Advice On Where To Begin. Join Gpaa? Pay For Some Training Or Just Read Everything Here

[Coffeeguyzz]

I have taken 2 separate day long instruction lessons from Ray Mills and I highly recommend considering this as an option.

(I found my first gold with Ray).

His 2 uncles were full time gold miners/prospectors 'back in the day' and passed much of their knowledge onto Ray.

He has been a longtime, regular contributor to the monthly online ICMJ magazine (a wealth of useful info itself) and has 2 e-books available on detecting for gold.

Good stuff.

Good man.

 

[Skate]

Here I was thinking this was an average size paperback. The book is solid enough that if you didn't find gold you could beat someone pretty good who was trying to steal it. 

Exciting times getting into gold!

[Gold Seeker]

Check out Matt Mattson's YouTube Gold related videos, all of these were made and are there simply to educate on finding gold.

Matt and many of his friends found pounds and pounds of gold mostly dredging but he knows how to do it all, they did this many years ago but now Matt just loves to teach others via YouTube in his retirement years.

He also has other videos on many subjects but the following link is to his mostly his gold videos and a few gem related videos. pick and choose or watch them all, they're all great.

 

 https://www.youtube.com/@flagold/search?query=gold

[Doc]

While I understand funds are not unlimited.  Here is something to consider.  It's price vs. cost.

Now you may not have the $400 price or whatever someone charges for a day or three of training.  However, when you start detecting for gold and don't have the knowledge that a day or three of training will give you. The cost is going to be staggering.

I once ran into a person metal detecting for gold.  I came up over a ridge with my ATV and there was a person just halfway down a small gully.  I stopped said hi, and we exchanged some pleasantries.  The person said, I'm just going to finish this last 30 yards and then I've got another place I want to go.  He too had an ATV sitting at the foot of the gully.  He said I can save you some time though, I haven't found anything in this gully, not even trash.  I said "No worries." And I acted like I was looking through my storage container on the back of my ATV. Actually I was watching this man finish the rest of the gully as I thought to myself.  "Well partner if there were any gold there you would have never found it."

All he was doing was detecting the bottom of the gully.  Not the edges of where the bottom of the ridge met the gully, not behind the bushes that lined the gully, he didn't roll any boulders over and detect under them.  And his coil was about 8 inches off of the deck.  Apparently he didn't want to get his coil dirty.  This man was giving a training lesson on how to do everything wrong.  He could have written a book called, "The Secret Key to No Gold, No Treasure, No Holes Metal Detecting" by NADA KLU.

He waved goodbye and drove off.  I got my metal detector off the ATV and I swear as God is my judge as I am walking down to the gully I get a target behind a bush, a 1 gram nugget. I get into the gully and I hit another 1 grammer 15 feet down from the first about 12 inches out of the gully.  Half way down the gully there is a bunch of broken quartz about 4 feet out of the gully on a small flat bench.  There are a couple of boulders that I roll off the bench and I find a 4 gram nugget!  4 grams!  I thought for sure it was a bullet.

I head down to the foot of the gully and right in the middle of the gully about 3 feet from where it emptied into the wash, where the other prospector's ATV was parked, another large signal. A two gram nugget 6 inches down smack dab in the middle, a child could have found it with a toy detector.  But not this guy!  Because about 15 feet before he got to the foot of the gulley, where his ATV was parked, he was busy turning off his detector and waving goodbye to me.

I ended by checking all the sides of that gully and found 5 more little dinks. totally close to a gram.

OK so I know without a doubt this person never had any training, so he saved the $400 of the PRICE of a training class.  Now being he was not trained and didn't have a clue, the COST of not being trained was approximately 9 grams of gold.  Or at today's gold prices approximately $635, and that was for just 1 gully and about 40 minutes of detecting.  I spent over 5 hours working that gully and everything that fed into it.

So INVEST in yourself, because the payoff will be well worth it.  Call Gerry at Gerry's detectors.  He has one of the best training crews around and he is a Marine, so he will BOOT CAMP your butt and make you find gold.  You will never be sorry!

Doc

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Skate said:

Here I was thinking this was an average size paperback. The book is solid enough that if you didn't find gold you could beat someone pretty good who was trying to steal it. 

