BarnacleBill
New member
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.
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.
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.
Yep, it was 1/40th of a gram and I have found a few that size since.
Small gold I know but sometimes fun to find even though it wouldn't even buy me a beer.
The settings were 30 on the sens, auto tracking enabled from start to finish, tone 10, volume 20 and a super slow sweep speed.
It nearly drove me mad trying to find it and I nearly walked away from it twice. It was a small sound but defined, a little "zip".
The ground was super quiet with just a slight murmur here and there from some light mineralisation.
Some say why bother with stuff like that but for me the monetary value of the gold I find comes last. Ive had a good day as far as I am concerned if I find anything at all.
The main coil I use is the 18.75 elliptical DD.
Its dynamite on just about all gold types.
Crystalline, spongy, fine gold species, rough reef gold.
Even fine gold specks down to 1/40th of a gram.
Here's some species I found along with the others I posted the other week.
Pic 1 is of , on the left a bit with leaf gold in it containing about 2 to 2 1/2 gs. On the left is normal gold with about the same amount thereabouts.
Pic 2 Is of a crystalline gold/pyrite mix with the one on the left having around 3 gs inside it. You can see it has more going into it by the dark patch underneathe the quartz but after once damaging a similar specie I stopped at the point it is at now.
The one on the left is from the same chunk and has a bit less in it, about 2 gs.
The bit of pyrites below them has gold running right through it, about 1 1/2 gs worth. I would have liked the pictures here to have come out a bit better on the scan but after 30 mins of trying to get it right, im definately no computer genius as you will now know, I settled for what I had.
They were found at a place called Crystal Hills which is one of the most picturesque areas I have ever detected in.
Pine trees, huge wash piles, gully workings and reef works
[attachment 51102 x70-1.jpg]
[attachment 51103 X70-2.jpg]
G,day everyone.
The settings used were Prospecting mode, Iron mask on just 1 (ive had too many sus calls on the preset of 5 in mineralised ground, sens ranged at tha spot between 22 to 30, tone set at 10 (I love those lower tones) headphones used and volume set at 20. Auto tracking anabled but I give it a reminder now and then to keep up by hitting the tack button twice real fast whislt giving the coil a pump every few feet. Sweep speed a slowwww 7 seconds per meter.
Ill post up some more stuff (beautiful species) in the next day or so from the same place. Took me weeks to finish the spot and even though it wasnt big gold it sure was a buzz to find.
The 70 is "the best VLF I have ever used here in OZ".
G,day Bob. The 70 is a wild thing on gold for a VLF. On the 18.75 khz DD it will pick up gold down to 1/40th of a gram. I have found a number of "specks" that size with mine.
Gotta be carefull with target Id,ing though as the ground gets more mineralised the readout for gold can range from 6 like you said up to 22 on the scale. This happened just a few days ago when a piece read 18 which I detected. I was a specie which was sitting on the surface with about 2 gs in it.
Iron mask has to be watched too. The hotter the ground the lower you set it or the iron in the ground, which we have heaps of here in Oz, will make the detector think its iron and try to blank it out. I leave mine on just 1 for the iron mask and check out anything which doesnt completly blank. Had a half g be early this week which tried to blank on just 1 and which did blnak on 5.
Cheers
This gold was found using the X Terra 70 fitted out with the 18.75khz DD coil.
[attachment 51105 x70-3.jpg]
I use the X Terra 70 over here in Oz for chasing gold and coins on the goldfields of the Victorian Golden Triangle. We have the worst ground conditions I am told in the world. Mostly I use the elliptical 18.75khz coil when hunting gold and find it works no probs anywhere.
I rarely have to turn it down, the sens, below 18. It will find gold down to a mere 1/40th of a gram, specks, in quiet ground when wound up to 30 on the sens scale. The cocentric coil which is the standard, 7.5khz, is great for the coins but struggles too much in hot ground and creates too many ground noises when used in Prospecting mode. It can handle hot ground in the coin/relic modes though but rarely does the sens get to be set higher than 18. The 7.5khz 10" DD is great for those dog areas where the ground is real mineralised and does not pick up as many hot rocks as the 18.75 does. Sensitivity differences are marked. The 18.75 will pick up gold in specimen form which the 7.5 will not even register on.
These can be bits containing a couple of grams in small to fine form gold. The concentric coils do have more sensitivity than the DDs and if your hunting in super quiet ground the 18.75 concentric should outperform the same khz in the DDs. But mineralisation is their cryptonite and thats where the DDs rule. The 7.5khz DD can seem, next to the 18.75, pretty insesnitive but begins to catch up when the gold reaches around the 7 gram or 1/4 oz range then begins to overtake it as the gold increases in size. It will outperform the 18.75 on gold in the 1 to 2 ounce range and upwards by roughly 2 to 3 inches.
