Gerry in Idaho

The one thing I noticed about being great at running a business is "Enthusiasm". Here is a fine example for everyone. Go to a GPAA Gold Show and see the different vendors and booths selling the same stuff. One will have a guy sitting in a chair reading a magazine with coffee and doughnuts. No eye catching display of gold, no video running in the background of their adventures and success hunts, no proper communication with the folks walking by. Next booth has a display of recovered gold nuggets with the product he sells, his laptop is running in the background showing some guy or gal digging their 1st nice gold nugget, he is interactive with the potential customers, has a big piece of gold there to hand to the ladies so they can feel the mass/weight of gold and has a Free drawing for a panning kit. I've seen it many times and just scratch my head at a few of the folks and wonder why they even showed up. For the 20+ yrs I've known you Steve, the words you speak around others just gets us all excited and wanting to go do it. Nike said it best "Just Do it":

You get out this way be sure to do it around one of the many training sessions we offer. You get over to MT and I have a Field Staff Expert there as well. You get up to North Idaho, I have another Gold Detector Expert up there. You get to Arizona this winter, yes I have it covered too. We offer 1 day 1 on 1 and also the most popular is the 3 day group session as your memory retains much more. Plus you witness a variety of detectors and see their strong/weak points.

That should answer how much iron is in the rock. The harder the pull, the more iron in it and the louder it will sound on a detector.

Most (not all) of my successful customers have purchased a few different gold detectors from me and been customers of mine for quite a few years. As Steve mentioned, they also have taken the 3 day Field Training we offer. Heck, there is a good % of guys on here who find gold and have taken our class. I'll say "our class" as my Field Staff Experts have a big part of what makes our customers successful. Another good point, is they have the right detector for the task and they are out there bustin their heels, swinging their coils and digging more lead and trash that most. Yes there is luck involved, but persistence is a big part of it too. Ill may not have nuggets, but you certainly have good old coins and some serious opportunities for the gold rings in the lakes. As you know, it takes plenty of swinging to be good at those styles as well.

The Jimmy Sierra Gold Foot and even the Big Foot were some really good coils. Most importantly Glenn is the time you get to spend with your father and talking about the good old golden days, seeing the pics and thinking back of the happy times. I sure miss life of the 70's and would take it back in a heartbeat. Today's folks are in such a rush to get nowhere. Most of us don't visit our family and or relatives enough (I'm at fault too) and we all want instant gratification. I know how hard it takes to be successful at finding gold and so does your wife, your dad and you. Sure wish the rest of the world had that kind of patience. Anyway, Thanks for your story and memory pics.

How come you look so young Steve? Heck, you became a dealer for White's in 1976? I was just hitting puberty back then listening to "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and there was the other 2 John guys pretty. One lived in Denver and the in UK. Your pic of Steve Houston is the same face I remember and boy he too was a great detectorist and even nicer guy.

Well I for one took home more than my share. Just think if we had another Ganes Creek to go to or even your dig at Moore Creek. Boy those were some times. Remember the loud mouth Minelab guys back then (I won't mention names) and how they were going to go there to Ganes with them big PI's and show all us non educated VLF hunters how it's done? Those times, emails, banter and all were some of the silliest and most disgusted gold hunters I have been around. What is so bad about that, is I still to this day, get folks who think their big badass Minelab is the best at everything. Bottom line, the best detector is the one you know inside and out...better be the one in your hand. And make sure you know its strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses is where so many people fail, not knowing what they are missing.

