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I went to the WSPA Outing in the Dale district over Thursday through Sunday...I managed to find this 2.5 grain nugglet. I did have to stay on fairly level ground. fred

Went back out sand fishing today. Ran Beach 2, Sens 22, Recovery 4 and hooked a BIG ONE! 23.6 Grams, 14K, ID a solid 24. Thought it was a quarter. Liking this new setting. Thanks to everyone.

Well well well, My Taskmaster in WA has sent me a little notice that explains why he knew every day that I wasn't working on the patch.... He has his own spy net!!!!! This picture shows my camper, quad ,and truck... the backhoe and dryblower should be in there too.... maybe even ME Wow, we tore up heck over there didnt we... see how small that was in relation tho--- Lots of gold left for this coming year!!!!!! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaawwww..

One bottle cap two boot tacks and a target I could never find. Sorry it’s as near as nothing you can get! Chuck

I've been a member of the Ringfinders for about 7 years. Get a call for lost "Bling" about once every month or so. I've never charged anyone a cent whether or not I find the lost item. I just tell them to "Pay it forward" if they get a chance. It's been a lot of fun, especially if you find the lost item which is about 50% of the time. Over the years I've had 4 calls from women who threw their rings out the window of moving cars after arguments with their Spouses. Was lucky to find one of them. Makes me wonder how many other rings are out there besides our roads thru out the U.S. Being a member of Ringfinders has also opened the doors to other metal detecting opportunities as some people will give you permission to further hunt their properties.

The rest of the trip was nice though clouds kept threatening to move in. They would clear out however and the sun would appear again. With time running out I got back to detecting with the GPZ 7000 plus a little bit here and there with the Equinox. All in all I was only averaging about eight nuggets a lazy day of detecting, getting about 1/4 ounce a day average. Hand stacked rocks and bedrock - nugget detecting heaven! I have mentioned I have never found a nugget weighing even a half ounce at Gold Hill, though they are mentioned in the old records, and I know of some found more recently by others. I really thought I had one this trip however. I was in a bedrock gut leading into a mined pit that was producing nuggets. I got a deep signal in a bedrock pocket right in the bottom of the little gully. Whatever it was was wedged down in deep and tight, and when I first laid hands on it I thought "Aha!" but it was not to be. I found the largest copper nugget I ever found though there is very little copper exposed on the surface. I will treat it with acid later and post a photo someday, but for now here is what it looked like fresh out of the ground. Large copper nugget - should have been gold! The last couple days of this great trip were dedicated to some serious camp cleanup and so this adventure finally came to a close. My detecting had exceeded expectations. I am certain I could have found more gold had I worked more single-mindedly at the task, but the fact is this trip was a near perfect balance of relaxation and finding gold. I finished up with just a hair over 3 ounces of nice chunky gold. Three ounces chunky gold found by Steve with GPZ 7000 The Equinox 800 had proven itself to be an excellent tiny gold sniper on this trip. It was the GPZ 7000 that made the day however, literally making it feel like cheating compared to what the other guys were able to do. Dudley and George both got gold but it was the GPZ that impressed us all. I have long known how powerful the machine is, but this is the first time I have run it on ground I know very well. It was amazing at how easy it was for me to do well just one more time at Chisana and Bonanza Creek. Dudley had been hoping to find a couple nice pendant nugget for his daughters but the dredge kept finding smaller gold. I gave Dudley what I considered to be the best pendant nugget I found at 5 grams and traded a second 3.5 gram nugget for some fine gold he got dredging. Pendant nuggets 5 grams and 3.5 grams Again, just a fabulous trip. Thank you George and Dudley for the invite and a great time. I have learned never to say never, so I don't know if I will ever return to Chisana and Gold Hill again or not. I am grateful I got this last trip in however as it ended my decades of visits to the hill on a somewhat brighter note than the last time. I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane and a rare look at places and times in Alaska that few will ever see or experience. I am very lucky to have been born where and when I was. I have seen Alaska transition from true frontier to modern civilization in my lifetime and this is just a small part of what I have experienced. There are many people in this tale who have not been mentioned at all out of respect for privacy issues. My thanks to all of them. Thanks again for riding along on this long thread! One last look at Gold Hill below.... Steve Herschbach 2018 Herschbach Enterprises Gold Hill at Chisana, Alaska

I'm starting to worry my season may be over. This snow just wont quite leave the ground. Last Sunday was going to be warm enough for a water hunt, then the thunder lightening started happening. oof. I normally would have hung the waders up by now, but water detecting has been the only prospect for some coil time. We could use El Niño this year for sure. Now what? Wait? Maybe get a calendar and start crossing the days off with a big red marker? Write poems about the melancholy despot clinging to my treasure with its cool minty grip?

