Two Old blokes stuffing around in the bush

[just starting]

Thanks, Goldierocks.

I put a minerals overlay map on the general area we found this rock and this is what it tells me ;

Ordovician Sediments . Marine turbiditic sandstone ,mudstone,black shale and minor granule congromerate. Sedimantary silastic. Age is Lancefieldian to Darriwillan .

JUST AS I SUSPECTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are right about the fine gold. We get bigger gold out of the creek than in this rock ,so it really wasn`t worth the effort, but still an educational experience.

Thanks.
FOZ

 

[Ward69]

Bad luck about the infection.

Hope it heals ,soon. Does it hurt ?

At least you won`t have to worry about stepping on rusty nails or bullets in the bush when you get back .
I went to 2 of the places we go and cleaned them all up ,today. Spent 4 hours on the ground swinging and keeping an eye on the creaking trees ,so i would get a warning before any fell on my head.

It was a sunny day with very light rain on and off and a bit of wind ,but that didn`t really bother me. Loggers are on the go and one place i tried to get into was forbidden ,so i went to the general area where you got the Chinese bowl / plate ,or whatever it was , but walked into the bush lower down the hill than we normally go. Heaps of old activity going on and plenty of places to explore.
Got nothing of significance and then went to where you got your first nugget ,but on the other side of the forest. I didn`t get much sleep last night ,so after 4 hours swinging and digging , i was knackered and hungry and went home to put the bbq on .

Hope the toes get better soon.

FOZ

Good effort, toes getting there. Trying to keep them out of rain. But shizzz it doesnt rain here, forgot about the storm season. If Ballarat had this rain Geelong would be washed out to sea. 20 in 24hrs now thats rain Stupid part about it. It all goes to the sea.

 

[Ward69]

Thanks, Goldierocks.

I put a minerals overlay map on the general area we found this rock and this is what it tells me ;

Ordovician Sediments . Marine turbiditic sandstone ,mudstone,black shale and minor granule congromerate. Sedimantary silastic. Age is Lancefieldian to Darriwillan .

JUST AS I SUSPECTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are right about the fine gold. We get bigger gold out of the creek than in this rock ,so it really wasn`t worth the effort, but still an educational

Thanks.
FOZ

Ha Foz. Its actually answering a few more questions. If you draw a line between the know areas we have walked and the old diggings its making sense. Old river. And the original source. Theres a lot of gaps in between them we havent walked yet.

 

[just starting]

Yep . And some of those gaps had the loggers in them with big warning signs to keep out with authorization and inductions. But plenty more areas to try. We will persist to get to the bottom of it all and get results.

 

[Moneybox]

Oh yeah. Forgot that little detail. Just playing with the settings and learning how to drive it at the moment. The ground balancing is dead set easy. Got that down pat. Gotta use that bungee cord ,though. Gets heavy after awhile.

Mark also found this very light blackish thing that has a signal in it. It is covered in dirt ,so is being cleaned .It fits in the palm of your hand.
Could be a meteorite or some light rock.Not sure. I have a theory it might be bakelite from a kettle or old radio that was thrown in the fire and melted ,but still has something metal in it. When it is cleaned up ,i`ll assess it and if i can`t see anything or work it out ,i`ll put a blowtorch to it to see if it melts. If it doesn`t , i`ll put up a pic and ask advice.

FOZ

The bungee that comes with the detector is usually too stiff to work well with a well balanced detector and worse if you are using a small light coil. If you take a trip to Bunnings you can get a small roll of 6mm shock cord (Grunt) that will give you progressive stretch and support over a wider range of movement. Go to an electrical wholesaler such as MM Electrical that we have over here to get the plastic shrink for the loop on the end. The light weight shrink from places like JB Hifi and Bunnings won't do the job. You need dual wall shrink insulation that will actually bond to the shock cord. You original hook will work on the top end.

 

[user 14190]

I found with the shock cord to cover the area that you want to cut about 25mm wide with super glue and leave it for 12 hours to set properly, then when cut in half, giving 2 sealed ends about 12 mm each, it does not unravel.

