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We had a club outing at Rye Patch! Even our little group showed up in in force to see if we could pickup where Rudy and I, left of the week before. Our little group of detectorist have dozens of nugget finding spots in Rye Patch. Some with names we give them, so we can keep track of where we are located with the use of our radios. It’s kind of like Fishing, if they aren’t bitting at one spot maybe somebody at another location will sound off to come their way. Jack Rabbit, 4-Corners, October and Crossroads or some examples of where we might find the nuggets wanting to end up in our pokes. This trip, we had a few guest Club members, with us on each day. Some needed a few pointers with their settings and others only needed a pointy finger! As usual, October is a transitional Month for the North Western Seasonal change. Cold, Windy, smoke one day blew in from Northern California Fires making me think there was a local fire very close by. With extreme dry conditions with the wind, it made metal detecting difficult with static EMI’s. But, we fought thru Mother Nature elements and she rewarded us for the effort. This Tail Gate photo, was one day we had a late lunch cooking up a couple dozen brats. Only 6 pokes in the photo, as everyone else was hunting different location...just more Brats for us to eat, lol. We had a great time with our hobby and enjoying each other’s company! Just wish I could have ended up with the total Party’s Tail Gate photo with everyone’s pokes on it...maybe next time! Rye Patch still has nuggets to find and it continues to produce smiling faces. Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

A few months ago I put up a thread about this camera where I said to use it you needed a Windows 7 or earlier operating system and it had to be 32 bit. It turns out , unsurprisingly, I was wrong. A computer guy pointed out to me yesterday that I was accessing it wrong on newer operating systems. Now that I know how to access it, this same cheap made in China camera works on every computer I own. I took this photo this morning on my windows8 64bit laptop. You are better off getting a lower power camera like this one in the link. If you get a 500 or 1000 power camera they are just too damn hard to focus. cheers Dave http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2MP-20x-200x-Zoom-8-LED-Digital-Microscope-Endoscope-Camera-Magnifier-USB-2-0-/121968217513?epid=698629027&hash=item1c65df4da9:g:6VMAAOSwiYFXH2OP

Hi All, This is my first post :) I wanted to share my experience as a novice. My daughter and I were watching a you tube Video on gold detecting and we decided that it would be a fun thing to do together. So I went and spoke to a dealer and he suggested the GM1000. There was only the one review at the time that was very positive. Four/ five months later and I have been out six times with my new GM1000 to Various locations within the golden triangle , All I had to show from it was a crap load of junk and a heap lead shots. I started seeing more reviews pop up so naturally I was reading/watching the reviews on the GM. ( a lot weren’t good) I started to doubt myself and my machine. So I decided I need to go out with someone to tell me what I am doing wrong and to see if I had wasted my money. Via Facebook I discovered someone and went out with him for the day. He restored my faith in it and I learnt to trust the detector. The other thing I learnt was how to run it in manual successfully. After the training I went out again and it finally happened . I found the yellow stuff , Not just one bit either. Now I can’t retire on the two little bits (0ne .4g and the other .2g) However God it feels bloody good ! Now I do plan on getting a PI detector at a later stage when funding permits however in the mean time I can now know that the GM can do what it was sold to me as. Good luck everyone! Rob

That old van has sure carried some gold in its time - Detail of 23 oz nugget from Garibaldi (between Kingower and Wedderburn) held earlier by Ian and Reg: "Beagle boys gold, details forgotten" Hey Reg! Must be nice to have found so much you forget about some of it! ;>) Reg always keeps his eyes open for wildlife in the bush though. An Antechinus (marsupial mouse) emerges from its home: Detail of gold from Ravens Patch Longbush. I ended up with these pieces as part of a deal:

Even a blind squirrel..... So i stopped at a park that should have been old enough for some wheats or silver, but most of the park has been upgraded with ball fields and soccer fields. I spent most of my time walking the outer edge.of the park, hoping to stay away from the over fill.. I did manage about $5.00 in clad and one crusty wheat. I decided to take the explorer loaded with the ultimate coil across the soccer field for mid tones (not the best choice, but it is what I had with me). Very clean field, which is why a nice mid tone jumped out at me. It hit just below a zinc and above a pull tab on the explorer id screen (I use the cursor, not the id numbers). About 3 inches down... 6 grams of 10K. I think it was an accident as much as anything... but since I just posted the questions about gold turf hunting earlier today, I thought I would share. (Apologies for muddying the coin shooting blog with a ring). Tim

