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.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Lanny in AB]

I happen to know for sure where Lanny found his best gold. In the ground somewhere after a lot of looking and hard work.

Now his best treasure he would have to tell about, but I am pretty sure it would be his family.

I appreciate Lanny's effort to enlighten us to his life of living the dream many of us wish we could do.

Thanks Lanny !!!

Many, many thanks for your choice words of support and encouragement. They mean a lot to me.

Thanks especially for dropping in to leave you kind comments.

All the best,

Lanny

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Lanny in AB]

I don't thin hardworker808 had any intentions of stalking- " and where did you find it (generally speaking)? ". It was just, as he said, a curious response. How can you weigh your chances unless you have something to compare with?

OTOH- Lanny's response was, as always, appropriate. I don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't jump at the chance to prospect with him. I know I would.

I too don't think there was any malfeasance in his heart. It was just curiosity, and I well remember when I was starting out. I used to ask questions like that all of the time, that's why I take his comments gladly for what they are, open and unbridled comments resulting from curiosity.

The problem with text messages, emails, and electronic posts is that they are not a two-way communication avenue, and things get misconstrued/misinterpreted and widely misunderstood as there's no chance for immediate, ongoing feedback as there is with the process we all enjoy when we talk on the phone or visit face-to-face.

Thanks for your understanding, and for your generous compliments.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

To the Rookies:

If you're on a well-known good gold-bearing stream, and if it's very easy to get to the water, chances are it's been hammered.

Does that mean there's no gold left to recover at that easy access point?

No, but your chances are way slimmer than if you take a little extra effort to get yourself into a spot that's tougher to get to. Or, if you come back late in the season when the water's down, or early in the spring before the runoff starts for the same reason.

That tougher to get to spot could be higher up the bank or set back farther from the stream proper vs. the easy access spot. Furthermore, it could be a place in a gorge that's upstream or downstream from the easy access, a place that might require some strenuous hiking to get to.

Just remember that most people that chase the gold want the easy way to the gold. Moreover, most people are easily satisfied with a little color, and they don't really want to put out too much effort, especially if it's hot work or uncomfortable work. Because of this aspect, they never get to where the better gold is: the spot is better only because the odds of finding bigger gold or a heavier concentration of gold dramatically increases on a gold gold bearing stream when you get away from the hammered places everyone crowds to.

I'd dropped my dredge in to some terrible places, and I've floated it downstream in to some awful spots as well, but often the reward is well worth all of that extra effort because most people just won't follow through with the extra workload to get the equipment to where the gold has been waiting, often undisturbed for a good chunk of time.

When I go sniping, I try to look at where the high water has run in the most recent flood, then I'll work above that looking for signs of a hundred year super flood or perhaps one even bigger than that. As well, when prospecting in areas of glaciation, gold gets hung up in all kinds of interesting places. Learn where gold gets hung up; those spots are repeatable traps that hold the gold, but you've got to know how to identify them.

I remember when I was first working old hydraulic pits. An Old-timer told me to look for bedrock shelfs with lips that slowed the descent of the slurry as it was being washed down. Those places are repeatable gold traps, and in a good hydraulic pit where the miners cut to bedrock as they worked their way down the mountainside, those spots trap the gold because of physics, and those aspects of physics work wherever the gold gets a chance to slow down. Moreover, always remember that hydraulic mining was very inefficient; a lot of good gold got left behind. In fact, when dredging, if you can ever dredge downstream from an old hydraulic sluice run, do it! That goes for working downstream from regular large-scale sluice runs as well.

I got in a spot once where the bedrock stepped up a small rise. There were nice nuggets in those "steps". I had to work hard to uncover them, but that's why the gold was still there. The easy spots had been detected to death. Don't be afraid to get a nice rock-rake and have at it with a good dose of elbow grease to see what's been left behind.

