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Sourdough Scott and I have been detecting hillside that has never been mined before and doing quite well with finding gold. It confounded us both as to why this location was left untouched by the early miners. When I discovered the answer it sent chills down my spine. I hate it when I start finding a lot of gold in a small area because that means I have to dig all the trash even when I know it's a tin can, shovel head, copper still, or a locomotive and I am basically a very lazy prospector. To make matters worse this spot must have been where the 1927 world champion squirrel hunting competition took place as there is an extraordinary quantity of lead and brass. There are also bits of steel cable, nuts and bolts, Caterpillar parts and hobnails from numerous logging operations which occurred there through the years. One bit of trash that caught my attention was a pristine 50 caliber musket ball as they sound exactly like a large gold nugget. I put it in my pocket and continued on. Then, not far away, I found the remains of an ancient musket. I knew this had the makings of a Detector Prospector story so I took the ball and musket home for some forensic research. Here are the horrifying results of my research findings. Upon microscopic examination of the musket ball I discovered a minute speck of fossilized blood. By using the DNA identification app on my smarty pants phone I discovered it was blood from the much feared Plumas Mammoth Grizzly! I then began analysis of the musket. By getting my 51 caliber finger stuck in the 50 caliber barrel I was able to conclude beyond any doubt that the musket was the very one that fired the bloody ball. I then closely examined the musket exterior and made three shocking discoveries! One was a patch of dried blood that proved to be from a human male of about forty years of age, dating from 1852. The next was another bloodstain that matched that which was found on the musket ball, identified as being from a Plumas Mammoth Grizzly. The third discovery (and this is where it gets scary) were bite marks which by careful measurement proved to be that of a grizzly over 11 feet tall and weighing nearly a ton! The only logical conclusion from my research is that the doomed prospector discovered the same rich deposit that Sourdough Scott and I found, became distracted with finding gold and not paying attention to his surroundings, mortally wounding the grizzly when he was attacked by surprise but was disassembled by the grizzly before it succumbed from it's wound. That is why this rich strike has remained unworked for 169 years.

Found this article from 2018, I missed it at the time so others may have too, pretty interesting, Looks an easy find for a metal detector but I'd imagine most would dismiss it as junk and move on without digging. Workers found large number of ancient coins at a construction site in Baishui county of Weinan, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, on Nov 9, and archaeologists said most coins belong to Song Dynasty (960-1279). Zhao Zhangfeng, director of Baishui cultural relics office, said that police received the report of the discovery around 11 am on Nov 9, and police soon arrived at the site and cordoned it off. Archaeologists later arrived at the site and collected about 100,000 coins, weighing 460 kilograms. A few coins date back to Tang Dynasty (618-907), and most are of Song Dynasty. Zhao said that few people could have so many coins at that time, and initial analysis showed that the coins belong to the old-style Chinese private bank that buried the coins during wars. Continue reading here: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201811/13/WS5bea3daca310eff30328853b_1.html

Yes I posted this video last Fall and have not watched in many months. Not sure why, as this is what dreams are made of. Every one of us thinks about the day this will happen and I just so luckily was there to catch it. Even though it's not my own find, don't you think I too was a little excited. Someone is going to post a video this year of a monster found with a GPX-6000, it's just a matter of time. This particular piece would have been heard with a GPX-6000 and or any other big Minelab PI, so part of it was just getting your coil over. Realize you better be in shape as well since there was some serious hard digging going on. Man it just excites me to watch it...enjoy.

