GB_Amateur

Gerry, I want to see a big chunk in your mouth, not a bunch of dinks. Don't get me wrong, I like dinks as well as the next guy. But you've set the bar high for yourself with those Oreo Cookie, etc. nugget photos and I know you've got some more hidden in the ground somewhere in your prime detecting spots. Let's see the GPX6000 lift a loaded barbell. We all know (from other reports) it can handle the hand weights.

It was on the candidates list. Since this month-long trip included detecting for natural gold I also brought a PI. I don't have a trailer nor a roof mount storage container so everything (including a futon mattress for sleeping) has to go inside my Jeep Compass. Three detectors is already pushing it. I don't have a small coil for the Vaquero. (Monte has indicated the stock 8"x9" concentric has good separation, but it still seems like the wrong choice in so much trash, and small coils fit better in and between the vegetation.) The F75 is a decent backup for the Equinox in gold bearing areas (in case the Equinox conks out, etc.) as well as a decent backup in park hunting, etc. Besides the 4"x6" conc. I also brought the Mars 5"x10" (Sniper) DD. Thus the F75 made the cut ahead of the Vaquero. But, yes, with a small coil it should be a good performer in that trashy ghost town desert environment.

Thanks for catching that, and I've now corrected it. From what I saw (not everyone displayed their finds), Gregg had the most keepers, by far. He definitely subscribes to your {small coil, slow sweep, dig all} advice. (And he swings the N/M CoRe, too, which you know but others may not.) Mentioning Utah Rich's finds, he did spot a beautiful obsidian arrow head with his keen eyes. Gregg mentioned more than once that surface finds ("sunbakers") show up in these desert towns and it helps to keep your eyes (as well as ears) open when detecting. Another technique I need to pick up. Yes, for sure. I sorted out most of the iron in the hotel room (not counting what I collected and carefully piled up at the sites themselves). There are a few iron (/alloy) items in the photos, but I only kept what I found interesting. Even square nails are super common around the Midwest -- my home base. Railroad spikes? How many does a person need in his/her collection?

