Wildcat
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Hunting in New Zealand ( Lots of NZ Photos in this thread)
- Thread starter Wildcat
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Hi there GT, Yes it sort of suprised me too. I can be there in 20 minutes from where I live. I have known of them for a long time from research I have done. Even way before my detecting days. There is no water up there so never went up with a pan or box. If you know where to look & what to look for you can see them from the main road. I never saw any thing that looked like a detector dig hole prior to me going there. These workings probably arent all that well known but there are quite a few local detectorists here & I would have thought some of them would have known of these workings & being so close & easy access...... 
You can drive right to them, jump a fence & you are in them...
Snow is driving me out of them at the moment though. Cancel mode & a DD coil will sort out your interference from powerlines. You will lose a bit of depth & sensitivity though. Never use cancel mode with a mono coil as you will lose all sensitivity & may as well just detect with the detector turned off. You will have just as much luck.
Salt mode will quieten down a mono a bit in wet conditions but again you will lose a bit of sensitivity & depth.
I know full well the scream in the ear of a .22 shell at close range
Happy hunting
JW
You can drive right to them, jump a fence & you are in them...Snow is driving me out of them at the moment though. Cancel mode & a DD coil will sort out your interference from powerlines. You will lose a bit of depth & sensitivity though. Never use cancel mode with a mono coil as you will lose all sensitivity & may as well just detect with the detector turned off. You will have just as much luck.
Salt mode will quieten down a mono a bit in wet conditions but again you will lose a bit of sensitivity & depth.I know full well the scream in the ear of a .22 shell at close range
Happy hunting
JW
G'day Wildcat - Great spot if you don't mind a bit of rain. There's always something to do down south - duckshooting, whitebaiting, then off chasing the gold in the summer. The main problem is finding enough time to do it all 
JW - The 11" standard coil is the only double d that I have, most of the time I can use the monos, but I've used the 11" in a few really close to the powerlines spots and it's a pretty good coil. How often do you use your 11" mono? A lot of guys on the Aussie forums reckon that they're the best all-round coil on the new detectors, and I'm wondering whether it'd be worth getting one. The big coil is too big to manouvre round a lot of the workings, and the 8" you have to waddle around like a duck if you're trying to cover large areas of sluicings.
Cheers
GT
JW - The 11" standard coil is the only double d that I have, most of the time I can use the monos, but I've used the 11" in a few really close to the powerlines spots and it's a pretty good coil. How often do you use your 11" mono? A lot of guys on the Aussie forums reckon that they're the best all-round coil on the new detectors, and I'm wondering whether it'd be worth getting one. The big coil is too big to manouvre round a lot of the workings, and the 8" you have to waddle around like a duck if you're trying to cover large areas of sluicings.
Cheers
GT
Hi GT, The 11" dedicated mono has become my main coil that I use. I found that 18.7 gram piece with it at a good 12" deep & also a .2 gram piece at about 1.5". It was the 11" that I used on my first day at these sluiced workings & found a 4.4 gram at about 6" down into a tight schist crevice. Also got a .73, .43, .98, 1.08 around the same area. That was when the ground was dry.
The next day I put on the 10" X 5" mono & got a 3.65 gram piece at about 4". I thought I had swept that spot with the 11" the day before but may have just missed hitting that nugget with the "sweet" spot of the 11" mono. The next day the ground was starting to get damp & I tried the 24" X 12" mono but it was a bit noisey & also difficult to swing comfortably in the uneven & steep terrain of the sluiced workings. That is a great coil in open flat areas & my main choice when there to start off with.
If I can get back to the sluiced workings in the weekend I will try the 17" X 11" DD & the 18" round DD in both DD mode & the pesudo mono mode & see if I can get anything of a desent size at depth. They may prove to be too difficult to manouver. I may have a go at making a swing arm tomorrow to make it a bit easier.
