Ended 2015 on a high note, starting 2016 off with a good day

[DOC]

Got to the gold fields this morning around 6:30 am. Brisk!

Went to the place I took my customer December 31 when we got on 8 specimens and no trash. I was sure there had to be one or two I have missed. Worked it for three hours, and no love at all, decided to try another place.

I had a customer I had sold a GPZ7000 to a while back I had trained this person the better part of the day, walking along side and listening to what they were hearing through the speaker. They were digging trash and bullets with no problems so we went looking for something that looked fresh. I found this beautiful little gully that just looked so right.

So I said work this gully right here and take your time. I told them I would be a few ridges over in case they needed me just shout. So I wander around and come back to the gully my customer is in, if they were working it right they should have covered only about 20% of it. But no, they were halfway down the gully already so I knew they were going way too fast.

I turned my machine on and started at the top of the gully. 30 feet down the gully right on the side next to a bush I get a subtle little target, so I call the customer back up the gully and tell them to run their coil over that spot right by the bush and tell me if they hear anything. Of course they did and proceeded to dig up a nice little 1/2 gram nugget. It was getting late in the day and so we headed for home without actually thoroughly checking that gully.

So anyway I thought about that gully today and thought I really needed to go back there and work that gully because I know my customer was working it way too fast. About 1/3 of the way down the gully I get an unmistakable target on the side in amongst some cobbles. No way you could miss this unless you didn't put your coil over it. 2.8 grams at 10 inches. Then all the way at the very bottom of the gully right smack dab in the middle 6 inches down, another nugget. On the way back up I worked the sides up out of the gully and snagged two more little ones.

I think the biggest hurdles for new detectorists are two things. 1. They can have the best machine, but they have no confidence that there is really gold in the ground and they can find it. 2. No matter how much you drill it in to them to go slow, their idea of slow is at least three to four times faster than what you have showed them SLOW is.

So anyway, ended the day on a high note. First outting for 2016 and 4 nuggets, and one weighed more than a gram. Can you imagine that, a nugget from Gold Basin that weighs more than a gram? I know! Right?

Doc

[nuggethunting]

Hey Doc,

Congrats on end the 2015 season well and starting off on a good foot for 2016. Last year was a pretty good year for me also, spent majority of the time working the GPZ 7000 on old hammered patches. No question, paid for the GPZ in about 4-5 months (weekends mostly). Majority of the gold was 2-3 Grams and smaller, which I call the "Beans and Bacon" gold. We all love to find those large lumps, but the reality is they are far and few in between compared to the gram size gold nuggets.

We still need to get out for a hunt this season.

[one4gold]

Awesome finds Doc !

[deathray]

Nice! Good job Doc.

[DolanDave]

Great finds congrats...

I ran into a kid at Gold Basin in November who had been hunting with a new GPZ, and had been there a week camping. He showed me his finds and I almost fell over. He had a ton of very large and small meteorites and gold. He told me he hunts really fast, and that has enabled him to find that much in a week do to hunting fast. I agree low and slow in the beginning till you learn the machine, but maybe this kid is on to something .

Dave.

[californiagold]

Nice finds Doc. Hope you continue to have some luck.

[DOC]

Fast hunting is fine when you are looking for a new area and once you have developed "an ear." But after you hit nuggets fast detecting. and you go back over the same area slow, you will hear things you have missed.

I hunt relatively fast in areas where my sense is there is a low chance of finding gold. But for beginners they can only learn by going slow. I can almost be in a trance when I detect and I will be 3 steps and my brain will click in and say, "wait go back, there was something there."

John Green was one of the fastest hunters I have known. Couldn't argue with his results he had an amazing collection of gold. In fact I think he took like 6 ounces worth of nuggets and had my sister melt it down and make him a bracelet. Thing was so heavy he rarely wore it.

Now that being said, John would take me back to places where he had found gold and I would ALWAYS find more nuggets. They were all found going super slow, and listening very carefully. Some were super deep and just a drop out in the threshold.

You have to cover ground. At the end of the day it's all about how much dirt you have processed and the more dirt you process the more gold you will find. Those guys up in the Yukon having $250,000 cleanups aren't doing it by putting a tablespoon of dirt at a time in those giant wash plants.

Dave you know how it goes, it's sort of a balance, you sort of learn when to go fast and when you have to slow it down.

Doc

[oldies1955]

Doc:
That's great that you all found some gold.

Thanks for the detailed hunt. I really like to hear how it goes out there.

GL to you. Go geet em!
Tom H.