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Hi all, just thought I would share abit of a story on my gold monster, Well I received it a few weeks ago from JP and had a bit of a play round with it with various size nuggets in the back yard while also checking out the discrimination feature. Was happy with the results on specie gold and more solid type bits. Well to cut a long story short, I fell off some machinery at a height of 3.5 meters plus and broke 2 fingers on my right hand which were at right angles of where they were sposed to be.Snapped them back into place by myself, but fractured both wrists and dislocated my right shoulder and had a nasty lump on my head from impact with a rock Anyway though keen to go bush to give it a good trial run myself I was in no position to even hold a pick properly let alone swing one into hard earth. Goldhound Dale one of our crew has met a new girl and asked if she could take it bush with him for a week, Anyway a sat phone call last night, a novice that had never picked up a detector in her life now had a 25 grammer in her jar. Hope to post a pick when they come in. Go the monster, not just for specks by the looks. Cheers Dave.

The old faithfull patch where I found the 2 cent coin is still giving up the odd piece of silver jewelry and silver coins and wheats now and then, plus junk jewelry. Some of these rings and pins come from the school patch I work a few times in the evenings. Today I hit a four star park I never hunted before but have been eyeballing for a few years, so couple pieces from there in the picture. I took photos of that hunt because it was a scouting mission with good results. I'll post about it when I get more time. Not much remarkable, IMO. No gold yet... worst drought yet.

Last year we were at Pismo beach which is absolutly a great place to hunt. I was toiling along detecting during mid day when the beach is absolutely loaded with people. I happen look up at one point and I notice 5 very attractive middle aged women sitting on the beach watching me and smiling.. .....bachelorette party I'm thinking... So I stop and take off my headphones. Sweat is dripping off me and I'm feeling kinda studly so I shove the head of the scoop forcefully into the sand with my foot, lean against the carbon fiber handle and smile back at them lol. Any luck? one of them asks.... Just some coins I reply back..... Then the next one asks ....Whats your best find? My wife I reply.....Good answer says another... lol strick