Hey Goldseeker5000 and all, Thanks for all the continued comments. This method, whatever you want to call it, can be used in many locations like you mentioned. At one point in my metal detecting for gold phase, I concentrated in mine dumps. The same method is used, but mostly just raking as that tailings are normally on a slope and gravity can be a real help. Using this method on mine dump can be rewarding, but you have to understand how they dumped the material and what is where. Majority of all mine dumps is waste rock, wall rock/country rock and low grade ore. Normally the best, high grade ore would be placed into high grade piles, not tossed into the dumps. However, when they would hand steel or blast and muck the ore into carts or whatever they used to moved the material at that site, high grade ore could be missed in with waste rock. Normally, they would dump the material in layers, so if you get into a good layer, which is normally where there was some high grade stuff missed with waste, you can do well. I would only target "free milling, coarse gold" locations. I didn't mess much with sulphide ores or complex ores that required chemicals, but rather in locations where it was above the zone of oxidation and Mother nature done most of the work for you (physical and chemical weathering) and left the good stuff behind, GOLD. Most of these locations were shallow, free mining gold mines, primary commodity being Gold, secondary could be Silver, Copper or whatever in any order. Keep in mind, some good gold mines gold listed in the databases as Silver or Copper as Primary and Gold like the secondary or third listing. High end VLF's normally 50-71khz worked best. This is where the Fisher Gold Bug 2 really stood out in my opinion, the ability to find very small particles of gold within quartz, ironstone and ore. One of the last ventures on a dump was one of my best, finding many pounds of small gold laced ore right on the outer, surface of the dump. I'm thinking they got sloppy or something happened. All I had to do is detect the surface and rake a few inches to stay within the best layer, once I got beyond that, it was nil. I did find another layer on the other side of the dump that was about a foot or so deep, but much smaller and didn't last very long. Hope this helps a bit, Rob

Lol, I found one in a local park this week! I guess there's more than one "One Ring". 🤣

Hey Guys, I don't want to get too far away from the placering mostly in a gulch, but a few bits of advice for any new mine dump hunters- If the dump is a good slope, it's always best to dig a small shelf below the target area, as I have chased targets all the way down the hill, even lost a few. Only dig a tiny bit at a time, small targets and fragments of gold will easily fall down deeper into the dump, so try not to get too crazy when you dig. I've dropped small fragments of gold, very crystalline out of my hand and never recovered them due to it working deeper into the dumps rocks. I normally always started at the bottom of the dump, as a lot of times Gravity and Mother Nature has worked some of the best gold down near the bottom edge, kind of like dredge tailing piles (top and bottoms seem to be best). Just a few pointers from experience and lost gold.

I found this strange copper ring near a sand play pit in a park. The writing looks medieval. It is one word repeated inside and out of the ring and is gibberish to me. I wonder if it has a mystical meaning. The ring extention has been done very crudely and certainly not by a jeweller. Can anybody help with suggestions? Thanks!

Is yours gold or is it fake? You may have to keep finding them to get the real ONE.

Just helping out a partner 🙂 More photos on Gus's site. https://www.naturalgoldtrader.com/222-p-98-Gram-Humboldt-County-Nevada-Big-Gold-Nugget.html

Yesterday My buddy and I got up early to beat the heat (76@6:00am). We decided to hit the other side of the swim club that was fenced off a week ago, but now the fence was removed and open to the public. I was running the new silver umax and my buddy the 800. The first hour for me was a bust, just a bunch of pennys. My buddy was a 100 yards away and found 2 mercs and a bunch of wheaties. A little hot and frustrated, I walked another 100 yards to an odd looking small tree. This spot most people would have walked by. I'm thinking kids were climbing up and coins were falling out of their pockets. Maybe two swings and I hit a rosie. I stood up checked the hole and about a foot away I got a strong hit, Out comes a 1941 walker 1/2 dollar. At that point my buddy joined in on the fun. Two more hours of hunting in the now 100 plus degrees Yielded a total of 11 silvers, 39 wheaties, lots of pennies, kennedy 1/2 dollar. Oh and your good old trash. Not to shabby for 4 hours of sweat. I was liking the old tesoro's even more (would I have found them with the 800 Yup) but what fun would that be. TOTALS 5 Roosevelt dimes, 4 Merc's , 1 Washington, 1 walker 1/2, 39 wheaties

yea, I bought an old bunch of Ipad screen protectors from a big box store when the model was old and they just wanted to clear the screen protectors out, I got them for 7 cents each so I grabbed about 30 and just cut them to size for my detectors.

