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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/15/2018 in all areas

  1. 8 points
  2. There was a spot that I had driven past hundreds of times over the years, and always in the back of my mind was some old timer telling me "I got a few bits there back in the SD days". But it just didn't "look" good. Well, I will never think that again! I decided to finally stop there after having a bad spell, and a bit of renewed interest in the GPX5000 teamed up with the 15" Evo coil. Well in short time I got 3 bits for 1.4 grams, and a heap of junk targets. I decided to go back for another look, but this time with a 12" Evo coil, and this was the next lot of finds:
    7 points
  3. Abandoned Trails in Silver Country Introduction… Silver country represents a small part of a vast, heavily forested wilderness perched on the sprawling Precambrian Shield here in northeastern Ontario. Away from the small towns and villages, and widely scattered farms and rural homesteads, there exists a largely uninterrupted way of life in the more remote areas. There are uncounted miles of lonely country backroads, overgrown tracks leading to abandoned mining camps, innumerable rough timber lanes, and a virtually infinite tangle of winding trails that reach deeply into the distant forests. Nothing in my experience has been so completely companionable as the soft forest whisperings and the beckoning solitude that reigns over this ruggedly beautiful country. This is where my carefree days of autumn prospecting have been agreeably spent for many years. We returned again this year to unbounded, satisfying autumn days of kicking rocks, exploring and detector-prospecting adventures, followed by evenings spent evaluating silver ores while savoring hot coffee over blazing campfires. Irrespective of silver recoveries, the flaming autumn colors of the boreal forest are the real treasure of the season. They persist for only a few short weeks, reluctantly yielding to the autumnal yellows of the tamarack, birch, and aspen in sharp contrast to the deep conifer greens. Scenery as depicted below accentuates your enthusiasm to get into the field, and pretty much ensures that an autumn prospecting trip to silver country is a memorable experience. General Discussion… Unprecedented, persistently wet conditions eliminated any potential for a banner season, but nonetheless we did manage to find considerable worthwhile silver. In addition to an assortment of rich silver and associated minerals, my friend and occasional partner Sheldon Ward recovered a large, very high conductive native silver ore that we’ll take a closer look at shortly. Most of my quality silver finds were fairly small, although a specimen grade silver ore at five pounds was found during the final week of the trip, and frankly I felt very fortunate to get it. Larger material was recovered, for example a 24-pound highgrade silver ore from the same area, but these invariably were mixed ores co-dominated by cobalt and various arsenides, most notably niccolite as illustrated below. On a more positive note, we both found plentiful small silver generally ranging between one-half and ten ounces that added real weight to the orebag over the season’s duration. It is much easier to find small but rich, high character silver than is the case with larger material. Even so, specimen grade detectable silver in any size range is becoming increasingly difficult to find at many of the obvious, readily accessible sites nowadays. The photo below is a pretty fair representation of the overall quality, although anything below a half-oz was excluded from this shot… such are not terribly photogenic beside larger samples. Some rich ‘nuggety’ ores were HCl acid-bathed to free the silver from carbonate rock, and all samples were subjected to a rotary tool circular wire brush to remove surface residues, followed by a dish detergent wash and rinse. By way of a brief background explanation to readers unfamiliar with this prospecting application, we search for more valuable coin-size and larger pieces of silver. Natural native silver target ID is determined by physical and chemical factors such as silver purity, types of mineral inclusions, structure (for example, dendritic, plate, disseminate or particulate, sponge, nuggety or massive), size, shape, and the profile presented to the coil. Virtually all natural silver from this area will target ID from low foil up to a maximum of silver dime range. Only infrequently over the years have we found isolated, rare examples of our naturally occurring silver exceeding that range. The specimen depicted below is a commonplace example of silver typically recovered here. It isn’t terribly large or particularly handsome, but it is mostly comprised of native silver by weight. Its target ID is a bit elevated from the usual, but consider that even small changes to some of the more influential factors listed above can significantly alter target ID. I tend to pay minimal attention to it when evaluating samples. It was detected adjacent to an abandoned mining track that leads directly to a former mill site at the mining camp scene depicted above. No treatment required other than a leather glove rubdown followed by a soapy wash and rinse, in fact it looked quite presentable fresh out of the dirt. The darker material you see is heavily tarnished native silver that I intend to leave undisturbed. Ground conditions also play an important role in determining target ID, and refer to factors such as the strength of non-conductive magnetic susceptible iron minerals present, ground moisture content, proximity of adjacent targets, and disturbed ground. These factors sometimes contribute to good silver at depth producing a VLF target ID within the iron range. Probably the best photo example available to me is a specimen found a few years back at good depth in tough magnetic susceptible diabase. It produced a predominantly iron target ID on the Fisher F75. It was detected in a fairly low trash area, the signal was suspect, and it was checked with the groundgrab feature. In this instance, there was no ground phase reduction to more conductive values as would be anticipated over rusty iron or a positive hotrock, and so the target was dug. The general rule of thumb over questionable weaker signals, regardless of groundgrab results, is to remove some material to acquire a stronger signal and target ID readout before making a decision to continue digging in our difficult, hard-packed rocky substrates, or to move on. If there is the least doubt, we dig the target to learn what actually produced the signal. The specimen depicted below was found by eyesight while hiking along an old abandoned rail track. In the field our rock samples seem more attractive or valuable than they do once we return to camp, where we tend to view them far more critically. If they don’t look to have good specimen grade potential, my samples are either abandoned in an obvious place for others to find, or given away to visitors back at camp. But that’s just me, most hobbyists are more resourceful with unwanted samples, they’re refined by some, subjected to treatments, or slabbed, and ultimately sold. In any case, this rock