Steve, No hard feelings my friend as we have had our PM conversations on this very subject. Heck I felt like much of what was said on the other post started when I was in NV, was actual truth. But a bunch of the folks giving input have not been around White's but maybe 10/20 yrs. Back in my early MD'ing days White's was the real deal and there was no Minelab. Changing of the Guard is all. When I got home and had a discussion about it with my father (the same guy) in the early 1970's pic, he was shocked. It wasn't madness at all as with his degrading health, he has not had a detector in his hands for 4 or 5 hrs. He's on oxygen and in a wheelchair the last few yrs. Anyway, that guy who taught me most everything to get going on my own back then, he lit right up like a Christmas tree and had a shitty grin on his face for a long time as his memories went back almost 50 yrs with detectors in our families hands. My uncle, my dad, their dad (my grandpa) my cousins, me and even my little brother later on, we all had White's detectors and back then, felt they were the best. Still smiling ear to ear my dad recalled some of our hunts, his finds and many adventures. He talked about the old horse race track and the 21 Seated silver we found in the late 1970's (most of them were Halves and Quarters). Dad was smiling and talking and I just sat there watching his face and body get more into it. He told me about the 1st Civil War Relic hunt I took him on back in South Carolina in the later 80's. He still remembers his US Breast Plate he dig under a house in downtown Charleston. Heck I had only seen them in museums and or pictures in W & E Treasure magazine, then we are holding a fresh dug one in our hands. My dad was full of joy during that visit this week and that is when it dawned on me. I have no hard feelings towards anyone for their comments as I don't think most of the 180 posts has the history my family and I do with White's metal detectors. But for my family and I, so so many memories throughout almost 50 yrs and 40 of those it was White's or nothing. Yes I started using other brands back in the 90's and even had great success the last 20 yrs with other brands, try to tell my dad otherwise, is like going to McDonald's and they are out of Big Mac's and try to sell you a fish burger. It just don't happen like that. So again, it was my dad, his smiles, memories and joy he shared, inspired me to write my comments/words. To my family it almost felt like a funeral of a good friend. Yes I argued, at times pulled teeth in frustration over some of the issues, and even cursed my good friend a few times, but blood is thicker than water and in my families eyes...he was a great man, a good camping companion and one hell of a treasure digging friend. Nothing but respect from us and well deserved. We had hundreds of photos of our lives growing up with meta detectors, but a house fire in the early 80's took them all away from us. All I have now are cuts from an 8MM reel my aunt gave me the pics in rough detail of my dad and some finds early 1970s, a picture of my grandpa sitting at the table getting ready to go, some pics of my dad and I on our CW hunt. Yes Steve, we just as well could have been using Fisher or Garret (Minelab was a dream) back then and probably would have had the same success or at least close to it, so I do agree with your last words. Just don't try and tell my dad that, you could be eating a fish burger from McDonald's.

My 1st few years of detecting gold was chasing all the little dinks as I did not realize big gold was still around. When I starting finding bigger gold in the early 2000's, it was the Fisher GB-2 with 14" coil and it was the king for a few yrs. Then we realized the White's MXT with the 14kHz could go deeper on bigger gold and the Iron ID was more accurate than the GB-2. So all of a sudden, many of us switch to the MXT and felt we were digging less big iron and more big gold. Even though I was a Minelab dealer back then, their VLF gold machines were clumsy, slow and not ideal for covering a lot of uneven ground and tailing piles. Minelab was more into their PI gold machines and their Eureka Gold was not a favorite of mine. Yes I used it and found some nice gold, but it was so much different than the US machines back then. I have to give credit to the MXT as it truly was a well designed and quality built detector for its day and many people liked it, used it and found good size gold with it. Minelab really never had a good light weight decent Iron ID detector like the MXT until later on around 2006 or 2007 and then it took us a couple yrs to realize, it was also good at big gold and tailing piles. Minelab (back then) just didn't have the grasp of us Americans and how picky we were and are. White's on the other hand was all about ergonomics, S rods and clean strong signals. Minelabs 1st decent detector to compete with the MXT was, anyone know? The X-Terra 70. So as I said above and I know not everyone will agree, but I'll give credit where I feel do, to White's and their fabulous MXT for the majority of my bigger gold back then. Again, I was a Minelab dealer, but I felt they didn't have their focus on that part of the market at the time.

Last week I was training customers at Rye Patch so I missed out on the White's closing and all the comments, but I did make a little contribution (well deserved) in the White's Forum on DP. When I returned I was overwhelmed with many emails, texts and pics of my customers recent finds. One thing about the CV-19 is it allows you to get outside and away from others. Also, what was interesting to me is the different kinds of gold and the states they came from. Here are some pictures of my customers Success, the detectors they used and the states they recently found their gold. Hats off to you all for allowing me to share your success. This very interesting and highly collectible specimen piece was found in Idaho with an Equinox 800 (dang, how did I miss that one?) Notice that is the stock 11" coil. The next 2 pics were found in NV with the NOX and stock 11" coil 2 pics below of the same gold and were found in MT with EQ-800 and small 6" coil. Nice solid pieces. Then there is my customer in AZ with his GPZ-7000. He has been doing really well this year with over a half pound. The 3 pics are from 3 half day hunts in a row. He ended up with about a half oz of gold. He has a buddy come to visit and says I found some right here, why don't you head over there. The 3+ ouncer below was found by his buddy who came to visit. Ouch, that must be one heck of a friend. Notice all those nuggets are pretty rough and have not traveled that far. AZ still has good gold, just need to get a little farther away from the trails. Last is gold from a state most of us to not get to see. Wyoming is not known for gold nuggets, but I do have a few customers who do pretty well. These pieces of gold are very solid and look to be hammered almost. I'm no geologist but think maybe from glacial? I also noticed the dirt coloration is different than most places I hunt and find gold , but I don't hunt WY, yet anyway. Part of the reason I enjoy gold is the natural and unique characters each piece and area provide. Heck, there is a really ornate specimen, some nice jeweler nuggets and some really cool collector rocks with gold. Even the big 3 ounce chunk is quite interesting as the source must be pretty close.

