Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[EagleDown]

Halito Brother,

I just thought I'd stop in and thank you for your post in my thread!!

I see here that you're still doing a fantastic job of helping other detector enthusiests to make the best of their time while persuing their
hobby. Even this old dog learns something whenever you post your helpful hints.

Love and Respect,

Eagle

 

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[Lanny in AB]

These beauties were found by a guy I went nugget hunting with one day in British Columbia. He then took a trip way up north of where we were hunting and this is what he found:



The big one in the middle (yes, it's quartz and gold, but all kinds of gold as you can easily tell) is over 1500 grams alone!

My friend Doc in Vegas has had this picture for years.

All the best as you drool over these,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Halito Brother,

I just thought I'd stop in and thank you for your post in my thread!!

I see here that you're still doing a fantastic job of helping other detector enthusiests to make the best of their time while persuing their
hobby. Even this old dog learns something whenever you post your helpful hints.

Love and Respect,

Eagle

It's always so nice to have you drop in Eagle. I was a bit worried about you as I hadn't heard from you in a while.

I'm glad you're still out there helping others with your great gold stories.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Hey Lanny.
Thanks for the input. This canyon is marvelous. 160 acres. I think 150 acres are up hill. Then about 10 acres are on a Mesa. Great wash below where I took the pics. Bedrock is there, but I follow the path of the iron on the bends. Bedrocks deep as I could guess. Though there are a couple spots on the side berms. Found some hard rock diggings definitely at the high water mark. Just got to be willing to get poked by a thorn or ten. Then there's a big gully full of boulders of various sizes. I wonder how deep it gets till I hit dirt. Hmmm.
I'll definitely try searching out history from owner or past owners. I love picking bits of knowledge.

I appreciate you're input. Thanks again.
Next week is a trip to Stanton and Prescott. Going to try lynx creek for more than an hour this time. Which means I should be able to find some more gold. The amount I got from the 2-/2 gals of cons last time was descent.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hey Lanny.
Thanks for the input. This canyon is marvelous. 160 acres. I think 150 acres are up hill. Then about 10 acres are on a Mesa. Great wash below where I took the pics. Bedrock is there, but I follow the path of the iron on the bends. Bedrocks deep as I could guess. Though there are a couple spots on the side berms. Found some hard rock diggings definitely at the high water mark. Just got to be willing to get poked by a thorn or ten. Then there's a big gully full of boulders of various sizes. I wonder how deep it gets till I hit dirt. Hmmm.
I'll definitely try searching out history from owner or past owners. I love picking bits of knowledge.

I appreciate you're input. Thanks again.
Next week is a trip to Stanton and Prescott. Going to try lynx creek for more than an hour this time. Which means I should be able to find some more gold. The amount I got from the 2-/2 gals of cons last time was descent.

Thanks so much for posting the pictures. I really miss the desert around Stanton. For those that have never been to the desert, at first glance it's hard to capture its true beauty, but once you've been there, you'll never be able to forget the lonely, haunting beauty that captivates you.

I agree with you about the thorns "or ten". As I well remember, the thing to keep in mind about the desert is that almost everything bites, pokes or stings!

I hope you get some more gold this time as you try the creek. Keep looking until you find a good spot, and post some more pictures of your finds. The more you keep at it, the better the chances are that Mother Nature will reveal a little bonanza every once in a while.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

When I look up and know it’s a crazy risk; when I begin to think it’s a possible chance; when I tell myself it’s a great opportunity to sample virgin ground; when I steadily gain confidence and plot a way up; when the first fifty or so steep steps reward me; when the firm footing suddenly abandons me, as one foot, then the other slips and bone meets rock; when I begin to think that thinking was a better idea; when I calm myself, then wish myself to believe it’s still possible; when I move up farther and find even less to grab on to; when I slip more frequently, lose skin, and leak blood; when I discover I can’t see the toes of my boots because the pitch is too steep; when my deep brain survival instinct initiates a neuron firing loop; when the mind fog suddenly lifts revealing the impossibility of heading back down; when every upward movement buys only fractions of toe or handholds; when I finally reach the spot that looked so tempting to find it’s only an illusion some pea-brain dreamt up at the bottom of the gorge; when I realize there’s nothing to hang on to and take a sample of dirt regardless; when I start to realize that playing Russian Roulette gives me the better odds; when the mountain goats are laughing so hard they fall off the surrounding cliffs; when the eagles start texting each other about some idiot glued to the rock, I realize how powerful the lure of gold is.



