My prospecting partner and I made our first jaunt to a Club-owned placer gold claim to do some nugget shooting. When we got there several club members were at the claim, some having been camping there for a few days. One guy was drywashing, as his wife looked on. The site had nice dark dirt, the type usually associated with lower mineralization content. Tuning my Goldmaster, I found that a "gain" level of 4 was all the soil conditions would allow, a sign of fairly high mineral content. I asked my partner what level of gain he was using, and he told me that he was also using a gain level of 4. About this time the woman whose husband was drywashing exited their camper with a Goldmaster. She asked him "What power setting should I use?" "Go ahead and use 10, there is no mineral in this soil" was his curt reply. Hmmmmm..... He was wrong, but I didn't interfere. A short while later she returned to the camper, and began to loudly complain to her husband that she couldn't tune her machine. A loud argument ensued (somehow I got the feeling that arguing was a common pastime of theirs). So, to be a nice guy (read that "Get them to stop yelling at each other") I called over to them "Ma'm, what level of gain are you using?" She answered "Ten. He says there is no mineral in this soil." "Try a level of 4; actually this soil is very mineralized." was my response. Her husband gave me one of those "if looks could kill" glances. In seconds she had her machine running perfectly, (generating another "go die" glance from her husband in my direction) and I guessed that would stop the arguing, and give the rest of us some peace. Wrong. She turned off the detector, and they now had something new to argue about: soil mineralization. And argue they did: loud and long! Gimme a break... so we ambled off to another area of the claim, and, in peace, bagged a few pieces of the "elusive yellow metal." Who says prospecting for gold isn't a happy family pastime! (grin!) Anyway, Happy nugget shooting! Jim