Silver one here from a few years back Pismo Beach hunt strick

Big open area's are ideal with easy access to a main path or parking lot. People usually lay out on their lunch break. If its a very old park Google it, you might find some older photo's that will help you narrow the good spots down. Don't limit yourself to sunbathing, look for trees that the rug rat's climb and lose coins. Today's kids are not climbing tree's(helicopter moms), but way back when it was good fun. Think activity like frisbee, horse shoe's, pickup game of football. All of these things result in lost treasure. And the best tool you can use is the historic aerials site to look back in time. Good luck !!!

Mh, the silver depths were under 5 inches, mostly 3'' to 4''. The walker was at 3 1/2''. Oddly I haven't dug a silver over 6 in a couple of years. GB, I sure wish you could have managed another day, We would have had a hell of a time. Where we found the silver oddly was an area that I would have walked past, but the heat dragged me to the little bit of shade. Have NO idea why those coins were dropped in that 50'x100' spot. The walker is the third from that place. I do have a question on this. All the walkers I have ever dug were from 1940,1941 and 1942 nothing above or below these dates. my buddy has the same experience oddly. Just wondering why, maybe just my area. The Kennedy 1/2 is a 1980p. Not sure if you have time in the late fall, but sure would like to take you there again before the bulldozers level it.

Small update the wedding band was gold plated... cheap @#$%@%!! what kind of person would buy a plated wedding band? So 1 1/2 good finds for the night.

According to the picture of the 12 "DD coil .. I type that this coil has a size somewhere around 8.5" x12 "or 9" x12 ".. The practical depth of detection will be significantly greater than the older 11 "DD coil measuring 7x11" .. because the 9 "wide coil will still be deeper than the 7" width coil .. I'm talking about practical detection..because in addition to the depth of detection, the 3D depth separation will also improve from the width of the coil ... which will ultimately bring a number of detectable targets ... even on variously mineralized terrain .. ... note that all modern strong and fast detectors excellently separate 3D on 9 "-11" coils ... and therefore these coils are used as standard coils ... also for their depth and separation .. properties .. The shape of the new Fisher 12 "DD reminds me of a coil of 10x12" SEF ..what I consider a good design ...

Reminds me a lot of the "One Ring", from "Lord of the Rings"!! Related script, but in affordable copper! Is it a kid size ring?? Also, i think i remember Phrunt found a gold (reproduction) version of this one (below) in NZ! Good Luck! Cool ring!!👍👍

Haven't done much digging at all, heat and humidity is brutal and I figured the finds can wait it out. Hit an old park near my house, took the Tejon out with the 10x12, not a whole lot of iron but a lot of aluminum surface trash so I was hunting for the tinier targets. Ground is really hard packed as they have car shows and gatherings so it was like digging cement, can't make bit holes there and forced to make little flaps and fishing the targets out and I ended up suffing the IH 1889. Ring seems very old, tested at 10k. I have a close up on the mark.

It was in tiny unrecognizable pieces mixed with petrified Plumas Mammoth Grizzly scat. Sorry.

Mh, I think everyone has there own idea of how coins sink into the ground, but from my records/experience, I find older silver coins shallow. For instance I'll dig a 1984 dime at 8'' and a few feet away I'll dig a 1919 merc. I for the life of me can not figure out why all of my silvers come up shallow, but they do. I can count on one hand how many were over 6+ inches. If your hunting parks that are only 20 years old, I would set up your machine to run shallow first and not bother trying to hit max depth. See if your scores improve and adjust accordingly. Sometimes running a little to hot can blow past your intended target, especially in foil/ aluminum rich areas. Most of all do not rely on vdi, Pay attention to the tones your machine is giving you. These tones do not lie. It takes a lot of practice to not just glance at the screen for help. I fall into that trap every now and then, It's OK. After time your brain will tell you what a good signal is even if the vdi # are not what you expect. Good Luck and hope you will post your next silver find.