Finds first for the TLDR people. As the finds in my current primary patch dwindle in numbers from being worked heavily the past two years, I'm scouting for a new primary patch to begin working. Using the criteria and method outlined in a previous post, I've located a very good location that is certain to hold gold, silver, and more. Today will be my first time boots on the ground at that location and I'll walk the reader through it along with my scouting method. Maybe it will help someone and provide insight or encouragement. Here is the sat. view 5 playgrounds, one skate park, basketball, tennis, two soccer fields, two softball fields, two shelters, one former 1890's to 1950's church location on site. Here are my paths while scouting. Deus in red, V3i in green. So, from the sat. images there are many hot-spots to strike, and I won't try to get them all as this is a long term prospect, and I only desire to determine 3 primary things today. 1. Pressure - hunting pressure from other detectorists. 2. Trash composition and density. 3. Presence - Is there jewelry where I expect it to be. Deus gets the top spot today as it's the ideal scouting unit. Light, fast, great tones to read the trash. From the parking lot I begin and move to the skate park since it's close and can hold silver and junk jewelry along with lots of coins. Foil seems to be the primary trash along the way, and around the skate feature the aluminum kicks in - light can slaw and tabs primarily. I can hear lots and lots of coins, zinc and copper cents mostly, but a healthy quantity of dimes as well. I select a few targets I know are quarters and pennies, then intentionally sample some of the larger better sounding trash before moving on. The primary traffic flow from one side of the park to another is divided by a slight drainage ditch with the easiest pass being on either end... and people naturally take the easiest route, so I do too. Pennies everywhere! Zinc mostly, healthy dose of copper, decent selection of dimes, quite a few quarters...light trash mostly foil and ferrous bits... but I keep on moving through without digging a single target. Not interested today. Moving to the goal at the primary soccer field I work my way over to the nearest corner, then down the sideline to mid-field before cutting over to the center. Then I work my way to the opposite goal before coming around the back net. From there, and because of its close proximity to the goal, I briefly enter the playground before hitting the nearest corner of the soccer field diagonally opposite from the first corner I hit. Quarters everywhere! I decide to spend some time here sampling, cherry picking the best sounds. Within 10 minutes I found the heart pendant necklace. Jewelry confirmed, nice. So I pause, crank up the notch to 93 and take all the quarters before moving on. Erasing the notch I notice an area of the playground is different. Something was removed and not replaced. I suspect one of the super dangerous merry-go-rounds that children today get no experience or joy from used to be there. Clad everywhere....move on. Swing-set looks vintage so I check that and the mostly abandoned softball backstop area nearby. The trash picks up and bottle caps start to appear below the coil. I dug a first (for this park) beavertail ring pull, nice...a sign there might be some silver coins lurking around here. I'm getting hot by now so start thinking of shade and where to find some. It's scarce, so good places to concentrate. I mentally discriminate everything but quarters. Lots of nice signals, lots of trash and rusty caps. So far this is the trashiest area and I'm impressed it's not worse. Out of water and thirsty, I head back to the parking lot where I started, taking any quarters I come across. There are so many coins around it's obvious to me this park has never been heavily worked over by much of anyone in a long time, if ever. This place is a clad mine. Exactly how my current patch started out! I switch out units for the V3i and head towards the nearby secondary soccer field goal. I work one small corner of the goal net taking everything in a 6 foot diameter...clad and tabs mostly. Then I work right down the field towards the only clump of trees between the two fields and casually work the area randomly, still cherry picking signals but expanding the range down below zinc cents a little plus taking all nickel range targets as I find them. Getting tired and hot I'm thinking of wrapping it up so I head out to the sideline and try to find the trash zone where people sit and spectate. There isn't much trash to detect so I decide to just pick a line inside the playing field and take everything not obviously trash out of the ground. As I reached the corner of the field the silver ring shows up. Someone threw the ball into play and lost a ring perhaps. Now we're talking! Satisfied with the mission I walked off and swung over the curb area near the parking lot to get a feel for the trash there, too. With light to moderate trash, tons of clad signals, two pieces of jewelry - I have all the intel I need to know that this park is going to produce a few gold items, eventually. I'm hesitant to give 5 stars so we'll rate it at a 4 plus star park, IMO. Next hunt the tedious process of clad layer removal begins, oh, joy. Thanks for your time. Good hunting.

All my non-junk jewelry finds for about the past 2 weeks. About 15 hours on the wet sand and surf. The rope chain is 925, but the musical note pendant is stainless. The citizen bracelet is not silver either, but it looks good on my fat wrist. I told ya'll our beaches are slim pickin's! On the bright side I've lost 2 lbs.

Crikey, you blokes are having a rough go. Be careful out there mate, I'm on vacation...no nursing duties allowed..lol Talk with you tomorrow maybe.

Rick, my usual day at the beach seems to be the exact opposite. Mostly it's the 50-80 year old men who think I'm just dying to show them my finds. And yes, I've gotten some snarky looks from the 50-80 year old women sitting next to them. ("But Sugar Doodle, I'm just asking what kind of detector she has because I want one.")

Took the Deus to my beaten jewelry patch at a park and decided to relic hunt for deep squeakers instead. There used to be a farmstead on the land and a road bisecting the park...both long gone. Hunting slowly 18khz, 0 discrim, silencer -1, reactivity 3, notch 0-38, I caught a signal nearly at the edge of detection. Two directions two different tones and faint. Pinpointing was difficult wiggling-off. I switched to 8khz, and dropped reactivity to see what's up, something I don't normally do. Loud and clear two directions two different tones...hmmmm? Stabbing into the soil I'm stopped dead at 1-2 inches by a hard object. Move 90 degrees, damn, same thing. On the fourth stinking try I see a brick and think, I'm not digging that up it'll leave a crater, but the pinpointer is flipping out saying dig. I found another brick below that one and both bricks sat at 45 with the signal coming between them. Stabbing between the bricks with just enough space for my screwdriver it's a wonder I didn't scratch it as I was kind of wildly flicking soil out. Must have been near 7 to 8 inches and it was on a 45 degree angle. I didn't even know what it was except United States and a number 2. I knew it was my oldest coin found though. I've hit a few silver dimes and several Indian cents in this unasuming park but never did I think it would give up a coin like that. I've taken it to a coin dealer and he says it's too worn to ID the variety and to soak it in oil...where it still sits. Keep on swingin'!

