Pinpointing Gold

[whiteriver23]

Is there any need for a pinpointer when detecting gold
or don't the hand held pinpointers detect gold?

BTW, thanks Terry for the giveaway on the AGA website.

 

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[Ca70]

Neo, I watched the video you posted. I called a friend in Granite Bay who hits the area around you. I described it to him and he thinks he knows exactly where it is . He thinks it was a ground sluice setup. He never detected there but has been there . he said alot of people go there too. its not remote at all he stated. Folsom has great old history. When I bought my boat the dealer took it out there to do an "in service " with me. The whole time I was thinking " I'd love to dive and detect this lake".
back to the video though. I'd love to see it in person . Very different. Very well preserved. and does look like some sort of a ground sluicing operation as my friend had stated.
Im going to talk to my friend , If its the place he thinks it is , I'll let you know and post directions. From what he said it has been hit hard.
That old caliche and river bed material looks fun though. Most of the work has been done. Search "California Bureau of Mines and geology" You may find something about this spot in the "Folsom" area. Hint

 

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[nuggetshooter323]

That's what I've heard about Chinese diggings, they came in after everybody else and cleaned everything out and left nothing. Although I have heard of modern finds in the stacked cobble walls. Sometimes they missed non-visible gold in cobbles that they stacked.

Neo' I tend to avoid the immediate area around Chinese diggings . They were so efficient and meticulous ,they didnt leave much behind. I like rock piles, I dont like hand stacked rocks and rock walls for nuggets. Although stacked rock walls are known to sometimes hold forgotten or abandoned treasures. I have stumbled upon this twice. These are good areas for a relic detector too.

 

[whiteriver23]

Ca70

I also have an MXT and did a little research on the Sun Ray. Right now I'm trying
to convince myself the justification for spending nearly $200! Was thinking about
getting a Fisher Gold Bug II for my annual trip to Tucson but, after reading your
testimonial about the Sun Ray I may have to reconsider, the MXT is a pretty
good machine on it's own although I've not hit any gold with it.
JP
"And the Beep Goes On"

 

[Ca70]

Yea I forgot how much the thing cost. I really do rely on it when coin / relic hunt. The GBII is going to be a better gold detector though. My MXT wont find stuff as small than if I use my GBII or GMT. ALthough I dont use the MXT for nuggets very often anyways. I know guys who do though and do quite well. If you do use the MXT as a nugget machine the little shooter coil is a must.

 

[whiteriver23]

Funny you mentioned that coil. After I researched the MD 20
I took a look at White's Eclipse Shooter DD 4 x 6" Search Coil
that might be just the ticket to enhance the MXT
Thanks
JP

 

[Goldwasher]

I heard a fairly large road in the background..narrator calls them "Dynamite Paths".....says "this is where I believe Dynamite Blasting for Gold became popular".....worst Narrator ever....

 

[Ca70]

I found myself shaking my head during that too.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yes, the Chinese were efficient, but they weren't perfect, and they did miss nuggets. I've gathered a bunch of them over the years where they worked, but without a metal detector, I never would have found them. They cleaned the bedrock exceptionally well compared to the other miners. However, they could not see what was down inside the bedrock, but the detector can.

So, for those that think the Chinese got it all, that's fine. I guess that will just give me more places to detect that others aren't worried about.

Seriously though--anywhere that has been hammered, I always check it out. It got worked hard and hammered for a reason, so to me that means that there was a solid concentration of good gold there, and there's an excellent chance that there's still a bit of that nice gold left.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Ca70]

Absolutely Lanny , they did literally scrub the bed rock. They did leave nuggets behind. The ones I have found in these diggings, I cant be sure if they were flood gold after the chinese miners left, or stuff they just missed. What do you think ? I have always thought about that.
The hammered areas here really get a lot of coils over them . I get worried when im not even finding much trash . They are generally just easy to get to, so people go there first . Some of the places that are easy to get to are also loaded with modern trash and people avoid those places , just out of frustration. I like those places. It takes patience but some nice small finds in good numbers can be had there .
It sounds as if you are a very good field detective. Ive been reading some of your older threads and really enjoy them. Thanks.

On the subject of pinpointers I did just order the Minelab pro-find 25 to pair with my GP . I never used a stand alone pocket pinpointer I liked. This one seems pretty impressive, and should also work nicely crevicing while traveling light. I'll post up my first impressions after I play with it a bit.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Absolutely Lanny , they did literally scrub the bed rock. They did leave nuggets behind. The ones I have found in these diggings, I cant be sure if they were flood gold after the chinese miners left, or stuff they just missed. What do you think ? I have always thought about that.
The hammered areas here really get a lot of coils over them . I get worried when im not even finding much trash . They are generally just easy to get to, so people go there first . Some of the places that are easy to get to are also loaded with modern trash and people avoid those places , just out of frustration. I like those places. It takes patience but some nice small finds in good numbers can be had there .
It sounds as if you are a very good field detective. Ive been reading some of your older threads and really enjoy them. Thanks.

On the subject of pinpointers I did just order the Minelab pro-point 25 to pair with my GP . I never used a stand alone pocket pinpointer I liked. This one seems pretty impressive, and should also work nicely crevicing while traveling light. I'll post up my first impressions after I play with it a bit.

