Hard Prospector

When placing an ad in classifieds, sometimes it  will not upload the photo(s) this past month. Then if I try again a day or two later, upload no problem.

On 2/22/2017 at 5:27 AM, johnedoe said:

Have you seen this one? Lightweight and very portable.

A friend of mine has one ordered, be interesting to hear what he has to say about it after he has used it for a while. I'll let you all know once I hear from him.

The Whippet Dry Washer.  http://whippetengineering.com

 

The Whippet, like  other small drywashers is good for sampling or modest output. I'm looking for a machine that can really produce

I've talked to "The Gold Lady" or Retta and her husband in that You Tube video and they think highly of the Keene 190. Also talked to others who would prefer the 151 over it, I believe the $2000 price tag scares many off. Jury is still out but leaning toward buy one.

Most seasoned desert drywashers, including myself,  own a cement mixer for this very reason. I use it whenever I can "practically" get it to the site as it makes small work of caleche, clods or whatever conglomerate crap needs reducing. I use the hand crank model w/wheels as its more portable when I have to drag it to the spot.

Once reduced to my satisfaction, i will just run the material right into the drywasher. If the area is mostly known for fine gold, I will classify to at least 1/4" then run it.

The clay clods can be easily broken up by pounding it with a concrete tamp. Also using a cement mixer really breaks down the clods, just throw in some big chunks of iron stone or granite with the material. 

Bellows/puffer drywashers will catch an impressive amount of  fines so long as ; the  material is classified down to -1/8,  is "talcum powder dry" and the drywasher  properly tuned

Considering buying a  Keene 190 but having a difficult time finding  reviews  or anyone who owns one. Any experiences  or input would be appreciated.....thanks!

To the Australian's,

  "I have always like your style and the way you look at life"

I think if you look at mining as a part time venture compared to a full time vocation,  most will get a lot more out of it in the long run.

The four hour drive home made me think a lot about what I could do out there in the wet desert dirt and the first thing that came to mind was how easy the  sampling will be in those conditions. Not as much fun as mining but the rewards could really come in later when drywashing conditions return. 

I know guys that run portable ("sort of") wet recirculating recovery systems out there and the recovery is great on the finest gold  but..........its a labor intensive muddy pain in the butt.  I sure never thought I would be considering it. Sort of reminds me of that saying; "Man makes plans and God laughs"

Just got back from my claims near Ridgecrest and couldn't believe how much rain and snow this area of the  high desert received in the past 2 months. Looking north west to north east, the southern Sierra Nevada, Inyo, Argus and Panamint mountain ranges were just blanketed in snow down to 4000"........just beautiful.  I can't remember the last time I've seen it like this. Standing  puddles of water all over the claim, so much for drywashin. Even dug several holes with the slightest hope of hitting something dry enough to run but no chance. One hole that I dug  4' deep by 4' wide actually had water starting to seep in at the bottom!  The only time mining the desert that I actually wished I had a power sluice back in the truck instead of my drywasher. 

Decided to go into town, have a beer and consider my options as I didn't feel like driving all the way back to San Diego so soon. Ran into an old timer at the bar who I've seen  working his claims near by and wandered over to say hi. He said that he'd seem me around as well and was glad that I came over and introduced myself. Dennis was his name and has been drywashing the area for over 40 years and a heck of a nice fella. He said that the last time he'd seen  so much winter rain around here (Randsburg) was well over 10 years ago and most areas  were not even fit for drywashing til fall! 

So I bought him a beer and split my Subway sandwich with him while he told me a couple stories and shared some great mining tips. Even though I didn't find so much as a speck of gold this weekend meeting this old miner was a rich experience in its self. Suppose I should get serious about that power sluice idea after all.

5 hours ago, Swegin said:

Strange we drive to Hermosillo at least once a month for the past 4 years never have we been stopped going into mexico but always on the way out.     

Because your vehicle hasn't been reported as "stolen". You would be surprised how many fixed, real time cameras that are posted on the freeways (usually over-passes)  but often the larger avenues on stoplights headed south within 10 miles of the international border crossing. Monitored by the government constantly, plenty of time for the highway patrol to make a stop.

