DDancer

Very kind of you dgatelyDP. :) I do hope other members will chime in. Typically the tags on the bags have the itinerary coded and displayed for baggage. However it is a good idea to keep things marked. Big thumbs up! Packing and labels are significant employ's to getting things to the final destination. There really are not to many other ways to do it short of being an aviation employee and having things shipped com-mat. *company materials*. Just gotta get it done. Honestly no one else can think of things? Hehh, It is the basics but if you do not work in aviation well...... get'r done.

Gotta say the stupidest excuse I ever heard for not filling your holes is "I leave the hole open so that seeds will collect and water will stay there. It helps the environment." That was out bush in 2006. I fill my holes, and a lot of others. Only one reason I leave a hole open and thats to come back the next day with my hand jack and a chisel. Like others have said, I also look for the holes, so why tell me about your patch unless you want me to clean it out. I know when I go back to my patches I have to know where they are because I cant tell I was ever there. As to camps.... only way you'll know I was there is by the fire wood left stacked nearby.

Over the years I've found I can go both ways however my preference is that I have some company back at camp. In the States going it alone is not a big deal to me *unless I'm down near the border of Mexico* but in Australia its a different story. My first go down under, in Victoria, I learned the value of having a mate you could get back to and share your experience's with. It gets lonely out there. This last season, 2016, I was well and truly on my own for up to two weeks at a time in some remote areas. My only relief was coming in for supplies and a day or two in the caravan park. But out bush its a bit of an irritation to worry about your camp, getting injured or just getting lost and not having much in the way of back up except your pick and native ingenuity. Camping alone also limits, for me, my overall range because of those worries. Granted camping up with friends and mates makes things easier but when I prospect I will move off to be alone often walking for K's in my search. Seen gold fever to many times to ever be comfortable, with exception of a select few who are immune like me, with group hunts. If there is more than two people in an area I will move off. This last season I stood my ground a few times when other prospectors unsuspectingly dropped practically on my camp. It was friendly but my own native distrust sent alarms off that were hard to calm down. Having company at camp also helps when your not finding anything. With good friends and mates we support each other and that's not just for the gold but in practical ways as well. Someone puts the billie on the fire in the morning, wood for the fire, bit of bacon or butter to help tucker along and stories or just complaining about the flies.... little things that make life enjoyable That aside there were a lot of very peaceful days and the solitude did me loads of good. Its a tricky balance.

Well I for one, and possibly a few others here in the States, am looking forward towards a new gold season down under. I know this subject has come up in the forum before, Taking your detector with you overseas, but its not been a stand alone topic and I have been unable to dig it out of the old topics where this issue has been discussed easily. So I've brought it up this way so maybe it'll be easier for others to find in the future when the concern comes up. Our detectors and associated gear are rather a pricey point of pride regardless of whether your just coin shooting or going bush. I am asking all with experience in this arena to pitch a comment so as that future traveler can find a comfortable accommodation on how to carry their gear. My way is not the best way but it works well and I understand the risks. Having taken my gear, both prospecting and coin shooter, overseas many times now~ primarily to Australia but also Japan and Europe~ I simply break it down and pack it well in the suit case as check bags. I carry the control box with me on-board with my carry on and in the case of the Zed I tape off the contacts of the batteries and carry them as well and declare them at the check in, present them for inspection *sometimes they re-tape them*, and go on about my business. With the advent of lithium batteries its important that you do check with the air carriers you plan to use on any limitations and I suggest strongly that you discharge the batteries to at least 50% prior to travel. This lessens the chance of any problems with the batteries and its a feel good you can tell the front desk if asked. Lead acid batteries like the old Humpy for ML's older SD/GP series should just be purchased on the other side as they are cheap enough however I have gotten them thru in check bags as well in the past. Other power supplies can be treated similarly. Now having said that there is the type of luggage to look for when traveling. First off measure the longest and widest parts of your detector or other gear, like a small pick, so you can obtain the right size bag. Look for one that has a solid back frame, soft frame luggage will not do, or if you have the cash a hard case. Bear in mind that you want to keep all bags under 50 lbs or you will run into fees and in some cases not be allowed to take them at all. Hard cases and Otter boxes are heavy. Due to weight I've had to repack a few times right at the counter just to get things thru even wear extra coats and put socks in my pockets to get thru. In the case of Australia you will want two cases however one can be smaller. Also look for something with solidly mounted wheels and collapsible drag handle. Expect to transfer planes~ those wheels will be important. I also pack an extra belt into the outer pocket of one so I can strap them together at the soft handles for transport, notch it to fit ahead of time as you wont have your pocket knife with you when the time comes. The solid frame back is needed to protect from flexure and impacts as the baggage is handled~ and it will be~ and your cloths will be the packing. Got bags, ok, so lets pack. A towel, pants or jacket is the first layer about an inch of padding off the rear frame. Now the coil/coils with clothes between them. Rods go in towards the middle. Use socks and shirts around the outter sides of the bag and between gear pieces. If you are taking a pick tuck it to the side and wrap it with jeans. *Just stick it down a leg and wrap the top well*. Your last layer will be mostly cloths about 4 inches thick and when I carry my pan it sits on top. As I said with Australia I carry two bags. I split my detector assemblies/gear and coil between them. Someone get nosy or a bag gets lost its only a partial loss and cheaper to replace than if a whole bag goes for walk about. Having stuff stolen is the Risk and should never be taken lightly. I know you wont like I wont.... its a pricey point of pride. The risk is also why I carry the control box. In the case of thieves they wont want the bits.... usually. Lost bags are in the next paragraph. Last point. Use those identity tags at the front desk and mark your bags with a distinctive bit of something ( ribbon, bungie, spray paint, ect). I have never lost a bag but they have wandered. That tag and bit of distinctive something, in my case its a chunk of black and white bungie knotted very securely to the handle, aid greatly in tracking down your wandering luggage. On the carousel at the airport all that luggage looks the same as well. Also TAKE A PICTURE of your bags and keep it on your camera or phone. Again if you have ever lost a bag when you go to report it they are going to give you a placard with a whole bunch of luggage and ask you what it looks like... if your bags are new then its confusing. Always expect to stay a day or so at your final destination. Why? Because if that bag(s) wander you'll need to stick around for them to catch up. Airlines have always been good about getting my stuff to me even if I have had to wait a day or so... dont get frustrated~ just keep it in stride, I know your tired and its been a long flight~ if you end up having to track you bags back to you. Its not the person at the kiosk who needs to be your lightning rod if things go poorly. Remember they work for a living too. Now having said all that there apparently are some new restrictions for carry on electronics so I will add this : Check your route and avoid any legs that go thru the middle east or Africa. Lately I've been flying Quantus out of Dallas to get to Sydney but there are alternate routes that take one thru Dubia and a couple of other spots. The A380 aircraft is a good ride, I kinda miss the 747, so plan appropriately as with the new restrictions you may be forced to pack everything in your check bags. Keep your self informed and pack well. All will be good ;) Thanks for reading. DD

