Deep Beeps

Great insights GeoBill. It was in the low 80's that day and sunny. I had plunged my coil in pretty close to those guys before I saw them. This explains why they were so docile. Tbh... I was amazed I didnt get messed up but this explains the situation.

Just wanted to drop a quick beware. Recently, while detecting in the Yuma area, I came up on two separate bee hives. The first was in a big gulch with lots of drifts in the bench. Fortunately, it was first light and still cool and as I was beeping near the mouths of the old timers mines. I saw a few bees and realized quickly what was in this placer drift. if it had been warmer, the screaming junk may have agitated this hive. The second was much more eye opening. I had made my way up a very narrow side gulch and hopped over to work back in another even smaller draw. I beeped my way down stuffing my coil under any bush and cactus as that was where I was having luck in this well detected area. As I came down I worked the old stone walls the old timers had made getting to the false bedrock. I had just got a nice .5 gram and was re-enthused. This area was sparse to say the least of vegetation. I came on a 4-5' tall creosote bush and was half way under the bush with my coil when I noticed what looked like a dark brown cowboy boot laying near the ground. As I looked a bit closer that boot turned out to be a bee hive. It was only 6" off the ground. I slowly backed off and shut my GPZ down and took 5 minutes to thank the gods for not upsetting that nest. This was a very small, very steep gulch that I would have had no way out of if they had decided to rain hate on me. It was hot that day and bees where everywhere in the air as the desert was in bloom. Damn lucky I was. Just wanted to share my lucky day and bring light to these tiny guys. We are always on point for rattlesnakes.... I myself have never been snake bit but have been messed up by bees several times in my life. So keep your eyes peeled as your working that coil this spring/summer. Deep Beeps

Too funny!

Welcome John. I think you made a good choice with the Axiom. I have it and the GPZ.... The weight difference will help you stay with this hobby as you learn how to find gold. Enjoy every outing.

Nice find on that prickly bit..... Doesn't look like it's moved much.

I actually use to do pretty well with a VLF a long time ago right along I-10 near Dome Rock Rd exit. Would hunt after midnight due to the semi-traffic but I think that trick has been played out too. I dont know the Nokta but I would stay on what appears to be solid bedrock.... That area has been hit hard and the most findable gold is going to be smaller pieces. Not to say there is no bigger pieces left but you need to be low and slow with a multi roll VLF. My best advise..... Take a rake with you and rake areas that have signs.

Been using the 3030 batteries on the 7000 but they only last about 4hours compared to 8ish hours for the normal battery. So you still may have to carry a second if hiking in. Best mod is Doc's bungie and a backpack full of water to counterbalance it with.

Thanks for all the info Steve... Your bringing us all up to speed and cutting down on that learning curve we are all anxiously awaiting with the Axiom. Really hoping this detector fills some gaps, especially when dealing with magnetite in the goldfields. What's your experience on running the Axiom though mixed cobble, with various sized, positive sounding, magnetite chunks mixed into it. Or even magnetite chunks mixed through shallow alluvium on bedrock. The real nasty stuff that sounds just like chunky deep nuggets sitting down there. The key here is not constantly magnetite, but variable bits and pieces, mixed through where your hunting. Also, if you did have a chance to test this scenario out, how did the DD's iron check and the hot rock/double balance work out in your opinion? Do you think it can efficiently run in this situation and still be descriptive enough not to be digging every other chunk of magnetite. Thanks again,

Thats it. The irony is that about a week after I took this photo my hospital bed was pretty much overlooking it.... Go figure.

At the time they thought it was cancer but when I got home I got scoped and tested... Turned out to be from the food poisoning/ being sick and dehydration from staying sick so long. Crazy thing is outside the big hospitals, there is no blood on reserve at the clinics. That makes the bush even deadlier than I thought. If you need a blood transfusion in WA you better be close to medivac airplane or helicopter. I'll have to dig up some photos. My main target there was "The Spa Pool" in Hamersley Gorge. Which is just next door to Paraburdoo and Tom Price. The other picture is the famous Crowley Boathouse in Perth. Tibooburra looks warmer and drier for sure 🙂

You're fine. Just double checked. I flew into Sydney and got really bad food poisoning. Dealt with it for 2 weeks there and finally cleared up after seeing a doctor and getting some meds. So decided to finally head over to Perth. Got there, rounded up enough stuff to head out camping in the bush and on my second day out from Perth started bleeding internally. I was in Cervantes at the Pinnacles when it happened. Drove to the nearest clinic and by the time I got there I had lost over 2 liters they estimated. So they called in a chopper. An old Vietnam war hand me down Huey. Took them almost 2 hours to get up to the clinic....Another hour back to Perth. Ugh. Ended up in Sir Charles Garner for several days. Got out, caught a bus back up to where I left my car and went to Karijini for a week. Not the smartest thing to do but you only live once. That's why I would bring a few. Their almost half that here. Could probably pay my way with them.

