mn90403

What a nice pile.  I have a bad back and it always helps to bend over and dig a target every so often.  Long periods between targets makes me sore and grouchy.  

We have clubs here that buy gold and then they have the drawings or raffles for it at the meetings and everyone is happy!

29 minutes ago, Gold Hound said:

I'd also love to see coyotes

You can see coyotes all over Los Angeles communities.  They eat pets and occasionally they try to snatch a kid.  A much more majestic animal would be a wolf.  There are a fair number of them back down in the lower 48 now.

I grew up in North Florida and the Eastern Diamondbacks were plentiful and big.  I've seen them over 6 feet long.

I've tried a bit of meteorite hunting with the 800 but I find the hot rocks in the iron range too often in the deserts where I go.  The ground balance wants to cancel the major noises a meteorite would make and make them sound like a hotrock.  With a lot of practice I think I could make it work but my 7000 and 5000 are much better meteorite hunters than my 800.

If you could hunt some fields that don't have magnetic rocks you could easily find a meteorite.

You should do some research by going to the Meteorological Bulletin and downloading the location of meteorites near you.  It will give you a file that you can see on Google Earth where a named meteorite was found.  It is rare that an entire meteorite is found so there may be additional pieces waiting for you at that location.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/

Mitchel

20 minutes ago, 1515Art said:

That pretty much must have sucked I’d guess, how did you eventually get over it?

After experiencing the symptoms which I can't remember well now for some years and not knowing what caused them or thinking they were bad hangovers I had a reason to have some strong antibiotics.  It was a cathartic experience and it caused me to research and then I put the pieces of the puzzle together.  I had to take more antibiotics before I was completely over it but each time I could feel them working on what was still in my body.  It is a foggy 5 year period in my life.

On 4/27/2020 at 11:53 PM, Mc30 said:

More gold found in the hot grounds in the golden triangle with x coil, ferrite balanced fine and made no more noise the the minelab coil!!!

As you can see our leader likes you to have your own thread when you have something good to show.  

I was in your neck of the woods as we say last May.  I hit many likely spots on the maps for about 3 weeks and found very little but what a great adventure.

Mitchel

How did klunker escape your net?

3 hours ago, brogansown said:

A few years back I got Lyme's disease from one of our ticks.

I got Lyme disease in Texas in the early 80s and didn't know what it was for a few years.  I had the classic bullseye on my calf but it was not so well known at the time.

Yes, Fred will be missed here on the meteorite forum.  He watched it much more than I do as well.

Marchel, if you are magnet fishing what do you normally find?  I don't know if Steve would add a forum about it but I'm sure you could add some pics to this thread.

The reason why I ask is that when you do find a meteorite it will have much less of an attraction than your normal iron/steel objects.  If it sticks really hard to your magnet it is likely not a meteorite.  That is something the internet can't do yet is give you the feel of a meteorite on a super magnet.

A couple of the other factors that make your find not a meteorite was that it has no 'entry surface' (fusion crust) and there are no inclusions on your ground surface.  Don't expect a meteorite to be an extraordinary 'rock' in appearance.  They are rather ordinary until you understand what you are looking at.

Look at some of the other threads here when people asked 'Is this a meteorite?' and you will see some and see many meteorwrongs too and you'll also get some of Fred's good advice.

Mitchel  

You know what they say ... pictures or it didn't happen! (Three feet is a closeup.)

I'm glad you avoided the old snake.  About how big do you think it was?

It is 'funny' how the instincts are alerted by a snake.  They really give me a jolt or anything that moves like them.  

So, which do you prefer?  Early gold or late gold?

Mitchel

We'll just have to use and report with what we have.  Mc30 has just posted up some gold and I think that is great.  I've had my Xcoil on about 5 days of hunting now on 'patches' I've found gold before with the ML 14 and I've yet to find a missed nugget or an unseen nugget on those trips.

Let's just say results vary folks.

Location, location, location.  

7 hours ago, phrunt said:

Out of interest, what are the soil conditions like in Africa, Russia and other areas that Minelab say are their biggest markets, bigger than Australia for sales of detectors.  Are they all heavily mineralised? I guess the Middle East would have high salt content and they're a big selling area.  This is why I think coils for different markets and soil conditions would be good.

