Detecting Madness!

[Metamorphic]

Warning: Colourful prospecting language!

The story begins with me, my good mate and forum member 'Big Nugget'.

Now Im not to bad, but I consider BN to be somewhat of a research guru on the VIC goldfields! The man is just outstanding.

We both do our homework and agree to target a known, very rich modern type alluvial patch (circa 1985), the following weekend within the Golden Triangle.

We arrive, get our GPS bearings, setup camp quite late, and spend the remainder of the evening sucking a few coldies around the campfire!

Next morning we are both into it........I target the low lying area of the patch whilst BN works the quartz strewn slope heading towards the anticline!

Im stopped in my tracks at a rather large, very old, Ironbark tree stump that produces some sweet sounding strong signals on the TDI Pro (6" Detech mono coil).

Now i dont mind admitting my heart is starting to race just a little, an old stump of some standing, possibly an ideal gold trap among the roots and I have dug about a foot around the roots for the last half hour and its still in the ground?? WTF?

Watch the video.....

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/K2az4McohpM[/video]

Now BN is armed with the nuclear capable GPZ7000, and due to my excitement i decide to call him over.

Can anyone tell me why i not only found zero gold, but was so embarrassed i could have crawled in the hole and covered it on top of me!

What was my fatal mistake?

 

[SCROUNGER]

You didn't check inside the stump Meta?????

 

[SCROUNGER]

You're being punished for using profanities on camera :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[SCROUNGER]

You didn't call Big Nugget over earlier to sort it out for you???? :lol: :lol: Sorry mate, couldn't resist that one :lol:

 

[Wally69]

Other than stumps being a fantastic receptacle for spent coldies, I would have fixed your coil cord to the shaft in a more secure fashion.

 

[Big Nugget]

had me for a minute too. We both had a good laugh at ourselves however we did remove the offending vintage VB can with the barby tongs as you just never know.
the worst you could have done is walked away without checking it

 

[SCROUNGER]

I reckon the give away was that the signal was louder at ground level right around the stump and seemed quieter deeper in the hole. But post #4 still stands Meta, sorry mate :lol: :lol:

 

[Metamorphic]

Yeh you hit the nail there scrounger and Wally!

I fell for the old, beer can in the stump trick, but it wasnt that black and white.

They were deep in a large stump covered by dirt and shavings from wood weathering. (thats my excuse and im sticking too it)

I called BN over with the Zed and he was originally just as perplexed as i was, but he had the brains to look inside the small hollow, move a bit of covering to reveal the culprits.

He looked over to me and said, "you bloody idiot"......I said in my best voice, "What? no dont tell me"

Yep, Meta is a noob. Lol

(PS...they were really old beer cans and one was an old style Carlton light can....I figured the coinshooters must have been there, maybe silver and RJ :lol: )

 

[Chewy]

I had the honor of learning that 1 when I went out with coiltek for a training day, I must have chased signals around that bloody tree stump for half an hour. That, and the lead dropped down an ant hole. Lol :lol:

 

[Metamorphic]

Enforces what they say about gold fever hey!

Was so engrossed in what might have been, I overlooked what the site was actually telling me, and what any normal being would have checked first.

Was funny though.....F***ing not!

 

[SCROUNGER]

Yep, and the annoying thing as you say is that gold is often found around stumps and the bases of trees and we silly bastards think 'that's a good place to throw the shot or nail or can or horse shoes etc etc etc" The joke ends up being on us :lol:

 

[Chewy]

So did you check for signals after the vb can got evicted? Thats bit I have forgotten in the past.

 

[deepblue]

Been there done that too, then we forget until the next time.
Happens to all of us at sometime don't feel so bad.

 

[Metamorphic]

So did you check for signals after the vb can got evicted? Thats bit I have forgotten in the past.

Yeh mate, was a deep reach though.....as BN said, couldnt reach em with my arm, had to scoot back to camp and grab the long handle bbq tongs!

