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Skipping the wash plant might help, never know the BLM is finicky and just generally a waffle. Don't forget there is a lot of gold in lode still undiscovered and while detectable veins are rare they are out there and many vein and stringers just have small gold, but it's gold. Pocket gold, bench gold, hillsides...man I'm still excited after many years of dirt diggin...the gold rush is far from over!

Below is a picture of a nice 30 gram piece I found in Victoria during recent field trials..... I only have a basic working knowledge of patches and locations down there so was pretty happy when I plucked this chunk out of a patch I took a crew of Minelab guys to a few years ago on a training session with the GPX 5000, I can assure you all of us had our coils over it at one time or another because it was right in the guts of the main run. Gold mode and Ground Type was General/Difficult, Sensitivity on 12 and Audio Smoothing at OFF. These are the best settings for large deep gold (1 oz+) in the noisy ground in Victoria's Golden Triangle. JP 30 gram slug at a depth of 16" under an old boys throw out heap

The electronic prospecting segment of a gold rush is very peculiar. I started metal detecting for gold about 8 years ago so by the standards of many on these forums I'm a relative newbie. But over the years, of all the lessons I've learned, one of the most important is that information can be as valuable, if not more valuable then gold itself. When a person finds and then cleans out a patch, especially if said person is careful to leave minimal traces of activity, then the gold itself isn't the only thing taken from the area, the knowledge that gold was found there is also erased, or at least kept only among the person(s) who discovered the patch. As this information is forgotten, or dies with the original prospector, there is often no traces of the discovery left and it is relegated back to obscurity, potentially forever since the targets visible to current technology are now completely missing. We have to wait for new technology to come along, but if by that point the knowledge of the location is gone then the chances of it being rediscovered become sequentially less and less with each new leap in technology. Other forms of mining and prospecting generally leave traces which a person can use to narrow down their search. As we are all familiar with, it's not uncommon to blanket new areas by first "walking in the footprints" of the old-timers. We can see where they were 50, 100, or 150 years ago, sometimes only faintly, but it gives us a place to start. And even more importantly, it gives us confidence that gold was found in the area before. Any serious detector knows how frustrating it can be to prospect cold locations without even the faintest idea wether there is even gold there or not. Having first hand knowledge that gold has been discovered before can be the difference between losing confidence in a new spot after a few days versus sticking it out for weeks looking for a patch you know must be there. We've all heard the stories: back in the "day" so and so used to pull 10 ounces every few weeks out of X area, and this other guy used to get 1-5 oz nuggets every other day out of Y area, etc. Then, at some point it diminishes and gives way to sequential generations of stories with less and less gold until you get to the present day where most of the finds in the storied old goldfields of decades past are completely uneconomic from a detecting standpoint and no longer produce anything beyond a few nuggets here and there somewhat randomly. But every now and then a guy gets lucky and finds a new area. Or a patch in an old area that was completely missed for whatever reason. I've been that guy on a few occasions thankfully, and I've got to witness what its really like stumbling into an area where gold was literally just strewn about, hitting a nugget with every few steps and every other swing. I guess it's hard to believe the old stories until you see it for yourself. But I've almost always detected alone, anything I've discovered I've done on my own, never been taught or trained or shown any areas by anyone else, and as a result everything I've ever found probably dies with me. And the last few patches have really got me thinking about all this. I know where these patches are, or "were" is probably a better term. I've hit them, flogged them again, and then came back to hit them sideways, upside down and then backwards just for good measure. I'm very careful to leave minimum traces of my presence. A lot of these places quite literally have almost no fine gold to give drywashing leads, no evidence of old placering, and will probably remain completely undiscovered and unprospected except by myself barring a prospector with a very hot streak of luck now that I've cleaned out the nuggets that can be had with current technology. My point is that it was real "easy" to find them once I hit the first target. I knew something was there, and like a bloodhound on a scent it gets real easy to put my nose to the ground and spend days and days tracking down every little fly speck. And further, when I get a newer piece of technology I know exactly where to go, and even if I've spent 2 days straight hitting absolutely zero targets, I'm going to keep trying because I know what used to be there. If someone else comes along, even with great new fancy technology, and they'll walk right over it, never knowing that there is probably big and deep gold right under their feet because there are literally no indicators left. So I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that if you are a guy who has a dozer and 5 patches, the gold rush keeps going for you. Or if you are the guy who has been travelling the west for the last 3-4 decades and knows where every old patch is then you are going to be right smack in the middle of any new technologically driven rush. But if you are a guy born a little late, each subsequent "gold rush" due to technological advancement gets harder and harder to participate in unless you know someone who can provide you with something that can be even more valuable than the gold itself: information. Either that or you have to be phenomenally lucky because there is just too much empty space out there. At some point a guy is just going to spend years wandering aimlessly with no targets or other indicators before he just gives up in frustration, even with a full on gold rush happening all around him. Just something that's been rolling over in my head for the last few years. In the gold detecting world, it's a game that is going to be limited to fewer and fewer people with every passing year if nothing else just due to the limited and expiring nature of information and knowledge. I'm not talking about hobby detecting where you are happy to find a nugget every few weeks as a more or less random occurence, I'm talking about doing it at least semi-full time if not completely full time.

Hi Bill. I see it the same way, but there is far too much negativity on them to have any sort of discussion at the moment. Maybe when the dust settles it might happen. I am at the stage of life where I prefer to not be a part of all that, and would rather concentrate on the good or beneficial features. Cheers.

