Detecting with 4500

Hi Guys,

I am a newbie and have a 4500.

I went out fossicking today for the fourth time and have found numerous buttons, buckles, nails and bullets.

I have a test piece of gold, approx 3 grams.

My question is, should my test piece be the sound which I need to target to prevent me from wasting my time with constant rubbish or do I need to just dig everything?

Any tips would be most helpful for this frustrated newbie.

Thanks for your help...

Let me know if you want to catch up in the vic triangle...

dig everything

Hi Extreme i dig every thing two weeks a go i found two 1850's pennys,not gold but lots of fun.
I have left a target or two because i wasn't patient now i have to go back and recheck,do the job properly.Frog

hey extreme, the thing you can do is dig a hole so deep and chuck your test gold down the hole and cover it back in, then just sit there waving the detector over the bit off gols and play with the settings until your happy with the out come. you should dig every target as some gold will sound a little different for others. you will get sick off digging every target and start leaving a few, but just think it could off been a bit off god....
cheers
stoppsy

Thanks guys for the tips.

Nothing lands in your lap, persistence pays.

I just need to get my machine very quiet, it is very up and down noisy,after ground balance.

Is it just the threshold, and should i manual tune?

have you got jp's dvd? the best way to work out your detector is to do a day out with a prospecting shop as they will show you what each setting is used for and how to set your detector up for different grounds ect. it's worth the money and time to do...... the other thing to do is to catch up with someone with a 4500 and just detecet a day with them and get them to help you out.
cheers
stoppsy

Thanks stoppsy,

will do.

G'day extreme, Did you buy your 45 new? If so there should be a training day that can be very beneficial.
If not, then I am pretty sure that places like coiltek in Maryborough offer day and half day help....at a cost of course.
The best way for sure as Stoppsy says is to spend a day or two out with other 45 users, if you don't know anyone then post on the forum and you may get some interest.
Be sure to read the posts in the 4500 section of the forum as many have posted settings in there, I myself have posted two lots of settings that I can remember posting.
I would be keen to catch up myself with you but things are pretty hectic atm and not sure when I would be able to get out.
Where do you detect when you go out ? I see your from Pt.cook so Ballarat/ Bendigo??

Cheers

Hi Extreme,
welcome to the detecting fraternity

To give you some pointers:

If you are on "moved" ground, for example detecting old digings, gold can be at or near the top, and will often give loud signals - you will have to check them.
Get a "super" magnet fitted to the pick you use. It will save you heaps of time - all the rusted iron targets will be much quicker to find.

On "virgin" ground the game changes:
Gold will be in the lower levels, below the top soil. You can easily scrape the soft top soil with your foot. If target moved, it was not gold. If target stayed after the top soil was scraped - dig it!

One caveat: gold in quarts (speciments) can be on the top on virgin ground, and so you could kick it and move it with your foot. But you will note that such areas don't have topsoil usually, as the quarts forms the top layer of the ground (and it is "hard" ground)

About your test nugget:

It will sound different when placed on or into the ground - compared to the sound it would make if it was laying in that ground for millions of years. So air test & nugget on the ground test are basically not usefull.
Remember the sound you heard when you dug a deep bullet or a small shotgun pellet? Thats roughly what gold would sound like (unless its is a large or very shallow piece).

I dont have a 45, i use GP extreme at the moment, but a friend of mine has 45 and i used it on more than one occasion. I ran into the same problem as you - machine was really noisy and would not ballance or keep steady treshold. Even when i re-set it to factory defaults. The trick there is with gain and stabiliser which had to be lowered i think.

And BTW, we are not fossikers and you were not fossiking . Thats what people who look for gems do.
Here you got two groups - detectorists and prospectors. Detectorists detect for gold in and around all diggs. Prospectors chase reefs and new ground. Diffrent skill set.

Anyway, the most improtant tip one can give you is to learn to read the ground.
There was a great tip printed in november issue of G&T magazine:
"Finding nuggets is 10% luck, 40% detecting skills and 50% ability to read the ground".
I could not have said that better even if i tried.


Best of luck and go get a big one

On "virgin" ground the game changes:
Gold will be in the lower levels, below the top soil. You can easily scrape the soft top soil with your foot. If target moved, it was not gold. If target stayed after the top soil was scraped - dig it!
[/quote] i have found gold ontop off virgin ground after moving the top soil a 1.6 gramer and a .5 gram. some gold could be on or near the top so should check just incase...
cheers
stoppsy

Extreme Hi,

Yesterday afternoon.....awwwww that sounds like a piece of wire.....real waaaaaaaaaarbbbbly do your head in sound, dug it cos i dig everything and i mean every signal, who cares if its trash not me, turned out to be a very nice old silver coin, my first one. I will take it to a dealer and see what he thinks it is....so you never know, DIG EVERYTHING no matter what and never ever walk away....Just trying to help

HueyDuck....

that's it HueyDuck you just never know, i found gold that sounded different to all other bits and it was only 2 to 3" deep. it must off been the way it was sitting in the ground. i found a 1856 coin and a few inches from that was a bit off gold, i thought it was just rubbish but thought i better check.
cheers
stoppsy

Forgot to mention that "dig every target" is a good advice for when you are on a patch, or on ground that you KNOW produced gold to detectorists before.
But when looking for a NEW patch / ground i don't think you could check every target and get anywhere. I recon you need to find that first piece of gold in the new area before starting to check every target. But i am not a PRO - my advice is probably suitable to weekend warriors only.

