GotAU?

OK, I have to admit that Valen’s Legacy’s account of the meteorite reminds me of this classic…

Cool!

What a cool sighting, especially if you heard it! I think their distances can be deceiving though, it was probably very high up and looked like it was falling locally but was merely following the curvature of the Earth as it fell while still traveling away from you. If we had a flat Earth that effect wouldn’t be so dramatic! Go to this website site to track it and to see if it was close though - if pieces of it landed near where you live there will be a lot of competition to find it if you don’t go soon - if not already! https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-falls/how-to-find-meteorites/

Yeah, a lot of my favorite ones caved in as well. We were surveying some back in the ‘90’s when there was a large local earthquake and it really messed them up. Too bad also, they had cool stuff still left inside that we didn’t get to take photos of (we weren’t allowed to collect anything).

I used to do mapping and surveys in abandoned mines for the Forest and National Park Service. As mentioned by others, any adit that heads downhill or is below where you are standing can be a pocket for dead air, particularly heavier than air gasses that you can’t smell (some in high concentrations) like carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and methane. That’s why we had to carry gas detectors for it. There are winzes that lead to different levels that as Steve mentioned, that can be covered by debris and easy to step into. Many old mines have weak and deteriorating collars that can collapse if you are standing near a shaft opening, and some mines have winzes that lead all the up to the surface where ore was dug out from below so there is no tailing pile nearby indicating there is a hole in the ground. There are people who didn’t notice this and drove into them. One year a couple marines drove their SUV into one, and one of the guys survived the initial fall. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning though when he lit one of their tires to make a signal fire. Another guy died when he and a bunch of friends were out exploring a deep mine when the battery of their only light, their video camera, died and they had to crawl around in the dark to find their way back out. Unfortunately, one of them fell into another winze and didn’t make it. Another thing to look out for are things that jump out at you from the side walls, seriously! A coworker was doing bat surveys in mines and was capturing them with a net. Something flew by her from the side wall of an adit and she caught it in the net in mid air, but then the net started buzzing. It was a rattlesnake that jumped out from high on the side wall! They apparently can climb up walls to catch bats.

I only have a minor in Geology and am an amateur rock hound, but I’d say those “conglomerated” rocks are breccia, a type of sedimentary rock with more angular materials cemented together. If the breccia and bedrock (can’t tell from photos) form an edge like in the 2nd photo, that contact between it and the gneiss (metamorphosed granite) can make for good gold potentials in gold-bearing areas as they may collect gold washing downstream. You could take soil samples from the cracks and in the very bottom of that area above the bedrock and pan it.

Doc, there’s survey data posted online by CDC and NASA on firefighter and astronaut anthropometry- it may help but as a lot of us, including myself, don’t have bodies like astronauts and firefighters (anymore at least 😉), maybe it won’t… 😆 Anyway, if it helps, mine’s 18 inches, unless I’m hunched over with my shoulders drooped like when wearing a pack, so an adjustable rod would be useful.

Mitchel- if you’re worried about it, sell it before you use it and perhaps trade it for a Garrett carrot or something like that. i’m still using mine because it’s used, still works well, but won’t be worth much to sell.

They are good for coins and other bits, especially when you dig deeper or off to the side of them, then it’s a timesaver. I use mine while prospecting to weed out iron for my PI. It does go bonkers sometimes, you will have to turn off and then back on occasionally. Keep in mind it’s my first Pinpointer, so I don’t have much to compare it with. Others with more experience about these probably have a more accurate opinion and review.

Sold out, my eye! We know your warehouse has more in it somewhere, including all those little hard to find Minelab pouches and a truck load of Thompson drywashers! 😉

Welcome! There are certified Minelab dealers all over the world, and as you did not mention which country you are from, perhaps going to the Minelab website will be a good place to start your search from: https://www.minelab.com/where-to-buy Return to this forum if you have any questions! The Equinox 800 is a great machine, you should do well with it! -Anthony

Your wish has been granted- now use your last two as wisely as you did the first!

PM sent- thanks Doc!

Jim- didn’t you find one of those in your backyard also? 😉 The guy in Mexico who used a RS detector to find the 389oz Boot of Cortez (and sold it for just $30k to his boss) let go of a $1.3M + nugget (valued from its 2008 auction).

The Boot of Cortez - the guy bought a basic metal detector from RadioShack and paid it off pretty quickly!

They decided to raise prices because Minelab wants to help out Garrett in the Australian market.

that would be cool if you could make a touch table for the local science center. If there’s a way you could make it show faulting types that would be interesting too. Check out the MakerMade Maslow CNC router kit- it’s on 40% Black Friday off sale right now- it has an odd way of running the router head on its x and y axis, but it works very well and is accurate. It handles up to a 4x8 piece of plywood, making it very good at doing cuts for large projects like cabinets and signs. One drawback is it doesn’t have a very deep Z axis- and it’s not really a carver - just a cutter but you can do steps for contours with it.

Nice work Jason! I saw a similar print at the recent JPL/NASA open house. They 3D printed the terrain where the Curiosity rover is at and had a little scale printed model of the rover on it (much bigger than the terrain). It looked like a great way to teach how to read topographic lines and about different types of landforms for students. I meant to try it out sometime- thanks for the link to the Iowa State University site- it will make doing this a whole lot easier!

Wow Reese, that flake has some really interesting deposit patterns in it! Nice! I really like seeing pattens of how it forms, that one looks like many little chevrons stuck together.

Welcome! You will have to post some more photos sometime of your part of the world, looks interesting! This is a great book if you’re just starting out and need more help on how to look, especially on what to look for with deposits in the hills near stream beds and such. And it’s on sale right now from the author Reese Townes @Goldseeker5000

Yeah, I miss those also, it’s been a long time since I could do that.

Worms are for trout, the tasty ones from my campfire.

My son got a specimen ring that was gold veined white quartz- it was polished nicely and set flat in the ring. There are many classy ones out there that don’t look like golden poo. Nice nuggets though, it’s amazing how variously gold nuggets are formed.

Yeah, the little BMS (battery management system) built-in to the batteries should keep them from fully discharging. That’s another reason why these are so expensive to replace, it’s a shame to throw them away without just replacing the cells.

Like other expensive lithium powered gadgets such as drones and things like that, I wouldn’t think the 6000 will actually truly let it fully discharge a battery in order to prevent damaging it, so hopefully the 6000 isn’t doing that. Northeast is correct- Lithiums don’t have a memory, but they do not do well if fully discharged, especially if stored that way. From what I learned, it’s best to store them between 50-75% charged if storing them for longer than a week (partially charging them to that is OK).