1515Art

I remember reading someplace while out of boredom following the worm hole of google that Worms, the first factor you note like soil with certain surrounding foliage and hate others, I think they noted oaks result in acidic soil and have less worm activity and therefore slower sink rates. Up in the poor soil of the high Sierra I don't dig many worms, same thing out in the desert and man made objects seem on average to stay shallow with the exception of man made activity burying them and the occasional localized geologic event.

Realisticly, it's not wich one you are going to get... its wich one you are going to get first😁 The addiction, Oh the addiction.

Wait, didn't I see that picture on a fashion billboard somewhere? You may have some royalties due. Chuck, you are just a little ahead of the fashion curve in your neighborhood the wife will come around, Pretty sure trends across Europe and Asia adopted the style months ago we will be too, taking New York by storm right now, know I saw Johnny Depp in almost the exact pair.

This is one link with some places to begin looking for gold, as you read the history of these places there are lots of stories about the mining camps that sprung up and people who lived there. I didn't get to do any hunting, but I think the mineral belt starts in the area of central city/Blackhawk where the Casinos are and runs through Breckinridge to snow bird. Google searches about gold prospecting and ghost towns will get you a wealth of info on hunt areas. http://raregoldnuggets.com/?p=5077

All of the detectors you are looking at are great and I believe once you narrow it down based on the best fit you will be happy as you become one with your new toy. I was doing a tiny bit of research preparing to visit my son in Denver and You have lots of areas with interesting history to hunt and at least a few places open to the public with good history for nugget shooting detectable gold up into the mineral belt areas. My primary nugget hunting detector (I'm still new at this also) is the gpz and dig it all can be a impossible in trashy areas, where i can dig it all the feeling that I'm not missing much with pi/gpz is reassuring. Also have the Deus with 11" lf and 9" hf coils. For me another consideration for the Deus was the promised two box cache coil that's now become something of a mystery, someday. For gold I've run my Deus alongside the gm1000 both in difficult ground running similar frequencies and my impression testing side by side was they seemed very similar. Another time I coin hunted against another gm1000 swinging my 11" lf and the Deus in my novice opinion had a clear advantage. I've not had a chance to play with the nox800, seems pretty amazing for the money, I guess it really boils down to the fine points and how much they matter where you want to hunt. pretty sure you are going to love whatever you get

If gold nuggets were my objective I'd consider a good lightly used sdc2300 over something like the Deus for around the same money.

Could it be part of a merchant set for weighing coins to see if they've been tampered with?

Steve and everyone thank you, botryoidal carnelian chalcedony, some great pictures on that link.

Jim, thank you and DDancer thank you for the detailed information, agate/chalcedony features except for the crystalline structure and looking at it I'm certain you are correct about the banding in the ummm, protrusions, be a shame to cut or polish and much better as a natural specimen so I'll probably keep it as is and let it work for tips😁. im still a little confused, so a silicate of some sort are the insect looking intrusions into the backside any clue, or typical features in these minerals.

Question for those that fantasize about geology, don't know what this is, some kind of agete, or petrified amber? Interesting formation anyway, came from someplace in China, a friend of my wife had it and gave it to her because she liked it.

Rick, about two years ago I drove my old Mercedes ml into a snow drift up a dirt road in the Sierra on purpose and got stuck. First I tried just a straight pull with the 4K winch, but the car didn't hardly budge (flat ground) I have a recovery snatch block that doubled the pull to 8k and that pulled me from the snow no issue although I have no real way to measure how much pull I'm getting from the little jump starter. The 9k winch on the front of the jeep is a whole different league compaired to the atv winch. A set of jumper cables will power the winch off the car battery also I've done that too. But the ability to take the little winch with the portable power on a hike is useful. One day I pulled two big rotten trees and a big boulder out of a giant hole the old timers left behind and still had power to use it farther up the hill to expose new ground under a couple of down trees, however your charger may be different capacity, good luck with however it works.

I've been carrying a unit from Walmart for a few years now it has light, air pump, USB and jump start, the thing was about 50 bucks and has worked great and I've saved a few people grief out on the road including myself. It will also give me quite a few pulls with the 4K portable winch, comes in handy moving tree trunks and rocks as well as a back-up to the winch on the front of my jeep.

Norm, Terry, Jack and Chuck...thanks boys. I was happy seeing it pop out of the hole best one I've ever found, hummm😀 Only one I've ever found, so another bucket lister checked off in the books. Been back a couple of times and only finding tons of rusted bottle caps, nails (old rusted round) pull tabs, rolled up old lead tooth paste tube and other trash. I think I'm almost at my limit here for a few days😱. Chuck, I'm looking forward to seeing the craftsmanship on those work benches your woodwork is amazing, I'll,bet the shop looks pretty nice. Definitely time for a hunt break, well anytime is good for a hunt I'd guess😁 Heading to forrest hill for a day next month and then 3 days up at Bassett's, I'll give you a call. Clark

There is an old park near my home, one I've hunted fairly often not that I've found much of interest beyond the usual junk jewelry and clad, but the area is rich in history, so I'm always hopeful. Sadly most of the old park is gone to new grass, play areas and everything else park like is new'ish, still the park is dear to my heart with fond memories there as a toddler watching my dad play music on stage there, towards the end of his music career on one holiday, the old grandstand long gone. There is one area above the developed park that looks like fairly virgin ground, a little section kept to wilderness and loaded with trash old and new, more on the old side but still plenty of non ferrous. It's an overwhelmingly difficult area to isolate a signal and when I go in there I usually don't last very long before finding myself back into the manicured lawn. With the new hunting season on us and plans for the high country in the works I've taken to punishing my self in this undeveloped part of the park testing different settings on the deus 9"hf coil, with the exception of milder soil than up north making things a bit easier, I'm thinking this should be good practice for my ear for the iron infested gold field areas. I took a couple of pictures in my hunt area, the city crews cut the grass in a few spots and the poison oak's not out much yet so hunting is not to bad in those places. The other two pictures other than the coins show some old stone steps running up the hill in one picture and the other shows what looks to me like the foundation from an old stone fire place and some of the building foundation stones. I found the handle from an old cooking pot not far from the fireplace stones, the coins came from different spots between the fireplace stones and stone step, all targets around 4" or so deep. Hunted an hour today and all I could find were pieces of old aluminum, rusted bottle caps (I knew, but checked due to the iron trash) some clad and a house key also a bit of melted lead, junk...but still targets. I really think this spot has something if I can find the willpower to stick it out😏😁. The buffalo didn't see much circulation before someone dropped it and is fairly decent if not for the heavy corrosion from being buried for so long, my scrubbing didn't help the coin any, but I don't think when they are corroded that much that it really matters, so I scrubbed the heck out of it so I could enjoy my find. So, buffalo, couple of wheats... must be something else???

Amazing finds, the high carrot ring is really pretty. The Chinese coin is from emperor Kang Xi 1654-1722 cool old Chinese coin, also love the powder flask good hunting struck!