bado1

Very cool!

Welcome, Nenad!

Thank you for your great videos and the SDC headphone adaptor!!

Dean

Congratulations, Paul! 

Great choice for man of the year! Goes to show that good things done come back to you.

Thanks Steve and Dilek for doing this.

Dean 

O.k., Thanks! 

I'll leave it as is. 

Dean

Cool looking nugget, Paul. Congrats!

Thank you, Chris! Very informative.

Although I like the specimen the way it is, could it be treated with some sort of acid solution to make it look more like the ones in your pictures? If so, what would you recommend? Thanks!

Dean

Tortuga, 

Yes, it makes my detector scream. The VDI # comes up at 45 which is low if one is expecting copper or silver. Copper comes in at 82 and silver at 90. I tested some of my other copper and silver nuggets and they come in with high VDI #s.

Galena. Good thought, Root. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply, Root...

What is the silver colored metal? I've  found lots of  native copper nuggets and they have always been " copper" colored.

I found this near an old mine. There was also a smelter in the area about 100 years ago. I think that this is a chunk of the ore that they were mining. When I picked it up I thought that it was a chunk of copper ore or a native copper nugget. I have found copper nuggets before and this is what they look and feel like. Quite heavy. My digital scale only goes to 3oz and this overloads it. The pic is of both sides next to a crusty quarter and then a pic of the end. When I was brushing it off a small piece broke off the end and revealed silver color under the blue patina. I then hit the jagged edge on my grinder and, as you can see, more silver color. I don't want to ruin the specimen by soaking in acid or anything so I thought I would ask you rock hounds for some ideas. Oh, it rings up as a mid-tone #45 on my Nokta Fores CoRe which is low for silver or copper. Any ideas would be appreciated.

End showing silver color. Expected copper color.

Thanks!

Dean

One, mostly, or two for me as well. I always use head phones.

gambler,

Steve has given you (us) some excellent advise here. Thanks, Steve!

I can see this thread turning in to a "fan based" opinion thread. Basically, you will find fans of various machines for various uses and none of them is wrong. As Steve said, it's all about the man behind the machine and how well he knows his machine. I think Steve once said it's 20% detector and 80% the man behind it (or something close to that... to the best of my fuzzy memory  ).

We tend to gather detectors as the years go by as we "convince" ourselves of the need for a more specialized machine. There are a couple of good " all around-ers" that, as a fan, I will mention as I use them for the same purpose you described and then some.

The Nokta FoRes CoRe is a newer great all around machine that is easy to learn and a great value and the tried and true Minelab X-Terra with it's various frequency coils. Great, IMO, for the use you described and for other applications as well.  

Good luck!

Dean

Detected an old ranch that was built in 1926 with my X-Terra 70. I chose the 6"-3kHz coil as it was VERY trashy. My first good signal was a very strong high tone in all directions with the VID #s up in the silver dollar range in the front yard. A large chunk of heavy metal comes out of the hole. I thought it was a chunk of lead, although it was oddly colored for lead, and it rang up higher than lead on the X-Terra. In the pouch it went. My next good target was a 1943-s "War Nickel", then another chunk of heavy metal. Didn't hunt long but I have permission to go back. After I got home I gave the heavy metal chunks a little cleaning and realized that they weren't lead after all.

The two chunks after a rinse off.

The larger one just didn't look like old lead and is a dark grey-blue color and is not soft like lead. I dipped it in a liquid metal cleaner and, wow! It came out a nice bright silver color! It turned back to it's original color as it air dried (should have rinsed it off). I took it to the garage to the buffing wheel and briefly hit the edge of it...

Buffed up nicely. Weighs 2.70 ounces. Appears to be a silver pour.

The second chunk looks more like a slag/first pour than the first one and is mostly copper mixed with what appears to be silver and possibly some gold...

Weighs .50 ounce.

This ranch is just down the road from what was once a bustling copper mining town and is now a ghost town. The mine has recently been re-claimed and the town/mine area is now closed to the public. I'm guessing that the people who lived at the ranch may have worked at the mine and brought these pours  home?  