Anyone that knows the history of gold rushes knows they are very limited in duration. To clarify, I mean gold rushes as occur on the scale of the individual prospector. A person working more or less on their own with limited means. In a classic gold rush a new discovery is made, and the prospectors "rush" to the area. Typically there are very high amounts of gold found early on as easy pickings are plentiful. Unfortunately the easy pickings are soon gone, and the prospectors wait until a new discovery is made. They once again rush to the new area, and the cycle repeats. Some gold rushes are purely economic. A quiet gold rush occurred during the Great Depression not because new gold locations were found, but because people were desperate to find income of any sort wherever it could be found. The gold rush in the 1980s was a result of skyrocketing gold prices. Another way a gold rush occurs is when new technology takes hold. The development of the light weight portable suction dredge created a small gold rush as prospectors took to the hills with this ability to work underwater in streams and rivers. We are in the latter days of the electronic gold rush. It really took off in the 1980s in Australia with the development of decent VLF detectors capable of finding gold nuggets. The VLF Gold Rush. The easy surface gold depleted, but then a second wave developed with the introduction of the Minelab PI detectors in the 1990s. The Minelab PI Rush has largely run its course. It really has only been kept alive by steadily increasing gold prices as the gold finds themselves dropped off. We can find half as much gold at $1200 as we did at $600 and still pay for beans and fuel. Gold prices have been weakening however, and the technology itself reached a dead end five years ago. I have seen the end coming for some time. It is not just gold prices and the technology but increasing regulation and ever more difficult access issues. The entire Electronic Gold Rush has taken place in my adult lifetime and I am likely to see the day when there are only a few diehards left at it. The good news is in my opinion we are on the eve of what may possibly be the last gasp, the last breath of fresh air. The GPZ 7000 really is a new twist on electronic prospecting that promises to give prospectors what it ultimately takes to fuel any gold rush. Hope. We have to have new hope, a new reason to believe once again we can go out and make worthwhile finds. The GPZ will succeed simply by getting everyone to hit everything one last time, as hard as it can be hit. There is not one bit of ground I have ever detected that I would not give another go one more time, just because I have a GPZ 7000. That means I and others will find gold that until now has gone missing. People will point out that other detectors may well have found some of the gold. That it simply got missed before and now the GPZ found it. They will in many cases be correct, but in the end I think they are missing the point. It is that renewed hope, that renewed faith that really matters, as once again prospectors hit the field in numbers with what they perceive as being the latest and greatest. And when it comes to gold rushes, perception is very much reality. I am just thankful I was born when I was. Sometimes I think I should have been born in the 1800s, but the fact is I enjoy all the things modern life offers me. Instead, I got to participate in the 1980s Gold Rush in all its glory, both as a prospector and as a guy selling the shovels to the prospectors. Now, semi retired and living the dream as a full time prospector I have a chance to participate in what may very well be the last chapter of the electronic gold rush - The GPZ Gold Rush. I have to admit I am very happy to be in the right place and time to get in on the ground floor of one last party! Exciting times my friends. Good luck to each and every one of you now and in the future days ahead.

Thanks fellas. Yes the foothills are green and peaceful. I'll be heading back to this area a lot in the future. I'm gonna need something with a bigger coil that punches deep ...hopefully coming in the next week or so. strick

Not a single fricking cactus in sight... must be nice!

I can't identify the trigger but I enjoyed your post. Thanks. Merton

Minelab has made a commercial decision to both create a powerful innovative gold finding machine and simutaneously price it out of the reach of 90% of the metal detecting hobbyists. So as an engineer who built his first metal detector in 1964 and used every trick and innovation to eek out another 1/4 inch of depth, I applaud what appears to be a great leap forward in detection and at the same time I am confused at Minelab's marketing tactic. Steve is right, we are, at least here in my area, pretty much at the tail end of our nugget finding efforts with metal detectors and the GPZ 7000 will, it seems, take us to the end and I think the 90% would like to be in on it. Having said all that, I am reading with great interest the pros and cons of the 7000 and the 2300, which I might be able to afford if I can prove to myself that it will outperform my 4500 and Gold Bug 2. So I encourage those of you who have the 7000 to provide videos and pictures of your finds, but please mention all the bullets, nails, tin and tobacco tags that come along with the effort. Most of us devoted nugget finders I believe, have our own secret patches that we think are worked out, but hope that a few more pieces lie just six inches below the reach of our GPX's and I guess that is where we will have to leave them for now. Maybe I can morgage the house.

I find a little gold, come home to fried chicken and hot apple pie!! what a day. Steve, 2015 almost over. You better get busy.

Unless the competition can find a way past the Minelab patents or use their own (whites?) then the high end seems staked out. I still see a big opportunity for detector under $2000 with better performance than the TDI. I would like to see more vigorous competition under $2000 than another $10K detector.

nice, but it would have been bigger if you found it with a gpz7000! :-)

Been an easy, sweet winter in Reno. Don't forget, I am from Alaska. People in Reno complain it is a cold day, I am running around in a t-shirt with a smile.

Indeed the electronic gold rush with each tech advance has brought on much excitement. The GPZ "rush" has got me now joining forums, something this old fella has till now avoided. My purpose for joining is not for just enjoyment of posting with like individuals but also to leave for future generations some account of the electronic gold rush. We are a very privileged generation to live through VLF, PI and now ZVT gold prospecting. Top forum you have here Steve, Thank You.