nuggethunting

Hello All, This morning I was driving down the 303 and looked out and seen a beautiful meteorite falling from the sky. This was one of the best ones I have ever seen during daylight hours. It was a very bright white light that started breaking up into Green flashes when fragments broke off. Sure looks like it landed in some housing development in Surprise, Arizona. It lasted for about 4-5 seconds, which seems like a long time. Just goes to show, you could find one in your backyard!

Hey Jen, It's a great article overall on ground balancing and techniques associated with the Minelab GPZ 7000. That for posting it.

Hey Guys, My thoughts are guys have been dredging for over 100 years and mining that same ground for 150 years. Now all of a sudden someone decides it's not a good idea to dredge. We all know it's political crap, nothing to do with dredging harming wifelife, fish or anything along those lines. It's a sad situation as I know several guys that relied on that income. All of us have various jobs, whether that's working at the grocery store to being a Doctor. Many incomes came from gold dredging and economy around it. Many small Mom & Pop stores have struggled or closed down since dredging stopped. The stoppage of dredging didn't just hurt the dredgers themselves, but many others that relied on full-time and seasonal dredgers in their area. I love dredging ..... nothing like seeing that color on the bedrock!

Hey Dennis, Congrats on the new nugget additions to your collection with the new SDC 2300. The SDC is a great and will find gold behind most PI's. Thanks once again for your continued support and business over the years. Wishing you many more nuggets with the new detector!

Hey Jen, I sold my personal SDC for $2500 and included the cover and headphone adapter. It sold locally and went within a few hours of the listing on my site.

Hey Jen, Personally I never heard anything about that. I did hear in hear-say, that the 20-inch Minelab coil for the GPZ could be touching $1000+ range due to the technology of the coil and size. My guess is no aftermarket company will make coils for the GPZ anytime soon.

Hello All, Just a quick FYI, we now have the new covers in stock and ready to ship. Give us a call or email if you're interested in getting one right away. View here on our store - http://www.robsdetectors.com/sdc-2300-control-box-cover Thanks!

Hey Frank and all, Thanks for the comments. I think Doc and I both share the same business ethics and it comes down to "treating customer like you would like to be treated." We both believe in having a great customer relationship, keeping our customers for life and shipping their products the same, if not the next business day. I hate when I order something and find out it hasn't shipped within 3-4 days from the purchase date. Thanks for all your comments and supporting dealers that believe in taking care of you!

Hey AzNuggetBob, The Halo Effect is an interesting subject. Many years ago this topic was brought up on the forums, could have been here. I found an article written by a chemist that explained the breakdown of metal. It was pretty interested, talked about oxidation of Silver, Copper and other metal and how fast the break down. Even talked about how Gold is "Noble," but man made chemicals could dissolve it. Sounds like Wickenburg got hit hard with rain. I'm sure some of the gullies got flushed out.

Hello AzNuggetBob, I agree with you, but the point I was trying to get across is the percentage of the nugget "rusting" or "oxidizing" away. For example, you have a somewhat solid nugget that is gram in weight. The weight of impurities for the most part couldn't be more than 10% or less of the total weight of the nugget. Most nuggets in Arizona for example that are fairly solid are in the range of .850 - .940 fine. Most of the stuff I find is in the low 90's in gold purity. The remainder 10% is impurities and some of them might not oxide like silver. That being said, you have a gram sized nugget that over time only has 10% impurities of the total weight, but for the most part the surface of the nugget will only be effected. Realistically, the nugget would never oxide to the core of the nugget. The outer (rind of the nugget) 10-15% of a solid gold nugget would be effected by oxidation (weather from acids, water & oxygen). If this is all true, then only like 10-15% of the 10% impurities would oxidize away leaving very little if anything for a Halo Effect. Over time, a iron object can leach away leaving 0% of the original metal, but 100% rust absorbed into the soils surrounding the piece. I'm basing these finding on more solid pieces of gold, not pieces that contain a lot of iron. P.S. On another note, hope you're getting out to do a bit of beeping Bob.

