Dowsing questions

chrspe

Jr. Member
Feb 13, 2014
23
4
Frannie, Wy
Detector(s) used
Minelab SDC 2300, Nokta Simplex, Minelab Gold Monster, Minelab Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have been practicing dowsing gold with my wedding band. I had my wife hide it in out front yard (all rocks and wyoming scape), then leave and it took me 3 minutes. (she hid it under some horse poop)

Today I was practicing on some areas out back that the lrods had crossed. I got a hit on a spot. I took a shovel full out and the hit went away and was in the shovel full. I took half and put it in a pan, it hit on the pan. I took handfuls out till I narrowed it down to a piece of quartz 1/2 inch square. I couldn't see anything in it so I crushed it in a pan. I added water and there were 3 flakes of gold. I tweezed out the gold onto black paper and the rods crossed on the paper. I put the gold in a water filled vial and it hit on the vial.

Questions:
This is very small flour gold, found with #6 copper wire. How do you make the dowsing less sensitive? I get hits everywhere.

I still got hits when on the black paper but it wasnt as strong, does quartz amplify the gold signal?

The hit was just as strong as at first when put into the water vial, does water amplify the signal?

Are the thicker rods more sensitive than say coat hanger size?
Thank You for any responses!

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I think you answered your own question. When you found the gold ring amongst the smaller natural gold in the area, were you thinking and picturing the gold ring during your procedure? if so then you were the discrimination control so to speak and by doing so passed over the smaller gold nearby. If you were'nt thinking about anything,then the gold ring was the closest buried item to you that was in the natural range of the rod or rods.In my experience water would provide a better electrical connection for the dowsing. Electricty follows the path of least resistance. Moist soils provide a better attraction to items just like it does for metal detectors. The opposite would be highly mineralized ground which sometimes causes problems for dowsing and metal detectors.Hope this helps.Jon
 

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It was a separate session from when I was practicing on the ring. I have been learning from reading this forum. hope to start trying map dowsing next. I own the top and bottom of a glacial dike, lots of quartz and decomposed rock, sand everywhere.
So if I think of bigger flakes or nuggets that will discriminate out the really fines?
 

It was a separate session from when I was practicing on the ring. I have been learning from reading this forum. hope to start trying map dowsing next. I own the top and bottom of a glacial dike, lots of quartz and decomposed rock, sand everywhere. So if I think of bigger flakes or nuggets that will discriminate out the really fines?

Yes, with practice the fines can be discriminated out, but for some reason that works better from a distance.
 

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I went out tonight for about half an hour and got signals on 10 rocks. all had quartz or were pure quartz. I ground up a few and there was alot of colors. microscopic flour gold. I was trying to imagine bigger gold than yesterday but just kept getting bigger rocks. This weekend if it is nice I will try to sluice up some of the hillside.
 

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When first time checking out targets with dowsing rods, my finds were rocks showing quartz. Up here in the Midwest, SE end of Lake Michigan any quartz float you dig probably came down in glacial till during the ice age. I since then moved 5 miles from there, quartz rocks are much bigger here.

Photos of gold ores, quartz, telluride gold ore and gold specimens

Look on this page for different forms of gold in rocks and ores. Note the 3rd photo down is a conglomerate of recrystallized and fossilized cemented gold placer rock mined as a gold ore in South Africa. The 4th sample down is like one I've found at my house, has a roundish black spot where iron pyrite dissolved in the quartz vein leaving gold around the edges of the black.
 

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I used a high end DSLR camera with a special macro lens on the camera to get these close ups. You would otherwise need to have really good eye sight to see any gold without a magnifier glass. Oval cut selections showing color, pasted them on dark background to see better places of interest.
 

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It's amazing the dowsing rods pick up that fine of gold. I am hoping that means the bigger small nuggets will be found when I get into a good placer area. Some of the rocks I found are similar. The 2 pics are with a magnifier app on my galaxy note. This rock was easily broken, had about 20 visible flecks on the surface and black sand and quartz when crushed.
Thanks for sharing the pictures.2014-2-5 17-24-28.jpg2014-2-5 17-32-15.jpg
 

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If anyone wants to try map dowsing my property heres a pic. Bighorn Mountains are 3 miles to the left (west). House is shown at top of gulch. Been practicing with the rods directly behind the house - 29 feet.
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Micro gold looks as amazing as the big stuff.
 