Dean

Thanks guys!

We didn't run in to very many buzz-tails this year either. I had a close encounter with this one though...

Nice gold! Good work!!

hawkeye-

He used a 6" coiltek.

My buddy Steve and I re-visited the "desert dink patch" area and managed to add a few more to the poke yesterday and this morning. May be our last session for a while as we both have deer tags to fill. Here's the November tally thus far...

Steve's (GPX 5000)

Mine (SDC 2300)

Steve discovered another use for his pick. Turns out it makes a pretty good beheading tool!

Check out the rattles on this guy...

Fourteen buttons!!! What a stud!

We usually don't kill them but this one was too close to camp for comfort.

Good Luck!

Dean

Chuck,

You are much more talented than I am. The only thing I can do with my right hand is throw a Frisbee! If I were to swing a hammer with my right hand I would be a danger to myself or the people near me .

I bought a right handed unit as I figured it would be easier to sell when I want to up grade units. Although, I don't see selling this unit any time soon..... I have other machines that would go first. Take care.

Dean

Chuck,

californiagold is right...the machine is wonderfully simple and once you turn it on and put in your settings you rarely need to change them or look at the side. I'm a lefty and have the right handed machine and have no troubles at all with it.

Dean

Nice work! What machine are you going to replace the FG with?

Dick,

Thank you for your passion and experienced in-put!

Relevant discussions are how problems come to light and possible solutions are explored.

Good luck, everyone!

Dean

Dick,

Nobody said anything about taking mining "rights" (privileges granted by current law) away on this entire thread. What has been expressed is that claimants believe that they have "rights"/privileges that were never granted them and then over step and do foolish things that they have no "right" to do. So, yes, these claimants that are infringing upon the public's "rights" need to stop doing foolish things-or your very livelihood (our hobby) will be threatened.

When laws are made and privileges granted for one group, privileges are instantly taken from another group. Therefore, as this thread demonstrates, people get upset when the laws made don't go their way. Which is why the people that were granted the privileges, by law, must be careful not to abuse them....there is always somebody looking to take them away.

Actually, Dick, there are laws that protect the public and allow them to hike,raft, pick berries,etc. on public lands. What do you think happens when a claimant, at gun point,  orders a berry picker,hiker,camper off of their claim and the sheriff is called? The berry picker aint going to jail! That's for sure, especially, in today's "green" social environment. So, if you believe that it's acceptable for a claim owner to do the "foolish things" previously described in this thread, things that his claim does not grant him the "right" to do then, respectfully, you don't know your mining claim "rights".

Dean

Welcome to the forum, Carpdogman.

WTG! Great way to start the season!!

Agreed, LipCa.

Dick took exception with my post saying that he felt that miners were already under attack from various agencies and  "greenies"  and so we shouldn't be critical of each other. One of the greatest dangers we and other organizations face are problems from within. I'm very familiar with the idiosyncrasies of our fellow miners/claim holders and it frustrates/angers ME, a  prospector, when I see some of the stuff that they do. IMAGINE how WE (yes "WE") look to someone not familiar with mining/prospecting! Imagine non-prospectors returning to their regular camping,hunting,fishing,hiking spot and finding a bunch of (illegal) signs that say "Private Claim- No Trespassing!" every 100 feet! Or, the road is illegally blocked! Or, worse yet, some gun toting claim owner orders them (illegally) off of their traditional camping spot!  If we piss off the non prospecting public our rights to make claims will go away so fast that we won't know what happened and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

So, should we not "police" or call out our own? Do we let the idiots that take their claim rights too far screw it up for all of us? 

I agree with Dick. We are under fire from many different fronts. Let's not be the ones that give them the ammo.

Dean

The trash problem is a good point. Slobs can spoil many things. Unfortunately, one of the burdens that a guy takes on when he becomes  a claim holder.

I own vacant land. If I don't keep it presentable, weed an litter free, I get fined. I understand the frustration but it comes with the territory. 

If I have any question in an area that I'm not familiar with I check the LR2000 or, more accurately, I ask my buddy to do it as he is very familiar with the process as it's part of his daily job.