Hi guys, I hadnt been out for a detect in 20 days. That is my longest non detecting time in two & a half years since being down here in Central Otago. Due to crap weather & my 4x4 blowing a head gasket. I went out late this afternoon for a few hours to some old workings. Getting hard to find gold there now as I have absolutely thrashed them. But the NF 17 x 11 coil has been doing very well for me on many of my old haunts that I was struggling to come home with a rattle in my bottle. The bonus of going over ground that I have found gold on before makes me detect very slowly & thoroughly knowing that I have a very good chance of snagging something.
The NF 17 x 11 has really surprised me with its depth a sensitivity on small gold & also the bonus that if something of size is deeper down that was out of reach of my other coils that I have used then I stand a good chance of getting those bits as well. There hasnt been any bigger bits at depth so far. I got a very very faint hickup in the threshold that I was sure was just slight ground noise from the wet ground & maybe just a patch of concentrated black sands. I had a few goes at swinging the coil over it from different angles & wasnt very confinced at all that it was a metal signal....let alone gold. But I scraped away the grass & dug down in to the soil......& soil it was. I dug deep & no schist in site. The signal improved with depth but as there was no rock or schist I wasnt liking the chances of it being gold. I was down a good 300mm & the signal was very strong & I was just waiting for a piece of ferrous crap to come out of the hole. I then struck a crunchy gravely schist & the signal was still there. Now I was getting a bit of a thought that this could be gold if that gravel layer continues & the signal remains. The signal did continue to boom out from within the schist gravel & then suddenly it was out.
A sassy bit of the good stuff. Ye ha.
The depth of the hole, just over 300mm, for quite a small piece of gold
Then up against a schist outcrop & in what looked like a bit of a run of a crevice I got a very strong signal. I wondered why I hadnt got this signal & investigated it before. I must have detected here before....surely I would have got & heard that signal before.. Any way......I wasnt going to walk away from that signal. I dug down on to it & was in to a crevice straight away. I peeled the dirt out & was smashing in to the schist. Breaking out schist I just knew this was going to be gold the deeper I got. There were two crevices starting to come to light. I broke out more rock until I was sure of the right crevice that the signal was coming from. Raking the pointy end of the pick through the crevice the signal was out. I backed up on to the pile & pin pointed the target & then saw it sitting there. Another saasy little slug of gold. A 1.3 grammer. You beauty.
The schist crevice
2 bits for 1.86 grams.
Cheers guys & good luck out there.
JW :)
