Introduction and river detecting!

[Rhodophyta]

Hi all,

First time poster after a year or so of on and off browsing! I first got addicted after seeing that first bit of gold in my pan (well the first bit that you could reasonably convince the average person was actually gold). We (my girlfriend and I) have since accumulated a good array of crevicing tools, buckets and a home-made manual suction pump that I feel would take a bit of explaining if any non-prospecting types were to find it in my car!

We have tried detecting a few times but have never come up with anything more than odd bits of junk (then again we didn't really know what we were doing).

I must admit the reason I finally joined the forum is to ask a question about detecting in rivers. Do any members use detectors to locate areas to pan or crevice? I mean I am mostly thinking about the centre of shallow rivers which, well, are proving difficult for us to effectively test pan. I can imagine detectors would be affected in some manner by being submerged in water. I was reading about the SDC 2300 being a good underwater detector. Any thoughts on whether it would be the best bet for detecting in rivers, or would a GPX/GPZ be better over all (assuming you don't dunk the wrong end in the water)? I'm not really sure that the flakes (sub 0.1g) we would get would be large enough to be picked up underwater/in crevices with any detector anyway!

Anyway, been enjoying reading everyone's posts on the forum, so shall try to contribute with my findings, if I have any!

Cheers

 

[silver]

Welcome to the pforum Rhod,.... garrets are good for finding mineralised runs,... not sure about in the drink though.

 

[Wally69]

Used my SDC to find bullets in the creek bed several times.

I sucked up the gravel where they lay to find gold and gemstones. Havnt detected a wet nugget yet, but there is no reason I wouldn't if I walked over one big or shallow enouh. Depth of crevices or gravel would be the only stick in the mud, the SDC is very sensitive but the small stuff would need to be within 6" to get a clear response and they are usually trapped in the clay at the very bottom of a crevice or under 12" of gravel.

Bullets, being modern deposits are often on the line of potential gold deposits but sometimes have not had the chance to sink deep into the crevices, so are a good indicator of where gold may be.

So far I have had a 100% success rate for finding gold where I have found a bullet in gold bearing creeks, just not enough to make me rich.

 

[Jaros]

Welcome to P.A mate.
Jaros

 

[Rhodophyta]

Great information, thanks Wally! Might go hire an SDC (it seems that Coiltek in Maryborough still hires out detectors) and test it out for a few days. Certainly will be going digging if it spots any bullets or anything else heavy in the creek!

Speaking of hiring detectors, it seems that most of the shops in Vic don't hire any more because people were stealing them?? I would have thought surely there would be a way to scare thieves off... photo id with drivers licence and credit card? Noting down number plates? Taking a photo of the person hiring? Not sure, but with the hire rates as high as they typically have been I would have thought it would have still been a business worth pursuing...