RiverRat

Steve, I couldn't agree more. There is only so much the manufacturers can do. Sooner or later they're going to run out of tricks. That's why I don't play the latest and greatest game. I'm just interested from a technical standpoint what they're coming up with to solve certain problems. Other than that just like has been said before, it's experienced detectorists who will find the majority of the gold. I don't need the latest and greatest to have fun, which is evidenced by the fact that I bought GPX 4800 after I bought my GB 2. I can already hear the groans, oh my God he's swinging a 4800. Here's the deal, I bought it because it has DVT and SETA and it will do what I need it to do. The rest is getting it over the gold, same as the rest of these machines. As far as new tech, it can only go so far. One of my friends is an engineering tech, what used the be called an engineer before they came up with fancy degrees. He's worked for several big electronic companies and been a lead on projects where they reverse engineer their competitors products. It's kind of like scavenging tech from another company but In a slightly different way. That might be what's going on now with the detector companies. There's ne real groundbreaking stuff going on with these companies. Sure ZVT is a different bent on it but it's not earth shattering by any means. Sorry, my two 2 cents.

Hi Gerry, I plan on doing the buddy method using my BG 2 and the GPX 4800 "yes I know, the bastard child " in dredge tailings. When i bought the GPX 4800 last June and still having a few more months til I retire and get back out there in the field, I decided to detect at local beaches, at the Columbia River and Cape Dissapointment where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean. I learned that the GPX detected much deeper than a Whites TDI I had been borrowing from a friend at the local prospecting club I belong to. It got old digging deep only to find a battery from someone's tape pen at 18 inches or a piece of rigging cable at 24+ inches, so I decreased the sensitivity to around 2-3 with iron disc maxed. That worked much better. I also got far better at listening to the sound of the targets and especially what sounded like a warbling tone. I started calling it the turkey tone (you know, gobble gobble) I got much better and was finding jewelry, coins, old aluminum beer tabs,ect..... I maintain that I am going to corner the market on pull tabs! So , my question to you is, while doing the buddy system with the GB 2 and the GPX 4800, do you think the reduced sensitivity setting I used on the GPX on the beaches would work in dredge tailing piles so I'm not likely to dig up iron bolts and other deep trash from the dredge yet have enough sensitivity to find the gold? Thanks RiverRat

Hi Joe, Thanks for the input. I'm very interested to see what garrett does with this. Hopefully the silence from Fisher means that they're taking the time after beta testing to fine tune it. I bought a 2nd hand GB 2 in pristine condition with both coils for half the retail price, and bought a GPX 4800 "yeah, I know, the bastard child" also at a great price. Both are great units. I borrowed a TDI from a friend before I got the GPX. I compared the two and frankly the GPX is way better. I'm just curious at this point how the Impulse AQ does at depth and whether it can detect small nuggets like my GB 2 without having to switch it to fine gold. RiverRat

Steve, looking back through old posts.So whats the deal with Fisher Impulse AQ? Fancy video of the AQ. I'd like to see what Fisher can bring to the table. RiverRat

Hi Gerry, Thanks a bunch for posting about detecting tailing piles. What coil or coils do you like with the GB 2 in mine tailings and Dredge Tailings? I picked up a used GB 2 with the 6x3 and 10x5 coils in primo condition a few months ago at a great price, and then picked up a GPX 4800 with stock DD coil also at a great price. I'm ready to retire and get back out in the goldfields. I got into prospecting in my teens after finding out that my family has been involved in gold prospecting since 1849. Now I'm switching to the detecting side. My focus is on mine tailing piles and dredge tailings in Siskiyou county Ca where my family had a producing mine in the 1880's. thanks, RiverRat

Hi Allen, really nice find. Just wondering what coil or coils you like with the GB 2 for tailing piles? Thanks, RiverRat

I just replaced the handle on my Apex pick and am thinking of adding a magnet to the end of the handle. The handle is a 1" x 1 1/2". Oval What size and strength of magnet would i be looking for?

Thanks Steve, This YouTube video is what got me interested in this. RiverRat

I'm interested in any information on how gold veins/ lode deposits become offset and how to attempt to predict the amount of offset. Anyone have information on this? Thanks, RiverRat

Tim, if I get permission to go there I might just take you up on partnering up. I also hope you find your hoard. Thanks GB, I'll check that book out. I'm always up for learning something new and useful.

Tim, that's awesome. I spent time doing asbestos abatement and concrete at Longview Fiber, then Capstone. You mentioned relic hunting. Have you detected around old homesteads? If so what detector do you use and how did you do? I'm interested in that as well. My mom is from Jones County Miss. If you saw the movie Free State of Jones, that's about one branch of my family. The main character played by Matthew Mcconaughey was my gr-gr-grandmothers cousin Newt Knight, and she later married one of his men. Getting back to relic hunting, there was a legend that one of my gr-gr-gr-grandmothers after her husband died, was a woman of some wealth and was known to bury her money during the civil war, a story in the family that she couldn't find where she had buried it. I researched it and know where her hone property was. I'm planning on going there after I retire to visit family. I bet you know what I'm going to try to do. Just got to get permission. I just realized I need to check out past posts in this forum about cache hunting. I need to bone up on it.

