oneguy

5 hours ago, Bill_S said:

Minelab Etrac

+2

I used to do nothing but coin shoot for the oldies and that etrac, once you get it figured, is a coin shootin sob!  Heavy but well worth the trade off with all the info it gives you won't waste a lot of valuable TIME digging trash!  Don't overthink it....keep it simple for starters then as you become comfy with it then play with the different settings, etc.  jmo

5 hours ago, goldseeker4000 said:

 For bedrock a Estwing rock hammer and a good set of chisel are essential. Have you tried using a gold suction tube after you loosened up the target zone?  Stick closer to shore as well as the benches along the river.

Hey thanks guys for the tips!  Got the Estwing/chisel and hand dredge.  Any benches are snow covered now.  I fall down in the river enough in summertime and will be staying very close to shore this time of year. I'll try and clean up my hole I'm working with the dredge, run GM to check bottom of hole, then run thru sluice, etc.  In between breaks for my shovel hurting back I'll take the GM along the shore and flip a few boulders and see if anything shows up????

thanx again!

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

  I find underneath the big rocks in the creek has more gold than behind or infront of them so I have to try roll them over.  

 

 

That's exactly what I found here also....underneath.  Thanks guys for the responses!  It just dawned on me that I have the same type boulders right on the steep bank that I can roll right into the river with little effort and check quickly with the Monster....duhhhh!!!!!!  I'm currently digging in same bank with fair results using conventional #2, pan, sluice. When back gets tired digging I'll flip a few boulders and check with Monster?  Gold here is like someone took a salt shaker and sprinkled it all over the land.  There isn't nuggets like Cali or Aus, etc. but a few larger pieces have been found.  I should also check my current hole (underwater) with the Monster......   This stuff is what I'm currently getting and about average for me...once in awhile a picker shows up.

Anyways...thanks again, you've given this guy some ideas

1 hour ago, LipCa said:

 

Maybe look up the bottom of small side draws that aren't running water(or much water) if you think the glacial gold is still eroding into the stream. 

 

LipCa.......  That's summertime stuff.....couple feet of snow here.  There'll be some of that next summer...thanx!!!

Guys...  Could use some expertise/advice about using the GM 1000 on the river?  I know I can't really explain the conditions etc but I'll try...bear with me?  First off it's winter and I have maybe 12-24" of bare ground between river and snowbank and river isn't all that low.  I have no idea how deep bedrock is and not much bedrock is visible along banks, even in summer.  This is also glacier gold and lots of it hasn't even thought about hitting bedrock yet. River also running pretty good, slippery bowling ball sized rocks, and drops off fairly quick. My thought was to take the Monster and just detect maybe up to 3' off the bank, in river, behind rocks, etc.  I won't be able to pack in a prybar for flipping rocks but will have my # 2 shovel, pan, sluice , etc. in case I have no luck tecting?  I was curious if any of you have had any luck shooting the shallows behind rocks in steady flowing water?  What I really need is what kind of scoop would you use in moving water (hopefully I could improvise at home)....????  I thought maybe a small metal pan, metal coffee cup, then I thought plastic coffee container, or just hope for the best and use my shovel and dump into plastic gold pan????   Any success stories, tactics or tips on river shooting in flowing water and retrieval tools appreciated!  I'm also new to nugget shooting and only have about 12 hrs on the Monster so that's why the kinda stupid questions....lol  Thanks!

Weather here got above freezing and I had the "itch" real bad so I contacted the nice owners of the claim that I had a permission on last year to see if we were ok for this year?  They said "go right ahead" so I loaded up my tracked quad and drove 45mins to the end of plowed road and tracked 6 miles up to the claim.  When I first arrived at end of plowed road I realized I'd forgot my coat!!!  I also had a camera in that coat pocket to take pics of the trip.  I almost aborted the trip but found an old sweatshirt and flannel shirt behind seat of PU and had on my bib overalls so threw that on and headed up.  Two ft of snow at the claim and had to shovel about a foot of snow off river bank and start digging. Only moved 6 buckets (2.5-3 gals) of -1/4 but got these little pieces and snuffered up a lot of colors/fines (not shown) after 4 hrs.  Hands and feet got a little cold but not bad and the trip helped cure the itch somewhat.   Had a blast and first gold of the season with the trusty #2, pan, sluice, rock pick.......   (pic of quad @ 7,000ft...not claim)

Saweeeet......  Take me with you when you go.....tired of cold and snow!  J/k.....gotta stay here to feed the stove anyways.

trash pouch

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Great haul!  How do you clean your nickels?

start with steel wool.......   I also use a mild abrasive like Bon-Ami and also a chemical toilet cleaner called Santeen.  I highly recommend NOT using the Santeen on pitted nickels...stick with the steel wool and maybe the Bob-Ami.  Don't use any of these on silver or copper.  Any dug nickels won't be in any kind of shape numismaticly for value so don't worry about using the steel wool....just keep rubbing until you get the results you like.  Some nickels are just too far gone and not much you can do.......

let us know how it works for you..........

Killer day on the silvers!!!!  Had to chuckle about turning away to nugget hunting 20 yrs ago....  I've been a coinshooter for 26 yrs and have run out of places to hunt unless I travel to the city so I've turned to prospecting/nugget hunting.

