About to pull the trigger on a Tesoro Lobo Super Traq II...

[idowa]

I've gotten into looking for gold the past couple of months as I love exploring the back country around here and poking around old mines and homestead sites.

I've so far just taken a couple of buckets of material from dry creek beds below quartz veins and old tailing piles around some old mines, taken them home and panned them, and have found only tiny amounts of flour gold and one tiny flake.

I thought a detector would be useful for checking out some of the hundreds of quartz fields in this gold rich area for nuggets, or for searching the stream beds for material.

The only hesitation is that I don't want to fork over $800 for something and not find any nuggets for months...

If I was able to get my money back within a month of detecting, then I would be happy, and my wife wouldn't kill me...

I know this is a hobby of chance, and I'm not looking to get rich, but I can spend $800 on a new firearm or little fishing boat and still get enjoyment. I'm just wondering what are the odds of actually finding a few little nuggets in this area? I know there is gold out there, but I guess a little encouragement would help to push me down to the store and get the MD...

 

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[nuggetshooter323]

This is not a hobby in which you are instantly gradified, it takes a lot of time and patients. Treat it like a hobby and not a money making scheme, and it will reward you in time.

 

[idowa]

Went down to the prospecting store and couldn't believe how busy it was; gold fever is definitely contagious!

Guy walked in and spent $1700 on a Tesoro Lobo STII, sluices, classifying pans, and a bunch of other stuff...

I picked up a Tesoro Lobo STII, pick, plastic scoop, headphones, and a small nugget for testing for $835 out the door...

I've been out in my backyard playing with it and I can see why finding nuggets is so difficult; you really need to get used to all of the little noises and quircks of the MD and how it reacts to the metals.

Shallow gold sounds much like deep steel...

I'll head out Saturday to hit some dry washes with it out in the middle of nowhere that shouldn't be trashy at all and see how it does...

 

[Lanny in AB]

You're in the right country for finding gold. Take someone with you that knows how to nugget shoot/join a nugget shooting club. There's good people in your area that know how to find gold. Yes, you can learn it on your own, but if you're hunting on club claims you've got a chance of hanging around with people that know what they're doing, so that they can show you the ropes.

The general rule is that you'll dig buckets of trash (while you're learning your detector) before you find your first nugget. But that's OK, you're learning your machine the entire time. VLF machines are designed for certain types of ground--learn the type of ground your machine excels in, and the type of ground it won't hunt in, and then dedicate yourself to the ground you're able to hunt.

Read, re-read, continue to read your manual--watch all the training videos on your machine you can find--get on a Tesoro forum and ask pertinent questions, then read and re-read your manual again. Like I said, you're in the right country where there's gold. Get together with someone that can show you the ropes. If you have to, pay for some lessons from a pro--well worth it to get to know your machine, the proper nugget shooting techniques, and the type of ground you can work with that particular machine.

All the best, and welcome to the wonderful world of chasin' the gold,

Lanny

 

[Treasure finder]

Idowa
Spend a couple of bucks more and get a magnet too, makes is easy to separate out
those little pieces of iron and you can use it for checking meteorites.
Rich