Average gold found

[northoceanbeach]

Hi, wanting to get into the hobby I was curious as to how much gold many of you find. Say you go out for a two week outing to your favourite location. On AVERAGE, how much in that two week period do you think you might find.

I understand that you may find none, or you may find a lot, but if you took all your time over your nugget career what would you say was your average?

[grubstake]

Me personally, if you take a 52 week time, I would say in two weeks, about an oz and a half. Some times none, but there has been days I found over an oz and a half in just a few hours. In the past 3 years, I have found pounds, at least two, maybe a bit more. But that was a good year. Grubstake PS I only detec one or sometimes two days a week, and not every week.

[mick]

Hi, wanting to get into the hobby I was curious as to how much gold many of you find. Say you go out for a two week outing to your favourite location. On AVERAGE, how much in that two week period do you think you might find.

I understand that you may find none, or you may find a lot, but if you took all your time over your nugget career what would you say was your average?

First, in my opinion, you don't get into this hobby with the idea of getting rich. In fact, you better go in with the idea that you won't break even. Most folks don't. However, if you are looking for a challenging hobby, then nuggetshooting is for you. If you are looking to get some great exercise, be outside and visit some remote locations, hike over incredible terrain, meet some terrific people, and challenge yourself both physically and mentally, then you've come to the right place. AND if you work real hard and have a bit of luck, you can join the ranks of a very small group of people world wide that have found gold with a metal detector.

mick

[joeforthegold]

Ditto what Mick said. He nailed it. The average size nugget you will find with a detector is around a (gram) or a (penny weight). If you are in a gold bearing area then you should be able to average 1-2 nuggets a day. This will average out to $20.00 to $40.00 a day. You can buy a lot of beans and bacon with that but you won't make a house payment, truck payment, medical and dental, clothes, taxes and all the other things that suck up my paycheck. Sure is fun though and I didn't have to buy a $38,000.00 bass boat. Just a $3,000 detector, $7,500.00 quad, $1,000 in misc. coils and accessories. Picks are priced about right but every thing else is expensive.

Good Luck,

-Joe

[29prospector]

Over the last 54 years I have seen people with that get rich look in their eye. In today's world, the big companies are the ones making the bucks. As for the rest of us, its a hobby. Its that chance to get out and enjoy the country that has been given to us. Gold, well its just gold, its the icing on the cake. To see the animals from the different areas, to see the stars clear as can be, to count planes, sit by a camp fire and share with friends and family thats what this hobby is all about. Metal Detecting, Dredging, Dry Placering or Hard Rock mining, its the friends you make and people you meet. To me it just doesn't get any better than that.

O'29er

[joeforthegold]

Yep,

29 nailed it too.

Take care all.

-Joe

[whats4supper]

it takes a gold mine to develop a gold mine. nothing fancy, but the goods have to be paid for up front, and the return is as dependable as a keno ticket. some blokes do real good; others not.

detecting is like making a music record:

some blokes are 1 hit wonders;

some are string alongs with several smaller hits but fame and fortune in the long run;

some make great strides, and do their research, but for some dang reason, never get anything to show for it.

If it was a steady income producer, more people would keep after it; knowing the odds and such. But the fact is, unless you really know your machine inside and out, know what the beeps and variable sounds the machine is producing is telling you, and are capable of fine tuning the rig in both metal soils and alkaline, you've already stacked the odds against your own hand.

On the other hand, if the reason you are out there in the landscape is to enjoy some solitude, clean air, local history, and experience just about what every other gold seeker before you experienced, with hands on in the ground and geological lay, that is where the mental gold is, and it doesn't require huge overhead. After that, look for the tweaks and strikes in the history books, and work some of the dumps for specimen ore that was missed or cached. try creeks and washes that join another that was worked, and you will be in virgin ground. Find slates and fractured rocks that underlie some of those areas, and snipe the cracks.

