GeoBill

Didn't take a picture but just yesterday came across a large fruiting of Shaggy Parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes or Lepiota Rhacodes), one of my favorites. Great with scrambled eggs. A place I like to metal detect is up in the hills where there was a road house along old Skyline Road in the late 1800's - about 1930. Fall and winter I can always find chanterelles and horns of plenty, not to mention the blackberry bushes I have to whack through to get there in the spring. Yummmmm.

Great News. Unfortunately I just bought both in the past 2 months. Sigh................

How do you think the miner John/Razerback folded mono coils would perform? He made some very small ones. I don't remember if it was resolved, but was the "Hi-Q" coil that Whites was selling with the SL after Miner John's place burned, White's attempt at a folded mono?

About 30 years ago when I was doing some work more to the SW, there was active gold exploration in the Drum Mountain. In Millard County. Found this Utah Geological Survey Open File Report in my files which might be of some help Mines and Prospects Containing Gold in Utah UGS OFR-207 ofr-207.pdf

As a retired geologist I'd say that two toes has the best explanations of stream/river hydrology and associated where to detect.

I bought a Torus this past summer based on the reviews here and on other forums. Worked great listening to music but audio was broken when connected to equinox and another LL transmitter adapter. Contacted customer support and they were great. Shipped out a replacement and all is good now. The ear buds interest me. I do frequently use the ones in the Torus when it's very windy or near heavy surf and I'm more of a fan of tethered ones so I'm are less likely to lose one if it falls out (I'm amazed how often I see a single ear bud on the ground when I'm out cycling or hiking/walking - I know that would be me).

Jim, if you have a Big5 near you, might try them. They usually have a fairly cheap selection of 'hiking' shoes and boots. Can't remember the brand I bought several years ago, maybe Eddie Bauer or Hi Tec, but I took a pinpointer in with me to check if there was metal in the sole. Didn't last more than a year but for less than $20............ Bates also makes some pretty reasonable metal-free boots. (ah, just realized I was typing while you were posting the above reply)

The purge has started. Showing up on the MLRS website this morning. Time to search if that favorite claim you've been following has been closed. Get out those white 4x4s!

Australia price? $1.55 Australian to $1.00 US today. That would be a $650 US price increase on the SDC, 5000, and 6000.

Welcome. Have enjoyed watching your videos. Very informative. Looking forward to having you part of the discussions. Cheers Bill

When working the hives we are very careful to not squash many bees. Not because we don't want to lose bees (about 50K in a hive and during summer they only live about 30 days) but because it releases an alarm scent that gets them riled up. If I smash a few on my suit they will often follow me back to the truck even 100 yards away.

Ooooo, I'm going to ask him if he does local pickup? Will post his reply.

20+ years with the USGS working throughout the southwest and Sierra foothill never had a problem with rattlesnakes - they always let me know they were there. Lots of bears in Alaska, both black and grizzles/Kodiak, but never a problem (even on Katmai). Run-ins with people, particularly remote miners, was a different story. Driving a government vehicle in outback Alaska more than several times I had guns pointed at me (and a few times in Nevada) but the usual outcome when they found out I was USGS it became 'you're the guys with the maps' and all was OK (BIA, BLM, NFS, not so popular). I always felt safe that I wasn't really doing anything that would cause conflict. Looking back now I realize there were a number of times out there alone that things could have gone very sideways. Post USGS I've spent quite a bit of time wandering through the Sierra foothills, checking old Tertiary exposures, mountain biking with my wife and kids, remote camping and hiking. My going out alone was never an issue. But this happened just three years ago and hit close to home. Downieville/Allegheny area had been a favorite. My wife had worked with this guy and had met the wife at company events. Remote camping, my going out alone, has been somewhat curtailed (well, this and my falling into the Middle Fork of the Cosumnes and hitting my head on a boulder while out prospecting). Yes, there are crazies everywhere, but this hit too close to home. A 15-year-old survived 30 hours lost in the woods in California after his father was shot by a gunman while asking for directions https://www.insider.com/teen-spent-30-hours-lost-woods-father-was-shot-2020-7

My recollection is Reg's and then miner John's 'folded mono' design, folded single coil, was to avoid White's patent for the dual field where "multiple coplanar wire coils of different diameters connected in series...". From what I read Miner John's coil seemed to get great reviews and in high demand. Have any other coil manufacturers followed up on either the White's or folded mono designs and were there any real advantages over the single loop mono?

I keep bees and currently have several hives but I can only speak to how honey bees behave here in norcal. In general honey bees will only sting if defending their home or if trapped against your skin (stepped on, caught in hair, etc). When bees are swarming, like dirtman described, again they are very unlikely to sting as they are migrating to set up a new hive and are not in a defensive mode. Swarming bees are also engorged with honey which makes it very difficult for them to bend their bodies to drive in the stinger. This is in part why we "smoke" bees when checking their hives - they load up on honey in case they need to flee, and it also confuses/dampens their defense alarm pheromones. What Deep Beeps describes, "I came on a 4-5' tall creosote bush and was half way under the bush with my coil when I noticed what looked like a dark brown cowboy boot laying near the ground. As I looked a bit closer that boot turned out to be a bee hive", was most likely a swarm that was away from the hive waiting for the scouts to decide on where their new home should be. When honey bees swarm about 10,000+ of the workers and the current queen will leave the hive, find a resting place while scouts come to consensus on which of previously identified potential new homes is the best. This decision process is actually studied in business schools (Honey Bee Democracy). This decision process can take several days so when the bees leave the hive they engorge themselves with enough honey to survive that time. It is very unusual for honey bees to make a hive in the open which is why I suspect that was a swarm, and also why they didn't react when you got close. When capturing swarms I can usually walk up to them and just shake them into a box. Also bees keep their hive temperatures around 95F which is difficult to do in the open, and if you find and watch a swarm it is constantly churning, the outer bees moving inward so everyone stays warm. Now, to where you were detecting. It's been a long time since I did geologic fieldwork down in Arizona so I don't know how things may have changed or progressed. 30+ years ago we were strongly cautioned to be on the lookout for anywhere we saw dead small animals that didn't appear to be predator kills because there was a potential for a killer bee colony nearby. I've never encountered "Killer Bees" (Africanized honey bees) but apparently they are reactive to movement and will sting and kill small animals that venture too close to their hive. Apparently scavengers and predators leave the carcasses or are also chased away. I'd love to hear any killer bee encounter stories you all have to share. Anything I could learn about their behavior to make me safer now that I'm retired and hope to get back to the deserts. Cheers