Finally!

[taternut]

Well, tomorrow will be my first time taking my metal detector out. I'm taking it to a nearby creek. It's been too hot to take out, but tomorrow bright and early I'm going to go out for a bit. Ill post pictures of my finds, trash or not. I'm sure ill be excited either way

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Great! Can't wait to hear how you do...

















(BTW, remember we need to see pictures or it never happened!)

 

[Ausgoldhunter]

Awesome, keep an ear out for those faint targets! gl..

 

[vpnavy]

Outstanding taternut. I will wait here to see your finds.

 

[taternut]

well i went out for about an hour and a half. i didnt find anything but hot rocks in the dried up creek bed so i walked away from the creek. I got a few loud beeps and this is my treasure for the short amount of time



Its not much but i'm very satisfied that I at least found something

 

[Alex Burke]

What is it/what are they tater lol?

 

[Ausgoldhunter]

Welcome to Detector Prospecting other peoples junk..

 

[Oakview2]

Some poster used to have a signature at the bottom of his posts, Detecting, building wealth one pull tab at a time

 

[jmoller99]

Get yourself some small gold targets and attach them to plastic poker chips (don't use the fancy clay poker chips - you will find that most of the clay poker chips are formulated such that they read just like 'hot rocks' to your detector. Hot Rocks are pretty irritating, no need to make things harder).

Use the small targets to test your ground balance and ability to detect gold in your current location (ground mineralization tends to be really high in areas where you find gold - being able to tune your detector for these areas, with a known good target will help you in the long run). The reason to attach the gold to a poker chip is so that you don't loose your practice target. I have a leather cord attached to my practice targets. I use a few different sized gold targets to see how small of a target I can find in an area.

You drop these on the ground, around 18 inches apart and then try to detect them.

Bird Shot reads/sounds just like gold - if you are finding that, you are likely set up correctly (my ratio of trash to gold seems to be at least 1000:1).

 

[taternut]

What is it/what are they tater lol?

Umm I'm not too sure haha, I know I found two screws and I think part of a nail. The the rest I don't know lol

 

[nuggeteer]

Get yourself some small gold targets and attach them to plastic poker chips (don't use the fancy clay poker chips - you will find that most of the clay poker chips are formulated such that they read just like 'hot rocks' to your detector. Hot Rocks are pretty irritating, no need to make things harder).

Use the small targets to test your ground balance and ability to detect gold in your current location (ground mineralization tends to be really high in areas where you find gold - being able to tune your detector for these areas, with a known good target will help you in the long run). The reason to attach the gold to a poker chip is so that you don't loose your practice target. I have a leather cord attached to my practice targets. I use a few different sized gold targets to see how small of a target I can find in an area.

You drop these on the ground, around 18 inches apart and then try to detect them.

Bird Shot reads/sounds just like gold - if you are finding that, you are likely set up correctly (my ratio of trash to gold seems to be at least 1000:1).

taternut,
This is good advice. Also, bring your test nugget with you detecting for a while. Experiment... Bury it in various settings with different amounts of ground mineralization and at different depths to see how the tones and display numbers can vary. Furthermore, bury it near trash and hotrocks to understand how to hear through any target masking effects. You are going to dig a lot of trash in the beginning and the hot rocks will be overwhelming, but the key is to actively pay attention and learn how your detector reacts. It took me almost 3 months to get gold; I think you'll do better.

 

[taternut]

Where would I buy a test nugget in town ?

 

[Ausgoldhunter]

Ebay... Make sure its a trusted source, and you'll pay for what you get...

I have a friend in Texas who buy's small nuggets for jewelry from gold nugget, gold nuggets items in Brightyeyes store on eBay!
bit pricy, but worth it as its the real deal

I would buy a small .1 maybe a .2 or .4 grams... Do some testing.. Learn the sounds..

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

well i went out for about an hour and a half. i didn't find anything but hot rocks in the dried up creek bed so i walked away from the creek. I got a few loud beeps and this is my treasure for the short amount of time

Well it's a beginning... and it's every bit as good as mine was some 28 years ago. I clearly remember gleefully digging hotrocks thinking "holy cow... there must some type of precious metal in there for the detector to beep!!"

Jim.

 

[taternut]

I know it was still exciting for me. Plus being able to figure out what was setting my machine off made me proud of myself

 

[Hard Prospector]

Ebay... Make sure its a trusted source, and you'll pay for what you get...

I have a friend in Texas who buy's small nuggets for jewelry from gold nugget, gold nuggets items in Brightyeyes store on eBay!
bit pricy, but worth it as its the real deal

I would buy a small .1 maybe a .2 or .4 grams... Do some testing.. Learn the sounds..

This is great advice from an experienced shooter/prospector. Spend some extra dough and buy some small nuggets (also if you can find em, gold/ quartz specimens.) Your better off conditioning yourself to the what the machine is telling you when its swung over gold then anything else.

 

[taternut]

What about a gold ring or necklace would that work? Or does the smelting/smithing change the integrity of the sound?? And what would be a fair price on a .2gram nugget?

 

[Alex Burke]

What about a gold ring or necklace would that work? Or does the smelting/smithing change the integrity of the sound?? And what would be a fair price on a .2gram nugget?

It's about 40 bucks a gram right now and it's low right now, about 8-10 bucks is spot for .2 but it may be hard to find at that price idk. Probably more like 15 I'd guess for a little nugget, the reason you don't want to use a chain is jewelry is a lower karat gold like 14 or 18k, otherwise it would be too soft for jewelry so it isn't as pure as natural nugget. A 14k gold chain is about 57 percent gold I think.

 

[taternut]

Oh okay I thought it might change it a little. Ill check online and see if I can find anything

 

[robbor]

Unfortunately there is a long learning curve in finding gold. I was out after coins/jewelry with a whites xlt and ran into another detectorist who was beating the ground pretty well. He said he had heard of gold around but never found any. I got tired of the clean quiet ground and cranked the hell out of my xlt, next thing i know a pulled up a 9.8 grain rice nugget. lol, that was my first. Went back with the GM4b and my 3rd target was a 13 grain nugget and then nothing else the rest of the day. Went back for a third time, i dug a few small targets and just put the dirt in a bottle. Then i dug a 18K gold braclet in mud everyone was avoiding, when i got home i panned my bottle and there was a 3 grain flake. Lol i was more excited about the flake than the braclet, i guess im screwed up. lol
Good luck to you!!!