Once you figure out a decent spot with potential, using recently discovered gold as fact, keep your trap shut and enjoy your good fortune. If you bring someone in, make sure beforehand they'll be loyal to the real spot locator, instead of to their homeboys first. Once you get some gold, try alternate means and methods to get more out of the same spot. Bring your kids, nephews, cousins with you. get them out of the urban landscape into nature, and your efforts will become worth more than gold to them, and may give them an inspiration.

Like pulling handles on a slot machine, don't put any more into it than you can afford to lose. Once you get a return, use it to figure out how to build up your tool box.

[northoceanbeach]

oh! of coarse. Those are all things not to be taken for granted and I do appreciate being reminded. But those are the givens. I know the beauty in nature and the feelings I may get from bangin' around the desert. BUt what of you I ask doesn't dream at night that he won't find a nugget the size of his fist!

And whether you do or don't that's part of it. In the spirit of those that came before we all dream. I'm sure in 1849 there were men in Kansas asking their buddies how much they might expect to make if they came west. Just as I am asking you here today. We all want to know what possibilties, even though they are but possibilities, lay before us.

I may find alot some or I may find none, and I know I may find none, but I would not regret it if I didn't. But if I but did!

So I don't have a detector now and I'm not in the desert so I wonder and dream what may lie ahead.

[whats4supper]

by the name, perhaps you should even look into beach placers, especially after a storm.

as for fist sized chunks of gold, remember there are far more small pieces than big, and when there's a lot, it adds up.

Next, find someplace convenient to home, where travel is not an obstacle, and get to know the area like your girlfriend. there are codgers fer shur, but there are always those that will open up and lead the way, giving you tips, if you show you are not some flake or backbiter. You'd be surprised at how many people simply walked away from some really good paying areas, if for no other reason than loneliness, or having to direct their attention to other matters of life and living.

No machine gets everything, whether it's a sluice, drywasher, dredger, or detector. browse the pages where stuff has already been posted, and learn from those. then go out and make your own way. experience means success, if you follow the practical side of the plan. sure, dreaming is free, but only sweat will lead to a payoff.

Besides gold, perhaps you could look at relics too.

I would suggest that you buy at least two detectors, learn their quirks, and find things. on step leads to another.

I'm sure in 1849 there were men in Kansas asking their buddies how much they might expect to make if they came west.

Sometimes the goods are right at home. a recent dig in kansas of a pallasite meteor brought the finder between $2 and $3 million. even little chunks can bring in $50 or $60 thousand. far more than most little guys would ever get in gold, though no doubt, some of us, working the basics, have achieved, but it does take a lot of sweat and muscle pain, and stamina in weather conditions.

[grubstake]

It take learning your detector, being in a gold bearing area, research, and a whole lot of patience's. Be prepared todig trash, if you get gold thats a +. Most people go a year of more before finding there first nugget with a detector, think about getting instruction on what ever brand of detector you get. And make friend, have a good time, if you don't get gold, so what! Its a hobby. Fun is the main part of the game. Grubstake PS I just happen to live at the south end of the MOTHERLOAD in Calf. they missed quit a bit.

[mick]

BUt what of you I ask doesn't dream at night that he won't find a nugget the size of his fist!

And it's that dream that gets me out off the couch and into the field. The excitement and anticipation of finding gold with a metal detector is a great driving force. I'm sitting here at work now planning my next trip. Gold or no Gold it will be rewarding.

Northoceanbeach...what part of the country are you in? How about a quick introduction?

mick

[northoceanbeach]

Ok, sure. I live in Hawai'i. I spend one summer with tools, a backpack dredge and sluices and looked for gold and gems around the west and it was really fun. I like the desert. I like the solitude and nature. I like to look for ghost towns. I like to explore mines. I miss these things living here sometimes.

I think looking for gold is best because I need a reason to be out there. Even if I don't find anything. I don't like to hike. But I like to hike if I'm lokking for something. Say, I wouldn't go looking for a deserted beach. But if I was looking for a hidden surf spot I would then go looking for that deserted beach and whether there were waves or not it would be fun. I hope you see what I mean.

