Gold Hound

Hi Steve and good members I took the 19 in coil out for its maiden swing yesterday, it was supposed to be a 10 day camping trip but my start battery on my car dropped a cell and I had to come back to town to get a replacement. So lucky for you guy's you get to see this 66g specimen with about 50g Au content that I pulled out of a deep rock crack at a measured 890mm. The 14 could not pick it up until about 250mm was removed and the 5k 14 elite could not pick it up until a further 120mm was removed. My pick handle is 1150mm long to give you a reference point and im holding my hand where the top of the ground was before I excavated the hole.

This is the reason I now only use and look at this forum! Steve runs a tight ship and keeps the quality of information high. No BS or marketing agenda and a positive out look always looking to improve in what ever way he can. This positive outlook and the quality of the members he attracts make this forum a haven for those who really love prospecting/metal detecting and want to share information!

Sorry guy's had a mate ask if I'm selling speaker hats........... I'm definatly not Try the speaker hat Steve! I have bad hearing and industrial deafness and the speaker hat works great for me its very close to using headphones.

Hi Steve A tip for specimins: Thermal shock the quartz by heating it with a blowtorch or oxy acetylene torch untill it glows red but do not melt the gold then pick it up with multi grips or tongs and drop it into cold water in a metal bucket. (Wear goggles!) Repeat until most of the quartz is gone then finish in hydrogen fluoride. It is WAY quicker and uses way less acid. Hope this helps P.s. Nice gold!

Hi Steve and members Its a real pain when something like that happens, thats why I have 4 moduels and 4 batteries and it also gives me 4+ days that I don't have to have access to a charger so I can do extended ride/walk camping missions. Below are pictures of my innovation. Drum roll............... The 'Gold Hound Speaker Hat'!!!!!!! I've been running and developing the speaker hat for well over a year now so after extensive testing I can now release the speaker hat idea to you Steve and the good members of the forum. All it is is any baseball cap with a military pouch threaded onto the strap of the cap. Tips: When you put the wireless module into it face the speaker forward. I use a '511 tactical c4 pouch' it works perfectly, I remove the 2 molly straps to make it more compact. Benefits: The speaker moves with your head so the sound is always the same, it is very close to using headphones! No need for a bag or harness just grab your detector, pick and Goldhound Speaker hat and your ready for........ATTACK! !!!!

Sorry guys no rubbish where I am working at the moment! Two musket balls, 3 opium pipes, 2 pickheads, 5 rockbar scrapers is my entire rubbish this far for the season.

Thanks rege I'll let Dave know He'll get one straight away no doubt. Haven't looked at their page for a while now, as I don't swing a gpx anymore.

I would like a huge 25in sef coil for the minelab pi's for deep treasure in europe and I am sure you would sell plenty of them to serious treasure hunters in europe. Also easily the best allround coil for the gpx machines is a 14in round mono. My mate swings the coiltek elite 14 and if I was using a gpx still thats what I would want, and if detech made one I'dd definitely make my mate buy one!

Yeah back for 3 days then back into it. The season is coming to an end it looks like the rains will start soon. Its really hot and all of the tourists are long gone even most of the locals have called it quits. Still waiting for a pm from ya Paul if you are still coming out on a mission next year.

Ha ha ya got me Klunker!!!!!

Hi Steve I really enjoy reading your journal, I used to follow your Alaskan one when you lived up there and regularly dredged. The lizard in your photo is likely to be a Sand Monitor, they and all monitors are highly intelligent easily as smart as a large parrot. This can cause problems when they are large as they no longer fear you once they get over 6ft in length and if they sniff out your food stash it can be a problem! Tremain used to have a pet Perentie that was just under 3.5m long so about 11ft long on the yankee scale wiki and other sources say they only grow to 2.5m but this is BS I've seen a huge one in far NW nsw and their distribution map is also way out! They are an amazing animal and you were privileged to encounter one of the monitors.

I know exactly what your talking about Klunker I do these things day in day out! I always try to have a escape/backup plan as things can quickly go wrong and cat like reflexes help to but what I try do to lessen the risk of mishaps is do the most dangerous stuff early in the day when you are not fatigued. Here's a bit of color I got on my last trip doing the mountain goat thing................