Bare sheets of exposed bedrock have probably been hammered many times by nugget shooters. This doesn't always mean they got all of the gold. I have experienced a few exceptions where I came along and found good coarse gold deeper down than the former nugget shooters could get at with their earlier equipment, but I've made a significant investment in first-class equipment, and a beginner would have a much better shot at finding nuggets by uncovering bedrock that was buried 100+ years ago by hand-stacking. Why? No metal detectors then to check the worked bedrock. They simply covered it up after they'd worked any cracks and crevices they could see. Or, they'd break the bedrock to a predetermined depth, but that didn't always mean they've reached the end of deep or hidden crevices.

As usual, I've kind of wandered off topic a bit, but back to my main point: if you want to have a better shot than the average weekend warrior, look in the more difficult to get to places along those nice gold bearing streams, the spots farther back from the waterline too, and leave the easy access gold to those that don't have any higher expectations.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

It's funny sometimes how one memory sparks another.

I remember one season I was way up north (really), and we were working with some large-scale placer miners.

They were working a pit at a lower elevation, but they were having us prospect some ground off across a small gulch from an old placer excavation (the ground we prospected proved out nicely, and they moved in and mined it out).

Well, in that abandoned pit close to where we were prospecting, there was a little natural sluice run down some stepped bedrock. Nature had left about ten to twelve feet of what I can only describe as the perfect little sluice box made of stone! It had just the right amount of slope to boot.

What was interesting though was that someone had snuck in sometime staying out of sight of the current workings, and they were running sniped material from the exposed bedrock cracks down that little sluice. There was a natural flow of water running through the sluice, supplemented as needed by small diversions, channeled by whomever was working that sniped material, thus reducing their dirt down to the heavies.

It sure was a cute little operation, and it certainly was effective as the bedrock was rough, and it held the gold well.

I've never seen another like it, but I've read of ground sluicing before where Old-timer's used exposed bedrock as a sluice to run their material over, and this little operation was just a practical application on a much smaller scale.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Well my friend, another season has rolled around, and it sure would be nice Lance if you would kindly post one or more of your excellent Christmas poems. Yes I know that we could have copied them from last year, but it is not the same thing as a fresh delivery each Christmas from the authors very own hands.

Joanne and I do look forward to this presentation each year, please and thanks... and we wish you and your wife and family a very Merry Christmas Lance, and all the very best... every success... in the New Year.

Jim.

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Lanny & Jim, Long time no posts from me. Great to catch up on this tremendous line of posts & see what you have been up to. I havnt fallen off the end of the earth.....although I arent far from there Ha ha...... Have fallen off & down a few old tailing races though chasing the bloody gold.......& one of those was a very close call. But I am still gracing the face of this planet. I have had a good year chasing the gold with my GPX 4500. I got myself an SDC 2300 after a lot of procrastination & a lot of research. After all the hype from the Aussie cousins across the ditch ( Tasman Sea) & the success they were having going back over old ground I relented.....& got one. MMMmmmm.... sort of wish I hadnt now as it doesnt do nearly as good as my 4500 & Nugget Finder Sadie coil (8" x 6") I now realise & know for a fact that the 2300 excells over the GPX's in heavily mineralized ground & not in mild ground of which ours here in New Zealand is. The fact that in heavily mineralized ground you have to dumb down the GPX settings to try to get a smoother more stable threshold so as to try & hear a signal amongst the ground noise. That comes at the cost of sensitivity on small shallow gold of which the 2300 is made for. Here in NZ I can run the GPX in the most sensitive settings possible, Special Sensitive Extra, Very Fast Motion Mode, Deep & Boost In the Audio mode, & gain cranked up above factroy pre set. The worst I get is a bit of EMI &/or solar influence, but this varies from day to day. Or if I am close to power lines or farmers electric fences. Then I will just flick the Audio in to quiet & crank the gain right up to max.
So in my honset opinion if you are in mild ground you wont get any advantage with a 2300. In fact with a GPX & small coil you will blow the 2300 out of the water. That is unless you are in the water as the 2300 is fully water proof to 10 feet if you have the water proof head phones.
Any way....sorry to go on about about that but I ended up being quite dissapointed in the 2300.

Jim: I can give you a poem. It isnt mine & the writer is unknown.

