Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

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[Lanny in AB]

Love your stories Lanny!

Thanks for the support Terry. I appreciate the feedback.

All the best,

Lanny

 

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[Lanny in AB]

A perfect story with a perfect ending on a snowy New Year's day. Thanks Lanny, that was fun.

Jim, it's always good to hear from your, so thanks for taking the time to write a note. I look forward to reading your next story about chasing the silver.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

"I mean, I know how hard it is to excavate channel material by hand, and those old boys with their hoist bucket had moved considerable material, plus someone had trenched as well, so there seemed to be a chance they'd found gold"

Made me smile and think of my own style of logic/madness.

Taught me something new again. "placer mine hoist bucket"

View attachment 1254744

Which also led me to find this...
Mining Technology in the Nineteenth Century | ONE


And you followed up on your earlier advice to get a field magnet with a solid success story...

"I ran my magnet through the material and it came out married to a bunch of ironstone (magnetite). I scanned again and the signal was crisp and loud, the iron bars gone. It was a simple matter to scoop the remaining material out. I ran the scoop over the coil and it gave a loud, sharp, clear sound."

And all neatly wrapped up in a typical "Lanny" style campfire story.

Thanks again buddy!

Thanks for your kind words Jeff, and the graphic of the hoist bucket is exactly the commercial type I was referring to in the story. I've seen them in many places; museums, tourist traps, side of the road panning spots in ghost towns, etc. It was interesting cruising through the material referenced in your link as well.

All the best in 2016 and I hope you get a nice nugget in this new year,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

What's on the margins?

If any of you have read Ray's book on "Detecting for Gold", he talks about hunting the margins, the material or area outside of and surrounding a good gold discovery. In other words, too many people only swing their coils directly over the area where all the original placer work was done, and they ignore the dirt just outside or just beyond where the frenzy of mining took place.

This past summer, I was working some bedrock in an area where gold had been found in the past. I wasn't getting anything off the exposed slate bedrock, and this happens a lot when I'm working a spot that others have mined out. Nevertheless, it's paid enough times that I always give worked bedrock a try.



On this particular hunt, it had rained the previous two days. The sky was what an old Scottish friend I once knew used to call "a soft day". What he meant was that it wasn't raining, but the effects of the rain still hung everywhere in the sky: low clouds, wisps of mist, cool dampness in the air, moisture clinging to the skin, and a soft gray light softening everything. Moreover, such conditions produce a restful quiet as Nature holds her breath until the sunlight brings the birds to life to chatter and sing again. So, because it was summer time, I knew the softness wouldn't last, but the reminder of my friend's expression in his strong Scottish brogue stirred the memory. It was indeed a wondrously soft, quiet day.

I climbed the gradual slope of the bedrock to overlook the aforementioned area. The miners hadn't mined to the left or the right of the spot, so recalling Rays words, I decided I'd give it a shot to see what was in the margins. Now, please understand that I've worked the sides of old prospect holes before to find gold, the sides and top edges being covered by the material that the Old-timers threw out as they drove down to hit bedrock while hand-mining or testing. However, the place I checked was machine mined sometime in the past, so there was no "throwout" factor as the workings were fairly shallow to bedrock, and only a small worked area at that. Abandoned excavations often translate to discouraging test results as not far downstream an large area was worked extensively. (Go figure! Glacial deposits can be the devil to read.) Nevertheless, I decided I'd follow the book's advice to check the margins.

The clay was a slightly bluish gray that really matched the sky that day. I worked my way all around the margins getting no good signals, only signals from bits of trash as the whole area was heavily mined from the 1800's onwards, and whenever I'm in such areas, I always find the ghostly footprints of the Oldtimer's passing.



However, looping around to almost close the circle, I got a different tone, one that was whisper soft and mellow, not loud and rackety like the trash of the day. The ground dipped a bit where the workings had been slightly stepped down along the working's left-hand side. There was no positive reading on the meter, but the sound was sweet. I took my pick and scraped off about an inch of that stubborn clay and was rewarded with an increase of signal strength. But, still no reading on the meter. So, it was time to take off more clay. The mellow signal increased again. Now, it's my experience that a rapid increase in loudness with a diminishing depth of overburden usually has something to do with target size as tiny pieces of gold will get louder, but only marginally so unless you scrub them with the coil. This sounded more like a chunky target, yet perhaps only a common impostor like lead, copper or brass.