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.
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.
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.
Yep, it was 1/40th of a gram and I have found a few that size since.
Small gold I know but sometimes fun to find even though it wouldn't even buy me a beer.
The settings were 30 on the sens, auto tracking enabled from start to finish, tone 10, volume 20 and a super slow sweep speed.
It nearly drove me mad trying to find it and I nearly walked away from it twice. It was a small sound but defined, a little "zip".
The ground was super quiet with just a slight murmur here and there from some light mineralisation.
Some say why bother with stuff like that but for me the monetary value of the gold I find comes last. Ive had a good day as far as I am concerned if I find anything at all.
The main coil I use is the 18.75 elliptical DD.
Its dynamite on just about all gold types.
Crystalline, spongy, fine gold species, rough reef gold.
Even fine gold specks down to 1/40th of a gram.
Here's some species I found along with the others I posted the other week.
Pic 1 is of , on the left a bit with leaf gold in it containing about 2 to 2 1/2 gs. On the left is normal gold with about the same amount thereabouts.
Pic 2 Is of a crystalline gold/pyrite mix with the one on the left having around 3 gs inside it. You can see it has more going into it by the dark patch underneathe the quartz but after once damaging a similar specie I stopped at the point it is at now.
The one on the left is from the same chunk and has a bit less in it, about 2 gs.
The bit of pyrites below them has gold running right through it, about 1 1/2 gs worth. I would have liked the pictures here to have come out a bit better on the scan but after 30 mins of trying to get it right, im definately no computer genius as you will now know, I settled for what I had.
They were found at a place called Crystal Hills which is one of the most picturesque areas I have ever detected in.
Pine trees, huge wash piles, gully workings and reef works
[attachment 51102 x70-1.jpg]
[attachment 51103 X70-2.jpg]
G,day everyone.
The settings used were Prospecting mode, Iron mask on just 1 (ive had too many sus calls on the preset of 5 in mineralised ground, sens ranged at tha spot between 22 to 30, tone set at 10 (I love those lower tones) headphones used and volume set at 20. Auto tracking anabled but I give it a reminder now and then to keep up by hitting the tack button twice real fast whislt giving the coil a pump every few feet. Sweep speed a slowwww 7 seconds per meter.
Ill post up some more stuff (beautiful species) in the next day or so from the same place. Took me weeks to finish the spot and even though it wasnt big gold it sure was a buzz to find.
The 70 is "the best VLF I have ever used here in OZ".
G,day Bob. The 70 is a wild thing on gold for a VLF. On the 18.75 khz DD it will pick up gold down to 1/40th of a gram. I have found a number of "specks" that size with mine.
Gotta be carefull with target Id,ing though as the ground gets more mineralised the readout for gold can range from 6 like you said up to 22 on the scale. This happened just a few days ago when a piece read 18 which I detected. I was a specie which was sitting on the surface with about 2 gs in it.
Iron mask has to be watched too. The hotter the ground the lower you set it or the iron in the ground, which we have heaps of here in Oz, will make the detector think its iron and try to blank it out. I leave mine on just 1 for the iron mask and check out anything which doesnt completly blank. Had a half g be early this week which tried to blank on just 1 and which did blnak on 5.
Cheers
This gold was found using the X Terra 70 fitted out with the 18.75khz DD coil.
[attachment 51105 x70-3.jpg]
I use the X Terra 70 over here in Oz for chasing gold and coins on the goldfields of the Victorian Golden Triangle. We have the worst ground conditions I am told in the world. Mostly I use the elliptical 18.75khz coil when hunting gold and find it works no probs anywhere.
I rarely have to turn it down, the sens, below 18. It will find gold down to a mere 1/40th of a gram, specks, in quiet ground when wound up to 30 on the sens scale. The cocentric coil which is the standard, 7.5khz, is great for the coins but struggles too much in hot ground and creates too many ground noises when used in Prospecting mode. It can handle hot ground in the coin/relic modes though but rarely does the sens get to be set higher than 18. The 7.5khz 10" DD is great for those dog areas where the ground is real mineralised and does not pick up as many hot rocks as the 18.75 does. Sensitivity differences are marked. The 18.75 will pick up gold in specimen form which the 7.5 will not even register on.
These can be bits containing a couple of grams in small to fine form gold. The concentric coils do have more sensitivity than the DDs and if your hunting in super quiet ground the 18.75 concentric should outperform the same khz in the DDs. But mineralisation is their cryptonite and thats where the DDs rule. The 7.5khz DD can seem, next to the 18.75, pretty insesnitive but begins to catch up when the gold reaches around the 7 gram or 1/4 oz range then begins to overtake it as the gold increases in size. It will outperform the 18.75 on gold in the 1 to 2 ounce range and upwards by roughly 2 to 3 inches.