didn’t terribly impress me and was placed with other discards on the picnic table. But nobody other than my wife seemed much interested in it, and that is how it came to be included here. In its original condition, it could only be described as nondescript, with very little showing on the surface prior to treatment. It did produce a broad solid PI signal, despite that the few surface indicators were non-conductive dark ruby silver pyrargyrite and to a much lesser extent what I suspect is the black silver sulfosalt stephanite. To see more, it was acid-washed to expose silver and associated minerals, cleaned-up with a rotary tool, followed by a dish detergent bath and clean water rinse. Both these minerals produce a good luster that makes them a bit more difficult to distinguish from native silver in a photo. But in reality it is easy to see the differences and do some simple tests to confirm if necessary. The acid treatment revealed that the sample does have a good showing of dendritic native silver, a timely reminder that metal detectors see what we initially can’t see inside rocks. Abandoned Trails, Minesite Tracks and Roadbeds… Abandoned, frequently overgrown trails, mining tracks, and roadbeds provide convenient routes to prime detecting sites that otherwise would be much more difficult to access. But the important thing is that most such routes were built with discarded mine tailings to considerable depth, and contain good silver more frequently than you might think possible. Some snake through the bush to more remote areas, but the vast majority of these now abandoned routes were built to service existing minesites at the time. They were used to transport discarded rock to the tailing disposal areas, and silver ores to storage buildings and to mill sites, and generally to service other mining camp requirements. We know from research and experience that silver was misgraded, inadvertently misplaced, or lost directly from spills to eventually reside on, within, or alongside these now abandoned trails and roadbeds. These mine tailings… frequently containing rich silver… were also used to build storage beds, minesite entrances, loading ramps, and as noted… routes to facilitate waste rock transport. All these offer excellent, obvious prospects to search with a suitable metal detector. The nugget below, with several other pieces, was found in the tailings adjacent to the abandoned track in the photo above. Some good weather following a horrendous week of persistent heavy rainfalls prompted me to head out late one afternoon for some casual detecting. I had sampled those tailings earlier in the season but nothing by way of thorough searching. And while the silver was generally small, it had been surprisingly good quality. So I was looking forward to a few relaxing hours of detecting… nothing ambitious that late in the day… just happy to get out of camp. That particular spot formerly housed silver storage beds, and was now replete with large rusty nails. I should have used a VLF unit, as things would have gone much more quickly. VLF motion all-metal detection depth in that moderate ferromagnetic substrate would pretty well match Infinium equipped with the 8” mono, with the further advantage of target ID and groundgrab features to assist with signal evaluation. If conductive pyrrhotite hotrocks had also been present, I would have switched over to my F75 or MXT to take advantage of target ID. But I stayed with the Infinium primarily because I enjoy using it. By comparison it is slow going, but that isn’t such a bad thing over potentially good ground. It silences what can be described as VLF ground noise, in addition to sizable non-conductive mafic hotrocks in this area. It also has some limited high conductive iron handling capability, for example elongated iron such as drillrods or rail spikes at depth that VLF units using iron discrimination modes misidentify with perfectly good signals and non-ferrous target ID readouts. More information on this subject can be found at… http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,384975.0.html http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,385640.0.html Nearly all the signals proved to be nails, plus one drillrod with a perpendicular profile to the coil. The silver below produced a low-high signal in zero discrimination and a good high-low signal in reverse discrimination (maximum available pulse delay setting) at maybe eight to ten inches depth. The exposed silver was unusually tarnished and the remainder partially embedded in carbonate rock. It was acid-bathed to free the silver, cleaned with a rotary tool silicon carbide bit and circular wire brush, followed by a detergent wash and rinse. While searching one such abandoned route with his Fisher F75 equipped with the stock 11” DD elliptical coil, Sheldon Ward found a large highgrade silver ore comprised of a thick calcite vein containing massive dendritic native silver. The vein material weighs about 25 lbs, and was attached to a mafic host rock. It generated a moderate but broad signal from several feet depth, requiring an hour of hard pick and shovel work to recover it. It possesses an unusually elevated target ID in the silver quarter range. After 30+ years searching this area recovering numerous silver ores and nuggets, I've seen only a small handful of silver produce a similar target ID. On site we obviously have the benefit of closely examining the vein material, but it’s more difficult for readers to evaluate the silver based on photos only. Outdoor photos do tend to make native silver look much like grey rock, and unfortunately this one is smudged with dirt. I’ve added an indoor photo from Sheldon that displays the vein material after it was separated from the host rock and cleaned. Sheldon if you happen to be reading along here, congratulations on your many superb silver and associated mineral recoveries over the past year. Nothing that your dedication and persistence achieves in the years to come will ever surprise me. WTG!!! Persistence Pays Dividends… Let’s wrap things up with a tale about the rock sample below. It was recovered at the edge of a tangled overgrown trail near a former millsite just a few years ago. Its recovery exemplifies that the more you work towards your objective of finding silver or gold, the more likely your probability of success will correspondingly improve. I’d been searching that particular area for two days without meaningful results while evaluating a newly purchased Garrett Infinium for this application. The second day had again been filled with digging hard-packed rocky substrates for iron junk, worthless or otherwise unwanted arsenides, and plenty of conductive pyrrhotite hotrocks. As the sun was reaching for the western horizon, I decided to make one final effort before heading elsewhere the following day. Methodically working along the old track towards the mill, lots of old diggings were plainly visible. But previous hunters had ignored an area with a scattering of large, flat rusty iron pieces and other miscellaneous modern trash. I moved quickly to clear it away, because daylight was fading fast beneath the dense forest canopy. My Infinium soon produced a surprisingly strong high-low signal