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Had to post something so I wouldnt get deleted---this is some stuff found in Northern Nevada --2009-2011ish. Mostly with the gpx4500

The great debate of DISCRIMINATION, Iron ID and Target #'s when detecting for Gold. The war of words is about to begin. So lets try to stay on point and be courteous of others ways/ideas or skill levels for those who are newer to the game. This is an open end post and all who respond, reply, ask questions, disagree and or partially agree is 100% totally fine and discussion desired. So many times I’ve heard from the Experts who detect for gold, they say “Dig It All” and to never used Discrimination. So I guess there really is no debate? Just do what the Experts do and live with the results. Is that such like good advice from so called Experts. So if this is the case, then why do the detector manufactures offer it (discrimination or ID) on their machines? VLF Gold type detectors have had Iron Identification on some models since the 1980’s and I also know earlier General Purpose detectors offered DISC as far back to the early 70s. I imagine those of you who have been around for longer than I could even know of detectors with such capabilities go back before the dates I mentioned? Heck, even Minelab Pulse Induction detectors in the 1990’s provided Iron DISC feature. So are all those manufactures and variety of detector models, just selling us bells and whistles? Remember what so called Expert says, “dig it all”. The manufactures have to know something? Maybe there are times and or locations that Discrimination and or Iron ID is indeed a needed feature? Maybe the models with such are for dummies who know nothing as they have never spoken with an Expert? Could said Expert who does this for a living be wrong? Well most certainly not in his mind anyway. I’m going to give you my reasons why I end using detectors with the Iron ID or Discrimination features and I’ll even go into detail of using both the traditional VLF’s and the more robust Pulse Induction power detectors. I’m not an Expert and I do not do this for a living (well I do not hunt gold for a living), but I do sell detectors as my full time job. So since I’m not an Official Full Time Prospecting Expert, does that mean the knowledge I have of various detectors not count? That is to be debated down the road. I will say this though and those who know me for many years know I can back up my words with the amount of gold and the sizes of gold I have recovered. 1st off, when you are out there detecting, I want you to do what you are most comfortable with and what has provided you success on previous trips. I’m not here to make you change your ways. In fact, those of you who are just as happy with your results and not using DISC., I totally understand you are not about to change your ways. That’s totally fine with me…I’m happy for you. It’s the rest of the folks who are newer to the game of Electronic Prospecting for gold and or even those who are experienced hunters that have decent success…but you are wise enough to realize at times ..just maybe there is a better way at doing it? This article is for those folks. The average guy who goes detecting a few times at the same locations with a little jingle in the pouch. Your success at those sites tell, you’re doing it correctly so you’re quite pleased, happy and not willing to change your ways of thinking or doing things. I’m fine and happy for you. But, sorry that is not me. I’m all about Adventure and Travel with detectors in hand. I enjoy new detector technologies and trying to find ways to make them perform better for the task. I like gold and the varieties of gold I pursue is quite varied when compared to many other folks who chase it. I don’t know if it’s because of my knowledge and skill level of gold detecting or just that others are stuck in a pattern and don’t know any difference? My travels in pursuit of gold have guided me to more states than most (NV, OR, ID, MT, SD, WY, AZ, AK) 8 to be exact and 2 different countries (Australia and Mexico). I’m not counting gold jewelry and coins/artifacts (my list would be much larger), just natural Au gold in it’s raw form. All the states and countries I mentioned, I have had success with my metal detectors. In fact, I have yet to hunt a state and not find gold with a detector. CA, CO and UT will eventually get checked off my list. OK, back to the Discrimination/Iron ID discussion and why I want it on my detector tools. Why I feel DISC and Iron ID are of desired features on a metal detector and there are many times when they need to be used. Those features save me time and energy. Both Time and Energy are something I desire more and more each year and seem to get less and less of. A detector with the features of DISC and Iron ID can save me Time and Energy when digging. When I use a detector with such features, I get to SELECT the amount of targets I want to dig. Here is a typical situation I experience many times in my hunts. I hunt gold where gold has been found and I like to detect in such sites. Here are the main sites I prefer to hunt and use DISC and or ID machine. Old hand placer workings, Ore dump piles, and Dredge Trailing Piles. These golden grounds were proven producers at one time and they leave plenty of targets for us. Old hand placer workings (6 pics below of Au digs using PI DD coils with DISC or VLF's with VDI Readout) In OR, NV, ID, MT, and SD. The problem is most of the targets are trash and many of the trash items are man made iron. My DISC and Iron ID capable detectors save me time/energy in these gold rich locations. Using common math to show. How many times will that person dig in an hour? How many hours a day will that person hunt? How many days on that trip will they swing the detector and dig targets? Let’s say a person can dig 10 targets an hour and 6 hrs a day = 60 targets for the day. On average, average site produces 15 non ferrous targets and 45 iron targets. So of the 15 non ferrous targets, lets say 20% are gold (3 pieces of gold) of the 15 nonferrous targets and of the total 60 digs. In Eastern Oregon those numbers are pretty