Summer Monsoon's Are Here - Early Morning Metal Detecting For Gold

[Rob Allison]

Hey Guys/Gals,

   Here in the Southwest, it's now hot (over 100+ degrees) and higher humidity due to the Summer Monsoon storms.  That being said, many are still out roaming the goldfields during the early morning hours in hopes for a few gold nuggets.  A friend and I are still out and about, hunting in the morning hours until the heat/humidity or the storms run us out.  Spending most of the time in the gully bottoms, the bedrock can get as high as 140-150 degrees making it difficult to stay on the ground too long.  

This has been a weird year, we have yet to see a single Rattlesnake to date.  I have seen just about everything else, lizards, small rodents, bugs and other snakes, but no Rattlesnakes to boot. I'm not sure if it's the drought or what, but normally my friend and I would run across dozens of Rattlesnakes by this time.  I'm not complaining, just seems weird this year, but maybe we just have been lucky to miss them.  

On another note, I stumbled across this nice gold nugget a few weekends ago.  We were metal detecting with the Minelab GPZ 7000's in a new area and I got this faint signal right in the center of the wash bottom.  I almost didn't dig it, as I haven't found a single nugget prior to this targets, so normally I'm not going to dig deep targets right out in the center of any gulch unless I have a reason to believe there is gold.   I guess I have to be happy about this one, it was well over a foot deep on bedrock.  The nugget was just over 1/4 ounce in weight, nothing huge, but sure was a surprise to say the least!  

The nugget lead us into a new area that has potential and paid for gas (almost $6/gallon).  A few other smaller gold nuggets were also found not shown.  

Keep in mind, hunting this time of year, make sure you hydrate well, wear light clothing, pack enough liquids, wear sunscreen, gloves, hat and snake gaitors.  These are just some recommendations for all the years of searching the desert regions during the Summer.  I also recommend also hunting with a friend if possible and carrying 2-way radios so you can communicate back in forth and tell your buddy when you find that big gold nugget!

Wishing you all a beautiful gold nugget under that searchcoil.  

Keep it swinging,

Rob

[Gold Catcher]

1 hour ago, Rob Allison said:

We were metal detecting with the Minelab GPZ 7000'

Congrats, Rob! What an awesome find. What settings are you usually using for the grounds where you hunt? I more and more use the GPZ in general/difficult (with NF12 coil) and I have to say I really like these settings, in particular for the hot rock infested grounds that I usually encounter. It even works for the notoriously difficult ultramafic serpentine schist (Motherlode), with reasonably good remaining sensitivity for shallow gold as well. No other detector works in this particular ground btw, including the 6000 which is completely useless doesn't matter what settings. The 6000 just keeps howling even at lowest gain when the coil moves over the schist due to complete saturation and overload (14DD makes no difference neither with EMI nor with salt cancel mode). In contrast, the GPZ in general/diff runs completely smooth, even when run with gain 15 and smoothing off. Just curious what your to-go settings are for the 7000 in AZ. I know you guys can have some really nasty hot ground too.

Best,

GC

[Swegin]

Congrats Rob.  Too hot and humid right now for me.

 

[Rob Allison]

Hello Gold Catcher,

   I normally always run High Yield & Normal Soil.  I run my Sensitivity from 10-14, normally no higher, but keep Auto Smoothing OFF.  I've had great luck with these settings and really listen to those faint signals.  I prefer to run a very smooth, quiet detector and listen for faint signals than to crank everything so high that you have to pick faint targets out among the extra noise.  

Keep in mind also, most of the gold we are finding here is at or near the surface to about 1-2 foot max.  

I love the NF 12" Z Searchcoil, so this is normally what I'm running all the time.  I might consider the NF 17" if it comes out.  

Swegin - Ya, it's not pleasant for sure, but doable during the early to mid morning hours.  

Rob

[Gold Catcher]

1 hour ago, Rob Allison said:

I normally always run High Yield & Normal Soil.  I run my Sensitivity from 10-14, normally no higher, but keep Auto Smoothing OFF.

Thanks, Rob, my to-go settings as well unless the grounds require otherwise (like described above). I wonder if you would have picked it up with the 6000.

GC 

 

[Valens Legacy]

Congrats on the nice gold, sounds like a very good area to be looking more closely at.

Stay safe, stay cool, and watch out for the snakes.

Good luck on your next outing.

[Rob Allison]

Hey Gold Catcher and Valens,

  Ya, 95% of the time these are my settings and I have found nuggets under a grain on bedrock or near the surface with these settings.  I never found that I need to really crank it up, but rather bring it down to keep her quiet or when I experienced much hotter ground or an abundance of hotrocks.  

Valens - This is a new area that we are prospecting/exploring.  There is no reports or anything really written about gold being in this area.  

Rob

[Sourdough Scott]

Watched your recent videos last night. That is some beautiful gold. Way to get them in your pocket. 

[Rob Allison]

Hey Scott,

   Thanks for the kind words.  I have so much video footage I have never had time to upload.  I'm on a very slow internet connection, so it takes forever for me to upload videos.  Anyone wanting to view any of them can always check out my channel here - 

https://www.youtube.com/user/Nuggethunting/videos

Hope all is well on your end Scott.

Rob