LuckyLundy

Fun times! Keep swinging Rick

Mitch, I've seen you detect and I've seen your pokes of gold...your on your way! But, if you think a noisy machine is the ticket, my book begs-to differ. What I was saying if the GM has to be maxed out run to be close to the GB2...why bother with the bumping coil noise? Seems Mike C, has the fix...you must be and old GP/GPX veteran. Rick

Steve, is more than right! In hot ground, looks like the GM is the winner and there is a million placers with hot ground the GB2, struggles on...or at least my patience! In mild ground the size of specks the GB2 can find boggles my mind. Do I need another VLF (GM1000)? I'd like to see a fix or hear it myself with the maxed out coil bumping noise issue. Rick

Now, I might just have to see one in action! Good shooting!

Hmmmmmm!

WTG Paul and Minelab Now get that coil down and dirty! Rick

Fred, Thats Rudy's GPZ. He added and extension to the lower shaft to swing the 19" coil. We have 4 of the 19" coils in our group and no one uses them...well except for serving pizzas ?. The extension works great if anybody does swing the 19". Rudy's size 14 feet and that coil wasn't working out for him. There is flex in the lower shaft with the added length. To me it seems like it would break. But, Rudy made it Rudy tough! Rick

Rudy, now don't be giving away all our secrets! I know there is less gold in Rye Patch after each trip we make there...lol. That coil in the hole doesn't do that dig much justice. The hole goes deeper behind the coils nose into the bedrock. Once we zeroed in, we didn't want to waste time busting out all the bedrock, just where it counted. Rick

Joe, Your visits this last Winter/Spring were not kind to any prospector! But, we did locate a couple spots for the now ground conditions to yield dividends. I'm sure your on Wolf Pack Detecting on FaceBook, I post most of our weekly finds there. Looking forward to your next visit with a "Hunt with the Bunch!" Rick

Randy, Rudy & I, missed seeing you this last Winter/Spring in Rye Patch. We talked about you helping out with Rudy's last big nugget at this location. This one was about 100 yards from the one you helped us dig. We had another couple watching this dig with big smiles as they held his nugget! Hope to see ya soon, Rick

Strick, Rudy, in his early days was a sponge with big ears. He listened, learned and now very common of him to out shot his Sensei. Wish you were out there, he really drank all my beers celebrating his hot coil, lol Rick

Mitch, They are there, but you have to have your ears on high alert! Rick

Condor, Rudy, is always looking in my cooler for them Redneck Eggrolls...he drank all my cold beers on this trip! lol. Next time I'll make a bunch so he fills up on them and leaves me a couple cold ones to enjoy after the hunt! Rick

All Winter/Spring in Rye Patch this year was a tough deal fighting the ground noise. We knew we had to wait till Summer for the ground to dry out for some spots that hold the deep gold. Robin & I, were on and extended road trip that started for a few days in Laughlin, NV and a hunt out in the gold basin area. Then a short drive to Las Vegas for a couple days and then ending up in Reno stopping here and there for a hunt on placers along the way. During this time, a couple Buddies where sending me pictures of their Rye Patch poke. Braving the heat and with night hunts fighting off the Rattlers with some impressive pokes! While in Reno, they told me to checkout weather for the upcoming weekend! What Spring time conditions in June! ? We made our hunt plans. I got home and unpacked Robin's Jeep and tossed my Detecting gear in my truck and the next morning bright and early hit the road with some heavy rains on the California side of the hill on I-80. Rains, gave way to partly cloudy in Nevada...new speed limit East of Fernly, NV is 80 mph, what! My hunting partners Rudy & Steve caught me in Lovelock filling my truck up and off we went...arriving at Rudy's last spot of deep nuggets at 11:00 am. Rudy, deployed out of Steve's pickup like a seasoned Veteran and was on his little patch as Steve and I, was still gearing up! He had two nuggets before we hardly had our detectors tuned, each around a foot deep. I knew the area and gave Rudy a wide berth respecting his 23" biceps ? as he swings and extra large pick with rocks flying in all directions on each swing of his pick. I soon, popped two deep nuggets and Steve yanked out a fabulous 2 dwt Chevron. We had to run back to the trucks as a heavy downpour of rain gave us a break for a late lunch. Soon after, hit it again, or should I say Rudy with a couple more nuggets before we headed back to camp. Next morning, was more of the Rudy show! He called me over to his chewed up 20 ft long deep nugget Patch for a listen of a target! I stuck my coil into a 6" scrap and heard the classic nugget tone...we both smiled at each other as I gave a head nod of approval ?. We now began a 30 minute dig through the shale. Rudy's pick at 15" had to give way for my special bedrock pick in the back of my truck. At 20" this target was screaming bloody murder on the GPZ, but so does a 2 dwt'er! Many breaks later and another 4" deeper we knew we were close. Rudy's pen pointer was pointing at the crevice in the bottom of the hole. Steve, finally works his way over to see what we are doing on our bellys with our heads in a big hole! I give way, as I heard his bench made pocket knife open up and Rudy moved his giant finger away from the pointed spot. A couple scraps and out pops the fruit to the effort of the dig! Over 8 dwts nugget, is sweet in any gold field new or old diggings. Steve and I, bowed to Rudy as the King of the short hunt weekend as he added a couple more before he finally let us pick up the scraps in his mini patch. He was laughing at our misfortune sipping a cold one in a lawn chair for a couple dinks! But, it's the hunt, the thrill. What a great hobby to keep your blood pumping...over 18 dwts on them coils. The trip home with a cold I picked up from Robin, hit me hard and so did the surprise snow storm on top of Donner Pass. Home safe and nursing my cold and wishing I was on the hunt, before the heat comes back to the high desert! Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

