1st day out for 2015

[Goldtarget]

Teamed up for two hours, a pi and my vlf working in tandem, cleaning up a hillside. Working on the down slope reef side we went to task on all the good signals. Every one felt likely but only one good target to the pi user. A tiny sub grammer (.3) but we will be back.

So convincing were these ones I clipped the lot to be sure. Lead mostly and a few aluminium. Target ids make it hard to tell for the hack that I am detecting wise.

My targets for the session.

 

[Oldfella]

I like finding bullets and shot pellets as it tells me that the area hasn't had many people over it and also proves that the old detector is working. You wont miss any decent gold, just have to wave that coil over it

 

[Copper]

I dig em all anyway, you should see my scrap collection! The one you don't dig will be a 2kg nugget everyone else has skipped over.

Keep us posted on the next day your out, I love people's stories.

Cheers mate
Copper

 

[Goldtarget]

Well it certainly had my adrenaline levels up, I'm a rock washer after all so any decent target had me excited. I pulled a few of these fairly deep even with my machines limitations. Might see if I can borrow/hire an Sdc at some point. The reality was we probably only covered a 105 metre area, best to try and get the job done right than vague wanderings. I worked up and the other detector down until we crossed over to where the other began. I suspect further downslope in some of the depressions might hold some small surprises. The area had been fairly well worked in the past with deeper mining and plenty of it. It has had a few owners in the last two decades, this facing has seen so much rubbish though it might be one a the few areas left in the surrounds that hasn't seen alot of detecting, and the reason we chose it and why I took the vlf. Helped speed up recognizing and retrieving the junky ferrous out of the area.

I suspect it may be more of the same but we won't die wondering. Might be a while before I get there again, this hot weather will have a few snakes crawling and very few areas where you have open ground to see. I don't mind waiting though, any prospecting is good prospecting. And I could definitely use the practice and the guidance. You never know what the next thing under the coil might be.

 

[20x]

I like finding bullets and shot pellets as it tells me that the area hasn't had many people over it and also proves that the old detector is working. You wont miss any decent gold, just have to wave that coil over it

very interesting and posative thinking

 

[20x]

Well it certainly had my adrenaline levels up, I'm a rock washer after all so any decent target had me excited. I pulled a few of these fairly deep even with my machines limitations. Might see if I can borrow/hire an Sdc at some point. The reality was we probably only covered a 105 metre area, best to try and get the job done right than vague wanderings. I worked up and the other detector down until we crossed over to where the other began. I suspect further downslope in some of the depressions might hold some small surprises. The area had been fairly well worked in the past with deeper mining and plenty of it. It has had a few owners in the last two decades, this facing has seen so much rubbish though it might be one a the few areas left in the surrounds that hasn't seen alot of detecting, and the reason we chose it and why I took the vlf. Helped speed up recognizing and retrieving the junky ferrous out of the area.

I suspect it may be more of the same but we won't die wondering. Might be a while before I get there again, this hot weather will have a few snakes crawling and very few areas where you have open ground to see. I don't mind waiting though, any prospecting is good prospecting. And I could definitely use the practice and the guidance. You never know what the next thing under the coil might be.

keep seeking and you WILL find!

 

[Metamorphic]

The reality was we probably only covered a 105 metre area, best to try and get the job done right than vague wanderings. I worked up and the other detector down until we crossed over to where the other began. I suspect further downslope in some of the depressions might hold some small surprises.
I suspect it may be more of the same but we won't die wondering.

Excellent technique and aforethought put in GT.......keep this up and its going to be under your coil very soon mate.

I love it when someone has a plan they put a lot of thought into, and they stick to it.

P.S Nothing wrong with a good, well tuned VLF that the operator knows inside out!
They find gold.

Keep us posted

 

[blacksand]

GT, I'm thinking the same, if I'm getting no junk at all then the areas has been well gone over by multiple detectors, happy to enjoy the exciting and disappointment of some junk to know that it is fairly fresh ground. This is even more so when I know the area has given up gold in the past.

One newbie question I had was about how to decide which quieter sound to dig, do you at least scrap them all to see if it is ground noise? It seems all the loud stuff is junk and more than likely the gold will be a bit deeper and quieter but I'm struggling to decide which ones to dig, especially in noisy ground. I have a 5000 and I haven't yet got the hang of any differences in tone (other than bullets that half deafen me through the speakers

 

[Metamorphic]

My advice has always been......dig everything!