Thanks. Yes, olive oil is what I have it in. 6 months! Sheesh, I'll peek at it around christmas I guess, lol.

That's true. What's also true is that this month we both found no gold, I just worked harder not finding it, lol. I hope the coming month of July is good to you.

Ditto on the Hot Wheels strick, and that's still after giving 4 out of 5 of 'em back to kids before leaving wherever I am -- which in my case is usually a beach.. At least y'all are getting out.. Been 30 days today for me.. Talk about jonesin'..?! Found out May 29 I needed eye procedures done like yesterday.. Had 'em (which may still require further treatment but won't know for another couple weeks yet,) and right as I'm being cleared to resume normal activity I get hit with a bronchial infection -- which pretty much the only place that could have come from is the hospital's out-patient surgery area, since basically that's the only place I'd been.. Just finished those ABs so can now get back into the sun, but need to re-build the ol' base tan first to go longer than 90 min + - .. Sooo, my count for June = 0, which to me means you had a great month, Deft.. Some times it's simply about perspective n has nothing to do with what one did or didn't get.. Will gladly trade you month's... Swamp

That's a pile-O-loot.........

With the effort you are putting in it is just a matter of time. An impressive pile of finds regardless!

Hello everyone, long time away from the forums. I have to be up front on the Gold Monster 1000. Everyone pretty well knows that I love my GB Pro, however, I think I have a new favourite. I am still playing with the Monster but very impressed at this point. I have to go along with Lunk in the fact that it is a VLF, and it takes me back in time also, but this futuristic unit has a definite edge into the future. With the Monster and the real Monster,(Zed7000) I think I have the ground here in Redding pretty well covered.

My beach experience suggests that it's way more women than men who are curious enough to ask a question. I would recommend beach detecting as an excellent pastime for a single guy - you meet lots of attractive ladies - my wife noticed that right away!

The Makro and Nokta 9.5" x 5" DD closed elliptical design has been discontinued in favor of a open style design for the Impact, the IM24. The new design is not bouyant like the old design and so will be popular with water hunters in particular. Part numbers for the new coil are available for other Makro and Nokta models There is also a new 5" round coil for the Nokta Impact. RC24 Black 14 kHz - Racer 1 (Red Racer) and Racer 2 FC24 Black 15 kHz - FORS CoRe FR24 Black 19 kHz - FORS Relic FGP24 White 19 kHz - FORS Gold+

Nice find, Deft.. Just makin' sure oil = olive oil.. Also note a soak can take 6 months & longer.. Swamp

