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Last night I wanted to go out and see the Comet so I needed to go to a dark sky. I know a couple of very dark sky places where I have hunted nuggets in the past. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be 106 for a high and still at 100 at sunset but it was a pleasant 88 when I got there. I left the coast at 4 PM and the trip was just awful with traffic. It took 4.5 hours for a 3 hour trip. I got to the viewing area at a good time and couldn't see anything because the sky was still too bright because the sun had just set. Before I could get my boots on a couple of the red ants had already stung me. While I was waiting I started to detect. I was getting some little bbs and some trash so I was in an area that had not been completely worked. Meanwhile the sky is getting dark and then I see a faint glimpse of the Comet. I tried to take some pictures but I don't have those skills so I'll show a sunset picture. I could see the Comet well with the unaided eye but it is not possible to see details. It has quite a long tail against the dark sky. I was detecting with a light and checking back against the sky until it became too difficult for my eyes to adjust from lighted ground to sky. I concentrated on my detecting as the Big Dipper rotated and the Comet got too close to the horizon. At midnight I had no nugget and I wanted to make a short move. As you can see the moon is a sliver and it set so the desert is a very dark place. I think I would be there until sunrise if I didn't use the GPS on 7000. The car gets lost after a 100 plus yards or so. I had two detectors with me but I was determined to use the 15x10 Xcoil and find its first nugget. About an hour at the new location and several hot rocks later I got an almost 'ghost sound' and decided to scrape. The signal got better and it wasn't surface trash but I had dug hot rocks this deep already. When I got down 6-7 inches the target was out. I knew it wasn't big but I could see a little hot rock and I captured it with the magnet. I waved over the spot and the response was still there. Could it really be an end to the skunk? The last time I detected for gold was April 3. I had been out 3 other times this year with no result. I had dug bullet pieces tonight that I was 'wishing' were golden in color but all were dull gray. I separated the scoop material and heard a little thunk and saw a glimmer of gold. It was time to relax. This was a .4g nugget. I've found larger nuggets, smaller nuggets and more nuggets than this night but I had accomplished my goal. I had seen the Comet and gotten a nugget. It was time to get back safely and not fall asleep on the 3 hour drive. I got back at 5 AM before the traffic this time. Mitchel

...to my uncle! I was detecting a local park when I got a solid 55 at 4 inches with the simplex. When I dug it out I saw a big fat ring in the hole! My uncle was visiting our house and when I showed him the ring he immediately took it and said is this tungsten? Yes, I replied confused. He said I lost this 2 years ago on my last visit to your house! I was in the park and when I got home it wasn’t on my finger! I was stunned and I happily offered it to him. He thanked me a million times and almost cried. It feels really good to make someone’s day especially your uncle! Thanks for looking!

For the holiday weekend last week I was determined to get a little more time on my new Nox 800 despite the heat and humidity. Most of my old permissions have changed hands now, so I headed to a bed and breakfast owned by my sister just to try to learn the new machine more. I'd been there a few years ago without much success, but recently studied a map from 1872 and saw there had been a fairly large house across the street where they have one of their cottages now. The door to the 1872 house appeared to be approximately where there is now a rock and gravel driveway. Knowing I wouldn't last long in the heat even though it was the morning, I left the driveway for another day and moved to the grass under some trees near the ditch, hoping for some old coins. Within a few seconds I got a solid (but elongated in one direction in pinpoint mode) repeatable tone in the lower to mid 20s. In the bottom of the plug there was a partial old red brick, and the edges of two more bricks in the side of the hole. I took this as good potential in terms of time period. Anyway, I removed the brick from the bottom of the plug and found a square nail with the pinpointer. Knowing that wasn't what I heard, I probed deeper in the plug and pulled out an intact skeleton key! Didn't detect anymore because my brother-in-law came out and we visited for quite a while, and it was getting hotter by the minute. The next morning I went back for some more. About 4' from where I found the skeleton key I got a solid 24 signal that seemed to be shaped more like a coin. This one had broken glass in the hole and plug. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I pulled out what looked like jewelry with lots of rhinestones instead of a coin! A little while later my sister came by and I showed her the piece of jewelry. She took it inside and cleaned it, and brought it out on the porch while we tried to figure out what it was. We finally decided it may be an old hat pin? Anyway, my sister said that the rhinestones were a really good quality. I took my pocket knife out and tried to scratch one, but it was too hard. Hmm. For the fun of it I got a piece of the broken glass I'd dug out of the hole and cleaned a small area on it. Would the "rhinestones" scratch the glass? They did! I felt kind of sick for a while! I know there are other things that can scratch glass besides diamonds, but just the thought that these might be real diamonds was pretty exciting. But it looks like the metal was silver plated and not solid silver, so I'm thinking that real diamonds wouldn't have been set into cheaper material. I plan on taking it to a jeweler to find out what the rocks really are, but that probably won't be very soon due to the current pandemic situation in my state. Thanks for looking, and happy hunting! Wow, just realized this was the length of a short novel--sorry!