All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

; when the mountain goats are laughing so hard they fall off the surrounding cliffs; when the eagles start texting each other about some idiot glued to the rock, I realize how powerful the lure of gold is.

Awesome, Lanny. Thank you.

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Lanny
Those pics are east of the Superstition Mountains. Today me and a couple other TNeters went out to try our luck to find the color. This was a first attempt to find the only thing that can cure the craving. So we set up the highbanker in the wash and for once we had a constant source of water. What a blessing. So I left the two to dig, run and test. I went to check other areas on the claim that may have good spots. I found some great spots with some potential. Even found a spot with the pitcher plants, that I hear is a tale-tale sign of high mineral content. Even think I found some other spots for crevicing and either an old mine shaft or a cave. Hard to tell since it was downhill and kinda hidden. The problem I had today is that I didn't bring any of my tools for testing (metal detector, pick,shovel, and pan). The other was that I originally was going to check the wash, but I wanted to check the boundaries of the claim. So up that hill I went. Full of palo verdes, chollas, cat claws, decomposed gravel, and gullies with boulders the size of a car to golf ball sized rubble. To say the least, I probably shouldn't have climbed the hill, since left side doesn't do good and I get vertigo if I don't focus on a certain point. Try looking up at those cliffs. Man I almost fell backwards and started going down the hill. It took all I could do to get me to go forward so I could anchor myself on the slope. I really love the beauty, and I forget the limits of my body. (Maybe I don't accept those limits). So after going back to my buddies in the wash (3 hours later - I think I spent more time going down on hands and knees, and sometimes my butt) I was expecting big amounts of gold to show ya. They were surprised, as well as myself, that there were only a couple specs of color. We tried various places. Even dug a trench across the wash about 15' long down to the gravels and cobble and then bedrock. Never found a pay streak. Better luck next time! I heard the wind scream.
So now I'm needing to get a hold of a minivac to hit crevices and hit pockets in the gullies. Something small enough to pack in but store the dirt/cons. Then of course, bring my other tools. Hopefully my buddies will come again.

So I've got a question. I know it's possible to not find gold when prospecting. This was a first for me. Getting less than five colors after digging about 7 test holes. Possible sure, but we were just dumbfounded. The bedrock was for the most part about 18-24" down. Is it possible that the bedrock was just too shallow to keep the gold in that area?
Next outing, I'll send ya some pics of the wash and other points of interest.
I will say that this is an amazing canyon with views and how the walls change with the sunlight. You should come and warm up a little down here. Lol

 

[Lanny in AB]

That's a great little story of gold chasing adventure! I've done many similar things while looking for gold, and sometimes I find good stuff, and other times I come back empty-handed like you did. Just living the adventure is sometimes the best reward after everything else is factored in, or said and done.

When it comes to bedrock, you have to figure what kind of bedrock it is. Is it all smoothed off with no rough edges or angular traps to stop the gold? Is it highly fractured and rough with lots of natural traps?

The other thing you have to remember is that sometimes there was no gold deposition in a particular spot. It may be off a hundred yards or more (much more) in a different direction. That's why the oldtimers were constantly sampling. They had to find where the gold had been dropped not what looked like the best place for the gold to be. I've been in some great looking spots where gold should have been, but the gold never felt the desire to rest there.

I've found gold on very shallow bedrock, and I've found it on very deep bedrock, but I've also been skunked on both as well.

So, keep following the three rules of prospecting: 1. Test, 2. Test, 3. Test and as you're in the right area for sure, sooner or later you'll find some nice stuff.

