⭐ Gold Detecting Show'n Tell

[GoldnJules]

Do it Jules, it works very well, just submerge and shake every day for W week or so.

Just had thought - what type of container can I put it in?

 

[Moneybox]

Just had thought - what type of container can I put it in?

Not metal or glass. We use a plastic vitamin bottle and just lift the nuggets in and out with a plastic spoon being careful to not splash the acid.

 

[Dave's Office]

The other day I found two smallish rocks - one quartz and the other ironstone - and both gave good signals. I brought them home and a friend helped to break them up and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much gold was in them. Not enough to retire on, but this was only my third time out so I was very happy.

I would like to get peoples advice on what is the best way to extract the gold from rocks like these? Or is it better not to extract? My piece of quartz was nowhere near as big and impressive as Stingray’s.

Also, I have just read about an acid bath. Can someone please explain how to do an acid bath, and when would you use it?

Thanks all.
Cheers
Jules
View attachment 520

Albrecht is extremely effective at cleaning up the gold Jules but wear gloves and eye protection and be very careful as it is very corrosive. Cheers Dave

 

[Dave's Office]

Damn predictive text, I meant to write Alibright

 

[GoldnJules]

Damn predictive text, I meant to write Alibright

That’s okay, I’ve found it on their website so I’ll get some tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[Stingray]

Have you thought about slicing it in two with a diamond saw and polishing the two flat cut surfaces to display the gold inside? Could make two sensational (and very valuable) display pieces.

No I hadn't thought about that Hawkear - great idea. I certainly don't want to dolly it. Cheers

 

[Stingray]

Near the surface with a metal detector or out of a mine?

Found with a metal detector in a creek after clearing and taking about a foot of loam off the top. It gave a nice broad signal and was about another 800 or so mm down. I didn't detect the area where we got the bit in the photo after just clearing, only after removing some loam, but I reckon the first bit would have been heard from the surface as well, with both machines. That's because we found a similar bit close by and that was easily heard after just clearing the vegetation. It was at a similar depth, maybe a touch less - around a metre or so I guess - but a bit bigger (~425g gold) and gave a great signal with a 4500 and 13x17 Evo. The 7000 with a 19in coil still gave a signal when you waved the coil over it a foot or more off the ground.

I use a 4500 and the trick is to be able to do a sweep slow enough (painfully slow I call it) and long enough, to generate and then hear the soft inverted signal, but not too long that hinders hearing the repeated aspect of the signal. That is why it is difficult to find the ones hiding deep under or near vegetation. I hope that makes sense...

I can't stress how important it is to go low... and slow... and long... otherwise all bets are off.

For those interested in how I use the 4500, I don't bother using the special timings or general, too much like hard work IMHO (chasing ground noise and hot rocks), I just use Enhance and crank the gain up as high as possible but generally keep it around 12 to 14. Lower when prospecting (~12/13), higher when gridding (~13/14). My machine and coil seems to punch as deep and sometimes deeper on moderate size bits (~10g) than the 7000 with a standard 13 in coil on the ground I have worked. I use a 6000 when on little bits and it is deadly for doing the bottom.

 

[20x]

Found with a metal detector in a creek after clearing and taking about a foot of loam off the top. It gave a nice broad signal and was about another 800 or so mm down. I didn't detect the area where we got the bit in the photo after just clearing, only after removing some loam, but I reckon the first bit would have been heard from the surface as well, with both machines. That's because we found a similar bit close by and that was easily heard after just clearing the vegetation. It was at a similar depth, maybe a touch less - around a metre or so I guess - but a bit bigger (~425g gold) and gave a great signal with a 4500 and 13x17 Evo. The 7000 with a 19in coil still gave a signal when you waved the coil over it a foot or more off the ground.

I use a 4500 and the trick is to be able to do a sweep slow enough (painfully slow I call it) and long enough, to generate and then hear the soft inverted signal, but not too long that hinders hearing the repeated aspect of the signal. That is why it is difficult to find the ones hiding deep under or near vegetation. I hope that makes sense...

I can't stress how important it is to go low... and slow... and long... otherwise all bets are off.

For those interested in how I use the 4500, I don't bother using the special timings or general, too much like hard work IMHO (chasing ground noise and hot rocks), I just use Enhance and crank the gain up as high as possible but generally keep it around 12 to 14. Lower when prospecting (~12/13), higher when gridding (~13/14). My machine and coil seems to punch as deep and sometimes deeper on moderate size bits (~10g) than the 7000 with a standard 13 in coil on the ground I have worked. I use a 6000 when on little bits and it is deadly for doing the bottom.

I'm inspired, I've got a 17 x 13 I haven't used yet and I'm getting pretty exhausted from the 12 cause I dig EVERY break in threshold.
I'm finding ground noise and hot rocks frustrating, in tracking it's not so bad but I've found that compared to fixed I'm losing heaps of performance but then the hot rock and ground noise is worse..
I will try your settings for sure, but is it enhanced in tracking or fixed?

 

[Stingray]

I am glad someone got some inspiration mate, that was my reason for posting.

In answer to your question. Tracking is always in fixed. The other tip I can give you is to set the motion to 'very slow' and set the detector to 'deep' in the menu AND on the the panel. Thats deep, deep. I know it says you shouldn't, but it works for me. These settings will quieten the whole thing down but retain heaps of sensitivity.

Re digging every break in threshold. There are lots of times you can conjure up a bit, apparently out of nowhere by doing what you are doing. I do it all the time and you should too. But, remember that you can't 'make' a bit appear by friggin around with the faintest of faint signals. It has to be there in the first place. I have to remind myself of this, particularly when on a lean patch and frustration, and a little doubt, kicks in. So my advice is to be keen, but keep objective and don't over do it.

