Aquanox

[Alluminati]

Here is the wind forecast for today. While the wind speed is nice, if you look at the wind rose (black arrows near the top) you can see the somewhat sporadic directional change.  It does a 180° change over the course of the day and will continue to spin like that for the rest of the fall.

This break from the predominant, steady winds of the summer is what will stack the sand up in piles exposing low areas close to clay between them.

[Alluminati]

Well the storm came through this afternoon. It knocked down a bunch of trees and power lines leaving me stuck at work. I had to leave the work vehicle there and walk about an hour to get to a road clear enough to be picked up. The thing about raincoats is all that water that runs off your jacket actually fills your shorts and boots lol. I was friggen soaked by the time I was able to reach it anyway. It came in handy for keeping my computer and bag dry at least.

It's hard to say if the "storm" had enough duration to shift much sand, it was a couple of quick bursts. It's kinda calmed down out there now, wind is settling down a bit at 35 km/h or 20 mp/h

So while I was off early, I was too tired to detect tonight. Careful what you wish for! ?

[Jackpine]

A couple pics of Lake Michigan from late afternoon yesterday.  The heavy waves lasted around 6 hours here.  Unfortunately I won't be able to get out until Monday.

 

[Alluminati]

10 hours ago, Jackpine said:

Unfortunately I won't be able to get out until Monday.

Hopefully the conditions stay good until then, those waves look like monsters, I need some of them.

After my coffee this morning, I headed out. I rang this 2 gram gold bell as my third target.
I also dug some bits of copper, some small copper ball-chain, a bullet etc, but these are the highlights

I spent the whole time hunting in Gold 2 using audio for location and numbers for ID. This works very well, the numbers are very stable as long as you don't block anything out, better numbers then Park2 with the horseshoe engaged. I can get pretty far into the trash without having to reduce the sensitivity which is nice. I'm only limited by the shear amount of noise I can stand, then I flip back to Disc. (Park 2)

When I get my 6" coil I might go back to Park 2 for the trash just so I can hunt by ear, but for now I am loving the Gold 2 all metal audio + visual TID.

I turned the threshold down a bit today, (I kinda forgot last time, I was adjusting the sensitivity to try and settle the bouncy threshold I was having.) Also I dug essentially no iron at all that wasn't intentional. 1 beer cap that said "naked grape", it was flickering negative numbers here and there but I dug it anyway cause it was offshore and kinda acted like nickle.

You can size targets real good in Gold 2, for example I got this sharp little pop of a signal way out off shore. Now it was basically spitting negatives, but behaved similar to the earring backs I've been getting. It turned out to be a small open copper loop the same size as whats on the top of that bell, from a necklace or something. I meant to take a picture off it, it's still in my pouch, I will have to rinse the sand out of there to see if I can find it. Once I started digging I did't pay attention to whether the numbers turned positive at all, maybe I'll check it later on.

[Alluminati]

After last nights hunt and supper I guess I fell asleep. I woke up at 2:30 AM with a good 7 1/2 hours of sleep under my belt. I kinda thought about throwing on the headlamp on and going out early, however the thermometer said it was 2 °C / 36 °F which caught me a little off guard. I decided to internet and coffee until the sun came up.

I got to try my new insulated water gloves from Costco that my father gave me, they worked out well.

Basically I could copy and past my last two posts lol. Gold 2, recovery 6, sensitivity 20. The Equinox scored me a nice 18K Italian earring, couple of 925 earring backs, and some junk. This machine is consistent if nothing else. Love that mellow yellow!

I'm impressed how it's snapping up those earring backs left right and center.

[Alluminati]

Well today was a kind of special day. Not only is this the 4th consecutive gold in as many hunts, I've hit my personal best weight for a day with 13.6 grams of 18K goodness literally just dripping from the scoop. Quite a site to see on such a cold, melancholy and drizzly day.

It was a nice surprise, I don't get chains all that often. Especially ones worth over $500 in scrap.

I found the silver toe ring afterwards, I almost threw it back lol.

I started off the hunt with the 6" coil, but I found this stuff with the 11"coil.
Gold 2 again. Wide open disc because the numbers will lag or not update smoothly, or at all if you have iron blocked out. Be happy we effectively have an "all metal" machine with numbers.

Not a spec of unintentional iron again. I dug a couple of bobby pins, some steel shot and part of a broken hair clip out of curiosity  because they were behaving a bit like a those little silver earring backs I've been getting.
Beg my pardon, I did dig a beercap when I first started at the shore with the 6" coil, but that was in Park 2 while experimenting in the iron. Gold 2 is effectively iron free for me. I attribute this to never hearing iron falses, targets are evaluated by numbers only. Numbers are wicked fast and accurate in Gold 2 with disc wide open.

