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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/15/2022 in all areas

  1. It keeps raining here. Started back to work and then more rain. And snow. And rain. It let up this afternoon so I continued to dig up the yard. It's one big target. Here are a few finds from the last week. I'm digging up just about everything just to eliminate target sounds. And that's why I found the silver button. Corroded iron on the back so it was a goofy signal. I'm surprised that we haven't found any older coins. A penny from 1918 but everything else is 50's up. House was built in 29.
    8 points
  2. Yes, try the 14DD next time. This is why it comes in the box. The 11 inch coil is absolutely not recommended near powerlines and is the wrong coil choice in high EMI conditions. Hence, no surprise with the bad result. I have no problem detecting near/under powerlines with the 14DD in EMI cancel mode and it runs much smoother than my GPZ (and SDC). GC
    6 points
  3. Yea, I don't really enjoy the over excited clowns they use in lots of the metal detecting "reality" slows in the US, it's like they've drunk about 50 red bulls and sucked on a bobble of nitrous oxide for an hour before they start filming. They seem to favour using loud obnoxious hyperactive people and if I ever watch them I've got the wife on my back telling me to turn it off or turn it down as she can't stand hearing the people either, jumping up and down all excited then running around in circles and yelling because they find some old crusty bullet. The Detectorists is just good old comedy with a nice story that detector users can relate to in some way, it even got wife approval, extremely rare for prospecting or metal detecting related TV stuff πŸ™‚ People who have no interest in detecting can watch it and enjoy it.
    6 points
  4. I finally did it. 23 years ago I wrote a little Christmas story called "All That Glitters." A Prospector's Christmas Story. During those 23 years I have had scores of people ask me to publish the story into a book so they could pull it out each year and read it. This past Christmas Season I had a company called Gold Rush Expeditions ask for a one time licensing fee to publish the story in their annual end of the year magazine. So, I finally published it into a book. The intro to the book reads: --------------- "Sam Lewis had lost his faith in God, his faith in the criminal justice system and society in general. Now, his wife, Mary, had passed away. Sam felt that without Mary his life was meaningless. Dropping out of society, Sam decided to head for the seclusion of the hills and spend what time he had left working his gold mining claim. Miles away from modern day civilization he found the gold he was looking for. Sam also found something he hadn't counted on; something much more valuable. This wonderful tale is sure to delight adults and children alike. It is a story that will bring a smile to your heart and a tear of joy to your eye." ------------- This is a lite read. Only 63 pages long. 10 Chapters. If you like the ol' Hallmark movies, then you will like this tale. I had that in my head when I wrote it. Something like a Hallmark Christmas movie with Wilford Brimley narrating the story. But Wilford died. Guess I shouldn't have waited so long. Every year around Christmas time I get people calling to buy the book. Well there was no book to buy. But now there is. I don't fashion myself a writer at all, but anyone that knows me will tell you I like telling stories. Merry Christmas about 7 months early. Or 5 months late.
    5 points
  5. Area of the strike was 20 ft X 30 ft and 40 ft in depth on raised bedrock. The raised area was all the miner got to. There has to be much more gold on the lower areas of bedrock that weren't raised. I think he got a very small portion of the gold at that spot. This would be at the bottom of an ancient waterfall that was buried deep over time. The old hydraulic company of the 1800's removed about 40 - 50 ft of overburden and stopped. The gold was still 40 ft deeper. Another 15 - 30 ft beside the raised area will be bedrock again. That's where the majority of the gold awaits.
    5 points
  6. My 6K was purchased new in Nov-2021 and I have had no problems with it other than the same problem others have had with the two shaft mounting screws, behind the speaker panel, coming loose. At first I was concerned if the 6000 was going to be rugged enough considering how light it is but mine has held up well. I actually prefer the light yet strong design concept for everything mechanical as long as it is engineered well. I spent 38 years in semi-conductor manufacturing as a maintenance tech/eng for high throughput automated test equipment. The older equipment tended to be more reliable because it was put together well. Also the older circuit board technology using "through hole" vs todays "surface mount" resulted in very reliable solder connections. It is the type of technology that took us to the moon and back many times. The newer assembly/manufacturing technologies are much more automated and can also be high quality and robust but relies heavily on QC inspections and testing to ensure there are no "Quality Leaks" if there is a quality issue on the production line. Ensuring quality takes time/resource/money but customers like Aerospace, Defense and Automotive demand it from their suppliers. It appears that the 6K is utilizing modern manufacturing methods but is lacking in the outgoing QC at the factory. With this perceived level of 6K failures it would behoove Minelab to perform a QC audit at the factory where the 6K is produced. QC is well worth the investment when it comes to protecting Minelab's reputation for putting out quality products and retaining customer loyalty.
