Need some help finding out what it is that I just uncovered.

[BornOnFire]

I was out with my detector in a "secret spot" the other day. It's a pretty remote but mineral-rich area with heavy mining history and tailing piles everywhere. Nonetheless, My detector goes nuts on me. Thinking it was a fluke, I reset the heck out of it and set it up for gold only. Discrim. SET HIGH! This thing kept screaming at me that I was on top of gold and the signal was strong. OK so, long story short, I dug it up left it pretty much covered in dirt and brought it home. Well, the fever over took me and I as gently as possible, tried to slowly remove the outside dirt and see what the big deal was. I still dont know. I actually think (hope)I found a pretty nice vein of silver. It was all folded up on itself. May have been found long time ago by a miner and then left in the ground again because the location where I found it was alongside a wash. Any ideas here? Pics attached. How can I test it? In my haste, I took a brass wire brush and shined a few spots up you'll see them in the pics.

[DanB]

Yep....its called lever-rite;;;;leave er there ........you found tailing's from an old smelter.....probably lead or zinc base with other impurity's .....that is the cast off...it looks like it's from the cap.....

db

[Bell]

Looks like iron to me, or possibly a bunched up piece of tin roof. Wish it was silver though. Happy hunting!

[BornOnFire]

Yeah, I was looking for the "big nugget" to come falling out of it- but no such luck-as of yet.

Ya know, if it is just a piece of steel, why did my detector go nuts on the gold settings? That's what freaked me out in the first place. I followed the manual and reset to all of the various discrim. modes that were possible. But, the machine would not stop telling me I was on top of something so I trusted it. I saved all of the dirt that enshrined it. I will classify and wet-pan that stuff Here's a pic of the cross section of the edge of this "Tin Roof" It doesn't look human made. What a strange find.

[Goodyguy]

Thinking it was a fluke, I reset the heck out of it and set it up for gold only. Discrim. SET HIGH!

I see you have a GB II DP
So far it's not possible to have a gold only setting..... sure you can null out ferrous metals but that still leaves non ferrous, gold, silver, aluminum, lead, etc. You can get a reading that may indicate a high percentage that it's gold but it's not foolproof.
Even the $5,000.00 Minelab GPX5000 cant do it.
If you can find a detector that only sounds off on gold let me know. I want one!!!

Anyway maybe there is a stash of gold inside the thing you dug
And did you re-check the hole for a signal after pulling that thing out ? (always do that!)

GG~

[BornOnFire]

But the box said "Gold Only"......LOL....that's a good one....Nonetheless, I did re-check the hole, and whatever the culprit was, it was indeed successfully removed so I refilled the hole and brought it home -covered in-dirt. I also recovered most of the dirt surrounding it and brought it home as well. I have some work to do still, I mean, I have to clean it. Who knows what the heck this thing is.....something about it stinks of gold and I like it!

[Bell]

I don't know about your machine specifically, but generaly speaking a big piece of ferrous metal like that will give you overload readings all across the board. Its just one of those things that make the machines not perfect, which is too bad since it would be a whole lot better if they were. Keep at it thoug, the gold is out there.

[BornOnFire]

Well, I cleaned the specimen and saved the castoff. As suspected, the item is a piece of sheet iron all crumpled up and contorted in a wierd fashion. It looks almost like an organic slab but I reckon it's just old as the hills. My theory? well,I have a confession to make, my "secret spot" I found this thing in was actually a tot lot that used to be sand but was converted to tan bark chips. most of the sand was removed but this piece was laying at the very bottom of the sand pit and laying on the excavated clay. I suspect that this piece probably arrived with the sand that was used to originally fill the playground. Where that sand came from I do not know but in the desert, they quarry it from the old river beds. I suspect that in better days this piece of iron was washed downstream in a flash flood and probably ended up in a hole somewhere along with the other "heavy" elements out there. This little piece of iron may have acted as a natural sluice and accumulated a few nuggets and fines for a while till the water levels went back down. Who knows. 100 years later, its excavated from the old flooded plain of sand somewhere in a quarry pit and sent out to my little playground. I let this bad boy soak in a tub of water for two days and still had to hammer the packed sand out of the pockets. Upon first look at a sample all I could see was iron bits. I ran a small ND Magnet through it and it cleaned up real nice. Things are looking better for this find but there will be a lot of work to get cleaned so that it can be properly panned and processed. I'll follow up with the results as time allows....thanks for taking the time to read.....

[trinityau]

Hey Goody Guy, I have been using the GB Pro since it has come out. The GB Pro will not sound off on just gold. However, with smaller pieces say one quarter penny and below the following will not always apply. With pieces larger than that the following pretty well applies.The GB Pro will sound off on lead and a visual meter will indicate lead. It has not been wrong to me yet. On foil the GB Pro will give a meter ID and it has not been wrong. On older brass you will get a meter ID and it will be correct. On silver you will get a meter ID and it has not failed me yet. Aluminum will give its own meter ID. I have a lot of naturally occurring zinc which will ID separate on the meter. Iron will also ID on the meter in varying degrees of state. If it is very thin tin and rusty the meter will read a higher iron reading on the meter. If it is a more solid piece of iron you get a very low meter reading on the iron side. This GB Pro is a very good machine for almost anything but is very well equipped to find gold. It is right up there with the GBII and in many ways far better. Many people are starting to see this. I find pieces of gold that take sometimes six or seven of them to make a grain, not a gram but a grain. Paying more money does not mean more performance. As far as I am concerned most finds with a 5000 could be made with my trusty 3000. I hear over and over about the little pieces someone is hearing with the 5000. My friends and I have been detecting those same size targets for years with 3000's.

I think people really need to slow down and learn what they have. The market is wanting people to buy that new machine.....TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

[Hoser John]

Amen Ray--slow down and smell the roses and find them righteous nuggies bud!! Thanx for taking the time to explain in detail--gonna get one a them GB PRO soon--John

[Goodyguy]

Trinityau,

I have been hearing good things about the GB pro. I also heard that there was some trouble with the first ones off the line that has been corrected.
Sounds like a great machine and at around $600 is a very reasonable price.

Guess I'll have to make it my next purchase


GG~

[trinityau]

Hey All, Anyone looking to purchase a GB Pro make sure that is what it is. Several models came out right up front, Gold Bug, GB Pro SE, GB DP. The first few that came out are all Version 3, Only the GB Pro is Version 4. Yes, there is a considerable difference between both versions. I am not sure if the boxes are marked as Version 4 or not. As long as the detector says GB Pro on the control box you should be ok. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS