sevastras

I’m going to be out in the Bradshaws on the 24th if you feel like going further north and meeting up. I don’t know the area, researched claims, and know the 800 pretty well. I guess at the very least, I can give you tips on how to use the machine and am confident if my 800 goes over gold I will find it. 

25 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well, a business loves it when you are loyal. I find it an interesting concept myself. Why would anyone be loyal to a company? Like my dog is loyal to me? Is the company loyal back?

The only reason companies exist is to make money. It's nice if customers like a company, but it sure is not needed. Does anyone like oil companies, well, except the ones getting a paycheck from one, or stockholders? No, I basically have to buy gasoline, and there is no requirement I like or am loyal to any of them. If it makes a company more money to do things that are in their interest, and not yours, they will do it, as long as it does not affect the bottom line.

Usually companies do want happy customers and so certainly that is a factor. But only as it affects making money. Individually we are all nothing, just walking wallets to be drained. So loyalty? No. I'm only loyal to a company as regards if I think their products or services are a better deal for me, and the minute I think otherwise, I'll buy somewhere else.

So yeah, if making things different means you buy more stuff, that's what they are going to do. No reason to get mad or upset about it. They are not friends who are betraying you. They are just a company with stuff to sell. You can buy from them, or buy from someone else.

Yes, they have stuff made around the world. They also have a large headquarters in Mawson Lake, Australia, that pays quite a few Aussies the big engineering bucks. But again, what of it? I'm not an Aussie myself, but that never stopped me buying their product.

Long story short if it really bothers you a lot, send a letter to the company. Or buy some other brand. Whatever. But life's too short and these are just metal detectors. If you want to get bothered, there are some drug companies I can point you at that deserve your ire far more than Minelab. 

 

I only fill my Tacoma at Chevron, then again this is the first time I have ever owned a new vehicle rather than used. 
Cell phone companies use to change the charger every year to make people buy new accessories each year until the US government dictated how often they could change the shape of the charger port. I’m not a fan of government getting involved in private business but I can see where making chargers obsolete every year is problematic for waste and what not. 
Back to the subject.  Just look at it as a great reason to buy a nice graphite shaft from the other Steve on here.  Lighter, stronger and you are supporting a small business that does care and will answer your phone call personally(or call you back when he isn’t at his full time job). And no, he isn’t paying me for the plug 😆. 

6 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Gold may have more 'value' there than any other country right now because of the lack of goods and services.

Someone posted something on here maybe a year or two ago about people paying for haircuts with gold there. 
Simon, the United States government sees Venezuela as a corrupt and dangerous country. Whether that is true or not, that is what we are fed through our media. *This is not a political discussion*.  I had my metal detectors held for ransom for almost 2 weeks flying into Mexico. I could see greater problems flying into Venezuela, hence my initial comment. I could be completely off basis because I have never tried. But your post really makes me want to tempt fate. 

On 3/6/2022 at 4:15 PM, phrunt said:

This is some more nuggets a guy I know found in Venezuela, South America, he found them in December.  It goes to show there is some big stuff down that way.

 

That is some amazing gold. I was starting to post about how there is no way I would fly into that country and swing a $6000 machine around, then my mind started to devise a plan on how I could do it. 
Let’s just say, Simon, if your friend will host us and is well armed, I will bring night vision goggles and tell my wife I am Mexico on a guys trip. 

32 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I understand the first two sentences, but am confused on the last sentence.  (I'm sure those familiar with the type of areas you refer aren't confused....)  Could you go a bit further in explaining this?  Just to emphasize my ignorance, I wasn't aware that lode gold and placer gold can be present in the same location -- vertically separated.  Also the part about "heavy mineral concentrates (being) formed..."  I can guess/surmise what this means as it seems self-explanatory but I can also think of other interpretations.  (All or this may be in Chris Ralph's book, so maybe time for me to reread.  Not having been trained in geology nor having a lot of experience searching for native gold, I've missed a lot on first and even second reading.)

