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Fisher Gold Bug 2 At Wasilla, Alaska?


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Hi steve i attended your class a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I have a specific question. I want to target flakes and pickers and small nuggets behind my house in basically the Talkeetna mountains, which include hatcher pass, sutton area, willow, and numerous high small streams that i hike and four wheel into. from all the research i have done the fisher gold bug 2 seems to be the ticket and i see you have used it with great success. my question is this area a high mineralized area? i see the gold bug 2 is very sensitive to hot areas, i plan on using it a lot and practicing on the little sue with practice targets, is this something i need to be concerned with ? (also will be hitting crow creek,petersville and eureka) but mostly hatcher pass and sutton area. what are your thoughts on this?

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The Hatcher Pass and Sutton area is very mineralized as regards metal detectors. The high mountain areas are composed of granitic type rocks, granodiorite and tonalite in the immediate Hatchet Pass area, and monzonite above Sutton. Hot metal detectors like the Gold Bug 2 must be dialed way back to deal with the rock. Also, the gold is small. Very difficult detecting scenario. All my success in the area came from hand scanning hand picked quartz specimens, neatly side-stepping the issue. See Metal Detecting Lode Gold at Hatcher Pass, Alaska.

I found the detectors to be of considerable aid in checking quartz specimens but I think the area would be very difficult to detect successfully in the classic sense of just scanning the ground for targets. The only creek in the area with nugget gold is Grubstake Gulch and it is completely claimed up. The Little Su, Willow Creek, and others have gold but it is small stuff. A Gold Bug 2 would hit it if you got on it, but would also go nuts on the rocks. A lower frequency VLF detector backed way down or a hot PI might deal with the rocks but then be unable to detect the gold.

My method for checking potential quartz obviously worked but beyond that I would consider the area to be a very challenging scenario for metal detecting with a low potential for classic nugget detecting success. The main problem is simple - a general lack of gold nuggets! Honestly, a gold pan is probably a better tool for finding gold in the area than a detector unless you are chasing ore samples like I did.

Ray, R.G., 1954, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Willow Creek Mining District, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1004, 86 p., 9 maps http://www.dggs.alaska.gov/pubs/id/3460

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Hello EMoss#83, I have claims above Grubtake as well as below I have been working the last few years. It is my experience that Steve is pretty much spot on with all his info. I have found small nuggets with my Gold bug 2 but it is really frustrating. Most of what I find is by dredge methods.
I have a GPX 5000 but have not tried it in the area as all the gold is small and I agree that it would  just be lost. This next summer I will give it a go just to see what the result is. If you would like we can team up. I don`t have a detecting buddy so I would love the company.
That reminds me. Steve you had posted  that you were going to use the 8 inch coil on the 5000 to find small gold in Alaska. What come of that?
As I mentioned I have been prospecting my claims and I have some spots that I feel are dredge worthy. I plan to dredge the claims this next summer and really expecting a good season.
Been building a 4 inch subsurface dredge just for this adventure and when I get all the parts together I will post a pic. Should be interesting.
Here is a few pics of the area............. .post-10-0-57331300-1393108746_thumb.jpg

And the finds............post-10-0-54884100-1393109304_thumb.jpg

 

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Well, true story is I had big plans to chase small gold with the GPX but the fact is I could not tear myself away from looking for big gold long enough to do it. It seems a bit like hunting mice with an elephant gun. That said I think it would be worth your while to give it a go. You really never know unless you try and you already have the detector.

Nice photos, thanks for posting! The Hatcher Pass area was always a favorite of mine. Very kind offer you made also.

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 Soooo you are encouraging me to take my elephant gun on a mouse hunting expedition.   Reminded me of that 80`s Life commercial

" I`M NOT GONNA TRY IT- YOU TRY IT" I understand what you are saying but got a good laugh at that.

Late fall early winter keep your eyes peeled for a post Mouse Hunting In Hatchers Pass.

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thanks a million "sjmpainter"  i called AK mining and diving and they said more GB 2's are coming in next week so i will make a special trip to anchorage. this will be  my first metal detector and very excited about learning it, I am learning a lot from youtube and this site especially- so i will practice but i would love the opportunity for you to share with me how do deal with these darn "hot rocks" in the area.

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Emoss I sent my contact info so you can get with me.

 

Also pay close attention to the links Steve posted and here is one more for you to study - http://maps.dggs.alaska.gov/mapindex/.

 

I really like my GB2 but it can be a bit tricky for a first detector, have you considered a Gold Bug Pro? Might want to ask Steve about that.

As far as the " Hot Rocks" and small gold in the area well we will see how that goes. One thing to consider is on my claim there is old Placer workings and I have found lots of relics left behind. I feel that using the GPX might be fruitless on gold but I would expect to find any relics in the ground and I feel that is worth the go and should make a good adventure. With that said maybe a GB Pro might be a better all around detector to consider as gold is not the only treasure.

One thing I really appreciate with Steve is he is not stuck on gold and he has great stories on other detecting adventures.  Just something to consider before you buy a dedicated gold detector.

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The Gold Bug 2 is the one detector that I hardly think of as a detector. It is a prospecting tool. It does have a learning curve, but people like myself that have mastered the Gold Bug 2 consider it indispensable. Like anything else it just takes some practice. Do not be afraid to tone the settings down!

If there is any thought at all of doing anything else other than prospect than a Gold Bug Pro could be the better answer. Most mid-frequency detectors are all around units that you can also use for prospecting. The Gold Bug Pro is like a prospecting detector you can use for other stuff, if you get my drift.

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good stuff guys, thanx for all the great info, you will be happy to know that my father has a brand new whites MXT or GMT not sure yet -its sitting in the box on a shelf somewhere in his garage,and i will have full access to using it. this is why i was going to buy a GB2 - I do a lot of hiking and four wheeling around south-central and wanted to be able to detect some color then maybe come back later with my small keene sluice and MXT and  the family ( is my thinking correct here steve?)

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You can't detect color - you need little nuggets. Realistically if the creeks are your goal packing a pan or the sluice is going to be more effective. The stuff in the picture above is a challenge in low mineral ground and near impossible in hot mineralized ground. The MXT or GMT would be very instructive for you to borrow and use before buying anything. There is a bit of a myth going around that detectors are the easy way to find gold. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You can walk all over gold all day long with a detector a pan would reveal in minutes. And Hatcher Pass is the place for exactly that to happen.

Not trying to discourage you but unrealistic expectations is a major reason people try detecting then give up on it. If Hatcher Pass were a great place to detect gold you can bet I would have done lots more of it!

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