Hi Rob, Welcome to the forum! It is very difficult when new to detecting, especially nugget detecting, to know what is up when you struggle with a new detector. Nugget detecting is in my opinion one of the most difficult types of detecting there is. The reality is it is hard to find gold nuggets if you know what you are doing and not unusual for novices to go a very long time before finding that first nugget. Many in fact never do and give the whole thing up. Along the way it can be quite easy to start questioning the detector, in particular new ones with little track record. You now know part of the secret appeal of nugget detecting however. What makes it great is it is so bloody hard! Like climbing a mountain or running a marathon, it is the difficulty of the challenge, and then the satisfaction of overcoming the challenge, that sets metal detecting for gold nuggets apart from most types of detecting. You look so long, and work so hard at finding that nugget, that when it appears it can be a real rush. An addictive rush at that. Once you experience the thrill of finding gold it is a rare person who does not want to just do it again and again. And so..... congratulations, and thanks for posting!!

When you hunt with the gold monster, you have to have a camera like this to see the little pieces of gold it finds.

Kiwijw, Brats, is short for Bratwurst! We had kids there with us. One 8 year old was messing around with his Dad’s Monster 1000 next to the trucks and digs up a 1/2 Gram nugget! We had a good laugh at our sore feet and parking on top of the Patch, lol. Rick

Good going and congrats to all Rick

Always amazes me how "fractal" gold is. If you removed the coin background, it wouldn't be hard to call it a larger piece. Lets call it a 10 ouncer!

I just hate it when I have to use a microscope to see my gold (joke).

Congratulations on the nice ring! Athletic areas can be very productive depending on who is using them. For example, I wouldn't waste effort looking for gold at a children's field on the field, but the sidelines to curbs where adults spend tons of time are prime areas for that kind of park. Parks that are used to host community events are potential producers. I particularly like the "after 5" drink fests the many Jaycees in the area put on. The "movie in the park" nights are worth a look too. You got it, 5-6 inches max in clean areas, most of the time. Moderate to heavy trash at older parks worked in layers. The really trashed out parks in layers of depth and discrimination. In both cases working high to low. When I've found a patch worth working bare I like to pull all the clean repeatable signals first.Then second pass take those signals I think are trash but hard to positively ID as such. By the third or fourth pass it's mostly trash, sometimes junk jewelry, but never gold jewelry yet. You need to test your unit on deep/fringe signals (whatever that is for your soil). You may be shocked what happens. V3i will ID low or as iron. Deus tends to drive tone higher before dropping out, ime. You want a unit that runs 12Khz at a minimum, IMO. Earrings and thin chains bang harder with higher frequencies. 18khz is an excellent frequency for most jewelry hunting. I don't feel I need anything more than 22.5khz for a park. If it's that small I need a 45khz unit to find it, I don't want it.

Very nice! For me jewelry detecting is first and foremost about ease of recovery and sheer numbers. I have two basic ranges I hunt. All non-ferrous OR all non-ferrous up to but not including zinc pennies. This eliminates all coins except nickels. I will however often will notch quarters back in however as they pay for batteries. Part 2 is get target, and stab it with pinpointer. If pinpointer sees it, pop with screwdriver, move on. If pinpointer can't spot it, too deep, move on. Nearly all my targets will be trash, so I do not want to waste time digging deep targets. Favorite sites are anywhere people are active. Sports fields obviously and tot lots, but any large open area in a park has probably been used for frisbee or whatever. Since depth is not the goal a BigFoot or Cleansweep coil is killer for this application.

Thanks Beatup and JW That's not really the sentiment I am getting from my mates. They seem to think it was somehow related to luck .... they are obviously idiots. Cheers BB

We're not done yet, Au, just a matter of me getting myself organised. Sure was MB! Morning start WA mid 90's. JHS cleaning teeth Here we go - - - " 11 oz lump from the "Monte Cristo" reef Havelock" Before the "Roughie" with the GS 15000. Don't recognise the young bloke with the beard! Sun Herald 11 Sep 86: Off sleddin' with daughter Thea: Detail 8 oz held by Ian earlier: "13 oz bit, all on its own near Stirling rush Wedderburn":