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 13th Welcome to Hunt Outing (WTHO) in Northeast Nevada (Wells locale) this past month. A bit of background (from what I know, which may not be totally accurate): Monte Berry began these in 2015, taking people to ghost towns that he had been detecting for decades. As you can see from the numbers there have been about two per year, most at a handful of sites in Elko County, NV (the extreme Northeast county of the state), but a couple were other states such as Oregon and Utah. Unfortunately due to his recent move from Oregon to Texas, Monte was unable to attend but he turned the reigns over to a quite qualified (and I say that now from experience) Oregon Gregg (member here). This year four ghost towns were on the rotation. I'm not going to list their names since I don't know if this is public knowledge, nor do I know for sure who owns them, etc. (I know that one is on private property but not sure about the others.) The four have several things in common. GT1 is the oldest and was a railroad town back when the USA and its territories were first tied together by the TransContinental RR in the late 1860's. GT2 was also built on the RR around the turn of the century. GT3 was a real estate development (speculation) started around 1910. GT4 was another RR town which was also established around the same time -- late in the first decade of the 20th Century. I'll give a bit more info as a go through my itinerary. One other thing these four towns have in common, and likely in common with thousands of Western ghost towns -- they grew voraciously in their first few years (meaning 5 years or less) and then started declining. The decline took longer (20-30 years, ballpark) as there always seem to be a few individuals who get comfortable enough they don't want to move on and rebuild. But "boom and bust" really does a good job of describing these and many others in the Western USA. Day 1 (Tuesday 8 June). I arrived a day early compared to the initial start date and Oregon Gregg and Utah Rich (another member here) had been around doing preliminary investigating and detecting since the weekend. They invited me to meet them just of I-80 at an exit near GT1 and GT2. I followed Gregg to those while Rich took a different route. After showing me GT2 Gregg said that he and Rich would be detecting GT1 that day so I followed him there. I spent 6 consecutive hours in the near Soltice baking sun getting a feel for that site, the oldest and from what I've heard, most productive as far as old coins of the four in this year's rotation. I was swinging the Fisher F75 w/4"x6" concentric coil and getting lots of non-ferrous (as well as some ferrous) hits. Most of what I was recovering was in the first 3 inches of the surface which Gregg told me is typical. I spent most of my time between the foundation of a hotel and the railroad (still in operation), hoping that was a path used frequently by tired, careless travelers. Here's a photo of my 'finds': Don't get too excited. I'm new at this Ghost Town detecting and still learning (at the elementary level). I've arranged things in five columns. Leftmost are mostly utilitarian copper & alloy items -- plumbing pieces, electrical fixtures, copper wire. The top of column 2 are melted "sand cast" lead pieces, most of which were found close to the RR tracks. Fires were very common back then (just ask San Francisco) and possibly these occurred during one of those. But I learned that lots of metal (especially raw forms) fell from RR cars so maybe that is their origin. Lower part of 2nd column are various other misc. metal (unknown composition) pieces. The third column is the most interesting (note, 'most interesting' is relative ). Bottom left is what others in the group thought might have come off a cast iron stove. It has the word 'July' imprinted in block letters. Above it is a broken rose headed spike. Directly above that is a leather piece with a circular brass disk embedded in it. A piece of horse tack or possibly something worn by a human? Above that is some kind of suspender buckle, I think. (This gets an asterisk since Gregg noticed it sitting on top of the ground and tossed it to me.) Top disk appears to be the back of a watch/timepiece. Fourth column is the usual bullets, casings, and one cartridge. At the very top is a copper scrap which I think was likely a jacket (of a large bullet!). Last column is misc. bits that I haven't ID'ed. Most of the attendees spent nearly their full time at this GT1, hoping for old coins, I guess. The above was my only day there. Several of us met at the Iron Skillet restaurant at the Petro Truck Stop in Wells for dinner that evening. This is the standard meeting spot each dinnertime for anyone who wants to jaw between mouthfulls of chicken fried steak, etc. Days 2&3 (Wed-Thu). Utah Rich was kind enough to take a few of us to GT3 on Wednesday morning. This is the most unique of the four towns since it was a Real Estate development (boondoggle) that didn't make it. The carrot for attracting residents was the building of a large reservoir which could then be used for irrigation. Problem is that those living downstream didn't take kindly to their water source being cut off and won in the courts. Although a town was laid out which was planned to house 25,000 residents (how's that for optimism?), in reality fewer than 1000 ever took up residence, and that number likely