matt

Happy birthday!!!

I wonder if it was slabbed up into a cab if the color would show. If it does that would make a heck of a polished piece.

On a deep target in light rain and when the rain began to get a bit heavier, I left the target and decided to return the next visit. I never leave a hole unfilled for a number of reasons, but was on private property and figured to be back the next day. This certain target did not have me too excited because the general area had been hunted really hard by many people in the past, including me. For whatever reason I didn't get back to it. A year or so later, I was back at this area and remembered this hole and to my surprise it was exactly as I left it. It was a wake up call when the target was a nice specie just under an ounce, something like 18 dwt with mostly gold and very little quartz.

When I purchased my GMT over 20 years ago, it didn't come with headphones so add that cost to the comparable total for a GMT (if that is still the case). If the Minelab comes with headphones as shown included in the carton, that is an even better deal. Last time we had the GMT out it was so beat up (couldn't hardly hear the speaker) that I decided that we needed a new one, but will try this new Minelab instead and see about sending in the GMT to have the speaker fixed and a tune-up.

Looks like it could have almost been a rare quartz crystal/gold nugget speci. It's a beauty!

What a sweet piece! Hang it and wear it!

If a person can dig it, a person can fill it in! If not, that person should find another hobby.

Work out the details before the hunt! It saves a lot of hurt feelings.

These two gold bars were made with one of the mini kilns that are advertised in the ICMJ. First the gold was crushed out of a couple specie rocks and then panned out. I purchased a couple different fluxes because I wanted to get them as pure as possible without sending them to a refiner. I smelted them a couple times and the 5 ounce bar was tough to pour, but if you heat up the graphite mold (leave it on top of the kiln kind of like a lid) you can get it to work.

A couple different things I learned. Melt the crushed material into smaller bars and then use bolt cutters to cut up the bars into smaller pieces. You can then weigh the cut up pieces to get the exact weight you are looking for and melt them into a specific weight bar. After smelting, there can be some impurities on the surface of the gold (sometimes a red coating for me) and putting the gold into some muriatic acid (pool acid) cleans off the coating. The smelting flux can really get it pure though. It takes a few times to get it right, but once you figure it out, the results are really nice.

I used to melt my dredging fines in a cupel with mapp gas and would go through a couple cans of gas in no time. These new mini kilns can use regular propane and after probably 10+ melts, both my original propane cans used with the furnace are not empty yet.

I have taken the bars into my kids 4th grade class to teach prospecting for California history and the 5 ounce bar is a hit with the them. Especially when I tell them what is is worth!

I enjoy the thrill of the hunt! Some people fish, some hunt, but for me nothing is better than putting on the gear and detecting gold nuggets. I too started detecting for gold around 1998 and have found it one of the most relaxing and enjoyable things that can free my mind of all the stresses of life.

The adventure of exploring new places and prospecting is in my veins and always will be. Regardless of the spot price, I will always spend as much of my free time as possible (hard to find any of that these days) prospecting and detecting for gold.

Thanks Steve and GoldEN! Maybe we will try and get out tomorrow and give them a go. I love this forum. Thank you Steve.

Can you explain a bit more about your setting with no threshold? I have only had my 2300 out for one hunt, but have countless hours on gp's and gpx's. Always have had a threshold humm to hear the faint variances in it. Do you tune the threshold completely out and only hear a target?

Thanks for posting that video! It's amazing the engineering that went into these type of construction projects and some very simple things at such a large scale.

Sweet find Mitchel!

The American River through Sacramento has been at levels near or above what they were in 1997. Not yet at the 1986 levels, although the flow is controlled with the Folsom dam.

You are right Chris! I found 5 in less than an hour that day and one of them weighed a dwt.

Went up to Downieville last Sunday for a day trip and the rivers are running high and it looks like a lot of material has moved around. Should be a nice summer up there this year for prospecting. Too bad we can't put a dredge in the water!

Nice Chris! Best wishes to your Dad, as I did not know about the loss your Mother. Looks like a picture from the bridge at Mineral Bar? Slater and I were out that way a few weeks ago.

Well done. Hope you find the big nugget still hiding in that patch.

14 minutes ago, goldenoldie said:

There are some impressive test results on larger gold with the QED in a comparison test against the GPZ and GPX now  posted on the Finders forum here in Oz.

Can you post a link to the thread?

I have never metal detected for coins, but every time I see a video of people detecting for coins it seems like they never get good overlapping coil swings. Are target responses from coins that broad that you don't want to overlap for complete coverage?

It will be interesting to see if it has any sort of discrimination?

48 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

What constitutes a true report?

Usage by people that detect for gold nuggets on a regular basis.

Looking forward to some true reports on this detector. Minelab must be feeling the heat from the newly released QED.

I got mine in the mail last week, but with all this rain I may never get out to try it!

Sure hope you didn't pick it up!