IronDigger

GB, That piece was part of a two piece belt plate that clips into what they call tongue holder part of the belt buckle. I have found military issue ones but they are made (cast) from brass and are solid and heavier compared to the ones mass produced. Many of these found today in the goldfields are bought by gold seekers headed to the goldfields from for example San Francisco or their local merchants they bought other provisions before they set out on their quest. As far as buttons, i have also found eagle D's , and A's center of eagles chest. Those are cavalry ..D stood for the Dragoons. I am no expert, just research I have done after a find..always curious as to what it is and where it came from. Don't throw any of those away....they are valuable to collectors.

Scored some nice ones form this spot over the 2 years I'v been hunting the area...So far I have hit it with coils sized 14" to the sadie...lots of cleared ground. Looking forward to my new 18" Elite Thanks Luke ! coil that is arriving on Friday to go over the area and see whats deeper. I had a nice deep signal today also, after digging down to about 16 inches....heart pounding and anticipating a large nugget I dug an eagle belt buckle piece. Once a blue moon I find a piece to a buckle. The sweet thing about this eagle is a about a year ago I found the tongue holder part of the two piece belt buckle just 15 yards away. Don't think its military as its very light in weight..but still a cool find!

Mitchel , Have you hunted the beaches north of Santa Monica Pier? I used to hunt Zuma and Westward Beach in Malibu and did okay. Another hot spot I liked is Leo Carrillo beach...a few scuba shops take their beginner scuba students for a beach dive at Leo Carrillo. That's where I learned also years ago and I remembered that a few students lost some nice gear on their entry and exits thru the surf. They would lose weight belts, cameras and such. Of course its not jewelry but their is a potential for that too.

Did my choirs all morning and by noon time thought I'd go out for a quick hunt. The days have been nice and cool, ground soft after a few days rain so I went to the usual spots I have been clearing up of iron trash and nuggets. After about 2 hours of wandering, paying attention to my swing speed and listening very carefully I got this sweet mellow tone...along the bank of a small creek, digging down about 7 inches I found this sweet little nugget 1.47 grams.

Royal in Santa Ana..they have a shop inside their manufacturing plant. Closer to you than Chatsworth..they also deal in detectors and produce their own prospecting equipment. Keenes great also....

Thanks fellas, yeah I am going to pass on this one.....theirs one on Ebay 75.00 bucks if anyone is interested in it.

Hi folks, I am interested to know if this coil is any good? It looks like an older model Nuggetfinder...If anyone is familiar with the performance of this coil please let me know. Only reason i ask is because I would like to buy it, but I don't know much about the early Nuggetfinder coils quality. If any Aussie shooters or here in the States have any info, I would appreciate to hear what you think of it. Thanks !

I've hit spots dozens of times with different size coil...after all that of course the ground is what I call " DEAD " but for some reason or another...I'll go back and find another one, and at times way bigger than I would expect!! So, its a mystery...mind you that dead ground doesn't give up as much anymore...as it used to.

We're also getting some rain today..thinking I should have bought an sdc 2300 and a raincoat. But come to think of it I can wrap a bag over my control housing of the 4500 and a waterproof coil. Thankfully No snow....that would put a damper on my hunting time...

I continue enjoying this thread, thanks again. To hear these stories of the old glory days of electronic prospecting is a treat.

I like the forum as it is Steve....if it ain't broken why change it. I'd rather talk detectors and nuggethunting than politics with my fellow forum members.

You have to consider many of us hunt grounds that are not flat like Australia. Up here in the Sierras it's mostly steep slopes and ravines. Most of the ground is covered in manzanita, buckbrush, and many other varieties of bushes that make it difficult to swing a heavy detector. When I detect I am constantly on uneven footing either walking up or down.swinging the gpx .crawling on all fours under bushes and trees...This is one reason I have not upgraded to the GPZ....so yeah, I lighter detector will come one day, when that day comes I will get it, but for now my gpx4500 works just fine. Just my 2 cents.

JW, I have that coil...nice coil but I am finding that I like the round mono coils better do to the fact it just responds better to deeper targets than elliptical. I need a deep punching coil as I have the smaller coils covered...been trying to get the new Detech 15 superdeep coil but it's not in the U,.S, as of yet. Think Australia has them...but again a 15 compared to a 16 or 18 " coil ...I am thinking 16- 18 coil will get the punch advantage.

I had the 20 " at one time, thankfully I found enough gold to pay for it and than sold it as it was way too large for most of my hunting grounds . I Am thinking the 16" will be as big as I need with enough punch. May just go for it and give it a whirl and see what comes of it...goldwise.

Just wondering has anyone used a 16" round advantage mono coil as of lately and if so what did you think of it? I know many of you have upgraded to the zed, and most of the talk lately has been on the zed but there's still some of us with the gpx. Been silencing my old patches of trash and gold and been thinking of a new coil to get to hit the old patches and hopefully squeeze some nuggets deeper out of range of my Orange 15" Coiltek mono. I am thinking a 16" - to a possible 18" advantage coil max for the areas I hunt.

Could it be a Goldmance........sorry I had to go there. Nice nuggets !

Pretty gold.....

Thank you for sharing your stories and photos of nuggets from Australia...Looking forward to hearing about the Washington Nugget Hoax.....

Amazing , no two alike.....and did I say HUGE....

Wow, thats HUGE...

Incredible depth ...nice job and speci...gpz seems to be the ticket for those dead patches.

Wow, that SUCKS !!

I have found incredible deals at garage sales and of all places the SPCA....a bag full of gear for 50 Bucks ! Nice stuff but dang that's some cold dredging.

A new coil would be nice...from Minelab.....

Hope nobody minds this link...a great song "intermission" between all these fine posts...