Tortuga

Wow those are some cool pics. Really interesting to hear they use Minelabs to do most of their mining.

Get a pinpointer - it can help you find that target quickly. I was digging deep nails a while back (some were not nails but were gold) and a pinpointer is also good to help dig smaller holes in chasing deep stuff. I've actually used a VLF with a small coil as a pinpointer as well.

Love your book Chris!

The GPZ can be a real bear to pinpoint with because it likes little nuggets but it's got a big coil. Kind of unique situation.

There's been times where I've been probably trying to push around a tiny little dink I just can't pinpoint and eventually I've just moved on.

If it's so small I can't easily see it in a handful of dirt I've been pushing around with my scoop for 10 minutes I think my time and energy are better suited just moving on and digging bigger targets.

I've been interested in doing something similar to your trip.

Would be curious what your expenses were like for the week you were there. I have a GPZ too. I think Alaska would be a little easier to do than Australia.

I might send you a PM to get more details on your trip.

I bought a copper nugget from Wisconsin(?) at the Tucson Gem Show for about $20. It's about the size of a golfball. They machine polished it to a high shine and coated it with a clear epoxy. Looks really cool.

A larger one would be fun but I'm guessing the sticker price on it will be $2000+ based solely on the detector's price.

Cool to see how is been worn smooth with age.

If I'm working around bedrock I carry a paintbrush with me. Really helps to sweep sand and dirt out of the little cracks. Then once I spy a nugget I'll just grab a little twig and work on prying it out. Love seeing that flash of gold down in the dirt!

I love pics of nuggets "in situ" wedged in bedrock. Really makes me wish I carried my phone more when I detect.

Very nice!

Thanks again guys, it's why we hunt is right !! We all know those big ones are out there...we have to go through a lot of trash, and some small nuggets here and there....but the big ones are a surprise. Kind of like pulling the hand on the slot machine....we get fed a little here and there, but just once a while we get that " ohhh my Gosh " nugget. The feelin can't be beat and a memory for ever....

Mind sharing the state you found it in? AZ or CA?

Great looking nugget.

Nice gold. I've found the iron ferrite ring had been smoothing out the ground balance a lot on my GPZ as well.

Great post, Gollum.
My little black nugget just has the iron oxide coating on it like Jonathan's. Rob Allison pulled several ounces of black nuggets from the same area, some were over an ounce each.

It was solid gold with a thin coating of iron in places.

Black gold nugget, indeed. I have a small 1 gram black gold nugget I found at Rich Hill. Just like Peg Leg Smith!

Hopefully the new owner didn't dissolve the iron off it with acid.

http://www.desertusa.com/desert-prospecting/pegleg.html

I love the look of that nugget! Do you ever sell any of your gold?

Nice gold. I seem to find the small stuff with my SDC and bigger stuff with my GPZ!

I just rinse mine off with a little soap and water and a toothbrush, that's it. Don't get it when guys dissolve all the quartz and stuff away in acid. There's nothing cooler than popping a natural nugget right outta the ground.

Rob Allison digs so much gold he doesn't even clean his nuggets off! I don't think he even gives them a rinse in his mouth. Just sees that it's gold and drops them in his poke.

Guy shoulda kept his mouth shut....

Glad to hear it worked out.

Most people always talk about when something goes bad, rarely do people take the time to post when something goes good.

That's some nice, course looking gold.

Quartz, iron all the right ingredients.

What state are you in if you don't mind me asking?

I run mine on the default settings in High Yield/Normal Soil/Low Audio Smoothing. May play around with turning the audio smoothing off this weekend if it doesn't get too many false hits. Been ground balancing with the iron ferrite ring too and that's helped with falsing a little. Right when I got my GPZ I ran all these settings I got off the internet that I thought you were "supposed to" do but it made my machine loud and unstable. After doing a system reset and following Jonathan Porter's ground balancing procedures I find gold on the stock settings and that works for me. Maybe a year or two down the road I might get bored and start tweaking it a little but for now I like to keep things simple.

See,, That's what I like about these Top Companies,,, That Extra Mile and another Machine Ready to Do Battle, The More I read about the SDC the More I want One. I love that VLF Nugget ability that it has and it does it all day Every Day.

WTG MINELAB,, True Champions.

It's a good detector. I found my first piece of gold with it and I continue to find nuggets with it. Sometimes it works better for me than my GPZ depending on the terrain, particularly in rocky dry washes. I can get the small coil into tight spaces and around boulders and stuff pretty easily. And because it's a PI it'll still detect large, deep targets so you don't have to worry about missing those.

I only have a few gripes. It's kind of annoying that you have to use a separate adapter to use a 1/4" headphone jack. I've left that back in the truck a few times and have had to just use the external speaker. With headphones the volume is quite low too. I have a B&Z Booster but it's a little annoying running all the separate wires and stuff and it does take a bit of fiddling to get rid of the audio feedback buzzing in the headphones. The detector is also quite sensitive to EMI and it often takes me a dozen or so tries with the noise cancel button to get that cleared up. It may also be the areas I detect in as well but my GPZ isn't as affected by it.

Got my replacement "upper armrest assembly" from Minelab yesterday. They sent it out really fast via USPS Priority Mail, I was really surprised. Pretty happy with their customer service so far.

I've got enough extra parts for my SDC 2300 to last me awhile now. Works as a good "pinpointer" for my GPZ 

I'm from Arizona too and I also own an SDC and GPZ. I usually take a break detecting around this time of year between the heat and rain. If you really gotta get out Greaterville will be a little cooler compared to the desert areas but not by much.

Very nice. I love specimen gold. Was this from California?