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Headed For The Land Down Under


mn90403

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5 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

SteelPhase, as far as life is concerned, the journey is far preferable to the destination.

Well said Reg.

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Ok, the update.  I got up and went to Bendigo Regional Park.  On the way I stopped at a McDonalds and the goldfields are 7 minutes away.  What a place to live.  It could have been the area where the 20oz nugget was found.  Here are some pictures.  I wish our politicians would let us use the land rather than lock it up in a National Monument.  Bendigo and Victoria honor the struggle of the miners and keep it open for the entire world to 'have a go' at finding nuggets.  No one will ever get them all in this part of the world.  There is lots of exposed bedrock here and I could see where there had been some panning since the rains.  I used the Equinox 800 with 6 inch coil for about 3 hours before off to the once visited Wedderburn.

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Now I'm spending at least the next two nights in the Wedderburn Goldseeker Motel because the caravan park was full or at least didn't have a room for me.  I went straight away to the power lines as Trent had suggested and there was the first guy I've seen detecting under them with his Eq 800.  I chatted him up a bit but he was reluctant but told me he had not found anything with the 800 yet.  He did say his largest nugget was 1.5 oz he found with a 4500.

After he left the powerline area I went in with my 7000.  I was not expecting a problem but there was ... depending on the ground and not the powerlines it seems.  There are actually two sets of lines.  When I got near a guy wire or the pole I got interference but I kept detecting and it got really smooth at around 8 or less sensitivity.  One time I looked up and I was directly under the powerlines.  

I walked away from that area and up towards Quartz Hill about 100 yards and I got some hits.  The first one had me taking pictures.  I didn't have my glasses.  The weight was right but not the color ... and then another one confirmed it was a smashed round.  The 3rd target in the area was booming when I got down 6 inches.  I have the volume limit set low so it didn't blow my ears off.  I got it out of the hole and looked at the depth and said ... oh, a coin and then a button.  More on it later.

That was it.  There are some campers around a little pond there and they are actually having open fires!  haha It is another reminder of how things were for me 30-40 years ago in the states.  Some of this ground reminds me of Sierra County, California but it is not as steep.  Just some of the soil colors.  Gold country soils seem to be the same.

I'm here in Wedderburn for a few days. 

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Excellent!look that the flora and fauna were the same where i was i agree on :

 

Bendigo and Victoria honor the struggle of the miners and keep it open for the entire world to 'have a go' at finding nuggets.  No one will ever get them all in this part of the world. 

 

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!

 

 

RR

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You're having a great adventure, and I'm sure as you keep swinging that coil and continue nugget hunting, you'll find the gold, whether it's the memories that will last a lifetime, the new and unfamiliar scenery and animals, the flashbacks you're having to better days in the USA, or the great people you'll meet.

All the best as you're out there living the dream,

Lanny

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Good one Phrunt!

Many of you may not know that I give pool/snooker lessons on occasion.  It is a sport I've been doing all my life.  I'm trying to draw some analogies to that and looking for nuggets and this is what I come up with.

When I instruct a new student we have to spend time on the basics.  The swing, the eyesight, where to hit the cue ball and where to aim at the object ball, the rail, so on and so forth.  Similar basics have to be learned about nugget detecting before you can 'play the game.'

Once you get the basics out of the way then you begin pocket balls (unless it is billiards).  Then you start to develop favorite shots and learn how to use those in making runs (making several shots in a row) and then you develop some sense of gamesmanship rather than it all being luck.  (Stick with me here I'm almost to my point.)  You become a skilled player and not just an amateaur.

The next level of progress has to do with being able to perform and go back to basics and produce shot after shot accurately.  Some days this is easier than others.  Some days the head wants to take a 'walk about' rather than concentrate.  I refer to this as General Direction Shooting.

I feel like I am General Direction Detecting right now.  I know the basics and I know some of the game theory (find gold where it has been found before) but I don't know the geology that lets me get to the next level.  (Next level you say ... how about just finding A NUGGET?)

Nugget hunting does have a bit of competition involved.  I'm trying to 'beat the earth' and find a nugget that the other expert detectorists before me missed.  I'd like to repeat a pattern and 'shots' but some shots I don't see and you never see the same shot twice in nugget hunting.

Somehow the oldtimers found lots and lots of nuggets.  I need to tap into that gamesmanship.

Time to swing.

 

 

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I have a low tire and I'm waiting for the shop to open to fix it. 

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Maybe they will tell me where to find a nugget because the guy at the gas station couldn't. Haha

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Fixed. $30. 

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