Hey Guys, This is always a great discussion, but I have my thoughts also. Ok some agree that the impurities such as copper, silver and other base metals weather out into the soil if the gold nuggets sits in one place for a long time. Other mentioned gold nuggets with a lot of iron on them will also cause a "Halo." There is no questions that the "Halo Effect," which cause a single object to sound louder or be seen as a larger target happens with Iron. This normally includes cans, wire, nails, metal straps and other iron rubbish we pick up in the goldfields all the time. The reaction between water, oxygen and the metal causes rust. Over time the object will rust, and disperse into the soil around the original object, making it seen bigger in size and signal strength. At some point in time, the metal object can rust away completely leaving just rust or iron oxides from the original iron object. I have found many targets like this, most were cans and such, thinner types of iron metal that completely were gone. Once you start to dig them, it's nothing but a bunch of rusted soil. Once you disturb the soil enough, the target response will null or completely disappear. I'm a 100% believer on the "Halo Effect" of iron objects!! That being said, tossing out gold with iron included, I'm not a 100% believer. From experience with gold nuggets, using scanners to see the gold vs. other metals, the other metal percentages were so minimal I'm not a huge believe you could product a big Halo, or a Halo that is like Iron. Also, only the outside of the gold nugget would be penetrated, so whatever impurities that would be on the outside of the gold nugget would oxide away. I think this is such a minimal percentage I'm not a huge believer of gold giving off much of a Halo. Also, various signal responses on gold nuggets in my opinion are not "Halo Effects." Gold nuggets have so many sizes, shapes, densities and such, all this will effect the response you get on your detector. Just cause you get a strange signal response (non typical High-Low or Low High) in my opinion don't mean that's a Halo. It's a great discuss if anything. These are just my opinions from many years of digging trash & gold nuggets across the Southwest.

Hey Guys, The reason I'm asking for the most part, is the "language" is so confusing to me. I will read one article on one site about the dredging and it sounds promising, then another article and it sounds like they will never drop a dredge in the water. Not sure how it ever got to this point, but it's a sad situation. I honestly love to dredge and keep hearing about this "El Nino" each year that never arrives. They are now saying the weather patterns for 2015 are looking like the 1997 year, but have heard that several times, if not more in the last 10 years. Yes, I know there are some rogue dredgers, I would probably be one of them. I don't like how it went down, especially if my income relied on gold dredging. Fingers crossed that something will change in the future!

Hello All, We just added a bunch of new items to the "Used and Discontinued" section of our online store. This would include a Demo GPX 4800 and my personal SDC 2300 along with coils and other items. Some great deals on coils and detectors. I won't hold any items, it's first come first serve on them. You can purchase directly through the online store page or call us with any major credit card. The direct link to the page is here - http://www.robsdetectors.com/used-products Remember there are a couple of pages, so scan down and click the second page to see all items. Thanks!

Hello All, We just added a bunch of new items to the "Used and Discontinued" section of our online store. This would include a Demo GPX 4800 and my personal SDC 2300 along with coils and other items. Some great deals on coils and detectors. I won't hold any items, it's first come first serve on them. You can purchase directly through the online store page or call us with any major credit card. The direct link to the page is here - http://www.robsdetectors.com/used-products Remember there are a couple of pages, so scan down and click the second page to see all items. Thanks!

Hello All, Here is an interesting article on the Halo Effect. I'm not a huge fan of solid gold nuggets giving a halo, or at least a halo that does much, but for iron targets no question. The Halo Effect – by Kevin Hoagland Any object that is buried in the ground that will deteriorate or rust such as iron, or tarnish like silver can create a positive signal by a detector. Relic detectorists experience this more than most detectorists in finding iron signals that have oxidized into the soil causing a very small iron target to appear to have much more mass. As the metal begins to decay, it leaches into the surrounding soil and given proper soil conditions can produce a good target signal. Once this oxidation layer is broken, it may disappear causing the detectorist to believe that the target was a false signal. This is mentioned for the fact that gold in nature is not pure. The most common metals associated with gold will rust or tarnish. Once you begin to dig the target and break the oxidation ring, the target may disappear. If this happens do not abandon the dig until you are convinced that there is no target. In many cases you will be able to see a difference in the soil coloration. In the case of iron targets, the ground around the target may be a dark red or black due to the oxidizing action. Be especially careful of this in areas where gold is known to be found in iron ores.

