Tortuga

Think some one had mentioned a pick holder or a way to carry these bigger

picks, this is what I am using, pretty simple to make.

4 inch abs pipe (pvc would work to) 6 inches long, cut two slots for belt

to fit through, 45 cut to reduce weight. Wala... cheap, durable and

easy to slide pick in and out..

That's a good idea. Should sell those along with your picks.

I've been curious about the Huachucas, particularly Ash Canyon. Haven't detected out that way yet.

I love the balance of the Hermit Pick and it's scooping ability especially in holes with a smaller diameter than a pick head width. But it'll stab ya in the hip in a bloody way if you fall on it when its on your belt or pack. I have to carry an Apex with the 7000, but it's head is slightly too heavy and throws the balance off. Also as mentioned the Hermit Pick has no spot for magnets so you gotta weld a holder on and also the shovel part breaks and needs rewelded often. I prefer a 32" handle but that obviously depends a lot on a person's height.

 

If you can design a hybrid between the two that is safely belt mountable, doesn't break, has magnets included, scoops like a Hermit, and has perfect balance then please take my money! 

It's really hard to find the perfect pick unless you go custom I think. I'm sure Ivan can help you out.

I wear a pick holder on my belt but that's usually just for hiking in. My GPZ will usually sound off on it so when I'm detecting it's usually slung over my shoulder.

CC Picks from Australia have a pretty cool head shape but they're expensive and the shipping isn't cheap either. Be awful breaking a $200 pick you waited a month to get out in the field...

Any luck this weekend fellas?

Seems like the vehicle traffic is picking up down there, dunno if its any of you guys on your way out. I'm kind of a late riser 

I've been having good luck with my GPZ this year, have found about half it's cost in gold here in Arizona hunting on the weekends since I bought it in April. Don't think I'll be slowing down anytime soon either.

I can't wait for an even bigger coil to be released for it, I think that would be find some deep stuff in my area just about everyone else has missed unless they're hand-digging out patches. Can't imagine those coils will run cheap tho, based on the price of the detector maybe $2,000+.

Like everyone else I do have a few complaints besides the ones already mentioned like lack of control box covers, spare parts etc. (I fear for the day I actually break something on this thing...)

1. The lower shaft on my GPZ has an annoying "twist" to it. If there was only a way to tighten up the latch that locks it down I'm sure it would fix this but my coil likes to twist a little to the right and left and I'm constantly adjusting it so it stays at the 12 o'clock position.

2. I wish there was a clock on the screen! I read Steve's write up on how to get the time using the GPS but come on Minelab, update the firmware to display the time on the little bar at the top of the screen. I don't wear a wristwatch when I detect and my phone and Garmin GPS are all stashed away in my Camelbak. Just a little thing that would make life easier when detecting.

Oh yeah and shave a couple hundred bucks off the MSRP by dumping the GPS in it. All I wanna do is hunt for nuggets, don't need to mess with a GPS and upload crap to my computer (I've got a iMac anyways   ).

I've been using a Walco Heavy Duty Large pick I got shipped over from Australia with a big 130 lb neodymium magnet stuck on the head.

It's got a nice long handle for digging GPZ holes and the pick head is nice and long with a wide scraping end on the back. It's not too heavy or too light. Picks have to be a little heavy to help with some of the digging. That way your arms and shoulders aren't taking all the brunt force. I like the Walco because the handle is a little skinnier and rounder than the Apex Picks and the steel used on the head is a little thinner making it a little lighter. Then the big magnet adds a little extra weight needed for digging. I really wish somebody sold those picks in the US, it would save a ton of money on shipping.

Sometimes if I'm feeling lazy and using my SDC and scraping bare bedrock in desert washes I'll use a Hodan ProPick with a smaller neodymium magnet stuck on it. That pick is a lot shorter and lighter than my Walco and lacks a lot of the digging power. The angle of the pick head is a little awkward too, I think it's too flat but I've still managed to dig nuggets with it.

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show added http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/calendar/1-calendar/02-2016

I go every year! Lots of great gold and meteorite vendors. Most of the best sellers like Pieter Heydelaar are set up at the Hotel Tucson City Center. I always hit that place first.

That show usually starts on the last Friday of January.

Nice work. Let us know how it works in the goldfields.

Yeah is some spots like down in the potholes the grass was chest high. Chiggers and little biting flies were out too.

Colorado gulch was claimed up....check it out...

Yeah I don't know much about the northside of the goldfield, only driven in through the Greaterville Rd. a few times. Will have to do some exploring up there to see what's claimed and what isn't.

Have mostly just played around further south down by the GPAA and DGD claims.

Ivansgarage- just saw your website and the picks that you sell. Those look pretty nice. I'm always looking for a nice diggers pick. Everything for sale stateside is either too short, too long, too heavy, has too many magnets like the Apex Picks etc.

