Harness Your Enthusiasm

[Steve Herschbach]

Great subject G.B.!

I got my start coin detecting and there are many parks in cities that have been hunted for many decades that still give up old coins to persistent hunters. The secret always is coil control. Some detectors feature an adjustable recovery speed, and in general the slower the recovery speed, the deeper the machine. Slow recovery speed = slow sweep speed. Each specific recovery speed has a sweet spot where going either faster or going slower gives up depth. Most detectors have a preset recovery speed, so practicing on buried targets is critical to find that "just right" sweep speed that most enhances the target. Going too fast is an obvious problem but it is also possible to go too slow. A lot of detectors work best with a medium and even swing. The key however is to bury something near the edge of detection depth and try going faster and slower to see what works best. PI detectors generally benefit from very slow sweep speeds, as do multi frequency machines, but some VLF detectors you really do not want to go too slow.

Details on Minelab GPX Motion Setting and GPX Sweep Speed by Nenad Lonic

Coil close to the ground may seem obvious also but in very mineralized ground (saturable soil) a machine running too hot with coil on the ground can overload and basically shut down. Some detectors feature an overload signal to alert you to this, but there are some detectors that experience a "silent overload" where the detector is overloading with no alert to the operator! Luckily most prospecting detectors or detectors running in a threshold based all metal mode let you know what is going on. The real culprits are the silent search coin type detectors.

If you are in an overload situation backing off various settings can actually add depth, but in some cases running the coil an inch or two off the ground is the best solution. Crazy but true. Luckily a rare situation that many people never encounter, but more common with the GPZ 7000.

Assuming normal circumstances coil to the ground is good, and removing any obstructions that prevent this is a benefit. The main thing for new operators to avoid is the infamous "golf swing" (see picture below).

There are many texts and even videos that demonstrate how coins on edge or tilted can only be detected from a certain angle. A coin on edge is almost impossible to detect if you swing along the exposed edge. Swinging directly into either face usually results in a good signal. Nuggets flat in the ground are like a coin in the ground. But consider bedrock with vertical cracks, like a shale or slate. Flat nuggets can be stuck on edge in the crevices, and are lined in lengthwise with the crevice. If you swing your coil along the length of the crevice you are more likely to miss these nuggets. If you swing across the crevices you are more likely to hit these nuggets.

Since you really never know how coins or nuggets are oriented in the ground, the only way to be halfway sure of getting all the detectable items is to detect the same ground from multiple directions. North-south and east-west are a minimum and many serious hunters add one diagonal or more. The diagram below from page 26 in the Minelab Eureka Gold Owner's Manual sums all this up well.

My problem is I enjoy wandering around aimlessly without restraint, following my nose where it leads me. This often works well for me as I seem to have a sense for where gold may be found, and is essential when patch hunting. I am now however forcing myself to take a much more methodical approach to my detecting, and am using GPS tracking to carefully cover and record sections of ground as I work them. I try to be as methodical as I can be on any section to the point where I can tell myself that plot of ground is done forever, and I need never hunt it again. Sure, I still miss something, but better to just keep moving on methodically adding sections to my map a bit at a time, hunting each as well as I can. If I do get into an actual patch, I may hit it from multiple directions, maybe with different coils and even different detectors. Only the best places are worth this however, as I have a lifetime of ground ahead of me that I have never detected even once. So far I have been very surprised at the number of scattered nuggets that I have found in areas so well hunted nobody even visits them anymore. They are the ones people have walked around and past for decades. They rarely are all that deep, they have just been missed.

[idahogold]

Never seen Rugby before.....Totally Richter on a Giant Field! Thanks G.B.

[geof_junk]

17 minutes ago, idahogold said:

Never seen Rugby before.....Totally Richter on a Giant Field! Thanks G.B.

You still have not seen Rugby. You may not live to see if you call Aussy Rules that in Vic, SA, or WA. You are safe with me I support the SQUARE BALL. (Non Fan)

[mn90403]

7 hours ago, phoenix said:

Quite true G.B.
After today we are back into the 30`s for the rest of the week so I`m heading out today to a little spot at Moliagul. Some times I get gold there, sometimes I don`t, but if I go there and wave my detector around like a Wippy Snipper I never get anything.    If you are on a spot that you know there is gold there, low and really slow is the go.
Thanks again for your help a couple of months ago.
And for people that live on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean, don`t even try to pronounce Moliagul. You`ll probably get it wrong  

cheers Dave 

Dave

Now that you bring it up ... I don't care about pronouncing it ... we all want to know where it is!  haha

How long does it take to get there?

Mitchel

[wombat]

If your in Yank land, about 2 to 3 days flying time.  Then you have about 3 hrs driving time from the Air Port.  This is the place were the "Welcome Stranger" was found. 

wombat  

[mn90403]

Now I have cheated and looked on the map.  

Bendigo ... a few years ago I was going to stay there after a day of training with Ronda Hyde.  I never got there but it is still on my personal map.

Mitchel

[EZMoney Bob]

I've always practiced detecting "low and slow" but I discovered that with my SDC 2300 what I thought was slow was really too fast.  If I  swing that thing really painfully slow it will pick up signals that it goes right past when only swinging slowly.   Going excruciatingly slow may not be so great for prospecting a new area but, at least with an SDC,  it seems to work well in areas where there is known gold and areas that have been heavily detected.

Bob

[phoenix]

yeh Bob, I found the same thing with the 2300.   If you move the coil super slow the 0.04`s come in really clear.

Dave

[Jen58]

On 25/02/2017 at 3:07 AM, madtuna said:

be buggered if I'd waste a good pair of pantyhose!

   

[GoldEn]

Very true GB.

 

Been on some goldfields many many times.Sometimes you get nothing,  sometimes few nuggets.

From my own experience its all in a head,

If my mind is not ok i detect like a zombie.I think i can pass over anything i am just not there.

I am 100% sure that most of us have a few monologues about our life in general when detecting.For some its way to clear our head and escape day to day life/problems.

Some days these monologues make my detecting impossible. I would rather be somewhere else and in my mind i am better off not to detect. I rush , i walk fast, i dont concentrate on a detecting, i wave detector way too fast and i also get angry.

I usually have a little break, sit down and enjoy peace which our bush offers.

I clear my mind,  pick up  detector and find a few nuggets later.

 

Remember low and slow is the way to go.

My motto is Dig everything.

 

Never dismiss any target unless you see it next to your feet on the ground.Still move the rubbish with your foot and wave the coil again.Many times you will find gold this way.

 

As you pick up a nugget stop for a second and always ask yourself first:

where did it come from.

 

Good luck and stay safe.

 

GoldEN

 

 

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