Sitting by the fireside, staring into flames,
Remembering lonely diggings which now are only names,
Seeing in my mind's eye beneath the gravels swish,
The glitter of the gold in the bottom of the dish

I feel the icy water swirling around my hands,
As I rake my frozen fingers through the gravels,
Stones & sands,
I feel the sudden urge of the miners greedy wish,
The site of little nuggets in the bottom of the dish.

I've hunted in the mountains & shot an 18 pointer stag,
I've fished the streams of Southland & carried home a bag,
But more thrilling than the hunting,
Or the tug of a fighting fish is the site of flaky gold,
In the bottom of the dish.

They think I'm sleeping soundly, sitting here so still,
But though my limbs are quiet now, my mind roams free at will,
And sees beside the creek, even while they're saying "Shish"
The glitter of the gold in the bottom of the dish.

Wishing you all a very merry xmas & a prosperous & golden new year.

Take care & best of luck to you all out there

JW

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Season's Greetings JW, loved your poem and so glad to hear from you again. Nice to get some good, definitive information on the SDC2300 by way of your comparison to the GPX4500 and Sadie coil over your mild ground.

Will cut this a bit short just for now John, because it is late... we've had a long day of shopping and otherwise preparing for the family holidays this week. But we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and all the success in the world in the forthcoming New Year.

Jim & Joanne

 

[Jeff95531]

Lanny, you've obviously been called upon to do bigger and better things in the last few weeks but we're here and looking forward to a volume of wisdom from you for the coming season. Hope you and yours have a great, safe and prosperous new year. Wish I had a poem/ode to add but you set the bar pretty high last Christmas and I used all I had.
Jeff

 

[meMiner]

Lanny - your letter to the Rookies was bang on and an important thing to remember by everybody (not just the rookies). It made me think of a few other "rules of thumb" that I would like to share.

Time and again, I have bumped into young newbies who seem to think that you have to get way off the beaten path to find good gold. They have the energy, desire and usually unrealistic expectations. Their plan is to hump into "untested" remote areas, live off the land, and come home rich. Instead, I have found that: if there is/was gold in an area, that there is/was at least a path into it. If you pick a spot to prospect that is outside of the known gold bearing zone or inside a known gold bearing area but nobody has cut a trail, then the likelihood of success is greatly diminished.

Instead, once you get into an area, it is probably best for individuals to narrow down their search to identify "micro zones" with potential, for the type of mining you are able to do. Extra effort to get into a difficult area can pay dividends, but think first the definition of "difficult". In my humble opinion, there are not many places that the old timers would have deemed too difficult to mine, if the gold was good. However, they might have moved on, leaving economically workable ground if the mining itself was too difficult. For example, the "rule of thumb" for old hand miners was only dig to the depth of the shovel handle. Or perhaps, there was a lack of water or alternatively too much water in their hole (they did not have gas pumps). ie. Technology has changed, so use that to your advantage.

The other kind of situation is machine mining. There are locations that have small patches of good gold, that have enough barren ground in between that it was not worthwhile for a machine operation to pursue. Another possibility is some kind of physical blockage (like a narrow high canyon) that would be difficult or impossible to economically bypass with a cat, excavator or rock truck.

Last thought is human nature. You are right about the really easy places being hammered. For example, there is a recreational panning area that I have visited in the far north and the only time I see people there, is panning behind the same big rock as everybody else has done, right beside where the road hits the stream. There are countless holes from others, perhaps 100 yards in either direction, that get sparse the further out you travel (or even less on the other side the creek that you can usually cross in the summer with high boots). On the other hand, the folks that are willing to descend a steep hill or dig a fresh hole off to the side are the ones that have any hope of finding something to "write home about". The funny thing is there are also the folks that take it to the extreme and focus on the worst possible dangerous access at the greatest distance away. What I am saying is sometimes the best location is in fact somewhere between the dead easy and the way out there - between these two types of individuals. ;-)

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas with health and adventure in the New Year.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Placergold... would that recreational panning area you refer to above be the Atlin site situated on Spruce Creek?? I ask since I've read about your sojourns to claims in the area. I visited Atlin many years ago and panned at the public site and elsewhere... lots of colors but was told at the time... whether true or not I don't know... that the good gold was found further upstream back in the day. Really a lovely area, always thought it would be a good trip to head back one day.

