Zed Strangest Target

[Condor]

I got out for a few hours this morning with the Z hooked up to the sPo1 enhancer wired to the WM12 for wireless operation.  I spent the first part of the morning rolling big chunks of granite that were giving off faint positive tones hoping that one of the tones would continue once the rock was moved.  I was having no luck other than shards of lead bullets.  I stepped up on a bench section of an old desert wash and saw that someone had dug a Z coil sized hole about 4 inches down.  I waved over the hole and got a faint positive tone, not much different than the 30 or so I had experienced from the granite rocks on the way down the wash.  I hit a couple big chunks of granite with the pick and pulled them out of the way.  The faint tone was still there, but seemed very broad and not well defined.  I dug down another 4 or 5 inches and waved the coil over the hole, still a faint, broad tone not much improved.  Thinking it was more hot granite I switched to Difficult.  Nothing, not a peep.  I was about to give it up as another hot rock but decided to dig a few more inches.  Now I'm down 8 or 9 inches and the tone improves in volume, but still seems overly broad.  I dug down another 4 or 5 inches and the tone is really crazy.  No clear location and it started sounding like crumpled foil with a choppy broken tone.  Now I have to widen the hole and go down another few inches.  The Z tone is really crazy so I switch to Difficult.  Even Difficult is catching the tone now, but it's sounding like a piece of wire.  I'm pretty sure I'm down past the trash level and start scooping out the hole with my plastic scoop.  As I'm scooping it out I see a layer of rusty red, crumbling clay rock.  This stuff is fairly common down here and it's hot enough to really gives the Z machine fits.  I get out the pinpointer and stick it down in the hole.  The pinpointer goes crazy over the entire hole.  I scoop out some of the red stuff and wave the pinpointer over it.  It goes crazy, so I wave the scoop over the Z coil, it reacts but not overly so.  I'm about to give up for the 3rd time, but I decided to dig out all the red stuff and take some home to pan out.  I've had trouble with the Z over this red stuff in the past, but never this deep and Difficult usually cleans it up.  Now I'm digging in earnest and using my pocket knife to carve this stuff out of the wall of the hole.  I get another scoop of it and wave it over the coil, nothing this time.  I am baffled so I stick the Z back down there and bam this thing is sounding like a fist sized chunk of foil.  I take the Sens all the way down to 1 and stick it back in the hole, still banging like a gong.  I get the scoop and start scraping everything else out down to this red clay layer.  I'm piling it away from the hole to try and separate the sounds.  As I pick up the Z to check the hole again, it sounds off over the pile.  I got you this time you little bugger.  I"m thinking it must be a 1/2 oz craggy specimen, see for yourself.

I measured the hole off on the handle of my pick.  Right at 19.5 inches deep.  That's not including the 4 inches the first guy dug and left it thinking it was a hot rock.  That's awfully deep for 2.4 grams, even for the Z machine.  I'm thinking that hot red clay somehow magnified and distorted the signal.  I've dug plenty of deep gold with this machine, but nothing like that. 

I'd like to say the steelPHASE enhancer did the trick, but that would probably be a stretch.  This was just an oddball situation with a crazy sounding nugget.  I did recheck the hole and my piles, there was still some reactivity in some of that crumbling red stuff, but not enough to convince me it was golden.  I was running the Z machine in HY/Normal/ Sens 16/0 Threshold/Low Smoothing.

 

Beatup- This is the same washes your brother favors past the power lines at Sugarloaf peak.  I wonder if he missed this one. 

 

 

 

 

[SteelPhase]

Well done. 

I once found a 30gm nugget down about 40cm in red clay that gave off a very warbly tone that wasn't overly loud. I usually only have those sounds with either bits of wire, bits of brass cartridge casing or just ground noise. What made it unusual was that the nugget was a solid lump and I would have thought it would have been a solid signal. I also put it down to the red clay distorting the response from the nugget.

Just goes to show that you really have to dig most targets - well at least remove a few inches -  and see how the target response changes. I'm pretty sure that most of my recent finds from supposedly 'flogged' ground have been those dismissed as ground noise by other prospectors.

[beatup]

 That could have been Eric's hole , he was out today said he found one piece but he did not tell me where he was.                                                          Steve that sounds like the same weird target response i got on a couple of pieces i dug in a wash just over from the wash Eric found that small patch in when Paul was staying at your place. there was rotten granite all down that wash with pockets of that red hot clay eight to ten inches down under the sand and gravels.       Just talked with Eric and he said he was over on the west side of the gun club past the archery range today.

[fredmason]

Good job, Steve...you kept digging until there was gold!

fred

[LuckyLundy]

You did the right thing!  Dig them all and let the scoop sort them out!  It’s all about learning them tones, WTG

Rick

[Lunk]

Good job sticking with that target until the end and not giving up on it like the first guy. A very good lady nuggetshooter by the name of Lucile Bowen once told me that persistence pays, and that if a signal persists, keep digging until you find out what it is.

[normmcq]

WTG Steve!

 I always enjoy your write-ups and observations. I use the B and Z booster and have found several nuggets in areas that have been detected by myself and many others. I'm thinking it was the booster that helped me find them.

                                                                                              Norm

[Condor]

And sometimes it's just a seam of hotrock.  This started as the sweetest sounding target signal all day.  Faint rising tone, kept getting better and better the deeper I dug.  I turned down the sensitivity and kept digging expecting the signal to overload the tone any minute.  Then it stopped getting better and got weaker.  I scanned over the pile and got garbled tones all over the pile.  I walked back to my truck and got out the Nox 800 with 6" coil.  Back down the mountain and scanned the hole and piles.  Nothing but -9 tones everywhere.  Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.