Interesting story and glad to know the lost person was reunited with the nugget. I was in Oregon a few years back and found a black plastic film canister will 43 small nuggets in it. I was tickled to death as there was about a 1/4 oz. But part of me also realized that was someones hard earned gold. Anyway, the next month came and I was at the local metal detecting club and I entered the find as my "Gold Find of the Month". An old rusty loudmouth retired Navy Captain started giving notice to the entire group that the gold was his. I knew he was familiar with the areas as when I trained him years before, we were there. Anyway, we toustled a bit and after a couple free beers from him, I decided to hand them over. After all, he knew approx where I found it and he was very close to the actual amount of nuggets. He'd been up there a week and thinks he lost it the day before he went home as the last day he did not find any gold. He did not even know it was lost until he got home to show his daughter. I actually lost one of Doc's little olive green rubber squeeze open nugget containers near Sawtooth, NV. I had found 4 pieces at a new site and hiked a 1/4 mile to the top of the nearest hill so I could signal my buddies to come my way. Anyway, they drive around the mountain and 20 minutes later, I am back down on the site to show them my gold. What gold, it was gone. Well a hike back to the top of the hill and 2 hours later I found the container. Yes the nuggets were still in it. The sickness I got of losing 4 measly nuggets with my GPZ was nothing compared to misplacing a $50K rock of gold. I don't know how or what I'd do if I lost that rock? So happy it was returned to the old chap and I bet he wanted to cry.

Your interest in gold comes at a superb time for so many people and I hope to see more of the gold videos. The good thing is, there are many famous nuggets out there and certainly a few bigger ones too. I expect you'll be doing this series for quite some time. Thanks also for asking those important questions, as the feeling and emotions overcoming ones body and mind is an amazing feeling. Wishing you luck on your future endeavors And and thanks for allowing us to see through your eyes and camera.

Even to this date, the MXT has produced the most pounds of gold for me. Now if I keep swinging the NOX for the same amount of years, I think I might pass my MXT records, but when you find a 1 pounder with 3.5 oz gold and a 2 pounder with 10 oz of gold, that sure gets the MXT weight up there. So far with the NOX my best is around a 7 oz'er with over 3 oz of gold. I know a 1 pounder is on its way though..

The excitement and enthusiasm is what I enjoy the most about these videos. Having a newer hunter (the girl) feel the brute force of a 1 ounce slug landing in the palm of ones hand is surreal. Nice darker material, the creek near by and big chunky gold. Can't get any better than that.

For almost a half century, my family and I have enjoyed your multitude of metal detector models, 1st class Customer Support, and such friendly people who have worked with White’s. But most importantly, the family fun you have allowed millions of people across the globe to experience. Mr White’s, from me personally… to help fulfill my childhood dreams of becoming a Treasure Hunter. You see, our family started enjoying the MD’ing hobby about 1970. Then a couple years later as a young eager 7 yr old skinny kid trying my hardest to push that big blue metal box across a school yard, and from there it all began for me. Now, 40+ yrs later as an accomplished MD’erist and multi line dealer, pushing the same MD’ing passion onto as many folks as I come across, I can only wish you a fun filled and well deserved farewell. No reason for me to try and figure out the mistakes made, when how and or why? As it won’t change me, the person you have already helped mold and or the career path I took. I personally don’t care who did or didn’t do something at a certain time as we all only live 1 life on this mother earth and I feel the overall history of White’s has done a remarkable job. I do know this is this fact. There are many thousands of happy families and individuals out there who’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a White’s metal detector for 60+ yrs and to be honest, is an accomplishment most any other family run company would be proud of. Am I bitter? A little since I feel part of me is going away for good. But when I think back of all the friendships made, MD’ing adventures traveled, the countless pictures and memories shared with your detectors in my families hands, a big grin and smile comes across my face and I just chuckle a little at what you have made of me. Many people know, but my family knows best, I built my life around the MD’ing hobby and 30 yrs ago turned it into the most enjoyable thrilling job and career a treasure hunter could ever dream of. Again, All I can say is a big Thanks for a lifetime of fun and dreams fulfilled. Here is a salute to you White’s Electronics for all the great memories.