I did check the hour meter on my dredge and its reading 102 hrs. Looks like it takes a easy 17 hrs. of dredging to produce an ounce of gold. LOL. Best prospecting partner you can have! Welcome to Cold Foot Alaska! Some gold in the box HH

Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector by Dave Johnson Chief Designer, First Texas Products & Fisher Research Labs March 2010 Edition This book explains how to use a VLF metal detector for finding gold. The author has nearly 30 years’ experience in the metal detector industry working for several different companies, and designed several of the most popular “gold machines” on the market. These include the Tesoro Lobo, White's GMT and MXT, and of course the Fisher Gold Bug and Gold Bug 2. Although the product emphasis is on the machines currently “Made in El Paso”, the features of competitors’ machines are also discussed. This booklet is useful no matter what brand of metal detector you use. pdf download 29 pages You can find this and many more useful free books on this website at the Metal Detecting & Prospecting Library

End of the dredge season is coming! Temps are dropping and the river will freeze in the next few week, thought I would take a moment to share my gold take so far. Seems like a lot of work but I did manage to get about six ounces, mostly fine stuff but a few nice nuggets in the mix Hope where ever you guys are dredging the water is a hell of a lot warmer.

About six inches down in the ankle-deep surf. It's very thin and worn almost beyond recognition. But it's obviously old, round and silver, and it was found on a treasure coast beach. You can almost make out a date on one side, 1720-something...if you hold it at just the right angle in bright light. One side is completely gone...as in slick as a billiard ball. The yellowish coin is a modern US dime. Anybody have any ideas?

Hello,welcome and well done.

I use the same USGS site, very helpfull

I have two of these cameras, fun to play with. Here is black sand and garnets 250x

I looked at some of my maps and you're right, no trees. Not sure where I dreamed that up from. I do see what I think may have been outhouses. Small square "sheds" behind the houses without an "X", which would indicate a stable. Even if they weren't, there would have been foot traffic between the main house and the shed.

Peg, it was a little chilly during the eve’s! During the day, it would have been great without the wind chill. Someone pointed out a little Jeep riding around the desert with a couple of your friends. I couldn’t get close enough to call them over to follow us. Of course our Motley Crew would warm normal folks to stay their distance, lol Rick

I stand corrected. By 1738 they obviously were using better presses, dies, equipment in general. So your slug has a chance of being the real deal ('real' as in 'authentic' not Re-al, the spanish denomination. Then it's only half-real? ) You seem to have gotten into a good relationship with that Infinium since you purchased it earlier this year. Well done. Goes to show one doesn't need a $5k PI to find good stuff. Hope you have a true 18th Century or earlier Spanish coin there, even if it's deteriorated to the point of no detail. Always fun to pull things from the ground that were lost over a century ago. Certainly thrills me on the rare occasions I do that, and Spanish shipwreck treasures are way more 'romantic' than what I've found.

Nice gold, Rick! Too cold for me there recently...my toy hauler is in the shop, and sleeping in my uninsulated cargo trailer doesn't sound like fun when it dips into the teens/20's at night....brrrr!

Great info Dave you've done all the hard work to make life easier for us.Thanks

too bad it doesn't run on a Mac......

I got it with the Infinium, so no ID. I'm thinking it may be what's left of a half reale. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part! The date is really close to the edge, so the outer circular decorated part is totally gone, if it is. The diameter is right at about 15 mm. Did I mention that it's really thin too? Here's one on FleaBay.

I need that Transit van for my travels in OZ !!! I would be the coolest prospector in OZ

If you need help, just shoot me a PM. I've been reading those things since I was 25, which was about 10 years ago. When dirt hunting for jewelry I go for the easy pull tabs and can slaw. If my sun-ray pin pointer won't find it (2-3 inches, tops), I skip it. I think it's a numbers game in city parks and such. Maybe one out of 100 targets will be something good? Deft can probably answer that question. Last time I went to the park, I gave up after pull tab number 34.

