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  1. You post of any finds are just a story you want to tell. My first. When out nugget hunting and you come across a dozer working look for the dirt that drops off the tracks. It looks like a small loaf of bread. That loaf of bread you want to detect if in gold country because wet dirt and gold gets pickup in them. I found two nice nuggets in some of the same. One was over two grams and the other was a little under. Chuck
  2. I only ever owned a White's product. I started in1970 in high school with my 1st machine and tried to "earn" my way up the detector ladder so to speak. The only problem I ever had was a coil that went bad and I got a replacement right away. Let me tell you a little story. I live in Northern NJ and before the interweb there used to be a little metal detector shop called Geoquest on Rt 46 in Saddle Brook NJ. It was owned by a guy named Harry and his wife Leola. His shop had metal detectors hanging all over the place on pegboards. He had piles of them on the floor. Harry was a servicing dealer for White's back in the day. Anyway Harry was a short round man that always wore a shirt that was at least one size too small and the button buttonholes were screaming for mercy! He had display cases crammed with finds from all the local treasure hunters and I was hooked in an instant! Well those things weren't cheap and I could not afford to buy one right away and so I used to go hang out there and see if I could "help" out and maybe learn something. Well after a couple of weeks of being a pain in the a** Harry told me to come in the back and he handed me a machine. It was blue and primer grey weighed like 50 lbs and he told me to get lost for a couple of weeks. I didn't know what to say I was really happy to have a chance at trying this cool new thing. Well back then not many people had metal detectors and the ones that I know lived near the beach. I lived in an old town, Hackensack NJ and it was ripe for the pickin. I just didn't know what the hell to do. My first time out at an old park I most of the time trying to figure out how to tune the machine. I think it had a red button sticking out of the end of the handle to pinpoint with but I'm not sure. I started finding coins, lot's of coins, SILVER COINS!!!!!! They were only worth face value back then or maybe a little more but I was happy. I was doing something nobody else was doing. By the end of the summer I had enough coins to cash in and almost buy a nice middle of the road Whites machine. Harry recommended a Whites machine because he was a servicing dealer and they were very reliable. Harry was a mad scientist! He used to repair down to the component level on the boards and had all kinds of test equipment in his "lab". He used to see common problems like resistors and potentiometers going bad but he actually found weak links in the circuits and changed components to a different value for a permanent fix. Harry taught me lot's of things but the thing that sticks in my head is persistence and education. And how to solder really good! Harry let me have a brand new White's detector and told me to pay for it a little every week when I could. Back then people were trusting and honorable. Your handshake was your contract and bond. I studied HVAC and became an industrial chiller service technician and did well in that trade for 20 years. After that amount of time I wanted to change careers and I became an HVAC instructor at the school I graduated from 20 years before. I actually replaced my retiring instructor and was very proud of myself. I always stopped by Geoquest at least twice a month and took care of Harry's heating and cooling needs for free. Back then that's what you did to payback your debts. Not the monetary ones, the ones that really count the kindness caring ones, the personal ones. Harry's health was failing. He had bypass surgery and was doing well for a few months. The next time I visited Geoquest I had some bagels with a smear of cream cheese for Harry and Leola and coffee. I walked in and Leola looked like she was tortured. She told me that we lost Harry. I thought he was really lost I didn't realize he had died or I just didn't want to believe it. I stayed there the rest of the day helping Leola try and organise the shop and keep her busy but eventually we sat and cried. Harry was gone and Leola had to close the shop. There just wasn't enough money in selling machines to support the bills without Harry. After the store closed I tried to stay in touch with Loela but we never really kept on after the store closed. Harry lived his life with passion. Something most of us will never even realise what passion is. I laid off metal detecting for awhile while raising a family and got back into it about 6 years ago. I bought a White's V3i. I wanted the top of the line and I could afford it, I still can't really operate it well! That same day I got the V I found a 14k mens wedding band in a park. Thank you Harry I miss you.
  3. I finally was able to break away from the daily grind and get out for an overnight detecting trip with my brother this last weekend. I have had my eye on a certain spot for the last year or so, the opportunity to detect it has never really presented itself, work and other priorities have a habit of getting in the way. The hike in was very pleasant with the temperature never breaking sixty degrees. Perfect weather for lugging around a forty pound bag. The views of the canyon during our descent, combined with the scent of blooming Deer-brush and Snow-Drop bushes that filled the air were euphoric. Navigating off trail along old mining ditches is always an adventure; at times, these ditches almost seem to be better established pathways than most trails, until they aren't and you're faced with a blockade of blackberry and the wonderful poison oak. I have an Estwing machete that is usually pretty useful in clearing pathways, I employed this, along with gloved hands, and managed to force a pathway for the next quarter mile to our destination. We set up camp right in the middle of some monolithic tailings where the old timers had hydraulic'ed massive swaths of the hillsides away for almost an additional quarter of a mile at the same elevation. After setting up camp, it was getting close to about six-o-clock. My brother and I decided to get some time in detecting the area immediately surrounding us before nightfall. My brother was using a Minelab VLF and I was using the SDC, at times we would check each others targets, his Iron-ID being useful to me, and the mineralization immunity of my SDC useful to him on the hot rocks or spots of bedrock. It was quickly clear that nobody had detected here, or if they had, they hadn't done a very good job. We were pulling piles of square nails, bits of wire, and lead out of the ground, unfortunately, not a spec of gold. Time has a way of escaping you when you have coil over soil, and before we knew it, darkness was closing in and we retreated to our camp for the night. Rarely do you sleep as well in remote areas as you do in the comfort of your own bed, that said I have had many a decent night's sleep in the wild, this however was not among them. The mosquitoes at this location were absolutely relentless. We were wearing 100% DEET repellent, we continuously stoked the campfire, and I even went as far as to dawn a "no-see-um" mosquito head-net, all to no avail. These mosquitoes were small in stature, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in numbers and aggressiveness. Once the mercury dropped below about fourty five degrees, we finally had some relief as the mosquitoes seemed to vanish, this was about one in the morning and I finally was able to nod off for a few moments. My rest was short lived, about three in the morning both my brother and I awoke to the sound of a bear mauling a nearby tree for grubs I assume, I made some noise to try and get some reprieve from his racket but he continued to do his thing. Sleeping in a mummy bag out in the open is a little unnerving when you know such a powerful creature is close by, I felt like a bear burrito, I think I may have managed an hour or two more of sleep before the sun broke the horizon. I would have liked to have said that we were able to detect more that morning, that we found ounces upon ounces of gold, unfortunately we had a long hike out as well as a lengthy drive home and we were both physically and mentally drained, after detecting for about forty-five more minutes, we both decided it was in our best interest to begin the 3,000 ft ascent back up the canyon. We didn't get any gold there this trip, I do know it's waiting for us from sampling in the past and we will be back, a little better prepared.