I received a text message from a friend yesterday telling me that one of our neighbors up the street lost his wedding band while playing on one of those large inflatable water slides. He asked me if I could help. Of course I said yes and my friend picked me up in his golf cart and we headed to the man’s house. Our neighbor was standing by the water slide staring pensively at the ground--his face and body language told me the whole story. ? He pointed out where he was standing when he shook the water from his hands and felt his ring fly off. He and his young son had searched the area for over an hour...even using a magnet in desperation--not very effective on a gold ring. ? Fortunately, the suspected area was only about a 10 foot square. I cranked up the EQX in Park 1, noise canceled, lowered the sensitivity since this would be a surface find and started to grid the area. I hadn’t gone 3 feet when I got a nice solid mid tone. I pulled out my Pro Find 35 and told him to look exactly where it was pointing. He parted the grass, which was about 3-4 inches high and there was his ring. The look on his face was one of total relief and incredulity. He couldn’t believe I found it that quickly (neither could I). I’d spent all of 1 minute at the most swinging the EQX before it sounded off. To say he was mightily impressed would be an great understatement. He then asked me all about my equipment and detecting since he knew zero about any of it. His wife came running out of the house and thanked me profusely saying her husband was no longer in the dog house! Quick find; quick return and all is well. ?

I found this in April of May of this year. I cleaned it, my brother put it on the grinder, and showed it to my dad. It looked shiny then, but since it darked and starting to chip. My dad looked at it and said it was probably my grandfather who had lost it in the 1980s doing yard work. He used to wear old jeans and maybe fell out of his pocket. My dad told me used to clean his pipe with this knife. My grandfather had passed in September of 2018, so I never got to show or ask him. It is a Trim pocket knife by Bassett. It was made a producer of beauty products I believe and my grandfather ran his own barber shop. I believe he got it through that business. It will never be like new, but it holds sentimental value. I only wish I could have showed him.

Well, I made it out to the tailings piles yesterday for a couple of hours. I didn't find any gold, but I am convinced there is some out there. There is a LOT of trash, and it was extremely challenging for a beginning detectorist. I found a ball peen hammer head, and some iron hanger/bracket thingy. I also found my first bona fide "hot rock". I really thought I had a nugget, as the Nox was singing with a solid 1 on the VDI. However, the little pointy rock below was the culprit. I also found the larger rock just laying on the surface. It doesn't register any kind of signal, but it is really, REALLY heavy, and looks like it has, to my untrained eye, a lot of iron in it. Any ideas? I'm starting to understand the coin and relic aspect of detecting, but I am completely clueless on the gold front. Should I dig all the signals that don't obviously show as ferrous when in all metal mode? Think I'm gonna need to take some lessons! Gerry, I think I'll be calling you when I finally get back to Idaho.

Last weekend concluded Monte's 12th Welcome To Hunt Outing (WTHO), a gathering of new and old detectorists looking to get together and spend some time out testing their detecting skills against some Western Ghost Towns. This gathering centered around Wells, NV. I was really looking forward to getting away after being cooped up at the house for the last couple months and working from home due to the pandemic. The outing came at the right time. We ended up having 18 detectorists from the Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Texas. More were scheduled, but some had to cancel due to the impact from the Virus going around I hope they can make it next go round. I arrived Saturday, May 30th, to help Monte and OregonGregg scout out places most everybody would likely want to hunt. Metropolis, Tobar, Shafter, Tecoma, Cobre and Toano are the most popular.I hunted with my Deus, EQ800 and Nokta FORS CoRe. All three made some good finds. For me, there were lots of bits and bobs found. I'm amazed at the number of little ornate buckles that turn up. And the bullets, the never ending run of bullets and empty cartridge cases. And it is always interesting to watch other detectorists at work and observe detectors, coil choices, search rods, gear, hats, finds pouches, swing rates and methods and all the rest of it. Two of my detecting goals this year are to turn up a Seated Quarter and a Half-Dime. Neither surfaced for me at the outing.. An 1876 Seated Quarter did make an appearance for DanO. A big congrats. I was fortunate to turn up some early date Wheat Cents, the most notable a 1910-S, an 1880 IHC and a very nice 1864 2¢. An unexpected but appreciated surprise. It is my second deuce. Tokens and coins seemed to be coming from under every piece of sage for a while there on Thursday, the 4th. We kept hearing reports of something else turning up. OregonGregg and I were commenting that the detecting door to Toano and Cobre was open there for a short time. Lots of smiles going around. Then it seemed to close. Friday, I was flat out skunked; hard. After I finished in the Toano / Cobre area I even went back out to Metropolis and hunted till dusk trying to find something, even another corroded wheat cent. No go. I guess the universe needed to balance itself after Thursday. In summary, I have a couple old coins to add to my finds. And a very cool WTHO shirt that abenson printed up at his business. First Class, thank you Andrew. And I met some new people, and got to catch up with old friends and acquaintances with some good meals and time chatting around the table. And whenever you get detectorists together there are always discussions over brands and models and coils and such. It is fun to listen to the detector banter. I have some very old detectors, a couple discontinued detectors and a couple new detectors. I have to admit that I am impressed that OregonGregg hunted the entire time he was there with 1 detector and 1 coil; his Nokta FORS CoRe and the small OOR coil. Cudos to Gregg. Gregg pulled off a dime trifecta with an 1845 seated, 1916 Barber and 1917 Mercury, as well as a toasty Shield nickel, an IHC and some wheaties. Oh, and he might have found a Nevada trade token. LOL. And I owe him a steak dinner for losing our bet for oldest coin with a date. His 1845 Seated Dime beat out my 1864 2¢. This is a good thing. Now I have a good excuse for another road trip. And another opportunity to find that Seated Quarter and elusive Half-Dime. And finally, a big thanks to Monte for bringing everyone together. There were several Seated coins, IHC's, Shield Nickels, trade tokens, and some stellar military buttons found. Most everybody posts their results on Monte's forum (AHRPS.ORG) for those interested in having a look-see. I hope Steve doesn't mind the off site reference. I beg your pardon if I'm out of line Steve. These WTHO's move around some and are a great venue for bringing a friend to introduce to the hobby, have a first experience at a Western Ghost Town where you can gather some pointers and see how others do or to test your skills with your detector against some very difficult sites. And if you're interested, you might even be able to chat up Monte a bit. Hope to see all of you out there exploring the Western Frontiers. UtahRich -

