3 days 1200k's NOTHING

Discussion in 'Prospecting & Detecting' started by Austacker, Dec 6, 2012.

  1. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    That was our result. The story goes.

    My best mate and I were heading out for our second Prospecting sortie. We had chosen to work the area between Paynes Find and Sandstone. Using the road between these two dots as our means of travelling through the country.

    We had on board 2 x 5000 Minelabs and were using Mono coils. Also connected was Geo Map and a USB GPS receiver. This gave us exact locations and various other data.

    Day one - Left at the crack of dawn and hit the PF - SS road and had found a spot by about 1pm on Friday. It was a nice Quartz outcrop with a heap of washout area and a few creek beds feeding it. Good Salt and Pepper ground. Two hours later we are back at the car a little dissapointed. You always hope to find something quickly and get the trip off to a great start. We moved a few 100mt to the other side of the hill and worked the creeks for another few hours. It was getting late so we hit the road for a camping spot. Found a nice area that had been cleaned and setup camp.

    Day two - New approach, check some old diggings and abandoned mines, on the way we say a nice outcrop and headed off road to investigate. We setup temp camp and looked around had a cuppa and cake. Plus some left over curry egg sandwiches :) Whole other story that one. Anyway lots of rubbish and nothing to show. We moved on. Found a good section were Green and Blue tenements were. Also good ground and some old workings and graded areas. As they say best starting point is where gold has been found before. We found another creek and decided to work the creek and the surround in the afternoon and in the morning we will hit closer to the tenement edge and old mines. My mate had started cooking the dinner in the arvoe, it was going to be a stew and I can tell you after a few days of hard work a good stew with bread goes down amazing.

    Day Three - Nothing found yesterday and our hopes are getting a little frazzled, what are we doing wrong ! Still we were keeping ourselves positive. Packed camp and checked the areas we wanted to in the morning. We decided to head into Sandstone fuel up and work our way back home. We had a great chat with the locals and were glad we took the effort to go there. The chap we met had just brought a new 3030 Minelab and was pretty please with it. I didn't know how it would go with hot rocks but he was happy with it so far. May look into this a bit more.

    We had worked all tailing and scrapes we saw. We even saw a ridge we didn't see on the way up and headed in to investigate. Found a nice spot and setup for late lunch. On the way out we did a tyre. Lucky my mate was an old tyre fitter and jumped straight in and has us up and going in no time. It was getting late and we had only one spot to check so we hit this and sadly no luck. It was dark now and we still have 200k's of dirt road to drive. We hit Paynes for dinner a big burger hmmm. Fuel was looking good so we moved on. Hours into the drive I noticed our fuel to k's had moved and now I was looking like running out of petrol. Driving at night I hadn't noticed the strong head wind we had punched into. We were going to run out of fuel !!!

    We hit Bindoon at about 11.30 with the red light on and no servo opened. We only had my mates phone as I left mine at home on day one and spent 3 days without it. That was interesting, anyway he didn't have reception and I knew the wife would have started to get a little worried by now that we had not made any contact.

    two choices camp the night near the servo wait till open or push on to what shows as a truck stop, but not sure how many k's I had left it wouldn't have been many. Took a vote and went for it. A few minutes down the road my mate asked if I was watching how many k's we had done, I said nup doesn't matter anyway. Either we make it or we don't :( We rounded a bend and saw it you have no idea how relived I was. I think I spent the last 200k's tense because I knew we were going to have problems. 1.05am we rolled into home.

    3 days 1200k's and nothing.

    Except the best time we have ever had and experiences you just do not get anywhere else. Laughs and moments that you will look back on for years and always bring fond memories. In particular one about charging our detectors. An absolute classic that I assure you will go down with my mate and I only, as we were the biggest dills ever. The stars the fire the bush.

    Our next trip is planned for late Apr/Mar 13 for a week hopefully. We can get out and have another great time. This time maybe find a bit, but to the two of us that is just the icing on the already great cake :)
     
  2. Auspm

    Auspm New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2012
    Messages:
    636
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Location:
    Sydney
    It really doesn't take much to keep blokes happy. 'Roughing it' for whatever reason gets us back to our roots and sharing the experience just makes it all the more worthwhile.

    Whether you're fishing or prospecting, bush walking or just wanting to yarn in front of an open fire, there's an aspect to getting out doors that appeals to all of us I think and that's why these adventures (whether you strike yellow or not) resonate with us and provide fond memories.

    A great yarn there mate, thanks for sharing it.
     
  3. Jislizard

    Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2011
    Messages:
    7,518
    Likes Received:
    639
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Australia
    For sure!

    A fire is all you need to turn a terrible experience into a great long weekend!

    Just don't tell my wife, I am trying to convince her that a metal detector wll pay for itself on the first trip out!
     