  4. I was detecting an old ground sluiced area with the 7000. Lots of exposed bedrock, rock piles and been detected thousands of time with every detector type ever built. The perfect spot for the Z. I had found 3 pretty nice nuggets so I was actually paying attention for a change when I passed my coil over a HUGE rattle snake! It was about 23 feet long, as big around as a utility pole, it's eyes looked like the turn signals on my Jeep, it's fangs looked like two railroad spikes and his rattles sounded like a chin saw. I nearly set a record for the "standing backward broad jump" but lost several points for poor form. I picked up the 7000, my head phones, my pick, my self and my pride and took another look at the rattler. My initial estimate as to it's size was somewhat high but the dang thing was still 4'+. The snakes patron saint (Fredus Masonus) was looking after him and I left him to his claim. That is the first time I have gotten that close to a rattle snake while detecting and, of course, I am blaming the 7000.
  5. I caught the stomach bug which kept me pretty close to home if you know what I mean. After 4 days of shut-in I was ready for some detecting. We had a bit of a break with cooler weather so I went back out to the area of the "short rich gully" to do some exploring. I put in 5 hrs of hard walking yesterday trying to find a new patch. I had avoided this particular zone in the past because it is littered with bowling ball sized volcanics and had some minor use by the old WWII desert warfare training folks. A fair number of jacketed bullets and mortar shrapnel are pretty common on the flats. After a lot of walking I dropped down into a shallow gully ready to round my loop back to the truck. I get a solid signal where I know bedrock is no more than 15 inches down. I hit bedrock and out pops a perfectly ugly, jagged piece of yellow. Nice, once I get my gear back in order 5 ft away I hit another good signal. Another flat, jagged piece of gold. Wow, that vein can't be far from here. I get going again and 50 ft away in a secondary flood channel I get a booming signal. Got to be a piece of shrapnel, the depth is no good, this target is in float gravel. 4 inches down out pops a 3rd piece of jagged gold. I am convinced I'm on the vein so I start a grid back and forth up and down both sides of the gully. No joy, plenty of shrapnel and bullets out there. I gave it a thorough go and no more gold to be found. I spent the night out there and got an early start this morning. All morning nothing but bullets and shrapnel so towards noon I start heading back to the truck. I'm bumping my coil along and I see a quartz outcrop ahead. I make a detour and bang, 1.5 gram piece right in the float off the quartz vein. I start a good search and find 10 pieces, some so small they won't register on my scale. The Zed continues to amaze me with those tiny bits. That quartz outcrop is a good 1/2 mile from the other big pieces from yesterday so I don't think that was the source. Hey Lunk, sorry to throw shade on your birthday nuggets.
  6. I didn't finish the first trip to Baja report and now have a second trip to report. Trip one was 10 days over 400 miles south of the border. We found gold nearly every day, mostly small pickers for me, but my guide, the Maestro found some nice 4 and 5 gram pieces. The last day the Maestro took us to rough looking gully where he explained that he had never found a lot of gold in this gully, but all were large nuggets. He gave me the lead and I worked up the gully to an area where more recent rains had eroded one side out of the main channel. Right away, a 2 grammer then 4 ft away a really nice signal. After about 30 minutes of digging into the bank and tumbling a big boulder out came an 11 gram slug. That brought my total up to 28 grams. The Maestro finished with I believe 38 grams. The Maestro consistently beats me for total weight. The main difference is that he will dig more questionable targets and he will spend more time with the coil on the ground when I'm exploring what's over that next ridge. A detecting style I will probably never break. Trip 2 was only about 200 miles south of the border, 5 days. We had to take "big red" my poor old beat up Polaris 500 ATV because of the distance to the placer zone. We rode double with the Maestro carrying his detector on a sling over his shoulders and my detector in his lap. Some rough sledding and "big red" had its difficulties with narrow rock chutes and steep rock climbs. One of the electronic parts that controls the cooling fan and charging circuit caught on fire. Using a mexican speed wrench, (vice grips) we took off the radiator housing to bypass the burnt part. One thing about the Polaris is its redundancy. We lost some cooling capacity and the ability to use the electric start, but we could pull start the old fashioned way. The only down side of pull starting is yanking when its on the compression stroke, ouch! Eventually yanked the rubber start handle right off on one of those compression strokes. The Maestro fashioned a new start handle out of a green tree limb and it will probably outlast the whole machine. But we found good gold. On day 2 I got into an area of bowling ball sized hot rocks and the Z really lights them up. I got frustrated and worked my way down to the main wash and an area of bedrock. One 50 ft section was loaded with up to 1 gram nuggets. I found 23 pieces in about 3 hrs. Maestro was his slow methodical self and pulled some multigram pieces up on the hillside and consistently outscored me in total weight. On day 4 I was off exploring and just pushing my coil along a high bench with some old Tertiary gravels. I got a screeching, warbling signal that surely sounded like trash but dug it just to see what the old timers had left behind. Out popped a 12 gram specimen nugget with quartz and host rock wrapped around it. I called the Maestro on the radio to have him come over to the new spot. I told him I had a nice piece convinced I had him beat for today's best find. He showed up an hr later and told me he had something to show me. He pulled out a beautiful 21 gram piece. Damn, I can't beat that guy, but we do enjoy the competition. We finished up this short trip with a good pile of gold. Maestro finished with 79 grams, me 48 grams. We did not see another soul out there in placer country. Saw desert BigHorn Sheep a couple times and the camp got raided by a pair of ravens. Crafty bastards punched holes in plastic water bottles and took whole bags of potato chips away with them. We named them Barack, since they perched up on the Ocotillo above our camp and shouted their names at us. Photos to follow from my camera phone.
