Reasons I Can't Find Any Gold?

[Guest]

If it was all skill why can't you just walk right to the nuggets on any ground.
There's an element of luck to it

I give up. Perhaps cause they are buried and cant been seen by the human eye? Am I close? :Y:

RS

 

[Smoky bandit]

If it was all skill why can't you just walk right to the nuggets on any ground.
There's an element of luck to it

I give up. Perhaps cause they are buried and cant been seen by the human eye? Am I close? :Y:

RS

So isn't it luck that makes you turn left instead of right...skill and knowledge.will put you in the right spot but luck will determine what you find .Imo.

 

[madtuna]

If it was all skill why can't you just walk right to the nuggets on any ground.
There's an element of luck to it

If it was all luck why can't you just walk right to the nuggets on any ground.
There's an element of skill to it

 

[wiley coyote]

R.S. You're right there on many points,but my positive attitude doesn't change much after that first hour. I then go in to a more relaxed, almost meditative state, just enjoying the freedom. I always feel that each step I take, takes me one step closer to the next nugget. I say to the people I detect with, when we start detecting. Think lucky, think big! There's that L word popping up again! wiley

 

[Guest]

So isn't it luck that makes you turn left instead of right...
Definitely isn't skill or knowledge.

Hey mate not for me. I choose where I walk. I know exactly where I m going the day before. I look at the spot and pick out say 4 trees that make a square then go up and back in that square in one metre increments covering every sq cm of that small area. I remove every god dam piece of tin, birdshot, square nails, boot tacks etc etc. Every now and then a piece of gold may show up. I ve spent half a day removing rubbish from spots around half the size of a basketball court.

My mindset is I have to remove everything from this spot as if the targets were landmines and make it safe for kids to walk through. Every whimper, groan, booming rubbish signal gets dug. A 5 gramm nugget 2 inches from the coil sounds like a coke can.

It hard tedious boring work. I spend more time on my knees digging holes than walking around hoping for some good luck.

I don't wander around too much now hoping for some good luck. Luck is a sham. Hard work is king.

I don't know where the gold is, it's up to the operator to find it!

 

[m@ttACT]

ProspectorPete I also take a good look at the Geology in every area I detect. After narrowing down potential better areas I always spend time on the ground. I love taking grab samples from all over its pretty exciting for me finding unmarked diggings or newly exposed outcrops. Here is a pic of some of my recent samples...Ive got rocks stashed all around the house lol

 

[Perth Tim]

If it was all skill why can't you just walk right to the nuggets on any ground.
There's an element of luck to it

I give up. Perhaps cause they are buried and cant been seen by the human eye? Am I close? :Y:

RS

Why is it a problem to acknowledge theres luck/chance whatever in finding gold?
I went beach hunting last night and picked up 3 grams of gold, i know exactly where and how to look but i don't control where people drop stuff or how much. Nuggets are the same just a longer timeframe
Skill is 50% of it, time in the field 40% and luck 10%

 

[ProspectorPete]

Detecting the beach is no different to detecting the gold fields, there are areas which you identify as being more likely to contain the targets you are after.
An experienced beach detectorist will be able to read the beach and have a fair idea of where the heavies will be located by knowing the tides, gutters, high/low water line (all for wet sand) and the areas where people congregate on hot days (dry sand) so able to focus their time detecting in the "highly likely" areas, so with that there's no luck (in my opinion) because they are experienced enough to work this out through hours of trial and error.

Gold fields is no different as to doing research on geology, old maps showing old timers workings, an experienced operator or switched on person looking just beyond those workings and spending many hours on the ground testing and trying different detectors and coils to see if that particular area is going to produce good targets.

The only luck involved is the person with no idea of where to detect, has done no research, no ground work, and no idea on what they are doing and starts swinging their detector and manages to snag a good nugget in the gold fields or gold rings at the beach, purely by luck!!

Hope that clears up the misconception of what is luck and what's not, but that's just how I see it.

EDIt: so which scenario would you say luck is involved?? I think it's pretty clear and easy to define but can't understand why others can't see it, unless those people haven't put in the effort required to be successful yet?

 

[just starting]

hAyyoUinAU.

I have been looking for gold with more intensity this year than previous years ,either pairing up with Mark or on my own and have only found fine stuff and specks and lots of relics . Got my first SMILE in the pan on my second or third outing in the creek ,so i built a sluice to improve on that result. Have only had a couple of opportunities to use it ,but it works. Spent some days sluicing and panning while knee deep in cold water and snow falling around me. We usually carry our gear into the creek for a mile or more where we are working. A mile ,not a kilometre . Hard work ,but satisfying when you come home with something ,but sometimes you don`t . We`ve gone in to do some sluicing and the water has dried up or the creek is running too rapidly to proceed with the original plan. So we have improvised. See my highbanker solution with a turbulent creek in the old blokes thread. In other words, we didn`t give up.

