nuggethunting

Hello Guys, The book you're talking about is co-authored by several people including Chris Gholson. A good friend of mine, also part in the Rich Hill book, Dr. Erik Melchiorre is currently finished the book titled "The Octave Gold Mine," which was one of the richest vein deposits in the Rich Hill area. Dr. Melchiorre has a PhD in Geology and specializes in Stable Isotope Geochemistry. I carry both of these books if anyone is interested in getting a copy. There is also something else coming out soon that I helped on, but can't really say much right now. I've spent the last 15+ years tromping around Rich Hill, walking from one end to the other, from the bottom to the top of all the ridges. What I can tell you is there are multiple sources of the placer, but many of the old vein systems have erroded way or pinched off. The entire area was formed by uplifting and dropping, or what you can call "Basin and Range" faulting. At Rich Hill you can find a wide variety of gold nuggets and specimens. Most of the typical gold nuggets are coarse slugs of gold, while other pieces can be attached to ironstone, country rock or quartz. Some of the gold nuggets I have found out there are very crystalline and are sharp enough to cut your finger open. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Flak, Great to hear you and your family are away from the fires. I'm seen some of the clips on the news about the fires. Take care buddy, Rob Allison

Hey Goldstudmuffin, Wow ... Looks like you guys had a good weekend. I really wanted to make it out there, but had other things come up Saturday. I did end up getting out Sunday and found a good amount of gold. Did you guys find all those nuggets in old spots hunted already? P.S. We still need to get out there and check those spots we talked about. Rob Allison

Hey Mike, Elly had a lot going on right now and just buried her Mother recently. She has several club members trying to get the newsletter and badges out ASAP. I wouldn't worry about the badge right now, just get out there and hunt. We all know you're a member now! Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Mike, Thanks for the comments. I've played around with the new Pistol Probe and it don't seem too too bad here at home, but the real test will be out in the field. However, it's not a big deal to just shut down your Minelab when you're in the pinpointing mode. You really don't need the detector if you're close enough to use the pinpointer and extract the target. I have to agree, I'm real impressed with the depth you can get on smaller gold nuggets. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Digger, Nope, I have used this one much of all. It's one of the newer versions. Been playing around with it at home and outside, and don't seem to be effected by the Mienlab PI's. Most of my experience with Pinpointers has been with the Coiltek 1 & 3-inch Probes and the El Cheapo's that you get with most of the Kellyco Specials. The Coiltek 3-inch has been discontinued, but the 1-inch is still available and works well. However, I just hate the fact you have to unplug your searchcoil each time and don't care much for the switch mount set-up (kind of bulky). The 1-inch does work well and I used to carry one around for a long time. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Chris, This is my first shot at using the DetectorPro probes, which I think are great! I should have been using them a long time ago. The new "Pistol Pulse Pinpointer" is very slick and gets great depth, much more than any other probe I've ever seen and used. As for their headphones, I've always praised how great their headphones are. I've been using their headphones for 10+ years now and nothing in my opinion even comes close to them. P.S. Any recommendations you can give us on the Uniprobe? Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello All, Many have been asking these new PI Pocket Pinpointers, which are now back in stock. These are probably the best ones I've used and I have used all of them from the el cheapo to these ones. These new DetectorPro Pinpointers actually can detect targets at depth, you don't have to physically touch the target like some of the very cheap pinpointers out there on the market. Here are a few pictures of the new ones - Pistol Probe Pulse Pinpointer - $189.00 Pocket UniProbe - $299.00 If you have any questions on these pinpointers, or would like to order, please contact Dawn or Rob at (623) 362-1459. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Rattlesnake, That is truely sad to hear. I've heard nothing but good things about Woody and the people he surrounded himself with. He will be missed by many. My prayers go out to his family and friends. Rob Allison

Hey DigDeep, At least you're finding some pieces. Even thought there are still hundreds of thousands of gold nuggets to be found, they are still a challenge to find. Wishing you the best (also with your little one), Rob Allison