By the way, I too love how the light changes the colors of the rock in the desert depending on the time of day. (It would be great to see your pictures.) I'd love to be there this time of year to warm up, but right now, that's not going to happen. Work? Yup, that's the reason. It does spoil a lot of prospecting from happening.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Here's a couple photos of the wash. That pool seemed promising. Didn't dig it a lot. Just by the bigger boulder did they dig there. The flatter one on the right is where the little bit of color came from. The other picture shows the bench in the wash. To the right in the wall (not shown) there were a couple dug holes. I kept saying to dig the bench but I didn't. Though further to the right was the gully I tested. Well at least one hole.
The next trip I'll try to get better pics.
I forgot to mention about while I was panning I noticed this silvery fine powder below the iron. I've never seen it before. I was wondering what it could've been. This fine powdery stuff came near the bedrock. Have you ever run across this fine silvery powder like that. It was heavy and just hung on to the black sands. Very hard to separate. I don't think it would've shown up with camera, unless I had magnifying glass to shoot through.

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

Yeah, work does get in the way. No longer for me. Now it's doctor appointments. I'll be making a trip to Stanton this weekend. So I'll hopefully have a story to tell. Plus some pics of the hills and desert. Maybe it'll keep ya warm. Supposedly in the 80's in the valley. So we should be 70's. Glad we aren't central or eastern states. That's part of the reason I love AZ

 

[Lanny in AB]

There are some options for your silvery powder, and without seeing it myself, it's difficult to say with any certainty what it is. Often when you're in an area where there's a lot of pyrite (that's unoxidized) it will hang in the crease of the pan. I've found places like that numerous times. Sometimes the unoxidized pyrite is in a powder, other times granules, and then of course, sometimes it's in larger chunks and pieces.

Galena will hang in the crease of the pan as well.

Of course, there's always silver that's heavy, but as I said, it's more likely to be other materials, but when in doubt, collect a sample and have it checked out. Let me repeat that, when it doubt check it out.

All the best as you chase the gold,

Lanny

 

[GarretDiggingAz]

The hunt begins.
On our AZ thread I posted heading to Stanton for weekend. Got 4-5 other TNeters joining me for the hunt. I'm hoping to hit not just my claim for the Weaver Mining Group, but others that are part of that or the GPAA. So this should be fun. Too bad you couldn't be there. Just like Eagle. But if you guys were there we probably wouldn't do much detecting. But I'm sure we would all learn a lot.
I'll share our exploit Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully with some pics of nugs. I know I'll have some from our dig. Especially from my kids college fund hole. I call it.
Stay warm and thanks for the info on that material. Next time I'll hope to take a pic of the material.

 

[Lanny in AB]

The hunt begins.
On our AZ thread I posted heading to Stanton for weekend. Got 4-5 other TNeters joining me for the hunt. I'm hoping to hit not just my claim for the Weaver Mining Group, but others that are part of that or the GPAA. So this should be fun. Too bad you couldn't be there. Just like Eagle. But if you guys were there we probably wouldn't do much detecting. But I'm sure we would all learn a lot.
I'll share our exploit Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully with some pics of nugs. I know I'll have some from our dig. Especially from my kids college fund hole. I call it.
Stay warm and thanks for the info on that material. Next time I'll hope to take a pic of the material.

Good luck on your hunt, and post some more pictures for sure. I hope you get to see a lot of different ground, and of course I certainly hope you do find some sassy nuggets!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Gold fact: Gold is heavy.



Rookie prospector fact: Most rookies forget this.

Prospecting reality: many "seasoned" prospectors forget this.

Prospecting mantra: never forget that gold is heavy.

For example, if you want to look for gold in a stream, don't start digging in a sandbar. Don't start digging in clay or mud. While it's true that gold will stick to clay, usually if you dig a bunch of clay, you'll get a lot of clay in your pan. . . .

Look at the stream and see where the bigger stuff is collecting.



If you're in an area where there's flour gold (glaciated gold that's been hammered and ground to a powder consistency), look for gravel bars where the rocks are fist-sized and larger. Why? Specific gravity rules specify that if the stream was traveling with enough velocity to carry rocks fist-sized and larger, flour gold was also traveling with them (if there's gold in the stream). Remember? Gold is heavy, so it takes force from water velocity to move it during a flood or during high water. (This also applies to bench deposits and old channels.)

