Has Anyone Else Been Harassed Whilst Prospecting?

[Andyy]

I usually don't get harassed until I get home..  On those rough days when you're prospecting new areas and come up with nothing to show for the long hours and wasted gas.  I'll  unload the truck, putting everything neatly into my messy gold equipment corner, and go to the refrigerator for a cold one.  "So did you find anything?", comes an echo from our living room couch.  "Not today, but it was gorgeous out", I say trying to sound positive.   "Sounds like you're a LOOOOSER, today."   My wife and daughter bust out laughing, and of course I bust out too because you just have to laugh about what we go through for gold.   

Anyways …. probably not the point of the thread, but I thought I would lighten it up. 🙂

[GaryC/Oregon Coast]

My wife usually throws in the "I DON'T NEED A METAL DETECTOR" to find good stuff, and she doesn't.  She's constantly finding coins on the ground in parking lots, store floors, coin starr machines, you name it, she tops me everytime!!  It's all good!  I give her due and she gives me my space.  GaryC/Oregon Coast

[Lacky]

On 12/14/2019 at 5:58 PM, madtuna said:

Watched a yootoob a couple of years ago posted on an Aussie prospecting forum of a bunch of half drunken prospectors at a camp shooting the crap out of anything that moved or didn't move. What a really good look to inspire confidence and trust in the prospecting community.

Read on another Aussie prospecting forum where one prospector was saying how when he and his mates go prospecting, if they see a cattle beast without ear marks or ear tags it's wild cattle and doesn't live long. This clown is a minelab dealer and I pray that's not the sort of info he advises his customers to follow.

In WA (rightly or wrongly)there's no shooting on crown land like in some states. There's no shooting on pastoral leases without a Pastoral letter. There's definitely no shooting on mining company ground. Half our cattle are wild and don't have ear marks or ear tags until such times as we manage to catch them in a muster.

Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of a mentality with many that because you have a $25 miners right, and because you are in the WA outback and it's huge you can go where you please and do as you please.

So confrontations will always be inevitable.

 

Is a pastoral lease a grazing lease on public land? We call them grazing leases here so just trying to see if its the same thing. Here the grazing lease just gives the right to graze cattle on the land but no other control over the land. It's still public land and anyone can do any activity allowed on any other public land. 

[madtuna]

29 minutes ago, Lacky said:

Is a pastoral lease a grazing lease on public land? We call them grazing leases here so just trying to see if its the same thing. Here the grazing lease just gives the right to graze cattle on the land but no other control over the land. It's still public land and anyone can do any activity allowed on any other public land. 

Probably similar. But you do have a certain amount of rights regarding development , use, infrastructure, roads, dwellings, water etc.

Crown land can be covered by a number of different leases at the same time. Pastoral, Mineral etc. Each type of lease is covered by different acts of parliament.

Basically, if crown land is covered by a lease you cannot just do as you please, you have to abide by the acts governing those leases.

Some times sounds complicated but in reality it is rather simple and quite workable.

Vacant crown land is open to anybody, and anyone can peg a lease upon it. However you still have to abide by the regulations in the Crown Lands act.

 

[flakmagnet]

10 hours ago, GaryC/Oregon Coast said:

She's constantly finding coins on the ground in parking lots, store floors, coin starr machines, you name it,

My wife is the same way. She has an eagle eye and has spotted more cash and coins on daily walks than I would have ever thought possible except that I have witnessed it. 

[flakmagnet]

11 hours ago, Andyy said:

you just have to laugh about what we go through for gold

Hi Andyy, but aren't we lucky that we have mates who understand that we love the search? I have only gotten my wife to come with me metal detecting once over the course of 28 years. That's all she needed to know it was not for her but - and this is the lucky part -  she fully supports my going out and completely understands why I love it so much. Now, some of that may derive from the fact that I have found multiple diamond rings at the beach during the stormy months, but kidding aside, she gets it and always cheers me on. 

Have wonderful Holidays!

 

[Norvic]

Very topical subject, in my years I have had a gun pulled on me, had a dog purposely baited by I suspect another prospector, have been advised by someone who didn`t want me on that ground to go (I went), although I explained I had the property owner and lease holders consent. Walked across a "cash crop" location by mistake, fortunately not being discovered but I immediately packed up camp and have not been back to that very productive gold field although this happened some 20 plus years back. 

Have become very "cowardish" over the years due to these experiences that highlight the old saying "Gold brings out the best in mans ingenuity, the worst in his nature"

[Andyy]

5 hours ago, Norvic said:

Have become very "cowardish" over the years due to these experiences that highlight the old saying "Gold brings out the best in mans ingenuity, the worst in his nature"

Nah, you've just grown smarter, Norvic.  I carry a small 9mm (that doesn't bother the GPZ) in case I run across people who shoot first.  But if someone asked me to leave, I would avoid the trouble, as well (keeping my gun hidden)  There are still plenty of other places to search.  

[Erik Oostra]

2 hours ago, Andyy said:

I carry a small 9mm (that doesn't bother the GPZ) in case I run across people who shoot first

thankfully i can't even imagine saying this.. but next time a cranky tourist gets abusive, i'll be sure to ask him if he's got a gun.. if he does i'll stop arguing and leg it as fast as i can..  

[Reg Wilson]

Likewise......