    5 points
  7. EPILOGUE At this point there were no further writings in the journal. Several days after the last entry Jed Stevens was found dead. His body had been discovered by some hunters about twenty miles from his claims. He had been shot through the back of the head and was lying on the ground near a large boulder. There was a small hole that had been dug out underneath it but when the hunters searched there was nothing there. He was identified and law enforcement notified his brother of his tragic death. Evidently he had been murdered for his gold. The perpetrators were never found. It is said that his ghost haunts the mine to this day. A NOTE TO READERS : Be sure to watch for the next edition of this series as the miners return to the claims and resume their adventures in the search for gold. See you up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. GhostMiner
    5 points
  8. Have been in the high mineralization area to demonstrate that full tones is less deep than 2-3 tones and obviously than Pitch one. Signal difference is clear: very low conductor in the bottom of a 6” hole, with full tones signal which is much weaker, β€œdirty” than 2-3 and Pitch. That’s why I wrote that with pitch machine is less filtered, maybe it’s not the right term but it was definitely what I wanted to demonstrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofQwoJ1qDps
    4 points
  9. JW often talks about you Lanny, I'll pass on your hello although he may end up reading this anyway. JW's 6000 worked in this spot on previous days, not perfectly of course but was quite good, this is the spot he was using it when he tried the factory reset to calm the EMI and his coil died, it should be far enough from the power lines, where he went yesterday it obviously wouldn't good for the 11" as he was right under them so we separated for the day and I went to where I found the 4.1 gram with the GPZ and he went to the power lines to a spot he'd not been to since he used his GPZ with stock 14" coil a couple of years ago and he recalls finding 1 piece, maybe 2 and I last used a 4500 at that spot and found nothing, well tried to use I should say (EMI). We've both noticed with past older detectors like my 4500 some days EMI is worse than others, we obviously can't work out why but it could be wind direction, moisture in the air (fog) draw on the lines during peak times or any number of things, this issue isn't new and we often detect in areas with them so start to see patterns forming with things like this. There was a lot of rain in the area the day before, I wonder if because of that the Hydro dam feeding the lines was pumping out the power more so and caused worse EMI? This day was just a particularly bad EMI one I think and the morning started out with a fog and fog was always bad news for my 4500 for EMI and not likely the detectors fault. As the day went on my EMI woes started to improve. My lesson from the day always carry the 14" DD just in case, part of the learning curve of a new detector, I've not even touched the 14" yet. I hope the aftermarket guys at some point consider making a small DD coil. 14" is a bit big around the bushes. In the video I look up a bit and you'll see the thyme bushes everywhere, a 14" coil would not be suitable. A little mono might end up helping a bit with the EMI too, the little Coiltek Joey 10x5" mono made my 4500 work better in this area than using a larger coil, I can't wait to get aftermarket coils, I'm going to get one of all the brands in the size I like to see the differences and work out which I prefer. This days problems weren't the detectors fault as it was finding plenty of small pellets at reasonable depths, it was just the EMI, I guess my motto is I'll never die wondering πŸ™‚ I like to try things and work out which I prefer, I hate wondering if something else would have been better. As you can see the detector was working fine, plenty of pellets and these are the pellets I had to dig to recover, not surface pellets I rejected all of them unless I was right on the bedrock which wasn't much of the day. I didn't find gold as I didn't go over any I guess, better luck next time I hope. Not sure what size the smallest pellets were, plenty of these little ones, but they're a bit bigger than a #9 (which the GPX can't detect by the way) Almost all of them are lead, at least not magnetic. There is no reason for shooters in this area to be shooting modern pellets as there is no pest wildlife like rabbits that they need to control, I only ever see some birds so I think most pellets have been here for a very long time. Next time at this spot it's the GPZ again with 8" coil, and the GPX with 14" DD. Both get to come along for the ride, it's over a 4 and a half hour drive for me so I have to go prepared. My Avantree Torus and DD leather GPX cover set will arrive in the next few days from Australia so I'll take it back again soon and try again.
    4 points
  10. My wife and I went rockhounding yesterday and she even let me take a detector along! 😁 I was able to work right under and between two parallel sets of active high-tension power lines with the DD. I couldn’t work the mono at all near here. Edit: I was mainly using it in Auto 1, both with the threshold on and off and it worked well. It was pretty much silent with the threshold turned off in Auto 1, just a few false signals, but it was still very sensitive. Found single bits of screen wire and small boot tacks buried several inches deep. No gold yet here.
    4 points
  11. The march continues! Another 8 bits for the kitty...1.3 grams. Im up to 4.6gm now. 35.4gm to go. 31 bits in only 6 afternoons, 24 hours spent detecting. I also found a 1927 silver threepence today which was a nice surprise....
    4 points
  12. Writing of any sort is hard work. Writing historically accurately adds to the difficulty. You obviously put a lot of time and thought into your journal and hooked a bunch of us. thanks...