The key thing that my conscious/subconscious is listening for is a repeated 'something'. A break, a groan a bip, whatever, anything - if it repeats, and you're properly ground balanced, then your detector has done its job. Over to you to investigate.

Good luck mate .

 

[Potbelly11]

I am glad someone got some inspiration mate, that was my reason for posting.

In answer to your question. Tracking is always in fixed. The other tip I can give you is to set the motion to 'very slow' and set the detector to 'deep' in the menu AND on the the panel. Thats deep, deep. I know it says you shouldn't, but it works for me. These settings will quieten the whole thing down but retain heaps of sensitivity.

Re digging every break in threshold. There are lots of times you can conjure up a bit, apparently out of nowhere by doing what you are doing. I do it all the time and you should too. But, remember that you can't 'make' a bit appear by friggin around with the faintest of faint signals. It has to be there in the first place. I have to remind myself of this, particularly when on a lean patch and frustration, and a little doubt, kicks in. So my advice is to be keen, but keep objective and don't over do it.

The key thing that my conscious/subconscious is listening for is a repeated 'something'. A break, a groan a bip, whatever, anything - if it repeats, and you're properly ground balanced, then your detector has done its job. Over to you to investigate.

Good luck mate .

I feel like a YouTube video is in order explaining your 4500 settings for different scenarios I'm over ground noise

 

[20x]

The 5000 doesn't have deep, deep, so I can only go deep on the panel and in fine gold..?

 

[Stingray]

No 20x it does have deep, it's in Audio Type. Fine Gold is one of the setting under Special. That's not what you want. You want to select Enhance on the front panel, not Special. When you are in Enhance all the settings you have under the Special menu are not relevant. Hope that helps.

 

[Redfin]

Unrwapping the GPX 5000 - here

The Seta Project [4500] - here

Are the very best instructional Vid by Jonathon Porter, will take some tracking down after all these years but worth it.

 

[20x]

No 20x it does have deep, it's in Audio Type. Fine Gold is one of the setting under Special. That's not what you want. You want to select Enhance on the front panel, not Special. When you are in Enhance all the settings you have under the Special menu are not relevant. Hope that helps.

Roger that mate, found it
Loving the thought of this, is why I chose the 5000, coz of all the settings to play with

 

[Stingray]

Pottbelly said he would like an instructional video. I might try this season, but in the meantime I've just worked out how to upload videos so here is a little bit more that might help explain. FYI the piece in the video is smaller than the other, weighed about 7 oz with about 5 oz of gold in it. And that's my old man, the last time he came out at the ripe age of 90 - his last bit was a 2 ouncer - doesn't get much better than that!. Great memories - worth more than gold. And a big thanks to our good mate John who brought him up to see me and took the videos.

The first vid shows how slow I go when I am in the zone. I bet you right now that you swing way faster than that. You can see what I mean by 'painfully slow'. I look at that now and it looks too slow, but that's how it is. I probably go a little faster now (but only slightly) and I do go faster than that when just prospecting, but you get the idea. You can also see how I overlap the swing to ensure coverage (see comment about that below as well). Also have to keep the coil low and flat. I have also levelled the ground as much as possible to be able to stay as low as possible and to reduce noise. Obviously this is on a lease and not what you would do normally, but even after using the excavator I rake away the rocks or run back and forth using the tracks to push the rocks in before I detect.

The second shows a signal in the hole. The vid wasn't taken to be instructional but you can get a few things from it. You can hear the inverted signal. Secondly I switch the machine to cancel to help pinpoint the signal. Switching to cancel when in mono mode dumbs it right down allowing you to get closer to a big target without overloading. Just make sure you switch back before you head off again. I've done it and you will too. Just try and make it infrequent cos there is nothing worse than detecting in cancel, just a complete waste of time.

The third vid is digging up the bit. Take home message from this one is just add water. Makes the whole process way way easier. Having an excavator to dig the hole comes in handy as well .

The last I added because you can hear at the time we estimated the bit was about 800 mm down. That signal was only over an area no larger than a small dinner plate on the surface. If the centre of the coil didn't pass over the 'plate', you heard nothing but the threshold hum. Take home from that is you have to overlap your coil path. It was quite soft but a clear inverted signal, and clear enough for my old man and his mate to hear it through the speaker when sitting about 6 m away.

Lastly, I am not a fan of playing around too much with my settings. I just vary the gain occasionally when I have to. I am a firm believer in getting to know your machine, so it becomes like a sixth sense - I have written about that before somewhere and won't repeat it here for the risk of boring you.

Anyway, I hope you get something out of the vids and my explanations, and they make sense.

Good luck and let me know when you find a decent bit!

Stingray

View attachment Detecting 1.mov
View attachment Signal 1.m4v
View attachment Digging specie 1.mov
View attachment Dad and specie 1.mov

 

[20x]

This is the ultimate gold challenge,
and I except

 

[user 12139]

your certainly onto it there Stingray.. a good technique always wins!
I hope you continue to get rewarded for a long time to come.. lovely to see mate and thanks for sharing

 

[Teemore]

Nothing great but 1st time I've used the DD on the 6000.

 

[Dog Ranger]

Didn't find the gold but no issue with bed rock

 

[Mirrors]

Unrwapping the GPX 5000 - here

The Seta Project [4500] - here

Are the very best instructional Vid by Jonathon Porter, will take some tracking down after all these years but worth it.

Seta 404