GPX4000/4500 - Smooth timings reduce depth

Hi all,

Over the past few months I have noticed that the 'Gold Gods' have frowned upon me when using smooth timings on my GPX4000 to the extent that I rarely use this function now. Being a mono person and love running a quite machine I continually used this setting contented with the fact that my machine was running quite.

Now I dont make any statements about experience as I am still learning, but after having a 2200, 3000 and now a 4000 I did love the way the 4k ran quite and smooth when using a mono coil. I recently noticed a decline in my fair share being handed out from the Gold Gods and after talking with others I have come to the conclusion that there is about a 30% performance loss in depth when running in smooth timings on the 4k.

Over Easter I did some crude testing to see if this was so and found that I was losing about 3 1/2 - 4 inches in depth on a 40 grain .22 projectile (16inch N/F mono) and about 9 - 10 inches in depth on a 500 grain old timer .65 projectile (25inch N/F coil). This loss was the difference between running smooth timings to normal timings with everything else being equal. Now I am not knocking the machine as it performs very well for me and I do find gold however I think I may have slipped into a false sense of security when in smooth timings and using it all the time. Due to the high mineralisation here it is very tempting to run those timings all the time.

Now that most areas of the goldfields have been flogged pretty well I believe that you have to go where others have not been before to consistently find gold. This in the popular areas is hard to do. My way is to run a large mono and go over areas known historically to have produced nuggets in the past and search for those sitting deep down and missed by others. To do that one must maximise the depth capability of the machine and so I would argue smooth timings is not the way to go. Whilst I know that minelab do not recommend running smooth timings all the time I think that I was just surprised by the actual depth loss that these timings create. My next test now is to compare running a DD coil with smooth timings to ascertain the difference.

Any one else care to comment.

Ray

Ray depth is relative, if you can't hear a nugget at four inches in Normal timings but can in Smooth mode does that mean the Smooth punches deeper than Smooth everywhere? It seems you have just discovered the Smooth timings are not for every ground condition, I suggest you find some very noisy ground and re do your tests, if the Normal timings can deal with the ground conditions and can also produce a recognizable signal response on your test targets then that that area is not conducive to Smooth timings. However if Smooth produces a recognizable response on your test target where Normal timings with a Mono coil can't then that is an ideal place to work with the Smooth timings.

The Smooth timings are not as cut and dried as your tests suggest, in some cases you will get nigh on full depth on some target sizes depending on where their response comes in the spectrum in relation to the ground conditions that Smooth ignores, in other cases the signal response will be very faint but due to the very quiet running nature of the timings a good operator will learn to recognise the faint responses for what they really are.

Hope this helps,

JP

Thanx JP for the explanation, it just seemed to me that the smooth timings cut back the performance of the machine dramatically and after talking to a number of people here in the triangle they all run in smooth timings exclusively.

Hey Ray I seldom use smoooth timings on my 4500. On the odd occasion I test signals in different timings to hear the differennt responses.
Smooth sure irons out the ground noises but I dont think this is necessarily a good thing. I think the people who you refer to who run smooth exclusively are lazy and they will lose gold. They may find some but they will no doubt leave a lot behind for us.
As a rule of thumb I always start in normal timings and go from there. Even on hot ground that I have had to dumb down the 4500 previously. Different days produce different noises on ground you are used to. Dont ask me why. Atmospherics.....moisture......temperature? JP will know.
My 2 bobs.
Cheers
Curley

Ray you said
"after talking to a number of people here in the triangle they all run in smooth timings exclusively."
Thats a good thing, keep them running in smooth as long as you can.

Hi All
A Pick and a Bic.A Bic lighter moved away from the coil is a good way to tune in for small Nugs,If you are coiled up for deep ground your pick would need to be over your shoulder.If its in your belt and not affecting your machine you aint got deep
Cheers Dig