  7. Several of you looked at my recent dig hole in Quartzsite. That thread is What do you think I found? http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1514-what-do-you-think-i-found/ A couple of years before this hole and before I was on this forum of Steve's I was in a similar situation. I was in the Arizona desert on Thanksgiving Day a hundred miles north of Quartzsite. I had spent the night watching meteors in my Isuzu Trooper (I miss that SUV) near a wash/gully that I wanted to detect. When the sun came up in the morning I started again as I had done the previous year. This was now my 3rd or 4th trip. There have been many meteorites found in this area. I had found one on my first trip. It is a large strewn field that had been hunted for at least 10 years before I went there for the first time. In addition to the large number of meteorites in the area, there is also a lot of military trash in the form of 30 cal, 50 cal and the clips that held them as tanks and aircraft used the area for WWII training with Patton. When I got up from sleeping in the car I just started detecting. There was no one around (or at least within a couple of miles) when I dug a couple of trash targets. About 45 minutes into the hunt I got a signal and dug. I dug more and more and the hole got bigger. (At the time I was using a 5000 and I had recently bought a used 18" Nugget Finder coil. This was the first month I had used anything other than Commander coils on the unit. In the summer I had purchased a CTX 3030 and it was with me.) This hole got so big and I got so tired I had to take a break and go back to the Trooper about half a mile away and bring it closer to the hole. I got the 3030 and tried to use it as a pin pointer. It registered as a good target (not iron) but it didn't tell me where in the hole it was. I expanded the hole by lifting out the objects on the sides and the target was out of the hole. I didn't see it. What do you think I found? (I'll add the find pictures in a couple of days.)
  8. If you asked me about buttons two years ago I would have probably smiled and walked away. Put a Metal detector in anybodies hand (especially a Deus) and you dig lots of buttons...and If you take metal detecting seriously (like I now have) you are forced to take a good look at them. I am privileged to know people that own or have rights to big tracts of land. So when a client of mine told me last week of a place on his fathers property that was and old homestead I could not wait to go there. All that remains of the place is a small depression in the ground probably about 5 foot in diameter. This they tell me was the cellar. There is nothing else to indicate that this was once somebodies house. It's back in the sticks and has never seen a detector.The old man (now in his eighties) that took me up there is a walking book of local history. His fathers father bought the property from a Frenchman that was married to a Miwok Indian. So while the old man sat in his side by side and told story after story I turned on the XP Deus......and the place came alive with iron sounds. My first target was a wedding band marked W.L & Co The gold plating on the outside was worn down to the silver lining....which made me appreciate how easy we have it in our day and age. I detected there about 20 min and found the first button and several other targets ....but the old man had other ideas and wanted to show me another spot down the road which turned out to be a bust. I spent the next hour driving around with the old man in his Polaris while he told story after story...my only regret was not having a tape recorder as my memory has never been that great. I asked if I could come back and he said yes.... so yesterday In the pouring down rain I hiked up a very steep hill and detected for about 3 hours unhindered...and had a Blast. strick
  9. I have hesitated posting this recent prospecting adventure, but do so with the following caveat: "Prospecting in Mexico is probably illegal. Law enforcement is arbitrary at best and bent for personal gain at worst. The roads are narrow with no shoulder. The landscape is rugged and unforgiving, services distant and cell phones useless. It's not for the faint of heart, don't do it if you can." Nevertheless, I'm an adventurer. I'm retired, divorced and my kids are grown so no one is depending on me for support. I have the luxury of risk taking because I'm the only one at risk. So last month my new friend from the "Pay it Forward" story decided to share his vast knowledge of placer gold from down the Baja peninsula. The placer zone is a well known area smack dab in the middle of the peninsula between the Pacific and Sea of Cortez. It's been prospected by drywashers for at least 100 yrs if not more. Detectorists both Mexican and American have been detecting down there since the advent of metal detectors. So we organized a 10 day trip taking 2 trucks. My guide and his longtime prospecting partner in one, and me in the other. We crossed the border at Mexicali at sunup and had breakfast and topped off our tanks in San Felipe. We took the back way, bone jarring, rough graded dirt roads from Puertocitos eventually coming out on Baja 1 near the turnoff to Bajia de Los Angeles. We stopped early the first day and prospected a small placer near the highway. Friend John found 1 nugget maybe 2 grams, I got the skunk and some nasty cactus in the soles of my boot and ankle. The next day we arrived at the "zone". We split up near an old hardrock mine, I eventually found a couple of dink nuggets in run off flats below the hills. From down in the brush I could hear a truck approaching, not a good sign. The track we were on hadn't seen vehicle travel in months. I stayed out of sight and friend John met slightly irate workers from an exploration company who made it clear that we were trespassing on company leased land. Oh well, we'll just have to keep a lower profile. A brief description of the terrain is in order. This is the harshest desert you will ever see and that coming from an old Arizona desert rat like myself. The flora if you can call it that is thickest in the seldom run water courses, the natural concentrating areas for placer gold. Every tree, bush and cactus has thorns, stickers, hooks, sabers and spines that will rip, stab and puncture your skin, as well as poke through a rubber boot sole. You are well served to have a leatherman tool handy to quickly get them out of lower legs and boots. There is no water and the bees will invade your camp to scavenge precious drops of moisture from beer and soda cans. In January the daytime temps were pushing mid 80's. Every wash, gully and canyon has been drywashed leaving behind a 100 yrs of nails, wire and rusted cans. My kind of place, the tougher it is the better I like it. Shoe clerks and manicured businessmen need not apply. My guide has been detecting here for over 20 yrs and has GPS coordinates for dozens of placer patches. We have arrived at each new spot when we see an old Coors Light can stuck to an Ocotillo limb. He remembers nearly every substantial nugget taken from these various patches and we trundle through them all. To be continued: I'm off to follow Jason's advice and drywash the short rich gully from the other day.
