TDI 4x6 Shooter Coil

[Hard Prospector]

I bought the last 3 built by Whites engineer, the late Dan Guyer. I will sell one for $180.00 which includes shipping in the lower 48. These loops, built to the highest standards are simply amazing when swinging on steep hillsides through and under thick manzinita growing in that nasty orange/red iron oxide dirt. Its also good when working areas cluttered with big pieces of schist, iron stone and malachite. PM me if interested

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[63bkpkr]

HP, why are you selling it? I know the ground type you are talking about and very few people get to it as it is located in BAD country, should still be gold there. I do not have a TDI SL or I'd purchase it from you..............................63bkpkr

 

[Hard Prospector]

HP, why are you selling it? I know the ground type you are talking about and very few people get to it as it is located in BAD country, should still be gold there. I do not have a TDI SL or I'd purchase it from you..............................63bkpkr

When I heard there were only 3 left(with no plans to build anymore when Dan passed on) I" impulsively" bought all that were left.I later realized that all I really need are 2, a primary and back-up.

 

[63bkpkr]

HP - I can so appreciate why you purchased all three! I've been in situations similar to that where the question was not should I buy but how many should I buy and should I buy each and everyone I come across. I have the 4x6 on my GMT and I would not part with it for anything though I would guess the design of the coil for the TDI is applicable to only the TDI.
Thank you for the response..........63bkpkr

 

[Hard Prospector]

63- Going on my first 10 day backpacking/prospecting trip of the summer last week of June in the central sierra, so I'm getting ready for that. I'm looking forward to trying out the new Super Mini Bazooka and some other stuff I picked up recently. My prospecting buddy had to cancel out(again) so I'm going solo. Just me, big foot and the gold gods (I've always been a introverted lone wolf so whatever)

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

63- Going on my first 10 day backpacking/prospecting trip of the summer last week of June in the central sierra. My prospecting buddy had to cancel out (again) so I'm going solo. Just me, big foot and the gold gods (I've always been a introverted lone wolf so whatever).

Me too Rob, and mostly I prefer to hunt solo... no distractions and no worries. Good luck... and otherwise have a safe, enjoyable trip.

Jim.

 

[63bkpkr]

HP, I've 'adjusted my schedule' a little and will be doing my test hike 19June to see if I am safely capable to go solo backpacking into wilderness country in NorCal. If my test hike comes out well then about O Dark Hundred on the 24th I will head out, should be down on the river by noon.

I wish you good fortune and success on your trip! Do remember to have fun and enjoy just being out there and rest up where you can.

You, Jim & I have all gotten used to solo trips. I started going by myself as just because nobody was able to go with me I would not let that stop me. I do Faithfully carry with me a SPOT Messenger as I'm about 97% certain it saved my life the first time I took it out. Ever since that first time it just makes so much sense to keep it updated and active! I miss the company but I'm still going!.......................63bkpkr

 

[tvanwho]

Tdi 4x6 coil, my crude Bazooka highbanker to test

Hey guys, is that 4 x 6 TDi coil any better than the one I got from Razorback? I can't hardly get a gram nugget at an inch with that coil in an air test? His 5 inch round coil seems to do a LOT better, but hard to fit into tite spots. Glad to see Jim H. posting on this thread? How're things up north Jim? I will be out testing homebrew mining stuff in the creek in central Indiana this holiday weekend myself. Just cobbled together a highbanker setup for my Bazooka sluice, the medium size one. Dunno if it works yet or not, can i post a photo?

-Tom V.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hello Tom… the weather around here has generally been a bit below the seasonal norm for high temps, although we’ve had a couple of 10 day sessions with temps up in the 90s and uncomfortably sticky… I don’t mind the warmth but dislike the humidity unless in the pool. You know my prospecting season starts late August and lasts until freeze-up in November… so right now I can’t say what it’s been like further north. But I’ll guarantee the biting flies are horrendous about now in the bush.

Joanne and I are heading to the Appalachians for the first two weeks to scout around… gold and other minerals of interest near the Quebec / Maine border country… but nothing too serious with the wife along. Although we will break out our detectors to sample around… first trips to a far country are nearly always spent mostly getting acquainted with the area and looking for potential sites. The following trip there I expect we’ll get down to some serious nugget hunting.

I don’t own / never used the 4”X 6” elliptical for the TDI models, and can’t comment. Is the one-gram nugget you tested a good solid piece or does it have some “character”. That’ll make a difference Tom, and residential (your condo is where I presume you air tested) EMI will reduce sensitivity as well. The best course is to bury your test pieces (not your gold… use lead sinkers cut to whatever weights / size or shape) at suitable depths and test over those. Freshly buried targets will not react to a metal detector as well as similar size / depth targets that have naturally settled or occur in nature’s undisturbed ground, but using a testplot is still better than air tests for relative depth / sens testing. If you decide to check such targets with a VLF unit, do not expect them to read accurately on a target ID meter and that applies to any freshly buried target beyond a few inches depth regardless of ground mineral magnetic susceptible levels.

