nuggethunting

Hey Pat, You're very welcome. Not sure I understand about the wet ground. I've always found deeper nuggets when the ground is damp vs. very dry ground. I prefer to hunt old patches for faint targets just after a light rain. The Rye Patch area might be a bit different though. Dig all targets with the SD2200v2. Don't put much faith into target responses ... you will miss gold! I've dug many sizeable nuggets that sounded like iron rubbish. Some targets screamed, some targets gave double hits, some were Woo-Wee's and others were Wee-Woo's. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Pat, Hopefully you can hook up with Frosty, he's a great guy. Sorry to hear about your field instructions in Nevada. Sometimes the weather can suck up there around Rye Patch. If you have questions on your SD2200v2, I will do my best to help you out here. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Dutchman - I have no reason to pull anyone's leg on this. My personal sales have increased every year for the last 10 years selling metal detectors. I've had a few average years, but they were still better than the previous one. If sales continue like they have been in the last couple of months, I will easily beat last year’s numbers. When you do something you have a passion for and know very well, you're probably going to do well at it. This is one of the reasons I've been successful along with a handful of other dealers. We have found thousands of gold nuggets, been doing it for 15+ years, know our metal detectors and accessories and this normally means you will do well. The first couple of years I had to struggle with dealers like myself today. There were dealers that were very experienced and knew all their products very well. I was a newbie trying to compete against these tops dealers. It was hard, but with determination and struggling the first couple of years I was able to get to this point. It took me almost 10 years to become one of Minelab's TOP 10 Dealers in the Country. Montana - You are very correct saying that some people are making money. I know several guys that are making money hand over fist right now. Just because the economy is down, don't mean everyone out there is broke! I think some people have a problem when others are doing well in hard times like this. Mike C. - There is no doubt in most places you can come back and find small gold (normally a few grains or less) behind even the top PI's. I will tell you a quick story about a wash I found that had probably 100+ gold nuggets in it. I located a wash in the Bradshaw Mountains many years ago that was caulk full of gold nuggets. I spent several years in this wash working it with various PI's as they came out. I probably collected over 100 nuggets ranging from a few grains to 1/2 ounces. Do you remember old Brett Foster, famous for his GT160000 find (50+ ouncer)? Well I invited Brett in and he wanted to see what he could find behind me with a Fisher Goldbug II metal detector. At this time Brett's health wasn't the greatest and dragging around a big Minelab wasn't his cup of tea anymore. Long story short, Brett spent several hours in this wash picking up small sub-grain and grain nuggets. I believe he had 27 small gold nuggets in a few hours. I think the total weight was like 22 grains of gold. During the time he was working that wash, I went over a small ridge and worked some small gullies on the backside. When I returned from prospecting these washes I had 5 nuggets for over 3 Dwt's. I guess what I'm saying is you can find gold behind the Minelab's, mostly smaller stuff. However, I would rather spend my time and effort looking for new spots after I feel I beat them down with a Minelab PI. I found 3 times as much gold as Brett that day, while he was crumb crunching my old spots with a GB2. I've found hundreds of those little nuggets with the Goldbug, Goldmaster, Lobo and XT series over the years. I got tired of chasing dinks that I had to retrieve with tweezers and high powered eye glasses. Trust me, I've done it and it was fun at that time, but I've moved onto looking for gold a bit bigger in size. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Don - I didn't know there was still barrels of Black Sand at Rich Hill. Most of the old barrels I've seen have been crushed. I was just curious since I'm part of another project that might eventually collect a bunch of black sands. Nuggetslayer - You probably have a good idea. The black sands will still have values, just some of the larger pickers and flakes will be removed. I was just curious if someone actually collected entire barrels of black sands? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Grubstake, What emails .... LOL Rob Allison