  10. Brought his 'tector'. ☺ So hit my backyard again. Plenty of planted quarters and a Chinese coin to keep him busy. The chunk of stove door was not planted...had to grab a shovel to dig that chunk out,lol. I need to hit my property more
  11. http://thedailydetectorist.com/2016/01/21/hoard-of-celtic-ring-money-turned-out-to-be-remains-of-victorian-curtain-factory/
  12. Here is the story: (a detective story of sorts) I was hunting a wash in Quartzsite on the last day of the year and I got a signal with my Zed. It is a nice 'mellow' signal not like the piece of tin I just dug down to about 15 minutes before. That piece of tin chattered at me but I had to dig it. Down and down I went to about 12-14 inches. I went and got my 3030 to ID the signal and it was not iron so I had to dig it. It was disappointing to find tin another couple of inches down rather than a nugget. So the new signal is mellow and deep. It gets louder as I go deeper. I get the 3030 in the hole and nothing. No sound, it acted as if there was no target. I tried and tried but nothing. Zed target but not a 3030 target. I thought it had to be trash so I stopped digging. I left and went to another location (trusting my beach machine that I use almost every day to tell me if it was a good target). About two hours later after detecting many pieces of lead, trash and shells in a new location about 3 miles away it hit me. Maybe the target was too deep for the 3030 to sense. Maybe it was a good target afterall. I had to go back to the other hole and find out what was there. So back we went. This time I grabbed the GB Pro, the shovel and the Zed. The Zed signal was the same. The GB Pro was showing 40 on discriminate and jumping between 30-70 on full metal mode. That is exciting! I dig and dig and we use a pointer and know we are close. The hole is knee deep (about 20 inches). What do you think I found? Here are a couple of pictures. The camera cap is just to show scale. I'll post a picture of the find in a couple of days.
  13. My great nephew came over super excited.."Uncle Ray, I got a metal detector for Christmas!"...DUDE!Lets hit it!! Hit my backyard, dug a hotwheel, some change, a horseshoe and some channel locks. Hes hooked.
  14. I have a great nephew named Colton. His parents are city folks, but hes 100% country boy. Hes 5 now. This summer, he was at our house, and I had planted coins on our property. I asked him if he wanted to treasure hunt..he said yes, so grabbed an old Tesoro and a pinpointer, and we dug till dark! Next time over, same thing, but this time he wanted to try an area I did not plant...and I discovered I had some history in my backyard...dug some Henry shells, rivets, horseshoes, etc. Well, I guess all he talks about now is "Treasure hunting" ! So his parents bought him a detector for Christmas (assume a bounty hunter) and I got him a digger, pinpointer and cool camo backpack. Theres hope for the future! Heres my favorite pic of him...he was about 3...watering my sons tires,lol. If pic is out of line Steve, I apologize, and please delete. Ray
  15. Hello everyone, I though I'd share a little about my success with the Minelab SDC last week. While I've lived in Butte county, CA a couple of decades, I generally prospect in Nevada county, as that's the area I'm most familiar with. This past trip to was to a small creek that has hydraulic pits above it and extensive bench workings just above the water. I used to dredge in this creek until it was shut down to dredging with the ban. I've tried various White's detectors here in the past with no success, since its very mineralized and I couldn't tell the difference between faint real signals and all of the false signals I'd get with the detector. I bought the SDC last February, (just before the GPZ came out, of course!) and my first trip there I did manage to find my first detected gold ever with a sub .1 gram nugget and one about .2g. I really enjoyed how stable the SDC was and was able to hear the whisper signals that told me where the gold was hiding in bedrock. Last week's trip, I decided to go for potentially larger nuggets and detected the bench cobble piles for 3-4 hours, but only found the usual nails and iron trash, along with a few lead bullets. Thinking I needed to hit shallow bedrock along the water if I didn't want to go home skunked, I did just that. After 30-40 minutes I got a decent signal on a high spot on the bedrock. Laced with tiny cracks, I thought it was a good sign the signal could be gold. Sure enough, I got the signal into my scoop after chipping the bedrock and ended up with a nice water-worn nugget weighing .25g, my biggest yet! I had avoided the skunk, so that was a great way to enter into the late afternoon. After no more finds, I headed upstream in the direction of the car and worked another area. After digging a few junk targets, I got a nice signal that was stronger than the last nugget. It was where a small crack had formed to the rear of a little bedrock ridge that would be in the water during the winter. I had a good feeling about that signal and a whack or two with my pick broke off the bedrock. Once I cleaned the spot, the signal was in the scoop. And sure enough, it was an even larger nugget! It was the same size, shape and thickness of a 1/2 a sunflower seed and I could see how it would have fit perfectly in that tiny crack. It weighed .65 grams, so that made two nuggets on the day for nearly a gram. I'd generally find more in a day of dredging, but overall, not bad at all I thought for only my second time out with the SDC. As it turned out, that was it for the day, as I only had about 1/2 hour until it was nearing dark and my batteries ran out. I figured I got about 5.5 hours of use from the rechargable batteries, and definitely need another set for those full days out detecting in the future. I definitely feel like the SDC really helped me hear the signals I did in this nasty area other detectors I've tried weren't able to handle. Now, I didn't enjoy digging all of those square nails, but if this PI machine lets me concentrate on signals that are real, then I'm more than happy to dig some trash in the quest for those nuggets. Here are some pictures of the larger nugget just dug and the two of them together:
