WalnLiz
In remembrance, April 2024
One thing I have noticed with some friends who tag along with us on detecting trips is that they find a piece of gold, quickly go over the area, and then walk on far too soon in an attempt to cover as much ground as they can. When detecting in creek beds gold rarely deposits in singular pieces, so if you find a piece, the chances of more being very close is extremely high. Gold is a very communal metal that likes hanging around with its mates.
Most know the saying "Go low and go slow" but not enough beginners know that you "don't leave gold to find gold". If you find a couple of pieces in close proximity on say an inside creek bend, or bench, and hear no more obvious targets, don't just walk off thinking you have got it all. A small amount of "surfacing" by taking ten centimetres off the surface can very often expose "nests" of small nuggets just outside the reach of what you have already detected. We do this when chasing Reef gold, but not enough new to the game do this when hunting alluvial as well, instead they ping a small nugget and walk away too soon, hastily chasing the next piece.
Something as simple as removing the grass from around a detected nugget, can often dramatically increase the total number of your finds. In this instance, we converted 4 small nuggets into 28... Most would have walked away and been happy with just the four.
A very clear case of this was on one of our trips to the Kimberly where we camped on a spot that we had surfaced the year before. We ran out of time so covered our working, placed grass on top of it so absolutely no one could see any sign of detector activity, and decided to revisit the surfaced patch the following year. A continuation of the surfacing soon revealed many more small pieces and even though the gold was only small walking away from it would have left us wondering what could have been. We went from finding a few small detectable targets in close proximity to ending up with what I think was "thirty five" small pieces for only a very small amount of extra work with the pick. Some beginners will walk for kilometres down a creek to get the odd nugget only to find a more experienced operator spending the same amount of time on a hundred metre stretch of the same creek unearthing many more nuggets for a little bit of extra work with a shovel or pick.
When we work a section of creek that has produced a few nuggets we tend to leave the shallow holes unfilled for the duration of our working. This will often show us a clearer map in more detail where the drop out zones during floods occurred. Quite often you might find a larger boulder, tree root, stump, bench, close to a detected nugget, and removing some overburden can often expose some more pieces that would ordinarily have had the operator walk away from. Extra work very often is rewarded with extra success. Same goes for sections of creek that may have false or clay bottoms. Cracks in these bottoms quite often have nuggets fall into them and if the bottom is relatively shallow some "surfacing" should also be considered if a couple of nuggets have already come to light. Remember that there are many nuggets just outside the detectors reach and quite often removing only a few centimetres can make all the difference for success. I have surfaced some creeks, especially in WA, for sometimes a length of ten metres if the gravel is only shallow and been rewarded with numerous nuggets missed by hasty operators chasing only the obvious targets. Coming back later and changing up in coil size before you walk off completely, and looking for those bigger deeper targets is also recommended. Once you find gold stay a while and look outside the obvious square. Ask yourself "have I got it all". Nothing worse than a mate saying after the next flood..."you should see what you left behind buddy".
Surfacing a bench as shown in the above photo, will more often than not expose nuggets not normally in the detectors range. Here we converted a few nuggets into almost an ounce. The "Budgie Nugget" below, was found surfacing a sloping rock bar after finding a 3-gram piece. In this instance, we converted a 3-gram piece into an additional 28-gram piece for only a little more effort. Please note, this surfacing was completely restored to original ground level as we intend to re-work this bench next winter.
One thing I cannot stress enough is when you do eventually give up on that spot you have diligently worked, "always fill in your holes" and completely "cover up" your tracks. You may want to come back at a future date with new technology and the last thing you want is the place completely stripped by other operators, especially experienced ones who can distinguish the small tell tail signs of where previous nuggets were unearthed.. Best other operators walk past hearing no targets and thinking "no gold here mate". Break a gold bearing creek into say two hundred metre sections working up and down that section several times on both banks and mid creek before starting on the next section. Don't just blindly walk down the creek for a kilometre or more, even if you think you are working efficiently....chances are you are not. On so many occasions one will find no targets working down a creek only to find they ping one on the return trip, and virtually over the same spot as previously detected. Got to do with coil orientation and many times a different approach will pick out that previously missed target. Covering distance is not the main aim when detecting. Covering every square inch is what is of the utmost importance. This doesn't happen by trying to race your mate down the creek. I'm sure many new to the game come back at the end of the day and say to their mate..."detected hundreds of square metres", down a creek, for not much results, when in fact they covered less than 10% of the available ground efficiently....see it all the time.
Technique can often play a big role in finding those subtle soft targets that many often miss. This may sound controversial to some, but in "My" opinion scraping coils on the ground in this day and age, is often the difference between success and failure when already on proven ground. Skid plates are cheap. The exception to scraping is the obvious such as patch hunting. Once on the gold, having your coil on the ground and listening to those super soft targets is what will give you the advantage over the next operator, as unfortunately the size of the nuggets are getting smaller and harder to distinguish with every season. There's a lot of experienced operators using the same top of the line detectors these days so no shortage of competition for a limited number of nuggets. Some disagree on scraping as certain detectors and coils are susceptible to "coil knocking," and "falsing" often occurs when scraped. I find this is more of a problem when the detector is set too high in its sensitivity settings, running too noisy, or swinging too fast. I prefer to set a detector to run as quietly as possible with a smooth threshold and if this means slightly lowering the sensitivity then so be it. At the end of the day a quiet detector will out perform a noisy one on "nearly" all occasions for general use, and pick up subtle targets a chattery machine often misses. Low and slow is recommended for good reason if you want consistent success. Please note that this thread is targeted at the "beginners" as those with the years under their belts would find much of this as "experience already learned". Good luck out there and may the gold be kind to you....Wal.
