AU_Solitude

Great article Chris. That herringbone piece is exquisite.

Another Yuba pic. Churn gold, churn!

The bigger piece sort of looks like a gold fish.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/weather/article125344579.html Highway 80 Closed at Truckee

Thank you for the updates Chris.

That's about all I have thought about the last few days as the weather forecasters have hyped up this storm.

Wow! That's a nice collection

Yes, the picture doesn't really do it justice at the moment. Protruding quartz crystals are about finger sized and there is a whole mess of smaller ones in the voids along with some unidentified crystallization. I have to get rid of a lot of iron and manganese to bring everything to light.

Had to get out with the GB for a few hours this morning - had what I would normally have passed over as a hot rock signal, however I was in a place where hot rocks were few and far between... I believe it was all the iron in the pocket setting the GB off. This one should look nice after an acid bath.

Nice work!

Amazing. I love when finds like this pop up because for me it keeps the dream alive. Talk about great publicity for Minelab as well! That should fetch a tidy sum should he choose to sell it.

Audio response has always been king for me. Too many people spend too much time staring at a screen.

When I lived in Wyoming I actually spent a lot of time looking for Indian artifacts and have a pretty good collection - I'd detect old homesteads but had yet to be bit by the prospecting bug. Last year I stumbled across a very nice multiple pocket stringer of large quartz crystals while out for gold - as soon as the snow runs off at higher elevations here this spring I need to go hike back in and dig them out. I have a few here I need to grab some pictures of and I'll post.

I think that your last line kind of sums it up; if you're only getting out a few times a year does it make sense for you to spend a lot of money on a PI unit? Only you can make that decision, and everyone has differing amounts of income to sink into nugget detecting, but It sounds like you're doing well enough with your GB already. All detectors have a learning curve and there is no one turn on and go detector that's probably going to meet your needs. You can have the fanciest arsenal of detectors but if you're not putting the time in to connect with your machine I wouldn't be expecting miraculous results. Nugget shooting isn't easy or everyone would be doing it. Best of luck in your endeavors.

I'll take one of those (not the detector.)

Not sure which detector of Vallon's you're inquiring about, and I'm not Steve, but having used Vallon, Ceia, Schiebel and other various mine detectors, I can tell you they are essentially of no use on native gold. If you are a relic hunter they might be fun, but zero discrimination and you'll be digging pin size targets all day long. The only mine detectors to date that performed reasonably well on gold were the minelab F1A4's. The Minelab F3C will hit gram and larger nuggets but at mediocre depths. For gold it's best to stick with gold specific machinery. I will add that while these mil-spec units usually come in extremely durable configurations, they are usually very cumbersome as a result. No free lunches.

Iv'e seen these pop up used on E-bay and sell for only $700-800...my guess is that it's mostly a gimmick.

It's not. Old news.

I think this is a known issue with the headphone socket on some of them, this is why I have passed up purchasing one for the time being. If you unplug your headphones there shouldn't be any issue, unfortunately, most of us use headphones for a reason.

Just build an electromagnet - you can build enormously powerful magnets.

People are always looking for a shortcut. Someone will bite.

I use orange painted popsicle sticks for patch/pattern marking - upon leaving, I try and leave everything looking exactly as I found it even if I'm in the middle of nowhere.

I believe your math is a little off, granted your wholesale is probably in the ballpark. Something else to consider is that I'm sure they didn't stop selling Z's the second they broke even.

I haven't made the leap for a Z yet as I just don't get out enough to justify the expenditure. My primary machine has been my SDC and it does well in most of the shallow haunts that I hunt...absolutely love the song it sings. I also have a GB Pro that I use in trashier locations and as a backup. Both of these detectors fit nicely in a decent size backpack which I love!

While a good portion of their $100 Million in annual sales may come from military contracts that is still an astounding number. Far more people out there swinging Z's than I had thought!