I get my settings done first, then scan. Right now I am prospecting. That means a factory reset when turning on. Sensitivity to 13, threshold to 7.5 (with headphones; 7 is silent, 7 a bare buzz), and volume to 4. Frequency scan while pointing coil towards nearest obvious source of interference, like cell tower or another detector nearby. Having the pinpointer on is imperative - good call. Then finally ground balance if required. If you have real saline water you will need to deal with it via either the disc setting or by ground balancing. I did some checking to remind myself of something I knew but had forgot. The disc function is a "bottom up" control in that wherever it is set, everything at or below the setting is rejected. The ground balance is more like a notch discrimination setting however, only rejecting in a specific range. That being the case you always want to use ground balance to eliminate salt signals BEFORE applying any discrimination. If the ground balance does it alone, then use no discrimination. If you need to use it, use the lowest setting possible. From the ATX Owners Manual page 28: Saltwater Operation When mixed with water, salt and other electrolytes become conductive and may therefore cause any detector to respond as if the saltwater were a metal target. In fact, to a detector, saltwater has an electrical conductivity very similar to foil, fine gold and other poor conductors. Traditionally with pulse detectors, to address the saltwater response the Delay/Discrimination setting was increased until the saltwater response was sufficiently eliminated. This method, although effective, can significantly reduce the detection of fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors due to the increased Discrimination setting. Therefore, to help reduce this undesirable loss of detection, the ATX has an alternative method to address saltwater. Specifically, the ATX can automatically ground balance out the saltwater response without the need to increase Discrimination; thereby maintaining a better response to fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors. (emphasis added). The two methods to address saltwater are: 1) Ground Balance Method: Leave Discrimination set to minimum and Ground Balance to the saltwater as would be done for any other ground. This method will provide the best detection of fine gold, etc., but will produce a low-tone response for all targets. It is important to Ground Balance the detector when it moves to a new region of the beach (i.e. from wet sand to dry sand at the water's edge). 2) Traditional Discrimination Method: Incrementally increase the Discrimination setting until the saltwater response is sufficiently eliminated, typically around 3–7. Ground Balance is not required with this method. This method will maintain normal high and low tone responses, but will have reduced detection of fine gold, etc. Reduce the Discrimination setting toward zero when moving from wet sand to dry. For either method, the following basic techniques will help to achieve the best performance. 1. Swing the searchcoil flat and at a constant height. Do not bounce the coil or lift the coil at the end of swings. 2. Hunt the three different regions of the beach (dry sand, wet sand, submerged) one at a time rather than going back and forth between regions. This will allow the detector to be set optimally for each region. 3. Swing the searchcoil parallel to the water's edge to minimize changes in moisture levels within a given swing. The detector may become less stable in shallow, breaking surf where the searchcoil is in and out of the saltwater. In this area the detector is encountering a constantly changing environment produced by the surf, making it more difficult for the detector to stabilize. Experiment with the two methods above to determine which you prefer, and if necessary, reduce Sensitivity to obtain stable operation. On that last statement, note that when nugget detecting I am running sensitivity 13 and while detecting in Hawaii sensitivity at 7.

It's not only beaches but parks, too! If I'm not in the mood to socialize I'll start signing in American Sign Language with a normal resting face - wearing headphones! Most people are utterly confused and walk when I do that. And the comments...lol.

I can't say it any better than JW.. Hope you heal all proper.. Swamp

If it works out for you on the coast let me know and I will be happy to help you with your fine gold recovery equipment choices and information on their use.

9"hf coil first beach detect...nice 95 id and 925 silver...

Thats more like it! real diamonds or not it's a beautiful pendant. I've only ever got one ring with a large real diamond. Got a bunch that had really nice looking fake stones and a few rings with small real diamonds. Keep up the hard work! strick

G'day Dave, not good to hear about your fall, hope you heal/get better soon. Very interesting to hear yours/Dales results with the GM1000 and big congrats to the girl for the 25grm nuggy. . Cheers. Mike.

Lol, yep mate we are a worry Lucky we are going to hook up with nurse Paul soon, just a question, is he really a nurse? Cause we need one at times. Na mate, he would have told me so if that was the case. He never has done that type of thing before, but I must admit I have plenty of times before today for newbies.

Yeah Jen need it like a hole in the head, anyway on the mend now.

Ouch ouch! OUCH!! ohhh cant wait to see a picture of the nugget. pass on my congratulations

Hey John Thanks for the info on Centerville . It's new to me. I have a few friends in Fortuna that might know about the regulations or at least who has jurisdiction. If it's State Parks I'd be real surprised if they allow.any mining. I'll start playing detective. It would be great if it's open.to us. Alot closer to me ( Shasta County) than Oregon. The last couple of years I've been Prospecting along the Klamath river. My thinking was while there it's not that far to the coast. In my younger years I spent ALOT of time on the Sonoma Coast. Figure if I can be at my favourite place AND get some gold it's a win win. I'll get back to you with any info I come up with. Thanks again!