Here's the Barbers I got summer before last and the "keeper" nickels (luv chasing nickels).  Not shown are the usual mercs, rosies, washingtons........    I miss chasing coins but traveling got old.......

You definitely did good on the silvers!  Don't think I've ever beat 6 on a trip

Cabellas

A couple times I got the overload but just a couple.  I got into the habit of re- checking my holes years ago so got that covered. I also start out digging almost everything to try and learn the machine...then the closer I get to the end of the day the lazier I get and look for the cleaner hits....lol  I'll eventually get it....just takes more time.  Also really looking forward to getting on the claim with it, should be much cleaner ground and also looking forward to sticking that small coil in the river, etc.....

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the help.   I was hunting in iron reject and auto sensitivity and noticed that the GM seems to reject smaller iron but not the larger stuff?  These larger rusty iron pieces would hit to the right and sound off.  I started to use the "raise the coil" technique to determine if I was dealing with another large chunk of iron.....raise coil 12+" off ground and if still going off loud and clear...move on?  I also dug some old square nails while in iron reject?  I did notice that some borderline "iffy" signals would give me  a back and forth reading and also sometimes a rough, harsh, not clean sound like a lead bullet.  I also started to not dig some of the not so "clean" hits that wouldn't hit "clean" in several directions?  Any lead, even really small, would hit loud and "clean".  There have been several times I've thought while out "I sure dig a lot of iron for supposedly rejecting iron?"  But then I also sometimes notice the meter moving left and no sound....so I assumed the iron reject is working....just not good on larger iron????   This machine is pretty straight forward(?) but I suppose I could have something messed up in my settings?   I run in auto sensitivity (spot in center filled on display).....iron reject (shallow sign with only gold bar).....  Volume set about halfway up. I run Senhauser headphones.

I thought it would be best to run in iron reject and auto until I learned the machine better? Not to mention yesterdays area was pretty dirty with iron......   Is there a chance auto sens could be to "hot".....maybe try manual sens at a lower setting?  Maybe I got a bad machine?

Was out again today at the piles learning more about my new GM 1000.  Think I have approx. 12 hrs with it so far?  Today I think I dug up at least half of one old dredge...lol.  I dug several old rivets 3" x 3/4 -1", some big nuts 2-3", a lot of bullet lead, casings, a small amount of modern aluminum, and wasn't expecting to pop this V-nickel in same area.  Funny tho...V's are my favorite coin to dig when I'm coin shooting so I was glad to find it.  No gold yet but almost everything in the artifact range I dug today is old with lots of tailings and holes around so I think I'll definitely return next season at some time to search more?  I'm starting to understand the GM a little better but have a ways to go. Looking forward to seeing how it reacts up on the claim next season.......

Pretty cool stuff!!!!!!!  This old crap just fascinates me..........   And to think nowdays about a month ago I was on a FEDERAL mining claim and the Forest Service stopped by and told me I couldn't have my AM sluice box in the river, can't harm any tree roots, and to not "alter" the river course with the hole in the bank I was working.  I was in total disgust and also trying not to laugh....  Told FS this river has altered it's course for eons......also mentioned that a retired old 63 yr old cancer survivor with bad back, etc. etc. isn't going to hurt much with a # 2 shovel.......

My Minelab phones that came with my new GM wouldn't even work...bad connection!  So I dug out my Seinnhauser 280(?) pro's that I've used for my Etrac and also my drumming for over 7 yrs now and they worked fine on the GM.  They are noise cancelling audiophile phones with a LONG cord and come with a 1/4" jack and you unscrew that jack and underneath is the 1/8" jack. Think I paid $70 for them 7 yrs ago....????  Also stopped the external speaker sound.    Love em.

here's the piles I was playing around in.....  The hillside also caught my attention but I'm not 17 and no longer a mountain goat....lol

Thanks again all for the tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice....!!!!!

I'm new to nugget shooting and have recently got a Gold Monster a couple weeks ago.  I wanted to get a little time on the machine and there's snow on the claim I have access to so I took the machine out to some nearby dredge piles to play around.  I got about 8 hrs on the machine so far. These dredge piles are about 15' high and I quickly found out how dangerous climbing around steep, frozen big boulders was....lol  I did get a few "hits" on the GM on top the piles but after carefully removing rocks one at a time I realized whatever set the machine off kept falling down in between the rocks deeper into the pile the more I chased it?  Very little small gravel/soil type material....just big cleaned rock.  So I learned that hunting the tops of these piles will most likely end in defeat or injury.  I hunted just a few hrs on the wooded flats near the base of some piles.  So far I've dug lead bullets, casings, some iron, and new aluminum so the machine is working, etc.  My question may sound stupid but I'll throw it out there.....   Is there a semi productive way to search these piles?  Should a guy just search around the bottoms and flatter ground where maybe some of the finer material has finally settled?  I'd taken a rake along with me when I went but never really used it as the rocks in the piles were much bigger once I got up close....lol

PS.....Having only driven by these piles for years I must say that once I actually crawled around on the piles I was VERY impressed how much material those old dredges dug outta that creek.....amazing to say the least..........

Thanks