Actually this is not about an economy model cost savings measure on ML's part but is sort of the way the detector design community is headed as they move heavier into digital signal processing. It is not even clear to me that the CTX 3030 flagship detector has true all metal mode (as opposed to simply a zero discrimination pattern). I do not own a CTX, just went through the manual in detail, so I am sure a CTX expert will set me straight. But I can tell you with certainty, the Deus @ $1500 does not have a true all metal mode (Gold Field mode being the closest approximation). Point is, this is not about saving cost. It is about the the detector designers favoring digital signal processing over transmitting the raw unfiltered signal. All metal mode is not something you will automatically find on many high end detectors. So the OP's statements like, "When I pay $650.00 for a machine I expect it to have that option on it -period. Their is no excuse why it does not" that imply the lack of a true all metal mode is an Equinox oversight or that all high end detectors have this feature, is not consistent with many high end detector designs of recent years (though true metal is still a feature on a number of recently released detectors). Though I do understand why you like it, Maltfoto, my point was there are ways you can use the Equinox zero disc mode to your advantage without losing a lot of capability vs. true all metal and, as I discuss below, the 800 would have been more suited to your feature preferences and detecting style. The move in the detector community away from including All Metal Mode or at least the marketeer's imprecise use of technical terms that have kind of blurred the line between Zero Disc mode and (true) All Metal Mode is addressed in Steve's excellent Detector Mixed Modes Guide. This will better illustrate whey you will not find all metal mode on all detectors, even high end detectors, and also how it can be mitigated through mixed modes or intelligent application of available features on detectors which do not incorporate the feature. Regarding Equinox. Gold Mode available only on the 800 is probably the closest thing to a mixed mode. It invokes most features of true all metal mode through its use of VCO pitch like audio and true audio threshold for target acquisition and target ID at depth using the discrimination circuit. Though still not precisely true all metal, this weak signal mode is also the mode that is the ideal mode to test small gold target performance versus the Fishers. Again, it seems for the type of detecting Maltfoto prefers, the 800 would have been the better choice. Regardless, I think the 600 is a great complimentary detector that, despite its shortcomings, does still have advantages over the Fishers in some, if not most, scenarios. So hanging on to it and learning more about how to get more out of it with experience would be a great move by Maltfoto, if getting an 800 is out of the question. Thanks again to Maltfoto for kicking off a great discussion.

WTG Fred. That one cleaned up pretty good. It was a good time sharing a few stories from the past and hearing Jim McCulloch's stories for the first time. What a treat that was. I was out there watching. I didn't see much 'wobble!' The second morning I was there you were way off half a mile up this hill so you're getting your legs back. You were just maintaining that nice pace. The nuggets can feel Fred chasing them again. Mitchel

4" x 18" DD coil for my V3 would be very nice. Doesn't have to be figure 8. Just a normal DD would be fine. Doesn't even have to work at all three frequencies. Even if it only worked on 7.5 would be ok with me. HH Mike

Got a little variety just not a whole lot of anything. Still using pk1, 5 tones, recovery 7, iron bias 3. I did switch over to field 2 when I dug the bullets but I have it set up the same as pk1.

Thanks Tim. It's a little rough but had good details. I'm still going to old schools and churches for the most part. The bullets were about a half mile from an old fort. There were some finds that did come from some old foundations we hunted.

The decision makers at Whites really finally need to jump into the 21st century and give us a machine that can be updated, waterproof as a matter of course, wireless headphones as a matter of course, create wireless coils with a wired option (like others do with headphones, because wired is still the only solution in and under water, but with wireless coils you can upgrade hardware via coil change with coils that are tuned to their specific applications), create an app so that people can choose to use either a remote or phone to control their coil. Create a V4 or V5 that addresses the V3i shortcomings. It's still my favorite machine, but it needs improving to stay competitive. Keep the spectrograph, Polar Plot, etc., but also add an imaging program like Target Trace. Integrating with cell phone applications would be awesome. Open a metal detecting app market for developers. This worked wonders for cell phones. Look at all that's available now as people were given a platform to display their coding talents. This could work for metal detectors with optional cell phone control. Create a pinpointer that communicates with the host machines and adapts their disc settings. Add a small LCD to pinpointer. Do these things, or others will, or already are working on it.

In case somebody has missed it: Now that's impressive.. great work, thank you!