    4 points
  13. Here is a part of what the journal was based on. The miners name was changed by me. I have much more information on this site which is on one of our claims. There are several pages devoted to this miner & his gold strike in the report. At some point I will be leading a crew of hand picked people to go back in and mine this ground. The gold is too deep to be worked exclusively by hand. BEYOND THE JOURNAL This information comes from the 1966 Department of Interior Office Of Mineral Surveys in the year of 1966. A few years after the cessation of hydraulic mining the ground involved in this gold strike was included in a timber purchase. In 1936 the miner in my journal obtained a lease from this company for the purpose of mining. This miner employed and was advised by California state geologist C.S. Haley for advice on location of work. At some point the miner encountered an area of raised bedrock with mixed gravel on top of it. The area was 20 feet by 30 feet and was glory holed. The gold taken amounted to over 1000 ounces. Within weeks of the strike the miner was evicted for failure to pay a royalty to the lumber firm. The miner was murdered a short time later when he showed his gold while in poor company. There was another lease granted to a friend of the president of the lumber company but he was unable to raise the money to work the claim and the land was eventually sold back to the government in 1947. Between 1950 and 1959 there were several attempts at mining this property all of which either failed or the results were unknown. The people involved during these years were inexperienced and practiced poor mining methods.
    4 points
  14. OCTOBER 6 1936 I was up early again this morning and started fixing a big breakfast for the crew. We had ourselves a feast of bacon, beans, hot water corn bread, and biscuits. And plenty of coffee. Of course I sweetened mine with Bushmills. Then we all gathered around and did the last weigh for the year and we got one ounce. Dutch was amazed and said he was hooked on gold and could hardly wait to work with us next year, hopefully as one of the mining crew. I tallied up the gold on the ledger I kept and we had 1072 ounces for our season. This was the first time Hudson and Dutch knew we had made so much gold and they just looked at each other speechless. I was happy and sad at the same time. I think that’s the way everyone felt about it. I shook hands with each man in camp and looked them in the eye. I told them we had achieved what very few miners ever have done. I was proud of all of them and also Sarge and Ben. Then we all said a prayer for Whiskey Jack and I poured a cup and set it on his empty camp chair. I just knew that wherever he was there was gold in his pan. So we gathered up the crew's camp gear and put it on the truck and I drove into town with Jacob , John, and me in the cab and Dutch, Will, and Hudson rode in the back with the gear. The truck was loaded down good and we all barely fit. I dropped everyone off at the train station and some would have to make a bus connection also. We all said our goodbyes and shook hands saying we’ll do it all again next year. I turned and took one last look at them before they began to disperse. It was hard to see them go. Then I went over to the general store and bought some supplies. When I got back to camp it was getting on towards supper time and I fixed a plate of beans and poured a cup of whiskey. I sat by the fire and the stars were coming out and it was getting cold. It just doesn’t seem the same without the crew here and It’s mighty quiet. I’ve got my rifle by my side and I’m drinking Bushmills alone tonight. It’s just like I started. I’m looking over at Whiskey Jack’s empty camp chair and thinking about how much I miss him. My gold is secure about an hour away from camp and the whiskey is tasting mighty good tonight. Tomorrow I’m going to drive out to my hiding spot and check on my gold cache. TO BE CONTINUED ...................
    4 points
  15. Happy to hear the good news Simon!! Definitely enjoyed the series! Beats many of the "reality" detecting shows by far! Just don't overanalize, and enjoy the story, beautiful countryside, and humor of seasoned British actors!πŸ‘‘πŸ‘πŸ‘
    4 points
  16. Here's a quick reference. Any context on where you found it? Not specifically of course. I'd recommend you look there quite a bit more. It's definitely colonial.
    4 points
  17. A super nice couple on 1750's farmhouse Place ooozes history. My first time out I found a great Horseshoe with Nails still in it. That was awesome because the place used to be a horse farm....at one point.. Then I found the button. I can't place the date, but looks like half of a two piece button. Maybe late 1800's? but could be more modern. Also 7 9mm bullets, golf balls lol and some other garbage. There is also a bottle dump there I didn't even look at yet. I guess this is my first good permission! Such wonderful people, I insisted they keep the horse shoe and they flatly refuse, "Keep everything just send me a picture" Just got one thing to say about that.....Thank you Lord Jesus!!!!!
    3 points
  18. This grassy area has given up many Barber dimes and now add another to the collection.πŸ˜€1908s Barber Dime. 6 inches deep, ID 85-86, park program on the Deus2. Glad it wasn’t a pesky Rosie I’ve only dug up 2 of them at this area and only silver coin from the 40s was a Mercury Dime. Ground was soft a month ago now it’s hard diggin and temperature today was around 93 degrees I quit after 2 and a half hours. Gonna have to get out a little earlier. Bottom pic is where some of the silver coins may have come from. Denny
    3 points
  19. Hello, A couple weeks ago, I posted that I was having extreme difficulty updating my Legend. The folks at Nokta contacted me and we tried to figure it out. But.. it was a system box issue. They sent me out a new one and we sent the other one back so the tech guys could figure it out. They were awesome!! Even with the crazy time difference from Turkey to California.. Even while on the road.. Fantastic support!! wow!! I really appreciate all the folks who made themselves available to me to help discern what the problem was.... Thank you!!! Nokta Makro rocks!!