close. Here is where I like the ID. I can save Time and Energy by not having to dig 45 iron targets. I now am digging more non ferrous targets than the average guy so my gold count goes up. Say I saved T&E on those 45 iron targets so I still get the 15 Nonferrous, but the extra T&E allows me to dig 15 to 25 (not 45) more targets that are Nonferrous. I’ll be extremely on the cautionary side and say I only dug 15 more NF targets. That ends up 2X my gold count for the day and also still saved me T&E. Plus as well all know, the extra boost of finding more gold seems to earn me a little more Energy. Ore Dump/Hardrock Piles- (5 pics of success using VLF's & their Identification systems) Many areas I hunt in NV, ID, MT, OR and I’ve seen many in AZ have such hard rock ore dumps. Do you know the preferred detector for this kind of gold? Do you know if you take a target identification VLF and use it at such sites, you can recover more desired nonferrous targets. I select only certain VLF type detectors for these sites. Iron ID is nice and if that is all I have then most certainly, I use it. But I know (from previous testing) that certainly VLF gold capable detectors can go a step farther and provide me with even greater odds of Success at gold and saving me T & E. Dredge Tailing Piles – (8 pics of gold using VLF's & their ID features) Love hunting these locations and my success in Tailing Piles of ID, OR, AK, NV is golden. Some of my largest gold recoveries are from such piles and the funny part is most all of them were recovered with VLF detectors using Iron Discrimination. Why you ask? Because in dredge tailing piles, even a VLF detector can pick up a rail tie spike at 12” down. Even a VLF can hear a rusty prospectors tobacco tin or smashed sardine can at near a foot and a half deep. Even a VLF detector can hear at depths of 2 feet down for a rusty grease bucket or lid to a 55 gallon drum. How about the 55 gal drum itself…well I know for a fact some VLF detectors will respond pushing near 4 feet down. Are you man enough to dig those monster holes in loose rocks and gravel? If you have never attempted it, good luck. The material you are digging keeps caving in as you go down and the next thing you know…after 45 minutes, you have a 4 foot wide and 3 foot deep hole. Only another foot more to go. Oh those days…can kill an old mans ego for the whole trips…I’ve seen it happen. As you can see from the Success pictures, the ability to use Iron ID on Pulse Induction & VLF detectors has proved golden. Now, taking today's newer Identification ID machines a step further saves me much time on pursuing only the best and most probably signals to dig. No, there’s no magic to it, but I’ve learned a lot more than most about different kinds of gold and how it reads on these ID machines. So many of the sites I currently hunt, the bigger solid nuggets are gone and have been for 10+ yrs. But there’s still some of that specimen stuff the older technologies missed. Sites I enjoy detecting are the trash areas most others try for an hour or 2 and then they walk away is discuss. They’re tired of digging holes and finding iron nails, boot tacks and shovel heads. Sure, I dig a few of those shovel heads, but not as many as most others do. I’ve spent the time in the field and learned. I’ve purchased most of the newer technologies and tested/compared each to see how they stand. No one detector does it all, but I know this. I quality PI and a new technology VLF sure does cover most bases. After all, I can tell you with fact, that the last 5 yrs, my gold finds are better than most and the majority were recovered using my techniques in the locations I mentioned. It’s hard to beat what works and puts the gold in the safe. Knowing where and how varying gold finds register on your VLF detector is crucial. Here’s an example of what most folks encounter when in the field at an old gold producing site. Ore dump piles, are full of rail tie spikes and blasting caps. Also seems to be a beacon for lead bullets of a variety, but usually .22 and 9MM slugs. Many of my gold recoveries from these sites, the newest of VLF gold detectors can ID the difference between such targets. Also, the majority of gold specimens in a certain pile, seems to ID the same #’s or very close to it. Yes it does take practice and time to learn, but in the end, you have knowledge to be selective and save time/energy. Hand working placer digs has a bigger variety of trash items and one some of my locations, the gold is thicker, more dense and reads different. I usually use VLF ID’s to help identify and ignore the high conductor targets while concentrating on the lower ones. Most gold (not all) will read in the low to possibly medium range. Even using a Pulse Induction detector with Iron DISC is possible and quite rewarding. Dredge Tailing piles are a lot like hand placer workings, but they provide even a bigger variety of trash. These piles are the hardest to learn and use a PI detector. I prefer a VLF for most of the tailing pile hunts I do, as the machine itself is much lighter and easier to swing on side hills all day. Besides I don’t want to dig 2’ or 3’ deep holes and those occasional 4’ ones will practically kill you. On the rare occasion there is big thicker gold (Ganes Creek, AK). I recommend if you swing a PI, you better have a quality VLF detector handy to help ID as you dig. So many varieties of gold and the areas, terrains and methods they were minded in the US. Australia and other countries of the gold bearing regions are different and those of you from there may not see any use in my techniques and style of hunting or the detectors I use. That’s totally understandable and I have no issues. But if you do have hard rock ore dumps and hand placer workings with trash, it might be worth the time to swing PI and DD coil or a VLF with good target identification. I look forward to hearing from those who use my techniques and I also want to hear from others who might have things to add. What is most important about this post and discussion is the actual discussion and sharing of knowledge. After all, that’s why were on here right? Thanks for your input and reading.