Hahh! I second that jasong :)

Ah, yeah. PI's do a good job ignoring the hot rocks to a degree. Problem for me with this video is that it pretty much ignores how PI's are affected by hot rocks especially in auto GB, or even manual. Point taken however. Vlf's have their niche :) Take an old SD out for a run and see what that rock sounds like. Hehh ;) Or better a 3000 with the button mod. Heck we are all kicking rocks again with the Zed. *devils advocate* (grin) Fun stuff. Seriously.

Avro~ afternoon.

At 8 years old and thinking my chunk of quartz with gold mica was the Eureka! moment of my life I'll have to say the price never really matters. In the pan, under the detector or just plain picking it up unknowingly gold will always be a bucket list item that never gets checked off. :) But its a great help keeping in food an fuel on my walk abouts. One could say looking for gold is a romantic excuse to just get away for an adventure in my book.

Yes in the video the rock he was digging into was a conglomerate. True Iron Stone is black as black can be however I've found more than a few bits it it. What can be questioned is what you, or anyone, is kicking aside. What the video shows is what I would call latterite conglomerates~ a mix of iron and other materials~ that leads to pocket nuggets. Good stuff. Something I look for. That was part and parcel to my challenge in the last two years on "hot rocks". For me, having used a PI and VLF, looking for gold there were a lot of rocks that just got kicked aside. Surface stuff. And believe it or not there is a fair amount of surface stuff your going to kick with the Zed or any detector. In conditions like the video, and SDC on hot ground or even the Zed or a 5000, its not unusual and face it... how many carry a hammer ?? He has sharp signals. Something I outlined. I would not pass them up and the dolly pot would sing ;)

Jasong I know what you mean. There are a lot of variations on kimberlite and not much in the way of what to look for locally anywhere. Most I've been able to ever figure out on my own is to look for garnets and blueish materials in area's that have volcanic activity. Other than that just checking the old gold pan, where there is water, and hoping for something interesting to show up in the cons.... snagged a fair amount of other stones but not the diamond yet. One of bucket list places to go is where they have been found before, Crater of Diamonds, however thats a trip I keep putting off for longer walk abouts ;) As Fred thinks so do I in that there may be a fair few in the tailings... but man thats alot of hard work. Grading is the way to go and rocks the size of a thumb are fairly rare outside of the mines. But who knows ;) Fred I'm looking more at opal and sapphire down under :) As my good friend and his wife do that a fair bit when they are away from the gold fields. Last year they were in opal, this year gold, next year sapphire in the north east. I did gold last year and kind of kick myself for not going over and doing the opal with them first.... depends on my funds. Your welcome when ever ya know :) This year is gold again and I may make it.... working like a wood chuck to do it though.

