Pioneer 505 searched some bedrock on the river today

[salmonriverhotrock]

The weather was cloudy, cold, and windy with a few flakes trying to fall here in the canyon. I decided to try and get out to check some bedrock and it's pockets and cracks with my 505 and an 8" coil. This bedrock comes under many feet of water during the runoff season and after the water subsides, there are deposits of sands and gravels that are really not very deep.

I decided to run in the discriminate mode, 100% sensitivity, and at the lowest discrimination setting. The All Metal mode was mostly used for pin pointing but did play a little with it while ground balancing with the Ground Trac as this bed rock is very mineralized, some parts looking as if rusted. Managed though to find a gravel deposited Hot Rock but a simple switch from the All Metal back to the Discriminate mode took it out.

Only got about an hour or so in detecting but found a couple three pieces of old rusted wire and a nail, one fishing reel handle, one old and fairly oxidized pull tab on the surface, a Steelhead fish hook with a very thin metallic wrap around and securing the hair and feathers, two pieces of what we call Pencil Lead fishing line weight, both about 1/4" round by about 5/8" to 3/4" long at 5.0 and 5.6 Grams dug at bedrock. Three split shot lead sinkers at 3.2, 4.5, and 4.6 Grams also dug down at bedrock. Could not get away from finding 3 pieces of the dreaded melted aluminum that probably washed out of a camp fire pit during high water and being lighter were near the surface.

The most puzzling I can only assume to be a piece of iron ore and is magnetic. At one place, the bedrock itself sounded in the Iron/foil range in the discriminate mode. I went to the All Metal mode and pin pointed it to make sure of the location and it was still the bedrock, not the small sand and gravel deposit just to the side. Some of this rock is tightly fractured so I grabbed where I could and pulled it away and to the side, There was already evidence a much larger piece had been removed from the top of this as it lay to the side and looked recently done. The 505 did not sound on the piece I pulled away so I went back to the spot it had sounded and sure enough, it hit again. A small amount more of rock crumbled at that spot with my digging tool so began to clear this and visually saw an iron looking piece about 1 5/8" long by about 5/16" at it's widest point. I cleared the rest of the bed rock surface again and it looked very rusted and both that spot and the piece I described sound on the detector in the iron/foil range. If I turn the discriminate knob to about the 9 o:clock position, it pretty much takes out the piece. It almost has an appearance of partially rusted welding slag for no better way to describe it.

May have to go hit this again tomorrow but with my rock pick hammer and the 4" coil to get in those tight spots. No Gold yet but I'm convinced if it were there and big enough, I would have found it. Even though I did find 3 pieces of melted aluminum close to the surface, hunting that bed rock sure beat hunting those trashed out camp spots along the river.

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Was cold and windy again but clear and sunny. Ran to town to do some things this morning and then returned to where I detected yesterday. I replaced the 8" coil with the 4" and at the same settings, started a short distance up stream from where I ended yesterday. This little rascal hit like crazy on old rusted Steelhead fishing hooks down in cracks and crevices covered by sand and gravel. It also hit on one brass fishing triple swivel and one snap swivel with a remnant of wire leader still attached to it. have no idea what the wire is made from but though the swivel is tarnished, the wire looks as good as the day it was new. Also found one old corroded .22 LR shell casing and one .22 caliber bullet that is 34 Grain or about 2.2 Grams and both were in a crevice. The bullet looks to be pretty old and possibly shot from a smooth bore as there are no rifling marks and is not deformed. Did find 3 lead fishing sinkers, one about 7/8" long by 3/16" at the center and narrows at the ends with tabs bent around. Have not seen one of these in years and two pieces of pencil fishing lead about 4" and 4 1/2" long by 1/4" and then one of what we call a "Slinky" about 6" long w/wire clip that has lead shot in parachute cord that is melted closed at both ends.

About 40 feet up stream from where I found what I think is iron ore yesterday, I found 2 more pieces about 6 feet from each other. When I got back to yesterdays spot, I got one more piece but smaller and then no more sounds to be found there. The 8" coil yesterday was telling me there was something still there but I was frozen and ready for coffee so did not finish it out. These three pieces are shorter, from 9/16' up to 3/4" long by 1'8" up to about a 1/4" at widest points. Maybe these are from man made items but in all my years of detecting, I have never seen rusty man made iron look as these in a magnifying glass. Interesting also are what look to be very fine cracks in them. Just a theory but maybe a lightning strike on mineralization created these and fused very small sand and rock particles in with them. Did find a piece of an old glazed bowl or dish so checked it to see if it was radioactive. Dug out my Geiger Counter and found it was not coated with uranium oxide. There is evidence someone else has detected here. Found torn away bedrock and a few pieces of larger iron items and one piece of old copper radiator cooling fin that had been placed on a boulder. The grain or cleavage of this bedrock is laying at an angle, not straight up and parts of it can be torn away at the fractures. Many of the old rusted fish hooks I found I had detected and pin pointed through rock where they had found their way into the fractures behind them. A narrow tool helped in getting to most of them.

This patch of exposed bedrock with sands and gravel is down river a ways from town. I'm told in the old old days, people just tossed their trash or junk down the bank of the river and then in later years, the so called city dump was about a 1/4 mile down from this spot I worked. Much of what was dumped back then would wash away come high water. That kind of dumping eventually stopped and is now at collection sites. I have been told though by one of the local women, her once young son while steelhead fishing near town, happened to look down and found an old Silver Dollar in the sand and gravel by his feet. I've also been told by one of the local guys who metal detects, on rare occasion's, an old coin now and then is found at the old dump that would wash away each year. It is amazing how much of the metallic stuff these cracked and creviced bedrock formations can capture, like a natural sluice box. Water can be a very powerful mover of things. Finding the things I did at still under the high water mark, I can only imagine what must be below in the water. No Coins or Gold this weekend but there is always another day.

 

[Ed Steinhoff]

Thanks for the run down. I want to try some detecting for gold as soon as the snow cover is gone. I have more than two hundred old gold mines just a few miles west of me. I intend to use a 505 with the 4 inch coil. Also there are three old mining towns up there that have some visible foundations and falling down buildings, maybe some silver coins lurking around them. Ed in co.