Happy hunting
Regards
JW
The next day I put on the 10" X 5" mono & got a 3.65 gram piece at about 4". I thought I had swept that spot with the 11" the day before but may have just missed hitting that nugget with the "sweet" spot of the 11" mono. The next day the ground was starting to get damp & I tried the 24" X 12" mono but it was a bit noisey & also difficult to swing comfortably in the uneven & steep terrain of the sluiced workings. That is a great coil in open flat areas & my main choice when there to start off with.
If I can get back to the sluiced workings in the weekend I will try the 17" X 11" DD & the 18" round DD in both DD mode & the pesudo mono mode & see if I can get anything of a desent size at depth. They may prove to be too difficult to manouver. I may have a go at making a swing arm tomorrow to make it a bit easier.
Happy hunting
Regards
JW
Hi Guys, Well I have learnt a valuable lesson today & one you can all learn from my mistake. It has happened to me twice now at this same spot & only a couple of feet away from each other. The other weekend I went back to a spot where I had some exposed bed rock schist that was giving me three very strong signals that screamed at me .22 shell, .22 shell all in very close proximity to each other. Well last weekend I dug up those targets to get rid of them in case they were masking a good signal from that schist. Well they were not only masking one good signal, but 5.
Today I went back to these old sluiced workings thinking I had pretty much done them over for what ever gold they were going to give me. The bigger mono's were too noisy now in the wet ground & I had been all over them with my smaller mono's & 11"DD. Today I gave the 18" DD a run to see if there was anything of size at depth. I went to the spot where I had dug out those 3 .22 shells & then got those 5 good pieces. Well not 2 feet away there were a number of other loud junk targets that I decided to get rid of. They turned out to be lead bullet heads & then I got a "sweet" target that was a half gram piece of gold with the 18" DD in DD mode. It was only a couple of inches down & had I got rid of those junk targets earlier then any one of my other coils would have snapped it up.
So the lesson is.....GET RID OF ALL JUNK TARGETS!!!! You never know what they may be masking.
Happy hunting
JW
Today I went back to these old sluiced workings thinking I had pretty much done them over for what ever gold they were going to give me. The bigger mono's were too noisy now in the wet ground & I had been all over them with my smaller mono's & 11"DD. Today I gave the 18" DD a run to see if there was anything of size at depth. I went to the spot where I had dug out those 3 .22 shells & then got those 5 good pieces. Well not 2 feet away there were a number of other loud junk targets that I decided to get rid of. They turned out to be lead bullet heads & then I got a "sweet" target that was a half gram piece of gold with the 18" DD in DD mode. It was only a couple of inches down & had I got rid of those junk targets earlier then any one of my other coils would have snapped it up.
So the lesson is.....GET RID OF ALL JUNK TARGETS!!!! You never know what they may be masking.
Happy hunting
JW
Wildcat
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GT I only ever used the Joey coil (11" mono elliptical) and a 14" nuggetfinder mono when working in deepsoil areas. Beautiful coil but too heavy to swing all day long. I have kept both those coils for when I get the new TDI.... You must have a jar full by now JW... lol
Hi there Doug, The jars have slowen down in their growth as I have only been getting sub gram bits lately & not many at that. Last sunday was 4 bits for a total of .66 grams & yesterday I didnt get up there until just after 2pm & it is dark by 6pm. My wife came with me which is cool as she likes to share in the excitement of the finds. She has even videoed one little piece that I got. But we were only there for about an hour & she was making noises of being cold, GGGGRRRRR %$&* 
. I had by then found my 1 piece. She was just sitting in a fold up camp chair reading a womans mag & doing a cross word. The sun had gone behind a cloud but I told her to get up & go for a walk around to get warm. There was a bit of snow on the ground but it wasnt too bad. Not as bad as last sunday, but then she didnt come up that afternoon. I then told her to make herself a cup of coffee which she did. I may have managed to drag out another hour but the whimpiring was getting stronger so I relented & packed up & we headed back to the wagon with 1.5 hours of day light left. BUGGER.
We are off today to search some old historic tailings on the edge of Lake Dunstan. Here is a google earth pic of them. Isnt it sort of beautiful. So neatly done. Looking like a fern leave pattern from space. Each rock individually hand stacked in their individual rows with the center "stems" being the tail races. The things man does to chase GOLD.