Bedrock Tips:How many of you have had the chance to work virgin bedrock? By virgin, I mean that the bedrock has been exposed by modern mining. In other words, the bedrock has not seen the light of day since the gold was originally deposited on it or in it eons ago. Moreover, a chance like this is a rather rare opportunity because it requires prior connections with the miners in order to have access to this bedrock. After all, it's very expensive to remove the stubborn overburden to expose the mother rock. Furthermore, some miners are very sensitive about allowing anyone access to their virgin bedrock for any reason at all, if ever. It's a bit of a loaded request, even if you already have a personal relationship with the miners. So, if there's no prior relationship, the chances are slim to none for access, and even if you do have a relationship, the answer could still be no. You have to be ready for any eventuality.However, if and when you do get the opportunity to work such bedrock, there's a few things that will help your chances in finding any residual gold left behind from the mining activity.First and foremost, ask questions. Find out where the heaviest run of gold was in the pit. For example, find out it the deposit was heavier in a dip in the bedrock, on the start of a rise, on a shelf, at the bottom of a long drop, etc., and find out if there were certain colors in the dirt that indicated better pay: oranges, reds, grays, purples, blacks, etc. With the answers to a few questions like these, you can improve your odds of checking the most-likely places in a large excavation. For instance, you'll find areas that were barren by asking like questions (areas of loose wash, etc.), and you'll locate areas that were hot spots by doing the same.When it comes to detecting, you'll need to pay careful attention to the answers to your questions plus you'll need to pay close attention to what the detector is telling you about the temperature of the rock you're hunting. For example, if race into the pit and start swinging like a madman to cover as much ground as possible in the shortest time, you'll be doing a disservice to yourself. Why? Virgin bedrock demands respect, and it demands a slow approach while listening to the ground minerals and scrubbing the surface to obtain every cm of advantage while listening carefully to the tiniest alterations in the threshold. As well, by paying close attention to the mineralization, you will learn which coils will be most beneficial, including which size of coil to utilize. (A variety of sizes may be necessary to do a proper job, and in extreme ground, the wrong coil type will be an extreme waste of time.)As to the bedrock itself, you may wish to employ a tiny detector like the Falcon to find streaks and runs of fine gold that will elude your bigger detector's coils. It's surprising how much fine gold can be left on bedrock or caught in cracks. I had my eyes opened wide several summers ago to just how much gold gets left behind and just how much fun it is to use a tiny detector to chase pockets of fine gold!As for non-electronic sniping, it's very important to study the rock carefully. Often when working virgin bedrock, clay is a common occurrence. And, that clay is a great hider and or robber of gold. Moreover, look at what's riding within the clay. Are there little stones of various sorts? Is it just slick clay (no inclusions)?As well, be meticulous about examining the surface of the bedrock. Sometimes what looks like perfectly level bedrock with a solid surface may have cracks and crevices perfectly camouflaged by the minerals that are running within the clay, minerals that match perfectly in color the host bedrock. Use a variety of tools to scrape and scratch at the surface. I've been stunned while sniping non-electronically more than once by uncovering small cracks and crevices in this manner, ones that held a surprising amount of good gold.As well, if the bedrock is dry, get a good sledge hammer and hit the bedrock to see if any puffs of dust arise like little fountains of fine particles. This signals a crack or crevice. One of the wonders of bedrock is that a crack or crevice may be snapped shut tightly, but widen below its mouth significantly. I remember the first time I found one of these: it had a pocket of small nuggets in it, and the nuggets were far too big to have found their way into the crevice opening. There are lots of theories as to how this happens, but the important thing to remember is that it does happen. I've also found larger nuggets this way as well when sniping without electronic backup. What tools help with this process? For inexpensive alternatives, a blade screwdriver bent at a 90 degree angle; a wire brush; a stiff bristle brush; an awl; a pocket knife; a small metal gardening shovel; a variety of household spoons (teaspoon size to tablespoon--be sure to have sturdy ones that won't bend easily); a small sledge and a couple of cold chisels for widening cracks and crevices; if water is present, a suction gun of some kind; etc. With virgin bedrock, you will have the chance of a lifetime to find gold in a place that no one else has ever looked, so take the time to do a thorough job, and the reward can be great. On a connected note, I've come behind others that have worked such places in a hurry and found some beautiful nuggets (larger than anything they found) because they tore across the bedrock in a mad rush to cover the entire area. The sad truth is that if they'd have slowed down and paid that virgin bedrock the respect it deserved, they would have found the bigger gold instead of me. All the best,Lanny

Great seeing the final chapter and all the photos from Gold Hill. I read of the early adventures many years ago at AMDS. I first visited that country in Sept of 71 hunting the hills across Jack Creek from the Nabesna road with my dad and uncle. The Nabesna river sand bars closest to the road used to be a landing strip from the building of the AK HWY era and littered with hundreds of 55 gal drums. Beautiful country.