Even when stolen cars make it across, they are more difficult to move these days even in Mexico. Easier to hide a couple $20,000 detectors which  likely have had  buyers in the waiting.

I feel bad for these guys having their detectors sacked. I would like to think that the perps were a couple of local opportunistic punks that will soon make a mistake and get pinched.

10 hours ago, Swegin said:

 The thief or thieves knew what they were doing, they must of followed you guys.  I doubt that your detectors are in Mexico, my reasoning for that is that the police found your vehicle a mile a way.  It would be too easy to just drive your car into Mexico.

 

Not so easy as you would think driving stolen vehicles into Mexico these days on both sides of the border. . Easier and safer to just smuggle detectors as most Mexican authorities aren't really trained on what they are.....yet anyway. Coming back from Baja a while back, at a military cheek point one of these guys found the control head to my F19. Asked what it was and I told him it was the depth finder for my aluminum boat, he said "OK amigo" and away I went. Huge market in Mex and down to South America for the best Minelab detectors. 

I hate to say it guys but I think Fred is right. Yuma is just a hop, skip and a jump into mainland Mexico or Baja. Likely crossed at Calexico/Mexicali with in hours of  sacking your detectors. Sounds like you  were being scouted  with the dirt bags waiting for the chance. May still be state side but not likely. Really sucks and I sure hope it works out some how.

42 minutes ago, klunker said:

 I'm sitting here watching it snow. I would rather ride something that contributes a bit more to global warming.

Thats a good one!

Counterfeiting dirtbags trying to cheat those poor hard working African miners that live one day at a time.

Great info, I suppose you don't know until you try.  Julian also was not known for being much of a placer or nugget producing gold district but those that have put the time in, myself included,  have done OK

Drywashed the area long time ago with my dad, I just remember fine gold. Not known for being much of a placer area for detectable gold.......drywasher country. Most people keep going a bit further to the Yuma/pot holes area.

Steve,

I always hoped that some day you would have a forum titled; Pacific Coast Beach Detecting (USA) and Atlantic Coast Beach Detecting (USA)

Expanding your forums I think is great!  Happy Holidays.........Rob

Perhaps this new year,  the pendulum will finally begin to swing back toward the rights of prospectors and other public land users.

I have kept my Gold Bug mainly for a "loaner" to friends who want to come along but not really prospectors ( lots of hunting and fishing buddies)  Lite weight, easy, tough and effective its a good machine. However, I find myself grabbing it (or my F19) often when prospecting out of a back pack because it breaks down and stows better than most any other  detector.

I recently bought the NEL 6.5x3.5 "Snake" coil for my GB/F19,  I've only used it twice in the desert but it really seems to work  well.  I can run the sensitivity a bit higher with this coil (compared to the stock round puck and the 6x10 loop). If you keep your Gold Bug I would recommend buying this NEL coil for it.

1 hour ago, tboykin said:

Reg - I will look into these. As far as the pulse delay, it's not possible to lower it any more than 10usec due to the processor speed. Swapping the processor will unravel the sweater, so to speak. But the other mods with a small folded mono coil should address the instrument's response to small gold.

If we can do these mods cost effectively they are worth it, but it makes sense to invest more $ in new tech. The idea is to squeeze a few more inches/grams out of this machine before the next generation hits shelves. Thank you for your input.

Tom, I think you deserve one heck of a Christmas bonus this year.

11 hours ago, Reg said:

tboykin,

Your questions and suggestions can be answered easily to improve the SL.  

First, contact RNB and have them build the SL Li Ion batteries but use the Panasonic 3400mah batteries.  Option 2 would be to add an under housing mod to hold external battery and a connector so an external 4 cell battery could be used.

As for not working in hot ground, simply modify units with my mod needed and installed on SPP OZ units.  Whites has the details already.  This makes the SL GB as smooth as the TDI.  Older units already made and in use can be upgraded easily for a reasonable cost for any unit out of warranty.

Modify the filters to allow for a faster swing speed (Reduce value of C20 and C21 from 0.47uf to 0.22uf).  This makes the SL a poor man's mini Pro model. Right now, the SL is crippled because of the filtering and trying to sweep to fast causes serious depth and small gold loss.  