The DFX and the V3i are very good in the wet sand even in the transition between the two.... I love my V3i and mixed mode stereo.

what did them chains sound like, broken signals, solid hits ,or something else? How much Disc are you using and coil size,etc? -Tom

Thats a lot of digging for sure. Nice work. I really hate junk jewelry because there is so much of it. Never know what the next target is going to be and thats whats keeps us going. Good luck and thanks for posting! I've got a nice hot wheel collection going as well! strick

Poorly in the standard coil flavor. It's just OK in the dry salt sand but performs poorly in wet salt sand. My experience was at Daytona for 7 days this year... that's my total saltwater experience. I brought the Deus, V3i, and Sovereign GT. The Deus got less than 3 hours use it did so poorly in comparison. I ended up rotating between the other two, with the Minelab being the deepest even though I have less than one hundred hours on it, no prior salt beach detecting, a stock 10 coil only and a larger coil for the V. Get an Excal or Sovereign for Daytona at least.

-1 silencer...reactivity 2....

I am using the GM1000 pretty much exclusively with the large coil. I have no issues with coil knocking but I am usually running exclusively in deep seeking all metal mode with Auto+1 or manual sensitivity between 6 and 8.

It seems like the hot coil is the 5 inch round. Anyone been using the other 6 x 9 elliptical coil with any success or issues? BTW, my Gold Monster arrives July 3rd. Yippee. Klunker says we are taking the whole week off to go test it and report back to HQ.

Too lazy to fire up the Nikon and just used my cellphone. LOL. Sometimes I regret turning "pro", even though the extra money every month is nice. Photography used to be fun, now it's a job. I'll get a better photo, just for you, Strick! I tested the diamonds and they're fake. I was surprised at that with the gold content being that high. I was hoping for my first real diamond find!

I've started most of my beach trips with the setting Steve listed above, except for the factory reset prior to beginning, I may give that a go this coming week, got a short work trip stopping through Guam and I'm hoping to hit a beach I havent been to since I was a kid. Found a 6-diamond ring snorkeling last time I was there, and proposed to my wife with it! Maybe the ATX will show me what else is in store out there...

Steve, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with me, it is greatly appreciated. While I did read about leaving the GB neutral, I have never actually tried it before as the ATX tends to go crazy once the coil gets in or near the water. I will certainly try your suggestions and update you on my results. One thing I should also ask about is the Frequency Scan (FS) function. I normally do my set-up steps as per the GARRETT manual (similar to what you outlined in your reply), but how and when do you think is best to perform the FS? I've seen ATX user's holding the coil elevated, some rest it on the ground and some even do the FS with the coil in the water. Also I turn my Pin-pointer on when I'm doing the FS as I found that the carrot creates a lot of unwanted feedback in the headphones when I use it if I don't do this first, which can be very annoying to say the least. Fortunately, we have no black sand here ... just an unbelievable amount of pure white parrot fish deposits, beach-rock and probably the most saline water in the Western hemisphere. Once again, thank you for your feedback.

Vaun, I think I know the perfect setting for your ATX. I think it should be happily sitting next to me on a towel on my beach at sunset. Just sayin'. Good luck and let us know what you find! Ammie

