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Let's Give The Detector A Little More Credit


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Ok, Luck or Lucky! I was born on St. Patrick's Day, which is fast approaching, no reminders please! That Nickname, I've had since I was a kid. I can think back on my life and tell you I have been lucky in life. Or was it the way I was raised as a child to set goals and achieve them. I was fortunate to have many mentors throughout my years to point out my miss steeps, so I could get back in step. Prospecting was no different. As a young 18 year old, I was all ears listening to my Dad's friends telling us the ins and outs of dredging in the chilly creeks of Prescott, AZ. I took all my gain knowledge and parlayed. Lucky you bet! Now, those with the new GPZ are still learning the new detector. I will say, I have found gold with mine that has been pounded by many of America's best gold detectorist. Chris & Steve, have written not to expect to find gold on every single old patch you have is very clear. My SDC & GPZ, have not found any gold on several old patches. But the gold that they have found on old patches brings a smile to your face and makes you shake your head...I am Lucky, Until the next hunt!

LuckyLundy

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Hi Lucky,

Agree with your tip of the hat to mentors. One of the better parts of this hobby.

It is fun to share what we learn and I would not be the detectorist I have become

without help from experienced hunters both in the field and online.

 

Continued success and luck…

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  • 5 months later...

I have been detecting for a lot of years, and my luck changed when I switched brands after my mate put 3 of my machines to shame with a detector I never knew he had, but even then I was not sure and I had Gridded these areas with a fine tooth comb even to the point if I thought I had missed a foot square I would start the area again and still I found nothing and then I read what Steve had achieved with the MXT and added that to what my mate had done that day and so first thing on Monday morning I was the proud owner of one, 

Being a new machine I was so eager to get out there and I went to a place where I thought would be a good spot, Well 8 to 9 hours of that without a pick turned out to be my second most hated day of detecting and by time I got home I was wondering what the heck I had done wrong, was it the machine was it me, it effected me that I never went detecting for a week, anyways my mate nagged me to go back out there and try this well hammered area and so I agreed and went there and the first sweep of the coil I hit 3 lots of 18 ct Gold with the 12" concentric in a junk filled site that was a part of the area where no one would of thought of detecting because they would of either detected at the base of the hill then walked up it and then detected on the flat area on top of it because this dirt hill was only about 5 foot high and I detected right on the Angle of the drop off and there it was, I think I tend to look for areas where people would be less likely to go which is why I have done ok, it's not about luck it is more about looking for places to detect and Not going there and look for the places that you don't want to go that seems to be where the better finds are, 

Where most people use a lot of machines I decided to get rid of all the others and specialize with just on and I have thousands of hours with that one machine getting to know it inside out so it becomes more like another Arm and only now am I replacing the machines I once had, The thing is I can make it do what I want and it will work in 90 to 95% of the places on the planet, I have tried other machines but no matter what comes out I have never been out Gunned, I hated XP when they came out more because of politics not the company, but At first I feared anyplace where people were using XP's because about 80% of ML owners were trading in their machine for the XP Goldmaxx Power and one day I followed some guy and I was pulling out the Hammered coins and they weren't, and another thing The Goldmaxx power is Totally useless on the beach, so don't ever try to use one there.

I don't think it is Luck, some how I know that I am going to find some thing worth while and I just seem to know where to go, But most of all I know my machine will find it and if mistakes are made then it down to me which only happened that first day. So far I have not found any of the modern machines offer anything new, yet I have put the same machine in someone elses hands who use to use an ACE 250 and they just don't make good finds with the MXT and then they have gone out and bought the Deus and they are always finding good stuff.

Bottom line is, it is more about confidence, knowledge, and knowing/Trust in your machine that makes the finds, It is no good buying a new machine IE me buying a ZED although I can work it out, Without putting in the time with that machine, In my hands it is not much more use than a stick, Once learned I would be fine with it,

The Skill is in the man not the Machine, and that skill only works if the machine is the right one for you. yes I can get by with other machines but do I want to,,No, and If I won the  Lottery I would still own the MXT and any others would a matter of do I want one or not or will I use it.

