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ProspectingPip

Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2024
Messages
16
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33
Location
Truganina
Hi everyone!

I've been prospecting for about 12 months now and, up until recently, have been exclusively panning and sluicing. I haven't found a heap of gold but, I've bloody enjoyed "the hunt" and appreciated being in the fresh air and wondeful surroundings.

As I live in the West of Melbourne, Creswick has been where most of my proscpecting has been done so far. Although I have made a couple of trips up to Reedy Creek. I also have a good friend who lives in Benella, so Reef Hills is on my prospecting list.

I've also just recently moved into detecting, and have just purchased the GM 1000. I plan to trawl through the various GM 1000 threads to compliment the learning curve for the 1000. Been out three times with it so far and haven't found any gold (yet). But, I've found a bit of lead shot, .22 shell casings and various other stuff. I'm starting to differentiate tones from the GM, as well as workout sensitivity settings. I've enjoyed the process to far and am keen to get out there and get to know the machine.

As for reading the ground, workings, reefs, etc, that's something I've probably had the most difficulty with - trying to conceptualise how the ground and gold interact so I can research effectively. I have a few gold maps but with my limited knowledge, I've found it challenging to put map information into practice when I get to the area I want to detect.

However, I'm sure with patience and practice, my confidence and competency will increase.

This is a great hobby/activity to be a part of. And my limited interactions with other prospectors out in the field has been really positive.

Laslty, if there's anyone out there who's willing to spend a couple of hours with a newbie, and is a frequent visitor to Creswick (or Ballarat), please let me know. A first hand explanation of the workings/reefs would be REALLY beneficial, so I can understand the relationship they have with gold depsoits.

Have a great day everyone and if your out there today, then I hope the "yellah" is plentiful!

Cheers,

Pip.
 
Welcome to PA, Pip.

It sounds to me like you're already moving along the path to prospecting success - if you can find lead shot with a GM1000, you can certainly find gold. It's just a matter of time until you walk over it.

Good luck in the goldfields!
 
ProspectingPip said:
Hi everyone!

I've been prospecting for about 12 months now and, up until recently, have been exclusively panning and sluicing. I haven't found a heap of gold but, I've bloody enjoyed "the hunt" and appreciated being in the fresh air and wondeful surroundings.

As I live in the West of Melbourne, Creswick has been where most of my proscpecting has been done so far. Although I have made a couple of trips up to Reedy Creek. I also have a good friend who lives in Benella, so Reef Hills is on my prospecting list.

I've also just recently moved into detecting, and have just purchased the GM 1000. I plan to trawl through the various GM 1000 threads to compliment the learning curve for the 1000. Been out three times with it so far and haven't found any gold (yet). But, I've found a bit of lead shot, .22 shell casings and various other stuff. I'm starting to differentiate tones from the GM, as well as workout sensitivity settings. I've enjoyed the process to far and am keen to get out there and get to know the machine.

As for reading the ground, workings, reefs, etc, that's something I've probably had the most difficulty with - trying to conceptualise how the ground and gold interact so I can research effectively. I have a few gold maps but with my limited knowledge, I've found it challenging to put map information into practice when I get to the area I want to detect.

However, I'm sure with patience and practice, my confidence and competency will increase.

This is a great hobby/activity to be a part of. And my limited interactions with other prospectors out in the field has been really positive.

Laslty, if there's anyone out there who's willing to spend a couple of hours with a newbie, and is a frequent visitor to Creswick (or Ballarat), please let me know. A first hand explanation of the workings/reefs would be REALLY beneficial, so I can understand the relationship they have with gold depsoits.

Have a great day everyone and if your out there today, then I hope the "yellah" is plentiful!

Cheers,

Pip.
Click to expand...

Pip, Unfortunately reading the ground is not quite as simple as it used to be. The majority of potentially gold producing areas have been well worked so some of the less obvious areas may very well be more productive. Even when we find a little patch the natural progression might be to follow the path back to where the gold came from. The difficulty we have now is that these areas of natural flow from the reef to the alluvial patch have most likely been raided by many prospectors swinging a range of detectors. Of course if you were to find a new gold deposit then the old rules might apply however there's not much virgin ground left so I think you're choice of detector is a smart one. Most old areas will still produce very small gold and the tiny gold might reach those areas where they are hiding.
 
grubstake said:
Welcome to PA, Pip.