included many who lived on farms nearby, not in the town itself. Still, there was a fancy hotel, historic schoolhouse, "entertainment center", church, and several homes built as well as a railroad spur. When the downstream residents put a stop to the utopian dam the gig was up and in less than 2 years the population topped out and quickly started declining. Here's a photo of my finds for those two days (first day with above F75 setup and second day with ML Equinox and 6" DD): Highlights include the only old coin (Wheatie) I found over the five days in NE Nevada (more on that later), a Model-T hubcap (likely from the 1920's, but I haven't got it dated for sure), and right above it another Ford embossed (but unknown) part. As you hear about every detecting site (regardless of type of detecting) -- some say this town is hunted out. The ring shaped item with three mounting holes (near the left edge of the photo) came up a clean 28-30 on the Equinox, which is solid in the silver zone between dime and quarter. Who rejects digging that? It's actually a brass closet rod hangar (and, yes, I was disappointed). Regarding weather, the second of these two days was the windiest day I've ever detected, with sustained wins 20-30 mph and gusts over 40 mph, all day long. The temp only got up to about 60 F (15 C) and I wore a sweatshirt and denim jacket most of the day. This was only a week before the Western USA's first heat wave (highs over 100F = 38C in most of Western 1/4 - 1/3 of the Continental USA). I didn't complain about the cool temps even before I had to deal with that! Great sleeping weather as I was 'camping' in the back of my Jeep Compass. Days 4-5 (Friday-Saturday) -- I got in a bit of early morning detecting at GT3 (note: I mentioned in an earlier post here that I successfuly used my magetic rake to clear both dead vegetation and iron bits before detecting a spot I had covered previously). Then we broke camp and moved to GT4, another railroad town from the early part of the 20th Century. Here's the haul from that one: The large chunk at upper left is some kind of RR scrap. Tiny (jewelry) ring on left and rusty denim button at at bottom will be detailed shortly. Note the (German) Hohner harmonica housing piece at lower left. You can't see it in this photo but it had a lot of marking, including dates of awards from the 1920's. I don't know if the reed in the upper right is from it, but I think I found it several hundred meters away, so likely not. Now for a closeup of the most interesting finds from GT3 & GT4: Top two items are from old clothing -- left is a Lee button (likely off blue jeans) with their slogan "can't bust 'em" which an internet search reveals was first used in the 1940's, so this was likely from a railroad worker and not a town resident of GT4. The small brass/bronze rivet (from GT3) says "L.S. & Co S.F." for Levi Straus & Company, San Francisco. Again the internet clued me in that this particular rivet (the saying started earlier, BTW) is from early in the 20th Century. The middle two items didn't photo as well as I'd liked. RH is the Ford embossed broken piece of metal from GT3. Left is my only ghost town coin (not counting a very disappointing Zincoln -- damn railroad workers, or should I blame previous detectoris?). After hearing and reading so many stories here at detectorprospector.com of -S and -CC (Western mints) mintmarked coins from the 19th and early 20th Century I was optimistic this Wheatie was going to be an early -S minted semi-key. Imagine my disappointment when I got home and was able to see '1919' (no mintmark). That happens to be the highest mintage Lincoln cent minted prior to 1940, a span of 31 years! And it came all the way from Philadelphia!! What a disappointment. Lower left is a 45 caliber steel jacketed WCC 42 cartridge from GT4. Again, an internet search showed that the '42' meant it was made in 1942. The current mystery is a) whether or not it was military issue, and b) why it is steel jacketed lead. I doubt this was dropped recently (look at the patina) but as to whether a GI dropped it on his way to fight Hitler or it has a less romantic story (hunter who bought them by the gross at a surplus store) will probably never be known. Finally, the child's ring found near the train station at GT4. Rang up a solid, consistent 12 (USA nickel TID) on the Equinox with 11" coil, depth in the 2"-3" range. I thought I handled it carefully but it broke, showing strong orange interior (copper) so it's silver plated. The 'stone' looks like glass to me. Still my best find, and recovered near the most frequently hunted spot in that town -- right next to the train depot (now just a foundation). Was I really the first person to get my coil over it? The comaraderie was enjoyable although besides my sister and partner, only Mike from Alaska, Tom from Arizona, and Mike from Utah detected the towns I was in at the times I was in those. Most everyone (22 was the unofficial count, I think) concentrated on the oldest (GT1) town. The round-the-dinner-table discussions were the pleasurable social hour. There were a few old coins found, including a seated dime and a seated quarter. Oregon Gregg found a beautiful and rare trade token, likely worth in the 3 figures. I hope there are more of these WTHO's as I'm ready to move on from 'beginner' and I just know there's an early -S mint coin with my name on it. Thanks to Monte, Gregg, Rich, and all involved.

