Gold from down under:ausflag:

[B.T]

G,day guys. Heres some yellow to wet the appetite.
The big bit is from a mate in QLD and was found not far from Rockhampton. Weighs in at 10oz and was found with an SD 2200 and 14" coil.
The handfull I found with the Terra 70 and the 10x5 coil. I'm still waiting to get back there with my new 10" round 18.75, 2 weeks to go.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I wouldn't mind finding THAT under my coil BT.
Sometimes you jest get lucky! The best description of lucky to mean; preparation with opportunity .
Thanks for making the rest of us envious.
Mick Evans.

 

[RonNH]

n/t

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi B.T

Nice finds! You are doing great with the X-Terra.

I just got my new GPX-4000 and have not used it yet, but I still also own an SD2200v2 which I use as a backup and loaner machine.

Last fall I was out at my mine for the last time and just having a little fun with the SD2200v2 and a Minelab 18" DD coil. Was working up a trail and got a faint signal. Dug a pretty deep hole and out popped my last find of the year...

Nice round one about the size of a golf ball and 2.95 oz. Not a bad way to end the year. Minelab has newer units but for those wanting some bang for the buck I think the SD2200v2 offers a lot of value. They can still be had new with a full warranty or used SD2200D units can be had for a relative pittance these days.

I'm flying up Saturday to open the mine up for the summer and so hopefully will have some more gold in my poke soon.

Good luck to you this season!

Steve Herschbach
Steve's Mining Journal

 

[B.T]

Beautiful specie Steve, good stuff, perfect cherry on top of the golden cake for the year. Mate you should like the 4000. Its a good machine but takes a bit longer to get the hang of. There has been a concerted effort over here from some so called "experts" to ridicule its ability. They even posted pictures of them using it on their you beaut test patch, which I reckon is a useless test patch, where it was beaten by other machines by inches blah blah blah. Trouble is though that eveyone that I know with even half a brain likes it. Meaning theyve got?
Some really good gold has been found with it.
But yeah, the 2200 is a long standing performer and I still know plenty of guys still finding great gold with them. I was tossing up whether to get a 2200 a while back but Im still having such a blast with the Terra that I might as well keep it going till it ends. I read a story and saw some pictures of some great gold from your part of the world by a guy who was working a claim which was frozen for half the year and he drilled and blasted out chunks of the permafrost then detected it with a Goldbug. Washed it too. I think his mate was Alaska Tom Barton?
Youve got some beautiful country over there.
Good luck, though I reckon you might have plenty of that anyway, over there.

 

[B.T]

Mick I almost missed that gold. I had found some good stuff in the area and the only bit of ground I hadnt done was being gaurded by a dead rotting Roo, you couldnt get within 150 meters of the spot without dry reaching. But the ground was different to where I had been getting the gold so I left it and didnt care or think about it for weeks. One day I was going home past the spot and had found zilch for a few days so stopped to have a look. The smell was gone so I had a go. Lucky no-one else had come along and beat me to it. Follow your nose I say.

 

[tvanwho]

How deep was that nugget Steve? It sure is nice lookin. Was it hot ground? I found a hot limestone bedrock area here in Illinois and supposedly gold was found near here around 1899.I spoke with an 85 year old man who told me nuggets had been found in a farm drainage ditch. I dunno why limestone and gravel around certain spots in that area would be too hot for my LST? I had to switch it into Black Sand mode to stabilize it while using the 10 x 12 DD coil. I wonder if I should look into an SD2200? How much are they going for? Will they ignore the hot ground and the Hot rocks? Illinois isn't much known for hot rocks, more black dirt and sand. This area is rather odd with all this HOT ground? For now, I will stick with MXT and LST as thats all I can afford.
Thanks-Tom