What Am I Doing Wrong?

[wags76]

Hi all,

Still chasing after my first bit. Dont care on the size. Is it out there?

Swung over crown land from Maryborough down to Happy Valley.
If only birdshot was worth the same as gold, I would not have to work ever again.
Ive had some time out of the fun game of detecting but just recently got back into it as I have moved down from NSW to Western Victoria close to the gold triangle.
Around 10 years ago when in Kalgoorlie I got my first machine a Minelab GP3500. Never found gold as in a nugget but a trip to the Uk visiting family I took it with me and was luck to find a gold ring and a couple of Roman silver coins. So I know it works.
Couple of months ago I invited the old man and uncle over from the Uk. Hes a keen relic hunter in the old country finding Roman coins and alike. Hes keen to find his second nugget as he can over 3 years ago and on hiring a SDC2300 and a few days camping trip to Maryborough he found a 0.14g speck which is 0.14g more than me.
Due to the fact there will be 3 of us I have now got 3 machines.

MineLab GP3500
MineLab SDC2300
Garrett AT GOLD

I have been using all 3 with no success!
The GP3500 just seems to scream over rubbish.
The SDC2300 has make me into a birdshot collector.
The AT GOLD simply struggles with the Australian hot ground and just beeps continuously.

As for these YouTube videos I keep watching to get some tips on the SDC2300 I have come to the conclusion that they are full of BS! Editing out all the crap finds must take hours. When you watch a video where someone finds a good size peace in the first 2 minutes and walk 2 meters and find a second and to top it off find a hand full after 15 minutes every time they go out I just find it hard to believe. Maybe Im wrong and people are finding it that easy so if thats the case please tell me your secret! Lol

Anyway I got that off my chest. The main thing is its nice to be out in the fresh clean air (thats when the farmers stop burning stubble) and thinking how easy life is now compared to those old timers that dug all those holes by hand in those conditions they had to live in. Easy swinging a coil over the ground!

Basically Im a beginner and Im trying to read the ground but that takes a while I guess. There is plenty of guessing going on. Lol
Maybe a few books on geology and rocks may help.

Any good reads out there to help?

 

[Muk]

Gday wags with the sdc sounds like your doing things Wright the bad thing is every man and his dog must of had a shot gun in the old days in the G/T there is heaps of trash you could say 100bits of trash to 1 bit of gold the videos dont show all the trash they dig try to keep to shallow ground or surfaced areas with the sdc and AT gold the At gold you need a lot of hours on it to learn the machine sdc run it as high as you can coil touching the ground if your finding shot you will eventually find a bit dig everything not sure about the 3500 but am told they are a good machine but Im sure you would need to put in the hours to learn the machine chin up keep at it and you will get on to it its not easy but its a great hobby cheers Muk.

 

[old hand]

Just use the 2300 as you are digging bird shot you are on the right track ,just keep at it the 3500 are a good detector but you should have more luck with the 2300 regards john :Y:

 

[maxwell4]

Hi Wags
With the 2300 its low and slow, look for an area with old workings, don't just wander around concentrate on a small area, if you are getting shotgun pellets there is a good chance that a 2300 has not been over that patch or if it has by an operator moving too fast. You need to listen for those feint almost missable changes in tone.

If it was easy to find we would all be rich.

As an example I would expect to find 1 to 3 pieces in a 6 to 8 hour session (along with the rubbish) and I consider myself to be a newbie.

Good luck
Bob

 

[Balmain Bob]

Are you using headphones or earbuds while detecting. If not you may loose the quiter signals due to the background noise ie wind noise bird life etc.

I have taken people out detecting with their sdc without headphones and have demonstrated to them the difference that headphones do make.

Also it sounds like you are doing it right but have not walked over the gold

Persistance will pay off.

Cheers

Bob

 

[Pirate pete]

Hi Wags if your looking for a read and a learning curve have a good look at this thread heeps of really good info and vidios and believe me Minelab Gold knows what he is talking about ,cant help with your machines as I run a 4500 but maybe a Steal Phase may help I am still waiting for mine to arrive at Coiltek Hopefully this week lol .Good luck hope this helps.PP

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19429

 

[nucopia]

I recon your doing the right things, but maybe not in the right places ..
Research is where you start looking for places to prospect and a good website to use is GeoVic.
Here is the link.
http://er-info.dpi.vic.gov.au/sd_weave/anonymous.html

 

[aussiefarmer]

Detecting is a kick in the nuts sometimes. The honest average around the forum is 100 to 1 (100 bullets and junk to one small nugget). You can have all the gear and knowledge and still not find gold, then someone with no idea can get 5 nuggets just 100 meters away.

Get out and meet some blokes, socialise with us. It all helps keep you sane. Gold has always sent many more people broke than it has made rich.