It'll be good to see what you think of that Minelab pin-pointer. As to nuggets they missed, usually they're in bedrock either in crevices, cemented in crevices, or in bedrock that has sheets or plates that run perpendicular/perpendicular angular to the surrounding ground. The ones that are cemented in, with a matrix that matches the bedrock in color and is just as hard as the host rock are the perfect camouflage as they replicate the true bedrock perfectly, and the crevices are impossible to see--thus the reason they were left behind. No technology the Chinese possessed back in the day could "see" into solid rock. Then, on a rarer basis, there's little pockets inside the bedrock--cavities where the crevice or crack snapped shut on the surface eons ago, but the gold had already settled in the pocket, and has lain there since.

Good luck, and all the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggetshooter323]

I've been thinking about getting a VLF pin pointer, so I'll also be looking for your experiences with the Minelab. The one thing I do know is I don't think you can tune the Minelab like you can the Pro pointer. On the Pro Pointer, you slide a piece of metal like a ring, or you hold a coin or something against the shaft with your thumb and slide it up and down until you get the most depth for the soil conditions. I'm not sure if this technique is applicable with the Minelab.

On the subject of pinpointers I did just order the Minelab pro-point 25 to pair with my GP . I never used a stand alone pocket pinpointer I liked. This one seems pretty impressive, and should also work nicely crevicing while traveling light. I'll post up my first impressions after I play with it a bit.

 

[Ca70]

I've been thinking about getting a VLF pin pointer, so I'll also be looking for your experiences with the Minelab. The one thing I do know is I don't think you can tune the Minelab like you can the Pro pointer. On the Pro Pointer, you slide a piece of metal like a ring, or you hold a coin or something against the shaft with your thumb and slide it up and down until you get the most depth for the soil conditions. I'm not sure if this technique is applicable with the Minelab.

Okay , I paid the extra $3.75 for saturday delivery. It showed up promptly at 1400 hrs.

My down and dirty , evaluation .

I stated before I never owned a pocket type pinpointer I liked . pinpointers I use are mounted to or plug into my detectors as a proprietary unit..

I like this Minelab so far.
nuggetshooter323 , i'm not quite sure the tactic of sliding a ring or metal on the shaft. The unit picks up metal targets throughout the legnth of the probe. I am missing something there .

It seems well built , has a nice "heft" solid feel . The led light is not incredibly bright but is more than sufficient in a darken setting. The holster provided works as intended. But , I'll probably replace it with one of my leather flashlight holders from work. Only to protect it from scaling rocks .

The smallest target I could get it to sound on off during an air test, was a 2.1 grain piece of lead .

My main reason for this pocket unit purchase .... It wont talk to my GP detector as my friends Garrett did. I liked his unit but found that the two could not be in the same vicinity of each other .

The Minelab is no MD20 , nor was it meant to be. So I cant compare it . It is though more sensitive to gold size targets than my wired Coiltek pinpointer on my MXT. Fact is , I dont use the MXT for gold very often though.

When I get up on the mountain or down in the canyon , I'll post up some real field experiences.
Bottom line , I dont have buyers remorse .

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Next time your on utube look up a video about tuning the Garrett. I had to watch a video and see it for myself to understand the technique. It works though, they get and extra two or three inches, though I'm not really sure there's any use for a pin pointer to go more than 1 1/2".

 

[Ca70]

Will do after playoff game over. I've gotta see this. Thanks

 

[Ca70]

Next time your on utube look up a video about tuning the Garrett. I had to watch a video and see it for myself to understand the technique. It works though, they get and extra two or three inches, though I'm not really sure there's any use for a pin pointer to go more than 1 1/2".

Okay , checked out video . And ... Same thing works with the Minelab PF25. I had to see it to believe it. It is a real substantial gain , over 2x's .

It seems to work on the same principal as the sliding copper ring on our MD20's . Neat trick.

I couldnt stop there . I wanted to see if it also improved small target sensitivity. I was amazed. My "down and dirty " test showed it would pick up a 2.1 grain lead piece at approx 5mm. Making it a good compact crevicing tool.... With the "trick" .. I got that down to .4 grain at 5 mm ! Now that would make it a great crevicing tool. Very slick.
It won't replace the MD20

Tweaking it to be more sensitive / deep , could also make it more susceptible to mineralization .

I could only assume you would get similar results on small targets with the Garrett unit too.

Thanks again. Fun test.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

See, now you did it! Now I definately want to get one and it's all your fault. When my wife yells at me for buying more equipment I'm going to blame it on you Ca70.

 

[Ca70]

BTW one thing I did notice . The Minelab PF25 did create some electronic chatter when turned on near the MXT. However , this did not happen with the GMT or the Minelab GP units.






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[Ca70]

I did though get a stern "eyebrow raise " when she opened the package for me while I was at work. So I feel for ya. Good luck !

 

[Oakview2]

That's what I've heard about Chinese diggings, they came in after everybody else and cleaned everything out and left nothing. Although I have heard of modern finds in the stacked cobble walls. Sometimes they missed non-visible gold in cobbles that they stacked.

I believe Jimmie Smitts, sp, the Whites spokesman, found a large chunk of muddy quartz in a pile of discarded cobbles, had about 2 1/2 pounds of gold locked up in it. To the Chinese miner who stacked it, it was just a muddy 22 pound chunk of quartz...

 

[nuggetshooter323]

That's why I always scan those hand stacked walls.

I believe Jimmie Smitts, sp, the Whites spokesman, found a large chunk of muddy quartz in a pile of discarded cobbles, had about 2 1/2 pounds of gold locked up in it. To the Chinese miner who stacked it, it was just a muddy 22 pound chunk of quartz...