But with the next scrape of the pick, the meter began to read in the 50 range, so it was showing something that was conductive in the middle range. That gets the blood pumping. Well, the target came out in a lump of bluish-gray goo. I pulled off portions and kept running the scoop across the coil then I discarded the quiet pieces on top of a flat rock. (I do this now as I've tossed lumps before only to find that my target, especially small targets, was no longer in the scoop, but in the lump!) The signal was still in the scoop, and it was reading strongly in mid-range on the graph. By the way, I've noticed that some hot-rocks will impersonate targets in the mid-range, but they jump around; in other words, they don't stay pinned at a steady number. (It's also important to point out that nuggets will sometimes move around on the numbered graph as you work your way down to them, when they have iron or other distractors by them, or if they're on edge, etc.) But when I'm very close to the gold, especially larger chunks, the reading on the graph stays constant, and in this case, it wasn't fluctuating at all.

I finally got it down to one lump of goo between my fingers, and it rang out loudly. Inside that ball of clay was a nugget just under 4 grams. It was long and rounded too, quite unusual for the area. Moreover, it would still be there if I hadn't decided to take Ray's advice to hunt the margins, especially as it was obvious to me that the much better ground the miners had worked was considerably downstream and the actual exposed bedrock of the workings produced nothing at all.

Just a little panning eye-candy until I get my other pictures hosted.


All the best,

Lanny

 

[meMiner]

"I did however find a nice silver dime that looked to have been dropped close to the end of the great depression as it was in fantastic condition with virtually no wear, and it was dated 1939. It was a United States Mercury dime, and it was a complete surprise. I found it on a road close to the site of an old cabin tucked back in the trees."
I bet you found a little piece of Canada/US history, represented by this coin. In 1939, Canada went to war, with non-essential mining closing down and the Canadian boys getting trained prior to deployment to France/Britain, Hong Kong (horrible mistake) and North Africa. The USA declared war in 1942 after Pearl Harbor. Considering the great shape of your dime and its date, I would wager it was dropped by an American between 1939 and 1942, and maybe that was "the rest of the story".

"So, of course I poked around the cabin a bit, and that led to another surprise."
I always wonder about cabins and what might be found. I have not been lucky enough to find a stash (yet). One time, I did find an assortment of small glass containers in the dirt. Each had a small amount of gold dust that had not adequately been washed out. I set to clean them properly, ending up with about a gram. In many small cabins where there was a single bed, I noticed many had a small depression in the dirt underneath --- I bet this is where they kept their stash (and took it with them when they left). The one thing I think about when panning my cons at home, just off the back deck, is how much gold gets lost during that activity. I then wonder about an old timer, day after day, perhaps cold and exhausted, panning outside the front door of his cabin and suspect there is a similar spot to be found.

Anyway, your story was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[meMiner]

"What's on the margins?"
Your story really reinforces Ray's tip. In fact, I find it very difficult to force myself onto the margins from the obvious worked places. For sure, when there, I don't slow down enough and check every possible hidey-hole and shortly find myself back in the obvious ground...which has probably been detected 100 times before me. I am currently re-reading Ray's book. I read it quite fast when I first got it. I am now slowing down and trying to internally digest it all. It sure makes me think about all of the spots that "I shoulda, when I coulda". Oh well, there is always next year...

 

[OldSowBreath]

Back in the mid 60's and I was around 13, I think. My dad had taken us to an old ghost mining town, which I think was St. John, Colorado. Before we hiked to the town itself, we had parked near a lake with an old burned down miner's cabin. Our other guests were down looking at the lake because of its shiny bottom, and they thought the glittering specks were flakes of gold, and of course they were mica. I kept looking at the burned down cabin. All that was left the was the foundation, and FOUR wood-burning stoves. This cabin was roughly 10 X 20 feet or so. I'm thinking, "Why so many stoves?" So, I take an old rusty coffee can and start scrapping the inside of the stoves which still had a lot of hard ash in them. I was rewarded with a couple of nuggets, one about a quarter of an ounce. Lesson learned. Check the cabins themselves, and especially old stoves.

