Search the Community

I'm new to nugget shooting and have recently got a Gold Monster a couple weeks ago. I wanted to get a little time on the machine and there's snow on the claim I have access to so I took the machine out to some nearby dredge piles to play around. I got about 8 hrs on the machine so far. These dredge piles are about 15' high and I quickly found out how dangerous climbing around steep, frozen big boulders was....lol I did get a few "hits" on the GM on top the piles but after carefully removing rocks one at a time I realized whatever set the machine off kept falling down in between the rocks deeper into the pile the more I chased it? Very little small gravel/soil type material....just big cleaned rock. So I learned that hunting the tops of these piles will most likely end in defeat or injury. I hunted just a few hrs on the wooded flats near the base of some piles. So far I've dug lead bullets, casings, some iron, and new aluminum so the machine is working, etc. My question may sound stupid but I'll throw it out there..... Is there a semi productive way to search these piles? Should a guy just search around the bottoms and flatter ground where maybe some of the finer material has finally settled? I'd taken a rake along with me when I went but never really used it as the rocks in the piles were much bigger once I got up close....lol PS.....Having only driven by these piles for years I must say that once I actually crawled around on the piles I was VERY impressed how much material those old dredges dug outta that creek.....amazing to say the least.......... Thanks

Has anybody got any info a good prospecting shop in Socal.

This video features the Deus but there are lessons here for anyone chasing fringe targets....

A couple weeks ago when I got back from a hunt my wife asked me "what did you find" and I had to respond "nothing worth mentioning" (meaning no old coins or decent relics or jewelry). She then said "well, maybe you need to find a new spot." Now, my wife wouldn't know which end of the detector to place on the ground (because she couldn't care less about using one), but her advice rang true. Coincidentally I was reading the October issue of the ICMJ Journal and there was an article there by Chris Ralph (who posts here, in case you weren't aware of that) titled Is it time for a change? New ways to find more gold. How appropriate! I see this quite often in this endeavor. For example, advice which seems like it is specific to one detector applies to many, sometimes all detectors. Even though finding native gold poses different challenges than coins/relics/jewelry, there is a lot in common. Chris's article covered quite a bit of detail. For many reasons I don't want to try and reproduce what he said. But a couple key points are 1) instead of going back to the same spots where you've been harvesting gold for a long time, with diminishing returns, start fresh and find a new (with emphasis on minimally searched) location. 2) Try using different equipment. For the latter, he was giving examples of changing from detector to dry-washer/sluice/etc. or vice-versa. But even a change of detector model or just the coil for a coin hunter could break the trend and provide new insights (and valuables!). Regarding Chris's point of finding a new location, I know in my town there are way more old parks that I haven't searched than the ones I have. I've made the mental excuse "I bet those have been hunted hard" but I don't know that. It's kind of a 'sour grapes' rationalization. They're harder to get to (farther away), they have more human use (most of us like to hunt in solitude/peace), and maybe they require more work (new research). But all that seems minor compared to the potential.

So Im open to any suggestions using my XP deus. There is a very old site that used to be a school but now is an old church. Not being used much but the grass always seems to be pushed over as opposed to cut and bagged. So been hard to get my coil to the ground. There is an old wooden baseball diamond back stop thats falling down etc. Whole diamond is tall grass just being mowed over on its side. Don't know why they don't actually get a real mower in there and cut and bag it. I wonder if I should try non motion mode and just keep poking at the ground best I can? Has anybody ever used non motion modes? I havn't tried it yet but thinking of going back and trying that.

It has been a while since we last heard from Klunker on this forum. I sure miss hearing his insights on detecting and his other commentary. I don't know if he is just too darned busy detecting and finding gold? Or his computer broke? Or if he has been banished from the forum from the powers above . Any which way, I sure miss his 2 cents worth. Please come back!

