mn90403

Hound, When you show gold like that ... Paul is ready for the cliffs now!

I am challenged by the 'depth sounds' of the GPZ. When testing recently it is clear to me that I have to 'tune in' to a different expectation of the sound of a deep target. I've found small (.2g+) and very small (less than .1g) targets up to 6 inches and this is the majority of targets and nuggets in the area where I hunt. I've only dug a couple of targets over 8 inches. Recently up in Rye Patch someone using a GPZ dug a 1/4oz nugget at 16 inches and a friend of mine dug a 6.8g nugget at 18" in Southern California. We know if you get over 5" you have a 95% chance of it being gold so I'll dig a deep target if I can hear it. Is it just 'anything' repeatable and when you dig it gets louder or is there a better deep indicator? Mitchel

Fred, Lu and I have been there for a couple of days on our way back from Florida trip a couple of years ago. It is best there after it rains and we weren't so lucky. That is a nice facility and you are right lots of people get lucky. There is a newsletter that tells you about the finds of the month and other activities. One link is here: http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/media/news-releases.aspx?id=2631 I'll go back one day and stay closer to the park. We had to stay several miles away as motel rooms can be scarce. Mitchel

Norvic, Forget about the dog and KL. Make sure Paul is tied up! If he is ... call me and I'll be right up there. (That's some nice gold.) Mitchel

Follow the San Andreas Fault. There is gold near it in many places. There are also more faults than this and as Chris said the weather moves it. Mitchel

Great gold I'd say. More than I've found in several trips up there. Last year Lucky showed us some spots up there and I got a lesson on my 7000. Before that I've been up there with my 5000 but ... I'll be up there this time next week for about 3 days. I hope to hookup with someone that can put me in some still productive areas. I know it is 'everywhere' but also long stretches in between. Mitchel

And some even newer ... (Dime is Tared Out of Weight)

dgatelyDP, I've yet to meet Steve but I've taken some lessons from Lunk. I'm told that one thing they have in common is that they both don't use headphones. That being said ... using only the speaker on your remote for the 7000 or the 3030 will let you tolerate different settings than you may be able to with a high volume blasting in your ears. I use headphones with a volume control and one has noise cancel. One set has a battery power boost and the other does not. The signal that I amplify from the detector I use can sometimes accommodate different settings other than just the volumes. As Steve says, test, test, test so that you can hear anything out of the ordinary.

Thanks for the new posts and pictures of gold. Lost is a condition for Paul not an event. Life is simpler that way. Now, if you need some medical help ... stand back and let him do his work! He might even come back with some gold if you didn't get it all. Mitchel

We had a couple of 7000s in Nome last summer when I was just learning it. I would say that the bigger learning 'curve' was Alaska itself. We had some tailing piles and a couple of push areas and some tiny bedrock GB2 nuggets. Swifty got more nuggets (6?) than I did but I got a specimen that was about 12 g (5g gold) which was all that I metal detected in 3 days. I was using the standard settings but we didn't have a ferrite ring at the time. We had a GB Pro with us but it couldn't be tuned to get the bedrock nuggets by people who had their GB2 with them. If you are not working a push or tailings the tundra was so thick you don't know what you have. Only Steve knows! Mitchel

WTG Steve. I wish I could find some up there ... just a little at a time. Mitchel

I had some complaints about that picture so ... here is a bit better one.

We've been working an area of the desert in Southern California this summer on the days when it is 'not so hot' (under 105) and even some nights. Sunday night I had a chance to go out again and when I got there the wind was blowing about 15 mph and it was 60 F. That is cold for here. I didn't have the right clothes to hunt so I went to sleep until dawn. When I got up I started in on an old patch about 100 yards from where I parked so I could 'break my skunk' of the last trip and a half. (It had been about 20 hours without a find.) About 2 hours into the hunt after a lot of wire trash I finally broke the skunk. It was a little one but you gotta do what you gotta do. Less than an hour later I had another small piece. This is an area where we have worked and worked it almost to death with our 7000s and others so I said I wanted to use the 2300 which I don't use much. I got the smallest piece with it and then I took a break around 11 AM. Later I went hunting for a new spot and I found it. The first nugget from this area was the 'middle finger' nugget in the picture and then a few feet away another. I gridded the area and found one more in a little depression and just about dark I went over my gridded area. I heard the mellow, repeatable sound (I missed it while gridding) I had not heard in a while and began scraping and got the bigger nugget. About 5 feet from that was the last nugget for the trip that must have been laying on top. It was all brown when I found it and it was loud ... a surprise for the area. We now have a new direction in the desert that is producing more nuggets. (8 nuggets/2.28g/.68~.05g)(7000, 2300 detectors) Mitchel

