10 1/2 OZ Nugget:ausflag:

[B.T]

A friend and customer brought this nugget in to show me this morning. He had his new 20" N/F coil for just 1 week when he snagged it.
Nice bloke, glad he found it. Makes your mouth water doenst it!

 

[BuckAu]

Good on them B.T thats one beautifull matrix thanks for posting

 

[johnandles]

Hi B.T.
I'am missing your exterra 70 posts...you haven't put it to bed?
Regards
John

 

[auseeker]

That's amazing, good photo also.

Thanks for posting.

 

[Aussie MXT]

very nice.

 

[nugget71]

Although that's probably not a good idea.

 

[B.T]

Yeah John. The Terra 70 was a good little machine to me and found plenty of small gold and species, enough to keep the car on the road, pay the bills and buy me a new 4500 & MXT. To be honest I prefer the MXT. Has no known faults and can handle the bad ground better. Not bagging the 70 as it was/is good but I find the MXT better. I still like the 70 though in its coin mode even though I no longer own one.

 

[butterbox]

i have an ex terra 70 that i tried in hot ground at elaine victoria in prospecting mode with DD eleptical i found it way too noisy yet in all metal it was fine even at highest sensitivity~ pattern 1 was also good but occasionally i got a good beep but it wasnt consistent so i never dug it, so i think ground balance was a major problem in prospecting mode all though it was ground balanced perfect but still too much noise

 

[Roscue2]

n/t

 

[B.T]

G,day Butterbox. You might have been swinging the coil too fast. Prospecting mode on the 70 requires a very slow sweep speed otherwise you will generate way to many ground noises that would not be there with a slower speed. On bad ground you may need to go as slow as 6 to 8 seconds from one side to the other. Coin modes can work good too but not as good as the prospecting mode. Thats why I swapped over the the Whites MXT, it tracks better and handles the hot ground better due to the V Sat control.

 

[Jingles]

Hello BT, I liked your write up on using the GMT in the triangle.
I'm about to buy a VLF gold machine, I'm not blown away all that much by the X-Terra 70.

The GMT appeals to me, with its iron disc. ability, ~ especially for some of the "iron junky" nugget sites around the triangle...
And that tale about the West Australian fellers made me sit up, I can tell you!!!
I've watched the Jimmy Sierra GMT videos over, and over...
Very impressive!

I'm also keen on the V3, ___ any news on how it performs on our Victorian goldfields ???
Would a bloke be better off with a dedicated gold machine for nuggets, and a V3 for coins/relics ???

"All rounders" seem to do a pretty good job at both their modes...
I figure I'd rather have a "specialised" detector for each job !

Take care. Jingles

 

[B.T]

G,day Jingles. If I was to choose a machine out of the two for gold it would be the GMT, even though the V3 has prospecting mode. The V3 works no probs here, one of our customers has one and has found a few nuggets with his although he mainly hunts coins and relics. All the Whites machines work good here in Vic in the triangle. The GMT & MXT perform better here in fact than the Terra's and Eureka gold. They track better and by having the V SAT control are more easier to keep under control. They are still VLF's though and can be very limited in some of the bad ground, you need to choose your spots where they have an advantage. Highly junked areas around the diggings, quieter ground like pipe-clay diggings, places like Bendigo and Ballarat have some really good places where VLF's perform well. There are some areas too in the middle of the triangle where the minerals, although high in concentration , are uniform and not highly changeable and here they work surprisingly well. Use your head and you can still find gold with a VLF. Approach it a bit different than if you were swinging a PI.

 

[Jingles]

Thanks for the reply BT,
before I got my first PI ( a Minelab 2000 ) I was using a Whites 6000D series 2 ...
I can still remember constantly ground balancing a manual VLF ~ particularly up in Queens gully !!!
I was using an 11" Blue Max coil back then, and I found a few nuggets too.
I had a Fisher Gold Bug as my final VLF machine, I really liked this fine little machine...
This hot little Bug got me quite a few nuggets as well;
to me the ground balancing was nearly automatic, just a matter of thumbing the ground control knob while I bobbed my coil up and down.!

I've done pretty good over the years with the SD2000, SD2100, GP Extreme, 3000, and my last one, a 3500. I used to averaged between 2 and 5 nuggets over each 10 day holiday break ( while the kids were still home and on school holidays.)

Kind of sad, but after the PIs hit the scene here in Australia ~ almost everyone walked away from their VLFs!

The VLF gold machines of today are so much better now than the old ones back then , and BT the results you have achieved with the VLF detectors over the last year or so has got me keen to get back into VLF prospecting again !

I get it that there's going to be times when the ground will beat me, but I can work around those days by finding the quieter zones.

Thanks again BT !!!

I might be up your way next week,
might drop in for a coffee !!!

 

[B.T]

n/t

 

[johnandles]

Hi B.T. What model MXT and..coil etc?
Cheers
John

 

[B.T]

He was using a M/lab 3500 and a Nugget Finder coil, 20".

 

[RickIowa2009]

Now thats a find!

 

[RickIowa2009]

Sweet find!