  16. Hello folks I was able to get out Saturday afternoon and the majority of Sunday and had a great time. Saturday i got out around one and dropped into a stream that has payed in the past. I aimed to hike far upstream from the highest place an old timer had shown me that had paid in the past. Leaving my SDC in my pack i headed upstream, identified the place the old timer had shown me and kept on hiking. Up two small waterfalls and a slight bend to a good pinch in the creek i hiked until i noticed a logjam that had blown in the last few seasons. In new areas i tune the SDC on 2 and then crank it to 5 and back off if need be. 4 was do able but a little warbly. I slowly worked afew crevasses that ran with the streams angle of flow, around and slightly under an enormous boulder and then a crevasse that looked prime running the entire breadth of the stream from under the log jam across to the opposite bank. As i began to scan i heard a faint whisper, hmm - and then a strong mellow hit. With my screw driver i scrapped the crevasse and fanned the little bits of gravel out but to my disappointment a shredded 22 lead was all that peaked back at me. Damb- sure looks like a good drop and catch - i think to myself- And as always re-scan the crevasse before moving on. Another mellow hit not as strong as the last- must be another lead frag i think as i clean the rest of the crevasse and pear through the water with eagle eyes. Oh yeah a little picker winks back. The bedrock in this area is extremely tough and the peace was ground pounded into the crevasse as you can see from the shape in the pics. To get the little bugger i beat the S%^T out of my Apex (didnt bring my little bar and was finally able to chip off just enough to wiggle her out.) Crazy thing is it bent the tip of my Apex - pretty tough stuff. With a big grin i detected the area i had heard the first slight whisper and soon spotted the smaller peace down the crevasse afew inches.. After beating the hell out of my pick again i flicked out the little peace and went back to scanning. A foot upstream was a boil crevasse - the type that is very rounded and usually doesn't trap gold to well - but to my surprise it had a strong mellow hit when swung over. Scrapping and looking i cleaned up and could see another little peace - i picked a flaky peace and a very tiny peace out with my tweezers. While cleaning this crevasse i noticed one end of it got quit deep and pinched very tight. Poking around i clouded the water with good'ol gray clay particles and decided i'd chip out the bedrock enough to get the edge of my coil deeper into the crevasse. Back to hammering away but once opened and re-scanned a good strong signal. As this took awhile the sun was creeping down and i didnt have my deep crevasse tools with me so i slightly disguised the are and packed her up for home. I have no worry of the gold being found because the area showed no signs of resent mining - just my type of spot. Sunday i didn't get out as early as hoped but i met my partner and we headed up to 6200 ft with hopes of finding some ol pit workings and checking out the dump of an old Gold/Silver mine. We found the pits but decided to work them properly we'd need a different plan of attack then originally planned so we head to the Gold/Silver Mine. As some trips go- we dropped a few thousand feet down the near vertical hillsope to find an old mine but not a Gold mine - a Chrome mine - Ahhh. We BS'D and cruised around lookn for relics. Found a six-pack of Delaware Punch (1950's as far as i can tell so far) that was against a big Buck-brush that had grown up around the bottles as the years had past. Scanned around awhile and then my partner suggested circling around the ridge in an attempt to find a tiny cabin and spring that he remembered finding when logging the ridge 25 yrs ago. A short time latter we sight the cabin and perch up on the old foundation for lunch. As we eat my buddy notices a bed frame about twenty feet side hill against a big rock out cropping. He heads over as i finish my food and begins to move the frame to detect under it. Just as i start his way he fires up his MXT and immediately hears a solid beep and WOW! An old Token - A nice old token that had been drilled and made into a pendant. Looks like its from the turn of the century and was only in use a short time. A similar one for 10 instead of 25 in merchandise and no hole sold on Ebay in Aug for $150. I regret not having my camera because the cabin was perched on a high mountain boulder field and was only about 8 X 10 ft. it was built at a small spring that was still running even in this very very dry spell The only one we found or saaw signs of in miles of hikeing. All that was left of the cabin was its cedar floor joists and a stove as well as a ripped old cedar step between the spring and the entrance and alittle tin and many nails and scrap. Rugged old timers. The Token Reads: P.J.WISDOM & SONS - ESCONDIDO CAL. and very smaLl along the lower rim - LA RUSSTAMH CO. Reverse Side: GOOD FOR 25 IN MERCHANDISE Needless to say we were stoked. We dug and detected for another spell and came up empty handed but tired. I did find half of an old hair pin so we made jokes the rest of the day about how the old miner got a women way the hell up on this mountain side. My partner and i havent mined together much this year since i have been so buisy with the family but we sure had a good time on this sunday hunt - even without finding any gold. Any Info or token stories would be cool. Neither of us had found an old token yet. If any one's interested in the Token i'm sure my buddy would bargain. Have a good hunt AjR
  17. I must admit that I have not had much confidence in my Zed. Yea I've found a few small nuggets with it but given the choice I usually grab the 2300 when I want to find gold. I understand the 2300's language much easier. The problem with the Zed for me was the ground noise. It was distracting me to no end. I felt like I could be passing over a deep nugget and miss it due to all the chatter the machine was making. My other problem was having never dug a big deep nugget I had no idea what one sounded like. Unlike some of you that have been detecting for decades using many different machines I lack the experience that you fellas have with ground noise, detectors and how to properly tweak your detector to eliminate this annoying problem. So when Lisa and I took off for a few days of detecting in the high sierras this past week I threw the Zed in the truck mostly because it looked cool and had a big coil. We got to the gold fields Sunday late afternoon and after setting up camp I managed to get a couple hours in swinging the Zed on some un disturbed ground looking for a nugget patch but I found nothing but trash. The next day... Monday was spent exploring new country far from camp. we put the boots to the ground but once again failed to find gold. Beautiful views of the terrain