    3 points
  20. I'm already into it. Reading an average of about a month every day. It's an even better read when it's uninterrupted. Reading it this way is like actually being there and part of the adventure. Mike
    3 points
  21. Small 14k chain, 6 grams (27). Crayon in picture for size comparison of targets.
    3 points
  22. I was referring to hooligans. My wife and I were talking about this journal last night over a glass of wine. I told her it suddenly struck me as similar to the movie Easy Rider. Jed had worked hard for his wealth. Captain America (Peter Fonda) sold drugs to get his money. They both became independently wealthy and quit society. Not long after they did this they were murdered, both by people with guns. Maybe Jed should have bought a Harley and headed for warmer weather.
    3 points
  23. We went back here today, JW used the GPZ and 15" Concentric and found 6 pieces of gold. I used the GPX 6000 and found zero gold, my first skunk at this location in who knows how long, I can't even remember my last skunk here. I got a number of pellets though, I'm still puzzled why pellets are such booming signals near to the coil, It's really hyper sensitive to small targets near the coil like these little lead pellets with a big booming signal, but if you do a couple of pick scrapes and try detect them in the dug out soil they're difficult very faint signals and you spend a while messing around trying to find them, my solution has been to flatten out the soil so I can get the coil close to them again. In some shallow bedrock areas you just have to investigate these near surface targets. I had the Nox with me with the Coiltek 10x5" and cross checked a few small targets which ended up pellets, the Nox did a better job overall, in signal strength and ease of recovery. The Nox is great on tiny lead pellets though. Next time the GPZ and GPX are coming along, this time I purposefully left the GPZ at home as I wanted to force myself to use the GPX to give it a chance and if the GPZ was there I would not use the GPX. That's never happening again, if the GPX comes, the GPZ comes. I was having endless troubles with EMI and using noise cancel all the time, never was one press enough, normally 2 to 3 presses did the trick, I'm 100% confident it' not an intelligent noise cancel, it doesn't look for a clean channel, its just randomly moving channels, it can't get it wrong so many times if it was searching for a clean channel, more often than not using it made the EMI worse not better. This spot does have the big transmission lines through it, my older GPX had a lot of trouble here too which is why I bought a QED as it handles power lines better until I bought the GPZ and combined with the Concentric coils power lines are no issues at all. JW of course with the GPZ had no trouble with EMI and was able to go detect right under the high voltage transmission lines, I stayed hundreds of meters away and was still troubled badly, JW said I should have had my 14" DD with me, and he's right, I didn't even think about it, lesson learned. I couldn't detect the area JW found his 6 nuggets, the EMI was too bad to go that close to the power lines. His 6000 11" coil is away for warranty after dying, the service agent doesn't have one to replace it with, nor does Minelab so he's got a big wait ahead of him it seems. I guess they've had to swap out too many and run out of stock. If you want to see me suffer watch this video, this should have been gold, I was 99% sure it was going to be gold. A nice good deep target in the deep gravels, it makes no sense it wasn't gold. Don't worry about my high gain, having a low gain made absolutely no difference to EMI so I saw no point running it low, may as well run it high if it isn't beneficial to lower it. My fault, I should have had the DD with me, or just used the GPZ in a high EMI environment, as with it I can run in HY/Normal gain of 20 and not have an issue. I also checked the spot I found the 4.1 gram nugget with the GPZ and 8" coil the previous weekend, I'd missed nothing there the GPX could find, I was hoping the bigger coil on the GPX might find another one deeper. I'll try again another day with a bigger coil on the GPZ.
    3 points
  24. Usually when I’m out bush, i use the solar system I’ve built into my camper. I also made a box with standard 12V outlets and usb outlets that I can plug in and charge all my stuff off of. Makes it easier instead of taking up all the other outlets I need for other things.
    3 points
  25. I haven't seen the show, but I see some similarities here... - I *do* still freak out when I get large nuggets, often screaming out to nobody but the local bobcat and mtn lion, which are no doubt wondering why I am in their territory in the middle of the night, with a machine that squeals like a rabbit being attacked. - In order for me to do my night hunts, I am known to drink a couple red bull type drinks and thirst busters, to keep me amped up for the night. I just hope my body can handle the octane in short durations. Maybe if I had news crews following me around, I would seem like an excited clown, too!! LOL. But I PROMISE YOU, you would not see me jumping around in circles because I find an ancient bullet! I find lots and lots.. and lots of bullets.
    3 points
  26. GM, I thoroughly enjoyed your narrative and hope you continue with your creative endeavors as you are a gifted writer. I wish you the very best going forward with your work on the claims in the Sierra Nevada, with your skills and modern equipment things should go well for you and your crew. Thanks again for sharing this story with all of us around the virtual campfire, a quote borrowed from the late great geologist and nugget shooter Mr. Jim Straight. Jeff
    3 points
  27. I'd have to see the front, this one looks like a brass flatty to me, but it does have a really old shank. πŸ€” If the front is grey/silver and waxy, it's Tombac. If green and corroded it's probably brass. Left is a pretty scratched up Tombac. They are low IDs on an Equinox, anywhere from 4-10. Right is a brass flat, they are a bit higher. I find them everywhere here. Shame you missed out on that place, I see you're also in VA but it's big πŸ€” If you have farms out there, time to befriend a farmer! Or a "country gentleman" with a lotta land. πŸ™‚
    3 points
  28. Thanks to all the readers of the journal. It was the experience of a lifetime for me. See you in the Fall for Season 2.