All good advice from good people..

I hope one of us find "THE" nugget in 2011.

Good luck to everyone.

Regards,

Col.

Gday


Digging rubbish is very much a part of detecting and concentrations of old timer rubbish, not newer rubbish can indicate that you are in a good spot, you have to remember that back then the old boys would live right on their workings, and right on the most productive ground, and in doing that they dumped their rubbish in holes and gullies close by and a lot of it was also spread about by the wind and washed down creeks etc.

In these sorts of areas you would expect the majority of you targets to be junk, but the fact that the rubbish remains buried can be testament to the area also not being well detected also, so if you look at it in that light the possibilty of gold still being there is high.

When you tackle an area such as this it requires patience, its easier done with a small to medium sized coil, rather than a big coil, its easier to pinpoint targets, you dont get many multiple target responses, and smaller coils dont pick up so much emi, so over all it will be quieter, dont be fooled into thinking that a small coil 8" or 11" is not capable of depth, if you go low and slow and listen for the really subtle changes in the threshold, a high percentage of detectorists that venture into a rubbishy site will turn tail and get out of it, because it can be hard work and sometimes for little or no reward, other times you can do well but you are going to have to work for it and dig everything, there is no positive way that I know of to be correct all the time as far as telling what is a gold target or what is a rubbish target, it an educated guess at best.

I learnt very early in the game that it is very easy to walk away from a good gold target, purely because you quickly get sick of digging rubbish, but the fact is the very next signal can be a beautiful piece of gold, all the digging will just be a memory when you have it in your hand, my very first nugget was laying about ten inches away from a rusty wood screw, the first signal gave me the rusty screw, the next swing over the spot gave me another signal that I immediately thought was just another rusty screw, it was a memorable moment to be holding a 8+ gram nugget in my hand all coated in calcrete, I could have very easily walked away from that so it was a case of lesson learnt, I have repeated this same thing many many times over the years and still sometimes you have to hold yourself in check and investigate everything that you hear until you are certain what it is.

Pick a small likely looking piece of ground and work it slowly and carefully, once you have removed a lot of the surface rubbish you can then go to a larger coil and see what might be hiding a bit deeper down, theres a lot of joy in getting gold that others have missed.

cheers

stayyerAU

Great insight stayyer,

thanks for your advice, like others your input is greatly appreciated.

I had a swing again today with the same result on the outskirts of Creswick Vic.

At least this time I found myself an extra large horse shoe, not sure if elephants have shoes but this one was massive.

Today I dug everything and I reckon I got the shaggers back, forgot how that felt....

Only thing missing in my arsenal is a hipstick, are they really that good?

Cheers,

Col.

"Only thing missing in my arsenal is a hipstick, are they really that good?"

Yes.

llanbric wrote:"Only thing missing in my arsenal is a hipstick, are they really that good?"

Yes.

Ditto. If you're going to use larger coils for a full day's detecting then it is a necessity...especially for your "shaggers' back"

Btw, many of the experienced/successful detectorists on this and other forums went for anything up to 18 months before they found their first gold. Patience and perseverence are the two best "free" tools you have in your kit.

Robert

In my camp the jury is still out whether the hipstick is such a great help when using larger coils?
Firstly grab hold of your bungy where it is connected to the shaft of your detector, adjust it "up" or "down" the shaft until the coil hangs slightly below a level plane.
Using both the "D" shackles on your harness, connecty a couple of boot lace/ cord loops then clip your bungy so it is positioned in the centre of your chest, then holding the machine lightly the coil should hover just above the ground without any lifting.
If it lays heavily on the ground, shorten the bungee until it just floats and vice versa if it is swinging around in the breeze.
By doing this you only need to now steer the the stick and lift it over any obstructions in your path.

Good luck

G'day Nightjar

Thats an interesting method for locating your bungy so it is positioned in the center of your body and a little further forward, possibly giving a similar effect of a hipstick in relieving the weight on the one shoulder.

I have not tried your method as I have had a hipstick for quite awhile and like it and it does a good job in releiving the shoulder and repositioning the weight down to a point that is at your belt level.

cheers dave