It sounds to me like you're already moving along the path to prospecting success - if you can find lead shot with a GM1000, you can certainly find gold. It's just a matter of time until you walk over it.

Good luck in the goldfields!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the warm welcome grubstake! Yeah, from what I've seen and heard, finding lead shot is the next best thing to finding gold, as their targets sounds are very similar - almost identical on the GM.

I'm sure color is not far off. Still, detecting so far has been just as enjoyable as panning and sluicing. Keen For more!!
 
Moneybox said:
Pip, Unfortunately reading the ground is not quite as simple as it used to be. The majority of potentially gold producing areas have been well worked so some of the less obvious areas may very well be more productive. Even when we find a little patch the natural progression might be to follow the path back to where the gold came from. The difficulty we have now is that these areas of natural flow from the reef to the alluvial patch have most likely been raided by many prospectors swinging a range of detectors. Of course if you were to find a new gold deposit then the old rules might apply however there's not much virgin ground left so I think you're choice of detector is a smart one. Most old areas will still produce very small gold and the tiny gold might reach those areas where they are hiding.
Click to expand...
Hi Moneybox,

Thank-you for the explanation as to some of the reasons why I've found reading the ground so difficult as I've been starting out.

The maze of workings, reefs, etc has been quite daunting in regards to where I start to detect, let alone follow a reef to an alluvial patch. I have seen visible evidence of detecting in gullies, around workings, and try to chose ground that looks undisturbed. I'm kinda caught between analysis paralysis and just swinging the darn detector around till I think I have a good sounding target.

Speaking of detectors, it reassuring to hear that you believe that that the choice of my first detector is the correct one.

Price point aside. For learning the ropes or an "apprenticeship" if you will, the GM was recommended to me by alot of prospecting people I spoke to. I understand that it does have limitations but, then again, so does every detector to my understanding. "Get to know your machine and you'll be surprised what you can find" was the mantra.

So, all in all, I've just gotta keep getting out there, build up my knowledge of my detector, as well as map and ground reading. It took me around 12 months to get my head around panning, reading creeks, inside bends, ect. So, I'm expecting at least that time frame just to get my head around detecting.

Cheers,

Pip.
 
ProspectingPip said:
The maze of workings, reefs, etc has been quite daunting in regards to where I start to detect, let alone follow a reef to an alluvial patch. I have seen visible evidence of detecting in gullies, around workings, and try to chose ground that looks undisturbed. I'm kinda caught between analysis paralysis and just swinging the darn detector around till I think I have a good sounding target.
Click to expand...
With the GM1000, that's not necessarily your best choice. It doesn't have the ground penetration of a PI detector or the mineralisation-handling ability, so in general its best capability is finding overlooked small nuggets in amongst old alluvial workings, surfacing, shallow creek beds/washaways and also on mine dumps, where specimens (gold embedded in quartz) may be found. As a high-frequency VLF machine, it also has an advantage with spongy and ragged gold, that PI machines aren't as good at sensing.

Lastly, don't be put off an area by signs of earlier detectorists - many miss more than they find, leaving good gold behind for the more careful, patient operator. Hopefully, that's you.
 
grubstake said:
With the GM1000, that's not necessarily your best choice. It doesn't have the ground penetration of a PI detector or the mineralisation-handling ability, so in general its best capability is finding overlooked small nuggets in amongst old alluvial workings, surfacing, shallow creek beds/washaways and also on mine dumps, where specimens (gold embedded in quartz) may be found. As a high-frequency VLF machine, it also has an advantage with spongy and ragged gold, that PI machines aren't as good at sensing.

Lastly, don't be put off an area by signs of earlier detectorists - many miss more than they find, leaving good gold behind for the more careful, patient operator. Hopefully, that's you.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that info grubstake.
I THINK I took the GM to some old workings that were situated around a quartz reef. There was quartz EVERYWHERE!

The GM was definitely chirpy for some of the time; lots of hotrocks in some of the areas. Other times the GM was pretty quiet. I think the lowest setting I ran was Manual 7, with me floating around Manual 8-9, depending on how hot the ground was.

Like I said earlier, I did find some lead shot. And when I did, there was a definite change in the signal tone when I came across the lead shot as opposed to the hot rocks.

