Rick Watkins

Wasnt there talk of a few early 2300s that falsed on green plants and they were told to send them back because there was a problem with a select few of them? It was on this forum i believe this was mentioned

Wow what a lesson,ibet that is in the back of their minds,what a missed game changer. So it really wasnt that long ago after all.

I heard this rumor once white had chance at buying out minelab, any truth to this? It was years ago.

Nice pieces, pretty solid looking wire.

You guys pull much sponge gold yet with the 7000? Also REALLY curious to see that wire mass sometime, 20 grams has got to look pretty cool. Rick

I see exactly what you mean about identifying by picture chris,i looked at hundreds of rock and mineral pictures and to be honest looks like several possibilities. Maybe copper? Rick.

They are on top of things

I will rethink this for a bit,dont want to get anotherENDANGERED SPECIES started. I will get my fatherinlaw to cut one and we will find out, probobly just gold nuggets.

Thanks for the info.guys, looks like some good research thanks chris. I will cut some of the inside eggs and see whats there,we are in very fossilized country here i live 20 miles from fossil oregon they find fossils regularly at the highshool track there. Maybe space eggs i like that old theory. The picture of the two small eggs is the centers of them.

I havent cracked one of the inside eggs yet,or could cut one on a rock saw i guess. Looks like they fofmed somehow rolling.

Chris or one of you rock guys can you tell me what these are? I was digging a pond a few years ago and found a bunch of these strange rocks egg shaped and 300lbs to 5lbs they all look the same they have many layers that you can peel away to the core which every rock has a core to them containing what lookslike another egg all the cores are about the same size and are very heavy looks like a basalt egg.
Only way i can describe them is if you could take this little egg and roll it up like a snowball untill it was a big boulder. These were below10 feet of topsoil and in a light layer of small rock with dirt looks like this layer had been in water, they were very random where i would find one. Bedrock was17 feet and they were anywhere from here up to the topsoil level. I havent got a clue what formed here can someone give me an opinion, thanks. RICK

Reg, thanks for the explanation, i really appreciate all the help you can get from these guys on this forum, there is a lot of knowledge here for sure. And it sure saves time being able to ask someone that has already been there and done that. Rick

Reg, thanks for the reply i may try this one day. Makes sense to me on being able to still run the timings back up if too noisy. I will have my 2300 also to test against,just would like to know TDI could possibly see some of the sponge gold 2300 can with ease. Thanks again Rick

I guess if im going to keep this tdi it wouldnt hurt to try this tweek and mark it so i can turn it back if it doesnt respond well. I do have the very small coil i could try for this.

Glad to have someone with this TDI knowledge explaining this mod. I have wondered if this timing is closer to the 2300 now after this tweek. I seen first hand a 2300 pull out a very very nice pourus nugget that my TDI at every setting would not see at all. I wonder if this timing could hold the charge long enough to recognize this sponge gold. Got any comments Reg? Thanks Rick.

I totally agree with the expectations for gold AND silver inching up over the next few years at least.

Every indicator they claim is there that i have seen. And yes klunker im gonna save back for testing also.

Im not claiming to project anything, just watching...

I hear ya steve,im keeping mine around just because there is more for me to learn and it did find me a nice gold patch, i owe it a bit more time i guess. Rick

Steve did you ever try these modifications to your older tdi? Also wondering if you and chris did some more testing of the porous gold against other PI machines? Thanks Rick

Excellent end to the story,and yes i found one of those deep minelab holes on our claim also ,i had a GB 2 in my hand and it sounded like a overload signal but i dug on it anyway for several minutes i ran out of room with my pic and decided it must have been garbage, i figured i would come back with vlf at a later time. I remembered last year to go check it again 2 years had gone by now, signal was gone and it wasnt much deeper than when i quit digging on it. I will always wonder what that claimjumper pulled out.

Hopefully a 5 gallon can. No i dont want to know now i shouldn't have forgotten this lesson.

Heres my $1,500 beater, i take it just about anywhere i need to go. My dad did this conversion from 5th wheel to bumper pull, just unbolted the 5th pin and made the hitch from a log trailer reach and bolted it back in place of the pin ,so it can be used either or. I made the frame under trailer for storage i have hauled 4 wheelers,motorcycles, drywashers etc. Pulls great its only 20 foot so it doesn't weigh much.

It still isnt overweight at bumper,axle raised a few in. For clearance,going to add an extra water tank also.

I keep telling my wife on our vacation camp outs we can use this trailer instead of our big trailer but she said shes to embarrassed to ride with me.

Great adventure, if i never get up there myself at least i can look at your adventures steve and its almost like being there myself. Love all the great pictures of Alaska,and the beautiful gold from there.

Very nice pieces, really like to have that bear on a chain wanna trade for a pig?

Great story, yea winter is the worst, this has been a great place for me to get good information from a great bunch of VERY knowledgeable guys for sure. Good luck to ya in 2015.

I have ran my sdc very little but the warble doesn't seem to bother me anymore than running a TDI,actuallyto me its kind a soothing sound. It is easier for me to hear the slight change of tone with target with sdc than it is with TDI,just my opinion

Thanks for the info.guys,just wanted to say i ended up getting another charger alsofor SDC 2300 vanson (tenergy)combo v1199-8c universal charger &8c cell tenergy batteries 5000 MAH for $36.95. I thought this was pretty good deal batteries alone are at the least $32.00. Also the car adapter for original HC1HU charger that came with SDC.this adapter may fit the V1199 also, forgot to check on that $4.12 plus a little shipping. Anyway thanks for the info. RICK