If you're in an area where there's flake and picker gold (or maybe even nuggets), look for a place in the stream where rocks the size of couch cushions or big round watermelons or trashcans were moving during high water. Then, get a vantage point where you can look downstream to see if there's any pattern to their disposition. (I'm referring where the stream is fairly shallow to bedrock or hardpan as the bigger rocks won't disappear as they sink themselves with the stratifying action of the stream. Big, wide, slow moving streams that are deep to bedrock sometimes won't follow the same rules.) Look downstream and if you can see the big rocks lined out (running in a consecutive line downstream from each other) in a linear pattern, each following the others downstream, I'd get in those rocks and start digging. Why? Gold is heavy. Just think about the energy involved in the stream velocity that moved those rocks: pickers and flakes and maybe nuggets were running with that big stuff. Dig, dig, dig. Test, test, test.



Flashback time: When I was working with a large placer operation and they'd hit large boulders (the size of your couch at least, not the cushions), and we were working ground where nuggets were common, everyone would get excited about the possibilities. (I say possibilities because sometimes Mother Nature plays tricks and only drops the big boulders because she shifted the gold run off somewhere else.) So, when those big boulders were moved out of the way, everyone would get down in the pit after the machines were shut down for the day to start panning. (I'd often be panning the material as we went down as well to keep the feedback going to the excavator operator to let him know what size of gold, or how much gold was showing in the pan at the various levels, or in the varying layers of materials as they changed from level to level.)

On one unforgettable day, the gold run was so heavy after the big rocks were moved that we walked along the face of the wall where it met the bedrock (from about two feet above and down to the bedrock that is), and we were able to see the nuggets packed in the gravel and then flick them out of the wall into a pan!

Now I know that some of you are going to think that I was smoking cheap crack, and that there's no way anything like that could ever be possible, but I was there and it happened anyway. Moreover, once you've seen pay with that much gold in it, and once you've experienced a sight like that, you can never forget it either. There was so much gold in the pay layer that because the boss was gone to town for supplies, the sluice crew messed up and fed the sluice at the wrong rate (they fed it as if they were running normal material). The boss arrived back in camp just as the run ended and the crew was just shutting down the wash-plant. To his horror when the water stopped flowing, there were nuggets all the way from the header boxes right to the end of the last riffle in both sluices, and this was a big wash-plant!

So, as you undoubtedly remember (by now in this post) that gold is heavy, what do you think was happening while the nuggets were being deposited all the way to the last riffle in the sluices?

That's right, the nuggets were going over the end of the sluice and heading down into the settling ponds too. What a fiasco! I'll not bore you with the colorful adjectives the boss launched at the sluice crew.

But, what an unimaginable sight regardless. Nuggets from the header boxes all the way to the last riffle!! I had my video camera with me and wanted so badly to shoot video of the sluices; moreover, I had my regular camera with me and wanted to shoot some stills as well, but the investor wouldn't let me do it. He was quite an uptight fellow, to say the least.

Some other miners were working their way down the mountain along our road on their way to cross the river with their equipment, so they could get started on running dirt at their claim. They stopped by to see how things were going. Their jaws hit the ground, hard. They'd never seen the like, and I certainly never have since. Pounds and pounds of beautiful nuggets, with pounds and pounds of galena in all different sizes left to be separated from the gold. (What a pain that was as you can't remove galena with magnets, so it's hard to speed up the cleanup process.)

So, when you're looking for gold, think heavy. Try to think heavy thoughts because gold certainly thinks that way. Moreover, if you're working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock, always, always check the bedrock very carefully. Why? As gold is heavy, and as the stream materials are constantly agitated by the water, the gold will continue to drop through the liquified, moving materials of the stream to eventually come to rest. Why does it stop? It hits something that won't move or give way, and in the case of bedrock, it meets all of the immovable object criteria.

While dredging, I've had to pry enough nuggets from cracks and crevices to know how well fractured or rough bedrock works when it comes to stopping gold.