Been out to many areas detecting and gone back using different settings and gridded the areas where we walked the last time. Walked further in and found more signs of old activity like the puddlers or campsites or test holes ,so we keep changing our methods to improve our chances and remember the things we have learned about reading the landscape and put that knowledge into practice. We are getting better at it ,now.

I upgraded my detector during the year and have an SP01 on the way. Just trying to forge my way ahead to up the ante to find that elusive nugget or two.

Research is important ,too. Read old newspaper articles and try to read between the lines . I`m currently sitting on info of a place that might not have been of much interest to anyone if they read the article ,but i picked up some small details that made me research deeper and i have marked this as an area of interest come next winter. Not saying any more. I`m onto other leads that will be looked at sooner than that.

Then there are all the apps on my phone that help. Trilobite with all the mapping and geo overlays on it. I have apps for the Heritage databases , parks and prospecting maps , exempt rivers and mine sites and i have bookmarks on the phone for particular web sites and web pages .

Still haven`t found the big one ,but i put that down to not being able to find that sign pegged in the ground that says The gold is located right here.

My boots haven`t been on the ground too much of late. Fire season preparation takes priority over prospecting.

Mate , i am making my own luck with all i am putting into it and the rewards will come in time. That`s why i have that particular signature at the bottom of all my posts.

Bad luck is not good luck ,but at least it is something !!!!

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

luck
noun [ U ]
UK /lk/ US /lk/

A2
the force that causes things, especially good things, to happen to you by chance and not as a result of your own efforts or abilities:
It was just luck that I asked for a job at the right time.
Then I met this gorgeous woman and I couldn't believe my luck.
She wears a charm that she thinks brings her good luck.
He seems to have had a lot of bad luck in his life.
So your interview's tomorrow? Good luck!
The best of luck in/with your exams!

B2
success:

From the Cambridge Dictionary. Makes sense too. I look at definition 2 as my definition of the word luck. So if I am lucky, then it means I am successful. And sorry guys, none of you can guarantee a successful gold find. Eg, if you are so skilled and not lucky, then why don't you guys just go get the multi ounce nuggets, and forget the rest. You know, the big retirement nugget. I mean you know the ground, the research, and it has nothing to do with luck. So come back everytime with a slug, or 2.

If I want to find traces of gold, I can do that anytime, that isn't hard. But finding good gold is hard work, and a lot of luck if you do. Which means, success.

I am not superstitious at all. So I do not believe in luck as in someone is lucky. If we all enter a raffle, the one person that wins, is lucky. Nothing else to it.
So when people all put in the same effort, and they are rewarded differently, then you can not argue that some were LUCKY (Successful) and some were not.

Great debate.

But you are wrong. :lol: :lol:

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

I guess the word lucky is what can throw some people off who think it means the superstitious meaning.

Take it as success. You win some, you lose some. That kind of thing. But I still like the word luck. Because I still think it applies.

 

[Deepseeker]

It's interesting that the Germans don't have "Bad Luck", they only have Gluck and Ungluck, which is kind of lost in the English Translation as Good Luck and Bad Luck. It would be more accurate to describe it as Luck and no Luck. I like that because to me it kind of implies that you are responsible for your own failures I think (and making your own luck too), i.e., I sit on my butt at home so therefore I don't get lucky kind of thing.

 

[Guest]

G'day

Apart from a little bit of luck here and there that happens to most people, I really think that prospecting for gold is more about effort than anything else and you have to really put in the time to make your own luck, you cant be a lazy prospector and expect high returns as I believe that the returns your will get are directly associated with the time you spend on the ground, its all mathematical and the more you swing the coil and the more ground you cover the higher the chances you will find gold, after all at the end of the day whether you call it pot luck or effort you still have to get that coil over the nugget, and the only way you can do that is get that coil to the ground.

My average day of detecting will start just after sunup maybe 5 am until noonish, and then a nanna nap sometimes, and then through until the voices in my head tell me that there's cold beer in the fridge back in camp, so for most days out for the whole two week trip will be about the same as long as the weather holds out, so most days would be about 10 hours but sometime a bit more or less, if you only put in a few hours a day then you cant really expect to be getting much gold as you have to work much harder for it these days than ever before.

cheers

stayyerAU

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

The more you look the higher you increase the 'odds' of finding gold. That is a given.

Its still an odds game. Some call it luck, some call it skill. Some call it persistence.

But in honesty, I have had long days of nothing but blood, sweat and tears and not much to show.
Sometimes yes.
I have also had days where I have done very well for very little work. It happens.

I don't believe I am better or put in more of an effort than anyone else. Even for the good gold I have found.
Was I the best person and that is why I found amazing finds? Or was time and chance just all on my side and I just helped tip the scales?

And in regards to time, some people waste a lot of time, so efficiency also comes into play. But as efficient as one may be, if the gold isn't there, then it isn't there.

 

[savage bitter]

I feel so lucky so lucky seems to be lucky have a lucky day