It was a separate session from when I was practicing on the ring. I have been learning from reading this forum. hope to start trying map dowsing next. I own the top and bottom of a glacial dike, lots of quartz and decomposed rock, sand everywhere. So if I think of bigger flakes or nuggets that will discriminate out the really fines?
Yes, you are the discriminator and /or notch filter so to speak.Jon
 

Micro gold was why I came to Treasure Net so many years ago……You can make a weight checker from a household light dimmer switch….It will eliminate about 50% of the small deposits…..The big deposits will still be there…You will miss some flakes…..Get a dimmer switch with a dial on it…Put a small magnet on the end of the green wire….I used a small piece of a magnetic business card….you may have to turn it over to find the right pole……Hook on your belt and turn it off….Now stand on a signal or a coin and turn the dial up…When the rods open you have eliminated that target and every one that weight….Hope this helps …….Art
 

Yes, in a good area, places with nuggets should be picked up first from far a enough distance away. Veins or mine shafts tend to be the strongest signals, then nuggets, followed next by tailing piles. At close range even better places with fines can give a good signal. If you are down in a gulch walking with rods, locating placer deposits will be easy.

Sometimes where your rods cross, there could be a lot of quartz rocks containing fine gold. You can tell how large of a deposit, because L-rods stay crossed while directly over it. As the edge of the placer hot spot is reached, the rods should swing apart. If then a person would back up slowly, right on the deposit edge might bring a response of parallel rods pointing inward or from opposit directions.

Walking above a wash, crossing the line of field from a gold deposit (down in the wash bottom) you might observe the rod tips making small movements before crossing. With experience, there could be several types of rod movements indicating nuggets. Part of dowsing is learning how your rods react in all situations (might be different for somebody else).

Fig M illustrates how a pair of rods, might spread first before becoming crossed, if the signal source is off to your side.
 

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Personal experience is the best teacher, reading posts in here or books on the subject helps. In the end being in the field testing the info will shape the practical dowsing habits for getting good results. A target can be directly under your L-rods, but not always it can mean walking past (is off to the right or left). In motion dowsing (walking with rods) targets have a line of field either north/south or east/west). You should notice this even if not walking exactly in line with cardinal points.

Standing still (zero motion dowsing) by moving the arms while holding L-rods can be used to scan for distant targets. Triangulation seems to me the best method. On far away targets (especially the larger ones) a line of field may have a margin of detection on both sides. Back and forth movement or triangulation can be repeated often, until getting close enough for other methods.

Fig D2 shows how pinpointing or finding out where a target is located. On D2 the one rod is held on the bend pointing down while the other is free to swivel. This is similar to the technique of those who dowse using a single L-rod. After your rods are crossed, lower one and hold it on the bend so doesn't swing. Keep both rods a little farther apart than they usually are if crossed. If the target is off to the right or left, the free swinging rod points the direction. Another variation of the response is pointing a rod while held on the bend, point it in the direction of a suspected target. Then leave the other rod to swing or even start rotating. Many dowsers use the rotation to signal when the fixed L-rod points directly at the desired target.

Fig D is when a single rod starts moving off to the side before rods cross on a line of field. Some water dowsers can find underground water only this way (instead of being crossed). Moving your hands apart more may cause the opposite rod to swing back away.
 

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There probably is going to be fines a lot of places, so stopped with marking the first hits.
 

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Thanks for all the help.

Red Desert- I need to practice with the signals you sent. Right now I stand facing north, close my eyes and ask to find gold. All of a sudden the right rod will point a direction, I go that way until they cross. Or if I am walking slowly the left one will start to vere right or the right one will start to go left. There is still snow where the squares on the pic are, will be gone soon so I can check it out.

Art- I will have to get familiar with the dimmer discriminator through practice. I got it to tune out the stuff I found yesterday (really tiny flour) It cut the signals down alot. But... The samples today when crushed and panned were bigger flakes but still to small for a tweezer. That was with it turned up to 3/4. 1/2 would tune out the super fines and full tunes out my ring in the house.

Heres some pics of the area I am practicing on. Lots of red quartz, red and white quartz, white quartz in black specky stuff, and black rocks with quartz veins. All at the top of a hill.

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For all you Picture Dowsers, there is an old 1878 gold mine in the mountains somewhere in this picture. I havent been there yet, one area I am headed this summer. The famous Lost Cabin Gold Mine from the 1890's is also in this range.
 

Here is a question. If I am wearing my wedding band while dowsing, does that affect anything? More sensitive, less?
 

Here is a question. If I am wearing my wedding band while dowsing, does that affect anything? More sensitive, less?
I've found that wearing the "world's smallest handcuff" has no effect on dowsing attractions/sensitivities.However, if you were to take the ring off and attach it to the antenna part of the rod, it would serve as a bait for the material type of what you are searching for. Like was mentioned before, try and experiment with all that has been suggested to see what works for you to get you to the item you are searching for.Jon
 

I experimented today with a higher power magnet on the dimmer and 1/4 turn blocked out the ring. On the first good day I will recirc sluice the 1/2 ounce area. gonna make a rock crusher this weekend.
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Close as I could zoom.
 

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