The Deus Silencer setting is like most filters. Nearly all work by trying to eliminate weak signals in favor of stronger signals. This being the case, applying a filter always results in some loss of depth and sensitivity. The trick is that that problem you are trying to fix (false signal) has to be worse than the problem you cause (decreased sensitivity). The Silencer is supposed to reduce faint spurious signals created in dense ferrous trash. Let's say on a scale of 1 - 10 most good targets beep at 6 and above, but you are getting lots of distracting faint 1 and 2 signals. Increasing the Silencer can greatly reduce these faint false signals allowing you to concentrate on the better signals. Now on a later hunt this spot is "cleaned out" and you want to find what you missed. It may be that one of the faint 1 - 2 signals is a faint good target. By reducing the Silencer setting or turning it off, you now get these faint hits. Thirty are false signals but one is that nice silver coin you were looking for. Of course they could just as easily all turn out to be trash. Basically, I leave filters turned off unless forced to use them. I know when this is because I am ready to give up because of too many false signals or "noise". Apply just enough filter to do the trick, and no more. As always it is an individual thing as we all have different tolerance levels both for noisy detectors and for the amount of trash we are willing to dig to get a good item. People who do run detectors noisy basically don't trust the machine to do the filtering and prefer to use their ears instead. This can be fatiguing and a judicious application of a filter can result at the least in a more pleasant detecting experience.

We are just about sold out on these already. Should have more soon. Did not expect them to go so fast! These are made by a real nice guy who contacted us on Facebook. They are laser cut and have a nice finish, plus you are supporting an individual when you buy these, not a giant corporation. His hand-written note to the factory when he sent us some samples to evaluate was a nice touch as well.

It has certainly been a busy year for me so far, with not as much detecting time as I would like. Still, I have been getting out a little and thought it was time to share a few photos. My first couple bits were found with the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 on some scouting runs. I am liking this detector as a grab and go unit for checking areas out quickly. I am not trying to hunt for max performance but instead looking to cover a lot of ground quickly to check things out. I have learned the GM1000 auto sensitivity actually suits me well for this. I just fire up the detector in all metal mode, full volume, and start with auto sensitivity set at Auto+1. Then I just start swinging. If noise intrudes (usually in salt areas) I will back down to Auto+0 (there are just two Auto settings available Auto and Auto+1). Once the GM1000 gets out and about people will no doubt note the Auto settings are not the hottest. Which is why I like them. The GM1000 is a super hot machine already, so I am looking more for stability than anything else, and know it will pop hard on any small nuggets I get over. If I were pounding a patch hard I would use manual sensitivity and push it high, but that would introduce noise and require very careful hunting. For me however the GM1000 serves best as a light weight quick and dirty way to check new areas - just grab and go. I posted previously about finding a nugget using Auto sensitivity which is where I learned how useful the setting is. Here are two more small nuggets located using Auto+1. Both nuggets banged hard, one at maybe an inch and the other at about three inches. I am not trying to promote or to push the use of this setting, I am simply reporting what I am doing and you can decide for yourself if it is useful for you. 0.1 gram and 0.4 gram nuggets found with Minelab Gold Monster 1000 running in Auto+1 sensitivity I did finally get a GPZ 19 coil for my GPZ 7000 and it was time to give it a go. I tried one area I had hunted before in case a larger deeper nugget was lurking. My first lesson with the GPZ 19 was not how large and deep a nugget it can find but how small and shallow! The only thing I had missed and left to find was this less than 0.1 gram nugget. It was practically on the surface and so gave a small warble when it got close to the coil winding. I was surprised and impressed the coil can find gold this small. The next location is one I scouted with the GM1000 and found the 0.4 gram nugget. The spot got my interest so I went back with the GPZ 7000 and 14" coil to hunt it. Turns out it was a nice little patch with some chunky gold! The ground was deep so I mounted up the GPZ19 and hunted it again. I did come up with one nugget I missed before, whether from sloppy detecting or just a little too deep I do not know. It was a little 1.2 grammer at around a foot down. I continued hunting outside my area and came up with another at 1.3 grams. GPZ19 Nuggets I had removed the Minelab skid plate that came with the coil and replaced it with the closed Nugget Finder cover. I like this cover for uneven ground as it does not get hung up of rocks and sticks as much, but it does rapidly collect a pile of debris! The coil did false if banged on a rock and would require care in rocky ground, though I was running it as hot as ever so that contributes to it. I usually hunt grassy and sagebrush country and it does well here just gliding on the grass, though if the grass is deep it will ride up on it above the ground. Still, the larger size gave me this feeling that I had a little extra insurance in that regard and so I used it to hunt over low brush where it might reveal nuggets hidden when others went around the brush. False signals from banging a rock aside I do think the coil actually runs a bit smoother with my Insanely Hot settings. The GPZ19 is slightly too heavy for me for general use in hilly terrain and too large for a lot of the sagebrush areas. It is just the ticket however for covering large open terrain and that is where it will see the most use with me in the future, or for pounding old deep patches. The extra pound was not quite as bad as I was expecting and in flatter ground just my regular bungee setup sufficed. I did try out the Hipstick though and think it a better option for long hours with this coil. Well, lots of info there I hope people can get some use out of. It's always nice to be out prospecting whether or not I find any gold - but gold does help! 24 grams or about 3/4 ounce with largest nugget 4.5 grams or just shy of three pennyweight. This post has been promoted to an article

