Pinpoint with Minelab mono coil

[catpig]

Rob and all,

I'm a proud new owner of a GPX-5000 (courtesy of Santa) and still something of a newbie. I've got 150 or so hours on the Minelab, plus several hundred hours with our GB2 so I am putting in a bit of time.

My question: I still struggle to do reliable and accurate pinpointing with the 11" mono coil. I use the edge, practice with nuggets that are visible, and still haven't gotten to where I can 'know' where the target is once I have freed it from the ground. I did use my DD coil at a site up north with a ton of trash and could pinpoint quite a bit better with the DD. At present we wind up using the GB2 to pinpoint if I happen to be out with someone else, and while this works, it slows things down. Any helpful hints?

Second question: I keep thinking I should buy the ML pinpointer. However, I notice that no one I know who is an expert and who I trust (and a few of these experts are on this forum) use a pinpointer. Why is that? I have to think the pros know what they are doing and when none of them have a pinpointer that tells me maybe I shouldn't bother. Comments?

Thanks for any and all help,

Jeff

[nuggethunting]

Hey Jeff,

It's great that Santa brought you a GPX detector. Who did you get it from?

Pinpointing with Mono's are much easier than DD's for the most part, but rounds are more difficult than ellipticals in my opinion. On a monoloop coil, anything on the outside edge of the coil is hot, or able to detect small pieces of gold or trash. There is also a "hot spot," which is normally on the top left of most coils. This small spot seems to be a bit more sensitive than other areas on the outside edge.

There a bit more to pinpointing than just running the coil over a target, but pinpointing is effected my depth and the size of the target. If the target is small or large, but at max depth level, using the side of the coil don't work well. Tilting the coil to a 45-90 degree angle helps greatly when the target is near or out of the hole. It's best to get a general idea on where the target is, normally by pinpointing in one or two directions. Then dig down slowly depending on how loud and then start using the side of the coil for much more accurate pinpointing.

Many don't use a Pinpointer probe due to the fact you can get good at pinpointing and spend more timing playing around with a probe. I do use a probe if I believe the target is a good size nugget and I don't want to damage it.

Hope this helps a bit,

Rob Allison

[nvchris]

Here is a vid I made on how I like to pinpoint.

Hope this helps.

[catpig]

Thanks for the replies. I was out in the Dale all day Saturday and spent a bit of time experimenting with a bullet I found. I improved some but it is still difficult to pinpoint accurately. My expectations are maybe too high - I cut my teeth with a GB2 and with that detector it is easy to nail where the target is.

Rob, I got my GPX5k from a dealer here in SoCal. The price was right and Santa was in a hurry to buy one. I gotta say if I had it to do over I'd have gotten it from you because I like your package deals (and I'm not just saying that). Wasn't tuned in to what I other ancillary stuff I needed at the time. I'm going to buy an elliptical coil one of these days and I'll be in touch. Probably this coming Christmas.

Chris, thanks for the video link. Impressive job on the 'X marks the spot'. One of these days I'll be able to do that. Also one of these days I'm hoping to get up into your neck of the woods and spend a day or 3 poking around.

I appreciate the advise,

Jeff

[beepinpete_WA]

G'day Jeff

Just to follow on from Robs Post on pinpointers, the main reason i use a pinpointer is to acurately locate a deep nugget.

Many times on a deep dig you will go past the target thats hiding in the side wall of your hole and dig in the hardpack

for no reason, the pinpointer saves heaps of digging in this scenario.

Pete

[pkirkll]

Hey Jeff,

When Border Boy and i dug that 4 oz'er out last January we used my MD20 Falcon----------

it came in handy to locate the nugget deep in the hole because it was hard to get a coil down there---[i know we all have hooked up a Little Joey before...lol]

it was just like Pete says..it was up in the right wall....we didnt want to damage the nugget--- so since i had the Falcon i went and got it out of the truck and that is the real first time i used it for a gold pinpointer...

mainly i had traded for it back when i thought i had to have every piece of equipment that came down the pike.

It paid off that day tho...

You will get better at pinpointing with your coils,,just take time....

Good luck,

paul