Going to the desert for the fourth time HELP

[littlenugget]

Hello i need your help, mabye i will go for nuggets to the desert for the fourth time no luck yet.....

I have some questions

When i balance my detector in the desert the grouND balance that appear after are always between 3 and 10 , my question is in prospecting mode what sencitivity should i use ? 15, 16, 19 20 . 22, 30 ????

Thanks

 

[pax]

Try a small nugget if you have one or lead in the ground you are hunting ,turn sesitivity to 30 and if you can hear the small nugget or lead your good ,if not adjust accordingly

 

[philski]

At 10 that's really quiet ground. I have never detected in a desert ,but i am just about always over 40+ in known gold producing areas. For me at least. 60 is about the norm.

Your better off with a quiet machine than one gurgling at everything and pinging its head off.

My settings. Noise cancel +2, then GB in all metals, And adjust it a notch or 2, til it is the same tones, then press GB auto tracking. Then Sensitivity at max and back it off till it runs quiet. 27 or so, but never below 20. The noise cancel with multiple other detectors around is not worth worrying about for the smidgen of gain. The extra 2 notches on NC give 19.25 kHz and excites the gold more. It seems to work for me at least. i normally hunt in prospector mode and go into coin and relic to check out targets depending on conditions.

In saying that, my last nugget was just after a factory reset, nothing else. and returned a decent thumbnail sized 1.5 pennyweight gold specimen, (2.5 grams) a good foot down with a big clear sharp response a few seconds later. factory preset rocks. too.

it broke in half while it was getting cleaned up.
image about double actual size.

 

[pax]

philski ,on the 705 the lower the GB number the hotter the ground is

 

[philski]

HI Awesome, thanks, i didnt know that, Our goldfields here are all higher numbers. And, i just presumed it was higher for more active or likely gold bearing ground. I did a quick gb on some soil at home and got a 41. its 10% Fe and an appreciable amount of ilmenite 2% Ti and Ochre. Fe2O3. I just thought it an easy test on a mono type mineralized soil. a lot of our gold is associated with iron. Big lumps of iron ore on the ground to contend with. So quite mineralized.

What sort of ground balance numbers do you get on your goldfields on average?

have a great day
Phillip

 

[littlenugget]

Thankks for your response but if i put the sencitivity to hi wouldnt that affect just like what it says on the xterra book with the car lights

 

[philski]

HI
On a 1/4 ounce small loose sub gram pickers. Air test only. The distance / sensitivity relationship is almost linear. From sens: 5 up to sens:30 its approx a 1/4 inch per notch improved distance to target. 1cm every 2 notches in response. At the very lowest setting (1) its a few inch's. And would only be producing in areas with large gold nuggets littering the surface. In the ground with some moisture and residual magnetic backgrounds, it would achieve more depth.

Regardless of ground balance numbers. The highest possible sensitivity you can run your machine on comfortably is what your after. If you can run it on 30. That's fantastic. And, you can in some quiet areas. if your on a patch, crank it up, In some littered areas 22 is okay, for me. It cuts out the trash signals to a degree. I personally try too get as high as i possibly can without it chattering. I want to hear those tiny weeny little background noises and hums as well as the screamers. But if i get multiple signals every second. it becomes unintelligible digital clatter. You can even book an audiologist to test the best frequency of Your hearing, so you can match your machine to you. im losing my hearing so need every advantage i can get.

The car light is perhaps related to iron mask in prospecting mode? I just run it wide open in all metals, if thats what you mean? Then. go into coin and relic to see what the target is. The only word light of any kind mentioned in the manual is the backlight. so not sure sorry.. http://www.minelab.com/__files/f/4051/4901-0073-1.1%20Instruction%20Manual%20X-Terra%20705_Website.pdf

What state are you visiting? im a full time geology student if that helps. And even if it is on the other side of the world to me, i bet i can find out some interesting data on it for you. Any existing workings in the areas you have visited? shafts, finger dumps, trenches etc. Any place they have brought the wash to the surface or you can get down to safely, is worth a look.

 

[pax]

my GB numbers are between 10 and 20.I crank my gain to the max and it is noisy but those small targets will sound more distinct and sharp through all the chaotic audio in your head,you really have to listen carefully and pay attension.I usually take my headphones off periodically to give my ears a break

 

[philski]

We got 7 gold nuggets today between us and i managed to detect the smallest nugget at 0.33 grams, approx 4 inch's down! match head size. After an ATX and GPX 5000 had been through the area, So a very small, but decent result. Both the other machines would pick it up easily.

Its the smallest nugget ive ever detected with an x terra or any detector in the field. That was with a 6 inch HF after flagging targets with the 15 inch. GB was 72! This is on a hot mixed alluvial with a copper mine in the headwaters. and plastered with course gold and iron. its off its head mineralized. The clay layer is heavily iron stained and one nugget was retrieved in an iron hot rock. It gave a -8 on the xterra and weighed over a gram. Gb in that hole was 41. i checked gb all day. Any sign of gold was high. low was barren. Other detectors used today where two gpx 5000 s both small mono. And, an ATX with 17 x something or other coil.

I guess every field has its quirks and gb numbers. The above just works for me. Perhaps GB is related to soil moisture content?