 

[Lanny in AB]

"I did however find a nice silver dime that looked to have been dropped close to the end of the great depression as it was in fantastic condition with virtually no wear, and it was dated 1939. It was a United States Mercury dime, and it was a complete surprise. I found it on a road close to the site of an old cabin tucked back in the trees."
I bet you found a little piece of Canada/US history, represented by this coin. In 1939, Canada went to war, with non-essential mining closing down and the Canadian boys getting trained prior to deployment to France/Britain, Hong Kong (horrible mistake) and North Africa. The USA declared war in 1942 after Pearl Harbor. Considering the great shape of your dime and its date, I would wager it was dropped by an American between 1939 and 1942, and maybe that was "the rest of the story".

"So, of course I poked around the cabin a bit, and that led to another surprise."
I always wonder about cabins and what might be found. I have not been lucky enough to find a stash (yet). One time, I did find an assortment of small glass containers in the dirt. Each had a small amount of gold dust that had not adequately been washed out. I set to clean them properly, ending up with about a gram. In many small cabins where there was a single bed, I noticed many had a small depression in the dirt underneath --- I bet this is where they kept their stash (and took it with them when they left). The one thing I think about when panning my cons at home, just off the back deck, is how much gold gets lost during that activity. I then wonder about an old timer, day after day, perhaps cold and exhausted, panning outside the front door of his cabin and suspect there is a similar spot to be found.

Anyway, your story was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

You know, it's wonderful that you dropped in to say so, and it's great to have your comments and feedback on the stories. They take a lot of time to write, and I appreciate hearing that you enjoy them.

Moreover, it's great to hear of the common bonds, the common experiences, the shared stories as well. (By the way, I'd love to hear more of your stories . . .)

I'm reading and rereading Ray's book. There's just too many good tips in there to digest it all the first few times through.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

"What's on the margins?"
Your story really reinforces Ray's tip. In fact, I find it very difficult to force myself onto the margins from the obvious worked places. For sure, when there, I don't slow down enough and check every possible hidey-hole and shortly find myself back in the obvious ground...which has probably been detected 100 times before me. I am currently re-reading Ray's book. I read it quite fast when I first got it. I am now slowing down and trying to internally digest it all. It sure makes me think about all of the spots that "I shoulda, when I coulda". Oh well, there is always next year...

It's funny, but we share that hesitation (the hesitation to work the margins) as well, and yet the more I think about it, the more I now realize I'm probably leaving good gold untouched. I'll do more hunting of the margins this season than I've ever done before because it's already paying off, so as the reward has already been realized, why not do more, right?

I'm right with you on working ground that's been hammered by lots of others before. It's like a giant magnet, or a giant Neon sign blazing with the words, "Come and detect me!" However, it stands to reason there may be a better chance of finding gold by working outside of those hard-worked hot zones as gold likes to hang out with or be close to other gold.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Back in the mid 60's and I was around 13, I think. My dad had taken us to an old ghost mining town, which I think was St. John, Colorado. Before we hiked to the town itself, we had parked near a lake with an old burned down miner's cabin. Our other guests were down looking at the lake because of its shiny bottom, and they thought the glittering specks were flakes of gold, and of course they were mica. I kept looking at the burned down cabin. All that was left the was the foundation, and FOUR wood-burning stoves. This cabin was roughly 10 X 20 feet or so. I'm thinking, "Why so many stoves?" So, I take an old rusty coffee can and start scrapping the inside of the stoves which still had a lot of hard ash in them. I was rewarded with a couple of nuggets, one about a quarter of an ounce. Lesson learned. Check the cabins themselves, and especially old stoves.

Wow! That's a great little story of discovery by following through on a gut instinct. I've never thought to do that before, but it makes sense that every single place should be checked, including the stove. It's amazing what I have not thought of.

I'd love to hear more of your stories, so please feel free to post some of them here on this thread if you'd like to. You are most welcome to do so.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Cariboo5]

All great stories..enjoyed the read. Picked up a new claim that looks like it has potential. The following view is from Google earth elevation exaggeration. The red lines show the area of the claim. Lower left is an inside corner flowing directly to another inside corner on the bar. From center of bar to the base of the hill is 280 meters and from center of bar to the island is 520 meters. Lots of area to work plus the hill side. This view could have been how this was long time ago. Considering over time that the hill has worn down but still a good size where as some of the surrounding area is well worn down. From what I could find it appears this area was not worked over all that much......Second picture is a normal view of what the ground is today...I'm looking forward to exploring this area this year especially the hill side and potential finds....

