nuggethunting

Hey Riverman, Humm .... Normally that has worked, but maybe something is really wrong with yours. If you're finding gold and don't have to sent it back in now, you can do it later. Let me know when you send it in so I can let Minelab know about it. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello Reg, That's unfortunate that happened. The Roadrunner's at one time was probably the best prospecting club around here in Arizona. I know a couple of years ago I didn't pay that "FEE" and was told I wouldn't receive the newsletter, my ad would be pulled & I couldn't attend the outings. I agree with you, I could have purchased a lifetime membership for $400-$500, but thought I would help the club by purchasing a full membership. I believe I paid $120 up front and $10/month. I think I still owe like $100 and then I will be a life member. I've watched over the last couple of years and they have had a handful of board members turn over. Real surprised someone from the Board would send much emails to you. That don't make the club look good at all. Hope you can get it resolved if you're willing. P.S. I agree, the club should set up a Paypal account or some type of Credit Card link for renewals, fees and new members. Rob Allison

Hello All, Today Leaverite and I headed out for a short hunt. Since I had to be back for tonight Hockey Game, we both decided to hit an old productive wash and its side creeks. Within 15 minutes of Leaverite dropping down into the main wash he hit a nice 10-12 grain gold nugget. Later in the day I went up a side creek that was pretty rich at one time. However, it has been worked and re-worked over the last couple of years. The wash is loaded with extremly hot ironstones and fierce basalts! As I was working down the small wash I hit an overly hot, large ironstone. The signal just didn't sound right, so I moved the larger ironstone out of the way. Low and behold there was a nice target underneath. After scrapping a few more inches of material and reaching bedrock I seen the glint of gold. Pretty nice 1.5 Dwt nugget underneath the large ironstone. Just goes to show those basalts and ironstones can mask nuggets. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, Here is my collection of gold nuggets and specimens from the 2007 season. Some might have been found at the end of 2006, but 99% of them in 2007 with the GPX-4000. Biggest nugget is just over an ounce, smallest under a grain in size. Probably my worst year for larger nuggets, but a good year for numbers. There are 469 gold nuggets in the picture. Hoping to see some other collections. Take care, Rob Allison Hello Bob, Very nice collection of gold nuggets! How many do you have in the picture? It amazing how many gold nuggets that have been found, and even more amazing that there are hundreds of thousands of them left. Thanks for sharing, Rob Allison

Hello Glenn, Thanks for sharing your finds. However, did you focus your camera .... LOL I think you're close to the Studmuffin patch. I must say, at my young age I can't even keep up with you. You've probably hiked more ground that I will in lifetime. However, all the hiking has paid off for you. Just goes to show how much potential is still out there waiting. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello Grubstake, Yesterday Leaverite and I got out and it felt like 20 degrees! The high was 52 degrees, but with the wind I bet it was like 35-40 degrees. When we were riding the quad it was even colder. I got the skunk and Leaverite got a nice specie. Today I picked up four gold nuggets and the weather was great. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello Riverman, I didn't dawn on me until I talked with my partner tonight about the settings not saving on the GPX. What I forgot to mention is you need to power down your GPX with the On/Off button on the machine to save the settings. If you turn off the Coiltek Li-Ion System first you will not save your settings. I'm not sure why this happens, but found out a long time ago this happens on the GPX. So basically to save settings you need to turn OFF the GPX first, then the Li-Ion System. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello All, This morning I loaded up the quad and headed for the Bradshaw's by myself. I had one wash in mind, a place I've done well before. When I arrived I was a bit discouraged since the last rains didn't move much around. Since I was already there, I decided to give it a whirl. After about 4 hours of hard hunting, I managed to find 4 gold nuggets and a handful of trash. The biggest nugget is 1.5 Dwt's, smallest is probably a couple of grains. I'm using the lightest & most quiet coil I've ever used, but can't say much more than it's Orange for now. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Matt, You're very welcome. Jim Straight is one of my mentors when it comes to geology and electronic prospecting. His books were so helpful back when I first started. Just think, there wasn't any Internet for gold forums to ask for help, just a few magazines and some books. Jim's books are the best in my opinion. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Sandtrap, Headphones always come down to preference and style. I've been using the DetectorPro headphones for the last 10 years with great success. Gary Storm @ DetectorPro has always taken care of me and been a great distributor. I started out using the original Gray Ghost and then worked up to the Gray Ghost Ultimates. Once the Black Widow's hit the market I went to them. I love my Black Widow's! Many also like the stock Koss UR-30's that come with most Minelab metal detectors. Yep, DetectorPro makes the Jimmy Sierra headphones also. Some also like the NuggetBusters that are also made by DetectorPro. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello All, Leaverite and I done some exploring at a couple of new spots. This area is noted for pretty mineralized gound conditions and a lot of black sands in the washes. I figured this area would be a good test for the new "Coiltek Pro Elite" searchcoil. We spent several hours driving around looking for potential areas to prospect. We found a couple of spots that looked promising, so we decided to give them a whirl. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the smoothness of the new coil on the GPX-4000. I wasn't getting any outside interference nor much ground noise. Since the area was pretty remote, I didn't get to dig many targets. The couple of targets I dug (no gold) were fairly shallow. Leaverite was able to hit a nice quartz/gold specimen in a small drainage towards the end of the day. More testing is being conducted on the new coils. Rob Allison