that practically vanished in reverse discrimination… a promising indication of naturally occurring ores. I dug down a foot before my Propointer could locate the signal. Probability says that it could have been any number of possible targets altogether more likely than good silver. But fickle Lady Luck was more kindly disposed towards me that evening. The rich, finely dendritic piece depicted below was in my gloved hands just as twilight was stealing across that lonely abandoned trail in remote silver country. A Final Word… A special mention to my friend Dr. Jim Eckert. I hadn’t seen much of Jim recently, but happened across his trail late one overcast afternoon in the outback. I was about to hike into a site when this fellow came flying down the trail on a motorbike, and despite the riding helmet I recognized him. We had a good long chat about this and that… Later in the season, one bright sunny afternoon at the site of my short-lived testhole diggings, Jim stopped around to show me a recent specimen find comprised of native silver and crystalline stephanite. We talked mineralogy and other interests many hours until finally the sun was going down. These were highlights of the trip, and I want to say how much I enjoyed and appreciated having that companionable time together. Thanks to everyone for dropping by. We hope that you enjoy presentations about naturally occurring native silver, particularly since it is different from what many rockhunters normally encounter in their areas. All the very best with your prospecting adventures… perhaps one day it will be our good luck to meet you in the field…………………… Jim. Reposted July 2018 Detector Prospector “Rocks, Minerals & Gems”
    4 points
  4. Ok, Thanks very much Chase ☺️ todays little hunt $44.50
    4 points
  5. Yesterday after work which i finished at 8pm i got home and had a while to rest before going to the beach for the night . I got there at around 1am and first because the tide was very high and long i used the 705 on the dry tops for the coinage . For the first hour or so i seemed to miss all or most of the coinage , seemed to be passing around them i think . Then when i got to an area near pubs i started to find a steady stream of coinage , after a while i found a then broken now fixed Silver bracelet and a lighter. After that i was still finding more coinage . At around 4am it was starting to get light and i knew it would be time to change to the Nox but for a while longer i stayed with the Terra and then on the tops which in a small area were being turned over by a digger i found an old Silver ring . At about 5am i took the Terra's control box and coil off the Anderson stem and put the Nox box and coil on and started the low tide , soon after i found a small Silver ring and a few coins but the finds were few and far between . At around 6am a few other people turned up to detect and 2 were using Nox's . After seeing and talking to the first one i saw i went along the beach into the surf a bit and found a Silver band . By 7am i was getting a bit knackered and wanted rest but the long low tide kept me going for a bit longer but apart from a few targets i was getting nothing else so at 8.30am i finished and left the beach. My finds with the Terra were £49.96p , a Silver ring and Silver bracelet and the Light and a small foreign coin and a 20 Euro Cent . My finds with the Nox were £4.86p , 2 Silver rings and 2 x 20 Euro Cents . The tides will be getting shorter from now so not sure when i will use the Nox next , maybe a different beach somewhere but my normal beaches are not sandy all the time unless long tides .
    3 points
  6. Anyone a Pistol Expert? I just dug this banger of a find. Minelab Equinox 800 sniffed it at only 10". Please share with your gun buddies and we'll get it figured out. It is one of my cooler Idaho digs. Oh, and if you have been lucky enough to have found a pistol or gun, please share story and photos on here.
    2 points
  7. Mitchel, Attached is lid in close-up. Sure do appreciate your wife's help with the Chinese items. Gary
    2 points
  8. Ok, my wife read the cans somewhat correctly and I have now found an article which says that for those lids they probably did contain opium. There will also be many other tins containing other substances but perhaps the value of the opium means there are more of them than other containers. Lu's knowledge of the opium trade has now been enhanced. The article is here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dug-Up-1800s-Chinese-Opium-Box-Stamped-Tin-Lid-Brass-Gold-Rush-Lamp-Container-Q-/312123906240#viTabs_0 The names she read on the lid indicate that 'Some of the higher quality and more popular brands were; Lai Yuen 麗源 and Fook Lung 福隆, just to name a couple.'
    2 points
  9. Gerry, Attached is one of my tins (actually copper or bronze) that is complete and is 3 & 3/4 inches tall. I always thought they were opium tins, but maybe tea is correct, although pounds of tea would have been consumed, not ounces such as these could hold. As you know they are everywhere in the gold fields. And I do have some small opium vials found years ago in our area. Gary
    2 points
  10. I think they say" the state has determined that this is a cancer causing agent". fred
    2 points
  11. Gerry, My wife who is from Southern China has some idea about your tins. The writing on the top is like a 'brand name' for the contents. She is uncertain about the contents but it is likely not opium. She wonders the depth of the tins and in fact if it is just a lid. (Do you have other pictures?) To her it seems more likely that it was tobacco, tea or a lid to some dish or larger container. Tins are labeled this way even today. We have several tea tins with the location on the top. The first tin is not readable at the top part of the letters but the bottom portion of the letters say YUEN. The second tin (one in the middle) says HONG KONG at the top of the lettered area (read right to left). The section below reads HOP LOONG. The third tin on the top part of the letters says a district in Hong Kong and it says SHEUNG WAN read right to left again. The remaining letters in the rectangle below the 'roof' says FOOK LOONG which could be the brand name and/or store sold. To recap you have one tin with a seller's name YUEN, one that says HOP LOONG and the final one says FOOK LOONG and the letters above those names tell the location in Hong Kong where it was made. It could have been imported or brought by the worker. Mitchel and Lu
    2 points
