IDMineralSurveys

The Nokta AU Gold Finder was going to be my first dedicated gold machine, but unavailable at the time I wanted to buy, so I picked up my GB2. Fast forward 3 years and it was going to be discontinued so my buddy was able to get one from Kellyco at 1/2 price. Have used it a few times and I think it's a very cool VLF, but I think it was too late for them here in the US.

I bought my GB2 from Gerry mid-April 2017. Spent a year in historic good gold area finding tacks, bullets, the tiniest of lead pellets. Early April 2018 saw me back up too soon - snow still between 4 to 8 feet deep in the mountains, so was forced to hit the only sunny ridge I could access - my first was 218 grains and I was hooked!

Chuck- An atv is going to get you to sites/claims efficiently with your back pack, rain gear and detector. Foot travel is fine for some areas close in to the lodge, but limiting if you want to return to the lodge for a meal and immediately back out. I was in excellent shape for nonstop hiking for miles and so I did cover a lot of ground but still used the atv to cover the long distance to claims I wanted to detect. They didn't provide transport typically for the guests to the claims because the trails are rough. They did make a few trips to town for some tourist type excursions - get supplies/learn about Nome mining/Bering Sea Gold/ etc. I took 98 photos on my phone and used it to text my family and friends. I didn't know the area so I studied maps and aerials closely prior to going.

I saw the owners at a gold show 2 weeks before your post and they remembered me from almost 4 years ago. I was talking with a friend tonight- I heard our group is planning to go again next year. Some from our GPA circle will not go back...not their thing, but like you said Chuck, it's the memories and something that I personally will hope to do again. The nuggets I found there were some of my best ever and a husband/wife team from Montana who had never detected before bought a Gold Monster and pulled up on their 4 wheeler asking my partner and I how to make it work. After a few suggestions on startup, I pointed at a boulder strewn area above the wash I was in where I had just dug a 5.5 grammer with my 1000, they hiked up there and the wife was thrilled to find her first piece of gold ever under thevedge of a 4 foot diam. boulder- 1.12 ouncer. Needless to say they were hooked. It's not for everybody, but I found the adventure rewarding. When you're there tell Auggie what you want for the experience- I did in the first day arrival and he set three of us up on a special excursion that turned into an event the three of us had not experienced ...a sow with twin cubs 30 yards above us in the willow brush. We turned volumes full without headphones that day, shouted to each other regularly and she moved away quietly. Detected some nice gold there and I look forward to exploring that hillside further. Enjoy your trip - PM me what your dates are. A couple other friends may be up there this summer. Mike

I'm not ever a joiner, but a group of like minded folks from N Idaho wanted to go, so we booked for 23 or so of us and were the first group there in June '19. I enjoyed the adventure and the people there immensely and even found some nuggets. It is NOT the kind of 'resort' for my wife at all, but when I am ready to go again I only have to say the word and she'll book it. Many of our group went up again last summer, but I wasn't able to make it. Are you thinking of going this year?

Lunk & Steve.... I've been wondering the same thing about Nokta coming forward

GM- You can research through the US Copyright office old newspaper articles... I think this was the link I used: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/ I was involved in a historical case from 1909 and had to prove the facts in existence from that time, which were slim. It would have been very easy had I been able to show the actual legals published in the local newspaper back then, which I easily found 3 years later in the local newspapers archived on that website. The pdf files are scanned, but searchable on OCR. Finicky, but with careful tailor of a specific word to search, you may find that it can be quite helpful... I was able to find all three published legals associated with my case, which I did get a positive outcome on, and then later was able to print off copies of the scanned old legals to put in the case file. So I also have several legends of Lost Gold in my local area. One is a tale told to me as a young lad by an old guy who used to work at the Forest Service who truly believed the legend, but had no way to get better info or verification. He told of a rich lode find in the 1890 era and only a hint of where in the mountains northeast of town, but nobody knew the location where as the prospector died when he came into town. Using the prospector's last name which was unusual and unique, I was able to find 3 short newspaper articles from November 1889 which told his tale of death by unintended cremation in a structure fire. I had searched local cemetery records decades previous to try and find his name with the thought of proving to myself and my dad that his legend might be real and possibly uncover a few clues to the question of where to search. What I did find in the newspapers was that he and his legend are real, he had a huge haul of rich ore on his mule when he came to town and the names of two local important people who grubstaked him - and I was later able to find their burials in the local cemetery records. Nothing of this fellow's story was in a local paper that I could find, so I searched further away and found two southern Idaho newspapers carried articles published 4 days after the fire and one newspaper in Washington 2 days after the fire- I guess the event may have been too close to home and not newsworthy as everybody in town here would have already known all about it. I did not come up with any better clues on the location to search, but the "legend" is no longer just a yarn. I've a good idea for search areas and have made 3 hikes in previous years and plan to make some longer forays with detector and sampling equipment this year. So be sure to search using single "unique" names to the story far and wide, both in the local area and further abroad and look at later time periods also - you may be able to uncover a mountain of details which were lost to time... reprints are possible too. Even search further away such as the Seattle and Spokane Washington newspapers... who knows, it may well validate the case and clues passed through to you and help your grandson take the search to success someday.

Lunk on this forum (Keith) may be a consideration for a tester for a Nokta Makro PI. He is one of Gerry's instructors with dedication to serious gold detecting throughout the year and writes well detailed reports.

I began with small coils as advised by Gerry and Lunk. After two years with only one large nugget found, I was out on my first hunt with Lunk along (we were going up the same creek and general area) and as I recall he found 16 pieces that day covering less than 50 feet - compared to my 3 pieces, but I covered the whole hill... At that time I was using only the small coils, but I learned it wasn't necessarily the coil size equalled a level of success, it was certainly the technique that I learned that day watching Lunk dig nugget after nugget (Nox that trip) with only moving a few feet. I have now, years later switched over to 75% time using my larger coils, but using much better technique which was learned over many trips and still having as much success as with the small coils.

I haven't noticed anybody mention something I had learned during a trip to a good gold area in Alaska with my GM1000 - even large pieces of gold, whether shallow (4 in.) Or deeper (10 - 14 in.) typically always read to the iron side of meter most times initially, but sometimes would only briefly blip to gold side. So I ignored the indicator on first soundings, then would get much better accuracy reads by doing a couple extra passes reading strong iron and then immediately turn 90° and check the same target. I found much better accuracy of the meter reads were indicating gold upon turning direction. Iron tagets would still read iron (I dug them anyway) and were verified, but the little blips to the gold side turned up some really nice pieces of gold (72 pieces) - up to 1/4 oz at 14 inches. Later returning to Idaho, I have found this works quite well here also, so it has become a habit to NOT dismiss a target without multiple passes and in multiple directions checking with the meter indication. BTW, brass, aluminum, copper and lead targets read the same indications for me as if gold.