Last night I just had to get OUT and detect. We haven't had many waves but you just have to get out in the night sky and low tide and detect. A few dry sand coins and then only a nickel for over a mile. On the way back I got a bit of an iffy signal and it turned out to be a corroded, copper cross. At least it was something. While I was digging it around 1 AM a guy came up to me and just was asking questions. I told him about the energy needed to make targets get washed up. I showed him what I found and upon his parting he wished me good finds. That was nice. About 20 minutes later I got a 12 with the 800/11 and dug down about 7 inches and discovered this 'thing' I've never seen before. It's a ring but for two fingers. Then I couldn't read it to know if it was real or not. I couldn't make out a k so I thought it might be cheap. When I got it home I could see some workings and also read 417. It weighs 6.7g. The internet says it is 10K. Yahoo! It has been a few months since a gold ring ... that this one is a double. But what do you call it? What are the key words? I found this one online for sale from a pawn shop. It is 3.6g. Solid 10K Yellow Gold Two Finger Bar Ring 3.6gr. Size 5 | eBay

I recently spent a couple of days with ---- ----- ----- and ------ at the famous ----- ---- mine in ------- county, California. We all found some nice gold, but I found a bit more because I was willing to dig a little bit deeper. The gold was mostly in a strata of ----- ---- rock and was very course and there were few small bits, even using a 6000 to check behind my 7000. If any of you should go there be advised to say to the left when you get to the --- ----- ----- or you will definitely get stuck for hours, and if you camp out be sure to ---- - ----- ----- because there are numerous -------- and ---- --------- teeth and will tear you apart with there claws. Oh, by the way don't try to get to the mine by going -- --- ----- ----- as the map is incorrect and you will ---- ---- ------- and there is no place to turn around

polished end of specimenthis came off of a matrix on the end of a red host rock seen in following pics end of a host rock . A matrix cluster of … ? host rock is red and seen in the following pics peice end of a host rock matrix of a host rock with large cluster matrix on end of red rock end of host rock matrix

Here is the latest Video. The . 63 g nugget I will put up next.

