GotAU?

Oh wow, I saw that photo in the past and I always thought it was of Jim Straight. Thank you for correcting me. Jim Stewart certainly had his hands full with that unit! Jim Straight was a local here in California, he pioneered electronic detecting in our region along with some others back in the 80’s. He wrote some well-known books including dry washing and hard rock prospecting. One was called “Follow the dry washers” about prospecting techniques as well as detecting tailing piles. A lot of people on this forum knew him well including Steve and Lunk. I wondered about those eucalyptus trees… I’m curious, is the receiver coil on that CC 15-inches? I wonder how close other people can work near it with their detectors?

James, was that photo of Jim Straight and the Bismarck taken in Australia? If so, I didn’t know he took it there with him, or was it a local product? Now that I’m looking closer at the photo, I see eucalyptus trees all around him. It could’ve just as likely been taken here in the US, your weeds are all over the place here in California! Your 26” looks like it has pretty good sensitivity From your photo but it’s hard to tell size, what was the weight of the smallest nugget you recovered with it?

I’ve helped out Bill S. with a fundraiser on his site but he’s rarely on it anymore if at all too. A couple of good and knowledgeable members are the only ones keeping it alive now days. Bill keeps an archive of Jim Straight’s posts and a great meteorite thread alive on it, so I still visit often. But I have to admit I more often come here because of all the great information and help here.

I was thinking they’d wrap it in foil…

If Gerry’s mouth could get any larger, I’m sure we’d be seeing the next record sized nugget! 🤭

Jason, I was looking forward to your comments about this - have you detected any near Hecla? That geology report referenced above makes it sound like a pretty interesting area.

A proposed mine at Hecla, Wy (near Cheyenne), is currently in the permitting process, and independent economic studies estimate over 2000 jobs will be opened by it. The company is CK mining, and are proposing a site of about 900-acres to be quarried there. The company’s website has some interesting historical information and a geological report about the area: https://www.ckgoldmine.com/site-history https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_d9c22c808a6c7fec48fed1b6f801c02c/usgoldcorp/db/332/1560/pdf/Copper+King+Report.pdf[1].pdf

Wow, how beautiful! How do those chevrons form?

It may sound blasphemous, but I like that we can twist the coil on the 6k. I guess mine does have pretty good locks though, so it hasn’t been an issue. I did get a Brit made shorty rod for my EQ, but it can’t twist as the shaft sections nhave a rib running through them, making it harder to use on side hills and such because I have to twist my wrist to the side instead and so hate that. One thing for sure though, it certainly has a great feel to it and is surely sturdy, even the locks on it are solid so it’s a great rod for my larger and heavier coils.

Something else I learned from the article- Truffling…now that would be fun!

Yup, and that’s how I like my Drywasher to work also - can’t be losing the yellow back there in the tailings pile!

Have a great trip, please post photos! And really, you don’t need all those underwear, just 1 will last. Go front, go back, go inside-out, then go front and back!😆

Have you seen Dan Hurd describing gem sieving? how to pan for garnets youtube :

Ah, being into GIS- I used it. I would upload all the claim corners in an area I went prospecting on it so I could check where they were with the GPS in the field. But my phone Topo Map app is so much better, so I quit using the GPZ’s navigation.

We had a friend that liked to propagate desert plants and had a cactus garden in Az. She found out later that some of her small cactus buds were actually peyote! Grows naturally out there too so no eating them either!