    3 points
  29. OCTOBER 5 1936 Last night wasn’t quite as cold as we have been seeing and the snow is nearly gone. We all had a good breakfast while sitting around our campfire and waited on the sun to do It’s work. By early afternoon things were melting off pretty good so I told Dutch to keep a watch on camp while the crew hiked up the mountain to get the last of our work done. John laughed and said we should wash gravels for a couple of hours one last time. I think I surprised him when I said let’s do it. So Will and Jacob fired up the pumps and got what little ice was in the lines out and me, John, and Hudson shoveled some gravels. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon and the pit had some water in the bottom but we worked away for about three hours and cleaned up the tom. I told John we’d carry the heavies down to camp in buckets and do the last weigh in the morning. Then we broke down the tom and hopper and unhooked the lines from the pumps. Will drained the lines and the rest of us got busy hauling down the tom, hopper, and pumps as well as the buckets of pay to be panned. It was past dark by the time it was all done. I said well boys, we are all done with mining for this year. With that we stoked the campfire, made supper, and did us some drinking. We were all pretty much bushed. TO BE CONTINUED ...................
    3 points
  30. Great hunting with some very nice finds, I like to hunt old churches because of what is in the ground. There are over 9 churches near me that have been here since the 1800's, and I can tell you that the have some very old coins. Good luck on your next outing.
    3 points
  31. It is a little more complicated than that. Many of these forums are pretty old, and the people running them even older. A lot of them got started with the goal of selling banner ads to manufacturers and dealers, which used to be "the thing" for making money off websites. Now many of the owners are getting old enough they don't want to deal with the constant work anymore. This is accelerated by the fact that selling banner ads directly is not near as lucrative as it once was. Some of these guys were coining some pretty good change. Now manufacturers are cutting back on that kind of advertising in favor of their own Facebook pages, and sponsoring YouTube "stars." I do think poor moderation did not help as many users found behavior on some forums enough to drive them away. Add it all up, and many of the forums are running out of steam. It does not help that many are running on old software not up to modern standards, and the difficulty of upgrading may be the thing that causes them to throw in the towel. I took a different tack here by using Google ads to cover my costs. So I do not need manufacturer or dealer support. And I try and keep the place more focused and civil. I also upgraded to modern software that can support new devices. The forum has been growing gangbusters, so it shows there is a way for that to happen, even in the world of Facebook and Instagram, etc. A forum serves a different purpose - long term accumulation of organized information, that Facebook simply cannot equal. There is still a place for forums, but the old ways don't work. You have to keep up with the times. Forum pageviews per day since this forum started in 2011. The three main spikes at release of the SDC 2300, GPZ 7000, and Equinox. New detector releases are traffic drivers, especially gold detectors.
    3 points
  32. For those hoping for another season it's unlikely, however there is a 75 minute special episode coming and that's good news! I liked that show, it was a bit of fun. Feature-length Detectorists special commissioned Wednesday 11th May 2022, 5:30pm Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook are reuniting in a new Detectorists special The one-off programme will be feature-length at 75 minutes It promises to "bring viewers up to date with the lives of Andy, Lance, Becky and the Danebury Metal Detecting Club" BBC Four's acclaimed comedy Detectorists is coming back to screens for a new special. The feature-length, 75 minute episode is to air later this year, updating fans of the cult hit series on the lives of its characters, five years since the end of Series 3. Debuting in 2014, nineteen episodes of the sitcom-cum-comedy drama have aired to date, focusing on best friends and metal detecting enthusiasts Andy (Mackenzie Crook), Lance (Toby Jones), and their fellow local metal detecting club members in the small town of Danebury. The last episode concluded with Andy and Lance stumbling across a stash of gold coins, having very narrowly missed the hidden trove of ancient treasure for the previous two series. Written and directed by Crook, like his recent new television incarnation of Worzel Gummidge, the series is noted for its mix of light drama, whimsical humour, and beautiful rural setting and scenery. Production on the new special of the triple BAFTA-winner is understood to begin shortly, made by Treasure Trove Productions, Channel X North and Lola TV. Crook says: "It was 2017 when we were last in Danebury and I miss my old friends in the DMDC [Danebury Metal Detecting Club]. I've had a story percolating for a while and I thought it was worth getting Lance, Andy and the rest of the band back together for. The affection expressed for Detectorists over the years has been incredible and I hope fans of the show will enjoy this new, extended episode." Producer Gill Isles said: "It's absolutely thrilling to be spending the summer back in Danebury with Mackenzie and the team. There is so much love for the show that I can't wait for everyone to see what Mackenzie has in store in this next chapter." The news was announced by Jon Petrie, the BBC's new Director of Comedy, in a speech at the BBC Comedy Festival in which he revealed the corporation is set to invest extra Β£10 million into comedy over the next two years. A number of other commissions were announced today, including new series of Bad Education. Full story
    2 points
  33. So, I have been MIA to detecting for the past 2 weeks, as I had my second date with Covid. πŸ™„ She visits me every 2 years and this time was no fun as well. πŸ˜„. A buddy of mine wanted to do an E Trac hunt, so I met him at a church built in the 1940’s but on a very old piece of land. I also brought the Equinox 800 and the GPX 5000. I started the hunt with the E Trac and a 13” Ultimate coil (that I just purchased here recently). It took me a bit to remember how to use it in this kind of EMI setting, but it worked very well finding me an 1852 Large cent at around 9”. I ran it for about 2 hours and found some memorials and a couple of wheats. I decided to switch and try the Equinox. Now the selling point of the Equinox is its multi-frequency technology, so I wasn’t interested in hunting with the 20 or 40 Khz frequencies, as I was looking for deep silver. The Equinox didn’t fare well with the EMI, so off to the car trunk it went. I then pulled out the GPX with a Detech 11” DD coil. It was noisy, but bearable as I ran it with very mild settings. The last 2 hours of the hunt were the most fun as I could almost run with the GPX and just bang out coin after coin, all around the 6” mark. This section I was doing had almost no trash or iron, just coins. There wasn’t a pull tab to be found, and besides some modern clad, every cent there was a wheat cent. So, the GPX found both silvers and a lot of wheats including a decent 1921. It was a ton of fun and I was just glad to get out and hunt after sitting home for all those days.