From the first picture view it appears this may have been an old channel under water...

What are your thoughts of workable bedrock in that hill side that seems to have stood the test of time.? All opinions welcome..

......

 

[Lanny in AB]

All great stories..enjoyed the read. Picked up a new claim that looks like it has potential. The following view is from Google earth elevation exaggeration. The red lines show the area of the claim. Lower left is an inside corner flowing directly to another inside corner on the bar. From center of bar to the base of the hill is 280 meters and from center of bar to the island is 520 meters. Lots of area to work plus the hill side. This view could have been how this was long time ago. Considering over time that the hill has worn down but still a good size where as some of the surrounding area is well worn down. From what I could find it appears this area was not worked over all that much......Second picture is a normal view of what the ground is today...I'm looking forward to exploring this area this year especially the hill side and potential finds....

From the first picture view it appears this may have been an old channel under water...

What are your thoughts of workable bedrock in that hill side that seems to have stood the test of time.? All opinions welcome..

View attachment 1257063......View attachment 1257067

Is there any visible bedrock? It's hard to tell from your picture, but as the hillside by the channel seems to have remained quite similar, there must be something making the river right-angle like that.

Can you use a dredge to sample along the hillside to see where of if there's any bedrock to be hit? If not, a good sampling program along the side will tell you what Mother Nature's been dropping along there over the years.

As for your inside bend, that looks quite promising if there's good gold in the area as nature can't construct a much better low-pressure system in the water flow than the one in your pictures! The first jut (starting from the left, if the stream is flowing left to right) will drop some gold in a suction eddy during high flow, and the big bend that follows will create a super-suction eddy where heavies will have to drop out during high flows, with fines dropping during regular flow.

So, hopefully your bend will produce some nice fine gold on a regular basis, with the coarser stuff dropping during higher flows. There's a shot at hitting a very nice pay streak if it hasn't been worked that much, but I know nothing of the gold recovery history for your claim. Additionally, you may have some coarse gold slam into that right-angle of the side-wall and spin out gold as it loses velocity there as well.

It should prove to be a very interesting sampling session for you. Moreover, be sure to let us know how it works out in the 2016 season.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Cariboo5]

Thanks for the input Lanny. We are thinking exactly along the same lines. I have not been there yet so I am unable to comment on exposed bedrock and as you commented "making the river right angle" leads me to believe that there is certainly bedrock on the side hill.

The river does flow from left to right and the first suction eddy that you mentioned we will try using mask and snorkel in the river at low water. I will be setting up a grid systems on the big bar to try and find a lead. This area has decent gold and from what I could find there has not been a great deal of mining activity in this specific area. In recent times this is due to private property and land owner issues. I spent a few hours with the land owners explaining how we plan to mine this area keeping in mind the respect for them and their land was fore most and at the end of the day we were all laughing, joking and hand shaking with an agreement that was fair and honorable to all parties.

I think it will be an interesting season there. Thanks again for your comments as it is always nice to get another person's view.

 

[meMiner]

From the shape of your claim, it looks like there is legacy claim overlap, which is promising. You might be able to go into the miner recorder office and get some history on the activity. Also, if you Google the name of your river plus "placer gold", probably some interesting reading will pop up. If your claim is where I think it might be, the gold will be spotty, but if you are set up for fine gold, it replenishes annually in the same small spots, usually in the top 6 inches. Like Lanny said, the obvious spot below that right angle. Also, draw a line from where the river is today to where it straightens out below (off the map) and you might find some untouched old channel in the dry at the bottom right of your claim. Just speculation, but at the top left of your claim, you might also have an old channel and 3 dry waterfalls. When you walk that portion, look for rounded river rock. It is great that you sorted things out with the land owner. It can be uncomfortable if things are not amiable. I hope there are not also Native land issues for you. All in all, I wish you the best of luck and it must be exciting for both father and son.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hanging on the wall.