This will be the only option to post an update, as I can't show anything but the sea bottom for today?... It happen too many times to prepare yourself, to check at least three times by day the wind radar, to follow the moon progress, to timing the tide for hunt in the right area.... When all the factors are aligned and you also find the expected conditions in the place you was avidly following... This can happen.... Nothing...Absolutely nothing......? A coin, a fishing weight and silence...so much silence to destroy the patience.... Now, being a so called "pro" (this only mean for me "no gold no bread") this really usual condition creates sorrow.... To be in the only good place to hunt around and find nothing else than a miserable coin can hurt to the soul.. In a way or another after years, all we are used to fill the calendar with more winning days than defeat days... Funny thing is my curse of camera on my shoulders, as everytime I have with me the way to film the session, absolutely nothing relevant appears!? Black cross for today....? Cheers all of You!

Finished up my road trip today on a good note. Started the trip up in the Texas panhandle where I did quite well at an old park. Dug lots of silver, wheats, couple of rings and a couple of tokens. I've been doing a little relic hunting in southern New Mexico the last couple of days at a 1850s fort site. Manage to put the coil over three good buttons, some percussion caps, fired mini balls and some buck n ball lead. My detectors of choice were the Minelab CTX 3030 and the Minelab Equinox 800. I used the CTX primarily for coin shooting and the Equinox for relic hunting. Second picture is from hunting in Texas. I'll be headed back first thing in the morning to Central Texas to unwind and get ready for another work week, thanks for looking.

I got up early this morning and tried to sneak out to a local beach but I was stopped. My 2.4 year old son came out and I just couldn't leave. Most mornings lately we've just headed to the park to feed the squirrels. He has gotten good at feeding them by hand either a walnut or a peanut. Today the tides were right and we were 'marine layered in' with a light mist so it was time to drive to Huntington Beach. That is about a 40 minute drive in light traffic so off we went. This was my second trip with him to this beach since the lockdown was over. The first time I found just a few coins but less than $1 in change. This time we went past the little playground and on to the beach. I let my son determine the direction. He headed north. It was a great day for him because it was a large, flat beach at low tide and he could run. That he did and I was swinging behind him. We went up into the dry sand and those were my first targets, just a couple of pieces of foil. After 45 minutes I had nothing! We went out on the wet sand and did a little bit of learning of the alphabet. I got a few letters in and we sang 'ABC' before he was off to the south. We were going to go in that direction when he saw a little kid in the distance and off he went back toward 'ABC'. I lagged behind and saw the other little guy was with his parents but about that moment I heard a little signal near the 'ABC' and I dug it. It was my first wet sand signal. Meanwhile my son had found a play buddy. It turned out this little guy was younger but his dad was an older guy like me out with his first and only son. ? They both had a good time for 20 minutes or so before the parents had to go. This picture looks back towards the south and the Huntington Beach Pier and back to 'ABC' where I found the target. As I got back near the location I found it I put it down on the sand and took these two pictures. It is just a little cross/crucifix that is 3g and .417/10k. I didn't find any other wet sand targets. Sometimes you have to forget all the knowledge and all the clues and just let someone else lead. It doesn't have to get any better than this. Mitchel

So the other day my neighbor told me she lost part of her rosary when she was walking her dog. It was a multitude of events where her phone rang, kids ran out and the dog kind of pulled off enough that when she took her hand out of her pocket fast, it broke and flew across the grass near the sidewalk. She was able to find most of it but could not find the a piece that had a little cross on it with part of the chain and beads. This rosary really meant a lot to her. My neighbors know that I metal detect for gold but they did not ask me at first and tried themselves to find it, even going to point of borrowing a metal detector from their relatives. When they came back empty handed and I saw them in the driveway they told me the story. I said you should have just asked me, I would love to help! Plus for me I thought that this would be like leveling up in metal detecting skill set. I only hunt for jewelry when I go to FL to visit my folks, so I only get in maybe a few weeks of that. Plus I rarely detect in the parks, I just don't like all the people. So I wanted to know if I could really do this. So I asked her to show me some of the other parts of her rosary so I could get hear what the signal sounded like, what kind of ID number would show up, and how much sensitivity to use since it should be a surface find (it was only lost for a couple of days). Well I knew this was going to be a challenge cause the little cross came up around 15 and the chain was ferrous, I think it was a -4 all on the Equinox. I was not sure if the cross and the chain were still connected. Well when I got to the area she lost it, there was so much trash and EMI plus I could not discriminate because I was not sure if they were still connected or not, but i persevered. Knowing that I would not have to dig, helped eliminate a lot of targets too. Anyways it only took me about 20 mins and I found it! The cross was still connected to the chain, and when the signal came up it was a double blip of those exact numbers! I looked down and there it was. She was so excited and thankful and I was just as excited for her and knowing that I could do it! It was an absolute great feeling to help her out, I felt on top of the world at that moment. I would even say I felt a bigger high finding that for her vs when I find a nugget! Anyways here the pic.