I have the 5” TDI “hockey puck” coil and it’s more sensitive than my 5” X 10” Razorback mono to sub-gram nuggets but doesn’t go quite as deep on larger stuff. I have lots of buried targets out in the patio, and the 5” round coil easily signals over a half-gram lead piece at 3 inches…I’m sure it’ll go deeper even on a disturbed ground target of that size, and certainly deeper on a naturally settled target in the ground.

For silver… where small target size doesn’t matter nearly so much to me as would be the case with gold… I prefer the small coils in high trash areas using the TDI’s GB control in combination with the tone control to eliminate a lot of the high conductors including most nails… by searching properly ground-balanced in the low conductive tone mode. The small coils work very well in high trash density areas using a very deliberate slow sweep speed to ferret out signals while acquiring best obtainable depths. This technique was used extensively again this past 2012 season, as illustrated in the photo below. In fact I spent far too much time digging very small stuff in one area where they’re plentiful… comparing the Pro against my F75 with respect to size vs depth in bad ground. Despite no interest in sub-oz silver, the nuggets invariably were loaded with good character… and it was not easy to walk away from such beautiful specimens regardless of the size.

The second photo is one of the first silver samples found two years back with the TDI Pro in tough magnetic susceptible ground… that I am certain could not be detected with a VLF unit. It won’t impress the goldhunters, but even at the lowly current silver prices it is still better than a kick in the pants. It doesn’t take many such modest finds to pay for the trip costs if you’re in the mood to sell… there’s been plenty of requests from buyers over the years... and an active buy / sell network in silver country.

Hope you’ve been enjoying the summer so far Tom… pleased to see your post here on the gold sub-forum… a few of the other former AMDS members have migrated here as well.

Jim.

​

 

[Reg]

Hi Jim,

As you know, many years ago I did some tests for Jim Eckert on some silver specimens he sent me to see how the TDI did on the detection of the silver he was finding in your part of the country.

Now, as you also know, many of the silver nuggets found do not respond anywhere like pure silver, but more like a much lower conductive material.

Pure silver is one of the best conductors but silver found in Canada is no where pure, thus the response is very different than a typical silver coin or pure silver bar.

What a lot of people don't know is similar things happen to gold as found in nature. Pure gold is very conductive and will respond quite similar to a pure aluminum ingot (for those interested). Unfortunately, most gold that I have found is no where pure and much of it has sufficient alloys that the conductivity of the nugget is very different from that of a pure piece of gold similar in size.

So, in simple terms, gold often acts very much like the silver in your area and responds as a much lower conductive object than it would if it was pure gold.

What I am trying to say is your field work in detecting the various silver nuggets, or specimens is a lot more like gold hunting than one might realize. Thus, many of the techniques and ideas you have written about are applicable when gold hunting.

Just thought people should know this bit of information.

Reg

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hello Reg… I trust that all is well with you, and that you’ve been getting out to enjoy the summer so far. It’s been years since we’ve had such a humid and wet summer, although the temps have been pleasantly seasonal overall. Even out in the patio from dusk onwards… the bugs…especially the mosquitoes… are too much to endure for more than a few moments. Never saw so much rain as we’ve had the last week or so.

Thanks for the above explanation… there is no doubt that naturally occurring gold and silver share a similar conductive range. The main differences are that our native silver occurs in much greater abundance, and that while small sub-gram silver is plentiful… comparatively much larger silver samples are the rule rather than the exception. A good thing too, because these factors help to compensate for silver’s much lower bullion value, insofar as hunters can reasonably anticipate finding genuinely valuable samples.

Your reference to Jim Eckert is a timely one. We’ve been out of touch for quite some time, and thinking about how quickly September will roll around… I wrote to him just the other evening to see how he’s doing and so forth. It’s too bad I can’t post his photos about an important metallurgical project he’s been working on for several years that has come to a successful conclusion, or to the fantastic recovery of an astonishing quantity of beautiful “character” silver nuggets found late last autumn. So he seems to be doing well… it’s sufficient to say that Jim is a remarkable individual who gets things done.

Well that’s about it for now I guess Reg. I enjoy speaking with you, and also enjoy reading your highly informative posts to the forum. Do you recollect all the help you gave me on the TDI several years ago? Perhaps not, but certainly I do and will always remain appreciative of that mentoring.

Jim.