Your wish has become true. The SDC-2300 will ship tomorrow. Good to hear from you after all these years. I still remember our hunts up at Ganes Creek AK together. Fund times and some nice gold too.

That always makes it easier with the wife when she knows there will be some gold to wear. I'll be pretty tied up the rest of this month and after 4th of July, things will open up for me some.

Not a stupid question at all and in fact I get asked it quite often. In this case when there is quite a bit of visible gold and it is of substantial size, most of us will keep it as is so we can hopefully get more than actual gold value. If there was very little visible gold and or a smaller piece, many of them get processed. In all my years of chasing gold, I just recently crushed some high grade ore as I felt it would be hard to try to sell and make anything more than actual gold value? This prized rare museum quality Arizona gold will probably end up in a Private Collection.

As we can see from the many folks posting their favorite gold detectors, there is no right or wrong unit. Each of us has our own style of hunting, our own physical limitations to our body, our own desired features we prefer, our own limited areas to use a detector, our own knowledge or lack of (better be user friendly to some and can be the most complexed detector for a few, if they understand it), our own budget range and on and on. Each of us has our own reasoning why we swing what we swing and I am fine with that. If you are successful and happy with your results, then you should be proud of your gold hunting accomplishments, as we all know it's not as easy as most folks think. And another issue brought up. Gold Detector or Lead Detector? Well we all know the facts are more lead is recovered than gold, but how many people would actually purchase the best VLF lead detector on the market or the deepest lead detector out there. it is a play on words to keep our dreams alive. Yes on a rare occasion, we do dig a target that is in fact not lead, but actually gold and as some of you know (Simon comes to mind 1st as we have witnessed his progress), it is very addictive and gold fever does exist. Just think of Ron who found the 3 pound rock with his SDC-2300 this year (having over 16 ounces of Au in it). I'm most certain that Idaho man will spend the rest of his winters in AZ with his 2300 swinging those hills. Weather your favorite gold detector is one of past (a couple detectors from the 80's were mentioned) or present ( a nice selection of brands and models were touted) and some of us keep dreaming of the future gold only? But the reality of it is, we do want a variety. Not only want, but I feel we need to have a strong group of leading metal detector manufactures to help fill our itches. I look forward to hearing some more of your favorites as it just goes to show so many different styles, reasons and flavors. We have seem a few folks are find with what they have and that is good. I am the kind of guy who just wants more options, more features, more disc, more, more, more (and less weight) all at a better price.

Is this the biggest gold find in the United States, so far in 2020? I’ve been patiently waiting for the time to share this magnificent recent discovery. It's funny because I actually had a conversation with some newer prospectors this last winter and they wondered if there was still any mammoth gold finds to be made. Once again I share some Success Pics of my customer and his 3 pound golden rock. Ron from Idaho purchased an SDC-2300 from me, but what was more important, he took the 3 days Field Training class my staff and I offer. Guess I don’t need to tell you, but I think he has it figured out. This Arizona gold discovery recently is said to be the largest piece of Au found in the United States this year with a metal detector. I can only confirm what I have heard and seen posted on other sites and so far I think it is. Here are the details. The golden rock weighs in at 3 pounds and after numerous Specific Gravity Test’s it shows over a pound of gold. It was even sent to a specialist and professionally tested again with authentication paperwork and came back at 16.973 ozt of gold. The rock was approx. 16” deep and he was about to dismiss it as huge trash, but since he’d already found a few smaller bits in the area, he decided to keep digging. Those who know the SDC-2300 realize Big Gold is not it’s specialty and most owners of the 2300 don’t dig beyond 10 to 12” at most. I wonder how most folks would react if they just dug up something like this? I’d immediately go back to the truck, change my shorts, grab a GPZ-7000 with Super Deep heavy boat anchor 19” coil and head right back there. And since I already have a bad back, I'd have to get Lunk to do the digging. So glad you did not give up Ron and I hope you do find a buyer for that beauty. Thanks for allowing me to share.

