Hard Prospector

You sure didn't waste any time getting that Dues Steve and nice little haul from the park. Oh and that Gold Bug I bought from you is working out nicely.........thanks again Rob

Mike, I wish your wife a speedy recovery from what ever is ailing her....God bless El Dorado (Steve) makes the best gold jewelry. I bought a gold pick ax pendant from him which gets lots of compliments.

True that........take care where you choose to do your bragging 'cause obviously the wrong venue could get you killed!

My mother always told me it was never a good idea to brag.

I sure like my Sand Sharks, my go to beach machine especially in the "impact zone". Bomb proof housing and punches right through wet salty sand .Has an incredible appetite for batteries but no problem. It finds me the gold and silver rings and I feed it AA's. I sure hope Tesoro figures something out.

Unless I'm mistaken, that was a drag line feeding the hopper and trommel of a barge mounted sluice with stacker. Man I've never seen anything like that in operation, only the pieces in museums and bone yards. That old footage was really cool and thanks for sharring

Living the dream, I'm glad for you guys

Yep I've seen people like that too; holes and dug trash between their foot prints right down the beach.. It takes so little effort to make a good or bad impression when beach swinging. I would often speak up when I 'd see these knuckle heads and their bad form but nothing but attitude in return......Whatever.

A magnet in the bag....... what a great idea Steve

Whenever beach detecting, all of my trash goes into a small mesh divers "goody bag" attached to my belt. That way the garbage I've taken out of the sand is there on display for all to see (especially rangers)

The best drywasher I know of won't sink a pick and shovel into the ground unless the "rods cross first" Is it science or faith at work here? Who knows but this old timer has lived and mined the desert most of his 75 years and fine dry placer recovery is his deal Did I mention he goes by the nick name "Comstock"

I bought a set of dowsing rods and a couple of books on the subject last year but haven't done much with it yet. The desert is a big place and I'm open to trying what ever tips and tricks may help especially when sampling.

I believe your story. I too have had some "interesting experiences" over the years and to this day struggle to try explaining in some logical way. When asked if I believe in ghosts I reply; "not sure but I really don't have any reason to not believe either." I have heard it said that if you believe in God you must also believe in spirits. OK....... I suppose this is deep enough for a metal detecting venue

In my opinion; the Fisher F19 and thats coming from a guy that likely has more detectors than I care to admit. I've been prospecting the CA high desert area for a lot of years (Coolgardie, Rand & the Dale) , and the F19 and TDI SL are usually my go to machines when swinging new areas between Ridgecrest south to 29 Palms. The F19 (or GB Pro as nearly one in the same) is very effective on small gold, handles mineralization well for a VLF, has great discrimination, lite weight, coil options and probably the easiest machine to use. For about $2000.00, you could buy both machines and have a very effective PI and VLF combo. There are more expensive possibilities but I have done just fine with these machines in the Mojave Lots of options....Good luck!

White's doesn't have a great track record when it comes to taking input, suggestions or criticism from qualified, experienced people and thats too bad. The company as well as us customers all end up loosing in the end. They lost their most talented engineer Dan Geyer and Jimmy was their best ambassador..... now he's gone too. Hopefully White's is just going through some growing pains which will smooth out eventually

Always an unexpected treat when you drop into any TDI discussion Reg.....Thanks

The average person can out run Africanized bees and studies have shown them to typically break-off the attack after about 100 yards. Each person needs to ask themselves; "If attacked, can I sprint all out this distance?" My neighbor last year had a swarm of Africanized bees attempting to make a hive in his yard shed. He took one of those Black Flag "flea bombs" and pitched it in there .......done. Also a mixture of soapy water sprayed into the air will knock em down and kill them.

Nice write up John and thanks for sharing. I have two SL's and my experience with this detector is extensive but limited to nugget hunting; Here are some of my observations with the SL; This machine works best with small mono coils; 7.5" Mono Aussi,, 4x6 TDI Mono Shooter, and 5.5x9.5 Miner John. The SL just seems to lack the power for depth and stability for the larger mono / duel frequency series of loops. Running these small coils often allows me to run the gain maxed and even at times turn the GB off . The SL's lite weight and great ergonomics(with small coils) make it easy to swing all day. I actually removed the control box from one of the units and belt mounted it. This has really helped prospect for shallow residual / eluvial placer bleeding off epithermal deposits on the steep mountain sides out in the desert. This IS NOT the machine to nugget shoot washes and arroyo's where over-burden can be a factor and depth capability is key Even though not waterproof (or very water resistant) it can take one heck of a beating. The unit has been very effective for me finding small "picker" size nuggets in some very shallow yet nasty mineralized soil. I would suppose the SDC2300 is probably a better choice for the same applications these days. However for me, the TDI SL (and GB2) are the right tools for specific tasks that I know very well and can work effectively. I think about getting a 2300 and Gold Racer some day............but not yet

A take like that means its time to start stacking rocks and moving boulders Very nice pan and well done

Great idea

Hands down for backpacking the Gold Bug, GB Pro or F19 can't be beat. Very lite weight, uses only one 9v battery, entire unit breaks down into compact pieces and easily fits in any pack (I would wrap the control head in a t-shirt in the backpack and roll the shaft sections in with my sleeping bag) tough and easy to use. On over night backpacking/prospecting trips my crack hammer, F19 and Falcon MD20 are my tools of choice.

What kind of placer ground are you referring too, dry(desert) or wet as in year- round water course?

I don't see much change in gold unless the Dow has at least a 5000 point correction and or the US slides into recession. A lot could happen after the next presidential election depending on who wins. The "lucky winner" will inherit trillions in government debt and a rickety economy to say the least....if you ask me

I've had some petty theft around my camp in the past and unless someone stays on site every minute (unrealistic) it may happen, but I have found a way to deal with it somewhat. I always leave a bottle of Wild Turkey on the camp table and cheap bottle of wine in the cooler.....each a 50/50 mix of booze and piss. Whenever it disappears at least I get some satisfaction, have a drink on me dirt bag.

As I've never found any nugget over an oz my opinion here is very limited. It seems to me gold being so heavy, the effects of gravity, wind, water etc keep it traveling until it parks itself for a very long time. Further geologic forces over millions of years push the mountains up or erode them around that "one pounder" either exposing it some day or keeping it buried till the sun burns out. Back to the old saying: "gold where you find it"