Jim.

 

[leenie]

merry Christmas lanny and a happy and fun new year!!! as sad it is of eagle passing it far better to have known him. he was and still is a treasure. he walked and talked like a true man. the world is better for it. god bless you all. dave

 

[Lanny in AB]

Here you go Jim. (This poem centers around the Klondike gold rush, and it involves selected details of various events, from loading the stampeders in Seattle Washington, to later on after they arrived in Alaska, plus involving what many miners went through on their journey far in to the remote reaches of the Yukon Territory. Moreover, it echoes some of the disappointments, trials, and severe adversity the gold seekers faced once they arrived.)

Merry Christmas!

All the best,

Lanny

Klondike Christmas Poem

A golden strike, the papers roared.
A ton of gold or more on board!
The ships came in, the gold poured out
“Ho for the Yukon”, was the shout.

Huge stacks of goods by every store
Were packed by Stevedores from shore.
Seattle’s ships stuffed fit to burst
With dogs that fought, and men that cursed.

When all the sturdy ships of fame
Slipped from the docks, still more men came.
So rotting boats in death’s cold grip
Were soon revived to make the trip.

Stampeders came from far and wide,
Their hopes for gold, they could not hide.
From many nations came the band
Of eager men to try their hand.

This quest for treasure lit the flame
Of one poor Swede, of Gus by name.
The chase for gold his earnest quest,
For when Gus tried, he tried his best.

So on a wreck he booked a fare
And boarded it without a care,
For Gus was lucky, that's sure true
And his good luck would pull him through.

It wasn’t long, that on the sea
The wind she blew ferociously!
On Gus's boat, the waves broke high.
Abandon ship! Soon was the cry.

The sea rose up and sent that ship
To Davy Jones (a one way trip).
Yet Gus had grabbed himself a float
That stopped his plunge with that there boat.

He bobbed about and rode the storm,
But soon old Gus was snug and warm.
His luck was with him that fine day:
A ship was sailing right his way.

A lookout spied him on the sea.
The Captain hove to speedily.
The ship then bore him to Dyea
To Chilkoot’s golden passageway.

Now Gus was broke, his outfit lost.
To get it back would plenty cost,
But soon Gus found that many men
Would pay him well to pack for them

So up and back he packed their freight
On Chilkoot’s steps in '98.
He'd done his math and knew he’d earn
The dough he’d need for his sojourn

To Bennett Lake, to build a boat
To Miles Canyon, through it float
To forge his way to hurry on
To catch a ride on the Yukon,

That mighty river to the East
Whose waters floated man and beast
To Dawson City’s swampy banks,
Where toiled the men close by in ranks

To wrest the gold from permafrost,
With boilers freighted at dear cost,
To feed the steam-points in the ground
That freed the nuggets by the pound.

This dream was formed in Gus’s head,
So up those steps he swiftly sped,
With heavy loads to earn the dough
That got him fitted-out to go.

His pack trips done, with cash in hand,
Gus hit the trail to wonderland,
Until at last he surely spied
The skiffs and boats at Dawson tied.

Well Gus flew fast up every creek
But finding claims was worse than bleak
Poor Gus had got there far too late.
Them creeks was staked; he’d have to wait.

Now Dawson city held a mob
Of mining men without a job.
They'd missed their chance to stake a claim,
But Sam Steele's men kept that crew tame,

For any group that broke the law
Cut firewood with axe and saw.
And since the winter months were long,
That pile grew huge to right their wrong.

Good Gus obeyed the laws of town,
But Typhoid started bringin’ down
The strong and burly minin’ men.
First, ones and twos, then groups by ten.

So Gus, he plied the countryside
To get donations far and wide
For Father Judge, the selfless priest,
Whose healings stopped the Reaper’s feast.