Most know the saying "Go low and go slow" but not enough beginners know that you "don't leave gold to find gold". If you find a couple of pieces in close proximity on say an inside creek bend, or bench, and hear no more obvious targets, don't just walk off thinking you have got it all. A small amount of "surfacing" by taking ten centimetres off the surface can very often expose "nests" of small nuggets just outside the reach of what you have already detected. We do this when chasing Reef gold, but not enough new to the game do this when hunting alluvial as well, instead they ping a small nugget and walk away too soon, hastily chasing the next piece. Something as simple as removing the grass from around a detected nugget, can often dramatically increase the total number of your finds. In this instance, we converted 4 small nuggets into 28... Most would have walked away and been happy with just the four.
A very clear case of this was on one of our trips to the Kimberly where we camped on a spot that we had surfaced the year before. We ran out of time so covered our working, placed grass on top of it so absolutely no one could see any sign of detector activity, and decided to revisit the surfaced patch the following year. A continuation of the surfacing soon revealed many more small pieces and even though the gold was only small walking away from it would have left us wondering what could have been. We went from finding a few small detectable targets in close proximity to ending up with what I think was "thirty five" small pieces for only a very small amount of extra work with the pick. Some beginners will walk for kilometres down a creek to get the odd nugget only to find a more experienced operator spending the same amount of time on a hundred metre stretch of the same creek unearthing many more nuggets for a little bit of extra work with a shovel or pick.
When we work a section of creek that has produced a few nuggets we tend to leave the shallow holes unfilled for the duration of our working. This will often show us a clearer map in more detail where the drop out zones during floods occurred. Quite often you might find a larger boulder, tree root, stump, bench, close to a detected nugget, and removing some overburden can often expose some more pieces that would ordinarily have had the operator walk away from. Extra work very often is rewarded with extra success. Same goes for sections of creek that may have false or clay bottoms. Cracks in these bottoms quite often have nuggets fall into them and if the bottom is relatively shallow some "surfacing" should also be considered if a couple of nuggets have already come to light. Remember that there are many nuggets just outside the detectors reach and quite often removing only a few centimetres can make all the difference for success. I have surfaced some creeks, especially in WA, for sometimes a length of ten metres if the gravel is only shallow and been rewarded with numerous nuggets missed by hasty operators chasing only the obvious targets. Coming back later and changing up in coil size before you walk off completely, and looking for those bigger deeper targets is also recommended. Once you find gold stay a while and look outside the obvious square. Ask yourself "have I got it all". Nothing worse than a mate saying after the next flood..."you should see what you left behind buddy".
Surfacing a bench as shown in the above photo, will more often than not expose nuggets not normally in the detectors range. Here we converted a few nuggets into almost an ounce. The "Budgie Nugget" below, was found surfacing a sloping rock bar after finding a 3-gram piece. In this instance, we converted a 3-gram piece into an additional 28-gram piece for only a little more effort. Please note, this surfacing was completely restored to original ground level as we intend to re-work this bench next winter.
One thing I cannot stress enough is when you do eventually give up on that spot you have diligently worked, "always fill in your holes" and completely "cover up" your tracks. You may want to come back at a future date with new technology and the last thing you want is the place completely stripped by other operators, especially experienced ones who can distinguish the small tell tail signs of where previous nuggets were unearthed.. Best other operators walk past hearing no targets and thinking "no gold here mate". Break a gold bearing creek into say two hundred metre sections working up and down that section several times on both banks and mid creek before starting on the next section. Don't just blindly walk down the creek for a kilometre or more, even if you think you are working efficiently....chances are you are not. On so many occasions one will find no targets working down a creek only to find they ping one on the return trip, and virtually over the same spot as previously detected. Got to do with coil orientation and many times a different approach will pick out that previously missed target. Covering distance is not the main aim when detecting. Covering every square inch is what is of the utmost importance. This doesn't happen by trying to race your mate down the creek. I'm sure many new to the game come back at the end of the day and say to their mate..."detected hundreds of square metres", down a creek, for not much results, when in fact they covered less than 10% of the available ground efficiently....see it all the time.
Technique can often play a big role in finding those subtle soft targets that many often miss. This may sound controversial to some, but in "My" opinion scraping coils on the ground in this day and age, is often the difference between success and failure when already on proven ground. Skid plates are cheap. The exception to scraping is the obvious such as patch hunting. Once on the gold, having your coil on the ground and listening to those super soft targets is what will give you the advantage over the next operator, as unfortunately the size of the nuggets are getting smaller and harder to distinguish with every season. There's a lot of experienced operators using the same top of the line detectors these days so no shortage of competition for a limited number of nuggets. Some disagree on scraping as certain detectors and coils are susceptible to "coil knocking," and "falsing" often occurs when scraped. I find this is more of a problem when the detector is set too high in its sensitivity settings, running too noisy, or swinging too fast. I prefer to set a detector to run as quietly as possible with a smooth threshold and if this means slightly lowering the sensitivity then so be it. At the end of the day a quiet detector will out perform a noisy one on "nearly" all occasions for general use, and pick up subtle targets a chattery machine often misses. Low and slow is recommended for good reason if you want consistent success. Please note that this thread is targeted at the "beginners" as those with the years under their belts would find much of this as "experience already learned". Good luck out there and may the gold be kind to you....Wal.
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...covering every inch from all directions is what counts and by the pics you post you seem to do that extremely well. The big one will eventually have your name on it.
Similar story with the "Herkimer diamonds" which are found in the Herkimer County in the US. They are double terminated "Quartz " crystals, so although general Quartz is not of much interest, certain varieties are so special that they get a "Diamond " label.
