I've had a detector since I was about 9 years old. I got my first "bigger one" from Radio Shack as a gift when I was 14 (big nerd). That was all relic type hunting at the beach. parks, etc.. I was then out of it for most of my adult life until I got a Garrett 1150 in 2010 and did more beach combing around the LA area. I stopped over time with the trash on those beaches being overwhelming after a while.
I got the bug to start looking into gold a few years ago, and I do a lot of 4x4 exploring with some serious equipent so it seems like a great combo. I researched all forums, reviews, videos etc for a year straight. I went to gold shows, in Vegas and SoCal. Sat in on lectures and asked guru's lots of questions. and 6 months of thinking and studying more, I finally got a deal on a GPX5000 with a great coil package.
I'm just now getting back from another trip to gold claims run by AMRA and another small prospecting group Im a member of and I'm starting to get that feeling... The one where you want to give up after digging countless holes and getting nothing back but bullets and junk. I think I got my technique down as Im finding even tiny bullet fragments and pellets. Never a nugget of any kind.
What do you guys do if/when you feel tired from trash? Do you ever team up with someone that has had luck? lol maybe that's a stupid question because who would share good location ideas!? I do all the suggested things Ive read here. I went to a few old gold mines as well but the bullets, WOW... one had 1000's of shells everywhere so i just left. in fact two guys pulled up when i was leaving with rifles and targets. ENDLESS lead in the ground there. Same with the others I ran into.
I dont know anymore. I've spent countless hours out there since, from NoCal around Placerville to Nevada to Mojave. The claims I hit are all full of junk to the point where some would take a year of digging to find anything, to others that never hit on a thing other than a rare nail or washer, with one wire being about like a human hair! (the 5000 with a nugget finder is sensitive !)
I need to rethink what Im doing I guess. I can't afford the fuel to keep randomly driving down miles of rough roads and hours of highway. Either it's all dug out and I wasted a lot of my savings and need to sell it, or I need to figure out a whole different way of finding places and/or team up with someone more experienced on the gold side of things to share ideas with. And yes I study maps of old mines, join gold clubs and even try to figure out what western US region people are in that post youtube clips of finds... but so far, nothing, and I'm all out of gas money for the month.
Pic samples of my "success" so far!