    2 points
  34. Yesterday JW and I went for another gold hunt to the same place we'd been going on all the previous missions I've posted about in the past couple of weeks, I've always liked this spot, it's been my favourite. You do deal with a lot of junk here though, mostly shutgun pellets but I guess it's good practice for me sorting the junk from the gold. I felt like I was up to a bigger walk this time, JW invited me up to the spot he did last time we were at this place, If you recall I stayed right at the start and spent the day in a very small area last time while JW went for a stroll far further into the area and he managed to find 8 nuggets. This a photo of the 8 nuggets JW found in the area on the previous day when I stayed at the entrance to the area. It seemed a worthwhile spot for me to take on a big walk to get to, my broken foot seems to never feel better, it's been a long time now and it feels no better than it did at the start, although it has its good days and bad days and it felt like it was going to be a good day. We walked up to this area and JW showed me around and told me where he'd found some nuggets in the past, I hadn't been here for a couple of years back when I was using my GPX 4500 and I found nothing with it in this spot from memory. So we fired up our weapons and off we went. I headed up higher and JW went off to the right and down from where we stored our packs, the higher ground looked alright to me although my detector was nutting off constantly on pellets straight away, big pellets like someone had been hunting elephants in the area, only NZ doesn't have elephants, but the really large size rusty magnetic pellets, I don't normally encounter these sort often, usually it's the tiny little lead ones. They were absolutely everywhere and driving me mad. I kept going in the area anyway and then I encountered a target noise that was not like the others, a softer quieter sweeter sound, a few scrapes to remove the chances of it being a small lead near surface pellet and the signal improved, I kept digging and digging and the signal was better and better, this was getting exciting although I'd dug so much junk since getting here I had it in my head it's 90% chance some sort of junk, maybe a boot tack or something so I wasn't overly concerned about doing any video. Once I was fairly deep I decided it might be time to flick on the phones camera just in case and I'm glad I did, now I have some memories of my second biggest ever nugget find! Over a gram nuggets or even gram size nuggets are an extreme rarity here, so it's a happy day when you score a gram size nugget, this one however was a lot bigger than a gram. This is it's hole, and if you'll see the video you'll see it wasn't a fisherman's story about the size of his fish catch, exaggerating the depth on the hole, this is precisely the depth of the nugget. A beauty, and very odd for a NZ nugget based off what I've found before, mine are generally always pretty smooth, this one was a chunky rough looking nugget, more like the nuggets found in Australia. And here is the video, I'm so annoyed I didn't film the entire thing from the start as I like having videos for my future watching of my nugget finds, especially when it's a nugget out of the ordinary for me. Oh well, at least I got some of it on video. Pretty happy with this one, my second biggest nugget so far and only just behind my biggest by .1 of a gram. I ran down to show JW, we were both pretty shocked a nugget this size was found here. I now had a dilemma, the likelihood of me finding a nugget now was low, usually if I find a nugget right at the start of the day I find no more πŸ˜› Hours passed and exactly that, plenty of junk and no more nuggets, I had some lunch and figured I'd move out of the bigger nugget area and see if I can find something down lower on the hillside. I didn't really want to walk too much on steep ground with my foot but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. At this point JW had found one nugget also from memory so I didn't think my hopes would be too high down lower on the slope where he was but that's gold for you, you never know. It wasn't even 20 minute and there it was, my second nugget. A nice easy signal, the 8" loves small gold, even a bit of gold weighing 0.03 of a gram is a booming signal compared to a very small lead pellet. This piece wasn't exactly small though, well for me πŸ™‚ within a few steps of that nugget I found another one almost straight away, another easy target signal. Here is what the ground looks like we were hunting, from a cut out the old timers had done. Things dried up again for a while now and JW appeared crossing over a ridge into sight, he was heading back to his bag for lunch so I decided I'd go sit with him and have a break, we had a look at the nugget again after the initial shock had passed and at this point he had 3 little nuggets with his GPX 6000, so we were sitting on 3 each at this point. his were similar size to my smaller two. Back at it, this time we both just hung around near our bags for a bit where I'd just found the two nuggets, and after an hour or so of nothing we gradually moved on, I decided I'd go back a fair bit in the direction of the car so I took our bags to save us having to go back for them as JW was slowly heading in that direction too. I went for a walk to some thyme bushes on the downward slope hoping the little 8" would give me an advantage over anyone else who had detected there as the spaces