Thanks Tim,. I'm originally from French Camp, CA. I moved to Hillsboro, Oregon in '89 then to Longview, WA in Dec 2017. Y family were N.W. pioneers before becoming prospectors. I've been doing my homework on the area around where my family prospected outside of Yreka. Some of the old topo maps show tunnel, and prospect locations, and the CA State geology books are really helpful. I have 13 months until I pull the plug and retire so I can go for it! Lucky 13!

Thanks guys. Between all of your answers, it did help.

I noticed early on that in discussions about the conductivity of gold, that gold is considered a low conductor. This is confusing to me. My understanding was that gold is a high conductor, whereas only 2 other metals are higher conductors. Silver being the highest conductor, and copper being the next highest, allowed by gold. Iron is way down on the list. Can anyone please explain this?

Joe D, I just happen to have a photo of my gr-gr-grandfather Jeremiah Heckethorn and his wife. His is the mine i mentioned that is just a ways outside Yreka. I have newspaper articles that mention their mine which was named Mountain King. I'm one article it mentions that he and his brother had made arrangements to have their ore crushed at a crusher on the north side of Yreka and that one wagon load had brought them $1300. Not bad for the 1880's! Larry

Howdy Woodbutcher!

Nice vuggy quartz! Veins sometimes have parallel shoots, so maybe or maybe not on it being an actual fault line. The old-timers would sometimes hunt for parallel shoots which can be anywhere from a few feet to hundreds of yards apart and can dip and resurface along the length of it. I would venture to guess that whatever direction that vein is trending is the direction the fault lines run. Geology books on faults and geothermals for that area are good to check out. If you want to invest the time, you could survey it and try to plot where that vein might run and try to find it or a parallel in an adjacent valley or the next hill/mountain. You could probably do it with Google Earth.

I will be retiring in the coming months and am preparing to get back into prospecting. My plan is to go "high tech". My view is that I may want a VLF to search for small targets then switch to a PI to punch down deeper for any other potential targets over the same area. I'm leaning strongly toward the Gold Bug 2 for my first detector. I understand after doing some research and watching a bunch of videos on YouTube that the GB2 really excels at recovering small gold. My question is, considering it's operating frequency, what kind of depth is possible with the GB2 and considering ground mineralization?

Exactly! I'm with you on the weight issue. The majority of us don't need a waterproof machine anyways. Garrett is seriously missing out on sales for not offering a light weight version. But who knows, considering their aquisition of Whites, maybe the patents and tech they bought in combination with their own tech will spawn a new line to compete with Minelab.

"Far out man!" Beautiful little nugget!

Awesome... Thanks! By the way my gr-gr-grampa did die on the property when they were felling a tree to build/make improvements to the mine, so who knows, maybe he'll tell me where the big-un is.... 😆 There IS a possibility of large nuggets in that area. According to one of the newspaper articles I found about his mine, they found a nugget right near their claim that was reported to be 12 inches long and 2 to 3 inches across. I say bring it on!

Thanks fellas, so metal detecting is new to me. Still checking out what type of detector and coil to go with. Gathering a lot of great information here and other places as well as doing my research on the areas I want to prospect. Loving youtube for all the great videos. Leaning towards a Gold Bug 2 to start with.

Exactly Steve. In the mid 80's when I went to school for electronics, a TI scientific calculator wrt for $150. Now you can get an app for your phone that costs just a few bucks. The question to me is how much do you want to pay for the latest and greatest?

Hi all, I'm new to the forum. I discovered Detector Prospector a couple of days ago, and after reading a few of the articles Steve wrote, I decided that this sounds like the place to be. I grew up in the central valley of California, and dad who was born and raised in Sonora CA took me with him to check out old mine tailings and panning on occasion when I was a kid. Technically I'm a 5th gen prospector, but In reality I just learned some about panning and mining from my dad and grampa who both passed away by the time I was 21. My family was butt deep in it all right, though grampa was the last one to hold an active claim. One of the places I want to prospect is the tailing pile at my gr-gr-grampas mine near Yreka CA, as well as the creek running near it where my gr-grampa was born at camp there. Gr-grampa eventually worked at the Empire mine in Grass Valley Ca. I went to a trade school for micro electronics a number of years ago and the new detectors interest me. I'll be retiring in the next year or so and have been reading a lot about using metal detectors and well as using the internet to do research. Larry AKA RiverRat