I started my gold finding hobby in the early '80's after a neighbour convinced me to go searching for gold and spent some time shovelling creeks into a Keene Dry blower (dry washer). I purchased my first detector, a Garrett A2B and and it took me quite a time to find my very first nugget, a massive 0.1 grams. From then on it got better with my second piece a healthy 29 grams. The nuggets started coming regularly as my experience base grew and I discovered the type of ground to look for to detect. After several successful years, I remember upgrading to a Whites Goldmaster 2 and having a ball collecting all the tiny bits those detectors were capable of finding on the old patches my A2B found.
At about the time the SD2000 was released my work commitments had a grip on me and I disappeared from the scene for several years, to my great dismay. Working 12 hours a day, 12 days a fortnight doesn't leave much time for play. As I think back of all the patches I knew about from my VLF days that were begging to be detected with the first of the super detectors, I think of the hundreds of ounces that were had by others. I suppose those are the choices life throws at you and I don't regret them.
I was coerced back into the fold when my detecting buddy fronted up at my shop, beer in hand one weekday at midday, with a handful of golden nuggets that he had just dug on one of our old areas with an SD2000. That was enough to get my Gold fever burning and for me to get back into detecting, so I purchased the same machine, and we once again teamed up and got at them. The first upgrade was when an acquaintance showed me where he had just dug a 16 grammer and an 8 grammer on a patch I had chained the previous week, so a GP3000 became the detector of choice, and I have had every Minelab detector since. The GPX-5000 was without a shadow of doubt, the very finest Minelab machine I had had the pleasure of using, until the GPZ7000 was released, and I look forward to whatever this innovative company can offer me in the future. (I thought my GPX 4500 was excellent but Minelab have delivered the goods for me several more times and now the GPX6000 is here). Cheers from QldSandy.