I had an unforgettable day last season. It provided a unique experience. Moreover, the sun was brilliant. The smell of diesel drifted to where I worked, opposite a group of miners gearing up to test for a large placer operation. I don't know about you, but having been around mining as long as I have, the unmistakable smell of diesel powered equipment is hardwired to placer mining in my brain, whether from a power plant (a screamin' Jimmy or any of its counterparts), rock trucks, excavators, cats or wash-plants.

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So, that unmistakable smell drifted to where I was working. Moreover, it was the kind of day any nugget shooter dreams of. It was late in the season so the blood-sucking bugs had been knocked out by early frosts, the sun was still cranking out enough warmth that I shucked my coat to work in my shirt sleeves. There was rim-ice bordering the pools of standing water, drowning portions of the exposed bedrock. The hills were gowned in the deep greens of fir and pine, but the greens were offset by the vibrant fall fashion of yellows and oranges sported by the numerous tamaracks, the slopes yet further accented by the sharper oranges and reds of the alpine bushes dotting the mountainsides.

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My workplace was bordered by near vertical canyon walls, where the river, dim eons ago, had swirled around a massive bedrock protrusion that narrowed the canyon, only to allow the ancient river to suddenly widen before narrowing again close to a mile downstream. It was the perfect gold trap design of nature's to let her lazy gold drop from the faster water's velocity.

The term lazy gold was one I embraced years ago; it truly describes gold's attitude for gold truly is lazy in its movements. It always takes the easy way, the shortest path from A to B, the quickest route to the bedrock or boulders when flowing water pressure drops off. Gold being lazy has helped me find many a sassy nugget whether dredging, panning, sluicing, or nugget shooting.

On this day, I was using a combination of the Gold Bug Pro and the Minelab 5000. I would work a spot of bedrock thoroughly with the Bug Pro, then check it with the Minelab, and yes, the Minelab saw gold the Gold Bug couldn't. Nevertheless, I'd far rather swing the Bug Pro or my little X-Terra 705 than the beast Minelab calls their GPX 5000, however I have to acknowledge the 5000's programs that ignore patches of extreme mineralization within the bedrock, patches the Bug Pro isn't programmed to ignore. So, there's give and take with both types of machines, the lighter VLF's are easy to swing all day, the 5000 hinders you with either bungees or poles to redistribute the weight, but thanks goes to my friend Doc in Las Vegas for his light side-mounted battery pack that eliminates the cumbersome curly cord wired to Minelab's backpack power system. Nonetheless, lighter VLF's combined with Minelab's superbly engineered pulse machines really are a potent one-two punch when going the rounds against the extreme bedrock or patches of super-hot ground mineralization.

I broke some of the rim-ice just for the fun of it knowing that soon enough ice would stop being a fun novelty but only a grim reminder of short, cold days accompanied by long, dark nights, all part of Old Man Winter's unforgiving personality. He really is a harsh tyrant I hate greeting! I'd rather find ways to avoid him than embrace him, I retreat to warmer locations when I can. However, his counterpart, the warm Lady of Summer gives long hours of daylight (I can easily detect until around ten p.m. in the summers) that keep me balanced and sane as I look forward to her return. As I worked last fall, that brief moment when summer battles winter for the inevitable, I ate up every minute of detecting, knowing it would have to keep me going through the winter.

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I noticed a sort of short cliff of bedrock that dropped into an ice covered pool. Moreover, there were three short bedrock cliffs that cascaded into the pool. I'd already scanned the upper two portions, retrieving several sub-gram chunks of gold. I'd also tested those areas with my gold pan to check for pay good enough to set up a high-banker, but no go. So, I focused on the cliff that ringed one side of the pool. It was a sketchy spot for sure as the ice wasn't strong enough to support my weight. If I slipped, I'd take an icy plunge into about six feet of water. I didn't want that because it's a huge zero on the fun scale! Plus, the ice was melting fast as the sun's rays poured into the excavation.