  12. I love analogies. Maybe this one will help some people. Low recovery speeds magnify signals and fast recovery speeds truncate signals. Digital machines usually chop signals into discrete portions. A target is “grabbed” and then it is “released”. A new target cannot be “grabbed” until the last one is “released”. Imagine a conveyor belt going by with a line of wooden blocks. The blocks have anywhere from 9 to 16 sides. You are standing there blindfolded as the blocks go by. You can pick up a block and feel it for as long as you want to try and decide how many sides it has. The longer you roll it around in your hands, the better. Your chance of deciding if it is a thirteen sided block or a fourteen sided block is better if you have more time. However, you are being graded by how many blocks you identify correctly, and if you hold one too long some pass by before you can pick them up. The conveyor is passing 8 blocks per minute past you. If you have a recovery speed of 1 you hold each block one minute and you get a great “signal” on that block. But seven other blocks go by as you are taking your time identifying the one block. You increase your recovery time to three and now get 3 out of 8 blocks but have less time to hold each block. Less signal information. Still, you get them all right. Now you increase recovery time to 5 and are only missing three blocks. Your slower buddies are having a hard time keeping up now and making mistakes, misidentifying blocks, but you are doing great. You notice that people standing back are having to reach farther to grab a block and put it back. They are “going deeper” but it is costing them time. You step closer to the conveyor belt so you don’t have to reach as far, and are now a little faster by not reaching as far. You lose a little “depth” but gain some speed. You go to recovery speed seven and your arms are a blur. Your buddies all give up and stand back in awe as you pick up and put down blocks at lightning speed, and are still calling them right but you can tell you are at your limit. You finally go to 8 and still get almost all right it every now and then you have to put a block back down before you can tell what it was. You don’t have enough time, enough signal to work with. You also get to change the conveyor speed. You can swing your coil slower, and now you have more time to look at each target. That means you can lower the recovery speed and still keep up with the targets. Great for the slower workers (detectors) who have a hard time keeping up. That is a decent analogy for recovery speed and what it does for the ability of a detector to clearly examine a target versus how many targets it can process and how far it can reach. Slow detectors, slow conveyor workers, don’t have a chance. Only the fastest workers, the fastest machines, can pick up and process all the targets correctly in a short period of time. They are a rare breed. One of the biggest advantages you possess in Equinox is the lightning fast recovery speed. I see far too many people throwing that advantage away thinking a lower recovery speed gets “more depth”. No point in getting an Equinox then, just stick with the slower machine you already have. Give Equinox a real good go at the default higher recovery speeds before deciding to toss away what is perhaps the most important advantage the machine has - lightning fast recovery time coupled with accurate target id and minimal depth loss at those high speeds. That is the Equinox difference. Don’t waste it. Recovery Speed, Recovery Delay, And Reactivity
    1 point
  13. I'm a former XP Deus user and have been searching around for aptX LL headphones similar to my old Deus WS4 wireless backphones so that I can wear sunhats. I purchased the 66 AUDIO BTS Pro's last week and was pretty disappointed after syncing them up to the Equinox 800 and no aptX LL!!! I contacted their tech support and didn't hear anything for a couple of days. I boxed them up to return to Amazon and just as I was heading out the door to the UPS Store I received an email from them saying "We will send over a manual firmware update in 1-2 days to resolve the aptX-LL issue." Two days later (today) I got the firmware update. The update went smoothly on my PC, I synced up to the Equinox 800 and aptX LL now works GREAT!!! I tested them out around my garden and they're awesome. If anyone needs the firmware update file without having to wait four days send me a PM. These headphones sound great, loud, are comfortable and have some pretty impressive specs with a 40 hour battery and 100 foot range. https://www.66audio.com/bts-pro https://www.amazon.com/66-AUDIO-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B01M8M4R7K
    1 point
  14. Well, here is a report on my last visit to Ganes Creek, Alaska for the year. I set myself up for this visit this spring by saying I would go to the mine after everyone had been there this year and find gold, just to prove there was still some left to detect. To show that it just can't all be found... no matter how thorough the hunters. I also wanted an opportunity to work with some new machines, and so in addition to my White's GMT I brought along a new White's MXT and Garrett Infinium LS. Brian, Jeff, and I left Thursday morning for a five day visit. We got to Ganes and settled in, then decided what to do. Brian was set on doing some prospecting with the 5" dredge Doug had purchased for visitors to use, so he was off in search of places to use it. I grabbed my new Garrett Infinium LS detector to try out, and Jeff used my White's GMT. Jeff and I headed upstream to where most of the large nuggets have been found this summer, on the theory that more were waiting to be found in the area. We scanned an area that has been heavily hunted. Three nuggets over 5 ounces were detected in the area this year, and I found out it is the same area where the 122 ounce nugget and a 62 ounce nugget were found. Definitely the center of big gold on the creek. The Infinium ran smooth and clear, so much so that I found myself waving my ring over the coil to make sure it was really working. Absolutely no signals from rocks in the tailing piles. Very odd when you are used to constant background sounds back from a VLF detector. The Infinium is a ground balancing pulse induction (PI) detector and as such it excels at canceling out ground mineralization. I got a signal now and then, and dug either a shell casing, or an iron trash target. The discrimination on PI detectors is crude at best, and so iron targets that might be rejected with a VLF (Very Low Frequency) will often be signaled as "good" on a PI detector like the Infinium LS. The basic idea with PI detectors is to go ahead and dig everything, although this can be problematic at a place with so much junk as Ganes Creek. I found the shell casings encouraging however, as that meant that not everything had been detected. I figure if non-ferrous items like bullets and shell casings are being missed, then some gold has also been left behind. Still, the area had been well searched, and the finds were few. I finally located a 13.8 dwt (dwt = pennyweight) nugget, and then a 3.8 dwt nugget (20 pennyweight per ounce). Two very nice, relatively solid gold nuggets. The Infinium had done its job. Jeff, although he tried his darndest, came up with no nuggets. The area has been hammered pretty good. We also tried some old tailings upstream farther, but found no more gold that day. Gold nuggets found with Garrett Infinium at Ganes Creek Day Two dawned under rainy skies. We decided to stay near camp, and see if there were more nuggets waiting to found around the cabins. I grabbed the new White's MXT, while Jeff stuck with the GMT. The rain got going pretty good, but we stuck with it. Lots of bullets and shell casings were dug, again, a good sign. But by the end of the day we had no nuggets. We headed up to the bench deposits above camp and found some small nuggets, just so we could say we did not