But, with your suggestions, I'll begin detecting in shallow creek beds as now the creeks are drying up a bit. Will also check out where the old allvial workings are around Creswick. Back to the maps for me!

Cheers,

Pip.
 
ProspectingPip said:
Hi everyone!

I've been prospecting for about 12 months now and, up until recently, have been exclusively panning and sluicing. I haven't found a heap of gold but, I've bloody enjoyed "the hunt" and appreciated being in the fresh air and wondeful surroundings.

As I live in the West of Melbourne, Creswick has been where most of my proscpecting has been done so far. Although I have made a couple of trips up to Reedy Creek. I also have a good friend who lives in Benella, so Reef Hills is on my prospecting list.

I've also just recently moved into detecting, and have just purchased the GM 1000. I plan to trawl through the various GM 1000 threads to compliment the learning curve for the 1000. Been out three times with it so far and haven't found any gold (yet). But, I've found a bit of lead shot, .22 shell casings and various other stuff. I'm starting to differentiate tones from the GM, as well as workout sensitivity settings. I've enjoyed the process to far and am keen to get out there and get to know the machine.

As for reading the ground, workings, reefs, etc, that's something I've probably had the most difficulty with - trying to conceptualise how the ground and gold interact so I can research effectively. I have a few gold maps but with my limited knowledge, I've found it challenging to put map information into practice when I get to the area I want to detect.

However, I'm sure with patience and practice, my confidence and competency will increase.

This is a great hobby/activity to be a part of. And my limited interactions with other prospectors out in the field has been really positive.

Laslty, if there's anyone out there who's willing to spend a couple of hours with a newbie, and is a frequent visitor to Creswick (or Ballarat), please let me know. A first hand explanation of the workings/reefs would be REALLY beneficial, so I can understand the relationship they have with gold depsoits.

Have a great day everyone and if your out there today, then I hope the "yellah" is plentiful!

Cheers,

Pip.
Click to expand...
Hi. Look up and hit the reef heaps that were rich with your VLF screamer.
A chance anywhere with anything PI or VLF if its not been walked over. But if I was on a VLF today start up, reef heaps in the rich areas. If you run across pipeclay diggings in your search, even most reef heaps, crank up the sens till you get noise then back it off till it shuts up.
Good luck.
 
Bully1 said:
Hi. Look up and hit the reef heaps that were rich with your VLF screamer.
A chance anywhere with anything PI or VLF if its not been walked over. But if I was on a VLF today start up, reef heaps in the rich areas. If you run across pipeclay diggings in your search, even most reef heaps, crank up the sens till you get noise then back it off till it shuts up.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Hi Bully1,

Thanks for you advice. I was amongst the reef heaps recently (my 3rd time out with the detector).

I think I ended up on Manual 7 for the for some of the reef heaps, whilst I was hovering around manual 8-9 for other parts of the reef.

A question about pipe clay diggings. I noticed alot of the reef heaps had a yellowish, ah, clay mixed in with the quartz? I assume this is different from pipeclay around alluvial workings? Just making sure I understand what sensitivity I need the GM on to get the best signal and ground penetration.

Cheers,

Pip.
 
ProspectingPip said:
A question about pipe clay diggings. I noticed alot of the reef heaps had a yellowish, ah, clay mixed in with the quartz? I assume this is different from pipeclay around alluvial workings? Just making sure I understand what sensitivity I need the GM on to get the best signal and ground penetration.
Click to expand...
Pipeclay is pure white and powdery. It's unmineralised, so crank up your GM's sensitivity to the max: Auto+
 
ProspectingPip said:
Hi Bully1,

Thanks for you advice. I was amongst the reef heaps recently (my 3rd time out with the detector).

I think I ended up on Manual 7 for the for some of the reef heaps, whilst I was hovering around manual 8-9 for other parts of the reef.

A question about pipe clay diggings. I noticed alot of the reef heaps had a yellowish, ah, clay mixed in with the quartz? I assume this is different from pipeclay around alluvial workings? Just making sure I understand what sensitivity I need the GM on to get the best signal and ground penetration.

