 coils. The 14 x 9 has been my favourite up until I got the coiltek 14" Elite which has opened up old haunts of mine out in more open country but the 14 x 9 is good for the tighter areas. My dilema now is the 11" coiltek Elite or the NF 12" Evo.  The 14" Elite is still blowing me away. Here is a tease from a detecting outing a few days ago....& this was found on ground I had already been over with the 14" Elite at xmas time. The difference being that we had had some rain & the ground was damp & they were all deep & very very faint signals. Thanks to the damp ground I am sure.









Good luck out there

JW  

Hi KJ,
Looking at your first photo, can see one /lead runs to the present coil and then you have a short lead into the machine?
What is this set up?

Cheers
Peter

Hi kiwijw,
Just a quick question. Do you think that the booster set up helps you hear better compared to using headphones? Nice pieces of gold also.

Hi davent,
Good luck with the detecting, im new also to detecting using a gpx4500 with a 14' elite but have found nothing yet except junk.

Jin

Hi there Peter, JP asked the same question on Steve Herschbach's site. Dear I say it.....going by all the Woody mod knockers  It is Woodys anti interference filter, & yes.....I really believe it helps. I will try any thing that gives me an edge. Why wouldnt you?  It hasnt come off my detector since I first put it on. Here is the link to JP's question & my answer with photos. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1511-kicked-off-2016-in-fine-style/

Hi there Jin. I used head phones for years with a booster. I loved being locked in to what my detector was telling me with no out side noise interferences to distract me. Just full focus & concentration on the noise in my ears from the detector. listening for that faintest of faint hiccup in the threshold. Many people & some that I respect highly in the detecting world recommended external speakers over head phones.  I tried external speakers but just didnt like them. Then one day, & really for no reason, I tried the external speaker set up again. I was running it through the booster & I stuck with it for a whole day. Then some thing just changed within me & I haven't used head phone since. It wasnt because I find head phones hot a sweaty, but they can be, it wasnt that the head phone chord can get tangled up in bushes, but it can do. It isnt because on a windy day it is hard to hear the external speaker, but it can be. I just turn the speaker, that is right on my shoulder any way, or just tilt my head so the speaker is right on my ear. I now find a better balance of my hearing senses with the external speaker than with head phones. So I am running a signal enhancer as well as woodys anti interference filter. They both hang off the same side of the detector from brackets that I specially made that bolt on through the arm cuff bolts. As in link above.

Good luck out there

JW  

Kiwi, try taking the filter off as it is too much weight for no gain.
Woody is the biggest......... around.

Hook up twin speakers Kiwi and you'll like it even more. Wearing a wide brimmed hat not only protects you from the sun and overhanging branches the brim seems to enhance signals. Try it on a faint signal then take your hat off. And as you said if it is windy you can tilt your head to the leeward side speaker.

BTW thanks for the link explains it all and now another forum that I didn't know about.

[quote="UNCLE BOB"]Kiwi,  try taking the filter off as it is too much weight for no gain.
Woody is the biggest.........  around. [/quote

G'day Uncle Bob, The slight extra weight is not an issue to me. I use a pro swing harness & always use the bungy set up so no weight at all, even with 18" coils. To be honest....there are a few places that I detect where there can be bad EMI. I struggled & put up with it for a few years until I saw Woodys interference filter. I thought ...what the hell...nothing ventured nothing gained. So I got one. I went to one of these EMI infested areas & fired up the detector. MMMmm.... EMI & I couldnt get rid of it. I wacked on the interference filter & BINGO. All smooth & quite threshold & found gold to boot. So pretty hard to tell me there is no gain. No offence to you, we all have our opinions but it has lived on my detector ever since & will remain there. Seems to work for me & thats what matters.

Hi there Peter, I am pretty surprised that you didn't know about Steve Herschbach's site. I have followed him for years on various sites he has had. This being his latest one. A lot of extremely good stuff on there. He is very knowledgeable, very giving of his time & info, very helpful, & very unbiased & honest in his ideas & opinions on any & all makes of detectors. He says it how he see's it & finds it out in the field with no favoritism to any particular brand. Check out his equipment review on detectors    http://www.detectorprospector.com/

I am looking at getting a twin speaker B & Z set up from JP. The wide brim hat enhancing signals makes total sense. Cheers

Good luck out there

JW  

G'day kiwijw , that was interesting to read your opinion on the interference filter ,I asked about it on another forum and got  negative responses , so I never worried about any further, mate if I could just ask you a couple of questions on it ,
                            * the emi you have is that climatic / weather induced or the effects of urbanism ?  
             
                             * on a bad emi day what % do you reckon it cuts out ?

                              * do you reckon it's imperative to run it with the booster ,etc in the case of very faint signals ,breaks in threshold ,that it might mask those type of signals ??