I took a trip out to Rye Patch last Wed. Packed the whole family, CEO and herd of Doodle Dogs, towing the 5th wheel toyhauler with RZR aboard. Weather was awesome on day 2, almost needed a hoody at sunup, but that changed quickly. Day 2 I did some quick recon with the 2 big Doodles riding shotgun. Clearly, Rye Patch had seen some significant rain in early June. The roads were rutted and the gullies showed a lot of erosion, with bedrock showing here and there. I detected some places that had produced gold in the past for no joy. The next morning my big Doodle dog was really feeling out of sorts from a recent vet procedure. We made an appointment for Fri morning, so that shut down my detecting. Fri, we hauled her to Fallon and got some medication, then opted to take the Boss and Doodle Dogs home to Fernley. I drove back out to Rye Patch Fri evening, leaving the Doodles and Boss at home. Turns out to be a good decision since the weather turned hot quickly. Sat morning I got out early and detected a long line of exposed bedrock. Since mine were the only boot tracks, I decided to cover a lot of ground looking for the sitting ducks from the recent erosion. Surprisingly, the freshly exposed bedrock was barren, but I managed to get the bigger nugget in a newly exposed cut in the gully side wall. It got hot by noon so I surrendered and sat out the heat in the trailer with generator going and air con on max. Afternoon cooled down some and I went back out to another gully with exposed bedrock. Again, nothing in the exposed bedrock, but I pulled 2 out of the freshly cut sidewall. Sun morning I was out early. No breeze and a promise early hot weather. I put in nearly 3 hrs of detecting exposed bedrock and fresh sidewalls with not much but trash. I did a complete loop, ending up back where I had found the nuggets yesterday. 10 ft from one of my dig holes I got a faint whisper of target tone. I should mention the atmospherics were jumpy and the 6k with 14x9 Coiltek was sparky, I lowered the Sens down to 5 and that seemed to help. The nugget was flat and way down in the bedrock. I'm glad I kept my Dave' Gold Australian pick which makes quick work of the soft bedrock. I was sweating buckets by the time I got the nugget out and decided to call it a trip. Rye Patch is a tough place to score nuggets these days. All the washes I was working have been detected 1000's of times. The freshly exposed bedrock was never all that deep so my only advantage was I was first to detect the newly exposed sidewalls. If you are planning a trip mind the weather, and as always it's a tire killer out there. I saw 2 trucks on the road fixing flats.

If only we could go back in time.

I got the 15 inch concentric X-coil onto a patch today and 6-7 hours later I had a new personal nugget record at 14 for a day. My previous high was 12. Those were a bit bigger found with the stock 7000 coil. The depths ranged up to 6 inches or so but most of the small ones were easy to hear at 3 inches. The sizes from left to right are .44 (far left), then 2 x .2+, 6 x .1+ and finally 5 nuggets less than .1 g with the small one at .03 grams. It was also a nice sunset.

Spent 16 days in Rye Patch area in Nevada recently using the 6000 for the first time in gold country. Found 3 small nugets the first day, one the second and one the third, this is going to be good! Ha, went dry for the next 10 days and finaly found 2 more day 14 then 1 more on day 15 for a total of 6.8 grams. Not a large amount but found nothing last year in 10 days so I at least beat the skunk. Had 2 days of beat-down rain and one day of un-bearable wind, several days of cold weather but the last 2 days were beautiful. Met a few good folks also prospecting, alwasys fun to talk with them about finding gold. Good luck to all in your search.