Cheers,

Pip.
Click to expand...
Hi mate, like above the pipeclay is white. Typically what happened was the pipeclay was is the decomposed bottom. On top of it was the harder wash, pebbles, sands, rocks etc. It was easier for the diggers to dig down through the hard wash, sometimes conglomerate, then tunnel along through the soft pipeclay tearing down the wash above them. Often you can, well you used to, find nice gold in the pipeclay as being once the bottom it had the best gold sitting on it and into it a little. That yellowy type clay that you can find around the reef workings was the surrounding clays or whatever that was around the area the reef was. You can find a huge amount of reef heaps in Castlemaine that are nothing more than the broken quartz and surrounding rock the reef was in, no clays or anything. Typically you can run anything crazy high on them. Yrs ago there I ran a Gold Master 4b cranked up into the boost zone. Damn that thing had some sensitivity on those heaps.
But yeah, that surrounding clay from the top part of the workings can be noisy in places.
Not all areas are the same too. Those big reef heaps and the reefs themselves are very different from indicator reefs worked around Dunolly and places like that. Those are typically much smaller in size and the refuse often contains very little quartz. Very different in appearance. Iv never done great detecting indicator reef refuse, the rich zones were easily identified and very little if anything left. Unlike the huge wide deep reefs like Castlemaine and other places similar where huge amounts of poor, poorer or barren quartz were discarded but worth detecting. I don't go there these days as im getting older and my knee amongst other things is too stuffed to get up and down those heaps slipping and sliding here and there on the loose stuff. Im a flat lander nowadays 😂
Im not familiar with the Gold Monster though and heard its gb is a bit different from other VLFs so I couldn't honestly offer any advice on how to run that.
Anyway good luck out there👍
 
Bully1 said:
Hi mate, like above the pipeclay is white. Typically what happened was the pipeclay was is the decomposed bottom. On top of it was the harder wash, pebbles, sands, rocks etc. It was easier for the diggers to dig down through the hard wash, sometimes conglomerate, then tunnel along through the soft pipeclay tearing down the wash above them. Often you can, well you used to, find nice gold in the pipeclay as being once the bottom it had the best gold sitting on it and into it a little. That yellowy type clay that you can find around the reef workings was the surrounding clays or whatever that was around the area the reef was. You can find a huge amount of reef heaps in Castlemaine that are nothing more than the broken quartz and surrounding rock the reef was in, no clays or anything. Typically you can run anything crazy high on them. Yrs ago there I ran a Gold Master 4b cranked up into the boost zone. Damn that thing had some sensitivity on those heaps.
But yeah, that surrounding clay from the top part of the workings can be noisy in places.
Not all areas are the same too. Those big reef heaps and the reefs themselves are very different from indicator reefs worked around Dunolly and places like that. Those are typically much smaller in size and the refuse often contains very little quartz. Very different in appearance. Iv never done great detecting indicator reef refuse, the rich zones were easily identified and very little if anything left. Unlike the huge wide deep reefs like Castlemaine and other places similar where huge amounts of poor, poorer or barren quartz were discarded but worth detecting. I don't go there these days as im getting older and my knee amongst other things is too stuffed to get up and down those heaps slipping and sliding here and there on the loose stuff. Im a flat lander nowadays 😂
Im not familiar with the Gold Monster though and heard its gb is a bit different from other VLFs so I couldn't honestly offer any advice on how to run that.
Anyway good luck out there👍
Click to expand...
Thank-you for the indepth rundown of the various soil compositions that are linked to pipeclay mounds, as well as the explanation as to why my detector was very chirpy amongst the Reef refuse. Its already influenced and how I will change my detecting locations and where I detect within those locations.

I've also seen a number of youtube videos of a young fella doing quite well in the conglomerate in Creswick. Finding some reasonably big nuggets (I think the biggest from memory was 4g). He was using a PI detector though (think it was an SDC of some kind), so I'm not sure if the GM will be as effective. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with the older VLF machines so, I'm not sure how the gold monster differs.

I've got a Doug Stone prospecting map for Ballarat and Creswick which is quite detailed. Its shows working, deeps leads and the like. However, it doesn't actually tell me which workings are reefs, surfacing or alluvial. As pipe clay is my best bet, I think I'll need to widen my research scope to find those alluvial areas where the GM shines.

As I work a 4 day week, I'm heading out again Friday for another scratch around. Looking forward to it!!

Cheers,

Pip.
 