Hello all, Over the past few hunts with a buddy of mine, there are a few differences that stand out between us in our results. I am using an Xterra 705 and he is using an AT pro. Both of us using a 9" to 12" double D. The first thing I notice is that he covers FAR more ground than I do. He walks real fast and his swings are very broad with no overlap. Sometimes a 2 ft gap or more between his swings. Me, I seem to miss targets when I try and keep up with his pace. I have seen my machine miss some altogether on a sweep, then show up on a slower pass. So I then slow my swing and back to my overlapping. He is also quick with his Target ID . He doesn't spend a long time deciphering the target. Me, I seem to spend a lot of time on false singles - never a solid, consistent signal - but a coin number or ring number faintly pops up quick, in the trash clatter. So I spend the time, coming at it from different angles and slower and faster swings. And it is usually nothing of course....or so deep, I'm not digging anyway. And at the end of the day, he usually has double the finds, plus a ring or two (and usually no ring in my pouch is due to my impatience with trash and not digging everything). My first reaction...Buy a bigger coil. And this will indeed help me in gaining more ground coverage. But I still need work on Target ID and as in my other post, know when to walk away. I also question the machines and each ones reaction times? Are AT pros a "quicker" machine than an Xterra 705? Just the nature of the beast? Any advice on technique would be very much appreciated. Especially related to the Xterra. Cheers G

Hello all, I find myself spending - what I think - is too much time on chatter with my X705. Trashy areas that within the chatter of tones/numbers from trash, a diggable tone/number pops up. But it is never consistent, even after changing my direction and speed of swing etc. Yet I still seem to spend too much time and energy on that signal that turns up as nothing. Now I have gotten better at picking targets out of clutter, and of those times I do note that the signal was indeed "Consistent" . So I have proven to myself - the solid signal means target and warbled-inconsistent tones are not. I keep telling myself to leave it and keep moving, but tend to second guess myself wondering if I'm walking away from a good target and the proverbial "What if". So is it best to keep my first thought and spend that extra time? Or good for the odds and better to move on and spend time on known targets. Cheers G

In anticipation of cold weather dredging I decided to spend some money on new dive gear. I was able to get a great deal on a Bare Pro D6 dry suit off Ebay. Turned out to be an excellent purchase. The suit was brand new with tags still on it and came with a new set of gloves and hood as well for 499 shipped. The size was an extra large short witch is perfect in length and the chest is a 44'' also perfect, but a bit large in the mid section at 35'' witch actually turned out to be a blessing as I was able to wear my heavy Filson wool gear under for some extra warmth. The boots are an xxl size there again I was able to wear two pair of wool socks for a perfect fit. My old suit is a Bare Pro D6 in large regular, bit too long for me but a good fit with out too much under gear on. Had that suit about six years and it is in need of a new neck seal and a good checking over for pinholes. Rite now its more of a wet suit than dry. LOL. I was out dredging last Saturday in the new suit. Fist time in a while I was warm and dry. Pretty excited about that considering the temp was 22 F and the water dam cold. I also purchased a full face mask, instead of going with goggles and a mouth piece. Ended up getting the new OTS Spectrum mask for 399.00 witch is cheap for a full face mask. It comes with out a regulator so you need to supply that, but most any will fit it. I did come to find my cheap Oceanic regulator is not a good cold weather/water dive regulator. I really like this mask a lot but fair warning, OTS claims one size fits most with the double seal, but if you have large face best to try it for fit as I have a small face and I cant see it fitting comfortable on a person that needs a large. As far a my head I wear a 7mm Bare dry hood and 7mm three finger mitts with Kevlar palms for my hands. Here is a pic from Saturday. Sure wish that sunshine could get down in the canyon a little bit. If you look close at the picture you can see steam coming off the river, that water is about 38 Deg. F. I think the air temp was about 18 Deg. F. Stayed nice and warm in the new gear but as I mentioned my regulator was my problem. Keep freezing up in the cold water and cut my dredge time short. I did manage to clear out a yard or so of pay dirt for a total of 1/8 ounce of gold for the day but I was having to surface about every 5 minutes and put my mask in front of the exhaust on the dredge and that was a bit much for me. Funny how you plan really carefully but overlook one item and that negates all the planning. So - I'm in the market for a good cold water regulator any one got suggestion? Heading back to town coming out of Turnagain Pass I snapped a picture of the Chugach Mountains over by Girdwood. Enjoy!

New member here and glad to be a part of this great forum! As someone who's looking forward to actually going out into the field with a metal detector for the first time, I'm interested in finding out how experienced nugget shooters actually "set-up camp," so to speak. Do you drive right up to the area you're going to cover in a 4-wheel drive vehicle? How close can you usually get to the exact ground you're going to search? Does anyone ever take a travel trailer out to those areas and stay a few days? Again, if so, how close are you usually able to get? Does anyone drive to the area in a 4-wheel drive and then ride to the site on an off-road motorcycle (or even off-road bicycle, if that's even feasible)? I'm interested in getting started in Arizona and Southern California but would eventually like to do some detecting in different regions of the West Coast up to Alaska.

