Gold Prospecting With The Garrett Atx

[Jonathan Porter]

Hi Steve, I think our approaches are the same, mine is just due to 21 years based in an extreme environment that requires tweaking of the equipment to drag every scrap of depth possible and the fact I'm HUNGRY for every gram of gold that might be available to help pay the bills. (I'm sure you are too BTW)

Believe it or not the gold I find is generally on the small side too, it is the stuff I'm always chasing as its the gold that keeps me fed. As an example getting a 1 gram piece at 14 inches is very exciting for me, especially if it is due to a deliberate change in the way I've gone about getting it, getting an ounce of small stuff in quick order especially at depth is right up there with my all time favorite occasions.

The ATX was fun for this very reason, it required a lot of input from me, drawing on every ounce of skill I had to be successful, something I found extremely satisfying when I started to find gold with it. I'm sure if I had had the time I could have found decent gold with it, but alas time is something I only have in short supply, so I have to go with the machine that has the most grunt in the ground I work.

Your forum is fast becoming a favorite hang out of mine Steve, keep up the good work, I cherish my morning coffee time reading it's pages.

JP

Can you see the sun baker, heard a tiny little whisper, looked down and there it was.

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks Jonathan, I am pleased with the way the forum is going, due to great posts from everyone.

 

Amazing how gold just jumps out. My eye barely registered the photo before seeing the nugget. If I have to spend much time looking it rarely turns out to be gold. the nuggets just pop out of the dirt pile. Or on the ground, as may be the case.

[Rick K - First Member]

My Lord - look at that ground!

[deathray]

Wow JP...your dirt looks like the surface of Mars!

[Bearkat]

Hey Steve, Wow; late to the party here...good frigin job on the nuggets man! Almost an oz in one day is killer in my book. Especially with a detector!

 

And good job on the research, that is half the battle there. By the way, I got tired of waiting for Garrett to come out with the open coil covers, and since I had a few of them I drew an outline of the coil while it was on it, and used a dremmel tool to cut it - so now it is an open cover, which I like better. Seemed the closed one added a little weight. I hear they have the open covers availiable now...

 

I brought my wetsuit down here to the Los Angeles area to do some of the beach hunting you mentioned. Is SoCal the area you were talking about? If so, hit me up and we can do some surf detecting if a storm opens it up...

 

Hey JP, Did you sell your ATX? Curious... that is some nasty lookn dirt. Found a spot in Oregon looks very similar near where I dredge. Its only maybe one sq mile in size, but was the beginning of where the gold is and was formed there (contact zone). No gold above that area...only below. 

 

Alan

[Jonathan Porter]

Hey Bearkat, the SDC in my situation proved the better unit so it won out over the ATX.

JP

[EZMoney Bob]

<snip>...

Personally, I try to stay away from the "tourist areas" and totally rely on my research, limited knowledge of geology, and what mother nature is trying to tell me when prospecting for gold. When I find that first nugget in an area that "there is no gold", then I know I'll have accomplished something! It could be next week, next month, or next year, but I'm gonna keep prospecting in areas that I think the old timers might have missed.  ... <unsnip>

 

To some extent I sometimes like to take the same approach, but...the old timers didn't miss much!  What they lacked in technology they made up for with dogged persistence and focus and sometimes I wonder if not some sort of ESP due to that extreme focus.

 

- Bob

[fredmason]

what the old-timers had most was time on the ground...they could not jump on their quad or motobike and cover miles and miles. They walked and while walking looked and tested...

 

fred