get skunked. Jeff found a nice little nugget over a pennyweight with the GMT, and I got a few tiny bits. The MXT is a brand new detector from White's Electronics. Steve Houston from White's had a prototype MXT along on his visit to Ganes Creek in the spring and I had a chance to use it then. We both agreed then it had all the right stuff for finding gold at Ganes Creek. We did not use it much, however, as time was limited and we stuck with more familiar detectors. I have to note that I was very impressed with the MXT around camp. I used the 6" elliptical coil, and ran the unit in the relic mode. This mode, when set up a certain way, gives a high tone on non-ferrous targets, and low tone on iron targets. A setting right at "2" seemed to be the point where ferrous and non-ferrous sorted out with low and high tones. It was easy and efficient around camp, and all I dug were non-ferrous items. It has very good trash separation with the small coil, and easy id with the dual tone system. Great for places where trash is literally inches apart. Brian had set up in the ditch near the big nugget area, but was plagued with start-up problems with the gear, especially a leaky pump intake hose. He spent most of his day just getting set up and getting the dredge operating. Brian running suction dredge at Ganes Creek The weather cleared up the third day. Jeff again ran the White's GMT, and I the MXT with small coil as I had been impressed with it the day before. We started in camp, and I found a small nugget just behind the cabins. Then we tried some of the dragline piles above camp near where I found my 4.95 ounce nugget last year. I switched the MXT to the 950 9.5" coil. Both Jeff and I came up with nuggets weighing several pennyweights each. So far we were not exactly knocking down the nuggets. Frankly, we were both both a bit puzzled, as our constant digging of bullets indicated nuggets were still to be found. You simply can't dig all the gold while leaving the bullets in the ground. But results were lean, and our enthusiasm was flagging. I'm a big fan of aerial photos, and had some new ones showing an area downstream opposite the old bucket line dredge machine shop. Long rows of old bucketline tailings ran far back away from the road, and so I suggested we go down and check them for a change of pace. Jeff was running the White's GMT with the Sierra Max 14" coil, and I ran the MXT with stock 950 coil. The more I used the MXT the more I liked it. On the cobble piles I ran in prospect mode, with full gain, minimum V/SAT setting, and in automatic ground balance. The 14 kHz frequency ran smoother on the mixed rocks of the the cobble piles than a higher frequency detector like the White's GMT or Fisher Gold Bug 2. They tend to get weak signals of rocks because of their higher operating frequencies. The MXT was definitely smoother in the cobble piles than the GMT. We followed an old trail we had followed last year. I concentrated on the edges, off the main trail in the edges of the cobble piles near and in the brush. I got a good, clean signal, and gave a couple digs with my pick. The moss and rocks flipped back, and there lay a large gold nugget! I did not get as excited over this one as my 4.95 ounce nugget last year, as I was not sure exactly how large it was. Jeff, however, knew immediately it was something to jump up and down over. And he was right, as upon weighing it came in at 6.85 ounces. My largest nugget ever, and the largest found at Ganes Creek by visitors with metal detectors this summer. Sorry guys, but you left a big one for me to find! 6.85 ounce "Ugly Nugget" gold specimen from Ganes Creek - found by Steve H with White's MXT The nugget is strange, with very dark, lustrous quartz encasing a solid gold core. The quartz is almost like agate. Fingers of dendritic (leaf) gold reach up from the gold core into the quartz shell. It's a very unique nugget, but I'm hard-pressed to say if I like the looks of it. It has more quartz showing than gold. Some people say it really looks good, others say it's ugly. Oh well, all I know is it weighs more than any other found this summer. And that's remarkable considering the number of people over the ground, proving you just can't get them all. Side view of "Ugly Nugget" showing wispy dendritic gold Brian's initial dredge hole in the ditch near the big nugget area did not get him excited. A bit of small gold, but no bedrock, and no large nuggets. So he decided to move to a point of bedrock sticking out into the current location of Ganes Creek. The creek has been moved to the north side of the valley, which is reputed to have poor gold, but Brian wanted to check it out. At least there was bedrock showing he could get at. The next day (Day Four) Jeff took the MXT, and I went back to the Garrett Infinium LS. I wanted to put its ground canceling capabilities to use on the cobble piles, and Jeff wanted to see why I had grown so infatuated with the MXT. What's not to like about a machine that had found me my largest nugget ever? We searched far into the edges of the cobble piles along the creek. Our search led us way out on the dredge cobbles as far from the road as we could get, opposite the old dredge machine shop. There were no signals for some time, as many of these old cobble piles are relatively trash free. I was ahead of Jeff a bit, and so sat down to wait while he scanned up to me. Then he gets a signal in the middle of the cobble piles. The MXT said only 10% chance it was iron. VDI number of 55, exactly what it called my large nugget. No signal for some time, in big cobble pile... man, this looked good. He dug and dug. Got to over a foot. All indications were still good. I was getting excited, and came up to take pictures of the big find. And literally cheer him on, as he was getting a bit grumpy about the depth of the hole. The cobbles kept caving in, which can be very frustrating. And I'd exclaim "But Jeff, this is just how digging the two-pounder will be"! Jeff excavating large "gold nugget" that turned out to be a rusty can So at two feet, there is the quart paint can. Oh well, such is nugget detecting. Those large steel targets at depth really baffle discrimination systems. What is interesting, however, is I tried the Infinium out on the can, and it did call it an iron target! It seems the PI discrimination system does work well on some items that have problems on the VLF systems. The thing about VLF discrimination is it will sometimes call ferrous items non-ferrous so you dig some junk. With PI discrimination the problem is more serious - a gold nugget can easily be identified as iron, especially the large nuggets, so it is dangerous to use PI discrimination where large nuggets lurk. In any case, I sure like to see other people find gold. I always get excited when anyone finds gold, because it tells me there is more for me to find also. It's when nobody is finding gold that I get worried, and today was turning into one of those days. One the other hand, if I go out with Jeff one more time and find a big nugget, I'd best not turn my back on him. I'm likely to get hit over the head with a detector! Since we were having no luck for the day so far we decided to switch gears. Back to the old reliable airstrip to