mn90403

I went out a couple of nights ago and I got lucky. I found a $1 coin. That brought my grand total to around $3 for the 3 miles that I walked on Prime Santa Monica beaches. Go find a Spanish coin Swamp. Mitchel

Steve's observations about the beach follow true. I grew up in Florida before anyone had a metal detector on the beach. There were still stories about finding jewelry on Jacksonville Beach around the pilings of the piers and such. Locals knew this and would look. Beach combers would look for the shipwreck treasures on other parts of the beaches for hundreds of years all over the world. When I lived in Hawaii I had a few beaches for surfing and a few shell beaches. I knew the tides and the waves and Steve's observations held true. Again here in California I live on Santa Monica Bay and the wind, waves and tide make for a big pan. When conditions are just right there is a big pocket of energy where all the heavies collect and it could take you several days to properly detect the area. Now is not one of those times. Our forecast for waves this week says that 2.5 feet will be the biggest wave. The guys who find the most have to go out and get it. They wade and find the heavies where they are before they make it to a tide beach but I'm not geared for that. I'll have to wait for the next South Pacific swell or storm from Alaska. Mitchel

Out there taking Ray's gold? Mitchel

Outing pictures! http://nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/topic/31365-nov-outing-with-pictures/

Go to Keene Engineering in Canoga Park (San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles) and you can get most everything you want. They have a full retail store. http://keeneeng.com/ They sell a full line of detectors, picks, sluices, books, pans, etc. and all of the equipment that they make on site or they will refer you to a dealer. Mitchel

I meant here Steve ... http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/forum/48-metal-detecting-for-jewelry/ It doesn't say beach but it is the place to read about beach finds. Mitchel

Just wondering how small it might go and how deep. We sometimes find out from our friends that they found a couple we missed in a gridded area. I try and get their settings and see why I might have missed them. A couple of years ago we found a rather large area that had been worked by GPX models including the 5000. There had been pushes/scrapes and dig holes all over the area. It had also been previously worked by dry washing methods. Maybe they got bored or they were just not thorough. We came along with the Zed and started finding lots of smalls in the .5g range, and then we would find some deeper targets and clearly some larger 'missed' targets. The largest any of us has found was 6g near the road so it was probably a miss or a trash nugget as you might say. My best day was about 5g. I ended up with more than an ounce over that summer. The missed and smaller nuggets are much farther between now. My last 2g nugget from there was outside of the best areas in the past but it might be the best now. These would not be patches of much interest in Oz these days as it couldn't pay any expenses.

There is an outing going on there this weekend. Contact Bill Southern via his website. The outing dates are listed here by Steve.

Luis, I live in Santa Monica near the beach and detect more there than I do in the gold fields. I use a 3030, SE Pro (now broken), Gold Bug Pro and a White's at the beach in wet and dry sand. Now that there is a salt program on the Z I am considering using it rather than get a beach PI. I have used the 5000 at the beach a few years back and found many objects including lots of trash I can now ignore with the 3030. I'm waiting for the Equinox and I'll start using it. There is a better forum than this for beach and relics. Mitchel

NE, You are getting bigger. The next part of the plan is to extend Elusive's patch far enough so you can keep what you find! We are normally directed to the fringes of the commercial operations to get the 'far between' pieces the old methods left behind. Mitchel

Reg, Your 25" will find anything 3g or greater to a depth of 20 inches or so? Does anything 'hide' in that range as a 'class' such as a fine specimen or rough nugget? Mitchel

Those safety boots remind me of Paul! You can't wear those in Arizona. I don't like so much detectorists with a 'one way street' in their mind. They take all of the suggestions and knowledge that they find and KEEP it. I mean they don't make others around them better. They don't share techniques, patch knowledge or the thrill of the hunt. I am somewhat in fear that they will jump my spots so I don't detect with them because they have done that to others. I have a couple of friends who share their knowledge with me and they are very happy when I find gold. They are also better at detecting than I am and they know I can't clean out a spot so when I share with them they can go back behind me and get things I missed ... in reality we all can and do find missed gold, except for the huge ones you are talking about here ... the multi-ouncers. Mitchel

The large coil I use most often is the 17" coil on the 3030. It doesn't really seem that large out on an open beach but it covers a lot of ground and does go deeper by 3-4 inches over the 12" coil.

What is the biggest coil that you have used? I have an 18" Nugget Finder that works very good. I don't need a sled. It is light. The 19" Z coil is a beast. Many of us know what it takes to wield that monster over good ground. Reg's Gold Album thread has several pictures of prototype coils that were very big. Here is a picture I found on Bill and Linda's site for John Bowles. http://www.billandlindaprospecting.com/johnbowles.html What are some of the other ways to use and mount coils?

I concur.

What kind of trees were they harvesting there? Wouldn't that be interesting to see big nuggets in the roots. Were all the trees sawed or did some of them get tumbled and throw up a bunch of roots?

The stories you boys tell ... Now, someone coming back over those same areas would not have a clue as to the real geology (amount of gold once there). You have detected most of the evidence away. What were the clues that made them work it the first time? I mean, why had there been some evidence of workings there from many years before when the only thing a man had to search with was his eyes, digging instruments and brains?

Thanks Norvic. I had a hearing test a couple of weeks ago and I'm below normal. My higher frequency hearing is at 72% or so. I need to keep that in mind when we are talking about audio setting here and increase my volumes above some of you. These headphones are said to retail here for $399. That is cheaper than the $1800 Costco hearing aids by a bunch. I think I need to start using JP's booster I bought.

I don't know who found it but they were using a 5000 and Norvic does not use it any more so ... http://www.medianet.com.au/releases/148093/ you missed it! Mitchel

Yes, I think we bought what will be referred to as the most expensive nugget detector that was ever made. Future purchasers will never pay as much as we did. It won't cost as much to build and it won't be justified in the field. Mitchel

Oh my ... oh my ... ohhhh

Those tin can fields may be the best gold that is still left in the states. Mitchel

Thinking back on last week ... everyone must have a budget for vehicles. Sometimes you can fix it yourself and sometimes you can't. My situation is not that unusual. It is just part of the adventure, part of the story.

I agree with the 'lighten up' discussion but what am I going to do? Will I go out and buy a new, lighter 7000? or 2300? Nope. I'm stuck with what I've got so do something like the Equinox (I have one on order). Lighter, cheaper, better than the Explorers and the 3030. I need new goldfields more than I need a lighter detector and like Steve said one of the ways to get that is to get better discrimination. Mitchel

I don't want a detector that feels like a toy and unfortunately this is my impression of the very lightest detectors including the XP. There are times when I lose my balance and I don't want to break something (ears on the coils breaking is my pet peeve). (A broom handle for the Monster would be like a cane or walking stick?) Today I started out using the 19 and I always use a hipstick for the Z and 3030 with 17. For some reason (out of practice) the 19 got to me today. I could feel my lower back 'burning' and that is not good. I hurt my back weight training a few years back before serious detecting so I have to be careful. Today there was nothing I could do to adjust the stick and the coil. I had to take it off after 3 hours. We have a friend who tried to ride through the pain and that was a big mistake. It took many months to fix him. The good news was that the 14 was light as a feather. Mitchel