Hi All,
I just wanted to update this thread with some more images and details on findings etc - and hopefully cover some notes for all level operators
After reviewing my notes before heading out today I noticed a pattern which I had overlooked for quite some time, I guess sometimes weighing up whether to search and prospect new ground with the chance of finding virgin ground or studying recent finds that I have marked on my Google Earth files, I looked at a section which I had found numerous pieces over the years and looked at what are the chances of certain area's that I missed that I could focus my skills and abilities of my machine in these area's.
After making the decision to go out to this ground to study some more I noticed in my earlier days that I had overlooked many spots - hopefully this can also help other to see what I mean and help in grounds that may be of similar minerals in your area - perseverance persistence and patience.
In the area that I didn't focus on much because many operators would understand it can be frustrating at times but as you get more experienced it becomes easier to define these signals
The ground is covered with ironstone rich and not so rich, red clay in some area's, charcoal, sticks, very uneven ground - when you put all of these into one area we get constant changes in the ground noises, wobbly sounds all over the place. Don't let this deter you and if you have these area's go back and let me tell you to "tie your shoe laces together" - use the sensitive spot on the coil and move very slowly trying not to lift the coil because as we know it will cause a signal much like a target, even when you run the coil across the marbles you will get a wobbly sound. Listen for that faint dip in threshold not so much a solid signal.
Its hard to explain its like a sixth sense that is obtained through experience in the fields. I also like to have the headphones in tighter than standard because it bring the sound focus level more balanced between your ears - the more you can focus on the sound of the coil rather than any inferior sounds from the environment, walking, sticks breaking, wind, vehicles etc anything outside of the earphones takes away some concentration of sounds. Thats why I don't use speaker and only headphones. Try it next time your out you will see what I mean when your detecting try putting pressure on both sides of the headphones applying more pressure against your ears and see the difference it brings on the clarity or quality of the sounds in these high mineralized iron patches
If you get a really noisy patch of ground where it wobbles all over the place no matter how much you balance the machine - due to iron levels it distinguishes these as faint soft signals - if the ironstone is solid then keep the rock a solid ironstone rock can have gold if solid enough. So now you have this noisy wobbly ground - get yourself a small lead pellet or buck shot/shotgun pellet and bury it 1 inch or 2 inches below the surface until you can only just hear the sound - now try to distinguish this will all the other wobbly ironstone sounds. Keep doing this until you tune your senses for these slight differences in the threshold dip.
Ok now I have explained that Hopefully it will help someone
Lets talk about today hunting and explain these pictures
1. In these images you can see that the ground is uneven, covered with conglomerate wash in area's - like little pebbles or marbles with ironstone and quartz, you can also see some coal from burn offs. I also in the 4th image is signs of other detector operators and others scattered but not focused - you can tell because the grounds are covered with overburden - many cleaned focused area's would be an easy sign of someone thoroughly searching
In the the images you will see my hole - with bits of coal and some top soil overburden in the shallow where I found the target - in the last image ironstone marble with gold poking out on one side - very faint but distinguished between wobbly and dip - turns out after cleaning 0.27g and it was roughly 2 inches down.
2. In these images you can see more iron stone marbles - this was only 6 feet away from the previous piece - I had to move a large branch to get an easy slide of the coil but the sound I could only just hear with the branch in the way - you can see the black coal marks where the branch was on the ground - still solid enough to notice it wasn't ground noise. When I dug the target out roughly 8 inches deep was another nice piece of gold -
Its great to see yellow through the dirt. Now in this same section we always check our holes again I was getting a sound and I don't know why maybe its just instinct to scrape the top around the holes as well - this sound was not easily distinguished but maybe because my instinct tells me to scrape the ground around the hole - I heard the faint dip in the threshold and scraped some more to unearth a nice little specimen just up from this piece of Gold
3. I walked further down after the 3 pieces in the previous area, tomorrow will be clean thoroughly of the marble ironstone area in the shallows of the mullocks and scrape more from the top of the wash material - in this area is similar type minerals just less noisy more quartz with sandy type wash material - I came across another signal after kicking away some sticks - you can see how dirty the area is in these images, fallen branches, overburden, sticks, etc - I usually walk through these area's detecting an area, then moving sticks into that area, moving through as I clean overburden into each window that I have came from and when you look back it still appears the same much like no one has thoroughly cleaned and detected the area.
When you look at the hole where I found the first target here - have a look at the depth of the top overburden on the original workings - by scraping this away you can increase your depth considerably - here it was at least 4 inches over overburden top soil bark leaves. Now in this hole was some nice looking pay dirt type material - the sound was very wobbly but definitely a wobbly solid signal - I thought before digging from swinging both ways it sounded like 2 targets at different depth but close together - after removing the first target and a nice piece of water worn gold - again in the hole a second target 3 inches below and another piece of Gold
4. Total 5 pieces today - Before Cleaning
5. After semi cleaning - I crushed the little marble you can see the 0.27g piece in this image the other specimen I might acid brush to see if it is a nice gold top or whether it would be best just crushed to remove other minerals.
2 Hours out total Gold Weight 6.9g
Earlier when I mentioned about tying your shoe laces together keep this in mind when detecting on the speed to travel very small steps, focus focus focus on those dips in threshold - you will see what I mean when in noisy ground with that buck shot.
If there are area's where you found gold previously but noticed these area's of high minerals and walked away because you couldn't concentrate - go back and really give it a go - you may be surprised
If in doubt - scrape the top get closer to that sound that you may have thought was ground mineral wobble and find that target.
What this also does is increases your chance - any deterrent for other operators is always a benefit for the persistent
Look at ways to increase your chances always
Ask yourself why didn't I ever go back to this area when I have found good gold, was it because I thought I had covered the whole area, maybe that was the psychology when you went back 5 times and didn't find color, so in your mind there is no more gold and every time you went back your style changed, swinging faster, walking sporadically with no clear direction. Moving too fast in hope to find gold faster
Also some people get stuck in a pattern of testing the mullocks, walk a bit test another mullock, maybe a bit into the holes and no clear direction, I search as much as possible every part of the ground in and around the old workings can contain gold whether missed from wash, dropped in travel, or virgin ground - test it all and at every angle possible
If you are stuck in a pattern and wonder why you aren't finding gold - look outside the box and maybe you need to change this pattern and best way I can say is search all, mullocks, highs, lows, undulated areas, edges, around tree's, in the holes remember people get stuck in the pattern maybe you have found 5 bits of crap in the bottom of the hole and in your brain immediately a trigger is set to tell you not to worry about this part of the ground, maybe you think all people must just throw the crap in the test holes to search all other ground, why are the test holes there because the level of the most important ground is this depth thats why the old timers dug that deep to obtain the pay dirt
If your prospecting for virgin ground at no workings this takes extreme patience and persistence - think of your detector as an electronic loaming machine when looking for virgin ground - you may just find a good hillside and track a virgin gully
- or take some samples from virgin gully and pan it to look for signs of gold
If you have this type of ground share your efforts here on the thread
All the best to all and hope you get something of use in this post. Good luck - Happy hunting