find nuggets. I've found if I'm just patient, dig lots of bullets, I can always find gold on the airstrip or around camp. But since the Infinium has minimal discrimination, and digging the compacted airstrip material is a lot of work, I switched to the GMT. Jeff stuck with the MXT. Before an hour was up Jeff found a 12.2 dwt nugget. Shortly after I found a 2.7 dwt nugget with the GMT. We both had nuggets for the day. Jeff's was a very nice, nearly solid gold piece. Mine was a broken, very quartzy nugget. Still, that seemed to be it, although we dug a small pile of bullets and shell casings. We headed up to the bench deposits above camp once again to look for smaller gold. The MXT is a great detector, but the difference in operating frequencies was obvious. We scraped areas free of overburden over the bedrock, and checked them with the detectors. The White's GMT with it's 48 kHz operating frequency had an obvious edge over the 14 kHz White's MXT, even considering the fact that the MXT was using the more sensitive 6" elliptical coil versus the 10" elliptical coil on the GMT. We dug a couple pennyweight of small nuggets, but the GMT clearly got better signals on the small gold. Small gold nuggets found with White's GMT Brian again found little gold with the dredge, and decided to wrap it up for this trip. He had his work cut out for him pulling the dredge out of the creek and getting all the gear put away. Day Five dawned a bit cloudy and cool. The only real good thing about this time of then year is the lack of mosquitoes. The cool nights have driven them off, and so our days were relatively mosquito free. A few biting flies replaced them, but not so many that I ever had to use a head net this trip. Cold weather has it's advantages. Since we were leaving that afternoon, we made a short day of it. I had pulled my left arm out of joint, and so was down to digging only targets that gave perfect id. We did a little detecting in the pile of material near the ditch in front of camp. This pile has produced several nice nuggets, and been heavily detected. But Brian is short order found a nice weighing several pennyweight with the White's GMT. It ended up weighing more than all the gold he got dredging on the trip. The weather cleared as the day went on, and I decided to spend my last few hours up in the big nugget area near the ditch. I ran the GMT again while Jeff used the MXT. I hit the road itself real hard, as I saw no signs that it had been detected much. But Ganes had given us all the gold it was going to this trip, and we went in early to pack and clean up our cabins. It may be I missed out this last day simply because I passed up lots of targets I normally would have dug. Well, it was a fun trip, with over 9 ounces of gold found. Even discounting the big nugget I found over an ounce of nuggets, with the largest being 13.8 dwt. Jeff found about an ounce with his largest at 12.2 dwt. Good-sized nuggets remain to be found, and even a few clunkers. Still, the easy pickings are gone, and it will take patient detecting to get results at Ganes Creek now. There are actually many miles of undetected tailings running upstream above the more recent workings. The areas are generally lightly brushed over, with some large open areas. A few brief exploratory runs into these upper areas have produced no real finds, but the area is vast in extent, and worth attention in the future. A talk with Doug revealed that next season there will be a lot more work done with bulldozers to make areas "fresh" again. The good news is many worked areas will be rejuvenated in this way. The bad news is you guys that did not dispose of your trash properly... well, it's just going to be there to dig up again. The future at Ganes creek is more likely to be a mixture of working material freshly turned over, and then wandering off searching for those missed areas. Finally, the detectors themselves. I like the Garrett Infinium LS. It has great bang-for-the-buck in the PI department. Its current lack of accessory coils is the only thing really holding it back at the moment. I see the Infinium as being the machine I will turn to when my normal VLF detectors won't do the trick. Ganes Creek is really not the best area for PI detectors, as the low mineralization and lack of hot rocks means the PI units have no real edge over VLF detectors. The White's GMT is slowly becoming my primary nugget detector. I've favored the Fisher Gold Bug 2 the last few years, but the extra versatility of the GMT is causing me to use it more and more. The extra depth on large gold versus the Gold Bug 2 is the big plus at Ganes Creek. The machine that really wowed both Jeff and I was the White's MXT. It's the first detector I've ever used that I really think "does it all". Now, while it bench tests well on small gold, frankly it does not hold a candle to the GMT when it comes to very small gold under actual field conditions. If small gold is your bread and butter, the GMT or Gold Bug 2 are still the way to go. Not only do the higher frequency detectors have an innate edge, but the manual ground balance offers better control for small gold. The MXT must be auto ground balanced, then "locked". The GB point is then fixed, but it cannot be manually adjusted. The GMT has automatic and manual ground balance, while the Gold Bug 2 is manual only. Steve's Gold - 8.15 Ounces Total But the MXT does do very well on nuggets weighing a few grains or more, and the bigger the gold gets, the less difference there is between the MXT and GMT. Frankly, for nuggets weighing in pennyweights or more, I actually prefer the MXT. It operates smoother than the GMT in mineralized ground, and has depth as good as, and maybe under some circumstances better than, the GMT. It's a great machine for large nugget hunting. Combine that with the fact that it has a vastly superior id system, with both iron readout and conductivity measurement, and you can actually do things like tell most gold nuggets from a .22 shell casing. I actually used the relic mode with the small coil on the MXT to work extreme trash areas to good effect. This machine has lots of potential to explore, and yet is very easy to use. Add in the the fact that it has a 6.5" x 4" elliptical DD, 5.3" round concentric, and 10" x 5.5" elliptical DD coils available as options, and I think the MXT is now the machine to beat for all-around use. And despite it's wealth of features, it's list price is only $799.95. I think we will be hearing a lot more about the MXT in coming years. ~ Steve Herschbach Copyright 2002 Herschbach Enterprises
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  15. Apologies if im posting a lot, but im really into this hobby. My finds arent stunning by any means, but it does show that this machine is very capable! Its only a matter of time before the treasure is found, hehehehehe. Cheers Peeps! Edit: You may think this is a lot of finds for the amount of time ive been hitting it, but kindly take note, i was informed one location was the spot of an old wishing well. LOL. Andy
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  16. After the rain storm / snow melt off, a place that was already work, was check again and the Gold Bug 2 did it's job again. 3 penny wt.
