Lynx Creek targets

[Electrician]

out at Lynx Creek with the Gold Monster 1000, identified and marked 7 targets on bedrock, all read ALL GOLD (full right side of indicator).
cleaned the bedrock down with brushes, filled the pan and NOTHING ... not a single spec ... 
went back over the marked target area and not a peep outta the GM1000 ...

Went down to the creek to work tailings piles and got a bunch of ALL GOLD targets, guess what?!
Yep, NOTHING but rusty metal reading ALL GOLD (full right side of indicator) on the GM1000 ...

 

[Red_desert]

GPAA had a travel gold prospecting video on YouTube (back a few years) on Lynx Creek. Don't know if it is still up, but the results were rather disappointing. Maybe one of our experts on the forum could give you some insight.

[Red_desert]

I'm thinking my book from University of Arizona, Bureau of Mines publication on mining history mentions Lynx Creek. I got the Arizona mining book from them back in the 1990s. Actually it was 2 books, covering placer mining in one and lode mines in the other. A few claims produced some huge monster nuggets. Lynx Creek, it might of had a spot where bedrock was shallow and mostly a fringe area. Been so long since reading the info, hope my memory is correct.

[chrisski]

I occasionally lose targets after digging.  It’s usually a flat piece of metal angled to set the detector off, and then once I gig it out, its at an angle the detector won’t pick it up.  I do not have discrimination on my detector, except in coin mode, and that’s way less sensitive.  When I have used this discrimination, I get many false gold readings usually lead.

 

I like to think of the discrimination as ferrous or noun-ferrous, so iron or not iron, and that’s about the best it can do.  Many of the old timer metals rusted.  Probably a tin iron mixture.

When I detected Lynx on the mineral withdrawal area, I found a lot of trash metal detecting, and no gold.

Edited May 9, 2021 by chrisski

[Bedrock Bob]

The takeaway here is to dig all targets.

If you had used the detector to locate the source of the signal there would be no mystery. You would have the culprit in your hand.

Since you did not pinpoint and locate the signal there is no telling what it may have been. 

You can use a detector to locate gravel to pan but you should actually find gold with it first. If you dig multiple nuggets in a spot it might be a good idea to start panning instead of detecting. But since you just located signals and not their source it is anyone's guess as to what caused them.

The signal you get right after moving the target from its original position tells you more than any meter can. Unless you dig and MOVE THE TARGET and locate it again you really have no clue as to what it might be. 

I always pinpoint and dig until I have the target in my hand. At that point you can throw that hand full of dirt into a pan if you are reasonably sure the target is gold. But unless you know you have the target in your hand (or scoop) your job with the detector is not finished.

99% of the time I won't even attempt to pinpoint until the target is out of the hole and on the spoil pile. Then I grab handfuls of dirt until the signal is no longer in the pile. Then I check to make sure the signal is in my hand. Once I KNOW I am holding the signal I drop half the dirt into my other hand. Then locate the signal again. I can generally pick out a target in a few seconds once I get it on the spoil pile. But I won't put anything into a pan for concentration unless it has a beep in it. 

If I am finding so many nuggets I'm wasting my time pinpointing them I'll switch to processing gravel. But until I know what I am hearing is multiple gold nuggets I stick with the tried and true method of pinpointing and recovery of every target that interrupts the threshold. 

Just my personal opinion on using a gold pan to locate the source of a signal. It is just not the tool for the job and I would advise against it. 

 

[Electrician]

Well, the area we're working is producing pickers when creviced and panned out. I decided to locate potential targets with the GM1000 and work only those areas of bedrock. Turns out we have better "luck" just crevicing the area than using a detector to mark targets. I stopped marking the targets and just started working the area and BOOM, pickers. The number of false targets the detector (on any setting) produced is/was unacceptable, just a waste of time. 

[Electrician]

20 hours ago, Red_desert said:

I'm thinking my book from University of Arizona, Bureau of Mines publication on mining history mentions Lynx Creek. I got the Arizona mining book from them back in the 1990s. Actually it was 2 books, covering placer mining in one and lode mines in the other. A few claims produced some huge monster nuggets. Lynx Creek, it might of had a spot where bedrock was shallow and mostly a fringe area. Been so long since reading the info, hope my memory is correct.

Do you happen to have the publisher/publishing info on these publications? I know they covered 1915-1977, do you have the Date, ISBN, anything?

[Bedrock Bob]

27 minutes ago, Electrician said:

Well, the area we're working is producing pickers when creviced and panned out. I decided to locate potential targets with the GM1000 and work only those areas of bedrock. Turns out we have better "luck" just crevicing the area than using a detector to mark targets. I stopped marking the targets and just started working the area and BOOM, pickers. The number of false targets the detector (on any setting) produced is/was unacceptable, just a waste of time. 

Sounds like something is wrong. I use ancient technology and I don't get false targets at all. I did when I first started out though. Your story is familiar.

Once in a blue moon I will get a howl on bedrock or a warble on a burned out stump. But thore are pretty obvious falses. You aren't going to confuse them with a nugget. At least not for long.

Are you sure you are setting it up right? Those new detectors are mighty hard to fool.