Fun fact: while dredging, I've disturbed gold on the bedrock, but because gold is so heavy, the velocity of the stream drags (and I do mean drags) it along the bedrock until it reaches a crevice, and the gold disappears right quick I can tell you! If it's a good sized nugget, once you uncover it, that sassy chunk of gold will sit there in the water right tight on the bedrock waiting for you to make a move. That's how well gold can resist the velocity of the water. That's why some writers say that gold is "lazy". It's so sluggish because due to its specific gravity that it takes the shortest route between two points. So, if you're in an area with coarse gold, always remember this weighty fact as you're plotting where to test your stream materials. In your head, draw some imaginary lines (straight lines) from point A to point B.

Go to bed tonight reviewing the fact that gold is heavy: almost twenty times as heavy as the water that's transporting it, and almost ten times heavier than the other materials the stream's water is moving along with it. Knowing this may just have you rethinking things the next time you're out working a stream where it's shallow to bedrock (or other stream deposits as well).



All the best,

Lanny

 

[delnorter]

Great info Lanny.

The importance of the weight of gold relative to all surrounding material and the relentless work of flowing water cannot be emphasized enough.

The introduction to your post says it all to all, new and seasoned, don't forget or minimize; gold is very heavy.

Thanks Lanny,
Mike

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great info Lanny.

The importance of the weight of gold relative to all surrounding material and the relentless work of flowing water cannot be emphasized enough.

The introduction to your post says it all to all, new and seasoned, don't forget or minimize; gold is very heavy.

Thanks Lanny,
Mike

Thanks for dropping in Mike! It's great to have a little feedback from you.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[leenie]

hi lanny the gold that went out of the sluice into the setting pond are you able to recover it or is gone? i'm like sargent Schultz I know nothing. I watch the tv gold shows and they are missing gold out the sluice all the time. thank god those shows aren't real. my wife tells me it does not help to swear at the tv they can't hear me and don't care. I worked on a pig farm for 17 years so I can tell manure from the real thing. thank you for your latest pictures and sharing your stories dave ps I think I remember a pig story in one of past posts.

 

[Lanny in AB]

hi lanny the gold that went out of the sluice into the setting pond are you able to recover it or is gone? i'm like sargent Schultz I know nothing. I watch the tv gold shows and they are missing gold out the sluice all the time. thank god those shows aren't real. my wife tells me it does not help to swear at the tv they can't hear me and don't care. I worked on a pig farm for 17 years so I can tell manure from the real thing. thank you for your latest pictures and sharing your stories dave ps I think I remember a pig story in one of past posts.

Dave (I hope this is your name, right? Don't worry about cussin' at the screen, and as for pigs, you're right, I did write a tale about an experience I once had.).

In response to your questions, the gold is still there. Moreover, where they had the wash-plant, there's gold all around it as well. That's a tip that I'll pass on to you. Wherever a wash-plant has been set up there's gold. The big problem about shooting nuggets with a detector around any deserted gold operation is the trash. This comes from all the things happening: welding (lots of bits of welds, pieces of rod, etc.), metal fabricating, chunks of screens breaking off, bits of bearing or chunks dropping, pieces of track and blade shaving off, etc., etc. So, there's tons of trash, but just scooping up dirt from around the workings will produce gold if the pay was decent, and sometimes it's good gold too.



It makes sense if you think about it. They were trucking in pay-dirt to the location, so you've got a concentrated area of possibilities, much more so than some random piece of ground. Think of it this way, if they were trucking in dirt mixed with loads of silver dimes and processing them through a wash-plant to get the dimes back out, wouldn't some of that dirt fall off the various types of equipment and machinery before it got washed? The same goes for dirt with nuggets in it. I've found nuggets on the roads where they trucked pay, and in all of the areas where the dirt had a chance to drop around the equipment and machinery. Today, most operations have to leave the ground like nothing ever happened where the gold was washed. So, you'll need to look for old sites that were left either partially unclaimed or totally unclaimed for your best chance.

In my story about the rich dirt, just multiply the possibilities by a high factor (of pay dropping off with nuggets in it) and that explains the situation I've referred to earlier about that spectacular dirt they were processing.