Got a good deal on vacation package to Mexico this week so brought my new Nox 800 to use on beach and ocean. This would be my 1st time using the Nox on either beach or in water. Day 1 - initially tried to use the Nox fully submerged in 5ft of water in fairly calm to slightly wavy water. I only lasted 30 minutes before giving up. Lesson learned: * Definitely need to invest in water proof headphones. I thought with mask/snorkel and my head under water I would be able to hear (had volume set to max at 25). I could hear no sounds. * poor visibility also made it challenging - changed to hunting the beach (beach mode 1) and spent maybe 2 hours max on dry fine coral sand. I’ve only used the Nox before a few times on a lake beach with lots of black sand. * great detector! Stable. Was a pleasure to use. * Was able to find the tiniest pieces of foil or random metal size of match head several inches down with sensitive dumbed down to 18-19 * I played around with settings and for me on this beach (1-4” fine white sugar sand on top then hard compact almost concrete like sand/dirt underneath) I liked the lower sensitivity because I wanted to limit picking up targets that were deeper down in the hard layer that I wasn’t going to dig. Sensitive I kept between 18-22 , recovery speed at 5. found a potential gold earring ( have to get home and test it) and some other kind of jewelry think that looks like silver with diamonds (probably aluminum with zirconium). Pics attached of finds (minus the abundance of foil type things I found). Beach is eerily empty for some reason ?? Will go out again and post any worthy pictures of Day 2 finds tomorrow

So... I'm out at the park this morning, detecting around one of the older trees. Using the Vanquish 440, 'cause I'm being casual, and I like the "turn on and go" aspect of it, when I get a strong, but bouncy signal in the 28 - 34 range. So I pinpoint and start digging, and very close to the surface, I find a big rectangular piece of foil inside of an athletic sock. First I think, Oooooo! Someone stashed some cash! I start peeling the foil and discover it is a cell phone. I think to myself, well this isn't something someone lost, this was purposefully put here. Then I think, why would someone do this?! To hide SOMETHING! I think the foil was an attempt to block any cell signal. So I stopped peeling the foil, and put it in a plastic baggie. I'll take it to the police tomorrow. I wish it had been cash...

I got out for a couple hrs yesterday with forum member Beatup's brother. It's summer in Sunny Yuma, approaching 100 degrees around 9:00am so we started right at sunup. We were 30 minutes into a desert wash that had produced good gold for him this past winter. We split up at the first junction of washes I went left, he went right. I had taken about 10 steps and froze mid-stride as an 18" DiamondBack rattler slithered through my legs from behind me. He paid me no mind, and gathered himself up under a jumble of rocks 10 ft away. He never rattled, hissed or made any aggressive motion, early morning temps around 70 degrees. All I can figure is he was under a small boulder and as I passed he decided we were heading in the same direction, the gravel wash being his own territory. The fact that he was decidedly moving on his way and didn't stop and rattle probably saved me a pair of underwear. As dear old Fred Mason would say, "don't kill them, you're the trespasser" and I rarely do. I have snake chaps, but generally have excuses not to wear them, oh well. The good news, I found a 1.5 gram piece and brother of Beatup found a whopping 5 grammer. As old Sgt Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say "remember, let's be careful out there".

I was sitting out the "Rona" virus and hunkered down near Quartzsite in my toy hauler trailer earlier in the month. I wasn't really hitting the detecting very hard, mostly exploring an area unfamiliar to me. I found a couple small bits, ran into a "tiger" rattlesnake (very unique coloration) and a Gila Monster during my travels. I've hunted the desert southwest most of my life and only seen 3 Gila Monsters, ever. Nasty acting creature, hissing and making half hearted charges. Black mouth and flicking tongue are pretty convincing to keep your social distance. Then disaster with the Rokon and a reminder of the laws of gravity and old age. The culprit, a steep rutted road with a big rock on a banked turn. I considered changing to a lower gear for engine braking, but nah, I can do this in high gear. About halfway down I was reminded of that physics thing, something about "objects in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an opposing motion". The steep downhill put me in motion, unable to make the banked turn, the rock, it turns out is an opposing motion. I landed hard on my left side, my left leg under the 250 lb Rokon with a perfect sized rut to bang center of my thigh. Man that hurt, I'm going on 3 weeks now still hobbling around on a sore leg. As most of you know from my other Misadventures, this isn't my first crash so the die was cast. My girlfriend had been interested in getting a RZR so she could accompany me on my explorations and we had looked a couple used ones. When she saw my injuries this time, that clinched it. Even my 27 yr old son was making that clucking sound and head shaking. 'You're going to really get hurt one of these days, Dad'! So, we got serious and searched Craiglist in both AZ and S.CA. We found a nice, lightly used RZR 900 2 seater, with all the stuff, doors, roof rack, bead lock wheels and tires etc. More than I wanted to spend, but considering I might get a few more good years out of this 65 yr old body, probably well worth it. So, if any of you young bucks are interested in my Rokon, it's for sale. I'll post it over on the For Sale section for a full description.

In South Australia we are really limited to public accessible fossicking areas. We have two areas open to the public at Echunga: Chapel Hill & Jupiter Creek Diggings, and another area which is the old Gumeracha Goldfields. The area available to the public is now a pine plantation, so access is via a permit available from ForestrySA. So when 90% of the old diggings has had pines planted on top of it, unfortunately a lot of the old gold workings such as shallow diggings, test pits, shafts, wash piles etc are simply no longer visible, so it does present a challenge of knowing where to look, but there are also some positives: 1. Old pines give you nice shade during summer, and 2. When they harvest, the ground gets churned up from all the machinery. With all this extra time I've had on my hands, I've had time to sort through a lot of footage and found many videos from my visits to the forest, with hopefully some valuable info to others. Part 2 will be up later today.