I recently bought a Walco Heavy Duty Large pick from Australia. Cost a pretty penny to ship here. Stuck a big 130 lb neodymium magnet on the head. Works pretty good. One of these days I may contact you to make something custom. I like picks with wide shovels on the back for digging and scraping.

Damn that thing is nice.

I've tried messaging Border Boy about some info on Greaterville but I don't think he logs on much anymore.

Last I heard he was having some luck way up in Colorado Gulch.

One of these days I'll get my nuggets together and share some photos of my finds. There's still big stuff to be found down there.

The next time I go I might try some spots around Colorado or Louisiana Gulch I've been studying on Google Earth. Would like a little change in scenery from my usual patches.

Never had any problems in the 50/50 land either. Lately I've been detecting Ophir and Louisiana gulches. Been sticking to the hillsides because the wash bottoms are pretty hammered. Only area I've been told by others to avoid is the fenced area around Kentucky camp. Most gulches still produce gold drywashing, lots of clay in some areas though.

Had any luck down there? Spent about 6 hours out there today. Got some pretty good rain while I was out but no gold this time.

We should all meet up down there sometime and swap stories.

Next month should be some nice camping weather down there.

Ivan, anyone,

Question:

Can you tell me where one could find a map/info of the areas closed to metal detecting in the Greaterville area? I am assuming it is anywhere in the Forest Service managed public land that is not now claimed.

It should be the 50/50 land just east of Granite Mountain.

When I joined the Desert Gold Diggers club, the maps of the claims I got on disk showed the general area of this.

Hi Hawkeye, guys

There is no luck but that you make!

Every time I make a good find I always analyze how it happened.

Mainly so I can learn from it and hopfully repeat it.

And not once was it luck!

Let me tell you about a patch I found.

I was in the Australian dessert prospecting new ground in an un proven area over 150km from the nearest known gold area I was systematically running gullys just trying to find a my first piece, I had already done 2 months for virtually nothing.

I was walking from the head of one gully that I had just finished to ward the next one across a hill.

When I reached the summit of the hill I serveyed the surrounding hills and noticed in the distance that a few of the hills about 5km away were a different

Color, so i decided that I have to check those hills the next day to see why the hills are a different color as they were to far to walk to that late in the day.

That night I decided I would move my camp to a place in between the hills and the gully where I left off giving me better position to ether continue my work or investigate the hills.

So the next day I move my camp to a spot on a dry creek where I belived the water table should be within 2m of the surface in between the hills and the last gully I finished.

I bush bashed my way to the spot in the car and when I got there I dug in the best looking spot to try and find water after about 10 mins of digging I hit the water table.........cool!

Now that I had water I could stay as long as food supplys last and could systematically invesigate the surrounds no worries about water.

I then grabbed my detector and pick and power walked the 2km to the hills to have a closer look.

As I got closer I saw a main creek that fed from in between the hills and decided to run up the creek and try jag my firzt piece.

As I was walking towards the hills up the creek I noticed the soil change color, so I hoped out of the dry creek to have a look at the low hills around me and I imedetly noticed that the rock type had changed and it had good fulting and quartz and ironstone out crops and the tops of the hills were covered in broken conglomerate.

I started to get excited and decided to run every creek, gully, fedder gully and storm gutter that cut's this geological feature.

So i started in the creek I was in and decided to run all of the left side first.

So I walked up the main creek until the first left.

It was just a storm gutter that fed off the side of a low hill.

And right at the mouth I got my first piece about .3 of a gram.

Cool the area carry's so I continued up the gutter and got a few more pices for about 2g total.

When I reched the head of the gutter I looked at the gradual slopes ether side of the gutter and noticed that the right one has a ironstone and quartz baring fault that goes under the conglomerate on top of the hill.

I carefully serched the 2 slopes... Nothing.

So i decided that the gold definatly came from the fault but under the cap.

So I decide to walk over the hill to the opposit fall of the same hill.

I proceded to detect down the gully on the opposit side of the hill and about 100m from the top I got my first bit on that side, a 10g waterworn piece.

So I kept going down the gully and picked up about another 40g in smaller pices ranging from .3 to 5g.

It was getting late so I headed back to camp for the night.

Next morning I went back to the hill again and looked at the terrain and I noticed that the fault came out of the cap and ran allong the right hand side of the gully so I decided to look there first.

I walked straight down to the first 10g nugget spot and started zig zag ing the hill side.

I started picking up nuggets every few steps so I decided to grid the whole hill side with my 14in coil.

After a week of gridding I finally finished the hillside with the 14in coil and ended up with 2351g.

Whilst I was gridding with the 14 I built up a mental picture of the depth of the soil and I picked out one area at the bottom of the hill that was deep so I decided that I had to re-grid this section with the 25in coil.

After about 10 min I got my first deep target, a 8oz specie at about 850mm.

Then only 4m away 2 more a 6.5oz and a 13oz nearly in the same hole at about

900mm.

Then 3m away from them a 22oz solid nugget then only 2m away I got another signal after 3 hours digging out poped a 32ozer.