Happy hunting
JW
. I had by then found my 1 piece. She was just sitting in a fold up camp chair reading a womans mag & doing a cross word. The sun had gone behind a cloud but I told her to get up & go for a walk around to get warm. There was a bit of snow on the ground but it wasnt too bad. Not as bad as last sunday, but then she didnt come up that afternoon. I then told her to make herself a cup of coffee which she did. I may have managed to drag out another hour but the whimpiring was getting stronger so I relented & packed up & we headed back to the wagon with 1.5 hours of day light left. BUGGER. We are off today to search some old historic tailings on the edge of Lake Dunstan. Here is a google earth pic of them. Isnt it sort of beautiful. So neatly done. Looking like a fern leave pattern from space. Each rock individually hand stacked in their individual rows with the center "stems" being the tail races. The things man does to chase GOLD.
Happy hunting
JW
Wildcat
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JW I know I would have to be finding an awful lot of gold before I went to the trouble of stacking rocks like that, and then again if I was finding it, I think the rocks might be flyin' and lyin' where-ever. lol
The Cat
The Cat
Hi there Wildcat, I am back from seeing those sluiced workings & boy are they impressive. They are the result of ground sluicing & not the high water pressure from a hydrolic monitor or those water pressure guns. With ground sluicing they would bring in water from a near by creek through water races & gather the water in dams or reservoirs above the ground they wanted to work.
This was usually done during the night & the water from the dams was then directed to where they wanted to work the ground. After digging a tail race to allow the tailings & waste material to flow out of the workings the water was allowed to pour over the edge of the claim to wash down material. The bigger rocks & boulders were stacked in such a fashion after they had been washed down from the working face to allow the finer sands & gold to wash down what was to become a central race which would be lined with riffles made of wood, or stone & tussock grass to catch the gold. The rocks were stacked to act as wing walls & so direct the water flow & gold bearing sands & gravels into the central race & sluice box. They also worked on the touch it once principle so that once the rocks were stacked they didny have to be touched or moved again.
I guess they never thought of the patterns they were creating but that it was just the result of their deliberate & methodical engineering & working principle. Allowing the water to do the work in the most efficient way possible. These workings are over 140 years old & the scars they left are a monument to the men who created them & not the usual enviromentaly ugly scars left by this type of mining.
Happy hunting
JW
This was usually done during the night & the water from the dams was then directed to where they wanted to work the ground. After digging a tail race to allow the tailings & waste material to flow out of the workings the water was allowed to pour over the edge of the claim to wash down material. The bigger rocks & boulders were stacked in such a fashion after they had been washed down from the working face to allow the finer sands & gold to wash down what was to become a central race which would be lined with riffles made of wood, or stone & tussock grass to catch the gold. The rocks were stacked to act as wing walls & so direct the water flow & gold bearing sands & gravels into the central race & sluice box. They also worked on the touch it once principle so that once the rocks were stacked they didny have to be touched or moved again.
I guess they never thought of the patterns they were creating but that it was just the result of their deliberate & methodical engineering & working principle. Allowing the water to do the work in the most efficient way possible. These workings are over 140 years old & the scars they left are a monument to the men who created them & not the usual enviromentaly ugly scars left by this type of mining.
Happy hunting
JW
Wildcat
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It makes you wonder JW when you look at the eagles view just how much gold is further back in the hills. They wouldn't have been able to locate the tailrace too high up as they couldn't have got water up there. Methinks there is still a lot of gold in the dirt there.
The Cat
The Cat
G'day Wildcat, Yer I was thinking the same thing as I gazed down into them & looked at the unworked portion of the faces they had exposed. I guess they had done their homework & if it was worth their while they could have easily have carried on back up into the hills. They are actually very low down on the flanks of the Dunstan Range. They have probably just worked a rich little (Big) pocket in what looks like a high old Clutha River terrace. The tailing rocks are very round & water worn & look very much like river rocks as opposed to glacial. Also the shear number of them in one localised area. There are smaller sluicings further up & down from these, although on google earth you cant really make those out like these ones. But I noticed them as I walked up to these ones. They are at a spot called Quartz Reef Point & I saw three lines of reef striking in the same direction parallel to each other. They cant have been gold bearing how ever.