and wildlife helped to ease the pain of constant digging. That night I talked with forum member Normmcq by phone and expressed my lack of confidence with the Zed. He told me the settings he likes to use and more importantly told me where he got a couple nuggets earlier in the week. The area was close to our camp and despite hunting this area for nothing on a previous trip with the Zed I decided to give it a shot again. Tuesday morning we were on the claim and within two hours I had five nuggets all within a 30x30 yard area about 70 yards away from the designated spot. I was using Norm's settings running the Zed on high sensitivity, very low threshold, High yield, difficult. It seemed like gold was just popping out of the ground all of the sudden. And the ground was finally quiet! This is an area that has been pounded by everyone and his uncle for decades. I kept working it most of the day taking a break only for lunch. Wednesday morning I worked it again venturing a little farther but it seemed that I had cleaned out the patch. But at least I was happy now with the Zed it was quiet and I had found gold. As far as I was concerned the trip was a success. I had 5 nuggets and my biggest ever a nice 4 gram sponge specimen. That afternoon while having lunch with Lisa I was telling her I did not know where to go for the evening hunt. The patch was worked out I felt and I was beat up from all the digging and walking all over the sierras. Her reply... "why don't you try where Norm found his 2 nuggets?" True I had not tried that exact spot yet. I had been avoiding it mostly because it was near a major digging and I figured Norm probably cleaned it out anyway. So I headed back to the claim and slowly start working over "the area" with the Zed. It's late afternoon and I'm into the hunt about 30 minutes venturing closer and closer to the old diggings. Soon I think I hear a slight change in the threshold near a small bank so I scrape away a little dirt with my boot. It sounds about the same so I do another quick boot scrape and this time it sounds a tiny bit louder. Out comes the pick and after several more scrapes with the pick it becomes apparent that I have a deep broad sounding target. I hate digging deep beer cans more then anything but I get to work anyway. The deeper I go the louder the Zed screams until finally sweat is pouring off my body and the Zed is overloading. The hole is too deep and narrow now to pinpoint so I'm getting frustrated. Then I remember that I had the brains to put my pinpointer in the ATV before I left camp. I go and get the pinpointer and turn it on and shove it in the bottom of the hole.... but no signal...I look at it to make sure it's turned on and sure enough it is. Now I start to scanning the sides of the hole all the way around but still no signal. Thats weird I think to myself. Almost all deep trash targets are easy to find with the pinpointer. So I dig more and repeat the process with the pinpointer but still no signal. The thought crossed my mind that maybe it was a deep cable or something and just cover up the hole and be done with it. But I had to know so I dug a little deeper. Finally the pinpointer barely hears something. But it's a small area that it's reacting to... about two inches or so. I think to myself again thats weird usually trash targets are give off a big broad signal with the pinpointer. I'm digging more carefully now and within a couple minutes the pinpointer tells me that the target is out of the bottom of the hole. I find it about half way up the hole and grab a hand full of dirt. Now it's in my hand and as I let the dirt fall from my hand the pinpointer is still chirping at this smooth heavy whitish colored rock I'm holding. I'm blind as a bat up close without my glasses but I think maybe I see some yellow so I put it in my mouth to clean it off the whole time saying to myself....Please God, Please God!...... Then out of my mouth and into my hand pops a one ounce gold nugget! I can not remember when I have been so excited. Now I'm hooked forever. Thanks to the boys from Quincy for all your mentoring and hospitality in helping this newbie. I really appreciate it. strick
  18. Had a guy i work with call me asking if i would come to East Tahoe to detect for a ring one of his church members lost during a baptism Sunday. He said he knew pretty well the area that it should be in-------- So i said what the heck, I have never had my detectors in the lake so I told him i would be there. Well, I took out the trusty 7005 with all the "paulsmods"--- and walked down to the water---the sand was mainly decomposed granite and seemed have a low mineral content--- Using the 7005 with the '7500hz' concentric 'modded coil'--i set out into the cold, clear water of Tahoe.....it is amazingly clear. I listened to where my friend said he thought it may be and i started walking gently up to my ........"quit it area" brrrrrrr...... I was in water as deep as i could go, without submerging the control box, as I started sweeping and within 15 feet i heard two targets at the same time a high and a med audio-- i was on 4 tone=-- My friend was using my handheld sand scoop to dive and dig ------ he was having a hard time digging because he would float up when he put pressure on the scoop---so we kinda scratched off that target as a training hole--- I began my grid of about 20 feet to the south and was amazed at how quiet the sand was--i was expecting way more trash targets-- i guess the 7005 had them all discriminated out for me--(i haven't figured out all the settings go yet) OK,.... i turned back north to the area i began and started my return sweep---kinda like mowing the lawn---when i got back to my starting point I hit the same targets i had hit at the beginning.... So i told my digger to go a little deeper with the scoop this time,,,,-----and to make sure he did,,,,, i pushed down on his back as he was ("digging/bubbling and screaming for me to let him up) But alas..... we had the ring this time!!!!--- a beautiful Hawaiian handmade men's band weighing in at approximately 1/4 -1/2 ounce..... and it was the ring we were after! The owner lives over in Dayton NV which is about 50- 60 miles away, but just happened to be in the area and he came rushing down to the beach when we texted him and told him we had found his wedding band---Man was he happy!!! Some milestones for me today- -First ring -First water recovery -First ring with the 7005 -First ring in Tahoe -First time i ever tried beach hunting in the water I like it !!!!!! Please use your zoom--- i couldn't figure out how to blow it up....
