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- Apr 14, 2015
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G'day everyone, I've been lurking around the forum for quite some time and finally had my first weekend away detecting with the misses out at avoca. I've been coming to avoca since I was 6 to ride motorbikes and I've always had an interest in prospecting. There's plenty of diggings out here and I've become familiar with the area over the years and always wanted to have a swing. We decided to camp near the water reserve at the bottom of sugarloaf track and try our luck at the diggings I used to explore as a kid.
I managed to get my hands on a Garrett at gold for a good price and thought it was a good starting point to see if it was a hobbie we could incorporate into our camping trips when we go away riding.
Friday - started off the day running in the bike as I did a top end rebuild during the week. In between heat cycles we crossed the creek and had a look/swing on the old diggings. Found quite a few 22 casings, a few bird shots and a few bits of iron junk. I've done quite a bit of research and testing in the backyard with the detector. As expected, the at gold did struggle with mineralization in spots. We stumbled across a puddler at the bottom end of the diggings which was cool to see. Unfortunately no gold was unearthed. We were amazed at the amount of pick marks in every square inch of dirt around and on the diggings.
Saturday - we decided to try our luck above the diggings up a water worn section heading up sugarloaf hill. The plan was not to dig junk and hopefully dig some gold where it had possibly shed from exposed reefs of quartz and ironstone. We rode the bikes to this spot, being a bit harder to access we thought the area may not be as flogged. To our surprise there was pick marks all the way up the hill. In a way I was glad to see this as it made me think my plan to check out this area was for a good reason. Unfortunately we didn't find anything and found the detector was struggling a little bit with hot ground. After getting to know the detector a bit, it was quite obvious that the false signals we were getting were just hot ground. I have a test piece of gold which is .6 of a gram and in all of these conditions it gives a strong repeatable signal ranging between 30-40 on the target ID. After hunting around there for a while and not having much luck we headed to the higher side of the diggings where we didn't have any luck either, with the exception of a few pieces if junk. There are quite a few deep shafts that are covered with metal grates and few open shafts as well. Maybe this area is too deep for detecting?
After lunch we returned to the lower diggings near the dry creek bed for another crack at it. Found a hand full of birdshots, more .22 casings and a few bits of iron junk. Unfortunately we didn't find any gold, however we had a good time searching for it. The bikes didn't get much of a workout so we must have been having fun detecting.
The area seems to be fairly flogged and I think the at gold is more suited to really shallow gold or working the old mullock heaps. Unfortunately I think the last few decades of detectorists beat us to these diggings haha.
My plan is to upgrade to a 4500 and the misses will take over the at gold.
Would love any feedback on the area if anyone else has been out here. Any advice would be great as well.
Cheers
I managed to get my hands on a Garrett at gold for a good price and thought it was a good starting point to see if it was a hobbie we could incorporate into our camping trips when we go away riding.
Friday - started off the day running in the bike as I did a top end rebuild during the week. In between heat cycles we crossed the creek and had a look/swing on the old diggings. Found quite a few 22 casings, a few bird shots and a few bits of iron junk. I've done quite a bit of research and testing in the backyard with the detector. As expected, the at gold did struggle with mineralization in spots. We stumbled across a puddler at the bottom end of the diggings which was cool to see. Unfortunately no gold was unearthed. We were amazed at the amount of pick marks in every square inch of dirt around and on the diggings.
Saturday - we decided to try our luck above the diggings up a water worn section heading up sugarloaf hill. The plan was not to dig junk and hopefully dig some gold where it had possibly shed from exposed reefs of quartz and ironstone. We rode the bikes to this spot, being a bit harder to access we thought the area may not be as flogged. To our surprise there was pick marks all the way up the hill. In a way I was glad to see this as it made me think my plan to check out this area was for a good reason. Unfortunately we didn't find anything and found the detector was struggling a little bit with hot ground. After getting to know the detector a bit, it was quite obvious that the false signals we were getting were just hot ground. I have a test piece of gold which is .6 of a gram and in all of these conditions it gives a strong repeatable signal ranging between 30-40 on the target ID. After hunting around there for a while and not having much luck we headed to the higher side of the diggings where we didn't have any luck either, with the exception of a few pieces if junk. There are quite a few deep shafts that are covered with metal grates and few open shafts as well. Maybe this area is too deep for detecting?
After lunch we returned to the lower diggings near the dry creek bed for another crack at it. Found a hand full of birdshots, more .22 casings and a few bits of iron junk. Unfortunately we didn't find any gold, however we had a good time searching for it. The bikes didn't get much of a workout so we must have been having fun detecting.
The area seems to be fairly flogged and I think the at gold is more suited to really shallow gold or working the old mullock heaps. Unfortunately I think the last few decades of detectorists beat us to these diggings haha.
My plan is to upgrade to a 4500 and the misses will take over the at gold.
Would love any feedback on the area if anyone else has been out here. Any advice would be great as well.
Cheers