According to the Mayo Clinic you should shoot for 30 minutes of moderate detecting everyday to loose weight and maintain fitness. Sounds simple enough right? So I decided to get some detecting exercise a couple of days ago. My first spot was a new farm field that was plowed up about a year ago. I instantly got into a lot of coal, and thought this is not going to be fun. After about an hour I hit on a beat up mason jar lid. next came a 32 cal. cartridge case. Another hour and more coal I found a nice mangled spoon. Ten more feet and I got 1/2 of a spoon or fork. I was thinking my god there has to be something good in this field. That's when I found a harness buckle with leather just laying on the surface ( OK maybe I'm in a better place in the field) NOPE, Two minutes later I found a what I thought was an early 80"s binaca breath spray container which brought back fond memories of my youth. (drive in movies, awkward moments with the opposite sex, ect.) But it turns out it was Bovine mastitis spray made by Schering Co. As a rule of thumb PLEASE do not use mastitis spray as breath a freshener!!!!!! Next trip out was a place close to home. I decide to swap coils and hunt with the 9 inch to focus on gold jewlery. After digging 2 dozen pull tabs, and I knew they were. I decided I was smart enough to discern the signals, so I stopped the insanity. During my 4 hour hunt I found $1.97 in clad ranging from the 1970's to the 2000's. My first good target was a brass buckle (not gold) Next was a Ford car key (not gold) Next was a very creepy face/head thing that kinda frightened me. (not gold) And last but not least was a small motorcycle in pretty good shape, For being a plastic /metal import. Looks like it's in fair running condition And I would be willing to trade it for a CTX-3030. Any interested parties please do not PM me. (I forgot, it wasn't gold). Tomorrow I'm just going to Have a beer and a bourbon and give my wife a smooch!!! (And I will not be using the mastitis spray.) Maybe next time I'll find the GOLD!!! Seriously, I hope all members and family of this forum are doing well and Staying safe.

After sheltering in place for over a week, my son and I escaped to the desert to refine our social distancing. Instead of playing with settings on the 7000, I decided to work on my personal hunting technique concentrating on swing speed, 'range of motion' as JP calls it, coil control and listening for faint, vague changes in a steady threshold. My son took off to hike while I clambered down a boulder strewn and treacherous hillside with all my gear. I tuned up at the bottom and began to slowly cover ground I had already gone over in a previous post. Almost immediately I got what sounded like a small EMI tone-change in the threshold. But as I made my first boot scrape I saw my son waving from the top of the hillside and motioning for me to come up. I took off my headphones and heard him calling to me to come and help him. Now I am advancing in years and that hill is not for sissy's but he was insistent. A few minutes later I stood beside him out of breath and slightly put out, but when he pointed at a near-by prospect hole and said "can you help me get him out?" I was honored that he had asked me to come and help. Somehow a desert tortoise had fallen into the excavation. My son clambered down, lifted him out and handed him to me. We put him in the shade for awhile to let him calm down after being lifted and carried around. After awhile, refreshed and emboldened, he took off, snacking on Spring flowers and grass shoots as he went. My son continued his hike as I made my way back down through the rocks and resumed my hunting. My first faint change in the threshold produced a flake so small that, if it didn't go off on the detector, I would not have believed it was gold, it looked more like a slice of silica, but it was gold. (0.01g). The next flake was beside a basalt rock and I made out the signal in the midst of the sound the basalt was making. That's where swing speed (slow), and coil control makes the difference between finding a bit of gold or passing it up and moving on. Anyway, all in all, 5 stupidly small flakes - but all of them were found because I had decided to focus on what I was doing rather than what the detector was doing. Best to everyone in this strangest of times.

On Thursday I went out on my 3rd trip with my 15x10 X-Coil to well pounded patches in Southern California. All of these places have been completely trashed. I've only found gold in one of the areas but others have. I did some thinking and testing at my first stop of the morning about dawn and decided to settle down the sensitivity. Thursday I switched to difficult and something close to Lunk and Coiltek's settings but the sensitivity at 15. This helped me maintain a smooth threshold even with our hotrocks and mineralizations. I've been poking it under bushes I could never get under before and going very slow and finding tiny bits of wire and bullets missed by Monsters, 2300s and 14s but I can't show any gold for my efforts yet. It was more fun on Thursday than the previous two trips where I felt anxious and frustrated. About the middle of the day I noticed a tire on my 4Runner was low. I couldn't trust going up higher into the mountains so I switched to a spot where a friend had Monstered and found some tiny surface nuggets so I thought I'd give it a try. I was finding trash so that was a good sign. Most of the bbs were long gone. I just kept poking around. I heard a deep signal (iffy) under a bush and was scrapping and digging and the signal brightened up a bit. I was near a little road but I was going down into compressed rock and the signal is getting better. After I'm down past the normal trash I decided to video this hole. As you could tell I was hopeful. I don't know how that cartridge got down that deep but it is only the 3 time I remember something like that happening. One time was in Australia and the other time was in Gold Basin. Better luck next time.