 

[kingswood]

I know your pain!
Took me 9 months of detecting before I scored my first bit.
The 23 is a great machine. As stated above, work old areas slowly. No one really gets it all.
Its funny,once you break the duck, more seems to follow. Dont know why....Maybe its Murphy making sure you are worthy ha ha
Good luck. Go slow. Whack a coil cover on the 23 and almost scrub it on the ground. Kick smaller rocks out of the way and detect under them. Stick the coil under trees and branches....
And remember, detecting is a bit like gambling....you dont know when the next coil sweep will whack a one ouncer !!

 

[Trash]

Gday Wags

As mentioned , you are not alone in your many hours of Detecting for no Gold .

I know people who have been Prospecting for 3 + years for next to no Gold

There is a stack of info here on areas to go . Try and get to one of the meets that is organised ( I think there is one next month )

There are also regular Prospecting clubs that are in the triangle every month .

Youve got the right machines . Hang in there

 

[Bullwinkle]

Persistence pays. Focus on an area known to have produced in the past. Enjoy getting out into the bush. Take in the nature around you. When you dig up shotgun pellets or other relics, have a think about what it was like back in the old days. Living in a tent, dirty, thirsty, trying to scrounge a feed out of the hungry scrub & hoping for a fortune. Be persistent, but not desperate. Have a plan. Consider that youre on a journey of learning & discovery. Succes will follow.

 

[wags76]

Wow everyone!!!!!!
Thanks for all the feed back!

I have aways loved looking at maps. I can sit and stare at them for hours and yes I have been studying GeoVic and cross matching print offs with Google earth. I look at the contours and jot down GPS points to drive to that look possible spots.
A couple of the spots this weekend just gone I was finding my normal pocket full of birdshot and it was definitely not looked over recently as the ground was covered in a soft moss type top soil 2-3 inches deep then it was a hard clay with mixed in small quartz stones around 1cm in size. There was no way you could hide the fact a hole was dug after disturbing the cover of moss as it was like rolling back turf but then just fell apart. My question to my self is why no one has been there. Heaps of old diggings from the old timers but no sign of modern detecting. Is it the wrong spot or a forgotten area. Who knows, I know Ill give it a second look this weekend coming. Good steep valley too for some possible dry panning at the bottom.

Im a good listener and have taken note of others with advice and yes Im working low and slow and yes Bob Im using headphones that came with the 2300. Ive been using it on setting 5 but in some spots its just been to chatty to hear anything faint so drop it back to 4 or 3. I have also been raking back the surface rubbish in a area so Im clear of everything! I use the 2300 first then use the 3500. I feel I need to replace the 3500 DD coil for a mono but I seem to be spending way more than I should when its just a hobby to get me out the house on the weekends. But hey its only money.

Gold or no gold its nice to be in the bush, my little black kelpie thinks its good too. Even better she thinks when she finds a dead roo to roll in. That was a present drive home that weekend with her stinking in the back of the wagon. Windows all down!

Well hope we get the sowing finished this week at work and get a good full weekend swing.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Wags

 

[Heatho]

If it's running too chatty you are bound to miss gold, sometimes you're listening for just the slightest shift if the threshold, try running on sens 2 or 3 and threshold 3-4, you won't lose any depth, you might actuially be able to hear deeper targets due to having a more stable detector. Those tiny birdshot are quite easy to hear, some tiny nuggets give nowhere near as strong a signal. Also try doing sweeps of the coil at around 5 to 10 seconds and gently scrape the coil on the ground.

You'll get some gold eventually if you're detecting around old diggings and surfaced areas, old mullock heaps around diggings are very good spots to try.

 

[PhaseTech]

Lots of little tips to pick up on, but as the SDC is probably the easiest gold detector to use ever, it really comes down to site selection. What Maxwell/Bob said is key - "concentrate on a small area"

Here's my YouTube 2300 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1dExLBrJ3i66htQidWwx6LHHfODrqqN

No BS here, all legitimate finds, but yes I delete probably 20 times as much footage as I put up, as watching people dig junk just isn't fun.
I do include the odd bit of junk recovery, just to keep things real.

 

[the duck]

Ill give you the best tip of all put your detector where someone would find it difficult to, detect around Maryborough look for pink clay with quartz in it and it will be hard if there is orange mineralised clay then the top layer of good stuff is gone, look up what surfacing looks like and find out where shallow leads are
The rest is up to you

 

[wags76]

If it's running too chatty you are bound to miss gold, sometimes you're listening for just the slightest shift if the threshold, try running on sens 2 or 3 and threshold 3-4, you won't lose any depth, you might actuially be able to hear deeper targets due to having a more stable detector. Those tiny birdshot are quite easy to hear, some tiny nuggets give nowhere near as strong a signal. Also try doing sweeps of the coil at around 5 to 10 seconds and gently scrape the coil on the ground.