  19. I spent 5 days out at Sawtooth, N. NV desert practicing with the 7000. I lost a couple days to some summer electrical storm activity and a little rain. There was actually some big rain out towards Imlay, but the weather was tolerable at Sawtooth. Low 90's during the heat of the day and high 50's at night. I tried the Bogene silent threshold settings to combat the electrical activity, but still was a struggle. I'm not knowledgeable enough about the area to get over any serious gold, but I scored 5 tiddlers adding up to a whopping 1.7 grams. The smallest won't register even 1 grain on my scale. These came from obviously pounded areas judging by the dig holes. The ground was relatively quiet so I nearly maxed out the 7000 and moved at a snails pace. I settled on the Bogene setting for this crumb hunt, adjusting volume and target signal to a manageable level of morse code type background chatter, I think Nevada Chris uses a similar setting. The faintest target signal would just rise above or smooth out background chatter. It worked for me, but its all a matter of personal preference. Running the 7000 with that much power would not be my choice for a prospecting mode, but certainly proved itself on known gold producing ground. I kicked a lot of hotrocks and dug a bunch of tiny ferrous targets all part of the learning curve. Some frustrating target recovery efforts with that coil. Finding a sub-grain piece at about 2 inches improved my confidence in this beast for sure. As Steve H has pointed out, "if you're finding the little ones, the big ones will take care of themselves". On my last day I ran into a local prospector, Smokey who claims he taught Lunk everything he knows about detecting, not really but he spoke highly of Lunk. He has also met Steve H. and Reno Chris out there. He showed me some pictures of pounds of gold from the old days of the White's Goldmaster and untouched ground. At 76 he's still going strong with a passion for detecting. All in all, I enjoyed my trip. Decent weather, tolerable food and good health, can't ask for much more than that. I'm still learning this 7000, but I'm looking forward to some new low and slow opportunities.
  20. This summer has been so busy i've got in very little detecting time. The last three times out were spread over the last month and a half and all were extended scouting trips with hopes to find a new patch. I didn’t find a new patch but did hit into a hot spot in a stream that I have rarely visited. Having little time I decided to hit a stream close to home that I have been wanting to poke around. I have avoided the stream so far this year because the local tweak miners have been mining the lower reaches. Knowing each other they know I find a good amount of gold and would definitely follow me around if they saw me. Sick of this I hit the stream early and hiked a ways above there spot. As I rock hopped up the river I noticed a gully that had a trickle of water flowing through its gut and into the stream on river right. Upon closer investigation I determined that it was a wash gully from a ditch above that the old-timers had flushed while chasing the gold up the hill side. Good spot to turn on the SDC. From experience I know that these are usually loaded with iron that’s pooled in the depositional gradient near the mouth of the gully so I raked the area with my magnet and moved some existing cobble to open up a kitchen table sized area of exposed bedrock. The bedrock looked great, very hard and crisscrossed with crevasses that angled up stream – a perfect natural sluice look. Slowly and surely I worked the area and soon pulled out two very small lead shots and then the first peace of the day – a little beauty about 3 in down a crevasse. Funny but this peace sounded off with the lead warble that the very old lead gives off but the little shots sounded pure. With a big smile I swang away and pulled some wire from a nearby crevasse and then a small piece. Then a very good load signal, Hmm – Dig Dig Dig – Damn some old lead - got me that time. Soon after another good signal that I now thought was likely to be lead since it was near the old bullet. But I was wrong – another nice peace – twins. After this I got no more hits and called it quits. A few days back I returned to the spot with a few hours of light to spare and moved some boulders and cobble that rested along the edge of the area I had worked. I only cleared a 2 ft swath along the down river side but was exited and decided to scan and go - 3 or 4 square nails and a small peace of tin later I had no good hits then as I scanned the very edge against the exciting substrate that I hadn’t moved- a mellow signal that just hummed the gold vibe – moved the rock and pulled the biggest nugget out from behind a small bedrock ear mid crevasse that I had to bust out to get at – Sweet! Triplets - And another small piece nearby that I see when retrieving this one – Right On! The two small BB pieces of gold gave me a chuckle as there nearly the same size as the little shot. The take was 3.6 dwt with the big nug at .9, the next .7 and the small .5 the others the rest. Also the lead that fooled me Just what the doctor ordered. Off this morning to work the area some more. Invited my buddy so we can hammer the place. Buddy with old MXT and me and my SDC. This gold was trending into the main stem and getting bigger as it goes. I hope to pop up the gully and find at least a small peace because if the gold came from the gully its unlikely anyone but myself has every detected it. The trib itself has been dredged in the 80's but left much alone since then due to tough access. Go get some Gold! AjR
  21. Been a while since I've posted anything. It's been a busy spring and summer for me with work so I have only managed two day trips to the foot hills and two long weekend trips into the high sierras over the past several months.Then I decided I wanted to build a greenhouse because the rodents were getting into our vegetable garden. That ate up three weekends. Lisa and I are having fun meeting up with new friends in the middle of nowhere. All of you are members of this board. Our thanks for all your help and valuable tips... I even managed a quick 3 hour hunt with Deathray last week to a good relic spot. Some photos of our finds and some of the scenery. strick