Thanks guys glad to see that you enjoy our videos! That is what I got for the last 12 days just under 10oz. To get that I had to bush bash for 13 hrs one way and got 2 flat tyres that only needed plugging one torn wreaked tyre and a burnt out clutch. Tremain got stuck twice in steep crossings which required recovery to get through. On one section where we have to avoid the extremely rough top of the hill and drive around on the sleep side the upper wheels lift off the ground! Dangerous and exciting stuff..... love it! It would be one of the most rugged and geographically isolated areas in Australia even the station owner has only been in that area very rarely in a chopper! Will make an interesting future video.

Hi Trent I like your blower cant wait to see the vid of it eating dirt!

Good to see you had a good trip downunder. Next time you will have to do a stint with the Goldhounds crew Steve!

I can see one major problem....... How are they going to find a camera man that is fit enough and has the balls to follow me to where I found this?

Hi Paul It's the middle of the best part of the season so you won't hear much from us, as the only time I'm in town is 2 or 3 days to get supplies every month or so. We've been doing well and we are just preparing to go in to a really rugged and very remote area that probably hasn't ever had a detector go over it. Its a grueling 60km bush bash through some verrrrrry rugged and steeeeeep terrain. Hopefully we can find the fabled town of Nuggetsville. Or even better Slugsville! Keep in touch via pm if your still coming over and we can organize a mission for sure.

Hi Chris My observations of the performance of the Zed with the 14in coil line up with yours! Ive now got 271 days at an average of 7.5hrs swinging a day so thats 2032hrs on the zed so I think I can pass judgement on it now! I think that when the 19 comes out that it will be my new standard coil and that ill only use the 14 when chasing leaders/reefs as small gold sensitivity is a must when chasing them. I am really hanging for the new coil.......... HTFU minelab I want my new coil!

It is actually the RX area that is most important in determining the depth potential of a coil. The beauty of the DOD configuration is that it basically has 2 small coils that can detect small fast timeconstance but they also act as one rx winding that has the area of a mono plus the new zvt tech. Oh yeah! Cant wait for the new coil!

Hi Paul If you came in september I would take you out for a week with me, or if you had your own 4x4 you could tag along for longer. I am warning you though Paul, it starts to get bloody hot in september. And in october even most of the locals dont come out at that time of the year, as it usually hits 35degc by 8am and nearly always gose over 40 and can easily hit 45! In november and december only the hardend still come out as its just hot all the time. If it was me I would save my hollidays and come over in june july august, the weather is beautiful. It would be my honour to show a yankee gentalman a good time.

A bit of eye candy for you 63g of small bits and a 55g crystalline bit from last weeks trip............used my knowledge of geology to find them pretty decent weeks pay.

Not a live forum I like how you control the content by only having 1 active forum and then you move the good relevant info into the appropriate reference area, I like how you have set yours up Steve as you do not have to wade waist deep through crap to find relevant info. I just feel that geology is one of the most important parts of prospecting and it deserves its own reference section. I'dd contribute some really good links.

Hi Steve Im a bit past the basic stuff in that course but I think that you should make a prospecting related geo reference area on your forum and any good articles, posts, videos or links could go in there and we could all help to build a good knowledge base of reference material to read or watch to expand ones knowledge of prospecting related geology.

April may are still hot and have a high risk of a cyclone or monsoonal trough. The coolest time of the year is mid June to mid August, and even then it still will hit 40degc any day there is no wind or cloud. But at least it cools off nicely at night. Jp is right about where we work it is some of the most rugged country in the world! Im not exaggerating either it would compare to remote Alaska exept its friggin hot instead of bloody freezing! But we got plenty of spots where we camp on gold....... literally! We even make our own little claims by putting our cars and beds on a bit of ground and saying "whatevers under mi car and swag is mine"............ a fair bit of claim jumping goes on and a few rocks get hidden under swags as revenge....fun! Then there's the old python or small crocodile in the swag trick...... ya gota watch ya back in our camp once the fun starts!

Good to hear you had a good trip Downunder! I hope you picked up some of the bloody ozzie lingo so ya can bloody well understand what we are yappin about when ya come back. If you come back maybe you should do a stint with the Goldhounds? By the way you are real lucky that you never encountered a drop bear or hoop snake in your travels.......... or ya never would have made it back alive!