Hello Eagle and all others that frequent Eagle's fine parlor. My name is Dennis, from central Az. Took me awhile but been here reading these 105 pages for days, along with Lanny's fine stories. I just had to sign up so I could add my 2 cents here and there. Super fine stories Eagle, kudos sir.
A little about myself.....I've been prospecting a few years now. Mostly metal detecting as I have found that works best for me. Got a little experience under my belt mostly with my Minelab SD2100 V-2. Took awhile to get consistent with it but I have been successful and seem to be getting better all the time.
While reading through this parlor of fine posting I can't help but feel a need to offer some assistance to a particular poster here, GarrettDiggingAz.
Sir, I know what you are going through as I have been there in similar situation myself. I am self taught with my metal detectors and a very persistent individual. I feel that I can offer some advice that might shorten your learning curve here in Az. Of course others here might benefit from my way of looking at things as well.
By the way, I don't mean to hijack this fabulous thread, but I think what I have to say might be appreciated by others as well. Be patient with me as sometimes I am a little long winded even when typing, lol.
Ok, to the point......Garrett Digger, no offense, but you are doing too much work for too little reward. I think I can help. First of all don't waste your money buying yet another metal detector to collect dust. You have a fine machine already you just need to take it for a walk more often. If you have a need to spend some money on more gear I suggest maybe get a second coil for the machine you have. If you don't have the smallest coil already, that is the 1 you should concentrate on getting and using to locate at least your 1st Az. nugget, and I will help you refine your tactics to do so.
What I mean by refining your tactics. Instead of going out doing all that digging for little return, try a different approach. I suggest you concentrate your efforts on swinging your metal detector. Get them kids to dig your targets to save on all the bending over. Concentrate your efforts on dry washes with either exposed bedrock or at least shallow bedrock. Remember gold is heavy and nuggets out here are mostly found on bedrock, and often down inside cracks and crevices. Don't get in a hurry. You must be patient and pace yourself. Be very thorough and make sure to overlap your coil swings and keep the coil flat to the surface. Being thorough and taking your time is more important than covering a lot of ground. Always run in all metal mode, dig all targets, especially faint questionable signals as those are the signals that most people miss that are often nuggets. As you scrape overburden off questionable signals, a valid target will become more positive.
It is very important to read your manual cover to cover multiple times and doesn't hurt to reread to the point that you pretty much have it memorized. Now a few tools will also help you. I recommend a good metal detecting pick, you know the ones you see with the triangular shaped head. IE, sharp point on one end and wide blade at the other. I also recommend a plastic bristle brush, like a large tooth brush looking brush, with good stiff plastic bristles......plastic because wire brushes just make more junk targets. Three more tools I recommend are a plastic garden trowel, crevicing tool, which could be as simple as a flat blade screw driver or like the ones sold at prospecting shops with a sharp pointed end and a small scoop end......the type I use....and a straw. I prefer a more durable straw than the typical disposable type. The thicker expandable straws like what come with the really large, like 64oz mugs.
Now I think most can figure out what to do with these tools. All of them help with recovery. Oh, by the way, your pick should have a few super magnets as well. Some models come with them already installed. Never hurts to have 3-4, I have 3 on mine.....2 on the blade and 1 on the top.....this helps get iron targets out of the way faster. Because I use a PI my pick has the 36'' handle so digging deeper holes when using the larger coils is easier. Not necessary to carry the extra weight of the larger pick when using a VLF.
Ok, I'll get on with my method that I think might help you. Instead of digging willie nillie sample holes all over creation, try metal detecting first. As you go along and detect targets you want to find gold of course. Don't concern yourself so much with typical iron junk, but when you dig a lead slug, old bullet or even a larger heavy chunk of iron on bedrock, then I suggest take a sample of the dirt on bedrock around the slug. You can just carry a small bucket with some ziplock freezer bags or something similar. Clean the bedrock real good using the brush and trowel and just bag that dirt up for later. You should mark the bag or you can put the slug in with the dirt. I myself remember which targets came from which hole, but do what works best for you so you can relate what bag of dirt came from whichever hole. Give it some time and be patient.
By doing this you will accomplish a few things at the same time. First of all you will become more accustomed to using your metal detector and the more you use it the better you will get with it and the better your chances of realizing that nugget you desire. Second, this is a much more methodical way to sample. Third, as an individual looking for gold you will actually increase your chances of finding a nice pocket as gold will often land where lead does.
After cleaning off the area use the straw to gently blow off any left over dust and such and if a crevice exists with material wedged in it use the crevicing tool to scrape that material out and save that too. Pay attention when blowing off the fluff as often small flakes will be revealed in this process. Of course this technic applies if the soil is dry. If there are multiple cracks and crevices and you see some flakes, by all means this is possibly a good place to scrape the fluff off and clean the bedrock nooks, cracks, and crevices.
With the exception of using the straw, this method of detecting and sampling works well in wet places like Lynx too. You will find pockets of lead with your metal detector up there and may not immediately detect a nugget. But certainly metal detect, find lead pockets and clean them up, bag that stuff and process later at home or at camp after supper. I assure you if you try this method, some day soon you will be pleasantly surprised when you start finding pickers, then nuggets, and then you might even just straight up detect a nugget in the process.
A little more about me.....I detected my 1st nugget in about 35 hours of actually sweeping my coil.....not typical.... Never used a metal detector in my life and taught myself. My second, third, fourth, and fifth nuggets detected took another 14 months....more typical. However with the method I described I dug out many pickers and 3 nuggets around 1 gram or so in size that I never heard on the detector. This let me know I needed to try harder and listen better to my machine. I am sure my machine saw those missed by me nuggets, but I didn't know what it was telling me. Now I have been doing this long enough that I find nuggets often. I am sure I don't get them all, but I miss fewer that is for sure. Oh, by the way be diligent about ground balance, do it often as ground changes often. Also wear headphones.
I'll throw a couple pics of my most recent Az. nugget. 10.9 gram, as Lanny would say, sassy gold nugget. I've taken enough space on this thread for now. Nice to meet all of you here in advance and I hope some of you, especially Garrett Digger are able to benefit from this post. Good GOLD to all......Dennis
haha