Klunker, your story reminds me of an excerpt from a letter penned by a Fortyniner named John Paul Dart, written on Dec. 26th 1850 from Chinese Camp. "The miners generally are amusing themselves killing deer and grizzleys. One miner got hold of an old grizzly the other day, and vice versa. The bear tore him up pretty bad, and left him..." Oh, the stories some of the stuff we find could tell...

That’s what I put on all my detector screens, but just the screen area itself. First thing I do with a new detector these days is apply the screen cover. I have a pack of old Kindle ones that are thicker than most, that I cut to fit.

Sounds reasonable to me!! Nice gold and relics! Let us know when you find the Grizz bones! I know a guy....😁👍👍

I recognized it right away ! Think I might have hobbit blood..but dwarf isn't out of consideration .. I think there were 7 but only 1 to rule them all............heyyyyyy they filmed those down under , might be some "real" ones to be found ....so YEAH ,,,DON'T put it on !

That is usually something that you would find in Europe during WWII, they were trying to save on metals back then. Grandfather showed me several rings that were like that. Nice finds for your work, and good luck on your next hunt.

Never think it's just another beer can!

Reading the title of the thread and it not sure if it is correct for what we are babbling on about. Aluminum is a mid to high conductor and outside of using a concentric coil to combine or average the conductivity of 2 different targets your not really unmasking. DD coil you will need a small coil and a machine with good recovery speed to pick through the targets but anything below will be hidden.

Simon..the concentric coil is very important..to the winding of the coil itself is at a certain distance from the surface of the mineralized terrain ... because when the coil winding is too close to the mineralized surface .. then the VDI target of the low-conducting target passes into the VDI iron zone .. This is especially true if you work with a set discrimination ... and so you can cross such a target ... If you move the coil to 3 cm or more from the surface of the mineralized terrain. The VDI of the low-conducting target returns to the Color + VDI zone. on All metal it may not be so visible ,,..... DD type coil does not have such a problem .... test CC and DD coils on mineralized stone... and low conductors...

The DI sticker covers/protects the buttons without issue if put on correctly which isn't easy. 😀 It does not protect the screen but those protectors ML provides will. The screen is pretty tough itself.

Dogodog I’m sorry to report to you that half dollar is not old ! Due to the fact that’s when I was born. So I hope you understand that when you call that coin old that cuts deep in a pain I can’t express. That’s some great finds you made. Chuck

Good going Pinger!!, Yes, definitely worth a try!! I have always had my speaker holes; at a minimum, covered with vinyl decals! (I never use the speaker on detectors)! No overheating issues with that alone! And no beach sand and water accessing the holes! I only ever had one "overheating"?? Issue last summer, on the beach, in the middle of a 3 hour hunt! (🥵👎🥵) It was too much for me, and the detector! But at that time, I had the black nylon cover on it! I have since ditched that in favor of a edge bumper and screen protector decal! And, I refuse to bake myself again in those conditions! Not worth it! (Full disclosure, ML replaced that Pod under warranty, and never told me for sure, what the problem was!) This is, IMO, a twofold problem with modern detectors!! Modern design is dictating smaller, lighter housings for the brains of the machines! The tolerances are tight, and thermoplastic is a poor substitute for heat dissipation! Now, couple that with, in most cases, a black, or dark color housing, and the results are predictable! There are solutions, but they cost more to manufacture, and like the breaking coil tabs, and leak issues that have been reported; are "few" enough for ML, that they are not going to change anything at this time! The good news is, after the warranty expires for many, the modding and ingenuity of our community will kick in and solve these issues for the people having them! I already have a few in mind! One is to simply spray paint the case a light, reflective color, to reflect a percentage of outside radiant heat! Another would be to install an external heat sink to draw heat from inside the case! Not hard to do, for many out there! Whatever the problems are, and I've said it here many times, as long as ML repairs; and in most cases replaces the parts under warranty, I can live with that! That's not to say that they shouldn't be paying close attention, and work on changing a few design "flaws" with the Nox, but I don't expect to see that, until the next production model!👍👍

Ahaa! You were holding out on me, just letting me hunt the dregs while saving the garden spot for your buddy.... Five silvers in a day with one being the beautiful Walking Liberty half -- my favorite coin design of all time. When I was detecting with you a couple days earlier I was thinking "now I know what it was like back in the 1980's when high performing detectors were just starting to hit these unsearched, frequented spots." You proved that to the 9's. I thought you said the Silver umax was brand new? Didn't take you long to get it looking grungy. BTW, what's the date on the clad Kennedy half? Well done!