Hello All, Found this article on the GPAA's website about some latest information on dredging in California. Here is the direct link, but this is the article below. Don't sound good for the dredgers! What an absolute shame .... http://www.goldprospectors.org/News/News-Details/ArtMID/636/ArticleID/106/California-judge-denies-injunctive-relief-to-dredgers

Hey Grubstake, Makes perfect sense, several customers blackened their's out before sending it over. Thanks for the update on the DD214's.

Hello All, For some reason some customers seemed to believe the Military Discount was expired. As of right now, Minelab Electronics don't have any plans to shut down this huge discount. Purchase any Minelab Metal Detector from Rob's Detector Sales and knock off 15% from the MAP price. This is a huge savings, especially on the higher end detectors such as the SDC 2300, GPX 5000 and new GPZ 7000. All that is needed is your active Military ID or a DD214 that you receive when you retire from service. This offer is only available for the United States. Included in this offer we include FREE Ground Shipping with Full Insurance, Bundle Packages with some detectors, Arizona Field Training on gold prospecting detectors and a lifetime of support beyond the sale. I can promise if you do business with us, we will always be here for you!! We would love to earn your Minelab business.

Hey Chris, I'm assuming you're running the new version software at 3.2, correct? Have you tried the "Gold mode" yet? A few guys have recommended me to try this program, I think program 10 on the unit for hunting trashing gold bearing areas. Curious on your thoughts and experience. Talk with you later,

Hello All, Just a FYI, since I still haven't updated my online store. We have been carry all XP products for the last 3-4 months. There has been a huge spark in interests in the XP Deus for it's ability to "cherry pick" good non-ferrous targets among areas riddled with iron rubbish. I've been working with the unit for a few weeks now and I'm impressed, more than any other unit so far. The XP is able to handle bad "goldfield" mineralization better than another other unit in it's category. Sales and inquiries have really picked recently along more "Marketing" of the unit and it being used with some of the shows on TV now. We have a full line of the XP products in stock. Call, email or catch me here if you have any questions. We would love to earn your XP business if you're current researching this product for your needs. I should have all the XP stuff on the store soon.

Hey Uncle Ron, Great looking map, I would say a must have for anyone looking to prospect or explore that area around Lynx. It's probably 10+ degrees cooler up there, so a great place to camp and find some color this time of year.

Hey Goldfind, Ya, I agree with you. A smaller coil would be nice in some areas here in Arizona as well. Minelab originally talked about the end of May or June, but we are now into July and I haven't heard much of anything about them.

Hello Local Digger, I also have used both the 14-inch versions of the CT and NF and also sell them. I had great success with both of them over the years with the GPX 5000 and prior models. The new hot coil right now is the "Coiltek 14-inch Round Mono Camo Elite" like Mxt Sniper mentioned. For a bit it was a struggle to keep them in stock, but I finally have some in stock. Users are finding smaller and larger gold at depth with this new coil, so it might be something to look at some point if weight isn't a huge factor. Since it's a solid, round coil, its a bit heavier than a coil of the same size that is open. I have heard NF is also releasing a new coil at some point, but haven't heard anymore updated on it yet. Hope this helps a bit,

Hello All, I have to say that Miner Diggins has came a long way. I can still remember meeting Barry & Leigh when the Footprint idea was first thought about and a friend of mine said you need to meet these people. No question, their hard work has developed some of the best mapping and claim research software available today. Thanks for all your hard work, continued updates and exciting new additions in the future. Your friend,

Hey Jen, Happy Birthday and hope you and your crew does well in Australia.