I worked along the top of the cliff but got no signals except for rackety bits of blade and track, with the occasional chunk of square nail thrown in for variety. The meters on the Bug Pro said no to those targets, the meters only proving what my ears were telling me. For those of you that detect for gold, you're familiar with what I'm saying, for those of you new to the hunt, once you've learned the sounds your detector makes as it hits on various targets, you learn to tell what a signal is (or come very close to telling) by the sound the target makes. Point in case, larger pieces of steel or iron give a loud blast that's easy to hear, but, there's always exceptions. I have a story somewhere on my main thread when I worked an entire day detecting an old placer pit and found nothing but iron and steel. Moreover, chunks of cast iron on the bedrock made a terrific racket! Nevertheless, the day almost over, I got a real screamer of a shallow target that sounded exactly like a fat piece of cast. I was tired, hot, thirsty, so I almost walked away in disgust from digging trash all day long. However, somewhere in the back of my brain a little warning bell rang, a memory that anyone serious nugget shooter should always check each target, so I went to work digging the target. What popped out still haunts me. It was a beautiful rounded, fat gold nugget. I couldn't believe it. It rang up just like the cast I'd dug before. So, even with knowing the sounds my detector makes, I still verify the target.

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Well, I slid the coil down the sides of that little cliff. Nothing, not even bits of track and blade. I was getting discouraged, but there was one spot on the wall's drop off where the rock was split. It was tough to get to, but by balancing on a bit of that face, I got a sketchy foothold, just enough to swing the coil over the spot. Bam! A screamer!! What the heck? It sounded just like a fat piece of steel or iron. The day before I'd found the tip of a pick, broken off and imbedded in the bedrock, that sounded exactly the same. Now my problems began. The ice now floated in little white plates across the surface of the pool. I'd get no chance of it stopping a target popped from the side of a cliff, and the pool was far too deep to retrieve any target it swallowed.

Looking carefully at the area, now that the ice was gone, I saw the submerged edge of a small bedrock ledge running around the cliff's bottom. I had a choice to make. Was it worth it to test that shelf with my weight? There would be no second chance. If I put all of my weight on that narrow shelf (about half to three-quarters the width of my boot at most), there was no turning back as the next thing would be an icy dunk.

I walked back around the rim, reached down and gingerly passed the coil over the spot again to hear the same loud signal, but this time I scrubbed the coil as close to the vertical face as I could. On certain passes, the meter now jumped up around the 60 range! What the heck was this? I'd found lots of nuggets the previous day with none of them hitting above 50 on the scale. I scanned and scrubbed again. The meter stayed rock-steady at 60. Was this a chunk of some other conductive metal? I knew it wasn't aluminum as that metal hits far higher on the scale. Well, those latest scans cemented my resolve. I would test that submerged shelf and hope the water wouldn't fill my boots.

Stretching out about a yard, I put light weight on my front boot. It held, so I stepped down. Nothing slid off. No rock shifted. It was commitment time as once I left the side of the pool, the only choice was to go forward. I balanced one side of my body against the cliff edge and stepped forward. The shelf held. I edged out to the spot where the signal was. (I don't think I'd have made it out there with the Minelab, too much of my weight off balance.) I finally arrived. This was tricky work, not for the faint of heart, or for those crazed by gold fever as I so obviously was. It was quite the balancing act to slip the plastic scoop from my back pocket as I leaned into the wall, and then try to find a way to swing the coil over the target.

The signal screamed again. I poked the scoop (I always use a plastic scoop with a pointed end for this purpose.) into the crack and very carefully wiggled it around. Some material slid out, and I scanned again. This time the signal was louder, and it still rang true on the meter at 60. I won't bore you anymore with how I got the target in the scoop, but I did get one foot soaking wet during my contortions to capture the target. And I'll spare you how I finally got the scoop's contents to reveal what it held. However, I will tell you that it was a nugget very close to six grams (I have yet to host its picture on my photo site, but I will. I must be getting lazy like the gold!). The nugget looked as if someone had scooped or punched a hollow into its face! Perhaps that was why it rang in at 60 on the scale? I have no idea really; nevertheless, I made it safely to the other side of the pool with a wet, icy foot but with a warm, sassy nugget in the poke as well.

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. I just realized that both the nugget and I wound up hanging on that wall!

 

[Lanny in AB]

I'm reposting this information to give it a home here as I often get asked about the little Falcon MD-20 and what it's uses are.

