I will never forget my first GPX experience. A friend and I had purchased an SDC together and soon after, he wanted to go halves in a GPX 5000 but I couldn't afford it at the time. He got tired of waiting and finally just bought one for himself. So we ventured over to the golden Triangle for a few days. I was doing quite well using the SDC but he had barely found a couple bits and worse, we were about to leave for home in country SA. It was the last hour of our last day and we were detecting some surfacing near the Welcome stranger at Moliagul. I was getting a few more bits again, so I offered him the SDC so he could get a couple bits before leaving. I gave him the SDC and he handed me his GPX and I started to scout around. I was having a troublesome time hearing all sorts of signals and digging nothing. It was just ground noise.
As this was my first time using a GPX, he suggested moving over to the diggings where there was at least some junk to find if nothing else so I could get a grip with the machine. After about an hour I still had not successfully dug a target and was frustrated, so I started walking back to the car along an old track. I was pushing the coil in a straight line along in front of me, just for the sake of it, I was totally over this machine and had not a clue to what I was doing. I was clearly used to using the SDC.
All of a sudden I hear this nice sounding signal which pulled me up. I thought - do I even bother? - then I said to myself " I better get at least one target out with this thing" So I started digging. The ground on the track was like concrete after a century of traffic but quickly I had taken a couple inches off, the signal got louder. I dug a little more begrudgingly and it sounded like junk. At this point I seriously contemplated walking away, I was tired. Something made me keep digging the even though the ground was getting even harder. I was at about 7 or 8 inches, the target was overloading the machine and I didn't have a pin pointer either. Again, I nearly packed it in but something made me keep digging.
After about 30 or 40 minutes of digging, I finally had the target out. As I grabbed handfuls of dirt waiving them over the coil, I fully expected a bit of rusty Iron and I was totally UN-enthused. Finally, the noise was in my hand so I dropped it on the coil and it screamed. As I pushed the dirt around the coil, I saw it, the golden goodness - I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a nugget, my first ever decent nugget. I cannot describe the feeling that swept over me so I hurried back to show my friend. He seemed happy for me but I think he would have secretly been seething that I could have found this in such fashion. 10.92 grams it weighed in after cleaning and still to this day my biggest find.
What a day, what a memory. Of course I have my own GPX detector now!
Scott – SA, Australia.