I bought a Lobo ST two years ago and I was going to practce on the beaches here and then that summer buy a minlab and go to the mainland. But the Lobo was junk, the beaches too mineralized and salt wet that it wouldn't find a coin more than 2-3 inches down. I took it into the forest to a old homesite but all the lava rocks made it go crazy constantly. THese are everywhere. I don't know about your hot rocks, but you can go anywhere that the ground inst' at least 1/4 lava. So I ended up selling that detector and I moved to Maui, never going to detect for gold.

But I still want to, i haven't forgotten and now, soon it is time. I can't lie and say I don't hope to make enough looking for gold that I can pay for my trips, but you know, we'll see.

[djui5]

detecting is like making a music record:

Well, maybe so, but I'll tell you, there is one HUGE difference. We all know that gold exists, and is out there, it's just a matter of finding it, right

Now the music industry is a different story. There is no "gold" in it anymore. It's going to hell in a hand basket as we speak. Everything is downhill from here, seriously. I'm trying to get out of it, somehow.

/rant

[northoceanbeach]

uh, yeah, so....now that that's out of the way, c/mon people! I want some averages!

[Reno Chris]

When I average a penneyweight per day, I fell like I am doing OK on a minimal level.

A few dwt per day is much better, and I am real pleased if I get a quarter ounce or better in a day - but that does not happen nearly as often as I'd like. I have averaged between 1 and 2 dwt per "full" 8 hour day of detecting over the last 2 years.

HOWEVER - New inexperienced prospectors with a metal detector may take months to find their first nugget - a year to find your first nugget is not unusual. A new guy might well expect to "average" zero gold per day for the first six months.

You cannot expect to walk in cold and do just as well as someone who has been prospecting for 30 years - thats just not reality. Finding gold is not about random searching and luck. This is a hobby / passion/ sport where knowledge, skills and experience count for a lot.

Thats why these other fellows have rightly advised you that if you're in it to make a buck, you will be sadly dissapointed. It takes a long time and some significant effort reading and researching and trying stuff in the field to climb up that steep learning curve ladder.

Here's my question to you:

How hard and for how long are you willing to work for nothing in return?

Chris

[Denny]

These Gentelmen Have given a good answer these are also people who have years of experiance.And have paid there dues.The search for gold is not a easy one.Many have dreams of granduer{sp} or dilutions.I have seen good day,s and bad.The hobbie is more to explore and test your research skills.Paitence is a key.The day,s of stumbeling over a gold chunk are over. I was raised with prospecting being a weekend thing even with all those years of feild training i found it difficult to make a consistent daily wage.If you have a good grubstake.Know how to repair your own machinery.And a little iuck it can be done .But we are talking 100,000.00 worth of equipment and propery that is patended.And likely you would be in Alaska the Yukon.Or Nevada. And even then the Paystreak can and will leave never to be found.As a freind of mine states it is diobolical to say the least .The gold is in the moment.The freinds are forever And the serenity of the outdoors is what heals our daily struggle.Good luck

[grubstake]

DENNY! I am a good GRUBSTAKE! Grubstake

[whats4supper]

fer some reason, new guys seem to score big right off the bat, and the steady eddies zilch.

Maybe it comes from trying any old place, as opposed to searching where the gold should be.

Just an observance

[dennislark]

fer some reason, new guys seem to score big right off the bat, and the steady eddies zilch.

Maybe it comes from trying any old place, as opposed to searching where the gold should be.

Just an observance

I too have read that some good find were by newbies and found it where it shouldnt have been. Maybe there is more gold out there where it shouldnt be than where it should be.

[BIGFOOT]

northoceanbeach,

I remember livin on the big island(of Hawaii) for several months as a teenager with gold fever and no place to go!Bummer!But I have found out some good info since then.THAT IS:Some volcanoes have produced AU around the rim!RESEARCH it now that your still there.I cant remember WHICH volcano province this was....but the gold was rich enough to be SEEN in the rock by a ametuer.What kind of lava was causing problems for your LOBO?I have one as well.

Bigfoot

gj.bmp