Trailblazer

Went out three days this week to a new location.. and found 123 pieces of "trash" +hotrocks (put one in the photo for *fun*) and two LOVELY pieces of rough gold... 5.1g and 9.6g. I like those stats. My mining buddy also found two nuggets .. so all together we found almost an ounce.. plus a lot of trash and a lot of fun. Clearing just makes the next time over even better. Good times ! Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow ! and the next day and the next day and the next day.... -TB-

It rained here and I went out with my Tesoro Lobo and did fine in the damp ground.. found 123+ targets in 3 days.. but I did have to turn the sensitivity down like Fred said. That helped. Plus I had to ground balance more often but that is okay.. I just took my time.

Very awesome.. !! And rough... hope they lead you to their mama

My only experience with GPAA was going to some meetings with the local group in town.. at first it seemed fun to be around other miners but then it got all boring biz they barely left time to share stories.. seemed like talking about and sharing gold was not the focus.. then the regional person came and analyzed the meeting and shut down our fb account and told us we could not order beer from the restaurant and we had to be silent as mice I am sure there was more.. etc.. needless to say.. I didn't go back.. too many rules !! Are others like that too? I mean ours actually had a gavel that he banged when we got to excited about a subject like GOLD!

Nice finds to start your hunting season !!

Awesome ! nice finds

Finally I found a nugget !! After days and days of nothing.. I found a nice 2.1g nugget just 3" down right where I had been over so many times before. So many many many times before. My nugget hunting partner and I were working on a side portion of one of the places we go to.. clearing brush and trash but not finding any gold. He said.. you want to try another spot.. I agreed... so we moved over just a bit and my first signal was GOLD! Just a little bit after he also found a nice 1.4g nugget. So it is worth it to move around. Work a spot for a few hours and then move to another fresh spot. You can always hit the other spot again another time. But let me tell you we go out almost every day to a variety of locations and while my partner was finding gold I was not.. We worked some targets together and that is fun too.. to work as a team, using the depth of his Minelab and the disc and pinpointing of my Lobo. But it's such a mental game.. searching.. wondering.. hoping.. and convincing yourself to keep going... taking pride in the exercise.. the thrill and pleasure of being outside in nature.. but nothing compares to the satisfaction of finding GOLD ! And once you go on a long dry spell... finding it again... means a lot ! Over the last couple of months keeping at it has rewarded me with almost an ounce.. 18 nuggets.. all found with my Tesoro Lobo from a variety of locations. My latest find: My finds over the last couple months: Happy ! Can't wait to go out again tomorrow... TB

That's beautiful !! Enjoyed reading your article on "It's Hard to Find Gold" .. I agree.. prospecting is a way of life and the difficulty makes it all the more fun and exciting!

Well I went out and didn't get a big one.. but got two more!! one .6g and the other .4g so together a perfect 1gm .. happy with that and they were in different spots like 2-4 inches down inside dirt clods not on bedrock. The more you go out the more you find that is for certain. Today is day off.. family soccer day.. but tomorrow.. going out again for a few hours. I explore the area clearing trash and finding shallow nuggets with my lobo and my partner swings his minelab and finds deeper targets. Works great. Happy hunting everyone !

Well I went out yesterday and I had this idea in my head that I wanted to find two nuggets in one day because I had not done that yet... and guess what? I got two !!! ... together they are .9 gm. I am going back out today and what is going through my head is something like... "over an ounce please... "

It is said that there is an element of superstition or energy guidance in gold mining. How many of you have had a situation like that? For example one time I was out detecting and I had a clear thought suddenly fill my head "I don't care if I get poison oak, I just want to find gold today." and within a couple minutes I found gold.. looked around and was surrounded by poison oak sticks shooting out of the ground. Perhaps it is silly, but we do spend a lot of time out there searching quietly with thoughts floating around in our head. Have you ever felt guided to the gold? -TB PS --- luckily I did not get poison oak!

OK OK !!! I promise to dig them all going out today to a spot that has lots of gold ...

Went out today to two spots with my friend... 8 -4 !! We are bad ass!! My lobo was working great and I really concentrated on paying attention to the sounds in both regular mode and disc... I can now almost tell what my target will be.. like wire and nails.. double sound.. I always fall for square nails (they trick me).. bullets I can tell they are strong and not as soft as gold... and if the regular sound is screaming and flip to disc sound is not so loud.. NOT GOLD.. gold is consistent loudness in both reg and disc.. zip zip.. bep bep.. soft and lovely... and sure enough I knew it when I got my .7g nugget today.. I knew it was gold and when I saw the shinny poking out the dirt clod.. major smile... yay!!

Testing can be tricky because I bring a test nugget with me on hunts and I throw it down to get everything in line on my Lobo before I start to search.. to me it seems I get louder signals from gold I have found in deeper ground than gold in case on surface. I have to swing really close on sample. And I do this just to get that wonderful GOLD tone set in my head for the day. Seems like detecting is a constant learning lesson.. since each environment can be different. The sales man I know does air tests to sell detectors because he doesn't have dirt floor in his showroom but he always tells his customers that there are factors that change the depth and that experience in the field and forum advice are the ways to figure out soil/depth issues. The more I detect and talk about detecting with other detectorists.. the more confident I get and the more gold I get!! Going out today... YAY!

Isn't it funny what you find in spots you have been over and over ? I found my 5g piece in a spot I trodded over so many times ! it was just laying there like 2 inches down.. LOUD. And I still hit that spot and find old bullets here and there... seems endless.. hope the gold will pop up again there!! it's elusive at this spot.. gold with attitude.