SteveJJ
Jr. Member
- #1
Thread Owner
I joined up last week while in Cobalt Ontario with a friend (RustyDetector) who got me into this crazy passion. In the 80's he got me interested in his Garrett Freedom 1 Coin Commander. My father was recently retired so I thought I'd get one for him. To check it out, I ran it in my front yard. I found pulltabs, a couple old wheats, and a gold pin of a 4 leaf clover with a diamond in the middle, all in the first 20 minutes! (Beginners luck that hasn't returned).
More recently in 2010 RustyDetector asked if I'd like to go with him to Cobalt to hunt silver. I needed a break from care-giving my cancer stricken wife, and she encouraged that I go. It was a great fun time, though I dug more iron and nickel than anything, but it got me interested. I used a White detector then, and sort of got to know when the bargraph might be indicating silver, but turns out from cutting slabs it was still mostly nickel. Still, it was intriguing and an excuse to be out in the woods, like I need one!
A couple years later, after my wife passed away, RD asked if I wanted to go to the UP Keweenaw Peninsula and look for copper. It didn't take much arm twisting. It was a fun time checking piles of talings and actually finding some nice examples of copper crystals, and a good size nugget. Again, a great excuse to get outdoors for some fun. I used the White again, and grew envious of RD's Tesoro Vaquero, so I saved up a while and bought one.
Move forward a couple years and we returned to Cobalt area for more better detecting. RD had a monster 30" coil impulse machine that could probably find a vein in the bedrock. It resulted in some deep digging for sure. I'll let him share his experiences should he choose to. Still new to the Vaquero it took me some time to learn to frequently check ground balance as it would change every 10 feet or so, as the piles had been moved or different material dumped. Once keyed into that, I started to get deeper targets! My little hand trowel that is great for grass plugs just wore me out digging up nuts bolts and spikes!
We'd met a couple guys up there the first day, and the "muck scoop" Sheldon used had me intrigued by how fast he could dig and discover the signal source, without kneeling! I took pictures to aid my finding one for myself. Turns out a local mining supply company had them, so I bought one. Man does that ever dig! It penetrates the compacted rock even and makes digging oh-so-much faster! It enabled me to learn faster too, while keeping off my knees and shins.
I got a good sample of silver to use as a signal source and learned where on the discriminator the silver signal would get lost so with that I could more readily avoid digging trash (I hope!) I didn't find much, but enjoyed the learning and speedier digging.
My best finds I'll share photos of soon, once I get them prepped for sharing. I'd thought I might have found several pounds of silver that had been smelted into shallow sand depression 'plates' but it's more likely to be zinc and lead mixture used for bearings or some such. It can be cut with tool steel knife blade, so I'm told it isn't likely silver. If it were, I'd be getting a fancier detector sooner! Here's the pictures: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/468202-found-cobalt-ontario-beaver-mine.html
It was very interesting to meet up with Sheldon and Placergold so far into 'nowhere' on our first full day out. I think Placergold left Monday as we didn't see him again, but we did bump into Sheldon a few more times. What a great resource! Open and friendly, quick to share what he knows to help the new guys. We also met Peter, a retired school teacher that is encyclopedic in his knowledge of minerals. I hope we can go hunting with him next time we go to Cobalt, it would be an education, and I thrive on learning!
So that's a brief history of how I got here. I hope to learn and develop more skill. Later this summer I'll be in the Black Hills and am thinking about gold.......
More recently in 2010 RustyDetector asked if I'd like to go with him to Cobalt to hunt silver. I needed a break from care-giving my cancer stricken wife, and she encouraged that I go. It was a great fun time, though I dug more iron and nickel than anything, but it got me interested. I used a White detector then, and sort of got to know when the bargraph might be indicating silver, but turns out from cutting slabs it was still mostly nickel. Still, it was intriguing and an excuse to be out in the woods, like I need one!
A couple years later, after my wife passed away, RD asked if I wanted to go to the UP Keweenaw Peninsula and look for copper. It didn't take much arm twisting. It was a fun time checking piles of talings and actually finding some nice examples of copper crystals, and a good size nugget. Again, a great excuse to get outdoors for some fun. I used the White again, and grew envious of RD's Tesoro Vaquero, so I saved up a while and bought one.
Move forward a couple years and we returned to Cobalt area for more better detecting. RD had a monster 30" coil impulse machine that could probably find a vein in the bedrock. It resulted in some deep digging for sure. I'll let him share his experiences should he choose to. Still new to the Vaquero it took me some time to learn to frequently check ground balance as it would change every 10 feet or so, as the piles had been moved or different material dumped. Once keyed into that, I started to get deeper targets! My little hand trowel that is great for grass plugs just wore me out digging up nuts bolts and spikes!
We'd met a couple guys up there the first day, and the "muck scoop" Sheldon used had me intrigued by how fast he could dig and discover the signal source, without kneeling! I took pictures to aid my finding one for myself. Turns out a local mining supply company had them, so I bought one. Man does that ever dig! It penetrates the compacted rock even and makes digging oh-so-much faster! It enabled me to learn faster too, while keeping off my knees and shins.
I got a good sample of silver to use as a signal source and learned where on the discriminator the silver signal would get lost so with that I could more readily avoid digging trash (I hope!) I didn't find much, but enjoyed the learning and speedier digging.
My best finds I'll share photos of soon, once I get them prepped for sharing. I'd thought I might have found several pounds of silver that had been smelted into shallow sand depression 'plates' but it's more likely to be zinc and lead mixture used for bearings or some such. It can be cut with tool steel knife blade, so I'm told it isn't likely silver. If it were, I'd be getting a fancier detector sooner! Here's the pictures: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/468202-found-cobalt-ontario-beaver-mine.html
It was very interesting to meet up with Sheldon and Placergold so far into 'nowhere' on our first full day out. I think Placergold left Monday as we didn't see him again, but we did bump into Sheldon a few more times. What a great resource! Open and friendly, quick to share what he knows to help the new guys. We also met Peter, a retired school teacher that is encyclopedic in his knowledge of minerals. I hope we can go hunting with him next time we go to Cobalt, it would be an education, and I thrive on learning!
So that's a brief history of how I got here. I hope to learn and develop more skill. Later this summer I'll be in the Black Hills and am thinking about gold.......
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From Michigan...