I use it all the time in Manual Ground Balance. I also, retune when I can't keep a stable Threshold. Seems to help? Rick

Cool looking headphones! Rick

Another tip for hot noisy ground is to hunt in Ground Balance Mode in Manual, and turn your sensitivity down to 9 - 12. I have my quick button set up with a push of the button to switch from Manual to Auto Tracking. I don't want to say that the GPZ, will track out a target...but, switching back and forth on occasions has added a few nuggets to my poke! Rick

WTG! Rick

Beatup! Sick up and Feed out, or is it Feed up and Sick of, lol. Rick

Kiwi JW, Theres still a ton of snow in the high country of Northern California. Talking about snow skiing into July! It will be nice to look at it from a distance and wishing to be rolling around in it soon enough here, lol. Rick

Fred, No cake walk down there this time of year! I may have tossed 50 of those hot space rocks in the Dales! lol. Good shooting Rick

Fred, Rye Patch, is a tough gig this season! By the time it's dries out there you'll be fighting the heat. Pine & Cedar Trees are calling me, if Summer ever arrives! Rick

It's been and extreme wet season in my hunting areas for months! Back in the day when I dredged, I'd be jumping in the creeks hitting my known gold lairs. But, and extreme wet season for chasing nuggets with a metal detector isn't necessary for success. Wet soil means extra hot ground as we fight the minerals in the different soils of our goldfields. I swing the GPZ 7000 and like many High Yield/Normal is my favorite setting when the ground permits a smooth Threshold. But, for months I've been stuck in High Yield/Difficult. Using Difficult, means some different gold tones to store in your mind too. Our entire hunting group this year has had to simmer down their SDC 2300 and GPX's to combat this wet season soil conditions. In these hot soil conditions expect numerous hot spots of minerals that sound like a likable target. You have to check these spots out! Mineralized hot dirt most of the time will not get louder as you dig a couple inches. Hot rocks can/will get louder as you dig, but most of these spots you can try to ground balance out before you dig deeper...some! A real target will sometimes fool you in hot soils. It's may sound good as your digging it and out of the hole. But, in the pile hard to hear and may sound like hot soil. Kick your pile flat helps to bring your target back to life. Who said, in metal detecting you'd need a Criminal Justice Degree in syphring out a true target and catching a sly nugget in hot soils...hard enough in good conditions! This trip, there was no skunks in our hunting party of 5, my two are top center and the big one was just shy of 1/4 oz 4.89 dwt. Until the next hunt! LuckyLundy

Mitch, Your more than correct! My fast speed is slower than a ton of people I see swinging in the gold fields. Coil control is just as important...you have learned and your poke is showing your study & practice! Rick

I have a few Analytical friends, that are full of facts to share! I try to keep things as simple as I can...like weighing my gold in Penny Wieght (dwt) 20 to the ounce vs mind boggling 31.1 grams to the ounce! Now of course when we hunt for new ground, your hunting for one sitting Duck. Once that is found you hunker down with a slower coil swing in that area. Repeat process and GPS each spot with nuggets for future swinging. Now we park our vehicles and swing up to a half mile from parking spot and return swinging a different line. We move up to 3 times a day! So this last trip with 5 hunters at 3 miles a day swinging a coil, that's a ton of dirt. And with the desert soil being wet and hot, I know we walked right through a patch or two of nuggets we couldn't hear and found a couple of new spots for a later date revisit with better soil conditions. Sure we swing SDCs & GPZs, and they work magic in hot soils, but they aren't perfect! It's the hunt, that keeps my eye brow raised. Once I hear that perfect nugget tone, the hunt is over and I'm mining now, lol Rick