  4. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    You may be one of those lucky buggers that just does that :)
     
  5. shinymetal

    shinymetal Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2012
    Messages:
    1,815
    Likes Received:
    685
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    victoria
    just stay out till it does :p nothing says you're first trip can't be a month or 2 :p
     
  6. Jislizard

    Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2011
    Messages:
    7,518
    Likes Received:
    639
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Australia
    Well actually my wife says my first trip can't be a month or two!

    Does sound nice though and we have talked about it on a few occassions, do they have coffee shops out in the bush?
     
  7. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    I dream of this... Could easily just sell up and move out there now. Except damn wife and kids get in the way lol
     
  8. DanDee

    DanDee Active Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2011
    Messages:
    1,342
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Location:
    NSW
    Austacker, you missed taking an essential item, that is, someone who knows where the gold is.
     
  9. Clawhammer

    Clawhammer Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    8,809
    Likes Received:
    72
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Location:
    Gone Fishin'
    OMG!!! I used to work at a gold mine 'near' Sandstone. We had a day off and the whole crew were excited to be able to nick off on the 3hr drive to Sandstone Pub.

    boy was I dissapointed :)
     
  10. Eureka Moments

    Eureka Moments Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2011
    Messages:
    7,079
    Likes Received:
    892
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    bosis
    Did you and your mate try and charge your batts with solar at the end of the day? :lol:
     
  11. Eureka Moments

    Eureka Moments Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2011
    Messages:
    7,079
    Likes Received:
    892
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    bosis
    Well done for the adventure part of things.

    Did you and your mate fiddle with the settings at all on the 5000s? Did you have a go at "fine gold" setting?
     
  12. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    I can see that being a BIG benefit :)

    Big place isn't it ?

    As I said it is between him me and the creator. It was a DOH moment I can assure you...

    Yes we did, this is one thing that is essential. Is knowing the detector and the sounds. Having only done this a few times we were always second guessing ourselves etc... We did take a tester with us but IMO it was a little big. I also purchased the DVD on the GPX5000 this was great to watch and we learned a lot from it. Though $70 it was a bit boring in parts and repeated heaps. The editor must have found some new tools on this video and went into overdrive with pop ins and flashes, useful none the less.

    We did hit hot rocks in normal mode and by going into enhance, fine gold we could get rid of the hot rocks. As to if it was right or not ? we didn't find anything but believe the settings to be good. One thing we will be taking is a larger coil, not for the deeper bits but just to cover more ground initially to detect the patch. Either an elliptical or a larger round. Mono's only unless we plan on doing salt lakes or after some heavy rains.
     
  13. Eureka Moments

    Eureka Moments Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2011
    Messages:
    7,079
    Likes Received:
    892
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    bosis
    Large coils good for large lumps. If the large lumps have already been taken then you miss finding the patchs.

    Try a smaller coil and look for little gold. That is the best way to find patchs these days.
     
  14. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    From what I have seen and reading, plus questions an elliptical coil seems the best option. It gives you same sensitivity as a smaller coil. Yet a wider ground coverage. This to me is a huge benefit. I agree about finding the small as well. If you can find one hopefully you should be able to find more. Can't wait already been searching for some new ground.

    Now I know what the ground looks like on the maps I can get a better idea of where to go as well. There is so much to learn. But if it was easy everyone wold be doing it wouldn't they ?
     
  15. Jislizard

    Jislizard Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2011
    Messages:
    7,518
    Likes Received:
    639
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Australia
    After a couple of days of nothing I would be pocketing the hot rocks!

    Got to come home with something!

    And you might be able to use them for calibration and practice!
     
  16. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    We did get things, plenty of bullet casing, some lead. A few rusty tin bits. Mate found a ball from one of the mills nearby etc... Just not what we were after.
     
  17. DanDee

    DanDee Active Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2011
    Messages:
    1,342
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    38
    Location:
    NSW
    If you're finding lead shot, then you haven't gone over gold and missed it. A lead shot and a tiny nugget will sound identical.
     
  18. Austacker

    Austacker Active Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2010
    Messages:
    2,830
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    36
    Location:
    The Wild West
    Thanks mate, that is what we thought as well. Good to get a bit of reassurance. Anything that gave a repeated signal and was not ground noise was dug. You can tell ground noise apart I think pretty easily. As the prospector in Sandstone said. Gold always has a tail in the way it sounds - hELloo
     
  19. Eureka Moments

    Eureka Moments Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2011
    Messages:
    7,079
    Likes Received:
    892
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    bosis
    Bit of a difference between shotgun pellets and leads from a .22 or upwards. The larger leads signals are much more pronounced than pellets, particularly old pellets that a lot of the lead has leached out of. These give a small and often whiffly signal that can at first sound like ground noise but a scratch and a recheck will confirm. If you are finding old pellets in good gold country you will almost certainly find small gold as well. Lots of digging to do, but mainly shallow.
     

Share This Page