If it is beeping there should be a target down there. Otherwise the detector is not adjusted properly or functioning correctly.

If you can get the coil close to pickers you should be able to recover them efficiently with a good machine. Definitely faster than concentrating them. 

I know it is frustrating.  But if you are over detectable gold and have a good machine in your hand you have a perfect opportunity to learn how to use it like a pro. If you meet it half way you will be getting those pickers one after the other.

Detectors aren't for everyone. Most guys just find them a frustrating pain in the fanny. And in many situations you can do better with other methods. But a guy that has learned his machine well can really get it done in an area that produces detectable sized gold within range of the coil.

 

[chrisski]

I also found some of my “disappearing” targets were actually stuck to my magnet on my digging tool.

There’s quite a few areas that have junk, that breaks down and flakes off and gets washed down stream making its own strewn field that makes it near impossible to dig all targets.  I worked a couple hours an a 6’ wide by 30’ long section of creek and dug up a lot of false targets, and nothing good.  Kept thinking the gold would show up on the next target.

Edited May 10, 2021 by chrisski

[Bedrock Bob]

Chris made a good point.

The freaking magnet costs more time than it saves sometimes. I used to have a magnet on my digger but I was always searching for a target that the magnet picked up. Or digging a target that pulled off the magnet.

Gulch bottoms are the most miserable places to detect. I hate them. I really try to stick to the slopes and hilltops in most places. Even if I know there is probably more gold in the stream bottom.

My best nuggets were found in places that were devoid of all other targets. Many days I dig more gold targets than trash.

Someone else might do better down in the gulch but they are going to dig 20 lbs of rusty crap for every nugget.

It has been my observation that the gold on the hillsides and hilltops is coarser and much easier to detect. It is often shallower too. So that is where I have always focused my efforts.

[Red_desert]

I looked on the shelf and located the 2 mining history books. Also surprised to find one for Nevada placer mining. Forgot I had the book, but remembered all the different locations of coarse gold/nuggets in northern part of Nevada. The southern point area had a few fine gold sites.

[Electrician]

18 hours ago, Red_desert said:

I looked on the shelf and located the 2 mining history books. Also surprised to find one for Nevada placer mining. Forgot I had the book, but remembered all the different locations of coarse gold/nuggets in northern part of Nevada. The southern point area had a few fine gold sites.

Do you happen to have the publisher/publishing info on these publications? I know they covered 1915-1977, do you have the Date, ISBN, anything?

[Red_desert]

10 minutes ago, Electrician said:

Do you happen to have the publisher/publishing info on these publications? I know they covered 1915-1977, do you have the Date, ISBN, anything?

No, I don't publish them, all 3 have light yellow covers, look about the same from the outside. They should have publishing date, other info inside the cover. Both Arizona mining books were ordered directly from the University of Arizona, probably around mid 1990s..

[Red_desert]

The placer history, covers amount and size of nuggets recovered at Rich Hill, Goodman wash, other placer mining operations.

[Au Seeker]

On 5/10/2021 at 3:53 PM, Red_desert said:

I looked on the shelf and located the 2 mining history books. Also surprised to find one for Nevada placer mining. Forgot I had the book, but remembered all the different locations of coarse gold/nuggets in northern part of Nevada. The southern point area had a few fine gold sites.

 

7 hours ago, Electrician said:

Do you happen to have the publisher/publishing info on these publications? I know they covered 1915-1977, do you have the Date, ISBN, anything?

 

7 hours ago, Red_desert said:

No, I don't publish them, all 3 have light yellow covers, look about the same from the outside. They should have publishing date, other info inside the cover. Both Arizona mining books were ordered directly from the University of Arizona, probably around mid 1990s..

 

7 hours ago, Red_desert said:

The placer history, covers amount and size of nuggets recovered at Rich Hill, Goodman wash, other placer mining operations.

@Red_desert He's not asking you if you published any of the books you referenced, he asking you for that info from the books in question, you seemed to have said you found them on your bookshelf when you posted this..."I looked on the shelf and located the 2 mining history books"..., so can you not open them and relay the publishing info, etc. that he's asking for?

[Guest]

http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/2010/u11/Bull_168_Gold_Placers_OCR.pdfp0011 

https://www.azgs.arizona.edu/minerals/gold-prospecting-arizona

Edited May 12, 2021 by Guest

[Electrician]

On 5/12/2021 at 3:35 AM, Stillweaver hillbelli said:

http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/2010/u11/Bull_168_Gold_Placers_OCR.pdfp0011 

https://www.azgs.arizona.edu/minerals/gold-prospecting-arizona

I have the hardcopies of GOLD PLACERS AND PLACERING IN ARIZONA by Eldred D. Wilson and Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining by Eldred Dewey Wilson and Gurdon Montague Butler

I have also read/cherry picked most of the stuff on the UofA site

[Red_desert]

It's Arizonz Bureau of Mines, bulletin 168, date 1961 reprinted 1981, 1988, and 1994. (was) Currently the Arizona Geological Survey. Copyright: 1961 Board of Regents of the Universities and State College of Arizona. All rights reserved. It is thick as any book you would buy.