Hey Lon, To be honest I've been so busy with field instructions and some other projects that I haven't tested the new Goldstalker DD much yet. It is very quiet, but beyond that I can't say much. Dennis used it a few times at Rich Hill and mentioned it ran really quiet also, but he didn't get it over a gold nugget. The Joey is one of the most popular coils. I've sold more Joey Mono's than DD's, but the ones that ordered the DD loved them. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Dutchman - I guess you really have no idea how many detectors I sell. LOL ... 3-4 ... I sold more than 4 detectors last week. I can tell you that between AZO and I we sell more Minelab PI's than anyone else in the entire US. You should know, I was out just about every weekend during the beginning of the year with customers on the weekends. I think some are just upset that some are still doing good business when the economy is down. Just cause the economy is down don't mean the entire World is broke! The hotspots for PI orders are California, Nevada, Mexico and some 3-world countries .... I have to agree with NuggetBob, a GPX-4500 or any other top end metal detector don't guarantee finds. You still have to pass over the gold. A high end detector will help with mineralization, hot rocks, added depth, more user controls and more accessories that could increase performance even more. A GPX-4500 or any other high end PI in the right locations could mean a bunch of gold really fast. However, the flip side of that coil is a GPX-4500 or other high end PI in the wrong spots an mean no gold! Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Mike, Overall detector sales are probably down compared to the last couple of years. However, several Minelab dealers, including myself can't keep them in stock right now. Regardless of the backorders on the GPX-4500 and SD2200v2, I'm selling a bunch of Eureka's, X-Terra's and even E-Tracs. A couple of recent customers wanted PI's, but since they are on backorder, they decided to purchase Eureka's to hold them over until the backorders arrive. Many of these detectors are heading South. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, Over the years I've seen ads for people that purchase black sands. Was curious if anyone knows the value of average "run of the mill" black sands from a placer operation or such? What would be the value of a 55 gallon full of black sands with all the visible pickers and fines removed? Just curious if anyone knows. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello All, This weekend I met up with another customer that recently purchased a Minelab GPX-4500 metal detector. David drove all the way down from Carson City, NV to get his field instructions. David met up with me at Rich Hill this weekend and we conducted his field instructions at an old nugget patch. David was able to see a lot of gold indicators at the patch and what to keep an eye out for when searching for nugget gold. After a couple of hours, David decided it was a bit too hot, but he is looking forward to coming back down to Arizona for some more nuggetshooting. David is heading back to Northern Nevada and is looking for anyone willing to help him out in that country. I referred him to several guys up around the Winnemucca area. Thanks once again for your business. Rob Allison

Low and Slow with that Minelab! Wishing you a bunch of luck. Rob Allison

Hey Grubstake, Let us know what the Doctor tell you on the 6th. In the meantime, hand in there champ! We are all praying for your well-being. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, You know what pisses me off .... It's the fact that are there guys/gals that found for our great country, homeless and living on the streets with no insurance or a place to stay. However, we are paying millions to fund these illegals that come over and abuse our system. I think the US Government should treat US Vets like KINGS!!! Many of them paid the highest price, they died for our Freedom. Thank God we have great guys like Grubstake, FrogMick, Dutch John, H2O and Ridge Runner. Just ranting .... Rob Allison

Hey Grubstake, Are you sure those are the same guys? LOL ... Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Bob, I think it's a coating more than a matrix or host rock. If you rub them enough the coating will wear off. Most of the ones we have found in this area are small, biggest being the recent 2.8 Dwter. Now it makes me think there might be more sizeable ones. Can't wait until the weather cools off again. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I think it's great you all can talk about your mods, but don't let this turn into a "He Said, She Said," deal. I've personally never had one of my units modded, but know of many others that have and swear by them. I've only seen Ismael's mods and know of many that are very happy with them. I can't vouch for Woody's mods, but that is not saying they are no good. I'm sure both guys do great service. Many seems to think that when they have a older unit modded, it's going to make it into a GPX-5000!!! I think some of the mods can help target certain things, but I don't believe you're going to mod an older Minelab and get all the advantages you will get with a GPX-4500. Just my thoughts, Rob Allison