What are the unit sales in these areas or is that proprietary data only seen in the boardroom and not in investor info?

There you go Jin, another machine that is going to get us twice the gold at half the depth of a heavier detector!  haha

20 minutes ago, flakmagnet said:

Just to be clear. I am not willing to do that - so this upcoming NF coil will be of great interest.

I kinda hope we have the option to buy the NF coils made for the Zed and it already has a female GPX connector option.  I could attach it now and not need anything else.

23 minutes ago, Rob Allison said:

Hey Scott,

   If NuggetFinder has found a way to get around the "cutting of the cord" and the "X-coil modification" then it will be a hot seller.  I will definitely be in the market for one along with probably every customer that purchased a GPZ 7000 from us.  

I'm not saying the X-coil deal is hard, but the majority of us don't have a spare coil to destroy, or the cash to purchase a new coil to just get the cable/chip off of it to use a X-coil. 

Just my thoughts,

Rob

You don't destroy anything.  You splice a cable, put a GPX connector on the old coil and everything works fine.  The Xcoil and the ML coil will just be sharing the same chip depending on which coil you want to use.

7 minutes ago, dogodog said:

Simon, Mn, Kac, GB and everyone else, I'm looking forward to seeing your post lock down finds. I'm pretty sure they will be a lot better than mine. Everyone on this forum has been a great help to me in the short time I've been a member. So keep the stories, info and finds coming. 

Finds don't need to get much better than yours.  We each have our 'moments' and you've just had a good one.

27 minutes ago, strick said:

Lunk showed me that if you cut off the end of a plastic spoon and wedge it in between the batteries it should solve the problem...it’s a great machine otherwise...loose batteries as the others have said. 

strick 

Which portion of the spoon and you wedge it between the battery and the case?  (I knew someone had engineered a fix!)

Very nice finds and presentation of the story.

Location, location, location.

Everyone is saying you had a short hunt.  You were there as a kid.  I'd say it has taken you a lifetime to hunt this location and there may be more waiting for you.

Good luck with it.

Mitchel

Will that make it easier to swing?  haha

They have used one repeatedly on the Parker's Gold Trail and I know they work but ... I should do the Norvic manuver on mine.

I have a 2300 that I use rarely.  It still has that issue.  I've taped batteries and upgraded.  If I ever use it again I'll need to study the battery case and the 'silly' springs/contacts and determine why my unit still loses power.

8 hours ago, Gold Hound said:

The fellow who bought them took them over to America and got 500us a gram for them at that big gold show you guys have every year.

I've been to the Tucson Show in years past and met an Australian dealer there at the show with lots of casts of the big nuggets and he did have some for sale.  I chatted him a bit but found out he was not a fan of the Zed.  This was early in its introduction and he told me that most in Australia would not pay that price and the performance was not worth it.  I don't know if he feels the same way now.

You would think that could have been a proper business for someone over they years but I've heard that it was unusual to have a nugget buyer you could rely upon to give you a fair price and him to make money also.  It is a quiet business here but there are a few website sales from finders who have a little patience to get their price on the better nuggets.

Some of the metal detector dealers also deal in nuggets.

In your case you could charge a Premium for Branded Nuggets.

Another Genuine Gold Hound Nugget (certificate and birth date/discovery date and/or video included)

You might have to hold off on exact place of birth!  haha

12 minutes ago, Gold Hound said:

You would cry if you saw all of the nuggets I have melted... and every specimen I have ever found has gone under the hammer!

I know.  I also know the economics of it for you also because the market just isn't that deep.  I would hope you take some good photos.

I liken it to someone who finds a beautiful piece of jewelry and doesn't know the owner.  Who will buy it?  Fortunately there are places like eBay but I have known some people say they take chains and melt them!  Ouch.

Now, if I was selling the nugget or something similar I'd have to say I would want more than the nugget price but maybe less than the price with commissions.  We could split the difference but if I really liked the nugget ... it is priceless!  (My wife might not think so.  haha)

Then on the other hand if it was an attractive specimen I'd want double or triple or XXX the gold price.

A very lucky man!