John  

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Hi Hawkeye, guys

There is no luck but that you make!

Every time I make a good find I always analyze how it happened.

Mainly so I can learn from it and hopfully repeat it.

And not once was it luck!

Let me tell you about a patch I found.

I was in the Australian dessert prospecting new ground in an un proven area over 150km from the nearest known gold area I was systematically running gullys just trying to find a my first piece, I had already done 2 months for virtually nothing.

I was walking from the head of one gully that I had just finished to ward the next one across a hill.

When I reached the summit of the hill I serveyed the surrounding hills and noticed in the distance that a few of the hills about 5km away were a different

Color, so i decided that I have to check those hills the next day to see why the hills are a different color as they were to far to walk to that late in the day.

That night I decided I would move my camp to a place in between the hills and the gully where I left off giving me better position to ether continue my work or investigate the hills.

So the next day I move my camp to a spot on a dry creek where I belived the water table should be within 2m of the surface in between the hills and the last gully I finished.

I bush bashed my way to the spot in the car and when I got there I dug in the best looking spot to try and find water after about 10 mins of digging I hit the water table.........cool!

Now that I had water I could stay as long as food supplys last and could systematically invesigate the surrounds no worries about water.

I then grabbed my detector and pick and power walked the 2km to the hills to have a closer look.

As I got closer I saw a main creek that fed from in between the hills and decided to run up the creek and try jag my firzt piece.

As I was walking towards the hills up the creek I noticed the soil change color, so I hoped out of the dry creek to have a look at the low hills around me and I imedetly noticed that the rock type had changed and it had good fulting and quartz and ironstone out crops and the tops of the hills were covered in broken conglomerate.

I started to get excited and decided to run every creek, gully, fedder gully and storm gutter that cut's this geological feature.

So i started in the creek I was in and decided to run all of the left side first.

So I walked up the main creek until the first left.

It was just a storm gutter that fed off the side of a low hill.

And right at the mouth I got my first piece about .3 of a gram.

Cool the area carry's so I continued up the gutter and got a few more pices for about 2g total.

When I reched the head of the gutter I looked at the gradual slopes ether side of the gutter and noticed that the right one has a ironstone and quartz baring fault that goes under the conglomerate on top of the hill.

I carefully serched the 2 slopes... Nothing.

So i decided that the gold definatly came from the fault but under the cap.

So I decide to walk over the hill to the opposit fall of the same hill.

I proceded to detect down the gully on the opposit side of the hill and about 100m from the top I got my first bit on that side, a 10g waterworn piece.

So I kept going down the gully and picked up about another 40g in smaller pices ranging from .3 to 5g.

It was getting late so I headed back to camp for the night.

Next morning I went back to the hill again and looked at the terrain and I noticed that the fault came out of the cap and ran allong the right hand side of the gully so I decided to look there first.

I walked straight down to the first 10g nugget spot and started zig zag ing the hill side.

I started picking up nuggets every few steps so I decided to grid the whole hill side with my 14in coil.

After a week of gridding I finally finished the hillside with the 14in coil and ended up with 2351g.

Whilst I was gridding with the 14 I built up a mental picture of the depth of the soil and I picked out one area at the bottom of the hill that was deep so I decided that I had to re-grid this section with the 25in coil.

After about 10 min I got my first deep target, a 8oz specie at about 850mm.

Then only 4m away 2 more a 6.5oz and a 13oz nearly in the same hole at about

900mm.

Then 3m away from them a 22oz solid nugget then only 2m away I got another signal after 3 hours digging out poped a 32ozer.

To say I was excited would be an understatement I was over the moon!

When I had finished I ended up with just over 4.5kg for 13 days gridding.

Ok now tell me that I was lucky........ I don't think so!

I was methodically working the area I identified an anomaly and and went to investigate, then I found good indicators and followed them, then I followed the gold run.

Where is the luck?

Just hard work, persistence, and sound operating procedures if you ask me.

Can we see a pic of some of those monsters??

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