Hello All, Today a partner and I decided to tackle the heat and do some nuggethunting in a location where we have been finding some Black Gold Nuggets. Many of the gold nuggets we are finding in this spot are covered with a Manganese Oxide I believe. This is the only location in this area where I've found them like this. We were both using Minelab GPX-4500's with the new Coiltek Goldstalker 14-inch elliptical Searchcoils. Total take was just under 6 Dwt's. The biggest nugget was 2.8 Dwt's and is most Black. Here are a few pictures - Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I'm going to tell you what I know from the dealer’s eyes. Normally at this time of the year (summer), sales slowdown big time. However, this year has been very different. I'm getting tons of calls and emails from customers in Mexico, Africa, Dubai and several other smaller countries. I've never gotten this many International inquiries since I have been a Minelab dealer. I also had a customer call from Australia that seen the recent forum post. He said there is also a huge demand for high end Minelab's cause many Aussie's this year got a huge Stimulus check, much bigger than they have ever received before. This customer mentioned up to $6,000 Australian dollars. I'm not sure how true this is, but this is the second person that told me this within the last couple of weeks. NV Chris - Yes, all new dealers will have to have a storefront location. This will eliminate all the smaller dealers that are trying to operate out of their homes. Dealers such as myself are Grandfathered in due the years as a dealer and amount of sales we done annually. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Dredger, I received your PM, but just haven't gotten around to responding yet. As for the Arizona Creeks, I would recommend you gettting the book titled "Placer Gold Deposits in Arizona." This book will tell you most of the major gold bearing drainages in Arizona. There are too many to list, most of them show decent fines, flakes and small nuggets. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Montana, I just received my GPX-4500 control box back from Minelab USA. Bill stated they done the upgrade along with replacing a few other components. Playing around here at the house with it and it seems much more stable than before. Congrats on your new nuggets! Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Montana - It's hard to believe Minelab projected a small market this year. However, it makes pefect sense with the bad ecomony, but then again the price of gold per ounce is very high! Most of those dealers that got eliminated were only selling 1-2 detectors the entire year and most of them didn't train, advertise or give any type of service that would warranty Minelab to keep them on board. NV Chris - Minelab gave many of these dealers opportunities to order more units, but most of them didn't. Eliminating 100 dealers that didn't do $10,000 in sales with 100 new dealers that will do $10,000 + in sales makes perfect business sense. Geographically Minelab can only have so many dealers in an area, so they couldn't keep all the original dealers that were not selling and add another 100 onboard. I can tell you personally I know of two guys that couldn't get Minelab Dealerships (outside of Arizona) because there was another dealer in the area. These guys are very knowledgeable and might get a chance to prove to Minelab their experience and field services will make then good additions to the Minelab Team. Wyndham - You might be right, but I think there is more involved than just price. I personally think there is a big ... big difference between the White's TDI and GPX-4500. One major reason there are over 1,000 GPX-4500 on backorder currently. I honestly can't keep the GPX-4500's in stock, the minute they arrive they are shipped out to customers that have been waiting. None of these customers even question the $4,500 price. I've even had a few customers that are still waiting offer more money than the selling price to get one before another customer. Minelab is just so much further along than any of the US manufactures. It's a shame, I would love to put my money into an American PI, but nothing in my opinion even come close. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Zippo, The problem with trash pumps is they don't have the lift or GPM as some of the other high end pumps/engines. I've seen many of these trash pumps and they never seem to have the lift when you're down 5+ foot underwater. With the pump you mentioned you might be able to run a small 2-inch, maybe 3-inch, but it could be iffy. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello All, I know I have a huge backorder list like many other dealers have at this time for the Minelab GPX-4500's. I just had a couple arrive today, but I want to give you an update on what is going on. I just got off the phone with Minelab USA in Las Vegas. At time time, Minelab has over 1,000 GPX-4500's on backorder! Minelab USA, Inc has over 400 units now on backorder, while Minelab Australia has almost twice that amount. Minelab is sending out the GPX-4500's in batches, so you might not get all your backorder in one shot. They are breaking them up, so all dealers that have them on backorder are getting 1-2 each arrival. Many dealers are getting customers to pre-pay. At this time I'm not asking customers to pre-pay, but if you want a 100% guarantee you're going to get one with the best bundle package anyone can offer, I will ask for you to pre-pay. I can't wait around for days waiting to hear back from customers. I will call, but if I don't hear back I have to move on to the next customer on the backorder list. Just way too many people trying to get a hold of these units right now. Minelab USA has elliminated over 100 dealers here in the US. Letters have been sent out to the unfortunate dealers that didn't meet the minimum order requirement. If you have any questions, please give us a call, or you can shoot us over an email at - auplacers@yahoo.com P.S. Minelab did mention "Rob's Detector Sales" and "AZO" are TOP 10 US Dealers! Congrats Cuz! Thanks, Rob Allison

Hey Doug, When I had the GPX-4000 for several years, the Senstive/Smooth mode was best for mineralization. However, there were a handful of spots here in Arizona and Northern California where I couldn't run a mono (regarldess of size) without getting a bunch of moaning and groaning ground noise. I normally would hunt these spots with a DD, mostly the Coiltek Wallaby DD Pro. I'm able to work all the same spots with a Mono on the GPX-4500. I haven't found many spots where I can't run a mono without ground noise. I can only think of one or maybe two spots that are in wash bottoms. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Vin, Yeppers .... just working, running the business, school, weekend prospecting and the new addition to our family. I'm still here checking the forums each night. Can't wait until the weather starts to cool down once again. Where have you been? Talk with you later, Rob Allison