steve herschbach
New member
I run a "pay-to-mine" operation at my gold mine at Moore Creek, Alaska. The location has mixed hot rocks that severely impede the performance of regular metal detectors. I was very excited when White's announced a new ground balancing pulse induction detector, the Pulsescan TDI, because I figured it would do well at our mine. As part of the operation we want to provide detectors for our visitors that do not have their own.
These people by nature have little or no detecting experience. I was happy to find some stock settings for the TDI that worked well at Moore Creek. I could basically set the detector for somebody and as long as they did not touch the controls it worked well. Just turn the detector on and go.
Still, experience counts for much and novices have a tough time finding gold nuggets, just due to lack of basic detecting skills. We have found in the past that regardless of the detector used we are happy if novices can just find any gold at all metal detecting during their visit. So I was very pleased that half a dozen new detectorists found their very first nuggets metal detecting with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The unit is not only very capable but also quite easy to operate and so really the only task left to the novices was to get over a nugget.
Mike B & Karl E of Anchorage with TDI Finds
Close-up of Mike and Karl's Gold
Moore Creek visitor Pete W from Paducah, Kentucky. Pete hunted hard with the Pulsescan TDI but was having little luck. I was out with him at one point and was sitting nearby when he got a signal. He started to dig with his scoop but the target was deep, and so I cam over with my pick to help. I scooped a pretty deep hole, but when he checked the target was still in the ground. So I dug some more and out popped a really good looking nugget! A very nice piece weighing .27 ounce that put a huge smile on Pete's face.
Close-up of Pete's Nugget
Moore Creek visitor Jens S from Hupstedt, Germany with nuggets he found with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The larger nugget is .62 ounce and the smaller .37 ounce. Jens found the smaller nugget first within ten minutes of turning the TDI on for the first time.
I was doing some bulldozing at our gold mine at Moore Creek, Alaska to stir up some nuggets for our visitors. I got to one little knob of gravel and after I flattened it out I thought "that looks like a good spot". I had not done any detecting in a couple weeks and figured it was about time. So when I got the dozer back to camp I got the White's Pulsescan TDI out and headed to the location. A guy had just come into camp as I was leaving and so I told him to head up the same way.
I got to the spot and started detecting. First down one row and up the other. After about ten minutes I got a nice signal, and dug up a great .31 ounce specimen. It is a little section of a quartz vein with a nearly solid gold core of gold running through the middle.
I turned off the detector and headed back to camp. The other guy was now just arriving and asked me what was wrong. I told him nothing was wrong, but that I'd got my nugget and so was done. You should have seen the look on his face! Poor guy had been looking for gold for days and I walk right out and find a nugget in ten minutes.
We had an 82 year old gentleman in camp that week who was not having much luck detecting so I gave the specimen to him to take home to Florida.
So what were the settings, etc.? I did not get fancy. Pulse Delay 10, Gain 12. The GB was tight as we have both a positive and negative hot rock at Moore Creek. A bit one way and the positive rocks signaled and a bit the other way and the negative rocks signaled. Negative hot rocks are by far the more prevalent. In general a setting between 9-10 eliminated nearly all the hot rocks.
However, late in the game I determined a couple things. First, virtually all gold at Moore Creek gives a high tone, even multi-ounce pieces. I believe this is because of the generally high silver content combined with the specimen nature of the gold. You can figure with 99% certainty that a low tone is an iron target or hot rock at Moore Creek. Next season I plan on having the novices run the unit in low conductive mode only to eliminate most large iron and any possibility of the negative rocks sounding off.
I ran the new 7.5" coil a bit and found a 1 pennyweight nugget with it. I was surprised at how stable the smaller coil was, as I expected it would be more prone to hitting hot rocks, but instead it seemed to be more immune to the hot rocks than the larger coil.
We had three days of pouring rain and although a couple other detectors temporarily failed all the TDI units came through with flying colors. I plan on returning to the mine August 8th for a week of detecting with friends and with the pressure off I'll have more time to detect myself. Between now and then I hope to get some good wading time in with the unit plus go chase more old coins.