I've used the Falcon MD-20 quite a bit. It's a noisy little thing that will false and warble, so keep adjusting that ring until you find a bit of peace, and figure a way to slow those knobs from turning so easily when bumped (I put rubber washers under mine to generate friction to hold them in place, my prospecting buddy's idea, and a great one.) (See if your machine warbles and bleeps when the wire moves that's glued into the shaft connected to the head; you may have to immobilize it in some way to help with falsing as when that cable moves, it generates a sound.)

As it's waterproof, I've used it to pinpoint gold in or on bedrock under water, but the box is not waterproof as you likely know.

Oh, and it will sniff out fine gold where there's absolutely no water; that's a bonus.

I've used it to snipe bedrock where others have placer mined, and guess what? They really do leave gold behind, small stuff mostly, but I have been surprised when sniping for tiny stuff with the Falcon to hit nuggets too; one was actually very decent at two grams hiding in a tough spot.

The most fun I had was working an old placer claim where clay had sluffed on to the bedrock, but there were little ridges of bedrock still exposed so I thought I'd give it a shot as I had to have something very narrow and small to reach down into those drops between those ridges, and man was the gold there! Good sized flake gold that my Gold Bug and X-Terra couldn't hit because I couldn't get the coils into those small, deeper spaces, but that little Falcon sniffed the gold out, and yes, there were smaller chunks as well, 1/4 gram to slightly larger. It was lots of fun for sure.

One thing that will drive you nuts are the hot rocks, but you'll sort of get used to most of them and eventually learn to ignore the most common ones. Anything conductive will make you work, like bits of track and blade, tiny bits of can-slaw, copper, etc, but if you're in a proven gold area, there's gold there that the Falcon will find. Look for deep little pockets in bedrock, areas that are traps that bigger coils can't get into. Look for areas placered where there was clay underfoot; the small gold will be there as it sticks. Just adopt the mind set that you'll be working tiny areas and you'll have much more fun.

Yes, it will find gold in matrix, concretion, or hard-rock, but the gold has to be pretty close to the surface. One thing the Falcon is not is a depth machine. Tiny gold deeper will just not register. Bigger gold deeper, you've got a shot, but only several inches unless it's a screamin' chunk of the Mother Lode herself! Tiny gold shallow? You'll have a lot of fun in a good gold producing area, and I mean it, if you've got the patience for it. Pack a hammer and chisel for busting it out of the bedrock.

All the best as you realize and appreciate its strengths and limitations,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I posted this to an inquiry about listening to signals, what to ignore, what to pay attention to, etc. as an answer to someone else on their post, but I'd like to archive it here as well. This response was specifically tied to the Gold Bug Pro, but some of the information fits general nugget shooting as well.

Hi there.

As others have said, in gold country, you really should dig everything. Having said that, I really like the displays on the Bug Pro. For me, for shallower stuff anyway, it sure rules out a lot of ferrous trash by Id'ing it so that I can quickly swipe my super-magnet on the telescoping wand through the dirt or across the surface of the bedrock to get the iron or steel trash out of the way in a hurry which allows me to scrub the bedrock, slow down, and then carefully listen for genuine signals.

Moreover, it the meter then jumps to that 40 range and holds steady, I'll get out a hammer and chisel, bar or whatever to bust some bedrock to see what the heck's in there! It's been my experience that if the signal holds at 40, even for faint sounding, little stuff, it's got a great chance of being gold. There are a couple of hot-rocks that will ring in in that same range, but most of them will "bounce" on the meter a bit or sometimes if you sweep back across them at 90 degrees to the original sweep, you might rule it out.

Sometimes it will ring higher on gold than the 40 which really surprised me this season, but I'm sure it's not out of the ordinary.

For a bunch of hot-rocks you'll get so that you can ID them by their unique sound and the way they have a broad signal or blanking or a "boing" sound, and that will eliminate some targets for you as well.

You really do need to get out and put hours and hours on your machine to learn the sounds it makes when contacting various targets, good and bad. Listening to the sounds is crucial, and learning to listen for tiny breaks in the threshold is the ticket to getting nuggets that a lot of people will walk right over. The Bug Pro is not a classic deep-seeker, so listen carefully to whispers and threshold breaks, scrub or scrape off some soil and scan again. I corralled a lot of small nuggets that way this past season.

