MXT Advice Needed

[jog]

I have had my MXT for several years and have found some real nice things over the years. In two week the girlfriend and I are invited to a lode claim in central Oregon, the gentleman who invited me said that he has found 15 ounces of pocket gold with his MD in the last month. I have tried to detect for gold but haven't found any. My question is, is there anything that I should know for finding pocket gold with my MXT that may be different than coin and relic hunting. He has told me that these pockets have been down as deep as 12". The coils that I have are a 950 eclipse that came with it and also a eclipse DD 4"x10". Any tips would be great,

jog

 

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[jmoller99]

Gold is very hard to find since no 2 pieces are exactly the same, and the most common sizes range from microns to inches. Lots of small gold is not the same as a larger nugget to your detector (even if the total mass is the same). Get yourself some small birdshot or lead fishing weights (the smaller, the better) and practice finding 1 at a time (do an air test on the piece first to make sure you can even detect the sample with your MXT). While this is not exactly the same as hunting for gold, its pretty similar and will get you in the right mindset. Expect to dig up a lot of trash, before you find anything of value. I try to get out and practice with my GMT early in the year before prospecting with it - the more practice you get, the better in tune you are with your detector and how it operates. I have practice targets of 1 to 5 grains in size - mounted on poker chips - I set these down in the areas I hunt to make sure that after I ground balanced my detector, I can still find small gold with it. Use cheap plastic poker chips, the pretty clay ones (like the casinos use) act just like hot rocks, and will not make finding your sample targets very easy. The poker chip is so I don't lose my sample - Lots of people do this - that's where I got the idea from.

It may take a year or more to find your first gold with a detector. Its not like hunting for coins.

At Gaines Creek, in Alaska (pay to detect area, out in the wilderness), over 1000 Oz of gold has been recovered with MXT detectors - obviously, it can be used to prospect with.

 

[63bkpkr]

Hello There Jog,
Jmoller 99's advice is spot on all the way through! I use the cheap plastic poker chips myself and I use a hot nail to melt a hole through the chip close to one edge. I tie a string through the hole so when the chip with metal sample glued to it is buried in the ground I can still find it due to the string being visible.

Just a thought, sounds like your friends invite will be to a spot with true gold so it might be worthwhile sending your detector and both coils in to Whites for a check see to make sure all items are working properly. Be a shame to show up at your friends with a machine or a coil not working properly.

You will of course have the MXT in its prospecting mode and you will have learned all about using that mode by searching for the lead shot and sinkers mentioned in 99's post. There must be some nice ins and outs to using the MXT in prospecting mode, maybe on Tnet in the brands section and then again some of the good folks here might just chime in with some assistance as well. The biggest secret about prospecting with a detector is to put it over gold so it can find it. Listen to your friends advise about how he hunts his claim and do what he does only with your machine. Like 99 I use a GMT BUT the GMT and the MXT use very similar electronics so the MXT will certinally find gold, just like 99 stated.

And one last comment, take a camera with you to document your adventure and show in the pictures the MXT being used. Then IF you feel like it put together an account of your trip and send it along with pictures of you, the detector and any finds you make with it. Who knows they may want to use your writeup and pictues in their Customer Stories section and if they do they might just offer you a $100 gift certificate good for Accessories for your detector.

Have a super adventure and success with your detector............63bkpkr

 

[Diggit]

Use the 4x10 as opposed to the 950 coil, it will have better response on smaller targets and be easier to pinpoint them with. The IDEAL gold coil is a 4x6 shooter coil,but of the two you stated, the 4x10 will be better.

 

[greydigger]

According to "The MXT Edge" by Jeff Foster the 950 coil sees deepest on gold nuggets.
I recommend this book. Got mine when I went to Whites factory in Sweet Home.
You might stop by there on your trip Jog.
Great people.
Grey

 

[Diggit]

According to "The MXT Edge" by Jeff Foster the 950 coil sees deepest on gold nuggets.

Grey

Sure, according to the book. And that is true on bigger nuggets, but not on smaller ones. And how many small nuggets will you give up for the one deeper big one?
Larger surface area does in fact increase depth, but diminishes response on smaller targets. The smaller surface area of the toe portion of the 4x6 coil the OP listed will give you that smaller target response. There is only one cross section of surface area on the 950 coil. The 4x6 is more versatile for nugget shooting.
There is a reason that the GMT (The gold machine that the MXT is based on)comes with the elliptical shooter coil as opposed to the 950 or another round coil, and that is the reason I stated.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Who says you have to use just one coil? Section off your hunting area, go over it with your big daddy, then hit the same area with the small shooter coil. If you can ever buy or borrow a copy of "The Complete Unabridged Zip Zip" By Larry Sallee, anybody with a GMT/MXT will benefit greatly from the search technique he teaches and how to run the machine.

 

[jog]

Well I'm off on my trip, Am just getting ready to head out the door. Will take a few pics and let everyone know how it went, thanks to everyone who put in there two cents worth. All great info.

jog

 

[OroJoeDude]

Howdy! I'm running an MXT myself and very happy with it's results.
Looking forward to hearing back from you and your detecting adventure! :-)

 

[jog]

Well I hate to say it but I got skunked, I found a ton of square nails and boot brads but no gold. I may return and try my luck again but it might be awhile before I get back there. I have been invited back so I may bring the trommel and run some real material.

 

[OroJoeDude]

Well sorry to hear that, but it makes me feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one that gets skunked. Lol!
I believe it's still all in the adventure of hunt.
Like they say " gold is where you find it"!
Better luck to you next time.
OJd

 

[Diggit]

A bad dirtfishing beats a good day doing anything else!