As for the nuggets that went over the end of the sluices, they're most likely still there, trapped in highly fractured bedrock on a rocky slope below. I know exactly where they are, but it's a long, difficult drive from here to get back up there. Nevertheless, a return trip is still on my list. Why, because I've learned so much more about nugget hunting since I was there last. I've got a bunch of spots I'd hit hard this time, and I'd go much slower. Furthermore, with the 5000, I'd be able to hear signals I'd have walked right over with the 2100, that's how much quieter the 5000 is than the SD's, and that's how much better the circuitry is for handling extreme ground (and the variety of coils) as well. Lots of different programs, settings, new coils being developed to let a guy really work that ground.



Furthermore, there's places I would now hunt in an entirely different manner. I'd take some pumps with me and pump out old excavations because the nuggets are still there too, they're just drowned under too much water for a person to swing a detector over them. But, when I was shooting the ground before those sites flooded (that's always a problem with placer pits, the seepage), we were getting fantastic, nuggety gold.

There's also the throwout piles from the 1800's and the 1930's (Fun fact: there were all kinds of people active in the gold-fields in the 1930's). Because I didn't know then what I know now, I only did a superficial job of detecting those hand-dug excavation piles because there was so much trash. By the way, the amount of trash there is a good sign.

Down south (in my terminology in reference to territory that means close to the US border with Canada) the places are being hit so hard it's rare to find any trash as more and more spots are being worked to death. But those throwout piles that I referred to up north had beautiful nuggets in them along with all kinds of trash. But now, I don't care about trash. It's a signal to me that it hasn't been worked out. Trash will mask a lot of nugget signals. Let me repeat that: trash will mask a lot of nugget signals. I got this tip from an online prospecting buddy years ago. He told me that you want to work the ground until it's dead quiet. Then, you want to slow down and really hunt by listening for those tiny disturbances in the threshold. That's the strength of the 5000 in extreme ground, it's sensitivity and its quiet. The GPX is so quiet it will let you hear the gold.



Far too many nugget hunters want the signal from a nugget to blow their headphones off or at least make a loud, clear sound or they won't investigate the signal response. That's not how you find most nuggets. You have to go slowly, listening very carefully for any change in the threshold. Those tiny changes need to be investigated. I mean, that's why you pay the big bucks right? Too many nugget shooters try to dumb down their machines, or maybe it's better to say they dumb down their own response. Regardless, if there's a disturbance in the threshold, the machine is trying to tell you something. So, listen to it, and check that bump (in the threshold) out. It pays to be smart enough to respect the technology in the machine, and it never hurts to remind yourself to remember that.

This advice goes for VLF's as well, that is when you're hunting ground that's suitable for a VLF. I remember the days when I was always in a hurry, swinging the coil like I was on steroids, trying to cover as much ground as I could, waiting for a target response in the headphones that would smack me in the side of the head to get me to stop. That's the tale of a classic rookie error right there. That's the tale of someone dumbing down the machine's ability and the operator's brain!

Sure, if you're in an area that you're testing and you're unsure of the gold production values you'll likely travel faster with a big coil, but if you're in an area that's producing nuggets, and you've already found nuggets, it pays to slow down and investigate every signal (with smaller coils sometimes).



Wow, this response is way longer than I intended Dave, so I think I'll move some of it over to my Tips thread for those that need a hint or two, as for the pros, they already know this stuff.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/398442-gold-hunting-prospecting-tips.html

 

[leenie]

hi lanny. yes my name is dave. I use my wife's user name on the computer so if nsa comes looking for leenie it aint me. but I tell her I will wait for her till she gets out of jail. thank you for your reply. I am a metal detector guy and have small produce business in the summer. so my travel'n days are limited. I watch and read anything about the pacific northwest. I enjoy first hand stories and your's are excellent I love the pictures that you post. I doubt I ever get to chase the raw gold but I still have a chance at coins and rings. there are takers and givers in this world. I would much rather spend my time on earth with the givers. you are a very fine example of a giver. god bless you dave aka leenie