Cans finally removed.....no more signals

They got me good mate

 

[Big Nugget]

So did you check for signals after the vb can got evicted? Thats bit I have forgotten in the past.

certainly did Chewy. Wouldnt be the first time, or the last, a biggin was found under a stump or not checked again after removing the trash.

 

[Wally69]

Inconsiderate bastards, they could have planted a XXXX GOLD to keep in character with the place

 

[Metamorphic]

Inconsiderate bastards, they could have planted a XXXX GOLD to keep in character with the place

Hehe....nah mate, in VIC we know how to spell BEER and its not xxxx

We dont mind you NSW guys, but god help those QLD's infiltrating our territory! :lol:

 

[GypsyGoldAu]

Ha Ha...thanks Meta for bringing back a memory of a similar event i had about 7-8 yrs ago.

Just got started in the hobby, me and a mate (we lived 3hrs apart) go to the back of Tarnagulla up an old lead that has 8-10' deep channels.

An old stump in the lower section of a gully on the edge of the channel. Now my 'ol mate, he's a bit of a city boy and gets a bit jittery about critters & crawlers.

Well i'm swinging his 'ol SD 2200 and gets this nice deep low boom signal on the lower side of the old stump (was about 2 1/2' tall filled with dirt) and gets busy diggin. And diggin...signal still there but boomer louder the more i dig around the roots.

Half hour gone, sweat pourin off me, huffin & puffin (40-50 a day smoker lol) 'ol mate gettin excited as a kid in a candy store at christmas time.

I starts hittin roots and needin to put that ol coil deeper under the roots to pinpoint the target. 'Ol mate is on the high side of the stump and i let him know it would help to start comin down through the stump and between us one has to get it.

Well by this time i'm on hands and knees diggin back up through the base under the stump and 'ol mates trying to scrape out from the top when i starts to feel the pressure of his efforts.

Now knowing about his little city condition, i holds off diggin and instead hold against the roof of my excavation but wiggle the elbow so it still appears i'm diggin.

When it feels close to the hole collapsing in on itself i tells 'ol mate to have a go by hand as he might hit me with his pick otherwise.

Now picture a 6'3 beanpole (him) standing on the edge of a channel, me at his foot level below the ridge arm up the stump, and just before he can understand what's happening, i bust my hand through and grab him, all the while yelling gaarrgghhh....lmao, man i never see anyone jump up, back & sideways all at the same time and screamin like a girl....lolol. :lol:

'Ol mate stands there shakin and hollerin and pointin at me like his life depended on it and i'm the devil incarnate hiself and for sure.....he actually had turned white as a ghost in the face. I've truly never seen someone go white with shock before but did that day so many years ago now.

Oh man i laughed till it hurt and my eyes watered that day and nearly pee'd meself....but the joke was on me when we retrieved that 'ol beer can outta that there stump....lesson lernt.

Funny tho...'ol mate aint ever come on back to chase the color with me ever agin... 8.(

Oh well, i hope he's enjoyin running around finding artifacts now with that fancy XTerra 70 after he sold off his SD.

I did put him onto his first bit of Gold after that though, but i don't think he's found anymore after.

Ahhh good times, gee i miss him bein around to have a drink with at the campfire...

Gypsy

 

[dwt]

Bought back some memories that one Meta, had similar expierence out with Dr Bean once, sweet soft faint signal off the side of a mullok dump, got louder the deeper I dug, and I mentally had the millions spent before I even recovered the huge great big lump of lead 8.(

 

[Wally69]

Last weekend I was working a creek bank with the SDC on the side of a extremely steep slope for gold stuck in the shale, a few shale plates the size of washing machines were dislodged forming some great v-traps and i a got a sweet but barely noticible target response. :lol:

After 10 minutes of cleaning the crevice and another 10 busting open the shale I decided to work my way off the side of the cliff, go back to the car and get my pinpointer and a crowbar as the signal was loud and distinctly inside this big lump of shale I had painstakingly cleaned up

100m up the creek I managed to find a track down and walked back down the creek to the car, on the way I looked up to the spot where certain riches lay in waiting to see, 8.( about 1 foot under the 10" slab of slate a can of VB perched high and dry.

FUGGET