mn90403

I'll take the ring to my local coin store and they will shoot it with a gun and tell me what it is made of. They are very good about that. Mitchel

I'm not familiar with a lot of GPSs. Which one do you prefer? Mitchel

Steve and JP, You now make me think of the device we use most often that has memory and GPS ... our smart phones. One time I went to the Minelab Detector Day here in Southern California. It was about the same time the 3030 came out and Kevin Hogland had one at the ranch where the event was held. We were all impressed that IT had GPS where we could put our Findpoints without using a separate Garmin GPS. Some of us met a guy there who had developed an 'app' (newer idea at the time) that would track and have Waypoints and Findpoints. He had this on his phone and was showing us how he was using it for his relic hunting. He didn't need the GPS from Minelab! Not all of those smart phones had GPSs then and I guess some of those that did had more of a battery life problem than those that didn't. This might be the same technology that JP refers to as a 'resource hog' and maybe deserves an update from Minelab? Steve is wanting some memory resources available which may not be possible on the present boards used for the 3030 or the 7000. Dumping seems to be the best management method now as Dave, Steve and many others have discovered. I hope that Minelab has the testing to show that these memory, power and resource issues don't actually affect the coil send and receive capabilities. Mitchel

That puts things in perspective.

I have always turned the GPS on with the detector just as I do with the 3030. What I didn't do until recently was turn on tracking. I now like it. I've gone back to my find points and found more with GPS help from the detector and I suspect I'll never stop using that. It is probably worth a try to turn it off as Norm has suggested. A friend of mine didn't want to use the GPS because it used too much power. I've killed the battery a couple of times last summer by staying up all night and detecting for about 14 hours or so. Then I used the 3030 battery to finish off the day. Thanks for the question Norm and your answer JP. Mitchel

He's mapping the big nuggets!!

GB-Amateur You are right about the gold and silver being in the center. It is on the label on the ring and it didn't really 'sound' like gold either. I'll have to take it back to the beach with me now that it is cleaned and see if the sterling silver overrides the gold. The composition of the one on the left is not known to me yet. It has no label. It didn't need any cleaning. Neither did the Gucci.

I have normally run my 3030 at +3 in auto for the last couple of years. But ... That turns out to be unnecessary I have found out. What you say? Everyone has spoken of the conservative 7000 settings and how they don't 'light up' the ground about your target. I've started trying that and I have now changed what I hear. Sometimes I can hear a target better at depth with a -1 or at least the A or +1 depending on the beach. It does not seem to affect the depth it hears with my 17" coil. The sound seems less muddied so to say. I've gotten over some targets and looked at the screen and it reads the same no matter the sensitivity I'm testing. What I do get is a quality difference in the audio. I was using the more conservative settings at a beach last week where I had found the 'Sounded Like A Penny' ring. These are two cheap rings and one more 14k gold ring with a silver band. The ocean has a marvelous way of sorting things into patches. We just have to find them. Mitchel

How low do you go?

We (in the states) have many fewer opportunities for the virgin patches and try to discover an old patch with gold left or go to a wash that has had movement bringing new gold into play.

Who promoted this story? My friends down here wonder why I'm not up there now (like a fresh meteorite fall or something) just filling my pockets with nuggets. News media generally doesn't 'pick up' on what we do but I heard it on the radio news station for 2-3 days in a row. It didn't make any sense then and it still doesn't. They're not going to let anyone on that site. They're restricting the Auburn Recreation area and many of the rivers up there so a little (or a lot) of rain is not going to change the State of California's mind. They think us miners do more damage than Mother Nature/God/Weather and want to keep us out and away as much as possible. If there is gold there ... I hope someone sneaks in! Mitchel