As Valens Legacy wrote, if you are out in the sun and the screen starts to fade or becomes hard to read the machine is overheating. Happened to me using a commercial cover. It is very likely that what you are proposing will do this. I put one of the Detecting Innovations stickers over the keypad and a bumper around the box, that's it.

Ok I put this on fast and sloppy just to see if it’s gonna do the job and if I like it I’ll know tomorrow if it’s gonna pass quality control! LOL

Now that's one hell of a pocket spill!! The only problem now is the price of old Chinese coins has been affected to be even worse than they were before!!

As someone who is constantly watching the resale market, It seemed to me that even when the Safari was in production people either opted to buy a used Explorer or an Etrac. I think this is because safari lacked Fe:Co. It seemed to be a stripped down Explorer/E-trac. Most reviews I’ve seen from those who did buy one were favorable, particularly in stable target ID. The resale value continues to go down though. It used to be easy to get $500-$600 for one. Now, not so much.

I coudln't see that effecting the detector and making it overheat unless there were some sort of vents being covered up. That material is so thin it shouldn't act as an insulator. If they sold the laptop screen protector material in a roll that was cost effective I could zip out a bunch to fit different machines on my laser.

The coil floats so it must be hollow.It seems hollow to me.

At 1:20-1:30 sounds like they’ve got you covered. Sounds like they will probably at least have the Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro covered too. I’d hope the BH LRP/Teknetics Liberator too because that’s a good performing machine and was very popular. I think it looks good overall. I’m more dubious about the wedge shape, but I liked the look of the SEF coils so I can get on with something like this. I’m glad to hear it’s more solid than it looks. That’s one thing that worried me on first sight. It sounds like I should’ve tried some aftermarket coils before parting with the F75. Having no point of comparison I just assumed it was good enough. I was still fairly green in those days, so coming from prior machines up to that point the F75 was a beast with any coil. If my budget weren’t so tight in the early days I would probably still have an F-75. Back then I had to get rid of one to get another one. These days things are better and I buy anything I think is a super good deal.

Today was a day that I've been waiting for for two weeks. A great forum member GB amateur contacted me to see if I would be interested in getting together to hunt on his way back from another trip on the east coast. Without reserve I said yes. With all the details worked out we got together today to hunt an old swim club established in the 20's. It was hot hot and more hot today and I was hoping we would have a good time before we both died of heat stroke. GB was running the 800 and I was too for about 15 minutes, When I decided to change over to the Compadre. I have found a few silvers there and had some problems with iron so what the hell. We both were finding some clad and wheaties. After an hour or so GB raised his hand with the first silver of the day a merc dime. Shortly after I pulled a 62 rosie. More clad and wheaties I decided to move to a spot I hunted a fair amount with the 800, But not with a Tesoro. Within a few minutes I pulled out a 44 merc. Two minutes more and out comes a 9k wedding band. The Compadre never ceases to amaze me. After a little while longer we decided to call it quit's and get some lunch and BS some more. Getting a chance to hunt with GB today was as fun as it gets and to have a good time with someone who you respect makes it all the better.

Remember to be careful when using it in the sun and watch it closely as it can overheat with it on there. Looks nice and hope it works well for you. Happy hunting.

I cleaned mine up and now wear it, Guess I'm now married to who dropped it in the 30's. Hope he was cute or maybe she was big boned. Either way it's the only ring I ever found that fits me.