Most of you do not know the history of metal detecting and my family. We go back to the early 1970's, my dad, uncle, 1 cousin and I all were pretty avid TH'ers back then. In the 80's and 90's we took it to a new level and started concentrating more on older sites and doing research. Our old coin finds were better with a few Barbers and Seated Liberty silvers. The gold coin had still eluded us for all those yrs. We knew it was just a matter of time. Anyway about 20 yrs ago, my little brother started getting serious with detectors and making some nice finds. It was about 20 years ago when the McMullen clan broke the gold coin barrier (it was me) with an 1852 $2.50 piece found in OR. Then about 10 years ago on 4th of July I was greedy and hit another (my 2nd) GC of the clan. My relatives and family started getting a little jealous and well deserving. Especially my little brother who happened to be on that trip with me when I hit #2, It was a 1902 $5 found here in Idaho. Well last week I was with my brother in OR and his Equinox put a smile on his face in more ways than 1. Not only did he find a gold coin, but also a Barber and Seated Liberty Half. Me, I managed to find a clad dime, which is the 1st modern coin that I know of to come from this site. He does not do much with forums, but did say I could mention them and share the pics. I wanted to let him have his glory and then after a few days I'd share. Here is his 1839 $5, 1907 Barber Half and 1877 Seated Half. And you know what? I honestly was a little jealous for about a minute and then I realize his tears were real. I then became the proud big brother of another gold coin find for the McMullen clan. I'm so proud of this guy for continuing to go and just keeps on swinging. Now that I think back, it was meant to be and I was able to be there and share the precious moment with him.

Some of you may be wondering if I made it back from Arizona. I did and I'll tell you a bit about it. I left here last Tuesday night at 11 PM (midnight in Arizona) for the 300 mile 5 plus hour trip. As it turned out I was heading to a place where Chet had been the week before. I have a friend who is staying there for the season. It is also near the area where I've found my two largest nuggets so why not go exploring with the 15x10 X-Coil. So that's what I did. I got there after a couple of stops for a total trip time of about 7 hours because the last 10 miles is on a road I can only go 15 miles an hour. We didn't head to the club claims but a couple of other washes away. The bullets, wire and trash were similar to what Chet found but Chet documented his finds much better than I did. I was using Chet's settings part of the time, Lunk's settings part of the time and some others. Many of them seem to work. I was very keen this trip to get that smooth threshold on some occasions and listen to the noises jump around it. I'm a bit out of super prospecting shape but I didn't want to hit the tops only or the bottoms of the washes so I went for benches and sides. The 15x10 let me do this more easily than the other two coils I have. While I use a bungee and hipstick many times I was holding the detector freely as I did for a month or so with my 3030. I have no complaints with its ergodynamics of letting me nose point and get under bushes. The two of us hunted hard for 2/3rds the day trying to take advantage of some pointy fingers and research but came up short. I suggested that we go find something in the meteorite patch before it got dark and that is what we did. We went on the north side of the railroad tracks and hunted for irons. This is the first place I went to hunt for meteorites with the Zed 14 when it was new. I spent a day there on my way back to LA but I only had about 1.5 hours now so we had to get out there quickly. My friend is new to the Zed and hadn't ever found a meteorite so we walked to some well pounded patinas a little less than a mile from the parking area. The strewn field for the irons is 4-5 square miles but we were at the nearest edge. It wasn't long before I had my first. I think it is the .13 gram meteorite. These are never very deep and some are really sunbakers but you just can't see them. But, they really sing when you swing over them. My friend could hear it with his 14 when I laid it down for him so he knew what to listen for now. It was not long before he bent down and using his scoops and magnet he had his first Franconia Iron. This was also his first meteorite. That's a good memory. He went on his way and I went my way for the next hour. I didn't find any big ones as they can get over 1-2 g but I know I had gone over the same areas with the 14 because I could see my previous scrapes from years before. I was now getting good results with the coil but I had limited time. We ended about dark. I had 8 irons and my friend had 3. After this experience we decided to go to Gold Basin where there is gold and meteorites! I spent the night near the noisy 40 Freeway and we were off the next morning to Gold Basin. This was the first time for my friend so we did a bit of a 'sightseeing' tour around to the club claims and then went to a patch where I've found about 30 nuggets in the past. As a matter of fact it was the place where I found my only 19" gold. This place has been gone over with everything out there and we were not successful with this trip. (I had sworn I'd never go back there the last time ... haha) We went by a club claim and talked to a couple of dry washers and they were doing ok. They were also detecting as they went and said they had found some pretty nice nuggets totaling several grams so we decided to go swing down away from them. Once again the X-Coil was a pleasure to walk around at cruising speed. I got down in the bottom of one wash and got a really good sound that I knew wasn't surface trash and down about 4 inches was this little 7g meteorite. This was not ideal meteorite territory but I thought I might find others but that was not the case either. When I walked up out of the wash I looked over a mile or so and saw Jason's place and there was a truck there. I had shared some PMs with him about his theft and I had just missed him on a previous trip with Chet so I wanted to go introduce myself. I'll have to tell you he doesn't know me or know what I drive so when we went up to his trailer we were on video! haha When I told him who I was he was relieved and we had a good chat about the basin, X-Coils and the scavengers that live out there. The next day we tried to follow up on some of Jason's geological suggestions and it ended up being a lot of interesting driving but no gold. Once again at the end of the day I targeted an area where I've found a lot of meteorites in the past but it was not to be. I left for Santa Monica about dark. My way home is through Las Vegas. Once on the other side I go opposite the normal Friday rush to Vegas but I'll tell you it was much less this past Friday. I think it is the virus. My trip ended about 1 AM. I've been back recovering and reflecting. There is a lot of gold still left in Gold Basin but you need friends and geologic knowledge to find it now. It is very difficult to get lucky but that can happen if you have enough time and you just set out to go areas where you have not been before. It really is an area where good gold is found with the first detector as much as the best detector.

