Hi guys. I had an email from an American friend from an Alaskan forum that I am active on. I will just cut & paste what I replied to him with as there are some usefull tips in it that you gold detector operators out there can take on board.
Hi there Joe, Nice gold mate. Well done. Any gold is good gold :). You have learnt a valuable lesson when detecting for gold. Not sure that I know what detector you are using but I always detect in all metal mode for the exact reason you mention below. I too detected in discrimination mode on my GP 3000 when I first went out using it. Mainly because I was detecting in & around old ground sluiced areas around rivers & up on the higher old terraces. There was of course heaps of old rusted metal pieces & rusty scale probably from the old timers sluicing pipes, bits of lead etc. I was finding no gold so I started digging all targets. Even the blanking out in discrimination signals. Well bugger me.....I dug up a blanking out signal & it was a piece of rusty scale but stuck to it, just like what happened to you, was a piece of gold. Now the truth is that the detector would not have seen that bit of gold by itself so the detector had nutted off on the metal. The bonus for me being that the gold was stuck to it. Had I ignored that signal, which most would have as it was a trash signal, then I wouldnt have got that gold. That then made me think of how many other trash signals I had walked on past that may have had gold stuck to them. Especialy in the area I was working. Needless to say I now ALWAYS detect in all metal mode & dig EVERYTHING.
Ok......I was also using a DD coil as discrimination doesnt work with mono's on the minelab PI detectors. Another piece of info is that when running a DD coil in disrimination mode it takes away a bit of depth & sensitivity due to the electronics required to run the discrimination mode ability. Mono's are more sensitive & have better depth than a DD any way regarless of all metal or discrimination. So depth & sensitivity are the key to getting any gold & especialy gold that people using DD's are missing & leaving behind. I ALWAYS use mono's & ALWAYS detect in all metal. That gives you the best chance of finding gold if it is there & in reach of the coil.
The piece that your mate creviced at 8" deep after you had missed it with your detector may well have been out of range If it was a long narrow piece & up on edge. Depends too on what angle you swept across it at as well. I often go over areas from different angles for this reason. Especialy areas that I have found gold on & also with different size coils as well. Once I find an area with gold I will hammer it with all I have got, every coil & all angles. You will be gobsmacked at the extra gold you will pull off an area with different size coils if the ground has a bit of irregular depth to it to bed rock.
Our land has also been through a torturous time geologically. So when you describe the ground you are working I am with you & understand what you are saying. Makes the saying, "gold is where you find it" fall in to place & when people can comprehend & undertand geology & the land formations it opens up a whole new world of places to look for gold.
Nice to hear from you & thanks for the kind words.
Happy hunting, good luck out there & may there be a run of gold at the point of your pick.
Kind regards
John :)
Edited by user Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:41:51 AM(UTC)
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