ProspectingPip said:
Thank-you for the indepth rundown of the various soil compositions that are linked to pipeclay mounds, as well as the explanation as to why my detector was very chirpy amongst the Reef refuse. Its already influenced and how I will change my detecting locations and where I detect within those locations.

I've also seen a number of youtube videos of a young fella doing quite well in the conglomerate in Creswick. Finding some reasonably big nuggets (I think the biggest from memory was 4g). He was using a PI detector though (think it was an SDC of some kind), so I'm not sure if the GM will be as effective. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with the older VLF machines so, I'm not sure how the gold monster differs.

I've got a Doug Stone prospecting map for Ballarat and Creswick which is quite detailed. Its shows working, deeps leads and the like. However, it doesn't actually tell me which workings are reefs, surfacing or alluvial. As pipe clay is my best bet, I think I'll need to widen my research scope to find those alluvial areas where the GM shines.

As I work a 4 day week, I'm heading out again Friday for another scratch around. Looking forward to it!!

Cheers,

Pip.
Click to expand...
Hi mate. Glad to help, im no expert I can assure you and id put money on there being much better than me here.
😂 hey id probably be offering up less if I was still fit as a fiddle.
From what iv heard the Monster samples the ground different by taking readings from variable spots rather than the one when pumping up and down the traditional way.
Yeah, its try and see as far as mullock heaps makeup go, though the older deeper ones, the leads are more inclined to have pipeclay than the very shallow. Often hilltop deposits, remnants of an old lead or watercourse will contain it and or quieter throwout material.
Its pretty much try and see with some maps. Sheesh, I drove for half an hour through an area the other day looking for a gully on a map that I then came to the conclusion never even existed 🤣
Good luck mate.
 
Hi all,

Spent a few hours out in Creswick yesterday still acclimatising myself to the GM.

I picked up another set of maps by Stephen Barnahm for the Creswick gold feilds. These set of maps, although presented as mud maps, gave me clear visuals of reefs, mine dumps, puddlers, private property lines, etc.

So, I picked a map and aimed to some of the sections were workings were indicated.

Lots of mullock heaps (one was about 5 meters high), water races, and a huge gully. I was confident I would find my first piece.

So. Much. Lead. Shot. The lead gods were definitely smiling on me yesterday. Found three of them within a metre of each other. Ended up with about 8-9 pieces of lead shot. Ran the GM on manual 10 and backed it off to 9 when it got a little too noisy.

Starting to workout the tone sounds. The GM screams when it hit that lead shot. However, I'm still a little confused when hot rocks give off a similar signal.

Been out 4 times so far for about 15 hours in total. Its been a learning experience (also cheers for the tips and links guys. It has helped immensely)

So, no gold yet. But, at least I think I'm on the right track and am looking forward to my next trip out.

Cheers,

Pip
 
Last edited:
ProspectingPip said:
Spent a few hours out in Creswick yesterday still acclimatising myself to the GM.
I picked up another set of maps by Stephen Barnahm for the Creswick gold feilds. These set of maps, although presented as mud maps, gave me clear visuals of reefs, mine dumps, puddlers, private property lines, etc.
So, I picked a map and aimed to some of the sections were workings were indicated.
Lots of mullock heaps (one was about 5 meters high), water races, and a huge gully. I was confident I would find my first piece.
So. Much. Lead. Shot. The lead gods were definitely smiling on me yesterday. Found three of them within a metre of each other. Ended up with about 8-9 pieces of lead shot.
Click to expand...
The Barnham maps may look a bit rough but I reckon they're more likely to depict actual ground truth than those old Doug Stone ones.

When it comes to lead shot, PA members seem to average about 99 lead shot to 1 nugget! If you can better that ratio, you're doing well.
 
grubstake said:
The Barnham maps may look a bit rough but I reckon they're more likely to depict actual ground truth than those old Doug Stone ones.

When it comes to lead shot, PA members seem to average about 99 lead shot to 1 nugget! If you can better that ratio, you're doing well.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the Barnahm maps I found to be pretty good so far. Yes, they do look a bit rough but, the commentary that comes with each map is incredibly helpful. Its only brief commentary but, it does give me a little bit of insight into the areas I'm prospecting in.

99 lead shot to 1 nugget? Hmmm... I'll do my best to improve on that ratio but, in the meantime, 85ish lead shot to go. Haha!!

Cheers,

Pip.
 

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