sdf527

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  1. For Sale: 1 Gold Bug II with the 6" and 10" coils. This unit has about 30 hrs use, bought new 2 years ago, its been gathering dust for the past year. $450.00 for a quick sale. I need to thin my collection of detectors and think about the GPZ.
  2. Califoreigna wants to boycott AZ. Maybe they can start by boycotting all that Colorado River water they pipe to L.A. and the central valley. That would prove how serious they are about this issue. Maybe the AZ legislature can draft something to say "Boycott This!" and shut off the tap. Bravo Zulu Arizona
  3. Thanks for all the welcome words. I really hope Steve H can get up there or down there as it were. We'll get El Dorado up there and the Steve's will take control of the prospecting world. I'll have some down time until the movers get our household goods and my truck shipped. I think I'll mail my detector to myself for the near term. Looking forward to the change and seeing some new faces.
  4. The CFO has been offered a great job in Reno, NV, so it looks like we're moving from beautiful San Diego. Most of you know me from my prospecting yarns in the AZ and S.CA deserts, as well as my Moore Creek adventures. I'm going to miss my winter trips with Dig Deep and Ken P., but I hope to hook up with Renoites and Motherlodites to find new prospecting areas, and continue my passion for this hobby. For you fellers in the Reno/Motherlode area I'm a young 55, fit and always willing cover rough ground in all weather. Long hikes and heavy packs are never a problem. I'm retired so I'm ready to travel anytime. Stephen
  5. Hmmmm? Pretty incredible if true. You'd think Coiltek would be on that story like a turkey on a junebug. You just never know.
  6. Battery technology is getting better all the time, so a self contained unit is not out of the question. I just put together some 4 hr battery packs using Li-Ion Poly cells. They are awesome, weigh just a few ounces and have a much greater power density/weight ratio. They are rated at 7.4 volts, but mine came off the charger at 8.4 volts. After 2 hours use, still at 8 volts. Expected to get about 500 cycles out of them. If they could just figure out some form of coil shielding to block some of the EMI, that would be the ticket.
  7. I took a break from my long list of honey-do's and decided to go out for a little beepin. Closest area for me is the Dale District, near 29 Palms, still a 3 hr drive. I took off yesterday afternoon intending to get in a little evening beepin, sleep in the bed of my truck then giver her hell at first light. Arrived about 6:00pm, a cool 106 degrees, but its a dry hot, whatever that's worth. Got out for a little beepin but found the EMI from aircraft almost unbearable. Nary a target. Cooled off at sunset aided with a couple cold beers. Nighttime was actually quite pleasant, ended up with the sleeping bag draped over me. Started out next morning at first light, no EMI. Then bees started following me around. At first only about half a dozen. They were not agressive, but very persistent about trying to get some moisture out of me. Then as it warmed up, the rest of their family started showing up. Maybe two dozen, but they were getting more determined. They were very interested in the sweat between my pack and my shirt. Then one very determined bee landed on my face checking out my mouth. I shooed him away with a wave of a gloved hand and he stung the crap out of my wrist. By now there were dozens of them following me and landing on my arms and legs, (wearing shorts naturally). After about and hour they were starting to unnerve me so I headed back to my truck. I was more concerned that one my get too interested in the sweat on my testicles. Wow, I had left a window open and there must have been a hundred inside the cab of my truck. They also found the dregs of last nights beers and were all over those empties. I reached in and opened the other window hoping the breeze would move some of them out of the truck. It worked more or less, only about 20 remained inside the cab. So I figured to get in and drive like hell to get the rest of them out and leave the horde behind. It worked except for the one that got between my back and the seat. He also stung the crap out of me. Nary a target and 2 bee stings in less than two hours, nice outing. Shoulda stayed home and painted the guest room. Good thing Rob wasn't there, he's kinda funny about bee stings. Looking forward to cooler weather, a shorter honey-do list and some time in the hills. Stephen
  8. By now you know the big story, here's some of the rest of the story. Ken and I combined for a total of 44 nuggets, more or less, for a total weight of just over 44 oz. Naturally, that figure is skewed because of the big boy. I found somewhere around 28 nuggets for just over 10 oz, with one weighing 4.7 oz. That sounds impressive, but it was tough sledding. I had a total of 3 skunk days. Ken and I hunted a minimum of 12 hours a day and sometimes more. I hunted till almost midnight one night. It never gets dark, so I had trouble sleeping most nights. The pushes just weren't as productive as we had all hoped. It gets pretty crowded on freshly pushed ground and detector interference is a real problem. You can tune out 1 and possibly 2 other detectors, but 3 with a Whites TDI thrown in the mix is pretty near impossible. I think I had 3 honest to goodness gold target signals the whole time. I was so surprised at one of them I couldn't believe a signal that strong was not trash. All my targets were faint threshold hums, which means I dug a ton of hotrocks and tiny iron trash pieces. On day 5 of week 1, I found a 4.7 oz nugget. Lots of host rock, not very pretty but hefty enough. Fortunately, it was early in the day and I was fresh. I was hunting the unpushed hills in the woods and digging every threshold flutter. I was only on my 10th hotrock when I heard this one. I was down a good 6 inches before I got a legitimate