YubaJ

Hi Joe D, Yeah, that Turquoise Fever show you saw is by the Otteson Bros--website of the same name, and on another website they have they explained that the White Buffalo is not turquoise, but a magnesite mineral that polishes up well. Those guys are about 200 miles S of me in south-central Nevada. There are a couple of other small outfits mining in that general area, either the Royston or the Candelaria area. Though there's turquoise around where I am, there's only a couple intermittent producers that I'm aware of. And the turquoise has really come back into popularity. The rough has become expensive. Check out "bestturquoiseonearth" on eBay for a look at some of the best stones from N Nevada. And the prices! The spiderweb variety is the most sought after.

Support at the NoktaMakro repair center is happening--just talked to them this morning and was told to send the detector in. Kickin Dirt's referral is right on!

I'd say it was from the mid to late 70's.

Brian, I've been dealing in turquoise and silver since the 70's boom years and would say that the bracelet is nothing special--a very commercial Navajo product, but the stone looks to be a high-grade Nevada stone with a crack or a chip out of it. Can't identify the mine as there are many that have the black & blue combination. It seems that the eBay asking prices for Native American jewelry has really increased recently. Scarcity? Most of the so-called 'vintage' NA jewelry is mediocre in execution, made by piece-makers for commercial dealers. Joel

Phrunt, There are many genuine dealers selling on eBay--just gotta know who they are. And it looks to me like they do pretty well. Gerry in Boise, Idaho is one of many. Steve, When you posted the good price on the Nokta AU Goldfinder I bought one because many people agreed that the Gold Racer coils would work on it. So I bought a small elliptical Gold Racer coil for it, and it didn't work, even though both detectors run at 56 Khz. I couldn't believe it, but it was verified by Serious Detecting and the Nok-Mak Service Center in Georgia that the G Racer coils won't work on the AU. That was a Nok-Mak blunder in my opinion. Since I like to have coil choices, I sent the AU back for a refund--did like the detector and found that the high frequency with the 5" coil unmasked 3 times the amount of non-ferrous relics as my 13 Khz "relic killers" did in a local ghost town site. Learned something. So maybe you could delete the coil sharing ability between the two.

Simple & Absolutely Brilliant !!!

You might try going after that towing company in a state court or find some more people who were screwed by them and do a class action suit. They were not acting legally, but no one calls them on it and county agencies can be in cahoots. I know, all that kind of stuff is a big hassle. I've read about a county in New Mexico where the sheriff wasn't interested in pursuing murder cases!

Hi Dave, Coincidentally I have a Nautilus DMC llBa on US eBay right now, also in pristine shape. It came with a battery charger that I never used; just took out the batteries and re-charged them. It's a Calrad Ac Adaptor Model 45-767; Input 120 VAC, 60 Hz, 16W, Output 24 VDC, 400ma. The detector came from a prominent Dankowski Forum member, so the adaptor, if you can find one, should be right-on. Best of Luck and enjoy the Nautilus, Joel

It;s the right formation--bubbly. Wet the rock and see if there's any irridescense in the bubbles. eBay should have some good examples of rough fire agate.

Ask Show Me Treasure--Craig Nichols--what kind of deal he can give you. His quote to me was very good and I've dealt with him many times--a right-on guy.

Steve, What Khz were you using to find the silver coins? And did you try the near equivalent with the Impact? Those are some great finds in the heavily hunted places! And I like the fact that you can find sub-grain nuggets, also. Thanks, Joel

The Snake coil is a DD coil.

I have a very experienced gold detecting friend out of Chico, CA who detects in the general LaPorte area. Since he's not on the Net, he asked me to get him a NEL Snake coil for his Lobo Supertraq about a year ago, and says that it out-does the GB2!! which he's used forever. Which is really saying something. You might try refreshing your Lobo with this coil. Request a price from Showmetreasure--it will be better than the usual quoted one. Riversrat in England uses this combo on the Thames River.

It seems like the taste in gold pans is similar to liking a certain guitar to play. And Klunker & I just like the feel of steel, What do they use in the Gold Panning Championships? That contest is based on retention. I gotta blue mine up for a coming trip to the old N Yuba to pan the fines from Vak-Pak-ing.

Klunker, On the River, Prospecting thread, you alluded to the superiority of the steel pan. Some people booed your opinion. I've used a steel pan forever because it's substantial and I hate plastic; almost every piece of plastic gear falls apart relatively quickly. But I'd like to know your reasoning for its superiority over the plastic ones. Does it retain the gold better? And I think a few other guys were curious, too. Thanks, no rush, Joel

Who sells these Detech coils for the GPX in the US? Kellyco might, but their website doesn't work for me. Thanks.

Argyle, Thanks for the rundown on these Detech machines. Hopefully the Gold Chaser will have the ground balance issue solved. I got an Ultimate SEF coil for my F19 from Ray that is amazing on a 3 grain nugget--in the air. Still too much snow & muck for real hunting. I like your critical thinking--a lot of people shrug off these frustrating details

Hey Argyle, I see that Detech is selling a 28 KHz Gold Catcher. Is that an analogue machine? Do you know of anyone who has experience with it in your territory? It's hard to get any info on these machines over here in the US. The Stinky Pete videos aren't so hot. Thanks. Mebbe in a few years they'll come out with a Gold Snatcher.

Mike, Your great info also helps me immensely--I scored a nice one off ebay about 4-5 months ago, but was totally intimidated by all the tweaking possibilities and had more straight-forward detectors to play with. You've de-mystified it with your 2 detailed posts--no longer a-feared. Many Thanks! I was talking to my modifier friend, Gary H, about the Goldstrike and I think he said to put it at the most minus threshold numbers for the best small nugget detecting. I'll try this out on the bench in the next couple weeks and if I have any insight about this, I'll report back. It's all snow & froze out here in N NV. I shouldn't have been so intimidated because I ran a Coinstrike successfully for a while--just reading other's instructions threw me. Great message from Rob about his friend raking it up on the bedrock with the Goldstrike--a few gulches out here like that. Happy Holidays, Joel

I'm pretty sure this mine is either in either Sierra or Nevada County, California, not far from Downieville, up the road from Goodyears Bar on Hwy 49.

There are some Ebay sellers right now that have a special on for a GPX 4800 PLUS the Eureka Gold for about $2700. I didn't see any 4800's in Steve's survey. Is that because not many people have them? Are they too close to the 5000 to make a distinction? Seems like Minelab is messing with the dealers who have the 4500 at a special price. I thought that was a great deal until this one came along.

F19, GB2, Nokta Gold w/5"

Impressive gold! What detector are you using for these tailings. I know a guy who's used the Gold Bug2 with a 14" coil in the tailings around La Porte. Thanks.

I put in a request to Nokta to come out with a 5" x 10" coil for the Fors, and got a response on Tom D's forum that they would make and test a few and see how they come out. So mebbe we'll have some 5 x 10's pretty soon. I really like that size and the fact that they're solid. I read that the connectors on the Racers are not compatible with the Fors. Interesting that the Fors have the same connector as the Fishers, but Fisher coils won't work on them.