Getting Too Old?

[LukeJ]

Hi Jim. 

Have you tried to detect any of the spots you are crevising?  I know it sounds obvious, but if you're getting gold out of cracks on the bench, maybe there's bigger pieces too?  Once the overburden is scraped away or the crack is 'cleaned out', faint deeper signals might be heard.  All you need to do is find one with that GoldMaster.....     You can get the ground balance dialed in very precisely when working small areas of bedrock and if you are removing the other mineralized objects beforehand,  then all the better.

In certain conditions like you have described, a metal detector could be employed successfully in a seated or kneeling position.  You know your own limitations, but if you're getting out and you're getting gold where you are, then maybe you might pick up nugget you would have missed if not for the detector.

Just some thoughts.  Take care...  

Luke

[Jim_Alaska]

Yes Luke, I have tried the detector there as well. That was the first thing I did. I also had a friend go over it with a Gold Bug. I have not found gold of any size there, it is all small, with an occasional picker.

This bedrock is a bench on a terraced hillside that has been previously hydraulic mined. Consequently it is not flat anywhere, it is towering bedrock. I believe that the gold I am getting is left over from the hydraulic operation left behind. When I say towering I mean that some of it is eight feet from bottom to top.

I don't find much, if any gold in the sparse overburden, it's all in the bedrock cracks. Actually the only overburden that is there is what was left behind, or what has built up in the hundred years since it was originally mined.

I hope folks don't see my posts as being off topic, I worried about that at first. But then I realized that OP was about gold found with anything but a Minelab.   

[LipCa]

Jim, you have to look at it another way.... that gold you are getting is a source of income too.

Keep at it and you'll have enough to buy a Gold Bug 2.

You could sell the V/Sat also.

[flakmagnet]

Jim, There are a lot of people who sympathize with your physical difficulties. Whether we are conscious of it or not, all of us have a limit on the time we will be able to detect without difficulty.  Best of luck.

[57buick]

You might carry a Deus with HF coil cuz you can carry just the coil and lower shaft alone while sitting and scan cracks as you dig. I saw someone on a youtube video doing that. Thats the great thing about the deus. put remote in your pocket and just hold the coil alone, perfect for scanning in tunnels etc too

[iMine]

On 9/23/2017 at 10:44 AM, Jim_Alaska said:

Luke,

After owning this detector for many years and using it both in Alaska and now California, I am convinced that my problem is one of persistence, or the lack of it. That, along with a healthy dose of impatience works against me.

Steve has told me  for years the same things you outlined. I am not saying that the advice is not good, just that I think I lack the persistence that it takes to find gold. I do have a "dig everything" mentality, which works against me because of the amount of trash.

I have two good test nuggets and am very familiar with their sound at differing depths. That is what baffles me. I know what gold sounds like, but just can't seem to get my coil over any.

I have hunted the same areas that both Steve and Lipca hunt, but no gold. It has to be me, not the machine or the good advice I have been given. I just don't get out detecting much, which doesn't help. Now with advanced age and the problems I experience with my legs, I find it extremely difficult to navigate uneven ground.

I am just about to the point of nugget shooting vicariously through other's efforts, so keep posting good results, I love to read them.

Sounds like its time to start hunting the deserts, that's where all the good stuff is anyway 

[Jim_Alaska]

3 hours ago, iMine said:

Sounds like its time to start hunting the deserts, that's where all the good stuff is anyway 

That would be a good alternative, unfortunately any deserts are far away from me. I am in the mountains of Northern California.