G'day JW,
I suppose if it works for you and you never tried it out three separate times but only just the one time then good for you.
But going by Woodies reputation, no one will trust him for anything.

ok, re the "if a mine lab has been over it, no coil will help" comment.
The area I am working has had 1800 Chinese and several hundred Eruo prospectors over it, it has had hundreds of mine labs over it, and I reckon people will still be finding gold there for many years to come, its a big area.
Also, the question Im asking, is for "new, virgin ground, so as far as I know, no detectors have been over it as yet." So what sort of coil should I start with? A BIG b**tard, OR LITTLE SENSITIVE ONE?

Is the TDI oz pro that bad? if so, why does it sell? It seems to find scrap pretty well, and my test nuggets no problem, not as deep as I would like, but I can find my 1.6gm nugget, and the only other one Ive found so far, is .3 of a gram. the 1.6 was 6inches when I found it, and the .3 was just under the surface, I think, can,t be sure, because it took ages to find in the spoil.

Hi there davent, Sorry mate. Didnt mean to hijack your thread.
For "virgin" ground or ground that I dont know if it contains gold or not or ground that may have been gone over by hundreds before me but I didnt know, I use a larger coil. Reason being: If gold is there & it is "virgin" ground then the bigger (multi gram) bits of gold are still going to be there & so be a good signal to a large coil. Even at a bit of depth. Being "virgin" ground I dont know what size gold may be present or what depth it may be at or how deep the ground is to bed rock or the clay pan layer  The large coil gives more depth punch in to the ground & much more ground cover per sweep than a small coil, so you can cover more ground in a given time than with a small coil. My go to coil for that when I started out with my GP 3000 was the coiltek 24" X 12" UFO coil.









It wasnt too shabby at finding small bits either







It was light for its size, l didnt have a hip stick then or the pro swing harness, but I could swing it all day with the bungey chord set up. It found me many patches that I still go back to on occassions. Lately with the coiltek 14" Elite. Ahhh...dont you love technology when it brings back to life old ground.

Once I strike on to a patch with the bigger coil & have cleaned up the gold I can with that coil then I will drop down in coil size's to get the smaller shallower gold & often the boundries of the patch increase with the smaller gold spreading wider afield.
So for me I use a large coil on unknown ground to cover more area quicker than a small coil. Sure, a smaller coil will be more sensitive on the shallower smaller gold than a large coil but you will take a week to cover ground that a larger coil would cover in a couple of days. Even one bigger bit of gold found with a large coil may out weigh multi smaller bits found with a small coil.

Here is an example. I spent 4 hours with my gold bug 2. Found 7 bits of fly sh it gold that came in at the grand total weight of .15 of a gram.

Here are a few pics

Can you even see it



another one









That was just for the novelty factor. I really cant be bothered detecting for that kind of gold. Because what I haven't shown you is the pocket full of bloody shot gun pellets.

Where as with a larger coil in the same time frame I can get this

8 grams



It is a numbers game & the numbers are: Time & effort. Plus you really need a number of coils to cover all avenues & situations out there in the field.

Thats my take on it...other may be different. Hope that was of some help. Cheers

Good luck out there

JW  

oops....forgot to answer you first query from above re the TDI/Minelab. The TDI has a better discrimination set up than the minelabs but I dig all signals any way & I think all serious prospectors do as well. The TDI isnt a bad machine but the minelabs are just better. In my opinon. I detected side by side for days with my mate & always found gold on ground he had finished with. Having said that though I know I can go back over ground I have been over & still find gold. So read in to that what you like. Like all detectors the TDI has its place....maybe in much more trashy areas. Go to Steve's site & check out his reports on any machine you like. Including the TDI.    http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/metal-detectors-metal-detecting-accessories.htm

Good luck out there

JW

no dramas with the hi jack mate, i dont mind at all, because i learn from de railments to, lol.
Im just a grumpy t u r d on night shift atm, going home now.
I find very few bits of gold where i am atm, but have found an area that has probably never seen a vlf or a pi , ever, the chinese didnt even dig it, and the mining companys have done some sampleing about 20km away, and found small amounts, but its all granite country with iron blows and dolorite dykes, no different from the rest of the pine creek origen, just very very difficult to access.

Cheers dave.

Hi there davent, The hi jack was spurred along by others asking questions & me replying. But you are right about also learning from derailments too. Any & all info is good. Sometimes though you can read too much & trip over yourself Your country sounds interesting & you may stumble on to some thing very worth while. It may take a bit of time & lots of walking but I wish you the best of luck . Keep us posted with your progress but keep your spot to your self. If you put up pics make sure your GPS on the phone camera is turned off.

Good luck out there

JW