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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/14/2019 in all areas

  1. Nuggets from the Poseidon Rush. Left: "The Christmas Box" - 18 December 1906 Middle: "The Poseidon" - 18 December 1906 Right: "The Federal" - 12 December 1906 David Gordon Collection. Poseidon Nugget. This is the actual hole from which the monster nugget came to light in 1906. Looking west down the course of the lead. David Gordon Collection. The above images are from the excellent Tarnagulla.Org website. Well worth a visit. Found only a few small pieces here personally, but was following up on Jim Stewart, Reg Wilson and John Hider Smith. These guys didn't miss much!
    9 points
  2. The Poseidon Nugget’ was unearthed in the Parish of Waanyarra. The huge nugget weighed 953 oz gross and 703 oz net. Woodall and party found the nugget 10 inches underground, 2 inches above bedrock with much quartz. This find began the last of the big rushes to the area.[1906] On private land. This [Poseidon] was the last great alluvial rush in Victoria. 3000 were camped here in 1906 with store established catering for all the miners’ needs. One storekeeper was charged and fined for selling sly grog. The reef above and opposite the gully had been rushed in 1859, but this side neglected. It was nearly fifty years before John Porter testing the ground with a hand auger, found wash and sank a shaft onto nuggets. From its size, more large nuggets have come from this lead than any other in the world. 703 oz, 675 oz, thirteen others over 100 oz, nineteen from 50-99 oz, fifty two from 20-49 oz and two hundred and eight from 1-19 oz. ... the Premier awarded [James Porter] £500 for the discovery. He was the last man to receive a reward for the discovery of a new goldfield in Victoria.
    7 points
  3. Between work and projects I've managed to get out on a few hunts. I bought my buddy an equinox 800 since he has been kind enough to let me run all around his ranches as if I own them myself. He has showed some interest in detecting...he thinks he's going to find a 1 pound gold nugget . After spending some time showing him how it works...I'd mark a target and then have him go over it and then dig it...he started to get the hang of it. So on our second outing he goes and finds a 1855 seated quarter (like Deathrays) but not in nearly as good condition. He was stoked and I wish i had brought my camera with me so I could get a pic of him smiling and holding the coin. Been hitting some other locations near where I live. Old homesites and street tear outs. Day before yesterday was a quick but pleasant hunt. Dug the standing liberty and put it in my pocket so it would not get banged up in the pouch. I never look at items much in the field but wait till I get home. I was glad I put this coin in my pocket. I'm going to have to get it looked at just to make sure but I think it's the real deal. If anyone knows what the sun god thing was? kinda cool digging it and have that smiling back. HH to you all strick
    6 points
  4. Because of heat waves, vehicle trouble and well, almost a complete lack of motivation, I have done very little detecting this year. In the early days of the 5000 I got the bigger speci at Moliagul and it`s got about half a gram of gold in it. Since then I have gone over and over and over that area with the 5000, 2300 and 7000 for no result. Yesterday I was out there again and about 15 feet from the first specimen, I got the smaller one with the 7000. Very faint signal that just broke the threshold and about 6" deep. The bottom picture is the only bit of gold visible in it and is almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but the signal it`s giving off says there`s maybe a half a gram to a gram of gold in it. Once the better half has seen it I`m going to bust it open to see what`s inside but I think with this one I`m going to end up with a heap of small bits of quartz with a little bit of gold in them. Dave
    6 points
  5. Busting bedrock hasn't panned out that well, so I decided to heed Bill Southern's advice. I broke down the crust on the first pile, and started swinging the EQX 800. 15 minutes into it, and "bingo", nice little 3.2 grain nug, all rough and course like it hasn't traveled far? "This is going to be an EZ day" I'm pretty sure ran through my mind, since there were plenty of tailings' around? I guess the penny is somebody's idea of a "cruel joke"? At least it was shallow. Brett
    6 points
  6. We’ll see how cheeky you are when your chain breaks!,? Last time I let you watch me dig out a 3 ouncer!!
    5 points
  7. "need for removal of components and special tools required to revert back to original....." OK..... Im gonna catch it when I get back to OZ for this one....but i cant help myself.....? Special tools????-----------what? ---A Hex driver and a flat head screwdriver....... ? cmon mate... lololol----- Sorry it's my day off and I couldnt help myself!!!
