Randy Lunn

I agree with all of the above comments. The smooth top and rough bottom are possible clues to a fire origin. A SWAG calculation using your photo with the quarter and your 8.79 oz weight strongly suggests aluminum.

I am with Dave on this one: Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Maybe a soft toothbrush with a dab of toothpaste or a soak in vinager but it looks really good as it is.

Well done Chris. Your skills and instincts paid off.

Here was OutBack54’s comments from Dec 22, 2017: ”Hi All,  I am a very happy prospector. Recently I asked if anyone knew the effects of a knee replacement while detecting. As mentioned, I recently had a full knee replacement and I was very concerned that my GPZ7000 would pick up the Titanium in the knee.  Well, I am currently at one of my favorite goldfields and came here to check for myself the effects that I might encounter.  I have been detecting for two days without a problem, I am over the moon. My fears were that I might have to sell my detector. Not only is there no interference, I have found three small nuggets. Happy Happy.  The only thing I had to do was change the way I put the handful of dirt onto the coil to find the nugget/rubbish, bending too close to the coil, my knee would be picked up, but a few trials and now all is good. So to anyone out there who is reluctant to have the knee operation due to their concerns of interference, I can tell you all, don't beconcerned, all is ok.  Thanks to all who sent a post to me on this. Merry Christmas to everyone ( i know Santa has already come to me) Outback”

Well done Norm. It looks like it has not traveled far from the source.

Dave, you had an amazing trip. Congratulations! You have a great eye to pick out all those beauties. I am not sure why you can not pick up the meteorites with the EQ when you have discrimination turned on. Some search modes do silence the ferrous targets but if you push the horseshoe button to all metal mode the meteorites should be loud and clear.

schoolofhardNox, Congratulations on a superb year. I hope you are feeling better soon.

strick, I use exactly the same settings and have had the same experiences as you. I find Park 2 too sensitive and have had to back down to Park 1 every time I have tried it. I run my Iron setting between 2 and 5 depending on soil conditions and the amount of trash in the area. I have no problem finding very small targets in Park 1. Great machine and my new favorite. I am amazed at this machine’s flexibility for artifacts, coins and gold. All of the standard settings are remarkably good. I would like a larger coil for more ground coverage.

Yes, Goldinox and the Seven Nuggets. Well done Lunk, and a great demonstration of the power of the Equinox.

Dave, no debate that the GPZ 7000 is the best machine for meteorites. I totally agree as I noted above. The only drawbacks to the GPZ is its weight and lack of a small coil option. However, the EQ handles the hot rocks better than the GM. The point of my post is that SittingElf should not buy a GM for Meteorite hunting if he already owns an EQ. As you know (and this is mostly for SittingElf) there are several techniques to successfully work around hot rocks including (1) slightly lifting the coil to reveal the weak signal of hot rocks, (2) changing frequencies to recognize the signature of hot rocks, (3) learning the look of hot rocks in the area you are detecting and (4) a quick kick of the suspected hot rock. On “desert pavement” these techniques seem to work well. They become second nature after a while. Lunk has had great success with the GM finding meteorites. He may have additional input on the techniques he uses.

Fred, I gave the meteorites to my brother but I will get a picture soon.

I spent a day and a half last week in Franconia searching the Yucca Dense Collection Area. I used the GM 1000, the Equinox 800 and the GPZ. The heat was intense in the 108 range, and I did cut my trip short. I have only modest skills and can not give an in depth comparison the way Lunk will next winter but here are my preliminary observations. All three machines can easily find meteorites. The two small ones I found (2gm and 4gm) were loud and clear. Both were down less than one inch and maybe were on the surface. I boot scraped them before looking. The GPZ covers the most ground because of its larger coil and handles the hot rocks best, but the weight is a real issue .... especially in the heat. The GPZ is also difficult to get under and around trees, dips and larger rocks. I ended up using the Equinox most of the time. I preferred it to the GM 1000. I felt the Equinox handled the hot rocks better and did not false. On the Equinox you can program the one-click user-defined button to switch frequencies to help eliminate hot rocks. I also found the Equinox discrimination valuable. Most lead and brass shell cases were correctly identified by the Equinox. The size of the non-ferrous “junk” influenced the target ID numbers but the meteorites strongly registered iron (i.e. negative target ID’s). I used Field 1 and Field 2. I am not yet comfortable enough to ignore the non-ferrous targets, but I might get there. A day and a half is not much of a test. More hours are needed. I look forward to hearing how others compare the different detectors.

Thank you Barry, i appreciate your comments and insights. I do support Land Matters and also subscribe to Mine Cache that does a Google Earth overlay but is not detailed enough to show the exact boundaries of individual claims. For $30 a year it is OK as a starting point. I would pay more for a detailed subscription. I ultimately put the burden back on the government for not making this data user friendly. The government should be able to have an automated real-time mapping system. We live in a world of big data, analytics and graphics. Claim holders should get something for their money other than having to support big government salaries, benefits and pensions. Would the government support a grant to Land Matters to do this? Perhaps as a for-profit subsidiary? My venture capital backed companies get NSF and SBIR grants all the time. In short I greatly appreciate your detailed response. Randy

This has been a fascinating thread but does anybody have the knowledge and ability to post a simple map (Google Earth overlay?) of what areas are open to metal detecting in Rye Patch? I know that claim status changes but a snapshot would be helpful. We are all legally responsible to have this information, we all want to have this information but not even our experts seem to be able to give a crisp summary. Anybody up for the challenge?

You are the master Lunk. Well done!

After digging a few grotty zinc pennies those nickels look great.

If you are using two machines then a small solar panel should work. Does anybody have experience charging detectors with solar panels?

I also use one of these shovels to feed my Keene 140 dry washer in the Coolgardie CA area and Southern CA deserts. The Martin shovel holds about twice as much dirt as a traditional shovel.

Snow White and the Seven Dudes.

Congratulations Lunk! You have a real beauty. And thanks for the tip on switching settings to test for a hot rock.

Superb find Lunk! Congratulations! Good luck with the fragments. Are you going to register the find with The Meteoritical Society?

The AZ nugget looks like an elephant.

This is great news. Thanks Clay Diggins! Hopefully we can get back to the East Fork of the San Gabriel River area.

Thanks Reg, this helps explain why gold has such a wide response on my CTX 3030 screen.