I don't usually go relic hunting in the late spring to fall, but an opportunity presented itself right outside my house. 12 acres of the farm is up for sale, it hasn't sold in 15 years but the owner decided to get a new agent, clear some of the woods to show the potential water view, and lower the price a bit. He gave me permission to hunt all his land so I have access to everything around me that the farmers don't own, and all that too. The field is the first field outside my house I ever hunted, got a lot of buttons and old relics, some cut pistareens and a half cent. In the back of this field they cut a path through the jungle to the river, there is a marsh at the end. The hill doesn't look steep but the angle is around 70 degrees or more. The realtor put a guide rope on the trees. Yesterday I updated all my Deus 2 gear to V1, what a coincidence 😏 I decided to pack up my WS6 Master rig with the 9" coil and went over there on my golf cart to take advantage of hunting it before the jungle takes it back. It will be impassable by fall. It was only a 3 hour hunt, that ravine is a killer 😅 hunting on what is the equivalent angle of a 12-12 pitch roof is difficult, the ground is full of roots, and it's deer fly season so they are everywhere. 🤬 Here's the trash, I didn't get much, dug the nails to prove to myself iron was iron, and some were in the same hole as my finds. I was using Relic Reaper and messing with some of the new features. One thing I noticed was no "Profile" option, it may have never existed but I am not a fan of the large number screen. I also want to put Silver Slayer on this machine now that there are a couple notches available, and a beach program from a forum user I want to try. First good find was a button, a 75 that ended up being under a root. Very crisp signal, gotta say V1 is an improvement. It had no backmarks and part of the shank crumbled away. I got to about 10 feet from the top and got a solid 58. Most of the buck balls were 57-63 depending on size, but this just sounded different. Out popped the surprise of the day: A gold watch fob, i believe it's Victorian era from my search, 1837-1901. It could even be from the 20s. The initials of the owner are in the bottom plate: The cleaner it gets the "golderer" it gets, nothing flaking off. It doesn't weigh a lot and appears to be hollow. My guess is 10k Gold Filled, like the one I found doing research below: It's pretty similar. Gold is gold tho... 🥳 Cannot believe the Deus 2 hit gold already! The initials are those of the owner of the whole farm a long time ago, I may give it to the family. 🙂

I got back to Montana a week ago and the weather was great until last night. Hahaha! No gold yet since I have been back but I ended my winter in Arizona with an ounce of gold.

Sorry for being a slacker, but I have been busy 😁

I only found 4 pieces of gold last Summer. Their pale yellow color indicates they have high silver content. As silver rapidly dissolves out of gold, these pieces may have come from up on the nearby ridge. Looking at Google Earth I see what looks like 3 small intrusions with some diggings close by. I'll take a close look this Spring.

Hi fellow dirt diggers I have been digging gold over here in OZ with a GPZ 7000 & 14 inch standard coil in creeks and have had a couple of signals from targets move from where i first started hearing at the surface Here is how it happened- I found a weak signal in the middle of some creek wash and started digging. i dug straight down approximately 100mm and checked the hole with detector, The noise was notably louder & I was on target with the signal in the middle of the hole. I dug another 100mm down, re checked the hole with the detector and noticed the signal had moved from the center of the hole by approximately 100mm, so i dug down another 100mm towards the signal and checked with the detector. the signal was heaps louder and i was defiantly getting closer. The signal had moved another 100mm approximately further from the initial hole starting point. I finished up digging to the clay layer down 550-600mm down and about 350mm off center from the initial signal to uncover a 3 ounce specie. I wasn't going to worry about posting the weird dig and thought it was just me not centralizing the target initially until it happened again in another creek about 1 km away. This wasn't so bad it had only moved about 100mm off center and 400mm down to uncover a 10 grammer. The ground was pretty much just creek wash and then the layer of clay on the bottom. Was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience or is it just me 🤥 Cheers Ozgold

Went out for a day with a buddy from AZ that likes to highbank - in the desert! I could have brought a drywasher, but I assumed that the soil would be too wet so I just brought my 6000 instead. I spent most of the day chasing a skunk around with it while my buddy was making mud jello out of the 20 gallons of water I brought for his highbanker. It was a long day and the sun was about to put us in the deepening canyon shade, and I wasn’t very happy about being skunked so I grabbed a small shovel, a bucket and a 1/4-inch classifier and went for a short hike to get some grab samples off of a channel wall. I panned out the bucket of classified dirt from it when I returned to camp and got some color - about as much as a ball point from a pen’s-worth. That made it better, but I still prefer detecting over drywashing for the other benefits that go with it like hiking and exploring in the open desert and putting my mind at ease while just listening to the machine purring along, it’s very relaxing and sometimes may be rewarding as well! The highbanker take- mine was too small to see well.

First gold in about 6 years of a detecting hiatus. Got it in a little wash Condor showed me (I think) 8 years ago. The rains stirred it up a bit and I got one we left behind. Offroad racing is slowing down for me (getting old sucks) and I’ll be out swinging a lot more. I even got one of my little girls interested 😁 I’m in So Cal, anyone else in here around?