 

[Alluminati]

Well I went out this morning with the goal to find any old piece of gold to keep this streak alive.... I found it!

It's a little gold earring back that barely weighs anything, lol. By itself on the scale it weighs 0.0 grams but if I add it with a 1.3 gram silver ring, the weight goes up to 1.5, giving me upwards of 0.2 grams! It looks like a high alloy too, It's the yellowest piece I have right now and reminds me of a 22K piece I found in the area a few years back. It's got to be 18K for sure. Assuming it is 18K its worth about $7.50 here, $9 if it's 22K.

Another record setting day of sorts, the streak is up to 5 consecutive hunts with gold and I have found my smallest gold to date. lol it isn't much, but hey that's the way she goes when she goes.

Also pictured are the junk finds, tungsten ring, brass chain, another earring back and a moderately attractive copper locket with a horse carved into the front of it.

Another day with no iron, the only thing that went in the trash pouch was lead and copper and 2 beercaps. I kinda had a feeling the caps were caps, but they at least started off with good numbers (10) for long enough (3-4 swings) to make me committed to the target. I was co-located with other iron so it's tough to tell in those situations if the cap is spitting negatives, or the iron around it. 

The gold earring back was a 4 in the water, though it goes up and down a bit when I swing it over the coil with my hand.
The necklace from yesterday was 8 then 10 in the water, but it too is jumpier in the air with 4 and 1 also coming up depending on the orientation. 

[Alluminati]

Let it ride baby! I hit the 6th consecutive gold today! If you could only see the shit eating grin on my face right now, almost tears of laughter.

I went out today to field test my new straight shaft with the hopes of maybe, just maybe snagging another gold for the weekend. (Its Thanksgiving here) With a thunderstorm just over the horizon, I didn't have much time.

This gold is a little different in that I didn't pull it from the clay like the last 5 golds, this was much farther offshore.
It's always a good sign when you kick your scoop into the sand and up comes a dark blue-grey plume. I call this blue sand. I like this sand because it is dense enough to hold onto gold for some time, how long I don't know, but I don't find gold in blonde sand like I do in this blue sand.
I think it is a mixture of heavier sand particles and dissolved clay.

The picture below is of the gold in the scoop as found. I hope you appreciate it, I had to take the double layer of plastic off my phone, my detector floated away a bit and decided to bob over a rusty chain from the swim-line while I was try to take the picture. Ah well it was a special occasion I suppose. It would be easier if I had one of those action cameras to yell at. "GoPro stop recordin" lol.

The second picture shows a couple other earrings I found today. I don't think the Opal is real. The gold is 1.6 grams, unknown karat.

I love how this machine has revitalized my site. I have previously haunted this place for rings, I've probably taken over 100 rings from this beach with about 25 or so of them being gold. I rarely found any kind of trinkets like these, and rarely any high-alloy. It was always 9K, 10K and 14K once in a blue moon. The earring from today looks to be a high alloy again. It is also another broken loop, it was found in the open position.

Say what you want about conditions and luck, but I've walked over that necklace I found the other day for years. YEARS. lol I've had other machines that could hit chains, but not with numbers, let alone Minelab® multi-frequency derived numbers.

This machine has got the hots for that mellow yellow.

[Alluminati]

Well the weekend is almost here so I thought I would have a look at the forecast. There is a decent amount of wind out there, at least it feels windy lol. The direction is pretty typical for the area, though it matters less and less as time goes on, it's more to do with the directional changes then absolute direction now. IMO. By tomorrow morning the winds will get almost northerly before it changes to almost south by Sunday morning.

I am going to see if I can hit the 7th consecutive gold tomorrow, or at least get something this weekend. The streak will have to end at some point, but why not roll with it for now.

I'll be using the new shaft this weekend which is nice. I still have to replace the cuff with a Nylon version, but I'll get to that one evening. Here is the thread if you don't know what I am talking about. Diy Equinox One Piece Straight Shaft

If I think of it I want to bring some magnets out there. I've been meaning to put magnets in my scoop for years. Also I want to kinda sample different colours of sand to compare for mineralization, curiosity. The third thing would be to see if dragging an magnet around has the ability to pick up any iron, in areas where the clay is exposed or almost exposed.

 

[Alluminati]

Today was brisk to say the least, it was only 2°C / 35°F out there today. It was tolerable because the wind was calm. Once the wind picked up, I pulled chute.

No gold today, but I did hit a bit of silver, a 1951 George the VI.

Tonight I am printing an arm cuff, but tomorrow looks alright weather wise. I might give this site a rest for a bit and try somewhere else. It's a tough call but you have to keep prospecting, it also gives the sand a chance to move around a bit, potentially exposing more desirable targets.