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I hope you find one. They do recover really fine gold. I like to use the le trap pan for final clean up. The front area where it is scored works great to get all of the black sand out. The first pic is from a couple days. The second pic is from what was in the sluice from the pic I posted earlier.

Hey Mike, best bet is to call the factory and ask to talk to a repair tech - 541-367-6121. For reference here is a YouTube video that goes through the menu system -

I can but echo sentiments expressed.. Thanks for the ride-along..! Swamp

Lunk said: Tis the season for nuggetshooting Well, I think we need some lyrics for the Twelve Days Of Nugget Shooting so ...

Please, JW, let us not speak of dribbles!! Thanks everyone, I love the hunt and I am very happy to get out there...wobble or not. fred

Serious Detecting sells their brand of a nice large padded carrying bag for a reasonable price.

I don't know how to overcome this issue, but White's might. I wonder if there is a (hidden) factory reset sequence. (If you leave the battery out long enough would that effectively be a reset?) You were going to need to call them to get a return authorization anyway. Maybe talking to a tech or engineer first would save all concerned a lot of effort/expense.

Cipher, I agree 100% with your comment on using the Detech 13 Ultimate on the V3i. Using that coil and running the Deep Silver program and sweeping slow, can sniiff out deep silver extremely well. Just gotta listen for that high tone peep !

I use a le trap in my 6" as well. This is a technique that I learned from Brian on the Akmining forum. After all the carpet and removable rifles are out of the sluice I place it up against the flair where the water flows right into the sluice. The le trap that I am using is at least 20 years old. It was made in Canada, later they were made in the states. I don't know where you can find the now. Here is a photo of a small clean up.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss First Texas with Carl and Dave Johnson et. al. On board. Carl did help bring the V3i, a 3 frequency machine, to market, and while I do not find it to be as stable across multiple environments as my Equinox, it is still my go to for most inland hunting. There are tasks the V3i is better at too. It is the best discriminator I've ever used in mild to moderate soil because of its tools and it's 3 frequencies. I find it's VDI to be unusually accurate. Of course I've dedicated a lot of time to that machine, but it's been worth it. And that 13" ultimate Detech brings the V3i to life in a way that no stock coils do, remarkably so. Dave did bring the CZs to market, which have stood the test of time. The F75 is a single frequency machine that operates like a multi in many ways. Still one of the very best machines out there. Additionally, It is not common knowledge that Whites would be a lot further in the game if they hadn't stifled their engineers to a point where they felt the need to exit and/or go elsewhere. I have no doubt that the day is coming when First Texas is sitting in the catbird seat because of people like Carl. The things they were working on over there at Whites when everyone left, the world may never see from Whites now. The company gave away more than many companies accomplish. I agree with Carl in some respects and I agree with Steve in some. Though it is the performance that makes the machine, and I'm a happy Equinox owner, I don't care for the marketing tactics. They are disingenuous, as are many others,' and many units are sold based on marketing alone. I have spent a lot of time on social media and various forums to see people say they picked a particular machine solely on the basis of the number of frequencies it claims to run. In fact, this even affects Minelab purchase decisions as many people who own FBS products will not buy an Equinox saying things like "there's no way a 5 frequency machine can do better than a 28 frequency machine." If they understood the technical truth of the matter sooner they'd find that neither of them are either of that, and that the Equinox does actually have strengths that the even the CTX lacks. So my position would be that, yes most, if not all marketing departments use hyperbole, mislead, etc., it is important for there to be a rebuttal of those tactics by competitors when it comes to specific claims or implied claims that are being used for purchase decisions. A little bit of knowledge is dangerous and that's what the vast majority of us have. Enough to be mislead, until we arrive at a point Steve has, where you say there's more to this than meets the eye without a full time career in it. I'll just stick to informed purchase decisions and what works. Learning not only are some machines not running as many as we've been misled to believe, but that it's also not a frequency numbers game to begin with is part of an informed purchase decision. Don't look at the numbers, but how people are saying it works. I do however think that going forward it's important for consumers understand that. If something better than the Equinox comes along running less than 5 frequencies or less than 28 in the case of marketing of FBS, many people will be cheating themselves going by specs that aren't easily understood until the real world checks in. Often unless there's a revolutionary difference it never does for some people until they read a thread like this and begin to question what they thought they knew. I've done a lot of research not only on metal detector technology, but the history behind companies and engineers. I've always found Carl himself to want to be accurate, honest and helpful. I don't think he's motivated solely by self promotion or promotion of FTP.