Well, winter came, then people fled.
Starvation raised its ugly head.
The Yukon froze to lock the land,
And Gus stayed on to lend a hand.

He hunted moose and caribou
To help his neighbors make it through,
But many starved as Christmas loomed.
And for them folks, their hopes looked doomed.

But Gus stayed hopeful that he’d find
A way to aid folks in their bind.
Then Gus, he heard that trapped in ice
There was a steamer mighty nice,

And in its hold lay lots of grub,
If Gus could only reach that tub!
So with some pals he mushed up stream
To bring to pass folk’s Christmas dream.

But minus sixty ain’t no joke.
That weather near their spirits broke,
But on they mushed through Arctic night
To fetch that grub to make things right.

The dawn, she broke all crisp and clear
And Gus pressed on without a fear.
His luck, it held as in the past;
That frozen steamer spied at last!

Now Gus let out a whoop and cry.
His pals caught up, no eye was dry
As to the sleds they lashed the grub
All stored inside that river tub.

They gave their dogs a well-earned rest,
Then headed back to do their best
To freight that food to those in need
In time for Christmas, with all speed.

Now Gus and crew, they made it back
By Christmas morning, right on track
With sleds packed full of grub for friends,
But this ain't where this story ends.

For in the spring, old Gus the Swede,
Who made it through for those in need,
Went up the creek, the story's told
To test the benches for the gold.

You see, them benches weren't yet took,
Gus sunk a shaft and took a look--
Among those rocks all white and cold,
Gus found his fortune there in gold.

Well, Gus became a wealthy gent,
In friends and gold was how it went.
And when folks heard of those in need
They'd call on Gus the lucky Swede.

For Gus was lucky that's sure true,
And his good luck pulled countless through.

 

[meMiner]

Placergold... would that recreational panning area you refer to above be the Atlin site situated on Spruce Creek?? I ask since I've read about your sojourns to claims in the area. I visited Atlin many years ago and panned at the public site and elsewhere... lots of colors but was told at the time... whether true or not I don't know... that the good gold was found further upstream back in the day. Really a lovely area, always thought it would be a good trip to head back one day.

Jim.

That is the place. I camped there on my way in and out to my claims on other creeks the past two years. The only gold I found at the recreational site was small, but there were some spots with lots of it. However, the road itself is built on old tailings and anybody panning the dirt right off the road is panning old tailings which have probably been worked more than once. Across the creek is shallow bedrock (in spots 2-3' down) that has not been worked for a long while. Downstream (below the canyon) are cracks and crevices on the water that get replenished with flood gold. For sure, historically the better/larger gold was higher up in that creek, but it is all under active claim.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Many thanks Lanny, your literary work is extraordinary. I'm not entirely sure exact what all it entails, but it is without doubt the most satisfying I've ever encountered. My wife enjoys it every bit as much as me. Thankyou.

Jim & Joanne

 

[nuggy]

Hi Lanny and everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine was spent driving for three hours and then overeating with family.
Well I couldn't let the challenge of the poem go by without some attempt at the subject.

The Miners Christmas feast

The old black billy boiled as it swung
From the wire on which it was hung
Three poor hungry miners watched carefully
For it held something far more exalted than tea

For Christmas day they'd made a duff
They hoped that it would be enough
Dry fruit and fat, flour, sugar too
And their last drop of whisky had joined the brew

It was wrapped up in a muslin bag
That one had carried in his swag
When the duff had boiled it's time
They hung it to cool and it smelt divine

They got their plates and knives as well
When into the hut slipped a hound from hell
It grabbed the cloth with the duff inside
Then ran out the door that was open wide

The miners gave chase up the creek they ran
But that much cursed dog could outrun a man
Brandishing their knives they stuck to it's trail
vowing to kill it and cut off it's tail

Up and up the creek they sped
Until they reached it's very head
The dog dropped the duff by a gravel fan
Then away up into the bush it ran

The miners stood panting beside their prize
But hardly could believe their eyes
For the rocks were laced with veins of gold
And the three became very rich I'm told

The duff they cut carefully on a log
One quarter each and one for the dog
That's the story of how this creek came
To have Dog Duff creek as it's unusual name.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Thanks a lot Nuggy, this is mighty good work too!!!!

