Equinox 800 To A Lode Mine Tailings

[KD0CAC]

A friend of a friend of a friend asked if I would like to go along to checkout a claim in Colorado load mine , that make 4 or us in 2 4x4s .

About 2 days each way from MN and about 4 days at site , kinda , the owners truck broke down LUCKY is happened in town getting supplies .

I have not been on roads like this for a couple + decades [ use to placer / underwater suction dredge in CA ] .

So very glad we did not break down on those roads .

I was the only one of the 4 that had done any mining [ very little load / tailings mining ] and my 800 was finding targets about every 2-3" maybe as little as every 4-6" .

Dug up many targets all man made / metal , no newgets ;(

Have never used this new to me detector [ about 1 3/4 yrs. ago , for FL beaches &&& ] so have not got to make personal tune for Newgets .

With the breakdown and showing everyone else how to . where to dig , break rock etc. had very little time to do work / detect .

Also no one knew how to read / understand the maps we had of his 3 claims , mostly copies of copies of topo maps , when we got to the 2nd spot he thought was his lower claim , I looked at the paperwork he had told me we need to look elsewhere , we were close 😉

Any prospecting is good , but this was getting close to being a , ha not so good [ would have been better if we found / had time to find gold .

We had planned to stay at least 3 days longer , but weather reports said a week of solid rain moving in ;(

Now if we , I go back I may consider a more specific gold detector , with simpler learning curve than the 800 for gold ?

I watch every TWO TOES video https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY0Qsb5XawenYsglMVNTbLw.      And he upgraded not long ago to the SD2300 , lots of things that looked good about that detector , but what caught me was using the coil on edge for crevices , but need to find some gold to be able to pay for it , many call it a fixed income - I call it a broken income 😉

With so many false targets , I put more time into helping the others learn how / what to do , and then helping the owner checkout all 3 claims - at least they were adjacent to each other , between 9,700' & 1,100' , sure noticed thin air at the age of 68 .

So the question of digging less iron ? 😉

Building a hookah system for using the NOX near beaches , within the depth of the NOX or less .  

 

[aerospace guy]

KDOCAC...Just got back from Rye Patch training with Gerry's detectors. There was a SD2300 there and on every potential target we all swung our detectors over the target...I was NOT impressed with the 2300 at all! See EQ800 forum info for Rye Patch. Now if you are talking "bigger" gold, that's a different story. Where we were almost ALL the gold is small so it did not do well. The GPX6000 would pick up lots of gold at 10 to12 inches but the SD2300 would not...then again neither would my EQ800! If you want to spring for a GPX600...then you really have something...see Lunk's post today on his finds...I am impressed!

[KD0CAC]

I'l wait for more replies .

If $3,000 is more than I can afford , $6,000 is out of sight .

[GotAU?]

KDOCOC- I’m still new at the Nox, but I do know that it may be exactly what you need for the type of area you described. The 6000 and the 2300 can’t discriminate iron, so if you are in a trashy area you will be doing a lot of digging. A Nox with a 6-inch coil or the larger stock coils will do you well, it will report some negative numbers for non-ferrous,  but if your time is limited it can help you concentrate more on positive number targets with the highest probability of being what you are looking for.

[GotAU?]

1 hour ago, aerospace guy said:

KDOCAC...Just got back from Rye Patch training with Gerry's detectors. There was a SD2300 there and on every potential target we all swung our detectors over the target...I was NOT impressed with the 2300 at all! See EQ800 forum info for Rye Patch. Now if you are talking "bigger" gold, that's a different story. Where we were almost ALL the gold is small so it did not do well. The GPX6000 would pick up lots of gold at 10 to12 inches but the SD2300 would not...then again neither would my EQ800! If you want to spring for a GPX600...then you really have something...see Lunk's post today on his finds...I am impressed!

Curious, did anyone test the differences with a Nox and the stock larger coil vs. the 6-inch?

[tboykin]

The EQ800 is the best option for the area you described. It can somewhat discriminate iron, which PI machines cannot.

However it may be that gold is too fine or disseminated to pickup on a detector. In this case I would use the detector as more of a mineralization detector, and listen for ground responses on unprocessed ore. It may turn out that these samples can be crushed to reveal fine gold within.

It takes a lot of research to find sites with big enough gold to detect, sparse enough trash to detect it, and also have it shallow enough to not require scraping with a dozer. But many hard rock mines had fine enough gold that it would be difficult to find with even the most sensitive detector.

[GotAU?]

52 minutes ago, tboykin said:

The EQ800 is the best option for the area you described. It can somewhat discriminate iron, which PI machines cannot.

However it may be that gold is too fine or disseminated to pickup on a detector. In this case I would use the detector as more of a mineralization detector, and listen for ground responses on unprocessed ore. It may turn out that these samples can be crushed to reveal fine gold within.

It takes a lot of research to find sites with big enough gold to detect, sparse enough trash to detect it, and also have it shallow enough to not require scraping with a dozer. But many hard rock mines had fine enough gold that it would be difficult to find with even the most sensitive detector.

I recently picked up a Falcon MD20  detector to help in sampling for possible ore, but its coil is very small though, about an inch in diameter, so it would take a lot of time to cover any area and is best used as a pinpointer.

[KD0CAC]

I did buy the 6" coil just before the trip , but did not get the time to learn the detectors gold detecting / I did get use to it on beaches & knew close most of the time what was there before digging .

But had time .

May go back in Aug. hope to do the planning this time , and take more time .

More time with any detector is a good thing 😉 

[vanursepaul]

I may sound a little harsh bit it sounds to me like you need to learn how to read a GPs and a topo/claims map before you worry about the type of detector you should have...

Any detector that does find you some gold would be great---especially if it is on your claim.

This is a basic tenet of detectorists'--- to know where they are at at  all times-- dont be that guy who has to be embarrassed when the real claim owner shows up busting your a.. and all you can say is. " I thought we were on my claim"-- Trust me-- at the time it sounds so weak of an excuse that you will want to crawl under a rock. 

Hopefully the claim owner will blow it off and tell you exactly what i just did. 

Opinion given with love---- but dont mess up!!! -- too easy to use a real map !!!

 

[strick]

Start here if you have not read this already  

 

strick