My First Two Gold Nuggets With The 800!

[mn90403]

Went out today to an area that has several patches near Barstow, California.  We've hit this area pretty hard the last couple of years and it is pretty much a mopping up sort of hunt there on open ground and with Prospectors Club of Southern California.  We've had lots of fun with 7000s,  2300s,  Monsters,  GB2s and now the 800.  About 40 minutes after I arrived I scored a little .1 g nugget in the first scrape.  All of my targets for the day were in the 1st scrape it seems.  

I was using Gold 1 in multi with 20+ sensitivity.  I would noise cancel and ground balance.  Later in the day I played with 20 and 40 single frequency.

After the first one it was a couple of hours before I got another one that was smaller. (I have added the picture 24 hours after the original posting. The one on the right is the first nugget.)  I was glad to get these two nuggets because recently I've gotten skunks with the 7000.

Later in the day the wind was picking up and I was at a different location when Swifty showed up.  He had told me earlier if he heard one he'd call me over.  Sure enough he had a signal and he came up with a .4-.5g nugget.  A few feet away he got another signal and I swung on it just to see if I could hear it with the 800.  I could not.  We scraped a bit and I got a variable signal with -9 to 7.  (I was in all metal to hear the hot rocks.)  It was not a strong signal to me and the wind is now blowing about 30 so he finished finding the nugget at only 3 inches.

He now had two nuggets much bigger than mine.  It had been a wonderful day until he proved who was king.  Swifty and the 7000 are too much of a match for me with the 800 and my first time to the gold fields.  I'm sure I'll have more and I need to learn how to get some depth.  I've collected some hot rocks for practice.

Now I've found nuggets and gold jewelry.  It truly is a versatile machine on small size targets.  Bring on the big targets!

Mitchel

[Steve Herschbach]

You might be the second guy to find gold nuggets with the Equinox in the U.S. Mitchel - congratulations! And no, there is no VLF made that is going to match the GPZ for sheer power. However, the Equinox is easily capable of hitting gold smaller than the GPZ can detect.

[mn90403]

Steve,

I've seen your pictures.  Did they have any depth?

Mitchel

[Steve Herschbach]

Yes, but you also have not seen all my pictures. Sorry to be a tease but I am still on hold.

[Cabin Fever]

31 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Yes, but you also have not seen all my pictures. Sorry to be a tease but I am still on hold.

I’m hoping it’s because the nugget photos are involving top secret unannounced accessories.. It would be a shame if we didn’t get a solid elliptical coil for the Equinox soon!

Bryan

[Cabin Fever]

Thanks for the report Mitchel.. Make sure you share some photos if you find that vial of Gold. 

Bryan

[flakmagnet]

Nice going Mitchel, that was fun to read.

 

[Chase Goldman]

13 hours ago, Cabin Fever said:

I’m hoping it’s because the nugget photos are involving top secret unannounced accessories.. It would be a shame if we didn’t get a solid elliptical coil for the Equinox soon!

Bryan

Uh, I'd just be happy with price and availability for ANY of the accessories they have already announced, much less unannounced wish list accessories.

Speaking of which, the Equinox linked accessories page is STILL down after more than a week 404.  Weird.  Best case scenario might just be, new announced accessories, but most likely, out of sight (site) out of mind...may be what ML is thinking.  Based on the availability of the Equinox, maybe they should hide their product pages too.  

[LukeJ]

Nice going Mitchel.   

I was hoping to be 2nd, maybe 3rd could still happen.   

I did find a live 22lr round in my backyard about an hour ago.  Be careful if you decide to dig a "9"

Keep at it, there's bound to be more gold for the Equinox as time goes along.

Luke

[BeachHunter]

Congrats on the gold nuggets Mitchel. WTG!