Jim_Alaska

Steve, this made me smile when I read it. I just have to tell this short story of a similar situation, only with a jet riverboat in Alaska. We were in hunting camp in a very remote spot, no one else ever came up the river where we were, so no help was coming when my battery went dead. We had been in camp a week and didn't use the boat. But when we went to start it it just clicked. It took a lot of brain storming but I came up with a solution that worked. I had a small chain saw for firewood in camp. I also has a spare fan belt. I took the chain and bar off of the saw put the fan belt where the chain went over the pulley on the saw. The fan belt then went over the alternator pulley. I wired the chain saw securely and started it. This effectively charged the battery and we were on our way in about a half hour. I have another weird story of starting a jet boat motor when the battery went dead, but I'll save it for another time. I just thought this might help someone else in the same situation.

LIDAR has come a long way since I worked with it in Alaska. I helped build and operate a LIDAR facility while working for the University of California at their remote research site in Fairbanks. Our area of research was ionospheric, we studied the Ionosphere gases for clues to what causes The Northern Lights. We did some ground penetrating work, but it was very limited due to lack of remote receiving sites around the world. Here are some pictures of the LIDAR building in operation and the telescope and laser. The laser light is yellow, which is the color of Sodium. We were studying Sodium at 90 km altitude. The sky is light in this pic because the pic was taken with a long exposure time. This rotating parabolic dish holds 450 lbs of liquid Mercury. It is used as a telescope because there is no distortion like we get in a glass mirror. The dish is 9 feet in diameter.

I had one just like this, just this week. I posted a wood stove for sale on Craigslist and get an email just like Johnny's, bad English and sentence structure too. Fortunately I have been around the block a time or two and recognized it for what it was. I sent this reply by email which ended any further contact. Avoiding Scams Deal locally, face-to-face �follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts. Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person. Beware offers involving shipping - deal with locals you can meet in person. Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) - anyone who asks you to is a scammer. Don't accept cashier/certified checks or money orders - banks cash fakes, then hold you responsible. Transactions are between users only, no third party provides a "guarantee". Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, paypal account, etc). Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen�that amazing "deal" may not exist. Refuse background/credit checks until you have met landlord/employer in person.

Marvelous post Steve. Although I may never be able to afford both machines, you have convinced me about the reliability and effectiveness of both. Although the only experience I have had with detectors is the Goldmaster Vsat, I am very comfortable with manual ground balancing, so I would probably lean toward the GB2. It's been around for a long time, as you pointed out and for me its effectiveness cannot be denied. Both you and Lipca's experiences with the GB2 pretty much had me convinced before, but this post you made really clinched it for me. Thanks for taking the time to write all of that out, it helps a lot.

That would be a good alternative, unfortunately any deserts are far away from me. I am in the mountains of Northern California.

That's right, the 300' rule is a real killer. It even eliminates the use of a gas vac in dry material if it is within 300' for a watercourse. These nonsensical rules are really seen for what they are when you have a situation like mine. According to the 300' regulation I cannot even clean up at home using my own water supply and domestic water pump, because I have a year round, small creek that runs through my back yard. Of course I rigidly adhere to this regulation.

I don't see where there is anything to open Harry. When I open the thread the pic is displayed prominently on the page. Perhaps any virus software you have is doing it.

Yes Luke, I have tried the detector there as well. That was the first thing I did. I also had a friend go over it with a Gold Bug. I have not found gold of any size there, it is all small, with an occasional picker. This bedrock is a bench on a terraced hillside that has been previously hydraulic mined. Consequently it is not flat anywhere, it is towering bedrock. I believe that the gold I am getting is left over from the hydraulic operation left behind. When I say towering I mean that some of it is eight feet from bottom to top. I don't find much, if any gold in the sparse overburden, it's all in the bedrock cracks. Actually the only overburden that is there is what was left behind, or what has built up in the hundred years since it was originally mined. I hope folks don't see my posts as being off topic, I worried about that at first. But then I realized that OP was about gold found with anything but a Minelab.

I am sure you are right Harry. And I have taken your advice to heart. But as far as investing hundreds of dollars in another detector is concerned I just can't justify, or even consider doing it with my only income being social security, it's just not possible. If I were still in the work force I would certainly consider a Gold Bug2. It is foolish to argue against yours and others proven results over the years. Even when I was still in Alaska I remember being amazed that you would post about going out for an hour in a morning and come home with a few nuggets. And still to this day I see you continue to do it all the time. Thanks for the advice Harry, I have learned a lot from you over the years.

Anymore with the bans on mining in California and Oregon, plus the problem with my legs, I am down to crevicing using my gas vacuum and hand tools. Fortunately I love doing this and it is something I can still do. It's not difficult to sit of rocks and clean out cracks. I am fortunate in that I have a high bench, close to home that has lots of exposed bedrock. I go at it pretty vigorously, using a two pound pug hammer and chisel to break the cracks deeper than just scraping them. I don't get rich, but do get some gold each time. Mine is a two step process because there is no water where I clean cracks. I have to clean cracks one day and then take the buckets to a small creek another day to run them through the sluice.

