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Homestead Cabin on January 28, 2024 Homestead Cabin on February 23, 2024 Homestead Cabin on March 8, 2024 .

I attended our detecting club meeting on Friday night and this was my display. I found a lot of foreign coins this month, quite a few very worn wheats, a silver dime and silver quarter. You may have seen some of these items on another thread. It was a fun month but I didn't get out to the gold fields. Maybe this month I will.

Does anyone know if this was a specimen or a solid? I've only been in the Piru area looking for gold one or two times over 10 years ago. I was told I would get into trouble there because they were protecting an invasive frog. I didn't know where to go. This history seems to say. Has anyone been there and had success? I've heard a few stories about people sneaking into some areas but don't know the details. SCVHistory.com | The Story Of Our Valley by A.B. Perkins | Part 5: Mining.

This is a pretty good visit.

polished end of specimenthis came off of a matrix on the end of a red host rock seen in following pics end of a host rock . A matrix cluster of … ? host rock is red and seen in the following pics peice end of a host rock matrix of a host rock with large cluster matrix on end of red rock end of host rock matrix

I learned something from this story. I never imagined. How one woman helped start the California gold rush (fox40.com)

Hello everyone I need some seasoned experts to take a glimpse at my find and judge if I'm right this is a meteorite or meteor(not). I've had this rock in my collection for some time and upon resent researching I read that Carbonaceous Meteorite are composed of millimeter sized chondrules called a matrix. This rock in my post has weathered fractured breaks, thumb prints shaped holes, rounded, and grainy like sand. Ill try to weight is and get it's mass and volume to check the rocks specific gravity. Someone tell me if I'm wrong or right thinking this is a meteorite.

A couple weeks ago I took the wife gold panning/sluicing. That stuff is hard on my knees so, I fired up the D2 and just went walking down a short washed out road along the creek. Well after a few bullet casings I got a 96 X2 and this is what I popped out. Dumb luck or just lucky I guess. California Mother Lode keeps giving.

Gold was discovered before January 24, 1848 in California but it was James Marshall who started the Gold Rush! The Discovery of Gold in California

In the past 7-8 weeks I've owned the Deus 2, I've been out with it a lot. That's about to end as California is in a drought. Summer is nearly here, and the ground is now already quite dry and becoming hard to dig in, so I won't be out much until the rains return. I've primarily used it to search for coins and jewelry in parks and fields, but also looked for gold nuggets here in California for 7-8 hours (and unfortunately didn't find any). I started with the January V0.6 version and switched to the V0.7 in late April. I updated to V0.71 as soon as it was out to correct the only issue I've ever had which was with the pinpoint mode in V0.7. Overall, I've been very happy with the machine and its performance. I've especially enjoyed the light weight and super ergonomics and have never felt tired from swinging this unit. Its been a pleasure to use since the beginning and I really enjoy the various audio options. The sounds of the pitch tones and full tones just sound so good to my ears! Coming from the Equinox 800, I didn't find the transition to another mulitfrequency machine difficult, it was just a matter of learning the new menu system on the XP. I mostly used the stock programs and over time learned to tweak settings a bit to work best in my conditions. I think somebody new to the Deus platform would be able to use stock programs to start and get great performance right away and then gradually learn what the various settings do to further optimize. One of the most unique and useful features of the Deus 2 for me has been is its mineralization level graph. I've known all along I hunt in very difficult soil conditions, but the Deus 2 confirmed this with hard data. Where I hunt, the mineralization graph is generally 3/4 to full bars, so high to severely mineralized. I've used this information to help me set my reactivity level in the different programs I've used. The higher the mineralization, the higher I set the reactivity level. The factory preset levels of 2.5 to 3 generally work ok in 3/4 bar soil, and I had to use reactivity 4 in one site with full bars while looking for coins. I generally get a max of 4-5 inches of solid ID numbers on a coin in my soil and less as the mineralization bar increases to near full. Signal clarity and strength start to really get lost past 2 inches. One helpful setting has been audio response. I have had good success raising this up to a "6" to hear faint deeper or smaller targets better and was glad to see signals didn't seem to become more distorted like I at first feared. This is something for those of you in difficult soil to consider trying, despite the drawback of losing potential audio information about how deep and weak a coin signal might be. This setting for me has been a "mini game-changer" as it allows me to hear things I'd otherwise miss. I've been happy with the 9 inch coil on the Deus 2. I think its a great all-around coil size. Nice depth, but still small enough to limit targets under the coil at one time. I hunt in thick trash often and the size works well for pinpointing targets without the need to engage pinpoint mode very often. This is one of the top pluses of the Deus 2 for me. I know where targets are located with a simple "X" sweep and this saves lots of time. This is a big deal when the goal is to retrieve more targets in the time spent hunting. The machine itself also separates and IDs items very well. I can often tell where 2 targets are when right next to each other by carefully swinging around and mentally taking note of each target location based on the sounds or ID#. The separation abilities of the Deus 2 are quite good and from what I see, XP deserves the reputation it has for making machines that excel in trash or iron-infested sites. Non-ferrous signals really stand out on this machine. This saves a lot of time locating things precisely and also helps find desirable targets from among the trash. Like all machines though, you still have to put in your time digging junk to get the good stuff! I probably won't use this machine for nugget hunting in the future since I have a Minelab GPX6000 which is much better suited for the job. It cuts through severely mineralized soil far better, but I do intend to keep using the Deus 2 as my primary coin and jewelry hunting machine. I hope to someday take it to the beach and do some diamond ring and other jewelry hunting, though I do live quite far from any beaches with a lot of activity. While I don't often search specifically for relics, I also hope to use the Deus 2 in the future at some old ghost towns or mining locations and am confident its a great machine for a place like that. If I were to only have 1 metal detector(a crazy idea, I know!) , I think the Deus 2 would be in the running for my only choice. It can do a lot very, very well such as hunt for jewelry and coins in parks, be used at the beach or when diving, and even if somebody wanted to take it nugget hunting. It can do all of those things quite well, even though other machines may be better in certain areas or situations. But, since I primarily detect natural gold nuggets, in this case I'd pick a Minelab GPX pulse-induction model. If I could also have a vlf companion, I'd get the Deus 2. I know newer and possibly better models to compete with the Deus 2 will be out in the next year or two, but I'd still be happy with the Deus 2 once they are out, since I think it will be very tough to beat the light weight and ergonomics of it, and it should stay very competitive in separating and ID abilities for quite a few years to come.