Head'in Out

[jyoung65]

Thanks to this forum, I feel real good about my trip this weekend. Many knowledgeable folks here!

Hopefully I will report good findings! Last questions: I'll be swinging a SD2100v2, and I think I

will be ok for large deeper targets, but will I miss smaller shallow ones? Also I saw a post where it may not pick up a nugget in a tailings pile? any truth on that? Thanks again.

[COLORADO BOB]

jyoung,

Hope that you have a great trip this weekend.

I can't answer your question as I have only used a 2100 for a very short perion of time, but they are a good machine.

I can say that I have found a lot of very small gold with my 3500 with a mid range size coil [14"]. If I work a patch and it starts showing a lot of small gold then I will rework it with my GBII to pick up the crumbs which don't interest me a whole lot.

Now don't get me wrong, I will take all the crumbs that my poke will hold, its just that it takes a lot more deep-knee bends to fill the bottle.

Take a lot of pictures.

Bob T.

[Ted Scott]

The SD2100 can find small gold at shallow depths.

By tailings pile I assume you actually mean ore dump, as in hard rock tailings.

It depends on the kind of gold. A lot of the species on mine dumps are very fine and a PI is not the right tool for the job. Also, the ore dumps are often loaded with iron trash. Again, wrong tool for the job for lack of discrimination.

Good luck!

[jyoung65]

Thanks Ted and Bob...more great info. I do plan on alot of pictures and hopefully finding some

crumbs and with some luck, NUGGETS!!!!! Anyway it goes, it will be worth it to see my wife digging

around in the dirt .

J. Shawn

[nuggethunting]

Hello Jyoung,

Well you're probably out in the field finding targets by now. Wishing you the best of luck and hope to hear about your quest when you return.

The SD2100 is still one of the hottest selling Minelab PI's. I've spend many years behind the SD's and found many pounds of gold with them. The SD2100 was my favorite and I liked the manual balance and ability to separate the channels.

With smaller mono searchoils I found gold nuggets down to 3-4 grains in size. For added stability, audio and performance you might consider one of the Coiltek Li-Ion Regulated Battery systems in the future.

The SD's are more immune to mineralization and get great depth on moderate to larger targets.

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[jyoung65]

I'm back and all I can say is WOW! What an experience. I ran into a couple of old timers that have been in the desert for over 40 years and they gave me some good info....one of which was there are 28 different things in the desert as valuable (or more) than gold, lightning strike glass, etc. Another guy (Walt), found four nuggets, one was almost the size of a quarter (using sd2100v2) and then he scoffed that "there ain't no more gold in these basins" with a grizzly laugh (apparently these areas have been worked to death)...what a moment! Wish it were me, but was glad for him, and of course got me more focused. The wife hated it so my desert fox did not get any use (got so she could sit in one spot working concentrates), while I wandered with the detector. I liked the sd2100v2 and did find some junk, but no gold--I just need more practice! Good luck to all, and remember " there ain't no more gold", hehe.

Shawn

[2dach]

Hold on there buckaroo!!

"they gave me some good info....one of which was there are 28 different things in the desert as valuable (or more) than gold, lightning strike glass, etc."

You can't just leave us hangin' here like you have a crimped old, unusually heavy gun shell (possibly containing gold dust) that you are not going to open for several days!

Tell us a few (or all) of the 28 different things that you can remember.

I wouldn't care HOW much whining the wife was doing, if you meet some old coot who'd spent 40 years in the desert (and you're lookin' for spots and he isn't too threatening) I'd stop the world, offer him a cold one, sit down, and listen.

[jyoung65]

Right, I missed a great opportunity to pick his mind! He only specified 2 of the 28--meteorites and lighting strike glass. I was not quick enough to ask for the others, until after he was gone, then it dawned on me....OUCH! He did say, when you see the glass you will know it, but to be careful not to break it...said to dig around it about 2 feet like you are trying to dig up a tree and not wanting to harm the roots. Like I mentioned to Rob AFTER I bought my detector and he had a great deal on a GP....a day late and a dollar short seems to be my mo, ha--I just wasn't thinking...again!

[2dach]

The trick to those times when you feel that you were just a little behind in remembering to do or say something is...each time you find it happening look at the timing compared to the last similar situation. You'll probably find that the period that it takes you to realize that you screwed up is lessening. Eventually you will discover that you have remembered in time to correct a mistake that hasn't happened yet...and you are living life along with everyone else.

Some time ago I saw a TV show ('think it might have been a series about the forces of Nature on the Learning Channel) about lightning glass and how the heat created by the lightning bolt striking the earth liquifies the silica into molten glass. It cools below ground in shapeless forms often many feet long with branches like a tree root.

More valuable than gold? When have you ever seen one? 'Far more valuable than most meteorites.

Glad to hear that you had a successful trip!

(Did the "old miner" slowly leave with an aged, wornout-looking, nearly over-burdoned burro in tow? Did they both sortof fade into the brush and sand?)

[fredm]

They are called fulgerites, I have one...which was a gift but not worth more than gold...I suppose a large and intact speciman would be a great find...not likely to be found in gold-country however...

Fred