nuggethunting

Hey Gaine, Thanks for the update. Congrats to all you, sounds like it was a great trip! I told Steve I wanted 50% of the finds from my coil I loaned him (hahah .... ). What was your total Gaine? Sounded like you got a couple of nice ones? Was most of the gold specimen as normal, or any solid chunks? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey All, Here is an update I received from Dudley today, one of the owners of the Moore Creek Mine. I'm hoping the Steve he mentioned is Steve F. from California. He was borrowing my Coiltek 16-inch Goldstalker coil! Thanks for the update Dudley. Rob Allison

Hey Dave, Damn, I thought you might be up there finding ounces of gold! That sucks you missed the flight ..... Maybe you can get on one of the later weeks. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Still being curious about this find I made, I decided to give Jim Straight a call and see what he recommended. After the call, he recommended a simple Specific Gravity Test. This is what I came up with - Air Weight - 63 Grams Weight in Water - 55.5 Grams Specific Gravity of - 7.5 Grams or 7.5 times heavier than water Looking at all specific gravity of metals, the closest is Tin, Steel or even Pewter (90% tin). I think we rule out Silver, unless it is some type of Silver Alloy. Pure Silver has a specific gravity of around 10-10.8. Jim and Grubstake both suggested it might be a Civil War or very old Belt Buckle. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I might give Bill at Minelab a call Monday and see what he says about it. I cleaned it up last night and check all the connections and fittings and they are all tight. Thanks for all the suggestions and help. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Shep and All, Thinking of it, I have never had a problem with any Li-Ion Batteries (Pocket Rocket or Minelab ones). A suggestion, and many might already do this, but I charge them the entire week before use. For example: I will start charging the Li-Ion batteries Sunday night and leave them on all the way up to Friday evening. I will take them off and place them in my backpack. I will hunt Saturday and Sunday and then place them back on the charger Sunday evening when I return home. I let them charge the entire week before using them. I know Li-Ion batteries don't like to sit on the shelves for a long time. Just a suggestions for Li-Ion users. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, I know the guys are up in Moore Creek now. I sure wish I was there this year, but had other things come up. Just curious if anyone has heard how they are doing and if any sizeable nuggets or specimens have been found? Wishing the entire Moore Creek group a ton of luck! Hope to read some stories and see some pictures soon. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guido, Nice mod you done there on the SD2200. Did you get the parts from Minelab or somewhere else such as Radio Shack? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Sawmill, That is the exact reason why I haven't sent it in yet. I have heard horror stories about people getting back their GPX-4500's and they run much worse. I have heard a few guys mention their units are much more stable now, but make me wonder if they are still getting the same performance (depth/sensitivity) for the quieter unit now .... Flak - Have you noticed any loss in performance after the fix? Thanks for your comments. Hoping to hear more input. Rob Allison

Hello All, The last couple of weekends I just can't seem to keep my Minelab GPX-4500 quiet anymore. It has seemed to get worse over the last year, but I've been hesitant to send it to Minelab USA, Inc. for a repair. It's to the point now where it don't matter what setting or timing I'm in, it's very bad! Has anyone had a Minelab GPX-4500 with a serial number fewer than 100 and sent it back in to Minelab USA? Did the unit come back quieter than before? Thanks in advance for your comments. Rob Allison

Hey Guys, H2OProspector - Hey, 2 1/2 ounces of fines is pretty darn good. Nuggets are a little harder to come by, but you just have to stick with it and you will find them. I believe you how have a SD2100 or SD2200 correct? Did you get the field instructions? NvChris - Sounds like you might need another Goldstalker coil. Tell your Girlfriend Uncle Ron - I have some in ground shots, just got tired of taking all of them. Funny, I had several PM's telling me they miss the "In-Situ" shots I'm noted for taking. I will get some more up soon. Dutchman - Dennis has a poke just about the same. Have you had any luck on your claim(s) lately? Talk with you all later, Rob Allison

Hey Charlie, It's always interesting to read what you post. Hope you post more stuff like this in the near future. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Shep, I haven't heard of many problems with the GPX-4500 batteries beyond what you posted. When you check your battery it will show 8+ volts for some time. You might have up to 8.4 volts on the battery and it might take several hours, if not longer, before it drops down to 7.9 or lower. I've been able to hunt two solid days on the GPX-4500 battery without it going dead. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hey Doug, Dawn and I want to Thank You for your business and comments. Hoping to do business with you again in the future. Wishing you the best out there and hope you keep the forum updated with your success and stories. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, Several have sent me PM's wondering what I have been up to and why I haven't posted much lately. Well, I've been very busy on my end with all the normal stuff (work, business, new baby, school, field instructions and bit of beeping). The last month or so have been very busy, but I check the forums pretty much each night. I've had field instructions the last couple of months pretty steady. There are a bunch of new GPX-4500 owners out there in Arizona pounding the hills. The Minelab X-Terra 705 has also been a great seller as of lately. I've been able to do a bit of nuggetshooting here and there over the last months or so, but haven't really posted much. Here are some finds that I've made using the Minelab GPX-4500 metal detector and new Coiltek Goldstalker Lightweight Searchcoils. I'm very impressed with the performance and stability of these new Goldstalker coils. Total weight is just over 2 ounces; biggest nugget pictured is 6 Dwt's. Below is a picture of the gold nuggets I found on my GPX-4500 Control Box. Wishing you all the best out there, Rob Allison