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  17. I would like to thank Steve for putting together such a great forum. I came across it a few month back on accident while doing some research. I ended up reading a post by Steve that I was blown away by and started looking up some of his other posts. Steve tells it like it is and his knowledge is incredible. Then I started coming across other posts from other people and I knew this was a place I want to be. In my personal opinion this is the best forum, I love the layout and the great conversations by a lot of knowledgeable people. Thank you Steve for having such a great place for all of us to discuss metal detecting!
    1 point
  18. I just spent two months overhauling the website and could use a break from the keyboard. I promised myself a reward when it was done and now it’s time to collect. I am going to be off grid most of the next couple weeks and for those times when I might be in range I am not going to think about it. That being the case you are all on your own until the end of the month. My absence is in itself is an experiment just to see what happens. You are all a really great bunch of folks so no worries on my part. I hope you all enjoy both the forum and your own adventures. If things get a little sloppy I will sort it out when I return. So take care, have fun, and see you all on or before Aug 1st. The goal when I get back will be a day by day accounting of the adventure with photos and hopefully some good finds to show. I know the adventure will be there regardless of finds - going to be a good time. Again, best wishes to all, and thanks for being the best forum members ever! Steve Herschbach DetectorProspector.com
    1 point
  19. Cool find! looks like a smith ( Otis A. Smith Company ) from i can search. The new model was steel frame, yours looks like brass?
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  20. On club digs we are allowed to keep anything if its not a treasure item . If treasure then its 50 50 . If not treasure and a farm that isn't a club dig then its 50 50 .
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  21. Last night after i finished work i went to the beach for a 9pm start . The tide was in and i would work it out all night if it was worth it or if i could stay awake . I did the dry tops for a few hours then looked down the lower beach but it has built up in many places . But i did find a Silver chain and on the pendent it say 925 375 DIA , its all a bit knotted up . So i presume thats Silver , 9k Gold and Diamond . I had a good session on coinage but not as good as it should be , the weather was a bit chilly and cool yesterday so i didn't expect much . Near the end of the search i found 2 cufflinks , not Silver . I finished at around 2.30am as i was knackered and my bed was calling . I walked a few miles so that was enough exercise for me . In this search i found the Silver/Gold chain , a foreign coin and the chain , the cufflinks and £35.87p in coinage . Today i wont be out , i need sleep . Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
    1 point
  22. Jim, your photography is only outdone by your writing mastery. Thanks. When you say "Northeast Ontario" do you mean up by Hudson Bay?
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  23. Great information for anyone looking for areas to prospect for silver or gold. Great post!!!!
    1 point
  24. So last year I am wandering around well off the beaten path in northern Nevada. I was targeting some old mapped prospects that turned out just to be natural features the mappers mistook for mining activity. Still, there is gold elsewhere in the area, and I am seeing lots of quartz scattered around. I wandered for miles swinging the Garrett ATX with one of the new 11" x 13" DD coils. This particular area had some hot rocks that were bugging my GPZ 7000 but which the Garrett tuned out entirely, so I went with the ATX. Garrett ATX in the Nevada desert Hours go by with not a single signal. Then I get this soft loud signal in the middle of nothing - no sign of human activity of any sort. It is strong but not a sharp signal, so I figure it is something large and deep. I start digging and it is deep. I am thinking maybe a meteorite? Or can I dare hope for a large nugget find - no, I tend to not let my thoughts go too far in that direction.... but still........ Close to two feet and this pops out of the ground: Looks to be an aircraft 20mm cannon round, probably WW2 era. I imagine somebody was flying around out there decades ago and fired off a round, which ended up punching into the ground where I found it. Who knows what the real story is, but it got my heart pumping and was the only find of the day.
    1 point
  25. In spite of having no particular interest in the link which someone posted on another forum to Minelab’s announcement of establishing a repair facility in France, I looked at it anyway. Buried three paragraphs down in this announcement from Minelab about a new repair facility in France was a “gold nugget” which I thought might be of general interest. I have posted the link as well if anyone is interested. I expect that the statement will apply generally - not just for French customers - and it’s very good news in that case.”We have recently received several queries about after warranty support for the Equinox detector and will publish information about how this will be handled. We would like to reassure French Equinox users that fixed cost and affordable repairs will be available for Equinox outside of the warranty period as well as items such as lithium ion battery replacement.” [www.minelab.com]
    1 point
  26. Went out with my Father yesterday, for a couple of hours to a local beach. Both with our Equinox 800s. No gold, but bear in mind, this is a UK beach, so not exactly the Treasure coast in Florida...lol. I got a shed load of coins....all modern and a heart-stopping bracelet RAM PACKED full of diamonds.....but turned out to be fake! GRRR!! My Father, however, truly showed me how it's done, by also getting lots of modern coins, but also 2 x .925 perfect condition Sterling silver rings!! It's safe to say that the Equinox 800s are definitely doing the job! See pics of his rings.... Nice one. Matt
    1 point
  27. Hi, I do not use the WM08 with my Equinox800 and so I wondering can I use it with another detector ? eg. If I buy any BT Aptx LL transmitter plug that into my old Xterra - will the WM08 receive the signal OK ? Does anyone know ? thanks in advance and happy hunting ? The 800 is going great, just got back from a 3hr hunt. it just gets better and better for me and it has paid for itself plus some. When the big Nox coil comes out I may retire my Xterra but atm it has a 15" WOT on it and is good for some hunting
    1 point
  28. Awesome post! Really interesting stuff.
    1 point
  29. Where ever your adventure takes you Steve enjoy,coordinates would be great but a good story and photos will do just fine.
    1 point
  30. Yeah for sure, I think it is pretty amazing that he got VDI readings on those classified specs, even though there was a few bits in the bag it has no effect in helping the detector see them better the only way it would help is if they were melted together, The smallest bit I have found with mine was 0.09 grains or 0.006 grams. John you need a PI to go with those two Beauties, Tell your wife I said it was Ok for you to buy one, and don't worry she can't hit me from there, lololol.
