The Gold I've Missed

[egixe4]

It was an interesting run of gold JR, that's for sure, I do have a photo of the 7oz and a few others found on day 1, and I still have the 1oz bit picked up with the 3500.

I will bring them to Reg's

Thanks for your input JR, interesting info.

Ha that money's long gone JR, YF got involved with a sheila and bought a 1 bedroom apartment (Nest) in Double Bay with his share, he paid around $127k for it, and complained bitterly about how expensive and what a rip off it was.

I think gold was around $600 an oz at the time, but I'm not sure.

He's not complaining now though, She's gone and he still owns the place.Qed is doing well JR, but I've not been out for a good while, how are you guys doing with it, have you been out?

[Jin]

Thanks JR, another bit of prospecting knowledge I learned today (pipeclay story). 

[Reg Wilson]

jin, very helpful is JR. Get him to tell you the story of how he advised an old  farmer on just how we knew where to find gold , and how successful that farmer became. And he might just tell you how much gold that cost us. 

[Jin]

Oh, I hope your only joking and Jr isn't in trouble.

I originally started my post with "Reg might be a little angry JR that you are giving away too many secrets" But thought id better not. I've read pretty much every post you have written on the internet and learned some pretty valuable things from you also as I have from others.

I find when I come across people while detecting that are new to detecting I like to stop and help them if I can. A couple of times though I told them too much and they also found gold that I should of. Doesn't really bother me (would if it was over an ounce) but then again I don't rely on gold for my income.      

[Reg Wilson]

Don't worry Jin, I'm not angry at JR. I just promied that I wouldn't let him forget. It's only a little joke between us.

[jrbeatty]

Very droll, Reg    Here's our old cocky mate working another patch he found:

Don't worry Jin, I'm always in trouble one way or another!

Helping others with basic information (most prospectors know this stuff backwards anyway) never does harm and often has benefits eventually.

Jim Stewart was worse than me, often revealing his finds exact locations to others (top bloke he was!)

I suppose he figured he'd done his best with them and left little behind, but I remember when I first stayed with him, he let me loose on one of his patches within walking distance of his Laanecoorie Park. He had flogged it with an SD prototype (pulling about 15 ounces) but this machine had developed a fault and was no longer sensitive to deep gold.

I dug several nice slugs with my 2100 before feeling guilty and showing him what he'd missed. He seemed shocked momentarily but absolutely refused my offer of an even split, insisting I keep it.

I shouted him a slab of beer and we drank most of it that night, with the stories and gold theories flying freely. Next day we dug the rest of the gold, and that was the beginning of our partnership. I sure miss him. Like Reg, he had a great sense of humour as well.

 

[mn90403]

Those safety boots remind me of Paul!  You can't wear those in Arizona.

I don't like so much detectorists with a  'one way street' in their mind.  They take all of the suggestions and knowledge that they find and KEEP it.  I mean they don't make others around them better.  They don't share techniques, patch knowledge or the thrill of the hunt.  I am somewhat in fear that they will jump my spots so I don't detect with them because they have done that to others.

I have a couple of friends who share their knowledge with me and they are very happy when I find gold.  They are also better at detecting than I am and they know I can't clean out a spot so when I share with them they can go back behind me and get things I missed ... in reality we all can and do find missed gold, except for the huge ones you are talking about here ... the multi-ouncers.

Mitchel

 

 

[Reg Wilson]

Time for another painful confession.

After once again being the 'bridesmaid' at Smythesdale I decided to give Wedderburn another try. I had enjoyed prospecting that country ( actually I was fossicking at that stage, and had a lot to learn about prospecting ). I detected Sugarloaf, Blacksmiths gully, Garibaldi, and Mosquito, finding bits at all spots, but nothing over an ounce. Other detector operators seemed to be having better luck than me.

Poring over a map of the area, I found myself looking at that same Beggary hill area, even though I knew that by now it had been well looked at. The next day found me back at Beggary hill and it certainly had been looked at. There were people camped there and still looking, so I continued along the track to an area called Silverdale.  The old timers had surfaced and shallow shafted this area, and although the signs were that they had found gold in this area, there were no 'tourists' to be seen, so I set up camp near a big century plant. ( a variety of succulent) I liked the look of this spot, despite the amount of ironstone.

Bright and early the next morning I stated swinging the Garret Deepseeker that I was now using. I was picking up a few pieces despite the noisy ground, finally cracking my first bit over an ounce.The detector was moaning and groaning over the ironstone making for very fatiguing progress, and after a day my ears were ringing. The next day yielded nothing so I upped camp and moved on.

A few weeks later I learned that 'The Pride of Australia', an eight kilo nugget was found by an old guy using a Whites detector. It was found at Silverdale near the century plant.

 It was sold to the State Bank of Victoria and was on display in the Victorian Museum from where it was stolen and never recovered in 1991.

[Northeast]

8 kg - jeezus!!   Just a little kilo nuggie will do us this weekend Reg 

[jrbeatty]

Aha!  That's where I found my first piece (1 oz) with my brand new GT 16000.

John H S had a lease encompassing the area where the "Pride Of Australia" had been found, and allowed me to detect it. This was long after you were there.

My piece was about 40 meters from the worked discovery site. John and Ian then pushed the area where I found mine (result unknown)

The day I bought my  SD2000 (later again) I found a sharp 6 gram "splinter" of gold on the nearby ironstone blow.

That area must have been a "jewel box" to the first detector operators.