Hi all, been pretty busy lately, and what started out as a really slow year ended up being pretty good prospecting wise. The first half of the year was very slow, only able to scratch a few nuggets out of some old patches. Not much luck looking for new areas. A few buddies and I decided to meet up in the middle of the summer in Gold Basin. Dave, Steve, and a couple of other Chris' . They were out there since Friday evening, but because of work I couldn't get out till Saturday afternoon. Dave was meeting us on Sunday. I made the drive out from Vegas, and when I got there I tried reach the guys, but no luck. Cell service can be spotty out there, and the must have been out detecting. I figured I might as well get started on my own till I was able to reach them. I ended up in an area where I had found a nice gold quartz specimen years ago, and figured I might grid the area to see if I could come up with a few scraps. It was found 3/4 the way up a tiny drainage where nothing else was found (by me anyway) I detectected the drainage top to bottom with no luck, so I decided to hit the hillside. About 7 or 8 feet from where I found that specie I jammed the coil under a creosote bush and got a strong signal over a large area. It wasn't a distinct signal like a nugget, so I kind of thought I was some mineralization but decided to dig anyway. There was only about 5 or 6 inches of overburden, so I scraped that off, and now the signal was sounding much more like a target, but still over a 2 sq ft area. I carry a rock hammer in my pack so I used that to tear up the bedrock. I got down about a foot total and now the signal was screaming. One more attempt with the hammer, and now I have signals in the tailings. I pick up a piece of quartz and put it over the coil...bingo!! I found my first pocket. I actually found the source. I kept working on my hole, still pulling gold out, and still getting strong signals in the bedrock. I was finally able to reach the other guys and dropped them a pin so they could meet up with me. Everyone got some specimens out of my tailings. Over the next several weeks I brought home several buckets of ore. I kept at it till there was no more signal in the ground with my GPZ. The next step was to crush and pan...geeze that is tedious work when you dont have a proper rock crusher. It took several more weeks to process the ore. thanks the pocket ended up being around 4oz!!! And a big to 1515Art and his contest I got to use my kiln to make my first gold bar. Took me a while to figure out how to use the electric kiln, it does take a few hours to reach proper temps, but works great!! added to the nuggets I found, it was a 5z year! I still have some ore to crush and a nice speci I may just keep. But definitely learned a lot. I'm going to be looking for more pockets. 2020 has been a pretty good year so far as well. Cheers, Chris

Back from our Mexico gold hunt and wanted to share a few photos and my story. Every day I swung my 7000 I found gold nuggets. 60+ pieces weighing over 41 grams. (picture of gold and shovel is to show size comparison as some pics make the gold look bigger) So there is good gold to be found, but you don’t fill your pockets as we all dream. The locals who hunt there all use 7000’s and they are really good. They only miss the faintest of signals or the occasional boomer off the beaten path. Me being a 6’ 2” 230 lb guy is hard to get into the cactus bushes to find virgin ground. In fact I only found 1 small patch of undetected ground that held gold and over 9 grams came from that patch. The local Mexican folks have no issues getting into the thickets and I could see their dig holes in them. I give them credit for their desire and determination. Cactus, the guardian angels of the MX gold is everywhere. With over 600+ species alone in Mexico, I was amazed to see and able to get pricked by (it seemed all 600+ kinds) many. Some of them are masters at growing in the funniest of shapes and statues. I was amazed and giggled many times while trying to find a landmark for return. Best to use your GPS on the 7000 (thanks Luck for showing me) as it is really pretty easy. I learned quickly, most of my clothing including the Merrell Hikers were no match for the variety of pokers. I took 3 different pairs of boots and the all leather, heavy duty uncomfortable ones were the least effected from the pricks. I took a pair of shorts and T-shirts for hotter days but could not wear them. Long sleeve shirt and thick pants were a must. Found out on my 1st day there getting on my knees or anywhere on the ground was dangerous and I ended up buying a thick pair of knee pads. I managed 3 small pickers in one spot at the bottom of this wash. This looks like a cactus nugget right? I think I'll polish it and give it to my wife. Lunk was all eagle eyes and found some rare pottery shards probably from a water transport jug. There are desert tortoise to be found (more rare than gold) We were even rewarded seeing the ancient grinding pads, two of them, called an arrastra and were used to grind ore. Their desert is more beautiful than I expected and also has a much greater degree of mountains to climb that what I imagined. Another interesting part of the trip seeing the antique ways of prospects (100 to 200+ yr old dry wash piles) and their claim corner markers. Lunk always looks so serious. Notice he wore snake guards. I asked him about them and he said the snakes were not bad this time of year. He did not tell me to bring some for the attacking cacti and all their brothers. My coolest find of the trip was actually not gold at all but a copper type coin that looks to be hammered, made (very thin and off center struck) and has some words and symbols. I’ve been updated with identification as an early MX ¼ reale coin from 1830’s. The 2 nuggets and coin were all in one small area together. I also spotted (on the run) a small buck deer. A few days before, I found a big daddy antler. The last day in MX was me on the beach enjoying the Gulf of California (on the MX side). The very next day was me in snow as I was heading back to Idaho. So the total driven miles on my truck for the trip was over 2800. I lived in the back of the truck with the camper shell and the 40 degree nights was no issues for cold. Used my small compact Jetboil burner to heat water for cooking/bathing. The warm upper 70’s and lower 80 degree temps in days allowed for my canned and or packaged meals to be heated by placing them on my dash in the truck. Plenty of gold is still in MX., but the reality of it is, the gravy is gone. You’ll work you butt off finding it and most pieces you find are sub ½ grammers. It reminds me somewhat of Rye Patch, NV in a way as most folks won’t find any and those who do usually only find a few each day. The really big ones for the most part have already been found, but popping an occasional 1/4 oz’er+ is still possible. My own biggest piece of gold for the trip was only 4.9 grams, but I did see one find that was a multi ouncer 3 to 4 oz. Was the trip worth it and did my gold finds pay expenses? I’m all about adventure and as long as my body holds up I’ll go most anywhere with a metal detector at least once. Checking spot gold today shows $1580 oz. so that equates to just over $50 a gram. Take $50 a gram X 41 grams of nuggets = $2000. My cost for the trip with insurance, fees, all food and drinks was $1800. But with me, just like my travels to Australia, it is more about the “just go do it” adventure, than it is the finds or value of. Hopefully everyone enjoys the pics and story.