Exciting times getting into gold!

Chris is a genius and that book is one of the bibles.

Doc

[Skate]

53 minutes ago, Doc said:

While I understand funds are not unlimited.  Here is something to consider.  It's price vs. cost.

Now you may not have the $400 price or whatever someone charges for a day or three of training.  However, when you start detecting for gold and don't have the knowledge that a day or three of training will give you. The cost is going to be staggering.

I once ran into a person metal detecting for gold.  I came up over a ridge with my ATV and there was a person just halfway down a small gully.  I stopped said hi, and we exchanged some pleasantries.  The person said, I'm just going to finish this last 30 yards and then I've got another place I want to go.  He too had an ATV sitting at the foot of the gully.  He said I can save you some time though, I haven't found anything in this gully, not even trash.  I said "No worries." And I acted like I was looking through my storage container on the back of my ATV. Actually I was watching this man finish the rest of the gully as I thought to myself.  "Well partner if there were any gold there you would have never found it."

All he was doing was detecting the bottom of the gully.  Not the edges of where the bottom of the ridge met the gully, not behind the bushes that lined the gully, he didn't roll any boulders over and detect under them.  And his coil was about 8 inches off of the deck.  Apparently he didn't want to get his coil dirty.  This man was giving a training lesson on how to do everything wrong.  He could have written a book called, "The Secret Key to No Gold, No Treasure, No Holes Metal Detecting" by NADA KLU.

He waved goodbye and drove off.  I got my metal detector off the ATV and I swear as God is my judge as I am walking down to the gully I get a target behind a bush, a 1 gram nugget. I get into the gully and I hit another 1 grammer 15 feet down from the first about 12 inches out of the gully.  Half way down the gully there is a bunch of broken quartz about 4 feet out of the gully on a small flat bench.  There are a couple of boulders that I roll off the bench and I find a 4 gram nugget!  4 grams!  I thought for sure it was a bullet.

I head down to the foot of the gully and right in the middle of the gully about 3 feet from where it emptied into the wash, where the other prospector's ATV was parked, another large signal. A two gram nugget 6 inches down smack dab in the middle, a child could have found it with a toy detector.  But not this guy!  Because about 15 feet before he got to the foot of the gulley, where his ATV was parked, he was busy turning off his detector and waving goodbye to me.

I ended by checking all the sides of that gully and found 5 more little dinks. totally close to a gram.

OK so I know without a doubt this person never had any training, so he saved the $400 of the PRICE of a training class.  Now being he was not trained and didn't have a clue, the COST of not being trained was approximately 9 grams of gold.  Or at today's gold prices approximately $635, and that was for just 1 gully and about 40 minutes of detecting.  I spent over 5 hours working that gully and everything that fed into it.

So INVEST in yourself, because the payoff will be well worth it.  Call Gerry at Gerry's detectors.  He has one of the best training crews around and he is a Marine, so he will BOOT CAMP your butt and make you find gold.  You will never be sorry!

Doc

Thank you and I agree. My plan is to participate and pay for training. I know the value of quality education and the price of not getting one. I’m putting a plan in place as I write this. Your story should be a lesson for everyone. 
 

[phrunt]

I can't wait until you're doing a post about your first nugget Skate, it's a real memorable day, one you'll never forget.

[mn90403]

On 3/25/2024 at 6:07 AM, Swegin said:

My Electronic Prospecting Course is one on one unless you have a partner or buddy. It is held in Redding, Ca.

My wife and I took Ray's course.  It is highly recommended.

[GotAU?]

54 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

My wife and I took Ray's course.  It is highly recommended.

Mitchel, of all the courses you took before, if you could only do one due to limited time off each year, what would you recommend for the first one?

Also, check your DMs!  😉

[mn90403]

I'm in Gold Basin.  We spent yesterday looking for gold and meteorites.  nada between the 3 of us using x-coil, 6000 and 2300.  I'll admit it wasn't full day on all 3 but we went at it for over 6 hours on 4 different locations where gold and meteorites have been found before.

If I was bringing someone new with me I wouldn't expect the results to be different but there is always beginning 'luck!'

Things are much harder to find.  I need someone to show me spots.  haha

Is that training?