I am by no means an expert, far from it. How would old timers have known to start digging for lode if there wasn’t placer present to give them an idea of where to start digging?  Second, if you look at claims maps if there are lode claims, there are usually placer claims as well. Now the science and what not is someone else. 

Another thought. If it was bare land when it was buried, there is a possibility it was dug up during the excavation of the foundation for the house, utilities, or septic. 
If there was in fact 2’ of topsoil added, that would mean the original hole was 2’-4’ deep which makes way more sense.  

Backhoe. There are stories of a 3030 finding a car a few feet deep and silver bars in the hundreds of pounds that deep, but I would rent a backhoe, scrape, detect, scrape, detect, rinse and repeat. I own buildings that they say had gambling and slot machines buried or bricked off before authorities got to them. That said, I’m not knocking down walls and following hearsay. 
Don’t forget to call 811 and probably don’t invest too much into a story. Especially if she thinks they are that deep. He wasn’t digging that deep without equipment or someone seeing him dig for weeks on end. 

18 minutes ago, Arky said:

Sevastras it was great to meet you. Thanks for stopping by our camp. You only left one tiny nugget behind for us to find! Our hunt was slow as well, but at least we found a few over the course of several fairly relaxed days. The weather did improve for us.  

You two earned those! Best of luck down south

On 10/18/2022 at 5:37 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

 

Simon - You cheap Mongrel,🤣 trying to get an extra coil out of them.  This coming from a guy who has purchased more detectors than 95% of the people I know.  Yes it would be great if they did in fact offer it as "Introductory Sale".  But you and I know, they could have offered it for $1999 and I think many would purchase it anyway.  Seems the $1600 price point is right on with the Deus-II though and that seems to be its competition. 

 

And then he complains about them until a new one comes out and then complains about why the new one doesn’t do things as well as the old one he complains about. 😂

Just messing with you Simon. 

That would be perfect for that guy in Pocatello Idaho a year or two ago that was searching for lost gold bars in a river or canal.  Assuming it isn’t going to pick up every little thing and just make the whole thing light up the entire time. 
I go to Greece sailing and have refrained from bringing a detector mainly so I don’t ignore the company I am with but also I don’t want to end up in jail for a spell for removing antiquities. I would love to get my hands on one and drag it around to test it out. 

2 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

But what happened to the two planes in #77 ?????

The crew are out looking just in case....🙄🙄🙄🙄 

 

I had to know as well, so I googled it. The planes became stuck together one on top of the other. 3 of the 4 crew bailed out and the pilot on the top plane figured out he could still maneuver the planes and was able to make a successful emergency landing. The plane on top was able to be repaired and put back into service. 

45 minutes ago, jasong said:

Out for delivery today. It'll be a bit before I can get it into the field though - trying to renovate and sell my house and got a ton of stuff that needs to get done before the floor refinishers and electricians get here so that's keeping me in town every day until it's ready.

Trade you electrical work for permission to hunt with you at your summer spot. 😆

Gold is heavier than most anything else you will find in nature. Shake it around just right, makes perfect sense it will end up in the begins with an R (I can’t spell) bottom thing that is also the name of a man made lake with a damn. 
Personally, I have become really good just using my hands except when I get into small gold and the weather is warm enough to give salt signals from my hand. 
I like the concept and will give an honest opinion once it is in hand and I try it out. 

6 hours ago, phrunt said:

Where I would change Doc's scoop for my needs is in the photo below.

I would trim off the edge at the black line and sharpen it, this makes brushing/pushing soil on bedrock into the scoop easier for the tiny gold hunting on bedrock I do as curved edges are just useless and flat is much better for having more contact with the ground, so little of the scoop is on the ground surface with rounded edges.   Other than that small change I really like the design.  Do that and I'd even pay the crazy US shipping.

It isnt crazy US shipping, it is your countries crazy import taxes. They are just now charging them on the front end and not collecting them on the back end because they were being told lower values for less tax. 

Doc, you have already dressed up my detectors I’m excited for your scoop! Thank you!