Nice gold! Good description of your hunting.

We'll never see the best nuggets. We'll never know for sure the location of the best nuggets we see. I've found a couple of nice nuggets and showed a few friends where I got them and there sure are a lot of new claims all around those areas now! (None of them mine.) This is an old game and I'm a new player. Mitchel

dxb, I think Fred is right again. METAL DETECTING is not for everyone. You have to enjoy a bit of a walkabout while at the same time paying some attention to geologic details so that you can get lucky. There can be long hours between finds that make you wonder why you are doing this metal detecting thing at all. You have to remain positive and THAT is the reason the 7000 might be the first detector you buy. Show up at a couple of gold club meetings or gold shops and use a detector a few hours first. Most shops will have something you can use for a day for under a hundred bucks. Go out with them BEFORE you buy the 7000 and if possible go to the dealer who will sell you a 7000. Those of us who own a 7000 know we are finding gold we could not find with any other detector. That is what keeps us positive now for several reasons. One reason is that we can go to previously worked gold patches and still find gold that has been missed. We all need rewards to keep us going back. A second reason is that it is an easy detector to use. Most of us used other detectors before the 7000 and we think that the machine out of the box will find gold with the best of our GPX, GB Pro and any other PI detector's settings. (We can then push it a little harder.) The third reason is that you don't want to go behind a good 7000 user with any other detector (other than a 2300 for small stuff) than another 7000. What I'm saying is that a 7000 doesn't find everything and you have to grid an area completely but once done it would probably be better to look in another location/patch if the ground has not been moved. You said you have prospected and price is not a problem. Get a 7000 with a warranty because there have been some issues that have required Minelab to replace the units. Mitchel

Steve, A man with details that can make us all better if we read your stories more than once. I'll be up there at the end of the month but I am another Sawtooth virgin. Can't figure it out. Mitchel

That's pretty good for 3 days and 3 'average' detectorists! Did Condor stay so he could get out of the 115-125 degree heat? Good thing you left so you didn't wear out that new detector. Mitchel

There are more pictures here ... now you can see 75 lbs of pearl! http://www.rappler.com/science-nature/environment/144029-puerto-princesa-giant-pearl

That is a real keeper! (The Beach) Mitchel

I have a 3030 and many times I dig everything with that. I'm sure I would dig 'most everything' in an area where I was finding gold. It would be too hard to trust the detector to be accurate on odd shaped, oddly composed nuggets and specimens.

I found an MIT ring tonight and have already located the owner! I messaged him but his tweets let me know it has to be him because his name is inside. This ring was down about 9" and I was using the 11 because I can swing it without a hip stick. I had an SE Pro for a couple of years and had no problem and also the 3030 without a harness. When I got the 17 it was just a couple of months before I got tennis elbow. Using the 17 does increase jewelry production as Rob said. The 'problem' sometimes can be that the targets are very deep. I've had to give up on several because I've had the wrong digging tool at the time. Mitchel

But ... you need to know what you are going to do when you get there!

RDD, I would like to share your experience on a regular basis. This area I am going has not produced anything more than a 5 grammer in years! Yesterday I got to the field at 3 AM for some cool night swinging. I got 3 little nuggets before dawn and 4 more before 10 AM for a total of 7 for 1.14g. I was ready for a new record and then it ended. For the next 9 hours I was without a find of any size. The heat and sun gave me a bad attitude. It's time to go to ... AUSTRALIA! Mitchel

Good going Rob.