You'll get some gold eventually if you're detecting around old diggings and surfaced areas, old mullock heaps around diggings are very good spots to try.

Hi Heatho

Your the first to tell me to lower the sensitivity. And yes the birdshot have been easy to hear even the number 9 dust shot I have found gives a good signal. The face that the shot is never any deeper than 1cm I do wonder what the average depth of gold finds are at. Im yet to dig any of my trash and birdshot any deeper than a inch.

I have been running the threshold on 3 and 4, mainly 3.
I dont believe Im a fast sweeper of the coil and tend to do a double pass on the same sweep line before moving forward for the next line and the coil is on the ground unless rolling over sticks or rocks. A mate of mine said skid plates are cheap so stay low, so I have been.
I will start on sens 2 and slow up a tad more next trip out, hopefully this weekend coming.

The same mate of mine gave me a 0.11g test peace and I had a play around with it using the GP3500. Ive never had a test peace before and I found that the tone setting I always ran it at was to high and basically toned it out if that makes sense. Played around with a few things on the controls and could hear the small bit of gold a lot better than before, so looking forward to giving that a good few hours swinging too now.
Ive tried doing tests with depth with the 3500 in the past and I have always believed digging a hole then put a target in it and cover again is not the same as a un-dug target. Im a big believer in the halo affect on all things undisturbed including gold. Hopefully adjusting the tone will work for the old 3500. One thing with it is it wont pick up the birdshot. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing.

Roll on the weekend I say.

 

[owenh1]

If it's running too chatty you are bound to miss gold, sometimes you're listening for just the slightest shift if the threshold, try running on sens 2 or 3 and threshold 3-4, you won't lose any depth, you might actuially be able to hear deeper targets due to having a more stable detector. Those tiny birdshot are quite easy to hear, some tiny nuggets give nowhere near as strong a signal. Also try doing sweeps of the coil at around 5 to 10 seconds and gently scrape the coil on the ground.

You'll get some gold eventually if you're detecting around old diggings and surfaced areas, old mullock heaps around diggings are very good spots to try.

Hi Heatho

Your the first to tell me to lower the sensitivity. And yes the birdshot have been easy to hear even the number 9 dust shot I have found gives a good signal. The face that the shot is never any deeper than 1cm I do wonder what the average depth of gold finds are at. Im yet to dig any of my trash and birdshot any deeper than a inch.

I have been running the threshold on 3 and 4, mainly 3.
I dont believe Im a fast sweeper of the coil and tend to do a double pass on the same sweep line before moving forward for the next line and the coil is on the ground unless rolling over sticks or rocks. A mate of mine said skid plates are cheap so stay low, so I have been.
I will start on sens 2 and slow up a tad more next trip out, hopefully this weekend coming.

The same mate of mine gave me a 0.11g test peace and I had a play around with it using the GP3500. Ive never had a test peace before and I found that the tone setting I always ran it at was to high and basically toned it out if that makes sense. Played around with a few things on the controls and could hear the small bit of gold a lot better than before, so looking forward to giving that a good few hours swinging too now.
Ive tried doing tests with depth with the 3500 in the past and I have always believed digging a hole then put a target in it and cover again is not the same as a un-dug target. Im a big believer in the halo affect on all things undisturbed including gold. Hopefully adjusting the tone will work for the old 3500. One thing with it is it wont pick up the birdshot. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing.

Roll on the weekend I say.

Hi Wags

I've found shot at about half a ft, so the SDC certainly can find metals at reasonable depth :Y:

 

[wags76]

Lots of little tips to pick up on, but as the SDC is probably the easiest gold detector to use ever, it really comes down to site selection. What Maxwell/Bob said is key - "concentrate on a small area"

Here's my YouTube 2300 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN1dExLBrJ3i66htQidWwx6LHHfODrqqN

No BS here, all legitimate finds, but yes I delete probably 20 times as much footage as I put up, as watching people dig junk just isn't fun.
I do include the odd bit of junk recovery, just to keep things real.

Haha, you read the BS part a!?

To be honest I would like to see some of the trash found or at least a tally comment on the finds of the day like 24 bits of trash and 3 nuggets found today

To me that shows true detecting/prospecting. Even videos of panning creeks they only show the good pans. I would like to know hw many empty pans there were before the good ones. Maybe thats just me and like to hear and see the truth in this world we live in.

I will check out your videos for sure.

Thanks.

Wags

 

[PhaseTech]

This was one seasons worth

 

[Muk]

Gday all here is a pic of my sdcs first trip loved every minute of it cheers Muk.