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

[mn90403]

9 hours ago, GotAU? said:

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?

Gerry's crew (I had a lesson from Lunk before I took Gerry's course) taught me more about machines than any other course.  It gets you confident in your equipment which is essential.  Gerry's training area is Rye Patch so you learn some about the ground and how to read it there.

Ray Mills gives you tour with his course.  There is a certain amount of assumption that you know how to use your detector well enough to find gold.  There are turn it on and go detectors that will find it if it is there but you need to be able to read the land.

Chris Ralph's readings are good at showing you how to read the land.

While I've not taken a formal course of Kevin Hoagland he has taught me a lot about the 5000 and how to read ground.

I'm short on time this morning and I'd tell you something good about all of them.  More later ...

Now, what do you do after training?  That is another topic but more than ever you have to use what you have been taught and get lucky.  Both of those take TIME.

Time now should be spent with someone who has a pointy finger who needs a hunting partner.  I think most of us would go more if we had a hunting partner.  I did when I had a good one.  We pushed each other and shared with each other.

Don't let politics or personal issues get in between you and your hunting partner.  You will have idle time where you share and that could let strong feelings bubble to the surface.  Detectorists like us can be a hardheaded lot.  

Gold can do strange things to us as well.  Be careful out there.

[tim907]

I second the recommendation of Chris Ralph's book. Also the magazine ICMJ's Mining Journal is full of interesting articles every month.

[mn90403]

Ok, let's make up a ridiculous scenario.

What if you had a new $100,000 detector that could find .001 g of gold in a nail bed and you had been trained on it.  It is not known to be very much deeper than existing detectors.  You also had a turn on and go detector like a Gold Monster.  You read the instructions and you detected samples for about 30 minutes.

Someone you know gives you a choice of taking the Gold Monster to a private claim that is still giving up 1 and 2 gram nuggets or taking the $100,000 detector to Rye Patch or another 'beat up' claim, what would you choose?

Would you take the pointy finger or the detector with training?

 

[Renatsvarog]

Go to the old mines where gold was mined, look for where the nuggets were.

[Gerry in Idaho]

My Field Staff Experts and I appreciate all the kind words.  Yes we know Gold Detectors to the tee. Yes Rye Patch NV is mostly cleaned out and the pickings are slim.  But we do find gold and have never done a course that no gold was found. 

Now I'm a straight shooter and pull no wool. It's the Training, Knowledge shared and learned. It's the building of confidence on your detector. Those are most important to me for our customers to walk away knowing. 

The best location means nothing if you don't know the detector, it's capabilities and pros/cons. YES we teach Cons of ones detector as well.  No use swinging if that kind of gold is invisible to the detector. 

The top price detector does you no good for same reasons mentioned above. It's much more important to have Detector Field Knowledge and be confident.

Do most folks pay for training?  No.  That's exactly why most folks who have purchased gold detectors have yet to find gold.  Education my friends will save most folks alot of trips, wear & tear, and gas money.

Why do I say this with confidence? In the early 90s I had over 15 yrs of successful detecting experience. But not at finding gold nuggets. 

Even though I was swinging detectors in 70s and 80s with great success, chasing gold was new. Then started hunting Au in 90s and 2 yrs later still ZERO gold. 3rd yr I paid for Training and have been finding ounces ever since. Funny thing, I was and still am finding gold at those same locations I 1st tried on my own with no Success. 

I do have some openings for the April class as a group of 5 just canceled. My Field Staff Experts and I are ready to spread the knowledge. 

May a few of your deep digs be golden. 

Pic is over an ounce of Northern Nevada gold I found my last trip there.  That was November of last yr.