Happy hunting
JW
Happy hunting
JW
Hi Guys,
I went back up to these old sluiced workings on saturday & I still managed to get a bit of gold from the same ground that I have been over numerous times already & with the same coils. The gold is getting small & it takes a keen ear to pick up the slight threshold change that signals a possible target. If the ground is too wet & the coils threshold sound is a tad "noisy" "Mono coil" it is very hard to pick up the very slight threshold change amongst the threshold chatter.
It suprises me at the lack of rubbish items from the old timers amongst the sluicings. I have by far found more .22 shell caseings & old lead bullet heads than general ferrous metal junk items from the actual workings of these sluiceings.
11 pieces for the day for a total of 2.5 grams. All less than 1 gram with the smallest .11 of a gram
Total from these sluiced workings so far is 25.5 grams
Happy hunting
JW
I went back up to these old sluiced workings on saturday & I still managed to get a bit of gold from the same ground that I have been over numerous times already & with the same coils. The gold is getting small & it takes a keen ear to pick up the slight threshold change that signals a possible target. If the ground is too wet & the coils threshold sound is a tad "noisy" "Mono coil" it is very hard to pick up the very slight threshold change amongst the threshold chatter.
It suprises me at the lack of rubbish items from the old timers amongst the sluicings. I have by far found more .22 shell caseings & old lead bullet heads than general ferrous metal junk items from the actual workings of these sluiceings.
11 pieces for the day for a total of 2.5 grams. All less than 1 gram with the smallest .11 of a gram
Total from these sluiced workings so far is 25.5 grams
Happy hunting
JW
Wildcat
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Well done JW. You will have that machine trained to pick up dust before too long...
The Cat
The Cat
G'day Wildcat, Thanks. I am getting a bit over the real small pieces now. It is time to find some new pastures & hopefully bigger bits of over 1 gram. I see now what you mean by "Do you really want to find such small pieces" When I was going on about the Whites GM 4B & picking up all the gold on offer at a spot.
I have gone over these old workings a few times now with different size coils. Both DD's & mono's & I am sure there are no bigger bits on offer for me. I found the bigger bits on my first couple of days & found no bigger bits after going back over the same old ground. Just the smaller bits with a lot of focus, concerntration & guess work as to a target signal or ground noise. Most small bits were with the 10" X 5" mono & 8" mono coils & rubbing them on the ground.
Take care & happy hunting.
JW
I have gone over these old workings a few times now with different size coils. Both DD's & mono's & I am sure there are no bigger bits on offer for me. I found the bigger bits on my first couple of days & found no bigger bits after going back over the same old ground. Just the smaller bits with a lot of focus, concerntration & guess work as to a target signal or ground noise. Most small bits were with the 10" X 5" mono & 8" mono coils & rubbing them on the ground.
Take care & happy hunting.
JW
Wildcat
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Yes JW, You can spend (waste) a lot of time on the really small stuff and while it is always nice to find any gold at all, it does get very frustrating finding tiny bits all the time. I get disgusted when I have a very loud signal and I think that it HAS to be at least 4-5 grams and it is 1/2 gram when it finally comes out of the dirt.
Such is life. HH
The Cat
Such is life. HH
The Cat
Went to a new spot today & found 4 little bits for a total of only .65 grams. Suppose it is better than nothing & shows there is a bit to be found at this new spot. Awoke this morning to snow on the ground & snowing hard out. BUGGER I thought. Actually I said something else that I cant really repeat on here.
By 10am it had backed off & patchs of blue sky were showing & the forecast was for improving weather. So I headed off for the 1 hour drive to this spot. It was down country a bit from Queenstown & so hadnt quite had the snow as low as we had it. I was fearing the spot would be under snow as it was up on a mountain side, but it wasnt so that was good.