 

[greydigger]

That's a bummer Jog.
Hope you had a nice trip otherwise.
Always nice to get out and see new country.
Grey

 

[Oakview2]

Well I hate to say it but I got skunked, I found a ton of square nails and boot brads but no gold. I may return and try my luck again but it might be awhile before I get back there. I have been invited back so I may bring the trommel and run some real material.

Still looking for my first nugget also, but doing my due dilligence in trying to discern trash from treasure. Don't get discouraged, keep your coil slow and low. Hope you took some photos, and your vial may be empty, but the memories last forever... Happy Hunting

 

[Reg]

The problem with changing from coin hunting to nugget hunting is the mindset. Coin hunters will instinctively head for the locations where coins are usually found. This means paths, open areas, locations where it looks people might have walked or rested.

Nuggets are not people, they stop the first opportunity they get and could care less about paths, etc.

Get off the beaten path to begin with. That is a great place to find boot tacks, etc.

Without seeing the location it would be difficult to offer exact advice but gold sinks fast, so look for places that could be at or near bedrock. Check around rocks that are part of the foundation, meaning they are base rock still part of the mountain or location where you are at.

Exceptions would be if you are looking in a location where the gold was deposited for other reasons, such as glacial. Then you look where others look. Usually, there are tell tale signs of some sort. Sometimes it may be a sudden shift in dirt color indicating a contact zone. Maybe it is something as simple as a change of types of rocks. As an example, in one location I used to hunt, any round granite boulders were out of place rocks, but would show up in zones. Along with these rocks came the gold.

The point is, know the gold and how it got to where you will be hunting. That is part of the battle in determining just where to hunt. Many people, including myself at the onset, simply hunt areas that they think might be good and not hunt those that don't look right. This could be a major flaw since gold doesn't know your opinion or care for that matter.

Some areas are easy to read while others are impossible or nearly so. Even that is an indicator, though when you think about it. Usually, when you find one piece of gold, chances are there are others nearby. So, that is where you slow down and search carefully.

Coinhunters love to NOT dig junk but that is something a gold hunter knows he will have to do. As such, a gold hunter will usually dig out that "nail" to see what is also there. Worse yet, a nugget can disguise itself as a "nail" with a little help from certain rocks.

A good example of what I mean about digging trash is recently a friend of mine found his first three nuggets with a detector. In doing so, he dug over 75 pieces of other junk in his search. In some cases, the amount of junk my friend found is small compared to what he might have to dig up in another location. Two of his nuggets were buried with or near other junk items and not digging those items would have resulted in the nuggets being missed.

Patience and determination, again, are two words that a potential nugget hunter needs to both learn and head. Gold is very rare and difficult to find, thus it is going to usually take far more patience and determination that what is needed to find a coin. Worse yet, people can have "dry spells", meaning they may go months or even years before finding that elusive gold. Yes, I had dry spells, so I know what they are like and they are not fun.

Regardless, gold hunting can be both frustrating and fun. What makes it all worthwhile is when you do find that nice piece of of that yellow glistening material. No, it usually doesn't come out of the ground nice an pretty. In fact in most cases, it is difficult initially to tell it is even gold if found on land. So, don't get discouraged when you dig up a dirty lump that doesn't appear to be gold. My last nice nugget took some serious cleaning before the gold was truly obvious.

Good luck and happy hunting. It is tough but well worth it.

Reg

 

[jmoller99]

If you are finding an exceptional amount of nails, it is very likely you found the remains of an outbuilding where the wood rotted away a long time ago. I encounter this in the Colorado Rockies frequently - the 300+ inches of snow and high winds take their toll over 50 or so years of total neglect. I also encounter all manner of old hardware that was also used in the building. That helps me figure out the layout of a place, and maybe what the site was used for. Since there are laws against taking relics that are over 50 years old, and I really find little desire to collect old rusty nails and hardware, I tend to try to figure out where gold/sliver might have been transported/sorted/stored, and that is usually not where the most nails are. At the altitudes I detect at, the ground cover does not heal quickly, so a 100 year old path that has not seem much traffic in the last 98 years still looks pretty fresh.

The Forest service burned a lot of old cabins in the 1960's and 70's, so the nails may be the only real obvious markers left of habitation sites.

I generally avoid old buildings that people might have lived in, but seek those that appear to have been work facilities. In general I try to find where the mine was and the paths that lead to it and any indications of transport systems (often mules/burros) - these are places where high grade ore tends to have been dropped and lost in the weeds.

Tailings dumps and trash dumps are also interesting places to review (trash dumps tend to be full of rusty old cans and other metal garbage).

It usually takes a number of trips to the site (I take a lot of GPS readings and try to draw a site map) before I find the things that I came for. Ore sort piles often have a lot of good material in them.

 

[jog]

The area I was at used to be an old hydraulic mine and so I believe all the nails came from the flume that brought water from 12 miles away.The friend who invited me has been working one spot very hard and has found several nice pieces of gold there including a quartz seem with gold in it that took him about 3 days to get out of the rock. He has pretty much cleaned out all the iron from that spot and has spent a lot of time working it so I thought I should work another area so as not to intrude on his hard worked spot.

 

[Nitro 54]

The 4x6dd coil would be my first choice as it's a very hot little coil. The 6x10dd would also be good. There is no 4x10 coil as mentioned above.

 

[OroJoeDude]

Nitro, I'm curious .....
How deep have you been able to hit objects with the 4×6 coil.
I'm trying to decide about a purchase of that one or the 10" dd coil.

 

[OroJoeDude]

I realize they are designed for different purposes, just trying to get more personal knowledge of the different coils that others have used.
Thanks! OJD