Sov GT very impressive in heavy mineralised ground

[Tony]

Just thought I'd post some information regarding my new GT that I have tested in heavy ironstone ground.
I live in Perth, Western Australia and have tested my GT in the infamous West Aussie ironstone ground...in fact, I have an ironstone (pea-gravel) pathway down the side of my house and this is where I tested the Sov GT....here's what happened.

1. The detector was inoperable in DISC...no amount of SENS reduction (AUTO or fully clockwise) or slow sweeping the coil would work...the GT saw the ground as one large iron target and constantly nulled when the coil approached the ground, however,....

2. In ALL METAL, and after ground balancing (TRACKING) and then FIXING, I was able to easily detect over this bad ground with a reasonably smooth threshold. My target was a US nickel (similar conductivity properties to gold)...this was buried at the full depth of the pathway (about 4"). The GT gave a great signal on it with the coil just brushing the surface and still produced a definite threshold change with the coil 5" ABOVE the ground...very impressive. I was still able to run SENS at max without any problems so the TRACKING really works well.

I would have great confidence gold prospecting with this unit even over here, where the ground is about as bad as it gets. Next test is to bury the nickel at 8" or 9".

Regards,
Tony.

PS Reg Sniff (PI guru) knows what I mean !!

 

[Tony]

Buried the nickel and was able to get a response at about 7" through this really bad ironstone gravel....very happy with that result.

Tony.

 

[Anonymous]

If Minelab would have only added that amazing ground tracking circuitry to the disc mode!
I cant imagine that would have taken that much more effort.

On the other hand, if Minelab had only have added ID to the all metal mode. LIL' Mo R&D.
Just a Low Down Dirty Shame!

Maybe Mr. Patrick of Patrick Electronics will come to our rescue with an ID meter solution for the all metal mode. Certainly seems possible. Would make the GT one wicked stick.

 

[Tony]

Yes...that would have been great.

The overall result was both good and bad.....DISC was disappointing but ALL METAL exceeded my expectations. But then again, this ground is very severe (individual pieces will jump up onto a decent magnet at 1cm !), so DISC might be okay in lesser mineralised ground...it's not all this bad over here.

I did the full bury test and got a diggable signal (positive threshold change) with the nickel buried at 7".

Tony.

 

[Mike Bearden]

Yes it is impressive in bad dirt, our soil is heavy red clay/iron ore with hot rocks that will stick to a magnet in sizes ranging from b.b. to golf ball and even larger. However, the GT will null in 0 disc but still find targets at good depth around here. I buried a very thin size 5 ladys wedding ring in the worst of this dirt @ 7" and left it there for 2 weeks. During the 2 weeks we had a good mix of rain, cool, dry and hot weather. The GT would easily hit on the ring in disc thru the null and in all metal when fresh buried. After the 2 weeks the signal just got better,I dug it yesterday and had to chip away at the hard dry clay to retrieve it.
I prefer the small coil around here and work it slow, even slower when the threshold starts to climb to a high tone and nothing else is heard in disc or all metal.
With this kind of dirt and the GT's ability to deal with it makes me appreciate it even more when the silver pops out of the ground.
H.H.
Mike