I lucked out and got to prospect the NSR on March 20.......the first day of spring. I finally got to use the Geo Sluice Again. It's been a while................

I rarely find anything worth posting here, but I think you might enjoy this. I have a standing permission at an old farm yard here in eastern Massachusetts. I've been over this particular spot six or eight times, and found a Barber dime just before the end of last season. So that's where I started last night. Deus II, Sens FT, square tones. Settings probably wouldn't have mattered as this signal was pretty clear – low eighties, fairly clear tone with a slight scratch on the outswing, and a bit of an unctuous warble. So a bottle cap, or more likely a big screw top from a liquor bottle. I dug it anyway because I wanted to clear the trash out and hopefully find more coins. It was very dark already, so when I flipped the sod, I could barely tell that I had a pocket watch or compass, so on I went. once I cleaned it off a bit at home, I explained to my son that this wasn't plated because there were no flakes coming off, but that silver sometimes comes out gold toned. At that point the back falls off. I got so excited about the inscription that I didn't read the case marks. So it took quite a while for me to realize that this was, in fact, a 14k gold watch!

Can you smell it?♨️ Sweet with heat jerky using hickory smoke. Started the day getting a little bit of gold. It got up to one degree above freezing, so in my neck of the woods, it was fantastic. Instead of my usual gravel from the steep vertical bank, I shifted gears and ran river gravel through my California Mini. Probably a little bit more gold, but so fine. Finished the day putting my marinated jerky into my dehydrator. Going to sleep well tonight.🥱

Have been trying to get out between some seasonably abnormal snow events in western Oregon the last 10 days. First, hit the beaches of the Columbia River not too far out of downtown Portland. Jewelry hunting was largely a bust, but I wanted to check all the black sand piled up from wave action, and satisfied my curiosity. 3 pans, 2 colors, and a dime in one pan not shown (How on earth in the millions of yards of sand up and down that 5 mile stretch did I pull a dime in a pan when i only found about 50 coins all day with the detector). Not enough to bother with....but there is gold underfoot! Next, hit an old park that has been incredibly stingy to me. I find plenty of good old stuff in our area, but this park has been well hunted and rarely gives up old coins. I used the Deus Hot program, and swapped in the Deep program checking targets, and found several whispers at 7-8 inches that have been waiting there a long time...and that countless detectors have passed over. Hit is twice more with modified programs that should have given me some additional depth and/or sensitivity to deep targets...and nuttin' in terms of old coins. One lonely vintage silver earing to show which was only 2-3 inches down. Bouncy signal probably resulted in it being undug. My buddy in our uncommon snow, taking the high ground to peer through the windows, and make sure she isn't left behind. Nothing that get's one too excited, but keeps me motivated to get out and dig a hole! Happy hunting! Brian

Here is the video of the 1.78 gram nugget I found the day before I found the big crystaline nugget 14" deep. That video is on deck.

Someone asked recently about finding small gold with a 15" coil at the beach. I found a little patch today and slowed down enough to find a couple of pieces of tiny jewelry. If you have a compatible detector (x-terra pro) then this 15" coil should work. Will it work on others as well?

A fine day it was yesterday at the North Saskatchewan River. Warm, partly cloudy with light winds. I took my Geo (Geometric) drop riffle highbanker for another dig. All I get is flour gold out of this river. Last year I got 17 grams of that powdery stuff. It's about 1/2 mile from where I parked pulling the sled. Easy going down the valley, a good workout pulling my equipment back out, up the river valley. Got some gold, and a first....a clay marble in one of my shovel scoops. It could predate back to the late 1800's. Also got some smaller pieces of petrified wood, a small piece of petrified dino bone and a fossilized bone in iron stone. I highlighted the bone with nail polish.....unfortunately, it wasn't dry and just reflected my light. Lesson learned!

Man....did I ever get a woody this afternoon .......a petrified woody that is! Out sluicing with the ity - bity sluice today. Pulling some gravel at about 4 feet off the ground in the gravel bank, when I saw the familiar contour stripes of petrified wood. I carefully dug it our, and stopped at a car wash to give it a good cleanup. Just a lovely specimen too. And, I also got a little ity bity gold too. It's not much, but it photographed using a macro lens to show that the pieces look like large nuggies.