Sincerely,
Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC
website www.moorecreek.com
These people by nature have little or no detecting experience. I was happy to find some stock settings for the TDI that worked well at Moore Creek. I could basically set the detector for somebody and as long as they did not touch the controls it worked well. Just turn the detector on and go.
Still, experience counts for much and novices have a tough time finding gold nuggets, just due to lack of basic detecting skills. We have found in the past that regardless of the detector used we are happy if novices can just find any gold at all metal detecting during their visit. So I was very pleased that half a dozen new detectorists found their very first nuggets metal detecting with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The unit is not only very capable but also quite easy to operate and so really the only task left to the novices was to get over a nugget.
Mike B & Karl E of Anchorage with TDI Finds
Close-up of Mike and Karl's Gold
Moore Creek visitor Pete W from Paducah, Kentucky. Pete hunted hard with the Pulsescan TDI but was having little luck. I was out with him at one point and was sitting nearby when he got a signal. He started to dig with his scoop but the target was deep, and so I cam over with my pick to help. I scooped a pretty deep hole, but when he checked the target was still in the ground. So I dug some more and out popped a really good looking nugget! A very nice piece weighing .27 ounce that put a huge smile on Pete's face.
Close-up of Pete's Nugget
Moore Creek visitor Jens S from Hupstedt, Germany with nuggets he found with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The larger nugget is .62 ounce and the smaller .37 ounce. Jens found the smaller nugget first within ten minutes of turning the TDI on for the first time.
I was doing some bulldozing at our gold mine at Moore Creek, Alaska to stir up some nuggets for our visitors. I got to one little knob of gravel and after I flattened it out I thought "that looks like a good spot". I had not done any detecting in a couple weeks and figured it was about time. So when I got the dozer back to camp I got the White's Pulsescan TDI out and headed to the location. A guy had just come into camp as I was leaving and so I told him to head up the same way.
I got to the spot and started detecting. First down one row and up the other. After about ten minutes I got a nice signal, and dug up a great .31 ounce specimen. It is a little section of a quartz vein with a nearly solid gold core of gold running through the middle.
I turned off the detector and headed back to camp. The other guy was now just arriving and asked me what was wrong. I told him nothing was wrong, but that I'd got my nugget and so was done. You should have seen the look on his face! Poor guy had been looking for gold for days and I walk right out and find a nugget in ten minutes.
We had an 82 year old gentleman in camp that week who was not having much luck detecting so I gave the specimen to him to take home to Florida.
So what were the settings, etc.? I did not get fancy. Pulse Delay 10, Gain 12. The GB was tight as we have both a positive and negative hot rock at Moore Creek. A bit one way and the positive rocks signaled and a bit the other way and the negative rocks signaled. Negative hot rocks are by far the more prevalent. In general a setting between 9-10 eliminated nearly all the hot rocks.
However, late in the game I determined a couple things. First, virtually all gold at Moore Creek gives a high tone, even multi-ounce pieces. I believe this is because of the generally high silver content combined with the specimen nature of the gold. You can figure with 99% certainty that a low tone is an iron target or hot rock at Moore Creek. Next season I plan on having the novices run the unit in low conductive mode only to eliminate most large iron and any possibility of the negative rocks sounding off.
I ran the new 7.5" coil a bit and found a 1 pennyweight nugget with it. I was surprised at how stable the smaller coil was, as I expected it would be more prone to hitting hot rocks, but instead it seemed to be more immune to the hot rocks than the larger coil.
We had three days of pouring rain and although a couple other detectors temporarily failed all the TDI units came through with flying colors. I plan on returning to the mine August 8th for a week of detecting with friends and with the pressure off I'll have more time to detect myself. Between now and then I hope to get some good wading time in with the unit plus go chase more old coins.
Sincerely,
Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC
website www.moorecreek.com