Don't think you know whats under the coil before you have dug it. You will almost certainly leave good gold behind if you do this, regardless of machine.

Gold can and will give slightly differing tones depending on many factors.

1. Size, shape, depth of gold and which way it is lying in the ground.

2. Host rock it may be attached too. ie Ironstone etc.

3. Type of strata (ground soil and conditions) its coming from.

4. Signal masking by junk sitting on top of slightly deeper gold.

These are just a few.

Know one likes the extra time and effort I know, but here in lies the trade off........Gold will not give itself up to you easily!

There are no short cuts in this trade, if you take them, you risk missing what your after.

 

[Guest]

Teamed up for two hours, a pi and my vlf working in tandem, cleaning up a hillside. Working on the down slope reef side we went to task on all the good signals. Every one felt likely but only one good target to the pi user. A tiny sub grammer (.3) but we will be back.

So convincing were these ones I clipped the lot to be sure. Lead mostly and a few aluminium. Target ids make it hard to tell for the hack that I am detecting wise.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/2152/1420112846_img_20150101_201152.jpg
My targets for the session.

was the sign on the gate 'rifle range' :lol:

i feel ya pain

dig every hit

 

[Goldtarget]

GT, I'm thinking the same, if I'm getting no junk at all then the areas has been well gone over by multiple detectors, happy to enjoy the exciting and disappointment of some junk to know that it is fairly fresh ground. This is even more so when I know the area has given up gold in the past.

One newbie question I had was about how to decide which quieter sound to dig, do you at least scrap them all to see if it is ground noise? It seems all the loud stuff is junk and more than likely the gold will be a bit deeper and quieter but I'm struggling to decide which ones to dig, especially in noisy ground. I have a 5000 and I haven't yet got the hang of any differences in tone (other than bullets that half deafen me through the speakers

Mate I'm no pi man and hardly an accomplished detectorist. I coin shoot which helps with understanding the machine and the ground. My machine has a target id, I just ran all metal, flat out sensitivity as possible for the ground (around 70-85), slight negative gb figure, slight positive threshold figure, get low and slow, foot rake, move around just making sure the coil is scrubbing as much of the ground as possible, running full volume through quality headphones I rest on my shoulders so I can hear.

I've had the machine for a while so I get the chatter coming through and just listen for the tones that indicate something, usually if it's something good but deep I can hear and adjust and catch the threshold drop out that indicates a potentially solid good target. In that instance I move around the target and swing different ways to get a consistant repeating and/or dig and check again after the first couple of inches chopped away.

Depending on orientation and depth the signal can boom or whisper but 99% of the time if it flutters from a different direction on the swing it will be a target. The ids will be all over the place until you are in a good range, except ferrous targets which become quite solid pretty early. The id for gold, melted aly and lead are very similar until your in about 3 inches even then it can be tough to tell. Air tests don't really help, mostly because you know it's there haha.

I trust the pi for depth and the operator in this case to use it correctly. We flashed the vlf over a few to help interpret signals and as a learning curve for me, every dig from the pi was a target, and the .3 was anyone's it was maybe an inch and a half down and very flat. All those odd shaped targets in my pic responded almost exactly like the piece we picked up.

For what is worth most everyone I know with a pi takes a few good lessons from someone capable to hasten the learning curve, and I will admit again mate I'm a hack despite playing pick hand for some sharp guys. Like everything else mate experience counts for alot.

 

[Goldtarget]

The reality was we probably only covered a 105 metre area, best to try and get the job done right than vague wanderings. I worked up and the other detector down until we crossed over to where the other began. I suspect further downslope in some of the depressions might hold some small surprises.
I suspect it may be more of the same but we won't die wondering.

Excellent technique and aforethought put in GT.......keep this up and its going to be under your coil very soon mate.

I love it when someone has a plan they put a lot of thought into, and they stick to it.

P.S Nothing wrong with a good, well tuned VLF that the operator knows inside out!
They find gold.

Keep us posted

Mate the minute I hit a multi grammer I'll be straight into retirement. I have alot of respect for the guys that hit regular gold. It's just a personal challenge I have set for myself this year to enjoy other aspects of prospecting. I lost all inclination after owning a 3000 and despite many many many holes and hours of fruitless effort I gave up and sold the machine in disgust. Hopefully I've grown a little and coming back to it to exercise the demons I created for myself in that time. It's more about character than the gold.