I can identify John. As I said in my original post, I always thought that once i became old and feeble I could fall back on metal detecting. Mine is not a knee problem, I have what is called Neuropathy, which is a condition of degenerating nerves in my legs and feet. I have no feeling from the knees down, consequently I can't tell what my feet are doing or what the ground under them feels like. I have to use a cane at all times, even when on a flat floor, otherwise I stagger around like a drunk trying to keep my balance. You can imagine how much harder this would be on uneven ground. So any detecting must be done with a detector in my right hand, because I am right handed and a cane in the left, which is backwards for me because I usually have to use my cane in my right hand. It just makes it twice as hard and even dangerous on hills, gulches and cobbles. OK enough of the depressing old guy stuff, you guys get the gold, I'll do the reading about your adventures.

Luke, After owning this detector for many years and using it both in Alaska and now California, I am convinced that my problem is one of persistence, or the lack of it. That, along with a healthy dose of impatience works against me. Steve has told me for years the same things you outlined. I am not saying that the advice is not good, just that I think I lack the persistence that it takes to find gold. I do have a "dig everything" mentality, which works against me because of the amount of trash. I have two good test nuggets and am very familiar with their sound at differing depths. That is what baffles me. I know what gold sounds like, but just can't seem to get my coil over any. I have hunted the same areas that both Steve and Lipca hunt, but no gold. It has to be me, not the machine or the good advice I have been given. I just don't get out detecting much, which doesn't help. Now with advanced age and the problems I experience with my legs, I find it extremely difficult to navigate uneven ground. I am just about to the point of nugget shooting vicariously through other's efforts, so keep posting good results, I love to read them.

This was really encouraging to me Luke, Goldmaster V/Sat is the only detector I own. That, plus not doing much detecting equals no gold. But, on the other end of the scale I find lots of nails. lead shot and small bits of other metals and hot rocks.

Sorry to post off topic Steve. You mentioned about the problems with your knee and shoulder and it got me to thinking about physical problems in regard to detecting.

With age all of us tend to start feeling the effects of physical limitations and increased medical problems. In many cases such as mine, it is hard for people to adjust to the fact that there are just some things that we cannot do any more. I always thought that when I got old enough that dredging and prospecting became too difficult, I could always fall back on detecting. I never even anticipated that I would become unstable enough that I could not walk on uneven ground. To even stand or walk on a flat surface requires me to use a cane at all times.

Johnedoe, I am in the process of asking that very question. I was told by a Best Boards admin that any other platform would have to be able to read the present board's code, which is not likely to be compatible. But I am working to try to do something for future problems. I am not sure why you found the platform non user friendly, I have never experienced it and no one has told me this before.

Thanks for the heads up beav. It is six am here on the west coast and I just saw your post notification in my email. You are right, they are back up. I have no idea why, or if it will last. I did send a plea for help to the Best Boards owner yesterday. I didn't think it would do anything since no one in his company has heard from him in a year. But something has happened. Thank you all for your concern and condolences.

Thanks guys, but actually it is you who have made my forums what they were. Without what members have contributed they would have been useless. I'll try to have something up again soon, I was kinda waiting to see if the forums might come back. Whatever I decide of for a forum host will be quite different from the old format you are used to, but we'll make them work.

Here is a link to what I posted this morning concerning this problem for those that may not see it:

Thanks Steve, these forums have been a great way for me to contribute something of value to the mining community for sixteen years. I feel their loss keenly.

Just a heads up concerning the Alaska Gold Forum and The New 49'ers forum for those who may be wondering why they can't access these forums. The main servers went down last week. No one knows why and the board providers cannot be reached to fix the problem. At this time it is unknown if or when these forums will come back online. There is a very real chance that they will not come back and I am now looking at different options for bringing them back under a different message board provider. The worst part of this is not just losing the forums for the mining community and loyal contributors and readers, it is also the loss of many years of valuable information. I just wanted to let people know why they cannot access these forums any more. Many times things like this happen and no one ever knows why. What has happened is beyond my ability to remedy as the forums administrator because the board format owners and servers belong to their owners. I have no way to fix the problem.

While portability holds a certain attraction for remote applications and ease of set up for those of us who are "getting up there" in age, I would like to hear opinions regarding the age old subject of reduced fine gold recovery that has been inherent in subsurface dredge applications in the past. How's that for a long sentence? Steve and Bob, were you satisfied with fine gold recovery on these subsurface dredges, or were you able to notice a difference between these and standard dredges?

tvanwho, I may seem confusing at first because he said this was happening in WA. But WA is not Washington State, it is Western Australia. They don't have Coyotes there.

Even at my age there is something to be learned every day. For instance, I didn't know that millionaires ate camels at all.

Great report. It sounds like this newest addition to our nugget hunting arsenal is something that detectorists have been looking for all along. features like eliminating the hot rock, while still revealing the tiny bit of gold are a huge step up in detector technology. This report really makes me wish I could step up from my ancient V-Sat, but alas, my wallet is way too thin. Thanks for a great, detailed report.