target signal. Honestly, if it was later in the day, after I had dug a hundred hotrocks, I probably would have passed this one by. I did a lot of experimentation with GPX4000 settings, trying to find something to ease the brain fatigue from so much hotrock noise. I tried some of what Montana calls "dumbing down the detector", and some of what I call "dumbing down the detectorist". You just can't expect to maintain concentration for faint tones if you are constantly bombarded with hotrocks and trash. After that much practice, I think my ears and brain are conditioned to make some distinctions in target signals. I may not always be able to identify a good gold signal, but I got pretty good at what is not a gold signal. Dozer blade shavings and shallow trash have some pretty distinct sounds, especially after you listened to a thousand of them in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I think most of the settings I settled on for Moore Creek won't work here in the lower 48. EMI was not a factor in AK, although distant thunder storms were quite a treat for blowing your ears out. The accomodations at Moore Creek were fine. Brand new tents, no fautly zippers and just a few seam leaks. Food was excellent. On wet, cold days the cook always had hot soup or chili to go with sandwiches. The weather was actually quite good. The tempature and conditions can change in a quick minute, so layered clothing is a must. We had several days of T-shirt weather, but the bugs discouraged any such nonsense. The bugs were tolerable unless you got back in the wooded areas. We had one afternoon of No-see-um invasion. They seem to ignore the Deet and bit the hell out of my ankles and lower legs. The mosquitos bite through mesh backed gloves, so full leather gloves are the only way to go. Each team had access to an ATV to get to and from some of the lower hunting areas. Even with transportation like that, you still log a lot of up and down miles on the tailings and back roads. Hunting the wooded areas is about as difficult as it gets. Thick brush, steep hills and bugs. I was forever hung up on something, my detector cord, my pick or my backpack managed to get tangled at every turn. I spent a good bit of time detecting on my knees or just sitting to keep my balance when back in the rough areas. The nugget count board kind of tells the story. There are plenty of detectorists with good equipment who just don't find gold. It's not easy and you can't expect to wait for absolute target sounds. Luck is directly porpotionate to the number of hours you get that coil on the ground. Faint, deep targets are the rule so you have to be conditioned to listen for them. Everyone thinks they know what "low and slow" means, but many tend to get sloppy with poor coil control. If you are picking up the coil at the end of a sweep or holding it 4 inches off the ground, you're really handicapping yourself and leaving nuggets for Ken to scoop up. Ken is the ultimate "low and slow" detectorist. He moves at a snails pace, sweeping very slowly and deliberately. Ken and I operated as a team which offended some of the other guests. We carried radios and did not hesitate to call one another if we found a productive area. Neither of us is particularly selfish, so we were willing to share good ground between us, but we were competitive with the other groups. We were willing sacrifice and help dig or go fetch the shovel which we kept strapped to our ATV. After Ken found the monster, he was always willing to let me have a go at new ground first. You can't ask for a better partner. Moore Creek is a great experience. You can log as many detecting hours as you want without the hassles of cooking, cleaning, driving or organizing. It's one opportunity to truely be away, unavailable and free to detect till your little heart's content. The pay to mine operation may end with this season. There is a potential buyer who may or may not continue this aspect of the mine. Assuming the potential buyers make the commitment, Steve H. has offered to help them run the Pay to Mine aspect, but its all up in the air. Stephen
  9. It was Wed, the off-day between weeks 1 & 2. A group including the cook went exploring downstream past the end of the road. Ken and I hunted the usual areas for limited success. I found a couple small ones and Ken found 1. Back at camp we found Steve H. conducting an experiment with his huge 25" coil. He marked 13 targets near camp. I helped him dig the first one down 2 ft for a piece of iron trash. He decided to get the excavator for the rest of the targets. Of the 12 targets, 4 turned out to be gold, for a total of about 2 oz. All down at least 2 feet. After lunch Ken and I were back covering some of the same old ground. He had been grumbling for days about the frustration of not finding any big nuggets. He was finding gold, just couldn't get over a big one. That evening we came back to camp for dinner. The cook informed us that dinner was slightly delayed, about 30 minutes more. Ken decided to grab his detector and go back to what had been a sweet spot on the hill behind camp. I got bored so I went up to check on him. He was digging a hole not 5 feet over from where Steve H. had stopped his 25" experiment. After helping him dig some, I asked him if he was sure this was a good target. "What's a good target" he asked. I reminded him "you know, those deep dropping tones tend to be iron trash here at Moore Creek". "What's a dropping tone". Oh well, let's just finish this hole and get dinner. I listened to the target which by then was just a booming tone, nothing much to distinguish it at that point. We were down about 18 inches and having to widen the hole, so Ken went back to camp to get the shovel, which turns out to be the "golden shovel" you see in the picture. By the way, we never let that shovel out of our sight the rest of the trip. Anyway, the Satellite Phone was available to make a quick call home for my birthday, so I walked back to camp. All I