snakejim

I agree with you Norm S.,  Steve has done a fine Job with his website over the years. I bought some equipment from his Store (Alaska Mining and Diving) in Anchorage Alaska in 1980, and have been a member on his forums for many years.

Thanks Steve for all your hard work over the years and best wishes to you and yours in the future.

Rattlesnake Jim

Roswell, NM

Nice finds Dave! Best wishes for more to come.

Dilek is taking care of my problem. Thanks for all your help.

Neat story! Thanks!

It's nice to see that Jim is still around. Great guy and prospector. I have nearly all his books. (autographed of course)

Best wishes!

Thanks Chuck, Steve, and Dilek. I'll send Dilek an Email and go from there.

It been a couple of weeks since I used it. I don't remember a siren sound. It was more like a machine gun and pulsing noise. I didn't raise the coil too high off the ground. It must be that I had the sensitivity to high for the bad ground. I wasn't aware of lowering the sensitivity below 39. It seems like I ran it about 50 and the Isat at 8. I guess I need to go back to the last place I was and try it again with the sensitivity at 38 and go from there.

Thanks for the replies Jeff, sjm, and Steve!

I bought my Makro Gold Racer a while ago and finally got the chance to get out with it. It works fine around my home. The first gold area I took it too, it went bonkers with a pulsing noise and the display target  reading bounced all over the place. I was in the all metal mode with tracking on. I thought it might be EMI, since there was a massive radio tower about 1 mile away. I took it to another area away from any known towers and it did the same thing. The ground in both places is highly mineralized and variable. In the last place I turned up the iSat and that helped some. I also turned down the sensitivity which also helped some. Any ideas would be welcome. Maybe there is a problem with the detector or is it me???????

A detector I built using plans in a popular science magazine. It used a transistor radio as the receiver and the coil was hand wound and connected to a single transistor transmitter. It actually worked. Then I bought a Heath Kit GD-48 metal detector kit. This was in 1968.

12 hours ago, goldbugron said:

Inside the box they use foil around the inside to shield the electronics. I believe the paper clip slides onto the foil to complete the ground

That is exactly where the paper clip goes.

Interesting. Thanks for posting. What drone do you have?

Thanks!

Jim

It looks like a really nice kit. Guess I'll have to get one.

Allways the same BS when this topic comes up. Those that don't like the way the laws are, are jealous of those that beat them to the ground.They are also too lazy to use the LR2000 and Land Matters to see what's claimed and what's open ground. Any excuse will do to get something someone else has.

My 2 cents!

snakejim

P.S.

I should have added, that after checking the LR2000 and Land Matters; You need to check the County Clerks office for recent claims filed that won't show up at the BLM yet.

Any puffer can be made to run Mexican style. Frankly I don't know why folks use cranks or pull cords when a leaver is so much less effort.

 

Here is how you deal with a dead battery or in this case a broken motor mount.

 

 

That reminds me of a clam digger from Maine at Quartzite running a dry washer like that. It was thirty years ago. He was trying to get enough gold to buy gas to get back to Maine. It seemed to work just fine.

On 6/12/2015 at 7:31 AM, Reg said:

Hi Jim,

Did you ever find a battery adapter for your XT18000?  If not, let me know.  I finally cut some pc board but still have to make the adapter.

Now, if I remember correctly, there really isn't much difference between the MD10 and the MD20.  So, any instructions you can find on their should work on the other. 

There is a video out showing how to use the MD detectors and basically if set up right, you power to probe and if you get a good signal, it is probably gold or maybe lead.  If you pull away from the target and it sounds off, it is most likely a piece of magnetite. 

The next thing is to practice some to get the feel of the detector but it is quite simple.

Reg

Hi Reg!

No, I didn't find a battery adapter for my XT18000 and I tried everywhere I could think of.

I did get out my Falcon MD10 and played with it for about an hour yesterday. It's amazing how small a piece of gold it will find.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Jim

It is a great tool. To use in holes or crevices. I also use mine on highbanking. I hole punch and then scan the layers to find the pay. If you purchase, I'll give you some tips on getting the most out of it.

Scott, I have the earlier MD10 Falcon. Any tips you would like to share would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Jim

Very nice find!

I wish the owners of the Sugar Pine mine, the best of luck in this matter!

RSJ

On the newest Gold Bug 2 with a 6.5" coil, the coils are different than the old epoxy filled coil of earlier models and a new coil cover is available direct from Fisher and it's black. The old white coil cover doesn't fit.

Steve, you done good. One of the best, if not the best forum around.

Best wishes to you and yours!

Rattlesnake Jim

Snakejim - cool video.

 

Petersville is a great area with some chunky gold and public panning area http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-public-sites/sites/alaska-petersville-recreational-gold-mining-area.htm.

 

The link to the Alaska Mapper will show all claims and open areas of Petersville. You can search an area that you are interested in and get claim owner info to contact.

 

I was looking last year in that area and seems to be pretty well claimed  but they do get abandon from time to time. Worth a look see.

 

If you make it up this way drop me a line I have claims in Hatchers you can try........

Thanks for the offer. I have kinfolks in Anchorage. Nephew is a fireman/paramedic and his wife is an ER doctor at one of the hospitals. Hatchers is near the Independence Mine as I remember. We dredged some there in the Little Susitna River. Didn't have much luck there. The river was still high and running fast and cold. It was still in May.

I probably won't be able to get up there this summer. I was mostly trying to help out a couple of friends find a place to go. One of them has kin there also.

snakejim, 27 oz. and on the road system in a week with a four inch dredge. WOW! I would quit my job if I could find that kind of ground.

 

Basically I feel you would not have many takers on the twenty percent deal. Mainly for the fact the ground would not produce a good return for the claim owner. Most claims on the road system have been worked hard and the ground is recreational in value. IE well under a ounce a week with a four inch dredge.

 

If you find someone willing to lease on a percentage I would suggest you have some surety that the ground holds gold reserves that will insure a profitable trip. Otherwise it could be an expensive vacation with disappointment.

 

I see a lot of claims for offer and a lot of exaggerated claims on gold with no formal assay. One good way to tell a bad claim for sell is if no commercial mining has been done - well if its not commercially feasible question that. If the claim owner wont let you sample before a lease or purchase stay away.

 

I don`t want to dissuade you but I stress a word of caution. I see things I would consider overstated by the claim owners.

 

Also do your due diligence and check claim ownership and current standing of the claims. Here is a link to DNR LAS to check ADL numbers.http://dnr.alaska.gov/projects/las/

Here is a link to check the Alaska Mapper for claims in the state.http://akmining.info/

 

Hope this helps...........

Thanks for the reply. We were dredging near Petersville, just out side the Denali Park; on a private claim. There was another group of folks working the same claim. We all did ok.

Back in 1980 there was a Gold rush in Alaska and else where, as the price of gold hit over $800 an ounce. I and 3 friends went to Alaska to spend the summer mining for gold. Researching at the BLM in Anchorage it seemed pretty much everything accessible by vehicle was claimed up. One lady had staked 900 claims. After piddling around some public areas for a while, we made a deal with a claim owner to work one of his claims. His cut was 20% of what we found. It worked out well, as we found 27 ounces one week with our Keene super 4" dredge.

My question to those in Alaska is, are there any claim owners willing to do that this coming summer?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

RSJ

Sad news indeed. First time I ever tried nugget hunting was at Quartzite with a Garrett Deepseeker. It worked, I found several nuggets.

http://www.garrett.com/charles_garrett_obituary.aspx

Great site! I've been using it regularly.

Thanks a heap!