Graham

 

[just starting]

So far the bungee works ok ,but the length changes every now and then and has to be re - adjusted . But i will keep the grunt stuff in mind if the need arrises . Thanks . Foz

 

[just starting]

I went for a walk in thick forest ,today and didn`t pick up anything of interest .This is the shallow alluvial sinkings i mentioned in another thread and what Goldierocks said was spot on. Very shallow holes.The mines here were no deeper than 2 metres and there were many . The brush was fairly thick and i went very slow trying to pick up any noise .I only got junk , but i tuned the `45 in to a nice quiet pitch ,as per Nenad`s advice .
Thanks, Nenad .

Today was more of test and tune day as well as a reconnaissance mission for a spot i read about .
This might have been a place with eluvial ,alluvial and colluvial gold because some of the shallow mines were dug into the bottom of the hill on one side, with an old river bed at the bottom , with quartz up towards the top. It is in a steep gully. This place was described as alluvial sinkings and had colluvium gravel.,according to the information i got from the overlay map on trilobite. Is it possible to have alluvial, colluvial and eluvial all in the one place ?

It started to rain just as i was getting into the thick scrub ,so i had to hightail it back to the car. I have to go back and explore the top of this hill and also go deeper into the forest ,right to the end of it.
Of all the places to see people , i had 5 blokes run past me through the scrub about 15 minutes apart .They were running up and down the hills on some sort of orienteering course. Scared the crap out of me a couple of times. I thought it was a kangaroo the first time.

I found the remains of this critter. How long do you reckon he has been there ?

This is the start of the walk into the area .

It was easy enough going down this hill , but lugging all the gear back up hill is another thing.I`m not as young as i used to be.

FOZ

 

[Ward69]

Thats great Foz. Overcome you fears, looks very hard to swing in there. So means something left. Just time.

 

[just starting]

Tight to swing , so slow going , which is good .

 

[just starting]

Found this walking on a dirt track .

This meant our luck was changing for the day after only finding hotrocks , lead and an old axe head.

So lucky, in fact , that 1/2 an hour after this , we spent the next 2 hours or more digging a nearly 1 metre deep hole and found nothing, although the `45 kept getting repeat signals that started faint and got stronger the deeper the hole got . Mark`s 2300 and my pinpointer wouldn`t pick up what the `45 did. I think this was hot ground we dug ,right next to an old test hole.

At least i came home with a dodgy left knee and Mark went home with a dodgy right foot, so it was worth all the effort to come home with something to show for it.

Thanks for your help digging, Mark.

FOZ

 

[just starting]

Oh yeah. Forgot that little detail. Just playing with the settings and learning how to drive it at the moment. The ground balancing is dead set easy. Got that down pat. Gotta use that bungee cord ,though. Gets heavy after awhile.

Mark also found this very light blackish thing that has a signal in it. It is covered in dirt ,so is being cleaned .It fits in the palm of your hand.
Could be a meteorite or some light rock.Not sure. I have a theory it might be bakelite from a kettle or old radio that was thrown in the fire and melted ,but still has something metal in it. When it is cleaned up ,i`ll assess it and if i can`t see anything or work it out ,i`ll put a blowtorch to it to see if it melts. If it doesn`t , i`ll put up a pic and ask advice.

FOZ

The bungee that comes with the detector is usually too stiff to work well with a well balanced detector and worse if you are using a small light coil. If you take a trip to Bunnings you can get a small roll of 6mm shock cord (Grunt) that will give you progressive stretch and support over a wider range of movement. Go to an electrical wholesaler such as MM Electrical that we have over here to get the plastic shrink for the loop on the end. The light weight shrink from places like JB Hifi and Bunnings won't do the job. You need dual wall shrink insulation that will actually bond to the shock cord. You original hook will work on the top end.

I went to bunnings to find that Grunt stuff and ended up with this cord with 2 hooks that are easy to attach to the detector and release from my jacket quickly.

It cost me about $10 for two and is very strong ,yet still has enough flex to push the detector closer to the ground . I had to tie a single knot in the cord to get the correct length , but i seems to work.

Thanks for the advice Moneybox and 2lateagain.

FOZ

 

[Ward69]

Just a update. Only been walking around twice with Foz, had to many other issues to deal with.
Jobs that the fairys do. Anyway oldest son turns 21 on Sunday and another bloody funeral on Thursday. Thats 3 in 10 months. Now I know Im getting old when everyone is dropping around you. Melbourne cup week taking number 2 son 19, who has never been out of Victoria, to a father/son trip to Philippines and do some island hopping, for a week.

