Depth on gold with a 70

[B.T]

Some wonder about the depth the 70 can find gold at.
Here's a few examples I have experienced.
5 Grams at around 6 inches. Sounded good and I reckon it may have been able to be heard from another 2 perhaps. Medium ground mineralisation. Sens set at 25.
I always make it a rough but close guestimation as I dont carry a tape measure as a rule
.7 g at roughly 4 inches. Sens set at 30. Mild ground.
.5 g at about 3 inches in hot ground sens set at 26. Soft signal, probably at its limit of detection.
Different ground though makes it all different to what depths can be acheived.
Bad ground on a scale of 10 out of 10 can reduce depths by up to 50% from what you may expect in mild ground.
Real bad ground too will make the iron mask misclassify if set too high. 1 is a good setting though sometimes it will try really hard to blank in one direction if its real hot ground.
I have found though numerous species and little bits of gold up to 1 gram for the nuggets and sometimes several grams of gold in the species just sunbaking on the surface in some areas where you would swear there would be nothing left. Obviously other machines couldnt hear them such as PI's which can struggle badly on rich fine gold species and spongy gold. Sometimes too they dont seem to get the punch on crytalline gold like a good VLF will.
The 70 is the winner for those gold types.

 

[B.T]

Ive done this in two sections as I tried the same yesterday in one and after writing for 20 mins it timed out and was gone.
Depth to me is not paramount. To me I want a machine that can see better through mineralisation. Two machine in quiet ground may very well be head to head for depth but when it gets mineralised you can find one blitzing the other. Sometimes by a substantial margin.
I dont want a new machine to come out and go 3 to 4 feet deep.
I want a machine that can simply see almost all that is there in just the first 12 to 18 inches max.
I have found too many rich gold species and strange hard to detect gold nuggets which for years has been passed over by other machine, even SDs and GPs and yet which the 70 gets easy to believe most of the gold in the first 12 inches is gone.
I have some which contain 7 grams which the 70 gets from just 4 inches deep and the others , SDs , GPs, cant even get from 1 inch away.
There must be loads of that type of gold still out there.
Everyone , mostly, has "big nugget" fever and never even think for one minute that there are other types of occurances which can still put a big smile on your dial when you find them.
I often couldnt care less when I am in one of those gold type areas and see a bloke wander over with a SD or GP because I know that he will never hear what Im hunting for.

 

[Dan(NM)]

Do you run with tracking on or off?

 

[B.T]

G,day Dan. I virtually always use tracking when gold detecting as the ground I hunt is pretty variable in places. If the ground is super quiet though I now and then try Fixed but as yet I cant see any difference. Some say Fixed on most detectors give the greatest depth and Tracking can track out targets. I used Tracking in a place where I was recovering bits down to 1/40th of a gram and they stayed signals all the time. Perhaps waving the coil back and forward repeatedly over an iffy target may track it out or diminish the response but I don't do that and also don't recommend doing it either.
Try things out for yourself as the areas you hunt may be totally different to where I hunt and maybe what I do is no applicable to your areas, who knows. Now and then give the Tracking a reminder by giving the coil a pump here and there as you hit the track button twice. It'll become second nature in no time and improves it heaps in real bad ground. When the threshold drops for any length of time or rises in a similar , but opposite way, slow down and hit the track like I described. Don't swing of too far either when it drops out for a second or two. Stay put until it recovers proper threshold sound and then detect away like normal. During that recovery time it does become target blind until it recovers.
Good luck mate.

 

[kris]

Can the 70 tell you if its a hot rock without digging if so how is it done ?
regards
kris

 

[B.T]

G,day Kris. Some hotties will give a sort of ring off effect as you pass them over and some almost wipe out after the second swing over them. Then there's the ones that sound exactly like a metal target.
I still dig them now and then when Im out. Thing is some have gold in them. Even SDs and GPs pick them up. Some are more reactive when they are actually hot from laying in the sun and later when you pull them out of your pocket and they have cooled down they hardly make a peep when rechecked. The heat causes an energy release which the detectors coil field picks up on, or so I was told by a tech I know.
So no I dont know how to properly identify them allthough I wish I did.

 

[Bobbylikesgold]

Hello B.T.,

Thanks for the information on depth.

What is your affiliation with minelab ?
Look forward to your quick reply

Bobby ~ ~

 

[B.T]

G,day Bobby. My affiliation with Minelab? What affiliation?
I have only ever met one guy from Minelab in person and the last time I saw anyone from there was nearly 4 years ago.
I remember two years or a bit ago being on the beach in QLD where I lived and talking to a bloke about detectors. He told me about how he couldn't make up his mind to buy a slightly cheaper Sovereign elite or the new release Sov GT. He said "which one do reckon would be best?"
My reply "what's a sovereign GT?" May as well have been a new car for all I knew. You want to know when I found out about the new small coil everyones waiting for? Here on this very forum! I didn't even know they were even considering making one let alone about to release one. I have only been asked to have a whirl on 2 machines ever. And no they were not proto-types, there's a couple of guys on this site who reckon they had a swing of the proto's but as far as me, nope I'm not that lucky, maybe not even good enough.
My only asks were after release when everyone knew about them.
Every other thing, machine I have written about here in OZ concerning Minelabs, is off my own bat, simply to share what I might know.
I am privileged to nothing or no more info than the average person and hows that huh! I find out about the new small coil on this site from people on the other side of the world.
Cheers Bobby. By the way, how was the hunt?

 

[B.T]

[attachment 52474 spec.jpg]This is one of my favourites. I found it about 6 inches down and it was a good clean but sort of softish signal. The 70 actually gets this better than a PI does. Just certain gold types detect better for different technologies. This has roughly 3 gs in it.
Dont get me wrong though because there is a ton of gold that PIs hammer in on like a VLF is a toy, and sometimes its the other way around. A lot of people here in OZ gave VLFs the flick when PIs came out but a good VLF is always a handy thing to have. Then again so is a good PI.
Cheers.

 

[Bobbylikesgold]

Hello Mate,

OK I do beleave your not with Minelab

That area I talked about is now a no go place, the cocky ( farmer ) who has the lease has banned everyone, the reason being he found out about all the gold when stupid ***** gave him a 2oz bit after telling him he had to stop detecting early & go back to camp because all his pockets were full of nuggets & getting to heavy .


Theirs a property that boarders on it that I can get on in May, had a look at a set of hills I need get behind on one side as this looks right.

Cheers Bobby.