I was out in a seemingly dried up creek panning for gold in southern Illinois. A lot of the local creeks going under the roadways were about dried up I noticed, even some rivers. I stopped at a creek out in the boondocks that was 40 feet wide and a gravel bottom but hardly had a trickle and a few inches deep of water flowing. I never expected to encounter quicksand in pea size gravels but in one area closer to the bank with seemingly no water present, I went in up to my shins unexpectedly. Being 500 feet from the bridge , on a Sunday, in the country,well screaming for help would not have worked too well with nobody around !! Fortunately, I got out ok and told myself, lets get outta here. No gold was showing up and I was kinda scared. Not worth the risk. I know when we were at Ganes creek gold mine they warned us not to go in areas where they were washing gravels by the big sluice. I never understood why until now. Be careful out there. Its not just quick sand but quick gravels too on what looks like solid ground. Has anybody else had this happen to them? How do you get out if you do go in too deep and nobody around to help you? -Tom

Gerry McMullen and crew are doing a nugget detecting class November 3 - 5 at Rye Patch. This is an excellent chance for anyone having really difficulty finding that first nugget to get some expert help. This class is usually for people who buy detectors from Gerry. However, I contacted Gerry and he does have spaces available and they are open to anyone who wants to participate for a fee. You can find details and contact Gerry about costs at http://gerrysdetectors.com/event/gold-detector-training-6/ It can be extremely hard to get that first gold nugget and it is impossible to overstate just how much it can help having people who know what they are doing take you by the hand and show you.

Just wondered if anybody here in the US knows of author and prospector Pieters whereabouts? Some old friends and I had a lot of fun prospecting Western Australia with them back in the mid nineties, while he and Debbie were living at Gwalia WA. As far as I know he left years ago. Steve: Apologies if this is off topic or in the wrong place, please feel free to move it somewhere more appropriate. Thanks! Juvenile fun in the "outback" Left to Right: Me, the late Jim Stewart, Debbie, Reg Wilson, Pieter Heydelaar, John Hider Smith. Pieter with a fuel tank off a Soyuz spacecraft. He had a good meteorite collection as well. A much younger me (with camera) and Australian detecting legend and prospecting buddy Jim Stewart:

I walk into a major electronics store here or see their ad it's says Good Better Best. I'd say most of us try to stay in the income level we're in. This wholes true when we are looking for a detector to buy. This may not whole true anymore with the price drop of some high dollar detectors that we see coming on the market. When we see a price drop we also see that product put in the price range of more buyers. You're not a good buyer anymore you've gone beyond that and you find yourself buying the best. It may been a hard push to get there but you know that detector will be the best for you for years to come. In 91 I put down 725.00 dollars for a at that time was a high dollar detector but it still detects The thing is all these years later for almost the same money I can buy a detector that will run circles around my old one. That's my thinking but I want to know yours. Chuck.

This was really encouraging to me Luke, Goldmaster V/Sat is the only detector I own. That, plus not doing much detecting equals no gold. But, on the other end of the scale I find lots of nails. lead shot and small bits of other metals and hot rocks.

I always know that in ancient time people love to underground there tressure on earth but now a days we all love detecting that treassure yesterday i test a box of iron filled with full of crap item like copper alluminum iron scrap the i burried it at depth of 2ft dpth u all will amaze at max teknetics t2 atpro ctx3030 come up to detect it with ease t2 has upper hand on all of it nice clear audio ctx shows target sepration nice and smooth at max has not any problem it detect and make a loud clear audio but i am amaze after see the reading clearly

In the process of finding the right person to mine with... any advice from those who have been there and done that would be great. Thanks. Small Scale Mining.