  22. A couple of weeks ago I got a rare day off on a Monday. I was determined to go detecting but there were severe thunder storms all around the area. Due to my sinful nature, I normally don't tempt lightning but my foolish nature is slightly more dominant- so I went. The place I decided to go was a knob with old channel gravel on it and surrounded by lightning scared timber (my idiot nature is the strongest of all). There was so much energy and lightning noise in the atmosphere that I simply couldn't get the Z to calm down enough to be usable. I tuned and re-tuned then manually tuned and that helped some. I then tried every ground balance ritual prescribed by the gurus and that helped a little. I then tried "high audio smoothing" and "difficult ground type" and "general. It worked! Not only did it work but it worked well. I kept turning up the sensitivity until it got noisy again and was able to run it between 15 and 19. I started finding small nuggets one after another,12+ total. I started digging the trash out of my way and the first piece of trash was a 2 dwt nugget (1.85 after cleaning). It was deep enough to demonstrate I hadn't tuned out all of the depth capabilities of the Z. The storm was getting VERY close so I repented my sins, hiked back to the Jeep and left. PART 2 I returned the next chance I got and did some experimenting. I set the Z up as I normally would and had to turn the sensitivity down below 10 to get a tolerably smooth operation and covered a small area. I had one faint target. I then tried my "lightning settings" over the same area. THE FAINT TARGET WAS NOW A GOOD SIGNAL and there was another target that was missed all together. Both were small nuggets. I repeated this experiment both ways, several times, lightning settings first then normal settings first. I left the detector in the lightning settings for the rest of the day and totaled 15 very small nuggets- about 2.5 dwt total. Until I find a deep nugget in place I can't make a good judgment on loss of depth- If any. Where I was working is close to town and has been thoroughly beat with about every detector invented. Try it and see if it works for you.
  23. If its not homeless people squatting on your land then its dope growing cartelys camping in our mining areas. I headed out Saturday morning early as planned and had boot to the ground by 7. After hiking and swimming through some narly brush i located the old wagon trail and mining trails branching this way and that. Took some pics and made some notes on good looking spots lower in the drainage as i worked higher and higher. After hiking a few hours i could see the head waters of the stream opening up on the hill slope above. Locating were the old timers had began drifting up the hill chasing the gold out of the creek i switched on the detector and scanned a little before walking around a slight bend in the trail smack dab into a resupply camp for a grow somewhere near by. There were two garbage middens at the mouth of an old drift and a big pile of plastic hose and sleeping bags all covered by camo tarps and wood as to help camo more. Two more piles under near by brush and many bags and tarps suspended in the trees. Pissed at my not being able to get any detecting in and not being armed i high tailed it out of the area very frustrated. I did recon some good info far down in the drainage but wont likely return soon because i like to mine far of the beatn path. Pot choppers was flying afew days latter but unlikely it mattered. My wife felt bad i never got to detect on Saturday so i hooked up with my mining partner on Sunday afternoon and he brought me to a place he had mined years ago and did well and then hadn't been back due to new owners of the adjacent private property. He had returned three days before and gotten permission to mine. He detected a 1.5 dwt peace and cleaned up a few more dwt of small pickers in a nearby runner the first day and had found another peace around a dwt the day after. We hit the spot around noon and had a great time exploring the area and putting together a good plan for how to cover it in the best way. "sophisticated mining" is what my mining buddy say's always makes me chuckle the way he say's it. I agree though. Its the only way to cream a spot to the last drop. I was able to detect one small picker that led to a few more nearby. Nothing deep but all in crevasses. The gold only weighed .5 dwt but the place looks very promising and there is allot of area to work. May return this weekend but the weathers still not to hot and i have some places i want to recon before it gets latter in summer. Go get some Gold! AjR
  24. Western Australia about 20 years ago, the Wife, dogs and I were prospecting Australia in our self contained Toyota Troop Carrier, stopped at Pardoo a Roadhouse to the East of Pt Hedland overnight. On checking Moving Map software noticed a track that would lead us to Marble Bar and cut off a fair few miles. So we took it, good track easy going. We got to a concrete causeway across the De Grey River about 100 yards wide. Walked half way on it, around 12” inches of water and as the section walked was on an outside bend thus the fastest moving considered the Troppie would handle it no drama. So put in 4WD low range as precaution(very fortunately), we got to within 20 yards of otherside and causeway started to dip, depth of water increased to about 1 yard plus, no choice but to continue. Troppie started to wash off causeway but fortunately front wheels got traction and dragged us out. I can tell you we left bum prints in the seats. Extremely lucky escape, no further dramas till we got almost to main highway there we had to move the road closed flooded road barricade to get to the highway. There was no such sign back at other end. Stayed at Marble Bar for about 4 weeks, did very well and have kept this unusual piece as a memento of my foolishness. I should have checked with local police. Of interest perhaps, the year later Pardoo Roadhouse was wiped out by a cyclone, the people there protected themselves by camping in their cold room.
  25. Out hiking around today. While standing at the edge of a 20 foot drop,trying to figure out how to get around,damn rattlesnake goes off!Pretty sure I screamed like a little girl,as I jumped,ran and messed my shorts at same time. Was wearing snake gaiters,but he was a big dude,& didnt want to test them out...probably made in China. See how well he blends in.
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