Hello Mark, There has always been debate with discrimination on Pulse Induction metal detectors, at least for gold nugget hunting. I have used them on the Minelab PI's with some success, but I would never put 100% faith in them. Several years ago we were up in Alaska and we thought we had the disc. figured out on the GP3500 and GPX-4000. Several days later one of the guys found a nice 3+ ounce specimen laying right on top of someone's dig hole. We think someone dug the target up and it "blanked out/disc." and the person just walked away. After the 3+ ouncer was found by another person, we all started to question the disc. and done some testing that evening back in camp. Low and behold, just about all the big specimens were "blanking out!" Keep in mind, most of the gold in this location was specimen gold, so that does make a difference. I think when you dealing with solid chunks of gold, you have a much less chance of disc. out a piece of gold. I would be careful using the disc. in places where the gold is in quartz, ironstone or other type of country rock. Some places you might not know the origin of the gold, so to be careful at first you might want to use a lower disc. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Great to hear more news about the White's TDI. I have used the unit in several spots from Alaska to down here in Arizona. The first thing people try to do is compare this unit with the big Minelab's, such as the GPX-4500. Hey, I do it also since I use the GPX-4500 99.99% of the time. I know for a fact it won't match the GPX-4500 side by side, but the TDI does have some advantages with the much lower price and lightweight design. I have considered purchasing the TDI for prospecting just like Digger Bob stated. Sometimes I hate wearing the battery in the backpack and fighting through all the brush down here. Recently at Rich Hill I done a small "shootout" with another customer that has a TDI. Out of 5 different senerio's I beat the TDI. Some of these senerio's included small gold at depth, bigger gold at depth & a few very hot rocks that only the GPX-4500 would balance out in "Enhance" timing. However, the TDI was impressive for a $1,500 PI unit. Keep in mind, some of the most important facts are being one of the first to discover a location and getting your coil over the gold! Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Tony, This place was loaded with iron rubbish. Most of the trash was pre 1900's from what I seen. In a place like this you just have to keep digging and hope one of your targets is going to be a gold nugget. As far as the Goldstalker series goes, I'm not sure why they built the 16 and 18-inch. I think these are two of the most popular sizes, or at least it seems like it. My favorite so far is the 18.5-inch elliptical and 16-inch round for bigger gold and the elliptical 14-inch for wash type hunting. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hey Tony, I would say some type of iron fragment since it will attach to a magnet. Like Bunk stated, you can never rule out a meteorite. There are so many unidentified pieces of metal out there. Let us know what you find out. Rob Allison

Hello All, Yesterday morning several friends and I decided to take a long trip to some old placers we haven't been back to in some time. The area is noted for some pretty big gold, but the amount of trash can be really discouraging at times. If you could take away the square nails and wire it wouldn't be that bad. We pretty much hunted the entire day digging of tons trash from old buttons, rusted tin cans to modern day lead bullets. During the time down there I played around with a few of the settings on the GPX-4500 once again. I found out for sure that the "Enhance" mode really sacrafices depth, which I pretty much knew from the beginning. Even though this timing is deadly in highly mineralized areas, you do loose depth in this mode. I was hunting pretty much the entire day in Normal timing with various audio, gain and target volumes trying to find out what works best at this locations. Well I ended up scoring a nice looking 2.3 Dwt gold nugget very deep in an old drywasher screen pile. The nugget was over a foot deep in the pile and was just a faint whisper. I almost walked past this one, luckily I was in Normal timing or I would have missed this gold nugget for sure! The combination of the GPX-4500 and the new Coiltek Goldstalker Round Mono Searchcoils is amazing. Here are a few pictures: Take care, Rob Allison

Hey DigDeep, Wish I had more free time to Nuggetshoot. There are still hundreds of thousands of gold nuggets waiting to be found. Have you been out much over there in S. Cali? Rob Allison

Hello All, Many people don't understand where nuggets really come from. There is no doubt for the most part they are formed within Hydrothermal solutions (most of the time quartz). Pictured below is a specimen I found several years ago, but was only 1/2 of the total piece. I actually found both pieces, but they were broken apart. Total weight of each piece was right at 4.5 ounces each, total weight just over 9 ounces. You can see a gold nugget just about ready to break away from the quartz. Once this piece breaks away it will offically be a gold nugget. Kind of gives you an idea of how pocket type gold-quartz veins form majority of the gold nuggets we are finding today. Just thought you would enjoy. Rob Allison