To say I was excited would be an understatement I was over the moon!

When I had finished I ended up with just over 4.5kg for 13 days gridding.

Ok now tell me that I was lucky........ I don't think so!

I was methodically working the area I identified an anomaly and and went to investigate, then I found good indicators and followed them, then I followed the gold run.

Where is the luck?

Just hard work, persistence, and sound operating procedures if you ask me.

Can we see a pic of some of those monsters??

That's one nice looking nugget.

The Zed quiets down a bit if you ground balance with the iron ferrite ring.

After getting some hours behind it you'll get used to all the ground noises. The Z is like a super powerful, hot VLF detector. Metal targets will always make a distinct noise when you put the coil over them tho.

For me once I actually begin finding gold somewhere for the first time it's a huge boost in confidence. Now I know there's actually gold there and not just trash. Then I start to slow down and really focus on that area and begin looking at all the conditions that first nugget was found in; the depth, type of ground etc. Then I start hunting around to see if it's got any friends nearby.

None of the materials the GPZ is made of are worth anywhere near $10k. What you're paying for is the research and technology that went into making it. I've only had mine since April and I've almost paid off half of it with gold I've found. The dream for many of us who buy the "latest and greatest" detectors is that it'll give us enough of a technological edge on the previous hunters to find that one big nugget they missed and hopefully pay the whole machine off.

Gold Bug 2 right there in my tag line, I have been looking at a pi and can't decide,

the gpx 4500 price is way down, but I have this thing about minelab, value for money.

Its a personal problem, maybe I should talk with Dr Laura..

I've used a Gold Bug Pro, GPX 4800, SDC 2300 and GPZ 7000 all down at Greaterville.

Hunted a lot down there the last few years but have only found gold with the SDC and GPZ.

I think it had less to do with the equipment and more to do with practice and experience. Once you find one nugget you gain so much knowledge from that experience that sometimes they start just rolling in.

PI detector would probably be your best bet for down there unless you want to use a VLF to play around in the washes near bedrock where most of the trash is.

That's a good looking map, shows the old placers areas right there.

What type of detector do you use down there?

That type is really hard to read. Sorry, had to say it.

Welcome to the forums tho!

Wouldn't this be a prime location for the ferrite ring and running in fixed?

That's what I was going to say. I've noticed an improved ground balance since using the ferrite ring. Less ground noise and false signals.

WOW, Just read the article in ICMJ and got to agree with Steve, good article.

I spend a fair bit of time in the Santa Rita Mountains and belong

to two different clubs for the claim access and can't believe how

many club members will congregate in one small area, I stand there

looking and think, Ya right. I usually go out during the week, when

its quiet, I am talking nobody around. This is the part that really

bugs me, I have found some virgin ground and small 1/4 to 1 gram

nuggys, and just when you think you have found the mother load, you

don't find nothing else. It really makes ya wonder how did that one

little nuggy get there? Where is the rest of that little nuggys family?

Ivan

I have spent quite a bit of time in Greaterville too over the past few years. Usually I find lone nuggets by themselves there either in old potholes or drywash tailings. However I've also found a small nugget first, which led me to really focus on one area, which has lead to big finds nearby.

The oldtimers found most of the hillside nugget patches out there but they didn't find them all..

Perhaps time to drag in a drywasher to the spot of that one gramer and mop up his "minions" that are likely about

That's a good idea. The only kind of prospecting I've really done so far is with a detector. I'd like to get more gold though and a drywasher would definitely help. I like the idea of melting down some of the fine stuff into little buttons and dore bars.

I'm heading back out to that area in a few days to check around some more. I didn't have a lot of energy left by the time I found that nugget so I'd like to spend a day just concentrating on that one area.

"I spend the other day swing the ATX with the 20" coil (all day long) on a 60 degree slope in 102 degree temp."

" think I was nugget hunting..... I don't know. I didn't find any." - Lipca

Now I feel better knowing I am not the only one doing the very same as you !!! Looking for float and nuggets on a slope at a 100 degrees....and all I found was lead and trash...you gotta love it. The easy stuff may not be as common as it may have been in the past...but I still believe its available for those that work just a little harder. Todays forecast 100.....it will be a beautiful day ..

I was out yesterday in Arizona swingin' my Z in 90 degree, muggy high humidity weather made worse by the monsoon rains. Was out for about 7 hours, covered head to toe in dirt and mud, I looked like a real miner

Managed to dig up a little 1 grammer in a spot I've been striking out at for months. Couldn't be happier. Rekindled my faith in the area and was enough to keep me pushing on.

The OZ forums are all full of "the wailing and the gnashing of teeth" about how all the big detectable gold is gone.

I know I sure feel like that sometimes here in Arizona, can't imagine a country the size of Australia with all that open country feels the same way too!

Wow that thing is nice.

I like imagining that each little speck of gold on those specimen nuggets might have eventually found its way to someone's pan or drywasher. We're so lucky as detectorists that sometimes we really hit the motherlode with these nuggets.