N/T

Hello Huntfish, There has been several nice nuggets found in virgin ground, outside the tailing piles. One of the first ones was "Seeker's" 3+ ounce beauty! I know the year I was there several guys found 1-3 Dwt solid gold nuggets in a virgin bank where most of the highbanking was being done. There's miles of virgin ground, but most of the nuggets might be too deep and out of range for even the Minelab PI's. I'm sure Steve H. can give you better info though. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Riverman, I wanted to make sure I'm telling you the right stuff. I have my GPX-4000 right in front of me. Ok, when you "hold" the On/Off button, don't let it go when you see the "GPX-4000" displayed on the screen. Continue to hold the button down until you hear a multi-tone and see the "Reset Defaults" menu. From here you have three choices: Exit, General Mode or All Settings. If you just want to "Exit" and keep all your settings, then turn the "right dial" on Exit. If you want to reset all the settings back to Factory Presets [FP], then turn the "right dial" on All Settings. I mentioned to turn on the machine it's like 1 second, but I think it much quicker than that. Just don't hold it down, just a quick press and release. To enter the "Reset Default" menu you have to hold down the On/Off button approx. 4-5 seconds. Also, on the front panel of your GPX, you will see a 3-position switch that says: Patch, G or Deep. Here you can program in three of your favorite settings and change them. Minelab has them pre-labeled for you, but you might have three favorites like: Low Mineralization, Mild Mineralization and Extreme Mineralization. Or maybe something like: Shallow or Exposed Bedrock, Mild Depth & Very Deep Ground. Bascially you can make those settings and save them how you like. You don't have to use Minelab's labeling. Hope this helps a bit. If not, give me a call. Merry Christmas to all, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Nuggetfinder - If you haven't been to Moore Creek, you're missing out. I've been there twice, should have been three times, but had to stick around home that year. The Alaskan Outback is awesome! I'm heading back this year with a good group of hunters. I'm sure some very nice gold will be found. I have yet to find a "one-ouncer" up there, but hoping it will be this year. I have to agree with Steve on depths. I see a lot of exhagerated claims on the forums. A matter of fact, I seen on another forum where a member claims he found a 1 Dwt nugget at 16-inches. I've dug 4-5 Dwter's at that depth, but never in the last 15 years a Dwter at that depth. Many tend to dig pass the target, sometimes double the depth and then the nugget falls down into the bottom. I've heard the Infinium's are awesome on the beaches also. I would think it would be a great choice for anyone wanting to recover treasures from under the water. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Nope, those aren't Matt's nuggets. The person that found those nuggets is a member of this forum. However, I told him I wouldn't mention any names or location. I'm sure many know who the finder is though. Maybe he will add some information .... Rob Allison

Hello Riverman, My first thought is you might be holding the On/Off button too long like Montana mentioned. To power up the GPX, you only need to hold the On/Off button down for like a second, don't hold it down. The GPX-4000 will save all your settings when you power down the metal detector. When you power the GPX back up, you can hold the button to enter the "Reset to Default" menu. Here you have the choice of resetting some or all setting back to Factory Preset [FP] or exiting the menu. Give it one more try and see what happens. Merry Christmas, Rob Allison

Hey Dredger, Sent you a PM through the forums. When you get a chance reply back. I will get a new GPX-4000 handle off to you ASAP. P.S. I like the look of the new "Nugget Button!" Have a Merry Christmas, Rob Allison

Hello All, Here are some gold nuggets found by a good friend in N. California. I won't mention his name or where he is finding them, but he one great nugget hunter! All the gold nuggets pictured were found with a Minelab metal detector. Congrats! Rob Allison

Hello All, Just curious how everyone done nugget nugget this year? I know some don't like to talk about their finds and that is fine. However, for the ones that would like to share we all would like to hear about it. Please include total nuggets found, total weight and what detectors you used. I will get a picture of my 2007 finds within the next day or so. I know I did well number wise, but not the best for weights. Biggest was just over 1 ounce, smallest under 1 grain in size. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Nuggetdigger, Depending how deep you wanted to submerge your metal detector, you might have considered a Coiltek Waterproof Searchcoil for underwater sniping. Many are using their SD's, GP's and now GPX-4000 with waterproof searchcoils to snipe shallower bedrock areas for gold nuggets. Hope you have a Merry Christmas. Rob Allison

Hello Dredger, Don't sweat it too much, we will get it taken care of. The button is Green, but I'm sure it popped off and you didn't find it. Who did you get your GPX-4000 from? For anyone that had it pop off, I recommend a tab of Super Glue and it will never fall off again. If you glue a nugget in place of the button you will never get skunked again! Have a Merry Christmas, Rob Allison

Hello Russ, What nugget? Got a report back from Glenn this evening. He found three more nuggets, nothing big though. He did get some valuable information from a Rancher though. Hope to see some big nugget pictures here soon from your new patch. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Dredger, Yep, I lost a couple of buttons over the years. First one was on my GP3500 and then one on my GPX-4000. I found one of them and "Super Glued" it back on and it hasn't fell off since. I would think it would be covered under the "one year" parts warranty. To outright purchase the push button handle it's $60.00. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello All, Dawn and I (Rob's Detector Sales) want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This has been by best year so far for the business and it's all because of great customers and friends. Over the years I've met hundreds of new friends and customers. Thanks for always supporting Rob's Detector Sales, Minelab & Coiltek! P.S. If you every have questions or need something, don't hesitate to call anytime. Warm regards, Rob Allison