Enjoy! ? Ig

Simply amazing . . . What an incredible series of adventures you've had Steve, and I love the pictures you've added which only contribute to the richness of your stories. There are a lot of little tips sprinkled throughout, ones that are worth noting for later recall. I loved what you wrote, and you have a nice, relaxed writing style that is very comfortable to read. My hat is off to you for the excellent job you've done while reliving your memories. Thanks again, and all the best, Lanny P.S. I'll have to come back later to add likes as I'm out of "likes" again for the day. (That just lets me know how much good suff there is on this site to like!)

In the forums/social media shakeup, those that stay in the forum game will reap the rewards. Forums that stay focused on organizing information, and filtering trolls without becoming draconian about their rules will survive and grow. This is one of those. Forums like Findmall, TreasureNet, etc will die out with the old timers due to their own silliness, draconian style, and focus on the bottom line rather than the hobby itself. I like the combo myself. I like coming here for serious business (research, fruitful, engaging,conversation) and organization, and I like the freedom of social media. The endless scrolling of social media is the reason good forums will continue to exist in the short term, until social media learns to provide methods to organize. Serious troll free engagement is the reason some will always survive.

Welcome !!!! A lot good choices out there, and a lot of info for those choices, hope you like reading !!!!!! Happy Hunting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard Dan from Southern Calif.

Gold retrieved from friable bedrock by detecting. (When I'm in a patch, I power-detect: find a signal, scoop it, throw it in a plastic pan, keep detecting and collecting targets to maximize efficiency of time. I pan the "concentrates" when I need a rest or have finished working an area [darkness often interferes as bears are a real issue where I detect, as are cougars, so not a big fan of night detecting], and it sure is fun to see what all the targets were at the end of the day. All gold placed on the bottom of a full-sized gold pan. This is chunky gold.) All the best, Lanny

In the above picture, the bedrock is a black slate, with some of it being very hot to detect, but the beauty of working this bedrock that was hand-mined in the 1800's is that the bedrock is friable (no, not in a pan on high heat) meaning the bedrock is arranged in perpendicular sheets. You will see a reddish-orange colour centre-left of the photograph, and that piece of protruding bedrock is rounded from stream weathering many, many eons ago before it was buried to be preserved as an ancient channel. Slightly above it and to the left, you should be able to pick out plates (sheets, etc.) of bedrock leaning to the left. If you have any experience with this type of bedrock, there are spaces between each individual plate or sheet, and this is where the gold was trapped. The interesting thing is that sometimes the gold is down deep, and other times there's a heavy concentration on the surface and within the first three of four inches of the bedrock (depending on whether the plates continued deeper or were only arranged in a pattern over more solid underlying bedrock) with nothing farther down.However, once I started to use Minelab PI's, I had an advantage over other VLF users that had detected and hammered the bedrock before me as my PI's could see much deeper into any deeper or larger gaps, and I was able to retrieve many sassy nuggets that hadn't seen the light of day since the dinosaurs stomped across the ancient stream placers. Nevertheless, if you've never chased nuggets in such rock, it's a challenge as every time a sheet is pried open to get to the gold, it drops, then when you try to get to it again, it drops again . . . . Quite the exercise in patience by the time the nugget is finally corralled.All the best,Lanny

Night hunter, also look at the geology of the club claims. Figure out why they picked those claims. Walk around them. Then find areas with similar types of geology and walk some around those. Study the trash. Are there square nails, maybe boot tacks, wire ..? That is great. Stay in the area. Or are you hunting on the side of the hill where people are shooting at? I stay away from those areas unless I know there is good gold there. Also buy a .25g nugget if needed and bury it in a vial at one of those claims and gain confidence in your settings. And lastly, start out in washes with less than 2' of overburden, if you can. Otherwise you will be digging some deep trash and that really wears on your mind quickly. Research, research, research .... hike, hike, hike... and lastly ... BE THE GOLD :p

Thanks guys! I enjoyed learning new things from you guys as well as reinforcing things I learned on my own. I hope we can meet up and hunt together again in the future. I'm itching to get the Zed out more and the snow is here for me now. Winters for me are research research research (with hopefully a week to AZ ) BTW pulled a grammer out of the gulch with the SDC before the snow hit. My hands are still cold digging in that water

So close to the ounce mark..almost Hopefully a multi ouncer next!!

Nice summer's play-day for you, Peg.. ? Guess you'll be rolling in soon down this-a-way.. Fortunately you missed the red tide issue we had 2nd half of Oct.. Caught a ride over on the gulf stream from the still-going-strong mess in SW FL.. Lucky for here there was rapid dissipation following a moderate fish kill; ocean locally back to normal bacteria count since early-mid Nov -- meaning it's safe once again to breath the air and get wet beachside.. Can't remember if you have the addy for area surf cams, so here it is: https://www.surfguru.com/ I live far enough from the shore these days I check 'em before heading over; you may not need to do so.. Swamp

Nice nugget! Sounds pretty happy. All the best, Lanny

Thanks for the kind words Gerry, and thank YOU for getting me started in this great hobby of ours! Yeah, come on down to FL....treasure or jewelry, I know you’ll find it!?

