First time with a 505

[Secret Squirrels]

Got sick of(Jealous) reading everyone's posts of their finds be it yellow, relics or coins and not being able to get to the gold fields myself at the moment. So i bought an xterra 505 the other day so i could at least go for a swing locally to ease the itch. First time i've tried relic/coin hunting and first go at the xterra.

First stop was a local playground with the following result.

Second stop was a local beach with the following result

Whilst at the beach i came across this, the signal naturally over loaded and i was curious as to what it was.

I had to stop detecting and take it back to the car as i didn't want to leave it on the beach, and it was too heavy to carry around.

Any ideas?

 

[Mike70]

Nice chunk of something, at a guess I would say maybe meteorite.

Mike70.

 

[Wishfull]

Did that big rock set your detector off or did you just like it and took it home ?

 

[Secret Squirrels]

the signal naturally over loaded

 

[SC75]

That's a strange looking rock you found there mate. Does the stone attract a magnet?

 

[Guest]

Are there steel works in the area?

I have seen stuff similar to that in Newcastle where BHP used to dump their slag to make breakwalls.

Cheers

RS

 

[roy cobb]

Weldone there SS cant help with the rock nut let us know if you find out about it

 

[AtomRat]

Is it a slab of galena? Getting onto targets now SS!

 

[AtomRat]

The needle like crystals within it.. do they branch off like a christmas tree at all?

 

[AtomRat]

Is it magnetic and also will a knife scratch it or even cut a slice off it

 

[Secret Squirrels]

Thanks for the responses, i will answer all the questions in this one post.

Mike, I do not think it is a space rock or i would have put it in the meteorite section, although it gives the impression it has been super heated at some point.

SC75, Yes it attracts a magnet and the magnet adheres to it, but it doesn't adhere as hard to it as it does the fridge.

RS, closest steel works is whyalla some 300 odd ks away, however there is or was a copper mine and smelter in the area. I'm leaning to slag.

Atom, i was hoping you would look at it , my eyesight is not great for fine details but to the naked eye(glasses) the needle like crystals resemble fibreglass or fault lines on a geo map. Under a jewellers loupe they look slightly raised and yes some branch whilst others are individual, also the flat looking shapes look like they are sliced and shiny smooth and seperate from the main body. A knife will not cut it or mark it in anyway.

Extras, it is heavy like a cannon ball or weights, it feels like steel but also rock, it rings hollow when hit, all sides look different, i will post a photo of the bottom which is lumpy and stained. i will also post a photo of a section that looks like it was chipped and showing the internal structure. The detector over loads on it, however the pinpointer reacts slightly lesser on it than on a hammer (if that makes sense). The top of the lump was approx 6 inches under the sand where it is underwater at high tide and dry at low tide, this tends to make me think it was placed there by someone mooring a boat.

Edit just to add- in ancient times the peninsula was volcanic, i was finding little hot rocks that were dark grey/black that were extremely light for there size and resembled a hardened sponge.

Cheers ss.

 

[AtomRat]

The spongy stuff sounds possibly like fosilized coral or like you've said, rock spat from a volcanoe with lots of gasses (erruption possibly)
Edit- at the same time could possibly be slag (as well as the darker small blobs..are they magnetic too?) but its got no visible molt anywhere on it or blobby. The crystal structure of flat and tree like reminds me of aluminium slag or alloy ehich has cooled very fast or even oxidizing as well with the air. Not toally sure yet, going through process of elimination and flicking pages in books haha
Has to contain iron if its magnetic

 

[Secret Squirrels]

 

[silver]

The mystery deepens for me. 8)

 

[AtomRat]

Hmmmm... 8) looks kinda meteoritic too now hehe exciting..ill pass it onto anither bloje to look at

 

[Wally69]

It would be nice if it was part of an exploded meteorite when it hit the sea water and shattered into fragments due to rapid cooling.

Any known shipwrecks on that part of the coast? could be a bit of ballast from an empty ship that departed from a steel manufacturing port.

Nice imagination firing find

 

[Danny13]

Could be of kryptonian origin I reckon , but just a theory

 

[AtomRat]

Any thoughts on this one shivan?

 

[Secret Squirrels]

So curiosity got the better of me, when looking at the lump i was thinking it looked solid but in some areas it looked layered or joined, so i went a bit neanderthal and hit it at a point that looked joined with a chisel and hammer. It broke apart like a rock fracturing, below photo's are the result.

All pieces are still magnetic including small fragments shown here attracted to a magnet wrapped in bubble wrap.

Here is the new face of the biggest broken piece.

Here is a photo showing where it will seperate with the next blow.

Anyway although a bit archaic with my approach to getting a fragment i at least confirmed my suspicion that its multiple pieces joined as one. Or that there are fault lines within it which would cancel out slag.

 

[Wishfull]

Port Victonite
Meteorite maybe ? Hope it wasn't.