got was voicemail, so I went back and Ken was still digging. I switched the detector to Cancel and poked the coil down in the hole. A faint tone was coming from the back of the hole. I pointed and Ken started digging again. After about 2 more shovel fulls, Ken jammed that shovel down, hitting something solid and slidding off it. I saw 1/4 of the nugget in the bottom of the hole and started howling like a schoolgirl. Ken was so intent on his digging he didn't notice and jammed that shovel in behind the nugget and scooped it out. I see it in the shovel and let out a stream of explictives that mostly begin with the letter F. I reach out and pull that nugget out of the shovel and hand it to Ken. Steve H. walks up there at that very moment. I'm jumping around and screaming the F word, they're both just standing there, calm as cucumbers. The only thing I remember Ken saying was "do you think it weighs a pound". I can't stand still, I'm hopping around like a jumping bean, Ken is still just calmly walking back towards camp, shaking his head. Ken's just not an excitable guy, though I think his hand was a bit palsyed a couple times. I didn't sleep that whole night, I just kept picturing the monster down in the hole and holding it the first time. It is incredibly heavy. The coincidences that came together on this are remarkable. First, Steve H. stopped his sweeps with the 25" coil not 5 feet from this monster. Dinner was delayed, giving Ken 30 more minutes to hunt the hill. And last but not least, his hearing is such that he can't distinguish low tones from high tones, therefore couldn't follow my advice about avoiding those nasty iron trash signals that produce low tones. I was compelled to start digging those friggin low tones and ended digging some pits you could bury a horse in. None of them turned out to be gold, just iron trash.
  10. After dinner I will write the true story of Ken's monster nugget, a fair amount of coincidence, luck and patience to be sure. I was there for the digging and just about crapped my pants when that thing came out of the hole. I'm the good lucking one in the photo, Ken is the tall one. Stephen
  11. I'll see you at Moore Creek on Wed. We had trouble booking the middle leg of the trip and will arrive McGrath a day early. I'll miss sleeping in the concourse at Anchorage Intl this time. Real restful in there with a bejillion tourist salmon fisherman.
  12. My 2nd annual Moore Creek adventure is set to begin early next week. As many of you recall, I posted a comprehensive recap of last years journey and will do the same again this year. I'm gone the whole 2 weeks, so info won't hit the net until late June. Last year I had a little over 9 oz for two weeks effort. That sounds like a lot, but there were several days when the skunk had a firm grip on my posterior and I was downright discouraged. I busted my hump on several occasions and my 55 yr old bones were crying for rest. I'll miss having Rob and Dennis around camp for comic relief. I have to acknowledge my benefactors because without them this years trip would not be possible. Ken P., despite having abused my credit card and girlfriend with that London scam, really kept the pressure on me to make this years trip. He pushed all the right buttons and offered some generous incentives. A finer prospecting friend would be hard to find. Nuggethunting Rob A. has been more than generous for the loan of critical equipment. Leigh in Australia has taken the time and effort to send over some Aussie equipment to test. Steve H. for making it all possible and holding my spot. My sister for providing lodging for winter prospecting and temporary homelessness. Last, but not least is my dear old gray haired Mom. Recognizing that this brutal stock market had taken a toll on my retirement and discretionary spending, combined with a tsunami in my personal domestic harmony, she graciously offered to pay for the trip. I'm still her baby boy, no matter how old and gray I start to appear. I have been truly blessed with good friends and good family. The rest is all icing on the cake. Look out Moore Creek! Here I come. Stephen
  13. Damn, I already sent him my credit card number and ID information. Hope he doesn't abuse me. I had just talked to Ken the day before and he was on his way to Chicken AK. At the same time I was putting my girlfriend on a plane to London, wow that Ken works fast. I didn't even think they knew each other. Ken's grammer and punctuation got suddenly worse too.
  14. I had the big Goldstalker. There is always an element of operator error. For example, I dug one of the little .5gram pieces that boomed on the Joey coil. I continued hunting in the same 20 yd section back and forth and got no more signals. I left it but came back to it about 20 minutes later and got another booming signal, less than a foot away from previous nugget I had dug. These little nuggets were down in the little bedrock cracks that were not even visible, so I think sometimes its a question of their orientation. I believe some of them were standing on their edge so the coil angle had to hit them just right. Dig Deep and I were hunting together awhile back. He was using the 4500 with 11" Commander coil and I was using the 4000 with the big Goldstalker. He got a signal and pointed to the area of the target. I could not hear that target even after fiddling with the gain and timings. The target was a small nugget, less than a gram and down about 4 to 5 inches. Don't get me wrong, that big Goldstalker has found some tiny little nuggets and its my go to coil for almost all occasions. I haven't used that Joey in nearly 2 years, but I had it with me in my pack and I wanted to get it into some small spaces and scan along the deeper bedrock cracks. We all know about overlapping our swings and criss crossing productive areas, but how many of us are really doing it effectively? Obviously, I wasn't that effective and that's why good detectorists continue to find gold in hammered patches.