 

[Oldfella]

Here's a couple of things that I do to find gold on a regular basis, yes, I do have a couple of secret spots but this is what I have noticed about any area that has given gold that people frequent.
1 - Most people get attracted to the same spots within an area.
2 - Excitement/Impatience making the search too fast therefor missing a lot of ground.
3 - Detecting small areas then moving on as if the grass is always going to be greener on the other side of the fence.
4 - Thinking that they can identify the target by the sound. plus many other reasons.

Before you detect an area, stand back and take a good look and try to picture where all the heavier objects may have moved to, search below all the obvious spots, then above. Dig all targets and most importantly, pretend that you have already found a nugget and treat the area as such, low and slow gridding the ground or whatever technique that you can use so that you get your coil over all of the ground in your chosen area.

Once you have covered the area and have found gold, do it again this time attacking it from a different direction (90 degrees) then change coils - Larger then smaller to clean up. These are some of my techniques that I use and have given me regular gold even in :lol: Should I say it... Flogged ground

Cheers

 

[Golddiggergirls]

Great posts and topic everyone....!

Oldfella you make some really good points, thanks for sharing them.

I learnt the hard way with an area the size of a 25 metre swimming pool in my first session in W.A. I thought I had got most of the gold and anyway when I left my mates decided to give the area a go over to see if there was anything left. And gee they ended picking up a few grams, simply by changing the coil and moving some big branches.

As a newbie I did not know what I did not know and so it is good to learn not only by experience but by tips shared from fellow operators at all levels of know how.

And Goldtarget, well done on your persistance. That is agreat attitude you have and I hope you get some nice nuggets in the not too distant future. And indeed the tip to dig every target is a good one. There has been a few times I have though, "oh this is just a piece of junk" then low and behold it is a nugget.

Cheers,
Bec.

 

[Goldtarget]

Heading out there shortly, best of both worlds. Dry ground and soft steady rain. Might get an hour in if the weather holds. After my week I could use it. Went last night but my batteries died like 3 mins in. Bloody Murphy.

 

[Goldtarget]

Well well you never know what is going to turn up. A tree had taken a dive right across the access road so not to be defeated I headed off to another spot I've been to before and barely scratched the surface. It's a bit out of the way and although it's probably seen its share of detectorists some of the far flung diggings in the surrounds would have seen less. Picked up a couple bits of lead shot, a shell, and some fuggets. It's times like that I can confidently say the area has only seen limited action. Anyway I was getting cold and wet so I started back. I rarely turn the detector off and I'm glad I didn't tonight.

I walked using a phone app retracing my steps but went a little bit more westerly in an arc rather than a beeline, having a look around. Suddenly I was getting heaps of signals, and as I kept on it came to a slight clearing. After running the detector over I do believe I found an old mining camp. I can't say for sure but its pretty central to the digs, and these buttons hint at the same conclusion. Nothing modern came out, plenty of boot tacks, small pieces of iron like hooks and smashed cast pots, and some indiscriminate junk. I only got less than 15 mins to pull a few targets but they were reasonably shallow.

The middle button has London printed on the bottom. The rest of the writing is difficult to see, and the top button needs some careful cleaning to read but has the cotton (?) Still attached. If it does turn out to be a camp I'll let the local museum know, and donate the finds. Made my day.

 

[Matt Duncan]

Good on ya Gold target. I am going to see a pic of a nugget you find on here soon I can just tell. Just keep having fun and they will turn up. Also Gold digger girls, I love your YouTube vids. They are really cool.
Matt

 

[Goldtarget]

Cheers Matt. I appreciate the encouragement. It's nice having a bunch of accomplished detectorists sharing words of wisdom. I'm having alot of fun getting some coil time in, thinking I might get something more suited to the task before the year is out and practice good technique in the meantime. Detectors seem to becoming pretty damn good value on the secondhand market. In recent times I've seen the spp at $900, sdc at $2500 and alot of the GP series and 2200D come down more than a grand off on a regular basis over the last 12-18 months. I'll wait it out for a bit longer but bang for buck these are good times currently. There's plenty of blokes around who have had enough time to give me a pretty big head start on operations.