We are all rooting for you Carl. The problem will be that you have your own marketing people, and they also like to obscure facts. The T2+ and F75+ were not exactly examples of clarity in marketing, and honestly left a bad taste in my mouth. Minelab sure is not a box full of saints, but there is enough nonsense to go around from what I see. We have Nokta /Makro selling a selectable frequency machine as multifrequency, ignoring industry convention. How many people bought an F75+ thinking it really was an improvement on the F75? How many people are buying a Multi Kruzer thinking they are getting a multifrequency detector? Minelab is not an isolated party when it comes to making marketing claims that obscure the facts. If I were you I would not worry. There are plenty of pragmatists like me who will gravitate to whatever works, regardless of who makes it, to win the day. Lots of people really are rooting for First Texas and waiting for whatever you are working on. It just can't be the F75++

Not just multi frequency (either simultaneous or sequential) but new methods of analysis of the returned signal by sampling multiple signals or time slices of signals. The remaining problems to be solved in our hobby are reliable iron ID at depth especially in mineralized soil (or more correctly correct ID of non ferrous) and iron “see through” to detect the presence of non ferrous adjacent to or below ferrous targets. Current multifrequency systems help with the first problem, but do little or nothing with the second. I believe that this is significant in an era where the sites we have access to have been gone through with lots of different machines. Traditional one frequency at a time frequency domain detectors offer literally nothing new. They work just fine - and do what they have always done - nothing more.

And all I gotta do is act naturally

Thank you everyone. I guess I am in same boat as you JR - just trying to share and document little bits of history. I appreciate the old archive stuff you have been posting also. Lots of great photos and old video out there that are wasted if never shared. Yeah JW, lots of similarity between some parts of Alaska and New Zealand. Thanks for all the stories and great photos you also share with everyone.

At this point I was feeling a little funny. I am the sort of person that wants everyone to find gold. If I start getting too far ahead I get this weird guilty feeling, like I am cheating or something. When this happens I tend to back off a bit and maybe lend a helping hand to somebody else. In this case just like on my last trip Dudley was finding that the gold dredging was not a get rich scheme. I thought he was actually doing pretty good as he was getting close to a quarter ounce a day with the 4" dredge. He would not be satisfied with that however and would move to a new location looking for something better. It did not get better, more of the same, but then time lost moving around. I decided to be his assistant for a couple days and help set up a second dredge at a new location while he worked the main site. Then he could sample the new site to see if it was any better while I looked for yet another spot and moved gear there. 2.5" dredge sample location And another sample location Dudley working test dredge at second sample site Try as I might I could not find anything better than what Dudley was already working. And truth be told after a couple days I was quite happy to get away from the water and get back to metal detecting. Dudley kept plugging away but as I slowly pulled ahead of him in gold production he was starting to see that maybe metal detecting is not so boring after all! Dudley working along rock wall with 4" dredge The gold being found gold dredging To be continued....

George was having a good time taking it easy sniping bedrock for smaller gold with the Gold Bug 2 and SDC 2300. Here is one of his work sites. Working bedrock with Fisher Gold Bug 2 George did not get any big nuggets this trip. George does have a knack for finding some real beauties however. The last trip to the mine George had found as nice a nugget as I have ever seen come out of the Gold Hill area. At 8.59 pennyweight (20 pennyweight per Troy ounce) it is just a hair larger than the largest nugget I have found in the area. It is not the size that makes it impressive since a few multi-ounce nuggets have been found at Chisana. What makes George's nugget exceptional in my opinion is the character - nice, fat, and solid gold. 8.59 pennyweight gold nugget found by George on previous trip I got back to metal detecting and had another good day. Here is a shot of some of that leafy ground cover I mentioned earlier. The GPZ 7000 was doing great at running over this stuff and getting the gold below. Minelab GPZ 7000 and thin brush hiding gold nuggets Ten more nuggets for Steve - 8.8 grams To be continued....