If you hit a patch of nuggets in a tight area (did that twice this past season), you'll get a broad signal. I saved myself some time by taking every bit of dirt from the bedrock, then panning it out! You should have seen the nuggets. I was baffled by why the signal was so broad, and that was why, lots of targets crowded into a small area.

So, really, investigate everything until your ears start to filter things as they feed you hot-rock sounds that you'll learn to ID, or common trash sounds, but you really should dig all positive signals or mysterious signals just in case. From personal experience, I've been shocked often enough by what my ears were telling me was trash, that was in fact gold, that if I've learned the value of digging everything.

All the best, and hope this helps,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

I moved this post over here as it has to do with metal detecting and gold. This post is in reply to a person that asked about the X-Terra 705 and what the tradeoffs would be to go and hunt nuggets in the coin/relic mode with discrimination:

I've found lots of nuggets with my little X-Terra. It has a fantastic all metal mode, superb really. Minelab put all kinds of technology in the 705 that you usually see on machines that are much more expensive. That elliptical DD is very sensitive, and you'll be amazed at the tiny stuff you can find with it if you scrub the ground with that coil.

Steve Herschbach over at Detector Prospector has done write-ups on the 705, and you can google his name to get his detector reviews. He's very fair in his appraisals of detectors. So, search what he's written. There's a guy in Australia that loves the 705 that's found lots of gold with it as well.

Hunting with the 705 in all metal mode is all about the learning curve, ground balancing, using auto-track or not, masking or not masking iron, etc. But at the end of the day, that little machine really excels in the all metal mode at sniffing out gold, and I've only ever used the elliptical, but the 7.5khz concentric coil is supposed to be a heck of a coil as well for areas where the mineralization is not as hot, as the machine is designed around that Khz configuration (7.5) even though they sell other coils at different Khz. In other words, the processor is optimized for the 7.5.

So, wander over and read what the Australian and Steve have written, and I think you'll pick up a lot of tips.

For me, I just kept reading the manual, watched Youtube videos, and put lots of hours in the gold fields until I finally started finding gold with it. Then I fine-tuned what I learned to go after much smaller gold.

You will lose in the coin/relic mode as you're going to lose depth and a lot of sensitivity. That's a definite tradeoff. In my tests, the small gold I found in all metal wouldn't make a peep in coin/relic, and that was after I had it out of the ground! But in all metal, you could sure hear it. So, yes you'll lose more than one thing by using the coin mode.

I did detect some very trashy bedrock last year where the metal was driving me crazy, so I switched to coin/discrimination mode and found nuggets that way, but I know I left a lot of gold behind because I went back with a super-magnet on a telescoping wand, swept the bedrock, and when I went back over it in all metal, the place was lousy with small gold nuggets that I could not hear in discrimination mode: too small for the machine to pick up in discrimination mode, masked by the discrimination too?, but they popped right up in the headphones loud and clear in all metal.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[seascene]

I'm reposting this information to give it a home here as I often get asked about the little Falcon MD-20 and what it's uses are.

I bought one but found I needed to twist the wire where it enters the unit on all kinds of different directions to get it to work. I noticed on another forum that this has been a problem for others. A user mentioned using epoxy to keep the wire from moving where it enters the unit. I just do not use it as I found it too unstable and quirky. Perhaps just a faulty unit. I did sent it in and got it back in no better functionality.

 

[Lanny in AB]

I'm reposting this information to give it a home here as I often get asked about the little Falcon MD-20 and what it's uses are.

I bought one but found I needed to twist the wire where it enters the unit on all kinds of different directions to get it to work. I noticed on another forum that this has been a problem for others. A user mentioned using epoxy to keep the wire from moving where it enters the unit. I just do not use it as I found it too unstable and quirky. Perhaps just a faulty unit. I did sent it in and got it back in no better functionality.

That is an issue, and it does help with falsing if you can stop that wire from moving. It has to be a design flaw. I've used gorilla tape to stop mine from moving but the epoxy route sounds like a better idea. When you get it to run quiet, it works very well for small spaces. I keep fiddling with mine, so I think I'll try the epoxy to see what happens. Thanks for the tip.

All the best,

Lanny