Jim.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks Nuggy, i enjoyed that

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well my friend, another season has rolled around, and it sure would be nice Lance if you would kindly post one or more of your excellent Christmas poems. Yes I know that we could have copied them from last year, but it is not the same thing as a fresh delivery each Christmas from the authors very own hands.

Joanne and I do look forward to this presentation each year, please and thanks... and we wish you and your wife and family a very Merry Christmas Lance, and all the very best... every success... in the New Year.

Jim.

Thanks for your complimentary post Jim.

The poem I wrote for you and Joanne centers around the Klondike gold rush, and it involves selected details of various events that many miners went through on their journey in to the Yukon, and some of the disappointments, trials, and severe adversity they faced once they arrived.

I will continue to tweak the poetry as I have the opportunity, as I was very short of time this season to write.

Hopefully, this new year will provide a bit more time.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi there Lanny & Jim, Long time no posts from me. Great to catch up on this tremendous line of posts & see what you have been up to. I havnt fallen off the end of the earth.....although I arent far from there Ha ha...... Have fallen off & down a few old tailing races though chasing the bloody gold.......& one of those was a very close call. But I am still gracing the face of this planet. I have had a good year chasing the gold with my GPX 4500. I got myself an SDC 2300 after a lot of procrastination & a lot of research. After all the hype from the Aussie cousins across the ditch ( Tasman Sea) & the success they were having going back over old ground I relented.....& got one. MMMmmmm.... sort of wish I hadnt now as it doesnt do nearly as good as my 4500 & Nugget Finder Sadie coil (8" x 6") I now realise & know for a fact that the 2300 excells over the GPX's in heavily mineralized ground & not in mild ground of which ours here in New Zealand is. The fact that in heavily mineralized ground you have to dumb down the GPX settings to try to get a smoother more stable threshold so as to try & hear a signal amongst the ground noise. That comes at the cost of sensitivity on small shallow gold of which the 2300 is made for. Here in NZ I can run the GPX in the most sensitive settings possible, Special Sensitive Extra, Very Fast Motion Mode, Deep & Boost In the Audio mode, & gain cranked up above factroy pre set. The worst I get is a bit of EMI &/or solar influence, but this varies from day to day. Or if I am close to power lines or farmers electric fences. Then I will just flick the Audio in to quiet & crank the gain right up to max.
So in my honset opinion if you are in mild ground you wont get any advantage with a 2300. In fact with a GPX & small coil you will blow the 2300 out of the water. That is unless you are in the water as the 2300 is fully water proof to 10 feet if you have the water proof head phones.
Any way....sorry to go on about about that but I ended up being quite dissapointed in the 2300.

JW

JW,

It's so great to hear from you again. I was wondering what had happened to you, and it sounds like you almost checked in for a stay at the big Golden Hotel in the sky! Yikes!! But, I'm glad you've survived, and I hope you're completely mended by now.

Thanks for the poem; it captures a lot of the authentic panning experience with its concrete sensory details.

I'm sorry the 2300 was a bust for you, and I have never really felt a need for one, so your experience with the 2300 has proven to be very valuable reading for me indeed.

Please stay in touch, and drop in here from time to time to update us on your newest adventures.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny, you've obviously been called upon to do bigger and better things in the last few weeks but we're here and looking forward to a volume of wisdom from you for the coming season. Hope you and yours have a great, safe and prosperous new year. Wish I had a poem/ode to add but you set the bar pretty high last Christmas and I used all I had.
Jeff

Thanks Jeff for your kind words and encouragement for the new year.

Writing poetry is highly labor intensive for me, and I certainly am not a poet in the true sense, but I dabble at it to have a little fun now and then.

Thanks for your contributions (and your poem) when you feel inclined to make them, and I trust that you and yours had a great holiday season as well.

All the best in the New Year,

Lanny