That's nuts!.... He came right to you. Yeah, that whole trip didn't go as planned. Good reason to get back there I guess. Maybe I should pack a few Axioms in a bag and head back over.

Couple more trash and relic finds from this trip. Only the pulley was from the water and Im sure it moved many a rocks back in it's day. It was found right in front of some 20' tall rock piles on an inside bend of the river. That day, the rock won, broke the cable and the miners lost their pulley. Even more sad, there wasn't any gold with it in that crack!... Always amazes me.... Found 2 memorable cracks... both littered with square nails and fishing sinkers and not a single speck of gold. Go figure. I'm sure you have all found a Prince Albert can before but those 2 little stars are also from tobacco... Star Tobacco. It was sold in hand cut lengths at the general store and had these tin stars every 2 inches fixed to it. Oldest is most likely the pick.... It was found in one of the hydraulic pits. Most likely made in the 1850's and has that "old iron" weight to it.

Congrats on the first sniping season... I'll take a 4 gram average anytime. It use to be kind of unheard of here back in the 90's but once they stopped allowing dredging in California all those guys started sniping. I'll bet you and your dad did well up there.... Those Groundhogs, Compasses and you guys started it all back in the day. I didn't take the detector over as I was doing photography on that trip. I went up the 1 and wanted to come back on the 95 but ran out of time so had to backtrack on the 1. This was in May and had the whole place to myself. You too!.... Watch out for those Platypus 😉

I went to OZ for the first time in 2019 and was hoping to get down to Tasmania but ended up being life flighted in WA. Ugh!.... I was in Sydney for Anzac Day which was amazing. Spent a few weeks up near Karijini NP..... Cant say I'm with you on the flies though... That's just maddening! Never seen anything like it and I was raised around livestock. The gold sniping is from a very good river in the California Motherlode, but also has very good access, so it's been hammered. Just got to find the cracks others have missed or passed up. The detector finds are from a different area in the California desert that is also pretty known & hammered.... But both places still do have the possibility of big gold. Anyway, I watch the Tassy Boys all the time and WISH I was able to get there and try my luck. Thats some chunky gold you got down there. What's the best months for sniping there?

Thanks Gerry.... My mantra was simple... The more holes you dig the more gold you find. I would consider this site to be low on trash by my standards. Gold was chunky, caliche covered, corn flakes and sounded like 22's. Largest piece was 1.6 grams. Most around .5 grams. Of course, I always remove every target within reason. I did leave that V8 diesel engine block I found on Wabasso Beach 😉

Thanks Smigo... The ground is pretty quiet at this spot and the 7000 w/ the 12" coil finds every scrap of anything at depth.

Thanks Death Ray! It was JR's claim. Nice area that has lots of gold but that creek is TORE UP! I think every sniper in NorCal has hit that claim.... Lots of mercury as you would imagine. You can still get some decent gold there. Some of the other local snipers I was with did pretty well... I didn't do all that there though. I though that tin might be an oil tin to lube with?.... I'll take a better look at it tomorrow. I also have some other finds that I need to share.⛏️

I was in a extra long 2wd MB Sprinter van..... Granted it has good clearance but its super long. So it doesn't take a 4wd. As for where to go in the Mohave? There use to be lots of books on this. Anything from Jim Straight will do. There are just too many places to even start on here but the Summit Diggings near Randsburg, the El Paso's and Coolgardie all have club claims and dont require 4wd's.

Thanks Rocko!

Thanks Valens.... And it was....My first 2 targets in the desert where each .5 gram nuggets.... Cant say thats ever happened before for me

Thanks Geof!... The trash pic is missing 150 - 200 smaller bits of unidentifiable bits of iron that I threw away..... Bad thing is I consider the area I was hunting to be rather clean. 😅

Thanks Abe!

Like everywhere now these days, almost everything with any resemblance of access is claimed up.....With that said; I found a few areas that were still open with a little research.

Thanks Redz.... 10.85 grams was sniping and 9.53 grams was detecting.