I wrote this up awhile back for Kellyco's website but never posted it here for some reason. After posting the story of the Flung Ring return, I thought, why not post this story on the forum since it was one of the most personally meaningful returns of my metal detecting life. Although the returned item was not all that valuable in monetary terms, it was priceless to the lady who lost it and became even more priceless to Mary and me as we put it back in her hands. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My wife Mary and I were spending a nice day at Daytona Beach Pier this past summer..she for painting and me for detecting. While I was hunting the beach, Mary struck up a conversation with a lady she met there. The lady was very pleasant and told her that she and her boyfriend were homeless and lived in a makeshift tent right on the beach. She said the local police leave them alone as they routinely clean up the beach of litter and don’t bother anyone. As the conversation continued, she told Mary that she had lost a sterling silver charm the day before and although she and her boyfriend searched for hours, they failed to find it. The small charm was the head of a kitty with red “ruby” stones on its head and black eyes. The little charm was extremely meaningful to her and likely one of the most valuable items she owned. Mary told her of my metal detecting and asked if she would like me to try and find it. The lady was overjoyed at the prospect but said she didn’t hold out much hope of ever getting her little kitty back. Mary brought me over to the area where the lady said she thought it was lost and I began the grid search. About 10 minutes later I got that familiar exciting high tone of silver. In my scoop was a little kitty’s head with red “ruby” stones and black eyes! When I brought it to her, she began to tear up, thanked me profusely and asked if she could hug me. She called over to her boyfriend who was busy making little items out of palm fronds he sold to tourists. The smile on her face and the tear in her eye was absolutely the best reward Mary and I could have ever hoped for that day. ~The Challenge: Big Beach; Little Coil; Tiny Targets~ ~"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"~ Leonardo da Vinci ~Pre-determined settings serve only to get you in the ballpark. It’s up to you to pick the best seat~

It was time for another Rye Patch trip. It was a group outing this time and I had invited Chet. He was already there when I showed up out in the field about 3 on Wednesday afternoon. It was an 8.5 hour drive and I had added a couple of hours onto it getting checked in to my cabin but I was there! Chet had not found anything so he said I'll follow you. We got set up and he said he would catch up on some things and it was near the end of the day so I headed up. Before I got up too far my first target gave me that nice, warm sound. Even with the little sleep I had I thought it was a good target. I scraped and it didn't move and down a bit farther it didn't come out of the hole and then down about 7" I had it in the scoop. I sometimes overestimate so I put on my 7000 navigation that it was 1 gram but later not to be. It is just .72g. It is the nugget on the top left on the scale. I looked around the area and saw old dig holes so I knew I had to stay. I circled and gridded in the late afternoon sun and I got another signal. This one was a little deeper at 8". The size slightly larger at .75g. That was it for awhile until another repeatable signal. I don't remember the exact depth but I think 5" and I didn't really know if it was gold. It is and it is .11g! I didn't have my phone with me but that was it. I was beat and so was Chet so we took the 35 minute ride back to camp. Overnight it was pretty cold at 17-19 so I left the lid on my coolers open in my car and outside. When I got up the drinks had frozen in both of them but we were off for the same location. This time Chet hit the area where I found those three nuggets. I walked up the hill as I had intended. We didn't move the cars all day. Chet was working the little bowl and I was up on the sides of the big gully and anything else that looked promising. I heard a promising signal in a little dry, side run and it had shale type rock around but the signal would go away when I scraped and scratched. I was into some harder rock and it stayed and stayed and then I blasted it with my pick and it was out. It is the nugget in the middle. A solid 1.5 g nugget! I didn't have my phone with me as it was affecting my detector. Down in the distance I could see Chet working his 17" X Coil very slowly over and over the area from the day before. He had been digging some deep holes. When I made it down to him he said he had found one down about 10" that I didn't get. He also found another smaller one. In addition he had dug some really deep holes where some type of metal pieces had sounded off for him. It was a good day. I had a nice nugget and he had a couple. Friday we started at a different location but soon I wanted to get back to 'the area' but a bit higher. We both walked a long ways checking piles, pushes and holes. I was heading back up the hill and hear that nice sound again. This was only 4 inches or so and out came a nice flatter nugget (.84g). When I looked around I saw someone's recent filled in dig hole but they didn't get this nugget. The trash was hiding it! Things die out in the desert but not like they do in Australia! Australia is one big kangaroo graveyard! Here is the total for this trip. (I didn't find anything with a half day Saturday.) If I add in the two nuggets from my last trip then I have about 1/4 oz of Rye Patch gold. Thanks Chet for the companionship and the stories. You have some really great ones about gold, jobs, life and I wish others could hear them. Mitchel