between the bushes are so small it takes a small coil to get between them and the 8" had done extremely well doing this in the past, it slides between the bushes no problems. I don't know why I didn't take a photo of them. I was only in the bushes for 20 minutes and digging plenty of pellets and junk and then I had a signal that seemed different to the others, I scraped away the grass and could clearly see I was on some bedrock. The signal was pretty good, unmistakable, although tiny it was a nice little bit of gold. It was my smallest bit of the day so I wanted to see how it responded on JW's GPX 6000 to compare it in my head to how it responded with my GPZ and 8" X-coil. I was very satisfied with how good the target response was on my GPZ so it would have been good to compare, I walked over to where JW was to find him fiddling with his GPX unplugging the coil and removing the battery and so on, he said it was doing its usual EMI thing where he just turns it off and does a factory reset and it seems to clear up the EMI, however this time when he switched it off and on again it came up with an error so he was unplugging everything and making sure it was all secure in an attempt to revive it. After many attempts it was clear the thing had died. Either the coil or the detector. We took a video of it which you can see here. This put a bit of a downer on what was otherwise an excellent day. Minelab have really outdone themselves with the build quality of the GPX 6000, for the price things are not too great I think, it's pretty disappointing. I told JW we should just leave now, I didn't want to continue with him having to sit around and wait for me to finish, it was sad enough his detector died without having to sit around watching me have all the fun so we left to go get some Chinese food on the way home, we got there right as the place opened for dinner so the buffet had all the good stuff! We got ourselves an excellent meal. Once we got back to JW's house we tried another coil on the detector and it worked, so it was the 11" coil that failed. My theory is the security chip in the coil has failed, my reason for this is the detector was working fine until it was turned off, so a fault with the windings or cable connection or anything like that is HIGHLY unlikely to be the problem, the EMI he was getting that prompted him to turn it off and on was nothing out of the ordinary, he does this many times during a detecting session to fix the EMI when a noise cancel doesn't seem to do it. When the detector was turned off and on it uses that chip to verify the coil, if the chips dead the detector will error exactly like what's happened. A bit of a downer on what was a good day. JW ended up with his 3 little nuggets, I can't remember his weights but his total was about .3 of a gram from memory, I'll put up his total photo if he sends it through on email, he normally sends me his photo of gold weights. We also weighed my gold at JW's house, I wanted to know if my big one was my biggest ever, it was close. The little one I wanted to check and compare with the 6000 came up as 0.03 on JW's scales, when I arrived home checked the weights on my scales as they're more accurate and it came up slightly heavier than on his. It's not my smallest GPZ nugget which is 0.023 of a gram on my scales but it's getting down there. It's heavier than it looked. Here is my junk for the day lots of tiny little metal shards, they were so annoying as they're a great signal. I think I lost a fair few pellets out of my pocket, it happens pulling my scoop in and out all day. And my days total My best day in about a year I'd guess, pretty sad about JW's GPX though, now he's got the hassles of dealing with the warranty.
    2 points
  35. Fiddled with some settings, switched to 18 freq and went Gold Ring hunting. Headed out to one of my favorite sites, a football field off a Middle School. Since 2002 I've dug over a thousand clad coins, some silver rings, couple silver quarters and one Honker of a Gold Band out of there. It has been dorment for quite a few years now, even the trash is scarce. Anyways going out hoping for something Gold or at least break a Buck. In between dead spots I started digging +07 ,bouncing up to +12 .....Started getting red clad nickels. Nine nickels out of just 23 coins. Did dig 2 pull tabs couple small pieces of alum between those numbers. Every time I'd hit one of those nickel signals I would dream this gotta be a ring. Nope Nickels all nine of them. I believe +07 to +12 was caused by variances in depth, laying on its side and one was laying with a penny. Also I think 18 freq, the numbers trend a little higher. 9 Nickels, $1.25 is actually a good hunt out of that field. Well keep banging around nickels the Gold will turn up someday. (Better hurry tho )
    2 points
  36. Tech changes, but this still holds true. Have always preferred a 2 tone setup, the low tone for the targets I'm not interested in, and the high tone for the targets I am. Really no need for different tones for targets that I know I'm going to dig anyhow, just my preference and why I still swing a White's Mixed Mode. 3 custom programs I've built on my buddies D2 I've got to run for the last couple months until his arm heals up are, #2 Sense in 2 Tone, Mono 17khz in 2 Tone, and a tweaked Relic mode program. Can't help but think a small mono coil could come into play in the scenarios mentioned if XP ever made one. Would love a big mono coil for the ORX, though the 13" X 35 is no slouch.