I came across 3 quartz reefs running parallel to each other but in different gullies, but they showed no gold in them or their float. So the gold I found hadnt come from them as the gold was further up the side of the mountain & very flat & water worn but were nowhere near a river or water course. Glacial
Happy hunting
JW
By 10am it had backed off & patchs of blue sky were showing & the forecast was for improving weather. So I headed off for the 1 hour drive to this spot. It was down country a bit from Queenstown & so hadnt quite had the snow as low as we had it. I was fearing the spot would be under snow as it was up on a mountain side, but it wasnt so that was good.
I came across 3 quartz reefs running parallel to each other but in different gullies, but they showed no gold in them or their float. So the gold I found hadnt come from them as the gold was further up the side of the mountain & very flat & water worn but were nowhere near a river or water course. Glacial
Happy hunting
JW
Glad to hear that you are enjoying paradise in our area (Cromwell basin) I've lived here for years but only been MDing for a year or so. I've hooked up with a mate who knows the area like the back of his hand and we spend heaps of weekends out fossicking - Quartz Reef being one of these, just amazes me that people keep going back time & time and still come out with worthwhile hauls.
It must be remembered that just about all land in the Basin is privately owned including the Quartz Reef area (Northburn Station) and permission must be gained to access these areas. The owner of Northburn is a very nice guy and usually has no problem in letting people on to detect. However he is getting concerned regarding the increase of people not asking permission. Digging has been noticed around some of the old miners camps which is illegal (as well as even moving tailings) under the Conservation Act. I would really hate to see access limited to a few.
We are lucky here in that we know all the runholders on a personal basis and access for us will be OK but I would hate to see others not given the chance to try their luck.
Keep up the work and never know, we may meet up out there one day.
It must be remembered that just about all land in the Basin is privately owned including the Quartz Reef area (Northburn Station) and permission must be gained to access these areas. The owner of Northburn is a very nice guy and usually has no problem in letting people on to detect. However he is getting concerned regarding the increase of people not asking permission. Digging has been noticed around some of the old miners camps which is illegal (as well as even moving tailings) under the Conservation Act. I would really hate to see access limited to a few.
We are lucky here in that we know all the runholders on a personal basis and access for us will be OK but I would hate to see others not given the chance to try their luck.
Keep up the work and never know, we may meet up out there one day.
Hi there Peejay, No it wasnt at QRP that I detected. My wife & I just went there to view the tailings & then went back to QT via Wanaka, Cadrona valley & the Crown Range road. The highest tarsealed highway in NZ. We couldnt muck around as we had no chains & had to beat the late arvo freeze.
Yes I love Central Otago & it is a paradise.
What detector are you running??
I sent you an email & havnt heard from you & wondered if you received it?? Maybe we could hook up for an outing.
Happy hunting
JW
Yes I love Central Otago & it is a paradise.
What detector are you running??
I sent you an email & havnt heard from you & wondered if you received it?? Maybe we could hook up for an outing.
Happy hunting
JW
Lanny in AB
Gold Member
Wildcat and others--love this thread!! Well done.
All the best,
Lanny
All the best,
Lanny
Wildcat
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Good to have you back Lanny. I wondered where you had gone. I myself haven't been out lately except down in my own bush block. I found a penny or two and some brass relics. Also around a dozen exploded .303 shells. There used to be some loggers here once so I guess they camped. I wouldn't have liked to be around those shells when they were exploding. Might put a piccy up later.
The Cat
The Cat
Lanny in AB
Gold Member
Wildcat--the 303 is a right venerable old rifle--there's still all kinds of them in use around the world. You're right when you say you wouldn't want to be around when those bad-boys were cooking off--flying lead isn't my favorite either.
Got some nice flake gold sluicing--right around 4 grams, but I'm itching to get after the big stuff. It's been too long since I've gone eye to eye with a fat, sassy nugget!
All the best,
Lanny
Got some nice flake gold sluicing--right around 4 grams, but I'm itching to get after the big stuff. It's been too long since I've gone eye to eye with a fat, sassy nugget!
All the best,
Lanny
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