When I get my Jefferson nickels back home and clean them up a bit, I start by looking at the reverse, RH side of the dome to see if there is a mintmark. Two kinds exist here with no mintmark: prior to 1965 these were from Philly with 'D' (Denver) and 'S' (San Francisco) being the others. 1965-67 there were no mintmarks on any coins, regardless of where they were minted. In 1968 they started putting 'D' and 'S' on the obverse below the date. In 1980 they added the 'P' for Philly, also below the date. So when I see no mintmark on the reverse it doesn't tell me much. When I see a 'D' I'm thinking (well, hoping) I turn it over and see a 1939 date -- my most sought after Jeffy. (If 'S' I'm wishing for 1938. No mintmark -- 1955.) There are others, especially 1950-D, that would be quite pleasing. I don't know how many times I've struck out with that ritual, but not even so much a ground-out yet. (Apologies to those who don't know baseball lingo, but you can probably figure it out from context.) Oh, the things we do to add excitment....

Nope, because the Gold Bug family doesn't work with concentric coils. Occasionally (might be some specific units) people have gotten them to work with concentrics, but the rule is they don't. There's a well linked quote on another forum where Dave Johnson says they don't, then someone says they got theirs to work, and he says "well, OK, tolernaces..." or something to that affect. I tried a distant cousin Teknetics 'Frat Brothers' 5"x9" concentric on my GB-Pro and it seemed to work in bench testing for 5 or 10 minutes, then the detector went bonkers. Even the Teknetics T2 won't accept concentrics while its relative, the Fisher F75, does.

I'm 0 for 2 with silicone and 0 for 1 with PC-11 epoxy. Neither has seemed to really stick (long term) to either the injection molded Eqx 6" skid plate or the polycarbonate. (Note, I'm attaching mine to the skid plate, not the coil itself.) Also I used half the thickness of polycarb that you did (i.e. 1/32" = 0.8 mm). Too flexible? (Pretty sure Steve H. used same thickness as I did.) I have other epoxies that I can try. The PC-11 in particular seemed pretty brittle after this came apart (3rd try). But silicone is just the opposite. How many hours in the field do you have on your silicone+polycarb setup?

You're making it seem like it's a PI. Of course with all the non-nugget hunting you've done with the 5000 I'm sure you are not surprised at this, just reminded. I like it that you are going against the grain (again) and using a detector most would argue is specifically for native gold detecting, in situations that are far from that. Too bad the beaches are loaded with gawkers right now. I'd like to read how it does in your element. Only a couple months away?

That explains the cuts. Here the parks and schools are mowed with horizontal blades which probably don't get sharpened but maybe once a year, and the likelihood of the blade encountering a coin is likely much less, too. Golf courses have the reel-types but we don't get to hunt those ( at least I don't 😞). Which brings up a painful point for which I suspect you have several examples -- key or semi-key date+mintmark coins that have suffered this fate. That would sadden me considerably.

For those not familiar with the Gold Bug family, 40 is the nominal dividing line between ferrous and non-ferrous. (That's true in both modes, All Metal and Discrim.). Nails, wire, etc. That's my guess as to what is sounding off in the video. If a building was torn down, bazillions of nails just get scattered. I wish demolitionists would drag a magnet over the sites but that thought would make them laugh so hard they might just pass out from lack of ability to inhale. I thought the suggestion to clear out the iron was meant for larger pieces. It's typical of many razed building sites, especially western 19th - early 20th century ghost towns, to be littered with sheet metal (from roofs, siding, etc.) Smaller pieces of that will mimic coins, in my experience. But the larger pieces can be figured out just from their extent (especially noticeable in pinpoint mode). I can see clearing those out if time allows, to open up what's underneath. That assumes the property owner (private or public) doesn't mind the loss of vegetation/smoothed ground/etc.

I'm surprised at how many of the coins were cut by mowers. Not only must their blades have been sharp (my mower damaged coins tend to just be bent or dinged) but the sheer numbers are unexpected, IMO. Do you think a change in dTID (from the missing material) caused previous detectorists to ignore these? Also, do the two clipped dime pieces mate or is that just a coincidental illusion? Oh, and nice sunbaker!

Without counting it seems that 3/4 or more of those shown were found in Britain. I wonder if the authors are from there. Obviously they have more metal laden history than North America or Oceania but what about the rest of Eurasia? Also likely a factor is England's policy of requiring finds to be reported (but also compensating, etc. finders and land owners). Imagine all the secret discoveries in the Middle East (for example) that we never hear about....

OK, but what detector? Excellent find! Since that wish paid off quickly, why not hope for a gold coin next?

Two great posts, Monte, and as typical for you, lots of details as to why things work (or don't work, or sort of work but not optimally). Even though I also started metal detecting very early (~1970), other things (aka 'life') caused me to detour for 45 years. As a result I missed a lot of the evolution that you experienced, and it has cost me. (Not to mention all the good targets that were vacuumed up by other detectorists while I slept....) Reading isn't a substitute for swinging, but it helps. When I atteneded the WTHO last month (thanks, again, to you for inviting me and Gregg and others for making me feel welcome, but I was disappointed you couldn't be there) I took your advice from many previous posts in my choice of detector and coil. Although I didn't use it exclusively, the Fisher F75 with 4"x6" concentric was my main tool and it worked very well. BTW, I have built a nail board and tested this combo on it with good success (6 or 7 positive results) but I'm still unsure if I'm performing the test as intended so I haven't publicized that (much). I had planned on bringing it along to WTHO to get some tips but forgot. I still need to sort through and photo my finds from the WTHO. Then I'll make a detailed post here as well as posting photos on your site.

