Condor

I searched high and low for a decent pair of working pants that can handle the bending, stooping and kneeling of prospecting.  Military fatigues were close, but too many knockoffs and they weren't holding up.  A few months ago I began an online search and came up with some real winners.  Mind you, I have no vested interest in the company, no affiliation whatsoever, but I thought I would share my knowledge.  I bought 1 pair just to try them out.  They were so comfortable, I bought 3 more pairs and they are now my everyday pants, not just prospecting.

The company is Duluth Trading, the pants are called "firehose flex".  They make a bunch of other working pants, but these seemed right for my purpose.  Not cheap, but so far well worth the money for me.  The key is they are looser in the legs and have a gusseted crotch.  Now I'm not bragging that a man like me needs that extra crotch room, but they really make a difference for bending and crouching.  They are pretty lightweight, probably not warm enough for colder climates, but I think they make some with a lining.  I bought some for my 21 yr old son, he's a lot leaner and fitter than his old dad, so he wasn't that fond of them.  Oh well, its the thought that counts.  I'm not trying to spam you, just passing on some information I wish I'd  had a couple years ago.

Belay my last.  The acid cleaned up the hotrocks pretty good, interesting ironstone, rusty quartz pockets and calcium carbonate coating, but not anything rare.  A good indicator of potential gold, but not worth much otherwise. 

Steve H,

I know you're on the move, but if you see or hear from Reno Chris, I have a couple very heavy hot rocks I like him to take a look at.  Not typical iron stones, perhaps something like lead, but without the galena type structure.  I don't know of any lead mining in this area, but I once worked on a core drilling rig testing silver veins within a couple miles of this spot.  Not meteorites, they're shot through with quartz.  Soaking in mild acid to clean them up for a closer look.

I've been swinging the Minelab GPX's since they arrived on the scene and found a lot of gold at  Moore Creek.  Steve H. will remember me as Steve F.  Conversion to VLF took propably 6 to 8  hrs of consistent detecting time.  Too many bad habits of trying to cover a lot of ground to find those big targets.  The VLF machine is fairly simple, but it's a matter of coordinating your sweep speed, your hearing and your brain to process what you are hearing.  There's a lot of noise to separate  and process with the variety of  chatter beeps and geeps you're going to hear.  I think the biggest mistake beginners make is thinking you just sweep that coil till it beeps over a target.  You're going to hear a lot of beeps that aren't targets and if you swing too fast, a lot of stuff is going to start sounding like a target.  I dug a bunch of holes in what turns out to be mineralized patches of desert soil before I figured out I was still  swinging too fast.  I was amazed at how many of those sounds disappeared when I just crawled that coil up to the alleged target zone.  I found that with the external speaker I could set the threshold to just below steady audible, a very slight fluttering in the background.  A true target with extremely slow sweep would bring the threshold to steady audible often without ever beeping, expecially tiny specs of gold.   If I could repeat that threshold rise in 2 different directions, then it was generally a good target.  You aren't going to miss a good target by going too slow.  You may limit your opportunities, it's a question of priorities.   It's initially frustrating for a PI guy to move that slow, but sometimes it's the only game in town.

Steve H has talked about the value of VLF machines many times, but here's my own new experience.
 
I was bored during the holidays with time on my hands for detecting, alas my GPX is still at the Minelab detector Doctor. I decided to take Steve's sage wisdom to heart and give the Gold Bug 2 and 6.5" coil a proper go. I bought the GB2 from Steve at AMDS last year and had it out a couple times, a few crumbs here and there.  I just never took the time to really get to know the detector. I know a weathered little valley down Yuma way, where the oldtimers drywashed the hell out of every wash and gulley.  A couple years ago I pulled a sub-gram nugget off the slope with no more than 6 inches of dirt and gravel to host rock. I figured that would be prime ground for the GB.

I planned an overnighter so that I could get the most out of detecting time, only to discover I had forgotten my headphones. Oh well, the GB has an external speaker, not ideal situation but tolerable. I rigged a neck strap for the control box to that the speaker was closer to my ears. That setup was fantastic, I would highly recommend it even with headphones. You can wave that wand with the little coil all day without any arm fatigue.

I found my old dig hole and started beeping. Within minutes found gold and some decent pieces. Over the next 2 days I found 38 pieces in a band about 20 ft wide and maybe 100 ft long. I stood on the hill and looked at my gravel scrapes and the band was plain as day. There were a few oldtimer exploration holes nearby, all into a seam of red looking ore. I checked their tailings, lousy with iron trash from blasting caps and such.

The photo shows the gold divided into categories. The biggest are in the .5 to .7 grams. The next size is 2 to 4 grains. The next size are sub-grain, 12 of them weighed 4 grains. The last ones with a ballpoint pen for scale are so tiny the whole lot won't register on my scale. 

What I learned. The GB2 is a fantastic machine in the right circumstances. In moderate ground it really has to move way way slow. The threshold autotune really needs time to catch up going over mineralized ground or you're going to hear far too many beeps, geeps and groans. Slow that bad boy down. The Maxed Out settings are the ticket to hear those little bitty ones. Iron discriminate will probably lose you gold. It would be a difficult machine to actually search for new spots. The coil coverage is so small and you have to move way too slow. It's suited for ground where you already know there is gold and can concentrate on low and slow.

Like most of you, I enjoy the hunt. Sure, I wish all those nuggets were all in plus gram size, but I had a great time chasing those crumbs. Bravo Zulu to Steve H. for sharing his wisdom and knowledge for all things prospecting.