In 2015 my partner and I armed with the then new Zed held a test on hot rocks. Of ten samples found 3 contained gold for me and of 8 he found, and allowed me to dolly *he really does not like the dolly pot :)* 2 had gold in them (he had a bunch more but wouldn't let old dolly bang'm). None of the rocks showed any gold from the outside~ ones that did didn't qualify and went into our collections~ though I did dolly a couple just to set his teeth on edge. Hehh! We both looked at the character of the hot rocks, iron stone/ conglomerate/ quartz, and the response to the detector, sharp signals/ broad and small ticks that just would not balance out, and concluded that it was worth while to pick them up. 2016 I did the experiment again with the criteria from 2015 : sharp signals and ticks, conglomerate and quartz or iron stone with quartz indicators : of 10 picked up 6 had gold. Not great masses of gold though. Each rock was only about fist size and yield was a gram or less but it was all flat and leafy. Total weight in 2016 was 2 grams and 2015 3 grams. Not sure how this experiment would play out in the USA as the material is different then that of Australia but its a fun experiment and I have about a half dozen more hot rocks I did not dolly in my collection I might check out one day.

Would a stone as large as a marble stick to a grease table? Never used one myself. Only piece of equipment I have ever seen used is a shaking jig, manual and mechanical, however those fella's were after topaz and corundum's. It was fun tagging along on that trip and there were a few shiny treats in the screens.

Good find and fine company I say!

A likely source for all those Unicorn shoes I find :) But I'll just have to say you found the heel of the joke. *grins*

Might want to see what that hopper circuit costs first :) Impressive bit of tech, gotta wonder what the folks up in the great white north would have caught with it.... but they are not working alluvials like the angolans.

Maybe not in North America but another honking big rock, 227 karats, dug up in Angola. Man I'm just panning the wrong rivers! http://www.mining.com/another-large-diamond-dug-lulo/

Look. Really just look. Steve put up a very comprehensive set of tests for what to look for... honestly take the yin and the yang and look at it. No such machine exists. Not yet. The ZVT is the closest "new" tech yet however it does not address all complaints. Will not in my opinion but it does a darn good job in many facets. I love it, ZVT, and spoke for it prior to its release. ZVT is one of the most potent releases in detecting times in my opinion. All are variations on the wheel but I do not diss any variants just pulse that the basics are already there... just that some one, some where, some when will make the click that moves the basics to the next level.... personally I dread that... any swinging *d* can then move up the bar.... and really. Everyone thinks they have Gold buried in their back yards. Funny how few try to find it.

Thanks for the video I actually learned a bit :) hehh. Gotta say though, breathe slowly, almost looked like hyperventilation a few times. Death Valley is one of my bucket list items not just for the gold.

One in the same klunker the way I read it. To find is to be found however finding is what the operator does and to be found is what the detector does. Sorry just thinking on the topic and I get a simile in my head. How does one re-invent the wheel? What defines a truely new type of prospecting detector? The answer for me is that there is no real way to do so. All that can be done is tweek the basic design and look at the results. VLF, PI or ZVT and any combination of these are all just tweeks on the basic design. One can talk about accessories all day long but in the end the base unit is just the tweek of the base design. A thought would be to make a machine with true imaging and composition read out but then would that be a new metal detector? I'm just playing with thoughts however.

Doing all right Fred :) Working hard at hardly working and its not working out ;) Thanks for the cut view Deft Now you have bookends Hahh! A handsome piece of pegmatite. Coloration is very nice and it does not look like it'd take much polishing to impress the miss'us.

I to would be interested in what the interior looks like if you get it cut. Though the rock pictured is quite dirty I appears to be more of a pegmatite that a quartzite. I've often had pegmatites sound off on a detector usually with the negative tones. That was a while back, pre-VDI, however there are some good bits to be found and rock gardens are a great way to train the eye. *or satisfy the wife as it were :}*

Nice one Steve :) I do hope the person who gets it keeps it original. My own specimens have all had to come from rock and mineral shows and are itty bitty but who knows maybe I'll pick up a chunk like that one day in my pan.

I'll simply second Klunker and Steve as those are a couple of the dominate methods for prospecting. Idaho has a lot of fine gold and more than a good chance of nugget gold. I've panned around to the north of Boise and the Snake river and always found a bit but nothing detecting. Give it a sample pan like Klunker suggests and see if Steve's insight to the area shows any old timers or current miners have shown any appreciation for the region. Luck and heavy pans :)

That is some beautiful stone coming out. South America is a treasure trove and those who are mining it are true explorers :) For me though its not a place I'd take a crack at~ I prefer the desert ;) Just to green there for me. Hahh!

When in doubt put it in the pocket then check it out :) I'm pretty sure we've all kicked a few. In 2016 my partner and I visited a guy in Cue who also ran prospecting tours locally. He was pretty cool and showed us an outstanding mineral collection then invited us to see something a guy he knew had picked up while prospecting. When we went to the workshop out back he pointed to a cutting table and there sat a football sized meteorite :) The guy he got it from gave it to him saying he didn't know what it was but my partner and I recognized it instantly. Granted one would not kick a chunk like that outta the way but it goes to show, "When in doubt check it out." :)