Quartzsite Dowsing at Casita Rally

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
I think he called it "Twigging" but i had the most Fortunate encounter from a stranger/prospector (now friend) that seen me looking around for possible places to do some random "sampling" with pan and water on a gpaa claim..... he asked me how my past experiences have been working out like this and i said,very little fine gold was found. He pulled out a set of dowsing rods with copper handles and wood dowels inside. He spoke out loud to these things asking it yes and no questions and depth by foot, direction questions..... with a sample nugget he did tricks that had me really watching his hands for movement. Now i have always believed and used dowsing rods since 2005 to find underground pipe with great success and never thought about if for much else. and i love to prospect with MD's crevicing etc. He now handed me the rods and instructed me to do all kinds of things and stuff that only i knew the answer to. Plus pointing out directions to gold It was Great and made my hair stand on end..... How Neat the way it pinpointed to that test nugget..... Oh and it was real windy and those rods went against the wind.... Needless to say i really enjoyed his time to show me this and hope to meet up again. :occasion14:

Joe
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was at a GPAA Quartzite claim once with my rods. An older couple stopped to talk to me on the access road. The guy asked me about how well the rods work. My answer was "really good" and held the rods showing them some responses. I then told them that these responses indicate some good gold past the ridge (which is where the road ends with a turn right). the ridge is the favorite spot for most dry washer propectors on the claim. Past the ridge is beyond the access road and is going toward the far side of claim.

I walked down the road, over the ridge to find my signals and pinpoint them. By the time had things located, the older couple drove their 4WD around the ridge top watching (finally driving closer to my spot). Signals were good and I stopped so went over to chat a while. The older couple had noticed how the rods kept pointing out the exact location one of their friends once found several nice gold nuggets.
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
Great story Red Desert..... I went out today and purchased the material to make some improved rods and to practice more. I also went to the dowsing section in the geology corner of this site and am amazed at what others have done.
I sure hope Monty who took the time to show a stranger (me) sees this an PM's me as i would really like to keep in touch with him.
Joe
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Joe, the wood inserts inside the copper handles, sounds like a good idea. I don't use handles, but have experimented on various type bends on the bottom. Tried making proto-types to see what works best for me. So far, the best idea was to make curves like you see on broadband antennas and those were improved by wrapping light copper wire coils on the curve.

Of course, some proto-types were bent first with hangers, then bare bronze rods which are about the same thickness as the hangers.
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
I'm experimenting right now and i have about 10' total of copper rod that is about the same thickness as yours which look like brass....so plenty of room to experiment. is the thinner copper wire wrapped around at the bottom of the handle and another set you have with the copper wire wrapped around the upper pointy section....was that to improve response?______ i guess it works or you wouldn't have sent me the pics. I will try a set like that.
I am starting with 17" on the longer section of the rodand i know your supposed to stay inside your aura which is about 3' out in front of me when tested by someone that knows how to do it.
thanks for the pics
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
I just finished my first set of rods with handles. (no wooden dowel inside) and the few things i just tried around the house worked pretty good. Now i need to Practice, Practice, Practice. I live in the Southern most section of the gold bearing "Bradshaw Mountains" of Arizona (Black Canyon City, Abbey Claims on GPAA) which i belong to.

17" Long
dowsing rods.jpg
 

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Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm experimenting right now and i have about 10' total of copper rod that is about the same thickness as yours which look like brass....so plenty of room to experiment. is the thinner copper wire wrapped around at the bottom of the handle and another set you have with the copper wire wrapped around the upper pointy section....was that to improve response?______ i guess it works or you wouldn't have sent me the pics. I will try a set like that.
I am starting with 17" on the longer section of the rodand i know your supposed to stay inside your aura which is about 3' out in front of me when tested by someone that knows how to do it.
thanks for the pics
Yes, they are 2 separate sets of rods. The one with the coil on the top length of rod near the bend, was twice as much coil as needed, this pair also is a shorter set. I then made a 2nd longer set with half the amount of copper coil wrapped like as shown this one above. Then I twice coated the coils with quick set clear epoxy (don't have photos yet of it).

For rod length I prefer 10 1/2-12 3/4" but 11 1/2" is best for me. Some days longer is better then other times the shorter rods.

Your copper handle rods will work good for gold prospecting. I like the copper/bronze response for L-rods, since I'm not using any handles the wrapped coil is the answer.