Im more busy now, than when I was working, thinking Im going back to work. Retirement is to hard

 

[just starting]

Commiserations on the loss of your mate.
Keep your head up and keep your mind busy. Don`t let this crap get you down for too long.

We have both had a bad trot in the last couple of years. You have got to forge ahead ,but never forget your mate.

Last week I commemorated a 65th and 70th birthday for my 2 mates who didn`t quite make it ,so i know how you feel.

Stay focussed on the important things and remember prospecting is not always important. It takes your mind off things for awhile and into another world ,but there are other things in life to do ,so don`t get bored in retirement.

As a suggestion , engage with those two scallywags of yours by giving them a drill and a hammer and tell them to build a shed just for your prospecting requirements ! A man can never have too many sheds.

We`ll get back into the creek ,soon . Chris at Vo gus keeps me inspired , even while he is overseas with Pioneer Pauly. Did you see Pauly`s latest haul ?
He found a really good underwater crevice and is going back for more. He got good sized gold out of it .

I spent a fair bit of time after Bathurst playing with the settings on my `45 and locating my test nugget 4 " down . I got it going really quiet and am starting to understand the noises i am hearing. I have got a theory that if i spend 5 to 10 minutes tuning the detector with a nugget in the ground everytime i go out in the field , the machine will be better tuned on the day to the surroundings i am in.

You should start crushing all that rock you have with the gold and whatever else was in it. We would all like to see the results. That`ll keep you busy for awhile.

FOZ

 

[Ward69]

Commiserations on the loss of your mate.
Keep your head up and keep your mind busy. Don`t let this crap get you down for too long.

We have both had a bad trot in the last couple of years. You have got to forge ahead ,but never forget your mate.

Last week I commemorated a 65th and 70th birthday for my 2 mates who didn`t quite make it ,so i know how you feel.

Stay focussed on the important things and remember prospecting is not always important. It takes your mind off things for awhile and into another world ,but there are other things in life to do ,so don`t get bored in retirement.

As a suggestion , engage with those two scallywags of yours by giving them a drill and a hammer and tell them to build a shed just for your prospecting requirements ! A man can never have too many sheds.

We`ll get back into the creek ,soon . Chris at Vo gus keeps me inspired , even while he is overseas with Pioneer Pauly. Did you see Pauly`s latest haul ?
He found a really good underwater crevice and is going back for more. He got good sized gold out of it .

I spent a fair bit of time after Bathurst playing with the settings on my `45 and locating my test nugget 4 " down . I got it going really quiet and am starting to understand the noises i am hearing. I have got a theory that if i spend 5 to 10 minutes tuning the detector with a nugget in the ground everytime i go out in the field , the machine will be better tuned on the day to the surroundings i am in.

You should start crushing all that rock you have with the gold and whatever else was in it. We would all like to see the results. That`ll keep you busy for awhile.

FOZ

Thanks mate

 

[Ward69]

A surprise for the kids when Ive move on, they know about it.

 

[just starting]

When you move on ?

 

[Jaros]

Sorry to hear of your loss mate.

 

[Ward69]

Sorry to hear of your loss mate.

Thanks Jack. Yep. 69 non-smoker , heart attack , farmer in west district of skipton. Will be sadly missed. No wife or kids only a twin brother. RIP Skinny

 

[Ward69]

Just a update. Only been walking around twice with Foz, had to many other issues to deal with.
Jobs that the fairys do. Anyway oldest son turns 21 on Sunday and another bloody funeral on Thursday. Thats 3 in 10 months. Now I know Im getting old when everyone is dropping around you. Melbourne cup week taking number 2 son 19, who has never been out of Victoria, to a father/son trip to Philippines and do some island hopping, for a week.

Im more busy now, than when I was working, thinking Im going back to work. Retirement is to hard

Just updated a week out tomorrow heading off back to Philippines, for a father and son trip of a life time , and bang another bad news , my adopted father, at the age of 10 took me everywhere, show me what the bush is all about and what to read, while my dad was working every weekend has died at great age of 85. Rip Mick Bugger me lost Mom and 3 great blokes in past of 10 months

Life is too short so enjoy everything you do My moto. &@$( it just do it.