New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

The day after I received my new Gold Bug detector I decided to head to the coast and check out one of the fossicking areas, based on nothing really but a hunch, and it was the next closest after Shamrock, Shamrock being popular and close I figure it would be well raided, and the more obscure one down the road might be productive for me.

Boy, was, I, wrong.

Man, I, know, nothing!

But boy did I have fun!

I awoke to darkness at around 7am after spending the night in the foetal position in the front of my truck.

After observing a terrific blood red sun rise I headed into Ross to park near the start of the track.

First Up i thought i'd need to head up stream to stand a chance from where other people tried, so I walked up the paper road by the creek for about 2 hours before I realized that I was not currently near the creek, and that wasn't about to change. Anyone who has walked up that track knows I needed my pick and rock hammer to get up/down parts of it, right back to the clay and covered in a slippery moss, with a pack on, it was interesting to say the least, but after an hour battling gorse near the top and wishing I had a machete on me, I gave in and headed back down the the stream.

It was about 11am before I made it back to the bottom of the track and actually got on the stream bed.

I should add that this was the first time I have used a detector worth more than $50, It's the first time therefor that I've used one designed for Gold. I made a few assumptions, now discovered to be wrong, but as mentioned, I had fun, I didn't dig up any nuggets, but I probably did detect some, but I had some crazy ideas about flicking from all metal to Disc, and that If i received no signal under Disc it was probably nothing... Probably not true now that I've done some more reading...

Alas some gold was won in the pan, as well as some tiny garnets when I hammered the crevices up stream near a quartz reef/vein?

Number one thing I didn't take that I wish I did, one of those under water view finders, when I did get a signal that I dug for it was pretty damn hard to see where I was digging, and what if anything I was seeing, I used a move some stones and detect again, if signal stayed the same move more stones and detect again, etc...

Number one thing I was glad I had was the small 5" detector head, made looking on, over, under, around everything a breeze.

So the morals of the story? I had fun, I learn something, but I still know nothing except that I have fun colour or not.

Refer attached for my 'colour'

Going to have another go when I return from the north start of July, so all Nelsoners please leave at least one flood Nugget circa 2gm so I know if this beastie really works or not ;o)

--Charlie the Greenhorn.

Thanks JW,

Will be spending a couple of weeks in the bush around Tairua late June, trying to decide if it's worth taking the detector, rock hammer and pan at least, wasn't the plan when I booked the hut out, but I'm wondering now if I should make it one. On top of 2 weeks supplies the detector could well be the straw that breaks this camels back though. Not to mention I'm not even sure (other than Waihi) where to start looking. Rule one (when starting) seems to be go where gold has been found, and I could be on the wrong side of the Penninsula.

NB: All questions above Rhetorical, more of a thinking out loud scenario.

I do have one question though, having scoured the topo map for the region, why in gods name are their so many old dams up the hills?

.

Edited by user Saturday, 9 July 2011 3:52:16 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Good onya for getting out there and doing it man. Does that Goldbug have a waterproof coil on it? Cheers :)

As far as I recall, all Fisher coils are waterproof, but this little beasty especially so, I can see a coating of what looks like varnish around all the seams of the 5" coil. Even my $50 el-cheapo model has a water proof coil, though the housing does leak, that doesn't affect it's (terrible) operation.



You may be right, though, not only is a detector hand held, it has no motor, not to mention, there is no way to prove what I am looking for, in fact, i tend to have a pouch fill of all the junk I've cleaned out of the river for them! the cheek they would imply i was breaking the law :oP

And alas you are probably right, I just figured i should start my journey where gold is known to exist. I'm slowly compiling something resembling an idea of detector workable areas thanks to the help of this forum and about 8 topo maps, as well as an old news paper archive which has lots of valuable information about the 'old' days, not quite to the point of WPS84 GPS Co-Ords, but a XX miles from XXton and XX miles from XXville behind mt/creek/ridge/XX and accessible with a mule type co-ords haha.

I'm thinking of following some leads around nelson Early July, so stand by for my next adventure.