Detecting a new area & methods used

[shakergt]

What do you do when you first come to a new area? Do you wander around in what looks like a good spot until you find some gold and then grid or chain or do you start chaining and griding right away? What ever method used why do you do this?

I look for a good spot and start wandering around until I find something. Then I chain. I don't know if this has any advantages or not. I'm sure people can help me out on this.

 

[aussie84]

Id love to hear some responses as well. Ive recently moved to a known gold area but have found only one small piece in the 8+ times Ive visited the park. I cant tell if Im doing something wrong with the detector, looking in the wrong areas or maybe the gold is all too deep to access. Maybe the park is all fished out. I dont know. Being new to this and after watching a number of YouTube videos I honestly thought Id at least manage a few tiny pieces each time I went out. Still love going out there to kill some time and relax but Im a long way from the kind of if experience I was expecting. Using an SDC and equinox.

 

[madtuna]

Sometimes I pop on a chain right from the start before I even find a piece.

Never dismiss unlikely looking ground if its in a known gold field either, especially if the gold is in the cap. Whats on top may have no reflection on whats under.
Also never dismiss ground youve walked through before and not found a bit. I cant tell you how many times Ive walked right through the middle of a very productive patch a number of times before hitting a bit. Once youve hit that first bit slow right down, also try and work out what type of gold it is.

After a while youll build up a sort of mental library of ground types, where youve found gold before. Look for contact zones and out crops, and wash zone etc..
Always trust your gear, yourself and your gut feeelings.

 

[Syndyne]

Right on the money MT!

It takes time to get comfortable knowing what you're looking at, particularly if going at it alone. The confidence will come eventually. I recall someone mentioning on one of the old threads here that you do 99% of prospecting with your eyes. That's certainly true to an extent, but you definitely can't see into the ground so that's where the detector plays an important role. Also have a wander with the pick and just have a scratch into the ground here and there. If you come across nice Clay/Quartz wash in areas of old Alluvial action then it could be worth a detect. It took me a few years to understand what's going on in some of the old goldfields and I'm still learning new stuff every trip!

There's also a myriad of great tips in Loamer's thread on here if you get the time to give it a read through. I highly recommend taking a few notes and keeping them as a handy reference :Y:

http://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2042

Cheers,
Shauno.

 

[shakergt]

Sometimes I pop on a chain right from the start before I even find a piece.

Never dismiss unlikely looking ground if its in a known gold field either, especially if the gold is in the cap. Whats on top may have no reflection on whats under.
Also never dismiss ground youve walked through before and not found a bit. I cant tell you how many times Ive walked right through the middle of a very productive patch a number of times before hitting a bit. Once youve hit that first bit slow right down, also try and work out what type of gold it is.

After a while youll build up a sort of mental library of ground types, where youve found gold before. Look for contact zones and out crops, and wash zone etc..
Always trust your gear, yourself and your gut feeelings.

So true madtuna my first ever bit was found on ground heavily detected. I had been going for hours and covered many kilometres when at the end of the day I found a .5 Gramer right next to the car. unfortinatly there was no other bits found. My gut feeling was right though as the gold was found in an area that looked good.

 

[madtuna]

Good stuff. Now what made you stop the car there to begin with?
Although it can be a bit of a pain in the bum, when in the middle of no where and you come across what you think is promising looking ground, only to come across dig holes or signs of gold having been there. Take it as a sign that youre on the right track and reading the ground correctly, just someone beat you to it.

 

[shakergt]

The quartz blow, the dried up creek bed and old mines is what made me park up. Also it is a known area for gold. I did come across a few dig holes after I had been going for sometime so I did take that as a good sign. Who ever had done the dig holes did not take the time to fill them in which was frustrating because I nearly tripped in one.