Valens Legacy

Every person that goes detecting has to understand when to have their next drink after digging for an hour to reach that buried aluminum can. Then after the drink when to start detecting again and have another drink to stop the shakes. This goes on for about 4 hours or so or when the person passes out. Then the hunt is over and you can either sleep it off or call a taxi to go home. That's timing.

We live in ILLINOIS, but was out west of Denver Co, on that trip, and because of the find we had to spend an extra day. The way I understood it the body was there for about 100 years, and there was no clear cause of death. Just another day of detecting I guess.

You could also use a metal bucket and a can of sterno to heat an area, just make sure that you use some gloves. That has helped me thaw the ground before, and if you go to a good will store you can snag them cheap. Wish you luck and hope your targets are nice.

Nice hunt and glad to see you out there finding something. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

I was with my grandfather in Co. when he got a real good signal and I went to see what he had found. It was a fairly deep signal of about 10 inches, and when he had finally got down to the object he told me to go to the car. I saw him slowly walk up and grab the cell phone and dial 911. In about 20 minutes the county sheriff pulled up and started asking grandfather questions. I was told to stay with the car and direct anyone else to his location. There seemed to be almost 6 cars in about 30 minutes that had pulled up before grandfather came back to the car. I asked him what was going on and he told me that he found a gold ring, but it was still attached to the hand. I believe that had to be the most interesting thing that my grandfather had found, as for me I was detecting a campsite near the house and only found a condom still in the foil package about an inch in the dirt. So I hope someone has something better than I do. Caleb

The unit that I had seen in the past had 3 different type of ways to capture the gold. 2 different types of riffle plus the holes. On the top portion of the Long Tom there was the slurry box o top and it had some type of slits that went to the bottom sluice. On top they would smash the materials to loosen the gold up, keep raking the mix so that the gold would go to the bottom and to the next sluice. The heavies would be removed from the very end of the top section and gone through at a latter time. Since the sluice was being used at the time my grandfather and I were there I did not get to see just how the gold went from the top to the bottom. When I was looking under the top section I could see the shape of the riffles in the bottom section. I hope this helps, Caleb That is a better picture of the unit, and that looks like the one I had seen almost 20 years ago. Above I had remembered a little more about the unit.

The early ones had riffles that were dug into the bottom of the deck to catch gold and also some raised riffles. They make similar units today but are shorter than the old ones, and they also make a mini one that you can take in a back pack. I have seen one a long time ago with my grandfather that someone was still using at the time in North Dakota.The way that I was told on how it worked was that it used less than half of the water others needed to work. The one I had seen the bottom holes that captured the gold was about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and close to 3/8 in deep. The guy that was using it would dump his material into one end and sweep the real heavy stuff down it or pull out what the water had cleaned. It was a lot of work but he said he could gather more gold than his normal sluices with it. That is all I know and I may not be 100 percent accurate on how it worked, been a long time.

The 540 is a good unit to use, however it is not built as strong as the higher priced models. It works well out of the box and once you learn the unit I think you will like it. There is a article on the forum that I had read which talked about it in depth, I am sorry that I could not find a link to it.

Sounds and looks like you had a great time out there. Wish you could have found some gold, but there is always tomorrow. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

Great hunt again and glad you found some nice items. Your Nox is still crying to get back out there with you, and you never know what she will find. Good luck and stay safe out there.

I for one thinks his price is way to low, on the union scale he is 1/10th the price that he should be charging so pay up. You are in a common gravel pit for road work, they use rock from the area instead of hauling it in from a 100 miles away. Here in Illinois we have what are called borrow pits when the built most of the highways so they could build the roads and bridges back in the day.

I will be using my 800 when I get a good chance to go and look. I will also take my Tracker IV so the land owner can search also. I have not had a chance to go look as of yet because I have to go when the land owner is there and he works some odd hours.

The reason that it will do that on a regular basis is the way you cross your eyes while drink a beer while swinging the coil from the left to the right. You may try to swing from the right to the left to compensate for the problem. Good luck with your new coil and may the detector god's be kind to you.

I'm at a loss for words, so I will reuse some that I have stated before. Excellent finds again for your books. Just wish I could get back out there, the weather has kept me home since I have gotten over a nasty cold. Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe out there.

Another fine hunt for your books and some really nice pieces of history. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

You might be digging up a steel barrel with Hoffa in it would be my guess. Just make sure that no body is watching you or you might be next because they really don't want him found. Good luck and stay safe out there.

Welcome to the forum and glad to have you here. What part of the country are you from and what type of detector do you have. Feel free to ask any question to help you out and I am sure that someone here can answer it. Remember there is no stupid questions.

Nice job braving the weather to test out your work. Great job on the recovery of the gold and I hope you more than double last years totals. Good luck and be careful out there.

Harbor Freight has some rubber gloves that are yellow in color and sells for $3.00. I use those over the top of a brown jersey glove and it keeps my hands nice and warm. They will last all day and maybe a couple of days, but for the price of them it is cheap enough to use. I am sluicing with them about 3 times a year in December with no problems. Just make sure you use a size larger than the gloves they go over.

I like the way you installed the new mesh as it looks like you are able to go back to the original mesh easily. Good luck with it and please let us know how it works out.

Nice hunt and some very nice pieces of history to sow for your time. Wish the best of luck on your next hunt and stay safe out there.

Great hunt and wish you luck in the future .

One of these days your going to dig up something that earns you a spot in the history books. Another great set of hunts with some nice items again. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

Thanks for sharing the video I enjoyed it very much.

I have not been in the desert detecting yet, but I was night detecting a couple of nights ago until my girlfriend slapped my face.