I knew the ground had seen a lot of detecting, and so I was not sure how the GPZ 7000 would work out. I was sure lots of tiny gold bits remained however, and I knew the new 6" coil for the Minelab Equinox 800 was super hot on tiny gold. I therefore initially was going to use this detector a lot during the trip. I figured it was a perfect opportunity to show off the new 6" coil and what it can do by finding a large pile of tiny gold. In particular it gave me an opportunity to fine tune my Gold Mode settings for the Equinox 800 that I wrote up into an article later on. Minelab Equinox 800 on patch of decomposed bedrock Tiny gold nugget in scoop found with Equinox The photos above are great because it shows detail of the little patch of sand the Equinox is sitting on..... Minelab Equinox sitting on "patch of sand" It would be easy to walk right by a little patch of sand like this in the middle of a flat stream bottom. However, you are looking at exposed bedrock. The volcanic basalt rock here decomposes on the surface into coarse sand. The clue is the particles are sharp edged, not rounded. As you dig deeper the material turns to rounded pebbles in sand, and then crumbly rock, and eventually solid rock. See the GPZ photo in the last post for another look. The gold however starts right at the sand layer, which is where the original solid rock surface was when the gold was deposited. The rock then weathered over millenia with gold both at the sand layer and also deeper down where it had settled into the more solid material. Spotting a location like this can make all the difference - I found a half dozen tiny gold nuggets here on my arrival and added a few more later. Half gram of Minelab Equinox gold nuggets The problem with this is the tiny bits do not add up as fast as the larger nuggets. After my initial success with the GPZ 7000 I suddenly lost interest in using the Equinox as much, though I regret now that I did not make more use of it than I did. The weather on our arrival had a few days of colder weather with freezing temps overnight, but then cleared up into the sunny interior weather I have often experienced at the mine. A day of rain slowed things up a bit but I got another 4.5 grams in seven nuggets. The next cool day it was five more nuggets at 4.1 grams. The following day saw the weather lift and warmer temperatures prevailing. What I was finding with the GPZ is that we had done an excellent job over the years depleting the shallower gold. There were however lots of gram type nuggets just a little out of reach of the VLF and older PI detectors that the GPZ 7000 with my Insane Settings were lighting up at depth. In general though there was no one hot spot - it was just scattered gold everywhere I went. There would be a little deeper pocket of crevice in the bedrock, and out would pop a nice nugget with a decent signal.Then a half hour might go by, with another nugget found. Nugget excavated from pocket in bedrock We settled into a pattern of lazy mornings around camp. I would generally wander down the creek with George for a half day of detecting. Then back to camp for early supper. Then back out in the long evening for a little more exploring or prospecting. That being the case I was more of less working half days with the GPZ 7000, but I was finding 6 - 10 nuggets a day often getting 1/4 oz in a day. That first bright, sunny day I found nothing all morning, but then hit a better area in the later part of the day and got eight nuggets for 6.9 grams of gold. 6.9 grams found with GPZ 7000 I was feeling quite confident with the GPZ 7000 now. I was cherry picking, as the solid nuggets made nice, sweet clean tones. The hot rocks tended to warble. In material over a foot deep I did switch the General/Difficult to shut up the larger hot rocks that might be found at depth and was still getting good performance on the larger gold nuggets. By and large I tried to stay with my hot settings however. They really did allow me to run the coil over a few inches of compacted brush to punch through and find nuggets in the bedrock below. It was great fun, with the hardest work being the digging/hacking of the nuggets out of bedrock crevices. I purposefully went after a area of large broken bedrock and brush that had foiled me before but where I swore gold had to be lurking. I almost immediately banged out a 5.9 gram nugget, my largest of the trip. 5.9 gram gold nugget found with GPZ 7000 I honestly had no expectations at all for this trip, and had set no goals with the idea of just taking it easy a day at a time. Yet here I was early in the trip kind of surprised at how well things were going. I was motivated to hunt later than normal that day, and ended up with almost a half ounce of gold in eleven nuggets at 15.2 grams total. My total for the trip was at 1.21 ounces, and I already felt pretty happy with the gold. This in turn takes a little performance pressure off, making things even more enjoyable! GPZ 7000 working hillside area To be continued....