    2 points
  37. Thank you. What I had when I started this was the government report where several pages were devoted to the miner and his gold strike. I had no idea where I would take it and there was no outline. I put myself in the place of the miner and how things might have happened. I would just wait for the next journal entry idea to pop into my head. It was a day to day thing. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I left a lot of room for speculation about who killed Jed and what season two will be like.
    2 points
  38. If some gold pops up I won't leave it in the hole.🀩Better chance for nickels at this sight. It's an old country church with tons of non-ferrous. I have taken out the old silver and copper.
    2 points
  39. There's been plenty of days with $0.00 wages, unless ya count the lead shot...but @ AU$1.50 per kilo, there's just a few cents in the 181 bits of lead Ive found so far Just as well the gold turns up most days....
    2 points
  40. Aureous Well done. _________ You are now at 75% of Australian Minimum hourly wage ($16.10 compared to $20.33) a couple more days at that rate you will be turning Pro. and those slaves to the bosses, have to pay TAX.😁
    2 points
  41. Are you referring to someone in the crew or a hooligan? I doubt that every bit of conversation about gold was recorded in the journal. We can safely assume that. We know the crew was concerned for Jed's safety. At the very end Jed may have told them not to worry about him and that he had his gold stashed miles away. He may even have said that the very next day after everyone leaves he is going to drive up and check on his gold. If he had a back stabbing crew member that was intent on robbing him then Jed may have let on too much about going to check on the gold. Then figure that Hudson and the other guy's eyes about pop out of their head when they are told how much gold the crew had total. For sure a few hundred ounces was Jed's. It may have been more than a honest crew member could handle. It seems odd how fast the robber moved in. Word must have traveled very fast after the crew left, if it was one of the hooligans. For sure Jed had made lots of enemies up there! But I can't understand Jed's thinking that he could make it alone all winter. Not even a good dog to bark and warn him about someone sneaking around. If Jed was woken up in his tent with a rifle stuck in his face then a dog would very likely have prevented that. But the loneliness and the snow and the hooligans how in the world did he think he could handle that in a camp tent? Kinda crazy IMO. Should have taken that gold and wintered out in the company of a good woman and stay away from the whiskey for awhile lol. Play it smarter. Of course I'm one to talk lol...
    2 points
  42. Looks like a Tombac button Generally dates to mid to late 1700's
    2 points
  43. Thanks, I'm slowly getting better. The large cent made the hunt. I just wanted to get some time in on the E Trac and get reacquainted with it. It really is a good machine considering it's age. Hope you get out to some of those churches and get some of those coins. But churches are funny, the priest that gave my friend permission was fielding calls all the time we were there. People calling him to report the 2 guys digging his church. One lady even took a picture of my friend and scolded him for hunting a church without permission. πŸ˜„ Even after telling her he had permission she still took a picture of him. Funny no one bothered the long haired guy πŸ˜† Thanks Tom. If I had more time there I think I could have found some deeper, older coins than wheats. But first time there you just wander around and see what pops up. EMI was the depth killer there.
    2 points
  44. Delnorter won the gold contest with his guess of 890 ounces. He was closest without going over. Jed's crew ended up with 1072 ounces for the 1936 season.
    2 points
  45. Toothpick and dry tooth brush them to death before anything else. Then if the coin looks like it has a solid, mostly pit free look to it, you can finish off with the wet steel wool and Dawn rub. If the coin is crap to begin with, it may not improve much. I like the newer large cents because they have a very deep strike, so they clean up nice. I may use a toning mixture of Vaseline and sulfur to darken the coin to a more uniform color if I remember πŸ˜„
    2 points
  46. I found the program to be unrealistic with twisted British humor and everyone had a funny accent. And I loved it.
    2 points
  47. OCTOBER 4 1936 I got up this morning about daybreak. The sun was coming up and the snow had stopped. There was probably a good 8 inches. Everything was froze and the thermometer read 26 degrees. I figured some of it would start melting in the afternoon if the sun stayed out. I went out and got the campfire going and set about cooking bacon and beans and making coffee. It sure smelled good and within 15 minutes the entire crew was sitting around the fire throwing some extras on a pan. We all ate good and watched the sun rise over the mine. It sure was a pretty sight. By early afternoon the temperature had got up to about 40 degrees and the snow was melting. I told the crew to hold off on getting the pumps as it was pretty slippery up on the mountain. We needed to drain the water lines once they thawed and bring the pumps down to camp where they would be stored for winter. Everyone set about gathering loose items up and packing them for when the time came to leave. We just mostly sat and talked mining for the rest of the day and everyone turned in early. TO BE CONTINUED ..................
    2 points
  48. Congrats to you and think about sending a copy to Hallmark studios for a possibility of making it to the screen. They love stories like that.
    2 points
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