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Ok Ray, In your book on page 14, you mention looking for Diorite as a gold indicator? Unfortunately, I have no idea what Diorite is? Do you have a photo? Book is well written and keeps my attention like an action novel...sure hope it has some stories of your North Carolina gold dredging adventures? -Tom

A fossil hunter I chatted with this weekend, says concretions found near strip coal mines have the BEST chance of containing fossils. They are generally oval shaped , not round, and can have fossil fish, ferns, trilobites, and such..and these fossil bearing concretions are generally reddish /orange -Tom

Thanks Reg.I found/eyeballed a local area rock shaped sorta like an Apollo space capsule and looked like a stony meterorite inside it, gray with sparkly bits.I only picked it up because it had a thin black paper thick crust on the outside. Unfortunately,it is non magnetic. There is a parking lot over that area now ....rock was broken by the farmers plow...I have heard there are non magnetic meteorites...maybe I should take it to the Chicago Field Museum one of these days..they are sposed to have 1400 meteorites in their collection.. -Tom

I have no idea what Ground Phase means, can somebody please explain? Something to do with the amount of black sand in the dirt? I've always heard you may want to set up a highbanker or drywasher where a LOT of ground minerals/black sand are present? Is that true and how do you find these spots? Is there a Ground Grab on this detector? -Tom

This one has the Kleer technology, still in production, AND a tiny AA powered transmitter or plug in the wall and LOTS cheaper than the TDK version at $155. The Sennheiser 160 is $115. See what you think? http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-RS-160-Wireless-Headphones/dp/B002SOU2Y0/ref=pd_cp_e_3

so, the stony ones are loaded with iron too then?

And they showed Steve as one of their field testers I noticed? Must be nice....

Are the meteors worth anything? Are they iron or stony? I saw a fireball arcing down by our local airport on my way home from work a few weeks ago. It was a bright white ball of light the size of the sun which suddenly disappeared ,kinda freaked me out. I saw one a few years back and it was like a giant green ball of fire arcing over my car with a short green tail behind it. I had to go sit at a gas station for a half hour cause it kinda rattled me . So, whats a meteorite sound like on a GB 2? A hotrock, coin ,or ? -Tom V.

Is it possible to build a dry washer that is dust free for those of us with asthma issues? -Tom

Do you get a lot of flat tires from cactus? How do you tell if the GoPro is actually recording anything since they have no built in LCD monitor?

Tesoro Compadre is the cheapest and easiest to use and great discrimination,Only 1 control knob.Great for hunting tot lots and playgrounds and decent depth. Have heard it can even see match head size gold nuggets.Super liteweight, like 2 pounds, lifetime warranty.

I get better depth on coins in the spring when the soil is moist vs the dry summer months, so there must be something to this idea? I'd say an extra inch or 2...or that rich black topsoil dirt is better than dry dirt too for depth . -

Steve, Was just thinking the better gold might actually be on top of these tailings piles as that was the deepest point the dredger went to and was probably at or near bedrock where the gold is sposed to be the richest? The poor dredger would have taken home some gold but would have done all the hard work for the gold panner to take advantage of is my thinking? I remember a day at Knightstown,Indiana.I highbanked all day and found hardly a speck. Then a man and woman come by, greenhorns, newly bought gold pan in hand, and they head straight to my cone shaped tailings pile.A minute later they asked me if the yellow specks in their pan were gold? Dang, bright shiny yellow pinhead gold flakes they had, right from the top of my highbanker pile !! That taught me to run the sluice as FLAT as possible and might have to ignore the 1 inch of slope per foot of sluice box I had always been told even if the riffles do appear to be loading up? A steeply angled sluice , even at 1 inch per foot, can just flush the fines and small flakes right out the end for sure !! I wonder how much gold the commercial mining operations lose that use wash plants, considering how fast them sluices run? -Tom