Hey DigDeep, The EMI can vary by type and detector. However, one observation I noticed from a handful of guys that own GPX-4500's is the ones that sent them back in seemed to have more problems with the Enhance, while the guys that didn't send theirs in, had more problems in Normal. This might not be the case, just something I noticed from many people I've talked with. Frankly, I would probably rather have Normal timing run quiet than Enhance to get more outright depth. I still haven't sent my GPX-4500 in. There are days when it runs super quiet, while other days it's much more noisier! Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, There is still some debate about the price on the Minelab GPX-4000, so I contact Minelab USA, Inc. to hear from the Horse's Mouth. They told me today there was a misprint for the dealers and dealers should have questions the price once they received the letters. The MAP or Suggest price on the Minelab GPX-4000 is still $3,998.97, but for a limited time (up until Nov. 15th) the price is at - $2,998.97. If you have any questions, Minelab suggested you contact them directly on this issue. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey DigDeep, I get the best results for mineralized ground and EMI with the new Enhance timing. However, it varies from place to place. Here in Arizona we probably have some of the worst EMI interference and it's not getting any better with all the growth out West. I seem to get the most EMI Interference from Cellular/Communication Tower than Power Lines or Aircraft anymore. In some of these locations where the EMI is bad I can't even hunt in Normal timing without lowering the Gain to under 10 & using Quiet Audio. P.S. Did you send you GPX in for that recall they had? Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello All, Several people have contacted me and mentioned there are ad in various gold prospecting magazines with different prices on the Minelab PI's. This is what I know about the prices as of today. The Minelab GPX-4000 has dropped down to $3,998.97 for a short time or until they run out of them. This is a smoking price on the GPX-4000. The GPX-4500 is still $4,998.97, but some people are selling them for as high as $5995.00, which is actually the retail price of the unit. Here is a price list for the Minelab gold detectors - GPX-4500 - $4,998.97 GPX-4000 - $3,998.97 SD2200v2 - $2,498.97 SD2100v2 - $1,995.97 Eureka Gold - $998.97 X-Terra 70 - $698.97 or $848.94 with the Pro-Pack (includes a 10-inch coil and carry bag) Right now I'm currently running a special on any GPX-4000 or GPX-4500. With a purchase of one of these units you will get a FREE Coiltek Lightweight Mono Goldstalker Searchcoil (your choice of size) up until the end of the year. You can view the GPX-4500 special on top of the forum for a list of all items. All other metal detectors (besides the GPX) series also have small bundle packages that will include an extended warranty (2-year), UPS shipping and full insurance, carry bag, field instuctions and more. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, I sell the DetectorPro Pinpointer and it's a great one. DetectorPro has always designed and built great products from detectors to headphones to pinpointers. I've also heard the same thing, that the DetectorPro pinpointer goes deeper than any other one on the market. The Coiltek 1-inch Pinpoint probe is also a great product. With this unit you have to attach it to you Minelab, so it does require more time, but I believe it goes the deepest since you're actually using your Minelab PI with a 1-inch coil. This unit is $100 and is small enough to carry in your backpack. There are times when a pinpointer saves a lot of valuable time and also to make sure you don't damage a very nice gold nugget. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Lon, I tried to dodge this post, since it's such a touchy subject as you seen. I think it comes down to "what is right, or doing the right thing." If I knew someone was working a big area and went home every weekend, but knew the person was actively working the area I wouldn't hunt it without his permission. If the area is obviously claimed, I would stay clear without permission. If the area is not claims and there is not activity, then I would assume that is open game! It's almost impossible to stop someone from hunting an area without being there 24-7. It's the claim owners responsibility to properly mark (make visible) the four corners and location monument. However, even with these five stakes, someone can still sneak onto the claim without seeing a marker. I also agree with Uncle Ron. If you take someone to a place they should respect that spot and not return without permission. I've set up several people in the past and told them to not return and they did with several other people. Funny, the spot wasn't even a real patch, just to challenge their honestly! Honesty is the best virtue. I've gained access to hundreds, if not thousands of acres of land by simply just asking for permission. Not sure if this answered your question or not. Rob Allison

Hey Reg, To be honest, I can care less about your politcal beliefs, as everyone has their own. However, I sure miss those times when we all would meet up for a few days and do some nuggetshooting. I had a great time out in Quartzsite when you and your Father showed up on my friends claims in the La Paz area. I've really learned a lot about PI's from you, even though I'm partial to the Minelab PI's. We all know not every metal detector will find ever single piece of gold. Heck, if you never hear it, you would never have known a piece of gold was even there. I remember when we used to always do all those test comparisons and then try to figure out why one detector would find it and not the other. Whether it had to do with timings, when it sampled ... ect. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, After the long "Grasshopper and Ant" political thread, I thought I would try to break up some of the attention and post some of the smaller gold nuggets I've found with the GPX-4500 recently. Displayed below are 28 small gold nuggets for a total of 6+ Dwt of gold in weight. If I remember correctly, none of them are over a Dwt, some as small as a few grains in size. All of these pieces were found with the GPX-4500 and new Coiltek Goldstalker Lightweight searchcoils. I was mainly using the new 14-inch and 18.5-inch ellipticals when I found these gold nuggets. Some were found in the Bradshaw's (East, West and South sides), Rich Hill and a few unknown placer areas. With the price of gold today, a couple hundred of these smaller gold nuggets can pay for a $5,000.00 metal detector within less than a years time. I've paid for all my new Minelab's within a years time and I know hundreds, if not thousands of others have done it also (some faster than others). Just thought you would like to see! Rob Allison