brogansown

Specimens excluded, the photo represents a month's worth of Gold Bug 2 finds here in Eastern Oregon. My brother and I haven't done that well this spring with nuggets-lots of them, but my weight is only 5.7 grams, "So Far!"  But as you can see we do clean up the environment, as I am sure the rest of you do as well.  Maybe if I am able to afford a 6000, this will help the next hunt scheme.  Each placer has different types of trash and can provide those of us who operate Museums lots of areas of study. (I have a friend who is doing just that.) Those darn shotgun pellets are relatively recent and do disappoint at times.  Good luck out there guys and watch carefully-The Rattlesnakes and ticks are out.

I was able to find an Audiosears 2463 headphone speaker and after installing it and resoldering all the connections, the Sunray Pro Gold headphones work great.  Total cost, not counting my time, was about $24 versus the $130 or so online.

I don't want to "beat a dead horse" here, but did want to share a tip for those who repair and use their headphones beyond there useful years.  When the oval earpads get really worn out, they can be revived by spraying a few coats of Plasti Dip rubberized compound on them. (Spray cans of Plasti Dip is used to rubber coat tools, cars, etc. for a durable coating.)

Was able to find an Audiosears 2463 speaker and when it gets here with get those SunRay Pro gold headphones up and working.

Yeh.  I can take the one on the other side and use that.  Sadly my brother and I went detecting yesterday in the melting snow and the other headphones gave out on me.  I was 10 miles (or so it seemed) from the car, so I used the speaker on the Gold Bug 2.  Brother got a couple, but me none.  Today my new set arrived though.  And so it goes.

Valens, they didn't have one.  I contacted Audiosears and part 2463 is available, but I have to order $100 worth of them.  So I ordered a new pair of SunRay Pro Headphones and will bid my time and put this old set in the pile of other repair stuff. Thanks guys.

Thanks Gary and Flak.  I thought about them, but the phones would probably cost more to repair than a new pair and I'm a bit of a tinkerer, so was just searching.  Was going to use this pair as backup.

I'm repairing a pair of SunRay Pro gold headphones & discovered a bad speaker.  Does anyone know of a source of parts or where I can get a derelict or throw-away set of phones for the parts? 

I managed the construction of buildings for Morrison Knudsen all over the U. S., Alaska and a couple of foreign countries and we never had a problem finding water.  Not enough water, like Jasong said, just drill deeper.  A couple of dowsers asked to find water for me, but I politely declined.  Our wells were positioned for convenience, not underground water pools, as water was basically everywhere. And I mean no disrespect, just my experience. 

I'm with Steve and others on this topic.  Don't go there. We've got some great detectors available and they are absolutely proven to get gold.  

Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Lotion in the Family size squirt bottle.  Worked wonders for my feet and knees.

Nothing in 2021 yet, Gerry.  Mike has been up, but has gotten snowed out each time and the roads are horrible.  We're careful so the ranchers don't get mad at us for creating more ruts for them and yes the ground is frozen a few inches down.  Jim & I haven't been up for a couple of months, so we're getting stuff ready for when we can.  Hope all is well with you and hope we can detect together this year sometime.

Although we own Minelabs-Equinox, GP's & other detectors, more and more often my brother Jim and I are using the Gold Bug 2.  We've discovered that when we find a patch and after the small nuggets are found, tiny pieces still remain.  At the end stage, we can get even more pieces by raking the area.  Jim made me this collapsible rake, from a tiny collapsible four tine rake and a welded-on eight tine piece.  I can carry it in my backpack and it looks like just the tool for those tiny pieces.

MSC - Make a pack with yourself to get out into the hills as soon as weather allows.  Those nuggets are there and many have your name on them.

Thanks guys.  Gerry, I also have a Fanny Edel tag-you and I probably found them in the same area here in Malheur County.  They were named for the Myers Bros's partner Jacob Edel's daughter Fanny.  On the detecting front, Mike, my brother Jim and I got out last week before the snow and got a few tiny pieces.

On an older matter, I'm trying to restore the 1870's or so, beer mug you gave when you visited.  I'm going to create a permanent display in the Stone House Museum.  So some of this "junk" we find can go to good use.  Thanks

Somehow the "And Oh How I sighes! got covered up by the photos.

I'm betting that most of you detectorists have found a large number tobacco tags, just as I have.  Up here the most prevalent tags are "stars", but from time to time others pop up as well.  As a Museum manager I get almost as excited with a tag as a nugget.  So, I started a collection of this chewing tobacco advertisement.  Most 19th century miners smoked either a pipe, a cigar or chewed.  I liked to hear from you guysabout your tag finds, if you care to.  I've attached some examples and an ad from the 1890's.  Oh, and a little poem from the era:

When weary I are,

I smokes my cigar.

And as the smoke rises,

Up into my eyes,

I thinks of my true love

And Oh, How I sighes!

Although I have an Equinox, 4500 and a 3000, right now I'm using a Gold bug 2, mostly because all the bigger nuggets are gone in our area.  I would love to have a 7000, but due to my age I just can't handle the weight.

There are some neat protective caps from Keystone Electronics to put on your reserve 9 volt batteries available.  The full box of batteries we buy at Home Depot are unprotected and as soon as a few are taken out they get all jumbled up and can be short circuited against each other.  I use these, although they don't stay on real well.  So I tape them also before I put them in my detecting satchel. 

Sorry meant to send pot with the lid.

Cans can be as interesting.  My most treasured cabin/town site find was a coffee pot from the 1800's at Eldorado and a really neat crevicing tool from nearby gold fields.  Right up there with gold nuggets.

Gary

I had Lyme's disease, so am bit more careful with ticks.  Permethrin is the synthetic version of Pyrethrum made from chrysanthemum flowers and kills ticks on clothing and doesn't seem to cause problems when we get it on our skin.  I haven't tried Picaridin, but understand it is also good with ticks.  We just don't seem to have much luck with Deet, the ticks crawl right over it.   

Here in Eastern Oregon, about the only repellent we need on our trips out is tick repellent.  This spring my brother and I each had literally 50 ticks on us on our first outing.  100% Deet does zero good.  But Permethrin seems to work very well.

Art

Good job.  I was out yesterday too and got a small Gold Bug 2 piece and saw a bull snake.  Here in Eastern Oregon the bull snakes precede the rattlesnakes by a few days, so anyone coming our way should now begin to look out for the rattlers and of course, the ticks.  Lots of ticks already.   A few years back I got Lyme's disease from one of our ticks.

Gary

Being hunkered down and housebound forces us to finally look at all that stuff we have collected and clean it up of get rid of it.  As a kid here in Eastern Oregon I listened to radio and my special hero Straight Arrow.  I collected and still have all of the Premiums he sold to us with a Nabisco box top.  In 1987 I located 100 original Straight Arrow "Gold Nugget" Cave rings and re-create the offer to fellow Straight Arrow fans.  So what am I going to do with all this stuff?  Here's that offer and the "Gold Nugget."

Gerry,

Sorry I missed you.  Had to help the neighbor with our community garden.  My brother found a couple of those weights up there a couple of years back and I didn't know what they were then.  Anyway good find.

Gary