Have Miner John build a couple of different sizes of the folded mono design and minimize selling the  Whites dual field design which doesn't ground balance well in bad ground.  Add a relic model and a separate gold model so relic hunters do not have to buy the dual field coils.  Dual field or folded mono are stupid for relic hunters since they don't need to find tiny objects.  FYI the folded mono design is something I came up with in July 2009 (http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?15585-Coax-for-duel-field-coil&highlight=dual+field).  Just look for the jpeg of the different dual field design.

Change software to allow reducing the delay but either do so with a separate switch or mark the delay setting in RED where there may be a problem using the large coils.  

Add a switch to give and option to eliminate the third filter right after the GB summing junction.  This will eliminate the loss of small gold signals because of this filter interaction.  

Do these mods and you will give the ML 2300 a real run for the money.

Reg

PS you may have to remove C69 located between U1A and B when you lower the delay for proper operation.

If  Reg was in charge of the TDI program years ago, there would  be a lot of happier  SL users today and much, much more $$$$$$$ for White's

3 hours ago, jasong said:

That is one part of a philosophy I'm covering in a video series on my channel, what I feel is the way forward for new guys looking to get serious about successful prospecting in the US. The second part is that it doesn't just produce more gold but it also produces more "knowledge". With each nugget dug, that is one less indicator left in the ground for the next guy to find. 

Consider for a moment a virgin field and in that field are a number of patches. Each of those patches has exactly 1 nugget that is the "lead", or the first indicator for the original discoverer of that patch. That person takes some percentage of the nuggets, and he takes the knowledge of the location, along with the relevant geologic indicators that went along with the gold in that field. A prudent prospector then uses that knowledge to concentrate his efforts in more specific areas within that field or the next to find more patches rather than wasting time wandering around randomly.

Then the next guy comes along, finds his first nugget in the now not-virgin patch, and then takes more percentage of the nuggets out. And again, takes the knowledge. And uses that find more patches. And this continues until the patch is dead and both the gold and the knowledge that gold was there is gone.

The unlucky people that follow afterwards may never realize it was a patch, (no leads are left to even indicate he should spend more time there), may never make the connections between the local geology and the nugget size gold, may never realize where the gold is located due to the specific weathering/erosion in that location - unless someone else tells him. But a new guy can't expect help from anyone, he has to operate under the assumption that he will build this knowledge for himself, and I think the way to do it is to cover a lot of ground, dig a lot of gold, and figure out himself the before those chances are gone forever.

All that said, I don't completely ignore the small stuff, often they are the first indicators for a new area. But I don't sweat it either because IMO, that stuff is better left in the ground as "trimmings" for the lean days so that I don't lose confidence or lower my morale. When exploration leads to the skunk then I try to find an old patch to hit up for a few hours on the way home to grab a couple dinks and pay for gas.

Eventually of course, this approach won't be possible anymore and we are getting close to that day. But right now it is. So that's why I recommend to anyone just starting - take advantage of it while you can. I'm speaking as a guy who started with no prospecting friends or family, and in my detecting life only had 1 other person share a patch with me (he posted here). Almost every succesful US nuggethunter I've met (a few notable exceptions) have had friends, family, or company involvement which gave them advantages that the majority of greenhorns do not have nor will they ever have. So the approach for people like me when I start from nothing has to be more extreme to make up for that lack of knowledge.

Most the detactable gold (excluding Alaska) is within 4 hours of a city of a million people. The chance to do this won't last forever. I think it's a good idea to be ready to give something back when we are done because those that follow after us will have even less than we did when we started.

Wow....very well put

I seriously doubt any other metal detector company would make such an investment in the next greatest nugget finding machine. Especially since the nugget patches and gold fields have been plowed and plucked clean by 40 years of nugget shooters. Just think how many nugget shooting snow birds are pounding Arizona right now!

I would like to think First Texas, Garret and White's are working on some "top secret" detector prototype with incredible hyper accurate discrimination. Features that could pinpoint a 5 gram nugget hiding under a pile of buried old timer iron garbage.