Hello All, Bob - I have no plans on giving up the Minelab dealership. Funny, every couple of years you will see some type of detector like this pop up. The only thing I look forward to is what will Minelab do on the next PI metal detector. To be perfectly honest, I don't want anymore depth. I would rather see better immunity to EMI in certain locations or better iron discrimination. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Leon, The Minelab Eureka Gold is $998.95 new. Yes, in my opinion it's much better on mineralization than other VLF's. You also have three ranges of freqs to choose from, just not one like all the other VLF's. The high sensitivity is great and yes you will not only find the very tiny ones, but the mid to larger sized ones also. The drawback is when you increase the sensitivity of any VLF, you're going to find much more iron mineralization, hot rocks and volcanics. When I used the GB2 I would "cuff" the coil off the ground a few inches to elliminate all the ground noise, but I would sacrafice some depth doing this also (just a trade-off). Not sure where you are hunting, but the Soutwestern US has moderate to high mineralization in most of the goldfields. I prefer the Minelab Eureka Gold over the Fisher Goldbug2 cause it's more immune to mineralization and have more freq. ranges. If you're looking for the best sensitivity, you can't go wrong with the GB2. They are both great metal detectors, just a matter of preference and where you might be hunting. Research the area where you're going to hunt and see how bad the ground might be and the sizes of the gold. There are many types and sizes of gold out there to be found. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello Darin, For many years I was a Fisher dealer and used all their units, especially the Fisher GoldBug2. I loved the unit, but it was just too sensitive for the areas I hunted. I would have to turn down the unit and I felt it was defeating the purchase of this unit. I found nuggets so small with the Goldbug2 (with both coils 10-inch and 6.5-inch) that you needed tweezers to extract them from the cracks! The Goldbug2 operates at the highest freq, which is 71kHz. The White's Goldmaster series runs in the 50kHz range. The higher the more sensitive to small gold. Have you considered the Minelab Eureka Gold, which has three freqs (6.4, 20 & 60khz) all on the same unit? Talk to you soon, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I used a streak plate that I have here at home and it streaks very well. The streak is a silverish color. On my X-Terra 30 it read in the range of "36 - 40" on the Non-Ferrous scale. My X-Terra 705 reads from "42 - 44." Anyone know what the range of Lead or Silver would be on these units? I can't find a small piece of lead around here to test and I found thousands of pieces over the years ... Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I took another picture after the piece was cleaned up. It's much darker looking now. A friend of mine said it was without a doubt, Silver. When you look at the piece under a high-powered loupe, you can see small fragments of quartz, silver looking metal and a few small spots with gold. I had my friend and Wife verify the small gold spots on the piece. Anyone know what a good coin/relic detector would read (number wise) on this piece if it was Silver? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I only seen one guy use a larger coil on a trolley in person. It was up in Nevada and they were trying to locate new patches. He said they didn't find any gold or patches at the time, but the GP3500 and Mothership coil was running very stable. He said the key was to make sure everything was secure and tightly wrapped to elliminate false signals. Didn't even notice if the coil was DD or Mono. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Grubstake, Welcome back to the forums. We sure missed you and your postings. I had a couple of old PC's here, but they were too outdated and required too much work to get them back to speed. Have you been out nuggetshooting since you've been away from the forums? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I did clean the piece up and it's exactly 2 troy ounces. On my digital scale it reads 2.04 ounces, but on a balance beam it's 2 ounces. There looks to be small drill like holes on both sides, but not really much of writing that I can see. My best guess is some type of metal (maybe silver) that was used as a counter-weight for a scale or something. However, I could be wrong .... Maybe some type of Spanish coin? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello All, This weekend I took Berry T., from Phoenix, out for his GPX-4500 field instructions. He met me in the goldfields Saturday morning and we started off talking about region geology and old-timer workings. He was excited when I pointed out several gold indicators that he has seen in the past around the Bradshaw Mountains. After about an hour of field instructions Berry took off in an old patch area digging some iron rubbish and finally his first AZ gold nugget. Berry was very impressed with the performance of the GPX-4500 and excited to hit some other goldfields here in Arizona. Below is a picture of Berry and his first AZ gold nugget (1+ dwt in size). Congrats Berry and Thanks once again for the business! P.S. Anyone interested in a Minelab GPX-4500 I have probably one of the best, if not the best bundle packages available. I will also personally take you out for field instructions and get you over a gold nugget (undisurbed). Just ask any of my customers about their finds. Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Well I just happened to weigh the piece ealier today and it weighed exactly 2 ounce troy! Now what do you think it might be? AZNuggetBob - My mind is a bit blank right now, what eactly is Babbitt and what does it contain? Talk with you later, Rob Allison