How much does new GB Tracking and Offset improve gold prospecting?

[David]

1) I looked at them all and just personally I could live without all of the new upgrades on the X-705, except I am a gold prospector as well and all the new improved GB's including the new Tracking GB and new Tracking Offset has me wondering if all this will help me search how much better while gold prospecting in tough high mineralization, changing mineralization, and hot rocks performing better ??

2) Is the Offset the ONLY improvement to the Tracking or is there another improvement to the Tracking beyond that ??

3) I read Barnacle Bill's explaination of these things but I am still not 100% sure how much of a degree of actual real in ground impovement for gold prospecting it will have ?? He said about the GB Offset Tracking, " Therefore on variable soils with certain mixes like hot gravels, hot rocks etc. it will have a use, whereas on inert soils it will not really provide any use." http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,941152

4) Is that enough for me to upgrade for if I am looking for gold nuggets ?? (Also of interest for relic hunters, people who hunt in high mineralization for coins, and red dirt in Alabama and Georgia as well.)


(On the type of soils around here, if I personally was strictly a coin hunter on the mild soils here, I would not have to worry about this.)

 

[BarnacleBill]

The question is impossible to answer to any certainty, there are just too many variables. The only way to answer the question is to take the 705 to "that" location and try it. This is one feature that inter-geographic advice is just not going to work. Within a 5 mile radius I have places that it's unusable, not needed, and the Cat's meow. The answers are as varied as the soil matrices of the planet.

But, and this may a bit risky to say. In the proper hands(very experienced prospecting w/ an X70) I am aware of reports that it ran quieter than a very well respected PI in the Little San Domingo area. I did not witness it nor know the experience level of the PI operator. And I won't give up the name/model of the PI, as a flame war will not be constructive. There were times the X705 operator used Beach GB mode to increase the tracking speed in conjunction with the Tracking Offset, to overcome the challenging ground conditions. Therefore in "that" situation, having the extra arrow in the quiver made a difference.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[bladefan]

Yes I would be interested in this information as well, since I am debating whether to get the new 705 or the MXT?? Is ground tracking much improved in "hot" areas for prospecting with the 705??

 

[David]

Yes I would be interested in this information as well, since I am debating whether to get the new 705 or the MXT?? Is ground tracking much improved in "hot" areas for prospecting with the 705?



EXACTLY!!! That is what I want to know too!!

 

[BarnacleBill]

You need to define "Hot". Hot is not the same as variable because the ground can be hot yet consistent which means tracking isn't needed. Only when the ground varies, which may be in mild or hot soils is tracking needed.

If the ground is so hot that only a single GB number can balance the detector, and any variation away from that number causes instability when set manually, then tracking is not going to help anything.

For example:

A ground made up of very heavy black sand that is consistent as the overall background soil matrix. And let's assume it is perfectly GB'd at 9. If you manually change the the GB to 8 or 10 and the detector becomes unstable, then using tracking with an offset is going to gain you nothing. Because as soon as you adjust the offset and turn on tracking the detector is going to go bonkers.

If there is a desire to increase tracking speed of the X70 or X705 then put it in Beach GB mode and it will at least double the tracking speed. That ability has been there all along. Just because it's labeled "Beach" and not "High Speed" tracking doesn't mean it can only be used on the beach. A saltwater beach with black sand presents the worst possible challenge for a tracking system on a single frequency VLF. You're asking the detector to GB at two radically different points, one down around 1 Deg(magnetic) and up around 90 Deg(saline,conductive, foil disc area) all in real time. Therefore the tracking system has to be very fast trying to be two places at once.

OK so if it's in Beach GB mode, it's going to track out my target, well of course it is, and so will every other VLF that tracks fast. Nature of the beast no matter what brand or model it is. That's why when you locate a target while in Beach GB mode, whether it's on a beach or dry land, then turn tracking off.

As far as the offset tracking in variable soils, well variable soils vary, there's no black & white answer here.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[Jackpine Savage]

of course in our glacial cobble fields Bill that may not apply. In that case just let it track/sample an average and lock it, then see how it does. See if it can keep up with a Coinstrike in the cobbles.

Tom