Hi ya'll! I have a question for you. If you could go detecting anywhere in the lower 48 and stay as long as you wanted-where would it be, and what would you hunt? Not looking for anybody's top secret honey hole, just a general area. I'm planning our trip next summer with the small toyhauler and ATV. I'd like to try hunting some different things in some different places. Already got South Beach/FT Lauderdale on the radar, as well as tons of places in Montana. There has to be something fun in the 2500 miles in between! Thanks for all suggestions! Ammie

I hit this pocket out hunting along a contact zone. I think it is native silver, but there have been no historical accounts of silver being found, only platinum and gold. Upon inspection with the microscope I can see gold popping out in a couple places. The large nugget was on the top of a vein of decomposing calcite and quartz, you can see on one side where the rock fell apart leaving some interesting formations. The large piece is 3/4 of a ounce and the foil like piece, that was found downhill, is about a 1/4 ounce. So this is most likely silver but anybody ever see platinum gold ore? The pieces came out very clean with very little magnesium oxide coating. The only thing that has my mind wandering is the fact that the source of platinum has never been found in the area, no historical accounts of silver being found and it came out of the ground really clean. Anybody see anything like this while out hunting for pocket gold?

This morning I was reviewing another thread and there was a link to Steve's review philosophy. I encourage everyone to read it. It reminded me of an idea I have had for a long time about having an event (several events) with all metal detectorists and manufacturers products used to find professionally hidden and buried targets. You don't get to dig or recover the targets. You put a score on each hole like you do on a golf score card. Rules can be made to make it fair. Spectators would be encouraged as the locations for these events could be elevated. The finals could be in a stadium depending on EMI! haha The idea is that there could be events and at each of the events there could be courses and each of these courses could have holes. Some of the courses could be coin only, gold only or relic only. Some of the 'holes' would have gold nuggets, hot rocks, coins, rings, etc. Some of the events/courses would let you use your own detector and some of the events would be using the same detector ... like some of the auto races. Some of the events could use discriminating detectors and some would be size and depth competitions using PIs. Some of the events would be set up like panning contests. I think everyone gets their own ideas. You get people and kids out early to find things. What would we get out of this as the metal detecting community? Competition, advertising and exposure of detectorists skills and manufacturers products that could result in better equipment. What would be a possible negative? Some of us would rather keep ourselves invisible to the public at large. Some of that would be lost. What say you? Mitchel

Lu found a pick on one of our outings to Quartzsite. We are trying to do a little research on it. I found an eBay item that had a similar mark but the seller does not know anything about the maker. The mark is a Y P with an anchor between the two letters. Does anyone here know about this mark? Mitchel

Hello every one i am honored to be a member in this forums and i am a beginner in this field . i want to know if any one have this machine Pulse Star 2 pro and has review on it . i am looking for treasures and relics . do you suggests to buy Pulse Star 2 pro or GPX 5000 for my search . http://www.tb-electronic.de/start/index2.html

While we are on this beach hunting topic, what do you guys do for keeping your keys, wallet, cell phone safe while you are beach hunting? Do you leave this stuff in your car under the seat, or wear a waterproof plastic bag around your neck with your valuables in it? Where can I get a waterproof neck pouch? Zip Lock bags are NOT watertight. I found this out the hard way with my cell phone. I will be out in a waist deep river with a black bottom next week using my sucker stick to get the placer gold in between the river bottom cemented cobbles. What to do with my keys, wallet, etc? If I accidentally drop them in the river, I will never see them again for sure. -Tom

G'Day to our American Friends from Australia, i am new to your forum and new to Gold detecting, the little amount of detecting I have done has been very successful in finding dozens and dozens of 22 bullets along with the odd can pull tag. I live in an area renowned for Gold, but I am starting to question the advise I have been given by the sales people, it's fine to have a detector that will pick out the smallest gold, but to my way of thinking you need to be in an area that is isolated, Can you advise me on detectors that are designed to highlight small nuggets but larger that a 22 bullet, I am thinking that if a detector is less sensitive it would miss some of the trash, your thoughts are appreciated. Cheers.......Aussie

Hi, hoping one of the Gold Bug Pro brains trust could give me their opinion please?I'm new to detecting & was wondering about the ground balance number and the ground phase number in the middle of the screen. In order to ground balance I'm pumping the coil up and down whilst pushing the GG button and most often the ground phase number and ground balance number match closely pretty quickly, however.....once I get started sweeping again the ground phase number (in the screen centre) jumps all over the place. Is this normal? Or should after I've ground balanced, the phase number pretty much remain the same? I've read through the manual and I think I'm doing everything correctly, just not sure if an erratic phase number is right? I was in all metal mode, both dials at 12:00 and up on dry sand. Thank you