Steve’s 2022 Australia Adventure, Part 2

[Smigo]

On 10/30/2022 at 6:20 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

Well, I can’t claim it was much of a trip for gold, but I have a dozen little nuggets in the vial, and a silver 1914 six pence today for icing. The best part is I got to see a large chunk of Australia I never saw before, and had a lot of interesting interaction with the Garrett crew. It was interesting seeing novices use the Axiom on varied ground, and while the nuggets were small, everyone involved found gold nuggets. Packed up now for the long trip home, just in time to hand out candy to all the cute little kids! 

My thanks to everyone in the Garrett network that made this a special and very enjoyable trip.

Group nuggets less a couple I left out by mistake

My 12 bits, 1.18 g total, smallest 0.023 gram

I'm not going to retire on that gold! The well hunted public areas in Australia are well hunted indeed, giving up only scattered tiny bits for visitors. The Australian 1914 sixpence is my best find of the trip, would actually be worth more than a few bucks if it was in better condition.

You did well mate. Hunted in Central Vic since 1990. Smashed now. Anything anyone finds here in any state is good going. You did well from another country. Damn, was it good till mid 2000s. Current gear is stretching it even here in OZ.

Good finds 👍

[Steve Herschbach]

3 hours ago, Smigo said:

You did well mate. Hunted in Central Vic since 1990. Smashed now. Anything anyone finds here in any state is good going. You did well from another country. Damn, was it good till mid 2000s. Current gear is stretching it even here in OZ.

Good finds 👍

I am kind of amazed at how good we are collectively at metal detecting. People are like ants armed with metal detectors. We have swarmed and come close to cleaning out the vast majority of the good gold in the U.S. and Australia. Every nugget found is one less left to be found, and fact is a lot of gold has been found with metal detectors. A lot. Sadly, the good old days are now in the rear view mirror, and what nugget detecting we are doing now is more like cleaning up leftovers. Sure, for you dreamers, there are still undiscovered large nuggets and even patches to be found. But anyone that thinks things are even remotely close to being like they were 20 years ago is just kidding themselves.

As a result, I have finally changed my mindset from “gotta make a buck at this” to “just get out and find a little gold, and have fun.” I ran my prospecting as a business since 1980, and turned a profit with the IRS in all but a couple years. I still have some claims in Alaska churning out some lease fees, but I folded my main prospecting company last year, after over 40 years in business. It always was just a side business for me, but one that made a tidy profit each year. The last couple years though it was getting to where just covering vehicle and food expense was a stretch, and the profit so small it was not worth all the expense tracking and filing paperwork. I closed it all down last year, and have officially entered the ranks of the hobbyist detectorists… just out for a good time! I have to admit it's nice, takes the pressure off, can sleep in or quit early if I want, or just sit and enjoy the view now without feeling guilty about it. 

[phrunt]

That's just the way I like it, as soon as something becomes a job all the fun is gone.