Thanks for reaching out and asking questions on depth. Rob is correct about the variables that change the outcome. I and a few of my customers have dug many nuggets with VLF detectors at depth of 10" or more and a few closer to the 14-16" range. This nice prize was found at the 14-16" range and the 15x12" coil is in the hole to show depth. I'll be honest though, they are not small gold. Even this year I have dug nice specimen gold at 12"+ so I'm good with those depths. This one was found using stock 11" coil and found at 12-14" As for getting depths in virgin soils (undisturbed ground) like we hunt in much of North Nevada on small solid nuggets (Rye Patch type gold) I can get a VLF technology detector approx 4" to 5" on a 1 gram. A 1/4 ozt approx 6 to 8" and a 1/2 ozt approx 10". I dug a 3/4 otz nugget many years ago with a GB-2 and 10" coil at Rye Patch that was every bit of 10" in virgin soil. Below are a few other nuggets I or I was with customers that were dug using VLF detectors at depths of 10"+. Now take those same size nuggets and go into tailing piles and your depth greatly increases. Do you know why? Less mineralized soil and or black sands that the VLF detector needs to get through. That's why I enjoy hunting tailings more than virgin ground with a VLF. Plus the VLF detector is lighter and faster than bigger PI's and has better iron identification. Here is the issue with many that hunt for gold with a VLF detector at such sites like Rye Patch, Quartzsite and other well know nugget producers. If you go where others who have hunted using big PI's and or GPZ's in the mentioned sites, you are best not to use a big coil on the VLF detector. You're better off using a small coil to get the best results on tiny nuggets. Bigger machines, especially SD/GP and early GPX models miss many small nuggets as that is one of their weaknesses. So you need to take that knowledge, get your VLF and put in the smallest coil you can get and then go find the tiny ones they missed. Below a prime example of using a VLF detector with small coil to find a tiny nugget Trying to put a big coil on a VLF detector so you can match the depth of a PI is just plain ridiculous for most (not all) known nugget producing grounds. VLF's can not handle the soils and will not perform near as well as a big PI machine. BUT...if you use the VLF in tailing piles with no soils or mixed, then your depth of the VLF will go up and you actually could use the stock coil or on a rare occasion go big. Not saying the bigger PI's are not good in these situations, but the weight of the bigger detectors are excessive and their Iron ID capabilities are not as good as todays VLF's If I was on a budget of $3000 to find as many kinds of gold possible, here is a good setup I would consider. My #1 selection for VLF (at this time) is the Equinox 800 with stock coil and a small 6" round coil. Cost for both detector and extra small coil approx $1100. The other detector would be a used (from a dealer who knows how to test it properly) GP-3000, GP-3500 or GPX-4000 detector. This is your power detector to get nice nuggets at depth in most all soils. These detectors can be picked up for $1000 to $2000 and are proven winners when it comes to 2 gram nuggets and up at depth (better than a VLF). Hope this helps and if anyone else wants to add, please feel free.

I'm an idiot, yes the eyeball is silver tone plated zinc junk, sounded better than it looks hehe. Stupid kiddie bling hehe

Getting the gold! 👍 And with an older detector to boot. Looks like the eye is pot metal, but there are sterling versions too. Lensing it brings up eBay and Ali Express ads. Next week will bring Ida with lots of rain, I hope it breaks this heat up, but I'm more concerned about Louisiana. Ground is getting dry here too, despite 2" of rain last week. It's supposed to be 93 here today, at 9:30 it's already 83 and 77% humidity. Everything fogs when you walk out the door. 😀 Thanks for braving the weather and posting great stuff.

White's had a program whereby you enter the serial numbers and it spits out an override password. Either Garrett has it, or no one has it.

Looks like a good idea to use a little of that Gorilla to strengthen the ears to aid in prevention before breakage. strick

Thanks! Yeah, that vaper hit hard at 30. I thought I had a silver half dollar for sure. 🤣

Kac, Let me know what the out come is. I'll take what I can get. I'm looking for housings, boards, coil wires, and the list goes on.