Old patches come alive! Good detecting. Mitchel

Much has been written about prospecting and open holes. Let's try to keep some things in perspective. It is a well known and established fact that gold nuggets can be found in areas that have been and are being dry washed. (Large pits are left open or gullies are destroyed.) It is also a known fact that gold is still found where the old timers used ground sluices extensively in areas where there was enough water. (Large boulders and rocks line the hillsides with trees and growth coming out of these old digs.) The 'signs' of these activities sometimes gets us excited if we own a metal detector. We know they didn't get it all. A more recent sign of gold in an area would be unfilled holes in a nugget patch. (There can also be rake piles where someone got the iron stones out of the way or chaining marks very dense.) We can sure get mad about this or we can 'read the holes' and find what is left. We might even want to 'thank' the jerks who left the holes open. (We might learn that WE didn't get it all and someone has gone back to OUR patch and found nuggets we missed!) There is another way for us 'hole fillers' to think about things. (It is not all bad ... make some lemonade mates.) We should get 'excited' if we go to an area where there are holes (filled or not) because it means there were targets ... and you HAVE TO BELIEVE that there are still some good targets left. Think about it. You have these places where to detect: 1. A 'virgin' place with perfect patina and no signs of digging, scraping or mining. (Might be good for meteorites!) 2. A place that has 'old' dig holes that are fairly shallow but the depressions are there. 3. A place that has more recent holes which are less than 10" deep and some are unfilled. 4. A place with a lot of dig holes, many unfilled and some are very deep. Your detecting equipment is a 7000, a 5000/4500 with the new coils or something else which is 'state of the art' so to say. Please rank where you spend your time. Mitchel P.S.: When done fill your holes because there will be even better equipment coming out and you will want to go back to your patch. Save the locations on your GPS.

I have no problems with the forum and Google Chrome. As jasong has said there can be a problem with the mouse battery, connection and sometimes it just gets dirt on the bottom and when it gets closer to the desk again it is fixed. Don't nuke too much.

As a kid I was a Boy Scout. We were taught about the outdoors and camping by people who tried to 'leave no sign' when you left your camp. What does 'leave no sign' mean? (It is not about spray cans (gang tags) or graffiti 'Kilroy was here' although that is part of it.) 'Leave no sign' means if you disturb the surface of the ground you try to return it as best you can to the way it was when you arrived. Basically ... you think about filling your hole as you are digging it. You take off the first layer (the humus or patina) and put it in a separate pile and then you go about your digging. When you are done with the hole you put the first part back last and arrange the surface to 'look' like the ground around with the same surface level. You also anticipate what is it going to look like after a rain. That is the Boy Scout way of rearranging your entire camp including the fire pits if you are not in a dedicated camping spot but certainly with all your holes for deification and the like. I think miners need another incentive. Miners should try and hide their patches! How many times has someone found your patch because they saw dig holes? If you did a better job of 'leave no sign' then your patch might still be producing for you. Put the leaves and twigs back after you dig that deep hole mates! Mitchel

Here is a link to a thread about unfilled holes at the beach that I started. They are dangerous because kids, old and joggers can get hurt badly by stepping in these holes. I've stepped in other detectorist's holes and felt pain. Some I will fill and others I challenge the hole digger.

John I have siliconed in my stock cover and then coat it with truck bed liner or something else as often as necessary to cover the white. I'm sure the material would not last if regularly scrapped. You should try Norvic's solution posted on another thread. Mitchel Edit: My bad ... I thought you were wanting a 19" cover. I use the Miner John and as Steve says they are the best but I also coat them to make them last for my 7000 and 2300.

Oh myyyy!

That flat 'lacy' one in the palm is quite an interesting piece. Is it delicate?

Happy Birth hour, day, week and year. You have contributed a lot to our collective knowledge and understanding of finding the last nuggets on earth. Thank you and have many more. Mitchel

I see it is less than 1% Hydrofluoric acid. We have a product called Whink used for the same purpose.

What is the type of acid you use?

Good Golly Miss Molly!

Very emotional pictures! I want to go out and find.

The 3030 drives me crazy on the standard setting. I HAVE to use SMOOTH or LONG or I would sell it. Mitchel