Looking forward to the book,placed my order today. -Tom

Just watched another great DVD tonite from Chris Ghoulsen and Arizona Outback. Title is : Arizona Outbacks 2008 Prospectors Outing. It is held at the LDMA camp at Stanton, Arizona, below Rich Hill. 5 speakers and Chris Ralph was 1st up. ( I didn't realize he was into granny glasses already....hehe.. ) gives a good talk on gold nugget formation theories, then Chris G gives a talk on finding gold nuggets, tips ,tricks, how to read the land for gold nugget potential, coil selection, and confesses it took him 18 months to find his 1st nugget so patience is a must, his father gives a lecture on the differences between VLF and PI machines and basically how they work, magnetic fields and electricity, and such, and another guy discusses gridding for gold on old patches at Quartzite ,Az...video was well worth 20 bucks..great soundtrack, NO wind noise,and HD quality . Sure wish college professors were as interesting to listen to as these guys were? I stayed awake for the whole thing .... -T

Could you simulate bad ground by using bricks in an air test? Some of them tend to be loaded with iron minerals altho I don't know how to tell which ones? Cinders can make for pretty tough detecting too. My aunt had a yard full from the burn barrel and it was next to impossible to detect there. Its kinda hard to ground test outdoors in mineralized ground at times but you could stack bricks for quick indoor mineralized air depth tests perhaps? Maybe even collect the black sands from gold dredging/ drywashing and make mineralized bricks...just a thought... -Tom

This was an eye opener. Indiana gold dredge tailings piles reworked via panning contained good gold. Dennis tip was to watch for where the dredgers are running their machines with really fast water flow, then pan their tailings piles. He gets quite a few pickers. I always wondered why people still get good gold at places like Gatesville,Indiana, where the same gravel bars must get reworked 100 times a year? -Tom

I just found out the 2016 GMC Canyon will have a 2.8 liter diesel option .Sure wish Toyota had that option on the Tacoma, my favorite pickup truck?

I guess this topic deserved a new thread. Does Steve have a photo of his 4 runner and the sleeping bed setup? I'd like to see that. The 1995 4 runner was the last one with the electric rear window and fold down tailgate if I remember right? I always wondered how a guy was sposed to get up to the roof rack to stash things without having that tailgate to stand on? The Sprinter van is a narrow van compared to say the Ford Econoline which is actually no longer being made I understand? I would go for a used 4x4 rig when the time comes to retire my tiny little 2010 Subaru Forester. I barely have room for a baby dredge and baby highbanker plus camping gear and food but she does get almost 28 mpg highway on a good day,always a tradeoff and is all paid off which is a BIG plus since I lost all my work Overtime a year ago. What did that little trailer run you Fred? Got any inside photos?

I am waiting for the 2015 Mercedes/ Dodge Sprinter 4x4 van with 6 cylinder diesel engine and low range transfer case myself, can't justify megadollar metal detectors anymore with retirement just around the corner. Am sure the van won't be cheap either especially if converted to a 4x4 camper van...No real details on the van, ,just test drives for reporters at their distribution center in South Carolina. Has anybody else got more info on the van? Seems like it would be the ultimate gold prospectors camper van... -T

Well guys, the cheapo Ebay scale was impossible to calibrate and claimed my Indiana picker weighed 4 grains? And then the display would jump all over shortly after telling me this. Sooo.....I took Steve's advice and just acquired an RSBS 750 powder scale off Ebay. Dunno how I got it for only $77 and free shipping ? It has a price tag of $139 on it and the RSBS website shows it at MSRP of $166. It seems to be brand new and was easily calibrated.I have it hooked up to the AC adapter for now. See photo below. The RSBS scale says my picker weighs 1.8 grains, so is it officially a gold nugget? Guess I will try to return the other scale.I have been told these electronic powder scales can be EXTREMELY touchy tho..The RSBS scale seems to be more stable than the cheap one. -T

Cool video, but it seems to me that driving offroad and especially cross country is a major league NO NO. Goes totally against the Tread Lightly protocol to only use existing trails and roads, not to mention the greenies would definitely NOT approve. Walk the areas that do not have trails !!! Avoid damage to plants and sensitive desert terrain !!! Erosion can be a serious problem from ATV ruts. -T

Did you get a new 4 Runner for your trip? Thanks for the great story. -Tom

I 've seen hand scoops like it but none with an angled foot pedal and long handle. What size are the holes? There is a company on Ebay selling some nice beach scoops and they are made in Ukraine of all places? I think they are called the Stavrscoop. They have either long pointy digging ends, or the shorter curved ones that I like and the angled backside, for around $150, but do NOT include the handle.

I like the scoop on the left. Is the backside of it angled for a footpedal? -Tom