Gold Hound - What the hell am I supposed to say? My jaw just fell to the ground and I am in total Awe and Amazed. You Sir have set my new standard of a true "Gold Hound" Very few of us are actually true successful multi task detectorists for a variety of treasures as it takes different locations, detectors and knowledge. The 146 oz patch with those monster 20 and 30 ouncers is stunning to say the least. Then to top that off, the collection of museum quality silver and jewelry and that gold ear/nose ring artifact is literally "once in a lifetime" finds for most MD'erists. Yes the GP/GPX are very capable detectors as you have proven. Yes I agree the 7000 is even better for most gold, easier to operate and less struggle with the power cord and headphone wires. The CTX 3030 used to be one of my favorite Coin/Relic detectors and you have proven is capabilities as well. Thanks for allowing us to see some of your hard earned efforts as the pics are very impressive and encouraging.

OK. Time to be honest with everyone for my 25+ yrs of selling gold detectors. The secret is out. They are actually "Lead Detectors" since in reality we'll find more ounces and pounds of lead than we do gold. Yes I have been sugar coating it all these yrs, but I need to come clean with everyone. I think the manufactures do as well. When we open the metal detector catalog and pass up the coin/relic detector, we need to look for the big bold lead sinker or bullet at the top and then they can mention all the lead detectors they make and sell. I totally hear you and no hard feelings.

Reg - Your input is just as valuable as the next guy and I've seen you on here enough to know, you're not much into "not thought out" quality or ergonomics, which I totally agree and especially with the price of some detectors. I personally have not used the QED as reasons you stated above. Simon shined some light onto it and I do like the what he mentioned. I also know some guys who are very successful, do not like to mention their detector or settings, as in reality they are giving away part of their earnings. My own father used to tell me to quit training my customers on gold detectors every time one of them would find a big nuggets. He'd say, if you didn't train him, maybe that would be your nugget? Heck, old dad never realized I get just as excited when one of my customers finds something nice. I know deep down that my Field Staff and I had something to do with it. Thanks for mentioning a detector many folks here in the US have never heard of, as it adds more opportunity and knowledge to the thread. Simon - Thanks for helping us Yankees know more about the QED and its capabilities. It is interesting to see how fast you have progressed from one detector to the next and as you stated, each has their own strong points. Heck, just having the lady go with you on occasion for a coin hunt is worth keeping the GB-Pro around. Yes I too agree one of the strong points with the ZED is the simplicity and not being tethered into the harness. So many folks do not realize the importance of having more than 1 gold detector, but maybe it is because their fever is not as strong. Guys like you and me, we broke the thermometer. Thanks for sharing and shining. 2Valen - I appreciate you taking the time to tell us your desire to have a light weight detector like the NOX. Yes, I feel Minelab certainly did us all a favor with this one, when compared to so many of their older units and technologies. I assure you the day will come when you find the heavy metal and I sure hope you take the time to shine on this fine forum. After the 1st one, things start to come along much easier. Thanks again and good luck this season with it. Glenn - Do you realize how much treasure has been found by the names you just mentioned and in the pic? How amazing was that and I appreciate you sharing it. Thank you thanks you. Norvic - I have to agree with this "Now Minelab have been so consistent with their new gold detectors having the edge on the previous model, I just put my name down with the local dealer to get me one soon as". Well said. Mitchel - You bring up a strong point with the GPX and its 20+ coil selection. I'm in the same boat you are with the ZED as I have yet to find a 1/2 oz solid nugget with it and have with many older SD, GP and GPX detectors. But in all fairness, I amd usually detecting the same ground with the 7000 that I have hunted with the others. Now I know for a fact that 4 of my Field Staff have found bigger gold with their 7000's. Heck, I think each of them paid their GPZ's off the 1st year, but in all truth, they hunt gold nuggets much more than I do. I also like to chase Civil War Relics back East, Water hunting for gold/platinum rings and just love the older US coins too. Being a multi task detectorist keeps me on my toes with a variety of detectors and know that I enjoy sharing with my customers. I guess you and I need to swing some new ground with their 7's instead of going over the same old stuff we hunted in years past with the GPX. My gut tells me this year I'll hit a nice one with at least an ounce of Au in it though...Hope you do the same. Thanks for sharing.

That terrain is amazing looking Tom and glad to see you out there tasting a different variety of detector flavors. Good to see you enjoying some heavy metal and Spam. I myself enjoy it and for some reason my wife thinks it is evil. Thanks for sharing and we need to do a hunt later this summer.

That is an interesting find and it sure would be nice to know when/how it arrived at that site. Did you detect it and then look down or did you spot it before swinging a detector over it? I was with some clients detecting in Oregon years back and one of them dug a beautiful green bottle. At the bottom was a couple ounces of mercury in it. Not sure what he did, but I guess there could have been gold in the mercury too. Cool find.