    4 points
  8. Just locked in 5 days off from the 24th - 28th of May. Would be great to catch up with you somewhere in there Mitchel. I will not have any real set plans so will follow your trails during your first 2 weeks in Oz and firm something up a little closer to the time. Be great to catch up with Reg, JR, Geofjunk, Jin and others that might be around at that time ?
    3 points
  9. Clark thats good advice and I think I'll take it since I'm on a streak right now. Funny thing is I don't consider myself lucky. My mom on the other hand is always winning at bingo.... seems like every other week she's taking home over 1k in winnings lol. Me I don't gamble....even if theres a fifty/fifty chance I usually come out on the short end of the stick. I've always had the "hard work gets rewarded" type of attitude. When I told Lisa what the coin appeared to be she got a serious look on her face said I deserved it lol. Now if you believe all that I got an Island out in the middle of the desert I'll sell you. My Gold fox is supposed to be here tomorrow strick
    3 points
  10. The lesson here is this, hunt where gold has been found before, move rocks, rake the ground a little, they didn't get it all.....
    3 points
  11. Customs have been warned, what day are you flying in...……………….
    3 points
  12. We call that a fishing tool.
    3 points
  13. When I found my largest nugget I still remember my first thought: "Finally..." Don't give up Julie I can almost promise it will come out of nowhere. It will sound perhaps like another birdshot hit, or a piece of junk, but instead, there in your scoop, will be a beauty.
    3 points
  14. Be nice if they posted something on their home page on what is going on. They had so many loyal customers they just walked away from. Certainly not how I would do business.
    3 points
  15. From the perspective of just a guy just swinging his detector the effect of obsolescence and general market depreciation is a far greater threat to me than risking the warranty on a well engineered adaptation that increases my use and enjoyment. Warranties expire and nothing short of some miracle will get all your money back selling a used machine and if anything we may have missed the boat picking up a good deal on a used 2300 if these coils prove out as it looks, certainly got to be good for the folks that own one now.
    3 points
  16. Competition is a great motivator Steve, as a detector user that bodes well for my passion. ML have been alone in the desert doing their thing for a long time now yet they still continue to innovate and provide real improvements in their new products on a regular basis. BBS, MPS, FBS, DVT, FBSII, MPF, ZVT and Multi IQ with multiple model releases associated with a few of them. Maybe competition would be a good motivator to see more coil varieties? JP
    3 points
  17. Not exactly gold, but needless to say the Gold Monster went crazy! No problem picking it up at 18" deep. 28 lbs. Neal
    2 points
  18. Up in the foot hills there are some areas where the ground varies every 5 feet and the machine needed to be re manual ground balanced every 5 feet! so I gave up and switched to tracking and the machine ran better. Not perfect but better. In the ground down here in the bay area I do a manual ground balance as needed and the machine runs nice and smooth. When I get into a bunch of nails sometimes it's hard to find a clear spot to to a manual ground balance so I'll try the turn on and go method and just forget about ground balance.......sometimes ignorance is bliss as they say strick
    2 points
  19. Gerry- me thinks Wade needs a GPZ...but what do I know
    2 points
  20. Hahaha ... quit it... I'm already in trouble, ?
    2 points
  21. 2 points
  22. And that chain thing to wire your 8" back through the shaft
    2 points
  23. 100% agree that use of 50 tones is situational. It is what I use most of the time, but I have no problem just switching Park 1 on and going with 5 tones and the other settings defaults for a casual coin shoot on a ball field or going with Field 1 on a dry beach and trying to cherry pick deep high conductors in 2-tones. For the same reasons Mitchel points out above, the limitations of the site (manicured lawn - meaning more precise/selective digging) or time available at a site will determine your approach (e.g., grid it vs. cherry picking vs. canvassing it with more than one mode or detector).
    2 points
  24. I already have all the Tesoros I need, hopefully they will keep finding me jewelry as long as I can keep digging!!! I just happened to be looking for a certain coil and noticed that the Compadres seemed to be out of stock on the dealers websites that I usually deal with. I live in the US but am currently traveling in OZ, NZ and Japan for work. That’s why I wasn’t sure about Tesoros website not loading, sometimes US sites don’t load properly from foreign servers. But alas, it appears to be down and inventory appears to be quickly running out. Ive said it before but I am so glad that I learned detecting with a Tesoro. I can confidently take a Mojave or Compadre into a playground after watching someone hunt it with another machine and know there will still be targets that were too close to the posts for them to find with anything else. Just a shame that Tesoro never found a proper way to market their machines and educate the users.
