First Outing for 2025 with the GM 1000

[ProspectingPip]

Hello everyone,

So today I managed to get out for the first time in 2025 for a bit if a swing and scratch around this morning in Creswick.

As some of you may know already, I began my detector journey in Oct 2024 with the Gold Monster 1000.
It was a whirlwind of invaluable forum advice and information, copious hours of Youtube "how to's" a lot of research and, a positive mind set.

Unfortunately, after 10 trips my current count is 46 lead shot and 0g of gold. However, whilst this is disappointing, I'm still really enjoying the hunt, and have been growing in confidence after each trip. Sure, the gold may not be there, yet, but, short of someone literally physically pointing and saying "dig here" the time people have taken to help a newbie like myself has not gone unappreciated.

So, thanks to all who have helped me get out there and keep me motivated, informed and in the right mindset. We're all one swing away from shiny yellow stuff!!

May your 2025 be yellah!

Cheers,

Pip.

 

[Hawkear]

Great to hear you follow up report.
Lead shot is an indicator that you are able to hear a target that "couldabeen" gold.
Apart from their widespread scattering, lead shot has a nasty habit, because of their weight, in sinking deep after many years of alternate softening, hardening, cracking of soils in response to rain and other weather events. Drift of overlying soils adding to depth of coverage also adds to that.
Gold performs similarly in sinking through soils and because of eons of time is most often found at the deepest boundary between the soil and harder subsoil or rock horizon below.
Whilst I have found shotgun pellets almost at that deepest horizon, I am not sure if I can recall any shot LOWER than gold in a specific patch with a consistent soil profile. I would be interested in hearing other's thoughts on that and why that could ever be so.
Maybe the gold is sitting just beyond GM detection at a level below that of the shot you are picking up. I would encourage you to persevere in areas that may be even a bit shallower in soil profile to what you have been detecting.
In determining the depth of a soil profile, you just need to observe how deep it is before the soil becomes compacted or indeed rocky. For a GM That should be fairly easy as you do not need to be digging deep holes maybe 6 inches or even less to establish that. The exposed rocky slopes of reefy quartzy hills could also be another area to search with the GM as tiny bits of gold have no deeper place to escape to.
Above all stay away from "deep" ground unless working heaps where you should concentrate of heaps showing bits of rocky material brought up from the very bottoms of holes.
Hope this might be helpful.

 

[Mackka]

A bloke once told me, " ya gotta go where the gold is!" big help then and still applies now.