    1 point
  31. I love my MXT... And my V3i.... With those two machines I have everything i want to do covered.
    1 point
  32. The babysitter has left the house. Time to party! ? Steve said we could get sloppy so I did the math and if we each kick in 62 cents I can get my big brother to buy a keg of real cheep 'Merican beer with a bag of plastic cups. ? I'll see if the twins will come - nothing like some party girls to kick off the fun. Keep the music down so the neighbors don't call the cops and this could be an epic all month party! BYOD (bring your own detector)
    1 point
  33. Here is a new find this summer with GPZ . 4 1/2 troy oz. I credit my son with this find because I told him it was probably a big piece of tin. I listened to it and was super tired so i really didn't think we were going to dig something like that. He dug and pried at the nugget's hiding spot for a time as I watched and listened. I saw it come out but we were in the shade so it looked like a flat piece of rusty tin. When he dropped it in my hand I knew that was a great nugget. This was one of the best high five father and son moments we have ever had detecting.
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  34. I must be getting slow in my old age because I don't know how I missed this one "Video" but it just goes to show how smaller Gold that the MXT can see using the 4x6 shooter coil but I would like to add that the 5.3 is even hotter, His GND readings are between 68 and 71 and even though they are so small he is still getting some high VDI numbers also, those tiny bits that he classified are about the size of grains of sugar, The larger bits in the other bags are 1 grain flat pieces sort of rectangular and hand cut out of a sheet of Gold which most detectors should be able to get a response, but on those Classified Specs it is pretty amazing for a VLF, Enjoy, John.
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  35. Go get em Steve ! best of luck to you.. It's party time on detector prospector! J/K of course.... I think we can manage to behave ourselves while you are gone. strick
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  36. Mitchel, Thank you very much. Her interpretation makes the tin much more interesting. Gary
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  37. Gary, My wife can now read it. It is 'upside down' in the picture just so you know. The more rounded end is the top and it says a district in Hong Kong, SHEUNG WAN read right to left. The brand is under in the rectangle below the two characters at the top. Mitchel
    1 point
  38. Gary, You have the tin labeled LAI YUEN but my wife can't see the top reading which would tell where it is from. If you could put more light on the tin and take another picture she could read if it is from HK or another location. Mitchel
    1 point
  39. I have found a picture of an 'opium tin' from Australia. http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/goldfields-chines-opium-containers/index.html
    1 point
  40. I would probably, actually have been thinking about it quite a bit, get this as a backup to the 800. 14Khz with gen and deep modes for my fresh water hunting. The "bar" I have been hunting has recently had the sand move big time. As you can see from my posts on the jewelry forum, mens bands are my big game target and I need something that will punch deep on them, again 14 Khz may just hit the sweet spot for low mineral quartz sand bottoms.
    1 point
  41. I also like your utility belt , where can I get one ?
    1 point
  42. I never regretted selling a detector. There are a couple I regret buying however!
    1 point
  43. The fan club aspect of the Equinox forum was to give people an alternative to other forums at the time which were being heavily trolled. It is by intent that it drive people away who are not fans of the detector. It is also to prevent any other forums from getting buried in Equinox posts. However, all the manufacturer forums and the Equinox forum in particular are intended to focus on things specific to the brand or model of detector. If people just want to talk generically,.... that is exactly why the Coin & Relic forum exists (for example). More about the activity than specific detectors. Still, if everyone who has an Equinox went to the Coin & Relic forum and started posting all about "Equinox finds" that can be overdone. Anytime a new detector comes out it dominates traffic. Equinox is just the flavor of the month. Bottom line is all I can do is set up the framework and nudge people in a general direction, but in the end people choose where to hang out and post. If I see stuff really out of place or maybe too concentrated in one location I do move threads, but I try to keep that to a minimum. Anyway, I agree, if people are just posting about a jewelry find - post on the Jewelry forum. If it is about the settings used on the Equinox to find the ring, then the Equinox forum. No right or wrong answers really and I don't want people to worry about it too much
    1 point
  44. Thank you Mike, and all the other forum members also. I am shifting the website focus from prospecting to all types of detecting. Whether that will catch hold or not only time will tell.
    1 point
  45. In other words, use the Golden Rule. That is why I love this place: knowledge, excitement, camaraderie, and respect -- all positives. Negative attitudes (i.e. attacking others) isn't welcome. It's OK, even healthy to disagree if that leads to discussion and learning. If it's simply about defending turf, ego, and insecurities there are enough places to do that, but this isn't one of them.
    1 point
  46. https://www.minelab.com/anz/go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/recovery-speed-target-masking Great write up Steve, thank you for your time and all the effort spent trying to help us learn the secrets of the Nox.
    1 point
  47. Good chance that is wood. Should be quite heavy and like Steve said, cut a chunk off. If then it is all solid black, you don't see the grain of wood, soak it in Clorox for a week or however long it takes. Sometimes soaking does nothing but usually it will work. Here is an example that was all black. There are small crystals also
    1 point
  48. It appears to be petrified wood. A lot of petrified wood in Alaska is jet black inside but weathers to a beautiful tan wood like appearance on the outside and it just looks like wood. This one has the right appearance but it is very hard to identify things via pictures on the internet. If you have access to a rock saw, slicing an end off might reveal the actual grain/rings in the wood, which is a dead giveaway. Rock layers tend to be flat, but petrified wood has rings just like in a cut log.
    1 point
  49. I was charged $32 to have the MXS shipped to me from my distributor that is just 258 miles from me. As a dealer selling a discounted machine there is not much profit in a mid range machine. The lower end machines are even worse. I always push the M6 and all flavors of the MXT's because they never had any issues and just worked. I thought the MXS was going to be the machine I would now push - but I cannot. I will wait to see what guts they put in the next MXS's frame. But for now I'm done with the MXS's.
    1 point
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