Joe, I would think since you live in AZ, Nuggetshooter forum is probably a familiar site. I'm on there sometimes, lately it has mostly been to see how Don is doing in Brazil.
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
I'm on Nuggetshooters quite often under the name Joe Z ...... That's a real good site for all the local stuff and i'm not all that far (about 30 Minutes) from Bill Southerns shop and the LSD claims area (Little San Domingo). I'm hoping with the right mindset and lots ofpractice to add these rods to my arsenal...... so far what i have tried is working with about a 30 second delay time
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Practice makes perfect as they say. Longer rods seem to have a slower movement time on responses, if you are in a hurry the 10" rods help a lot.

Being on the dowsing board here, it often leaves not much posting time left for Nuggetshooter forum lately. Check out Don's (garimpo) thread on sharing finds, I'm there often.
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
Practice makes perfect as they say. Longer rods seem to have a slower movement time on responses, if you are in a hurry the 10" rods help a lot.

Being on the dowsing board here, it often leaves not much posting time left for Nuggetshooter forum lately. Check out Don's (garimpo) thread on sharing finds, I'm there often.

I'm going to make another set of handles like the ones above but have it solid with no hole on the bottom and the drilled out wooden dowel inside...this way i can insert different length rods to experiment

Read lots of stuff by garimpo. was never on the "sharing finds" thread.....Wow 4,245 replies ...... i will probably read the first few and then jump to the end.
Joe
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I'm going to make another set of handles like the ones above but have it solid with no hole on the bottom and the drilled out wooden dowel inside...this way i can insert different length rods to experiment

Read lots of stuff by garimpo. was never on the "sharing finds" thread.....Wow 4,245 replies ...... i will probably read the first few and then jump to the end.
Joe
There used to be a prospecting shop in Quartzsite, before the recession hit was selling on ebay and locally, hundreds of copper dowsing rods with copper handles like you described (that the rod doesn't come out the bottom).

If you jump back (by now could be more than several pages) from the end of Garipo's sharing finds thread, he posted some photos of nuggets and the guy who did the field testing for Garrett's new pulse detector. Then the Garret dealer told Garimpo that a Garret will find more nuggets than a Minelab.
 

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Joe Z

Joe Z

Full Member
Aug 18, 2012
179
57
New River AZ
Detector(s) used
Fisher Gold Bug 2,
Whites Goldmaster GMT,
Viper Vac, Tesoro Vaquero
and a 30 year old Radio Shack Detector :)
Primary Interest:
Other
If you jump back (by now could be more than several pages) from the end of Garipo's sharing finds thread, he posted some photos of nuggets and the guy who did the field testing for Garrett's new pulse detector. Then the Garret dealer told Garimpo that a Garret will find more nuggets than a Minelab.
I watched quite a few videos and many posts on the Garret ATX and it is a really good machine which i would buy if i had the money but comparing it to a Minelab 5000 is a tough call but it does seem to come fairly close and i believe garret has a winner there....if money was no object the 5000 would do it for me. I'll stick with my gold bug2 for now as digging a three foot deep hole is a long ways to find a tin can. LOL
I did a few of Arts test with the roll of pennies and the site line and it did work the way he explained it way back on page one.
Joe
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
They took Don (Garimpo) out for a day using the new Garrett pulse to nugget hunt places there in his area of Brazil. Now Don mentioned once how he was the first person in Brazil to own a Minelab detector, so his opinion about the Garrett pulse is going to carry a lot of weight. When I asked Don about it, he said it seems to be sensitive to small nuggets (but someone else had to set up the machine).
 

Red_desert

Gold Member
Feb 21, 2008
6,850
3,500
Midwest USA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250/GTA 1,000; Fisher Gold Bug-2; Gemini-3; Unique Design L-Rods
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I guess I'd better bookmark the last page of the sharing finds thread, before you know it that page will be back several more pages also. I would recommend taking your dowsing rods to Brazil (if you ever go). Not only to locate gold but might be a good way to to entertain or impress the natives.

http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4453&page=213#entry230873


Looks like Garimpo (Don) is still using a Garrett. He was 3 days with the GPX 4000 and Garrett ATX, neither machine found any gold. Brazil is getting really hammered just like everywhere else.

You still can find nice gold there on Indian land. A few years ago Don was in Redencao, Para, Brazil and had a meeting with their chief. The only way you can legally hunt for gold in their territory, is to have talks with the chief to get permission. It will take 1 day and first you need to sit through a long tribal ceremony before the talks can begin. Once after Don went there to get gold some time later, they attacked a group of illegal gold miners and hacked to death 28 prospectors in one night. If you don't do things their way, here is a recent photo of what can happen, making a wrong move could get them killed (one miner is standing upper right in photo).

Para state, Brazil Munduruku Indian warriors stand guard over an illegal gold miner who was detained by a group of warriors searching out illegal gold mines and miners in their territory near the Caburua river, a tributary of the Tapajos and Amazon rivers in western Para state, on Jan. 20, 2014.
 

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