Scoop

Last time I talked to Danny, he said he stopped charging for permission to detect on his claims. He has 1000 acres up the hill a bit that they have taken water to and are working on a project up there that will be open to the public. He said the last person he gave permission to for the claims found 20 something nuggets in a couple of days, that was in October so I imagine they took a 6k out. 
I wouldn’t bother going to his claims because they have been hunted out. 😉 I might just drive down here in a week or two to make sure there isn’t any left. 

2 minutes ago, Erik Oostra said:

Did you use the Excal for these finds? your Equinox would've handled these depths and given you target id.. 😃 

I dont have water proof head phones for it, so mostly just use the Equinox up to chest depths.  

I am making headway on the badly corroded ring.  Just realized I didnt have it in any of my pictures and didnt take a before picture but here it is in its current state.

Back from Roatan.  Nice to get to 80 degree weather and 80 degree water.  I started a lot with the Nox but grew tired of bottle caps and can tabs.  I was mostly working the shore to waist deep.  Lots of foil and the corroded bottle caps read anywhere from a 5-15 and not always with an iron grunt.  After a few days of no luck, I took the Excal out to work the reef area.  I did not know that Roatan has the second largest reef until this trip.  I worked mostly the openings that had a sandy or slightly rocky bottom.  That is when I hit my first ring and then a second one about 20 minutes later.  I pegged them both for junk rings, but it turned out they are both sterling Pandora rings(thin not that expensive but silver none the less).  4.3 grams for both.

A really corroded ring that I havent been able to get clean.  It weighs 4.9 grams but I cant figure out what it is.  

I could only work about and hour or two each day without the wife giving me a hard time for deserting the family.  But, once I got the taste of those rings, I pushed the limits the best I could.  I found what I thought was a gold ring the next day, but it doesnt have any markings and it leaves a grey streak on the back side of the toilet lid, only weighs 3.3 grams.  I found what appears to be a corroded fishing spear, a name tag, a half of a scissor, and a few other fun things, but I finally scored with 2 days left.  A hefty gold and platinum ring!  My first official gold ring and platinum both in one(not sure if it counts since it is a two in one).  It weighs out at 13.2 grams and is marked FG 18k PLAT 950. Frederick Goldman 

Most of the good stuff was between 5 and 10 feet deep, with the FG ring at about 8 feet deep and 10" in the rocky sand.  I was in an opening in the reef that was maybe 8'x15' long and I grid it 3 times before I got a signal.  The reason I would grid these areas is because there werent very many targets and the few were better targets then the closer to shore trashy areas.  I imagine if I were there a week and could get in 8 to 10 hours, I would have good luck in the closer trashy areas but didnt have the time.  

Hope you all enjoy seeing the finds!

On 10/26/2021 at 5:05 PM, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

I'm going to tell him start practicing using the Gold Mode 1 all metal... we have a outing planned in later Nov.. same beach

My thought from gold hunting is that with the all metal, some of those smaller deeper targets may read 0 or -1 or -2 until some of the sand is taken off.  He could be missing some with the discrimination on.  I havent hunted the beach or water since I have become proficient with the Nox, but am flying out this week and will test it out along with my Excal.

Side note, your video is still up just in case you were planning on taking it down like you said.  

10 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Belize is a good place to hunt, but you need to stay close to the main areas where the tourists are. If you get to far away you really need a body guard to keep you safe. My uncle has told me about the area there and say that a lot of tourists loose a lot of rings in the beach waters there.

Good luck

Thank you.  Didnt think too much about not wondering too far from the main areas.  Probably more luck in those areas anyways.  I will report back in a few weeks!

I have found the usual conflicting info that you find for Latin American countries.  Any one have direct knowledge or experience metal detecting beaches in Belize or Roatan?  I did find someone who was selling a pair of old dive detectors that were in the house he purchased in Belize, but who knows if they just used them off shore.

Are you sure it wasnt another prospector trying to tell you to go away?🤣

 

Very nice collection from that trip !

Sounds like you worked for it ....but right in camp...

Maybe you should move there from ID ?😎

 

I would end up divorced 🤣