The 'new' Fisher Gold Bug was, true to its name, designed first and foremost as a native gold detector. That is exhibited by its All Metal mode, which is VCO (effectively tone pitch and tone volume indicate strength of target). The discrimination half of the GB's operation was a reluctant afterthought. Part of the consequence is that although there is an adjustable threshold to silence low conductivity targets, it is intimately tied to the 2-tone breakpoint. You can choose where to set the silent threshold or where to set the low-->high tone break, but once you decide on one, the other comes along for the ride. (BTW, this feature was relaxed when Fisher released the sister F19 model. That allows the silent threshold and lo-to-hi tone break to be chosen independently.)

That cross section is much weaker than a circular X-section, FWIK. Elliptical X-section might be a good compromise, but still probably extra and or different material would be required since elliptical isn't a strong as pure circular. Still seems doable, though. Maybe our resident shaft builder ( @steveg ) can weigh in (no pun intended ).

Because you have a choice of small coils. I'm assuming you have the new (2010 and later) version of the Gold Bug, not the 1990's version. If you already own the Fisher 5" DD then you're set. If you don't, then you have the option of the NEL Snake (same as CORS Shrew). All of those are DD's (which the Gold Bug requires) and have roughly similar area coverage (meaning amount of metal under the coil will on average be similar). The ellipticals (NEL and CORS) will probably have a bit better separation which helps in high trash. But it's a close call which is why if you arlready own a small coil you should just go with that rather than buy another one.

What detector(s) do you have accessibilty to? Even smaller than a 5" round might work better, but obviously only if available for a detector you possess. Never expect miracles.... But a smaller footprint coil can definitely help in extremely trashy sites.

I'll second that. Also, users/members/posters here include very knowledgeable people in regards to metal detecting, and that spills over to the dealer-members as well. Gerry McMullen is my poster-boy (hope that doesn't come off as deragatory) in this regard. He participates in just about every phase of metal detecting so he's not just a sales front. And he's honest so his advice comes first as a fellow detectorist.

Maybe NF will embarrass ML into doing things they should have done a long time ago.... Nah. Closed coils have their place, particularly in native gold detecting. I'm surprised no one has come up with a closed cover for the top of open coils. Mars doesn't make coil covers (AFAIK) for their aftermarket coils, claiming the housings are so tough they don't need them. But that ignores the problem addressed in this thread -- sweeping over difficult terrain or vegetation. I made a polycarbonate lower cover plate for my 6"x10" Mars Sniper and then used duct tape to cover the top. Klugy but it works.

Welcome, Veisal! You have a high quality metal detector manufacturer there in your country. But the ML Equinox 800 is a great tool for finding native gold, so you're in good shape. I hope you are successful and will be able to photo and post some of your upcoming finds.

Your middle photo doesn't show a break that I can see. Why do you say 'other half missing'?

I've been tempted many times in the past at the play-on-words (sort of) that mis-spellings generate, but I couldn't pass this one up, and DoD (play on letters?) is usually a good sport so I don't think he'll be offended, at least I hope not. So, is a guilt button kind of like a mood ring? (Hey, there's money to be made next Christmas if you can convince the gullible public to go along!)

Is there a difference in Australia vs. Western USA? I mean specifically the possibility of finding new or lightly searched patches. While we're on the subject of this new detector (and apologies if I'm getting too far off Lucky Lundy's topic), have there been any big (say 10g and up) nuggets found with the GPX6000 yet, anywhere? I've been expecting Gerry to show up with a picture of a large cookie (or cupcake) in his mouth but from what he said last week or so, he doesn't even have a GPX6000 for himself yet.

So you're saying the honeymoon is over? If real marriages were this tough we'd have even more divorce lawyers than already exist. I wish once we'd have posters wait for a product to get into people's hands before flouting it.