You know, digging trash is all part of the learning curve. I don't even know if I have any idea of how much trash I've dug while learning to find nuggets. I'm always learning something else--it's a constant learning curve.
It's very important to balance your machine properly. You can still find all kinds of trash if your machine isn't properly balanced. Undoubtedly you already know this.
So, I well remember the first nugget I found. It was way up in North-Central British Columbia in an area known for coarse gold that was famous for its high purity.
I spent days and days digging buckets and buckets of trash. That's one of the risks of following the old-timers by the way; they left behind tons of trash: canslaw, bits of lead from the soldering on their food cans, lead from bullets, square nails of all sizes, bits of copper and brass from various fittings, all varieties of wire, pieces of cast iron, lead keys from meat tins, tiny nails of iron and brass from boots and shoes, and the list goes on and on.
The point is, if your machine is balanced properly, and if you're using the right sized coil for the size of the gold you're after, you'll eventually find the gold. I did, and I'll never forget that first nugget. It was exceptionally beautiful--a true character nugget, and I'm sure having to work for it so hard made it that much more beautiful. I'm sure the northern woods are still ringing from the war-whoop I let out when I found it.
After the first one, I got into an exceptional patch in a completely different location and found dozens of nice, sassy nuggets.
Since then, the gold nuggets keep coming, but I'm still digging buckets of trash. The trash is part of the game.
All the best, and hang in there until you hit the first one,
Lanny
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html