    2 points
  25. Thanks fellas. Once i looked it up i just wrapped it in tissue did not even rinse off the dirt so i guess ill send it in to be cleaned and graded by pcgs. Never did this before so its all very interesting and fun. I hear if you join then you get something like 2-3 free evaluations....
    2 points
  26. It would be great if Coiltek or Nuggetfinder made a waterproof potted coil for us California Motherload prospectors. 5x10ish size for chasing bedrock cracks. A lot of guys use the sdc in the creeks here as they are an absolute gold getter.
    2 points
  27. Old post but in case anybody is reading it. Please check out the Stealth Scoops from Sunspot. i consider them to be the perfect beach scoop. I use the 720i with a Carbon Fiber handle.
    2 points
  28. Gerry, Np at all my friend. I appreciate your assistance on the effort. Yeah I try to be resourceful and just use the info you gave me and got hooked up with him. I will let you know for sure once it arrives and how I like it. Hopefully I can fit this into my case without having to break down the detector with this new Shaft. James
    2 points
  29. Well, we need to remember this is still a prototype, not a production unit. Personally, I have mixed feelings about knobs. I like them from an operational aspect. I dislike them because they collect grit and are an inevitable failure point - the more knobs, the more chance of one failing. There is something to be said for a seamless sealed pod from that perspective. I prefer something like Garrett did on the ATX myself, but that’s just me. I don’t see the point in the shaft attachment design unless there is a possibility of the cable running up the rod, which might be the case. Again, this is a pre-production prototype so we don’t know for sure on anything.
    2 points
  30. Yeah, if this ends up being over 2K I will probably take a pass and wait for more models to appear.
    2 points
  31. Hi, I just had to register and reply to this thread. I own a Fisher Gold Bug 2, a Gold Monster 1000 and now a Whites Goldmaster 24K. Ive also owned a Goldmaster Vsat, Goldmaster III and a GMT. Having used all of these, I have to say that the 24K isnt the most sensitive of the high frequency VLF's out there. Right now, the old Gold Bug 2 with the 6.5x3" is still king of the heap and the GM1000 is able to beat that under some circumstances. BUT, the 24K has the smoothest ground balance Ive ever used and rock-stable threshold. It finds deeper sub-gram gold than all of them using that 6.5" concentric coil. I had the opportunity to run side by side with a friend using a GM1000 and although he got 6 bits of gold to my 2, all but one of them was under .05, whereas my 2 weighed .4gm. I also found 22 bits of junk, versus his 4. All of this was from a patch that has been completely hammered over 3 decades. Last few times I used a GB2 there, I got nothing. Methinks the higher coil power and the matched concentric coil along with the XGB tracking make for a very powerful new machine for small gold. I am very keen to try the upcoming 6x3 shooter DD coil soon as the 10x5 seems pretty good on hotter ground here in Victoria. I'll keep you all posted with my finds. One thing I MUST say about the GM1000 in comparison though....some guys here are using them to great effect by ignoring the basic rule of reducing sensitivity to allow proper ground balance. They run them flat out at manual 10 sensitivity and then cannot even ground balance....but on quiet or mild ground, the digital audio of the Monster eliminates much of the noise and the tiniest gold can be 'plucked' from the pops, clicks and farts of the SAT adjustments and hot rock re-tunes.....but only by those people who have their 'ears tuned' to the sounds properly. Me personally, these noises are maddening and I rush back to the smoothness of the 24K and listen for the bigger, weightier targets. Stay tuned for results here folks!
    1 point
  32. I went out to my storage unit (we downsized last year - all the junk is in storage) and got out my crystal ball. After dusting it off and giving it a dose of Barkeepers Friend, I rubbed it vigorously. Misty figures appeared before my eyes - I saw someone seeking gold nuggets in Africa. He looked like he was using a Teknetics T2, but as I looked closer - it was something else - it was a PI detector....but what kind?. At that point the cat jumped off the couch and landed in my lap. the crystal ball is on its way back to the manufacturer for recalibration. Beach hunters are not a mass market, European relic hunters and “artisanal miners” are potential mass markets. Neither of these markets are currently served by a light, ergonomic PI detector offering the immunity from bad ground that GB PI’s offer. Whose detector will I see when I get my device back from Madam Sara’s CB (Crystal Ball) shop?