Steve, I have been thinking about this comment a lot since you posted it. While I have taken it as a challenge to squeak out a silver coin from this older school... as I mentioned, I have been really considering how to find the "renewable" treasures in town (I am limited in my area for nugget detecting, though that is a whole other area of research I am just starting to embark upon). You noted that you spend your "in town" hunting time focused on jewelry.. so I guess I have a couple of questions on how you approach that, or some assumptions that you will most likely dispel. (This thread should probably be in the jewelry section... so feel free to move it over if you see fit). I am assuming that you focus on areas that are heavily populated and have a lot of activity. Parks with soccer fields and ball fields for example. I am talking about turf hunting in this case, I also look to swimming holes and the ocean beach as well, but that is a whole other thread. As far as equipment.. I would also assume that you are using a machine that will run at a higher frequency to bang on the lower conductive targets, and depending on the area... a larger coil to cover more ground. What are your thoughts on tot lots? Of course a smaller coil would be better suited here, but I haven't found more than modern coins at mine... and a lot of foil... just curious if this is a good target location? It goes without saying that you have to dig a lot of targets... which I don't mind. Also, in all the talk about "going deep" with detectors... I am also assuming that jewelry detecting places less importance on the deep targets... and I guess this is the ultimate question I have. Do you (or DT or Ammie, or anyone else) focus on the top 4-5" when turf hunting, or should I be looking for low conductive deep targets as well? My assumption (I am really making a lot of assumptions here... and you know what they say...) is that I would be looking for recent drops (since the sports fields in question are not usually on old ground in my area... or at least not ground that was more than wide open farm and forest land before becoming a sports field in the last 20 years) so the targets wouldn't have sunk deeper. A friend of mine is the Ring Finder in this area, and he uses a Makro Gold Racer. I have been looking at the killer deals on the F19 right now. Anxious as many of us are on the Equinox E800... Thinking about finding a good used Xterra for the 18.75Khz coil option. Just wanting to be sure I have all my facts in line with my assumptions. Thanks for any thoughts you may have (or links to previous threads where you already answered these questions). Tim.

I stand corrected DT... not a "Sat Image" but a flyover image. I am sure if the images were taken by aliens... the quality would have been better. ';)

Yes, I am referring to cubic feet per second. I use a USGS site that may be of interest to anyone working in/around water. I have a link on my smart phone and I can check water conditions anywhere, really cool! Here is a link https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis

See if you can find a Sanborn map with the school on it. Check and see if your local college or university has them in their library, some even have them online for free. If you find one with the school, it should show, 1) where the outhouse was, and 2) where the biggest tree in the school yard was. Those 2 locations would be tops on my list.

Thanks Steve, great comments as always. I do have other sites I go to, and while I'm not exactly raking in the silver, I have found a few "leftovers" here and there... I'm with you... something about those mercury dimes!! Of course, if I am ever lucky enough to uncover a seated... I might change my tune a little ;). This site though, has thrown down the gauntlet and I am refusing to let it be my Waterloo. lol. When I am not coming to blows with this schoolyard... I am working to hone my research and hunting skills to do exactly what you outlined above. I am trying to focus my future detecting on "renewable" targets. As you mentioned, one piece of gold is worth the best day of silver coin hunting in $$. I also agree with your comments about digging deep plugs and try to be judicious in my deep hole digs. I am also hoping to get past my fear of door knocking... good to know it isn't only me :). Tim.

Great post! I got my start detecting silver way, way back in the day. Then I transitioned to gold detecting and coin detecting sort of fell by the wayside. Even when not nugget detecting my time in town tends to get spent looking more for jewelry than coins. A big reason for that is I prefer not to plug (dig deep holes) in parks and other public places. Popping shallow targets with a screwdriver looking for a ring is easier and less damaging politically - and one ring makes up for a lot of coins! However, I have been doing a great deal of metal detector testing the last couple years in Reno, and the easiest way in general to do that is to just go hit the parks detecting for deep coins. I like trying to find borderline “iffy” targets still in the ground to compare detectors on. It is very difficult to see any real edge on one detector versus another on 98% of the targets I find. Long story short it is a great learning experience but it has also eased me back into coin detecting. I have always enjoyed finding silver dimes in particular, especially Mercury dimes. It has been a very long time - like a couple decades - since I have dug silver in earnest. I am getting back into it now though and so I hope to have more finds to post here in the future. The problem of course is trying to find places where there is any silver left after decades of heavy detecting. Unfortunately so far I have been too chicken to do the knock on doors and ask permission thing, so just eking out a missed coin here and there out of the standard public areas will have to serve for now. The key there is just like a lot of detecting - patience and lots of hours. Anyway, best of luck to you in your search for silver!