Ya know, now that i look at the picture of patty the squach, it looks just like nursepaul. Even has the same face. That was him in that gorilla suit that was traipsing around over in bluff creek. Probably trying to scare the kids off so he could try to take their fishing hole. Great gold finds again. I assume alot of people will be showing pictures of the tiny stuff the monster can find. Once they find a multi gram nugget it will probably sound like a hood of a truck buried under ground. Good luck with your gold monster finds.

I can't wait for my Monster to arrive next week.

Came across this bowerbird party ground in the middle of 'hard to get to no where' in north queensland. About 90 mins walk from nearest road. Around the nest were bones, shells, a bullet casing and an old sardine tin! It was kind of eerie.

Thanks Fred I spoke to the owner of Bunks and he confirmed he is still making them and selling them

I love my hermit pick! I have the medium size for most things and the Big one for heavy duty digging. Bill Southern carries them-I think. And Bunk had a website...or has... I carry mine on my hip and slightly behind, otherwise the swing to the left picks up the pick using my GPZ-14. The corners are very sharp, as is the point. I have had mine forever...I did take the handle out and reinstall it to remove the wobble...it is not a pry-bar! Oh, the hoe side can sling-shot debris right back at you if you try prying bedrock with the corners... The best all-round pick ever for my uses. fred

beatup, thanks... ya, it's the most fun I've ever had beating myself up. I think I got ruffie'd by the first spec of color after that things are still a little hazy and now my body hurts in places whenever i try and move... it was a ruff date, most fun I have ever had digging a hole and I'm sitting here thinking (longing almost... pinning if you will) about the next trip out. I've dug a couple of outhouse holes when I was a kid and one time I had to hand dig the foundation for a house I was building because the soil around the construction site was to soft to bring in equipment, something we found out after sinking two excavators in the clay and mud, hand digging is never on my wish list. That is unless as we all know, you add in the adventure of the hunt and then it's possible to forget how hard it really is. I had some help with that dig luckily, as the other club members have been hacking away at the hill for some time... but don't get me wrong I moved a lot of dirt down to bedrock and also winched an 900 pound rock out of the hole that fell in on the dig a couple of nights previously. I had been to this claim a couple of weeks before and was concerned enough about that 900 pound rock hanging in mid air with almost nothing under holding it up, just a little soil around the edges that I had planned on bringing it down and winching it from the hole. When I arrived at the claim on Tuesday there was another claim member working the spot, he'd been there for a couple of days. We got to chatting and I asked him about about the big rock that was now sitting in the middle of the hole. He said he had been working the hole and was concerned about the big rock hanging 4 feet over his head, so he gave it a shove and it was solid. He was camping in his van and worked late into the evening, next morning when he got up and started to work he found the rock in the hole, it had fallen on its own that night while he was sleeping. Lucky for him and he must have found a lot of gold because luck was with him that day and lucky for me cause I've seen stuff like that thousands of times and I really don't want to come on to something like that again if I don't have to, not while i'm out trying to have fun anyways. everyone...be safe, have fun, don't loose money.