    1 point
  33. I am pretty interested in a nugget version of this AQ, initial tests show this AQ is near on par with depth of a gpx with a 15" coil. Due to the 7 usec timing it would make a killer small nugget machine once setup with AUTO GROUND BALANCING for the desert. I want something like this to keep tuned just for small nugget hunting, its so lightweight compared to a minelab big gold machine I could see owning one maybe if it pans out.
    1 point
  34. Thank you. So now it looks like the beginning and the end are a bit 'set.' I would be pleased to swing with you. Maybe I'll have a patch or two for you by then. haha
    1 point
  35. ah but there`s the thing Lunk. I have never been able to solve a rubix cube in my life. The only reason I own that rubrics cube is one day, on a completely unrelated search, I came across a site that claimed to be able to solve any rubics cube in 19 moves or less, and I bought the cube to see if it was true. It is ? http://rubiksolve.com/
    1 point
  36. Thanks Cal...im sure the buckel is off a halter...the rectangular thing is a small pad lock. It has writing on it but hard to discern...will tumble it. I have found a couple scale weights in the past. All the stuff in that picture includind the quarter were found close to where i live. Now if i can only figure out the sun god thing. Probably not very old as im finding lots of modern clad in this spot. Strick
    1 point
  37. nice looking set of specimens.
    1 point
  38. I can attest to that. Great design Steve!
    1 point
  39. I didn't see this linked anywhere else yet - if it has been then please delete this Steve. Anchor from the richest shipwreck in history, supposedly in around 300 ft. of water. I'd be tempted to take a few weeks off and do some technical diving if I was any closer. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/anchor-found-cornwall-fresh-clue-14080977
    1 point
  40. 1 point
  41. Wow!! Strick......amazing finds! Congrats!
    1 point
  42. I'm gonna quit going on-and-on about this find someday, but not today! Take a look at this recent auction result: https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices/item/1918-7-s-25c/5726/708416142091251220 Compare the stars on the shield and especially the date. A lot depends upon how your coin cleans up, but if well then yours blows away this one in terms of attractiveness. Your coin has such a strong date.
    1 point
  43. Smart man, and even more patient and disciplined. Lots of people rub the heck out of the coin in the field and then rationalize "I knew it wasn't going to be worth much...." This is an example where they would have been wrong, wrong, wrong, and very costly. You did well and you deserve whatever it turns out to be worth, whether you keep it, sell it, whatever. I'm still in awe that you found this coin. If someone told me s/he read a post on a website that someone found a 1918/17-S quarter in this condition while metal detecting I wouldn't have believed them.
    1 point
  44. Yeah, for me I`d want ML to concentrate their R & D on the detector advances first and foremost and let the after market fellows concentrate on coil advances, and why not, this has worked brilliantly to now.
    1 point
  45. Thanks for posting Rick. I am pretty much boycotting heavy detectors. In my opinion with proper engineering there is no reason today why a waterproof VLF should weigh over 3 lbs and my desired target for a waterproof PI in under 4 lbs. If the Manta were to come in at the higher range of 1.8 kg then we are looking at 3.97 lbs. El Paso, we have a winner!
    1 point
  46. Here’s a better pic of the control box and the coil - my pictures.
    1 point
  47. Sorry Sky for the slow response, had to take a family member to the hospital... the non-US shipments was new, but I knew that there were ways around that. It seems you got that worked out your own. Let me know how you like it... Best wishes, Gerry
    1 point
  48. Aureous, you will find that the 24k, fitted with the 6x4, will give the GBII, fitted with the 6.5x3, a run for its money in the ultra small nugget category. The 24k/6x4 combo will find 1/20 grain (and maybe smaller) pieces. Still, for me, the 6.5 concentric gives the best combination of depth, sensitivity, and maneuverability. And yes, it IS making "hammered for decades" patches productive again. We look forward to reading more about your auriferous exploits once the weather improves. HH Jim
    1 point
  49. a snorkel seriously LOL its a weed pipe or crack pipe cool looking though and it looks ike 2 people having sex not a octopus
    1 point
  50. Hello, everybody! My name is Bill Burke. I have been participating in a placer operation in the Melozitna district. With 5 members, sometimes it feels like the tail is wagging the dog. I'm still wet behind the ears, but seem to learn a thing or two each season. I want to learn about using a detector to evaluate overburden and tailings piles. It also seems to be a good idea to vacuum each cut with a suction dredge before turning it into the next settling pond. It's a good time of year to spend time on the internet. Bill
    1 point
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