This last winter I had the opportunity to visit with my business partner of many years. In the course of the visit he mentioned that he had not been up to Chisana in several years and was planning a visit over the summer. He wanted to know if I was interested in visiting again. Now, it can be seen above that the last few times I visited the mine I concentrated on gold dredging and validity exam work. I had not visited the mine since 2012 and in the meantime new technology landed on my doorstep - the Minelab GPZ 7000. I figured that alone made a return visit worth a go but I was mainly just pleased to be able to see one of my favorite places in Alaska one more time. This time I was more cognizant of the fact I might not see the place again, and so I went to extra effort to take more photos than usual this trip. So here we go with this last deluxe entry in this long tale! We wanted to spend a decent amount of time at the mine. The plan was for three of us to go in - mine partners Dudley and George plus me as a guest - and spend almost three weeks on the hill. Normally I love the drive to Alaska, but I usually take four days each way. I had a busy year planned already and I was really not wanting to lose over a week just to driving my truck. It was decided Dudley and George would fly in to the mine first. I flew up from Reno to Anchorage and hung out with my family waiting for a satellite phone call from the mine. They would check everything out and let me know what last second supplies might be needed. That is exactly what happened. I got a call from Dudley with a shopping list. I spent half a day rounding up the odds and ends and after one more night at my sister's place, headed out bright and early for Nabesna in a borrowed vehicle. My goal was to get to Devil's Mountain Lodge before 10am to meet the boys leaving the mine. One group of owners and guests was already up at the mine before us, and we were basically switching places with them. They were flying out, and I would be flying in the same day. It is best to fly as early as possible to take advantage of cooler and calmer air in the morning. The drive to Devil's Mountain Lodge is about 300 miles or around six hours drive. The last part is halfway maintained dirt road from the highway to the lodge which is subject to numerous washouts during rainy periods. It is a nice drive through the upper Matanuska River Valley with great scenery along the way. The Matanuska Glacier, Chugach Mountains, Sheep Mountain, and Wrangell Mountains all afford some excellent photo opportunities. View of Chugach Mountains from upper Matanuska Valley; Long Lake on right Chugach Mountains and Matanuska River Matanuska Glacier Sheep Mountain copper and gypsum deposits 12,000 foot stratovolcano Mt. Drum in the Wrangell Mountains Craggy mountain along Nabesna Road I got to Devil's Mountain Lodge under sunny skies just after the last guys arrived coming out from the mine. They had a successful trip and were quite pumped up about it. Since these guys were the only ones into the mine the last few summers I asked them that all important question "has anyone run a GPZ up on the hill?" The answer to my relief was no. Time was wasting and with that I loaded up my gear into the fabulous Hulk for my flight into the mine. The "Hulk" at Devil's Mountain Lodge airstrip To be continued....

My super dredge location reached with great effort was proving to be not much better than the previous site. The gold was almost all reconcentrated tailing material and so there were no large nuggets. I worked a few days, and after initially trying to go deep found I did better working the shallower material. Even then the compacted material and larger rocks made it slow going. I got a couple days with 11 pennyweight each, but not the ounce a day stuff I had been hoping for. A cleanup - about 1/4 ounce of gold I pulled the dredge right up into the boulder pile at the base of the pool below the notch hoping for larger gold. Dredge located right below notch This location proved to be no better. I resolved to hike the dredge back up the creek to a shallow bedrock location I eyeballed hiking down the creek each day. New dredge location Bedrock exposed in bottom of hole The weather turned cold and rainy, and my new dredge location was just "ok" with a long cold day recovering 6.4 pennyweight (20 pennyweight per Troy ounce). Between the cold weather, long hike to work site, and only ok gold, I decided to pack it in as far as dredging and get in a couple days detecting before we ran out of time. I found about one-quarter ounce of small nuggets detecting with three at about a gram. Large nuggets were eluding me this trip, with the largest at about 1.5 pennyweight found while dredging. My life was going through massive changes at this time. My partner and I were selling our business to the employees and retiring after 35 years. My business partner pulled out first and moved to Florida. I hung around a couple years to help transition the business, but was now in the process of moving to Nevada myself. While this was a good trip with pretty good gold found it was below my expectations. That combined with everything else going on in my life made me decide to sell out my share of the claims after this trip. Here is my gold for this trip... 0.6 ounces Steve found metal detecting And another 3.25 ounces found gold dredging All in all it was an interesting trip, maybe a little less fun and a little more work than some others. Definitely colder than most! As we packed up and headed out I thought that this would be my last visit to Gold Hill as I began my new life in Nevada and places far from Alaska and Chisana. Never say never though because it turned out later I would have another chance at visiting Gold Hill and Bonanza Creek. To be continued....

Hey gang, I saw this Gladiator wake board bag at Overton's and thought, "That looks like it may be a great metal detector bag." Typically I find that bags made for other sports seem to be much better padded and better made than bags made for metal detecting. So I ordered one. This bag kicks butt. I really like the fact that it has a lot of padding. It is really wide. It has a big zipper mesh see-through pocket for accessories. And a little zippered pocket for bits and bobbs. And it's only like $39.99. I tried to find out who manufactures these but I wonder if this is Overton's own private brand because I couldn't find anyone else that carries them. They were on Amazon, now they say they are no longer available. I don't know if that means they are closing them out or what. https://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Gladiator-Padded-Wakeboard-Bag&i=320417&CAWELAID=120030620000073070&s_kwcid=adwords__&gclid=CjwKCAjwkrrbBRB9EiwAhlN8_ANDn26En6JkGu7SOuRtBNkNY64eVkifk97X0etDJT7TZoitbkVVDBoC2QsQAvD_BwE Doc