Around 1983 I was introduced to “Gold Prospecting” by a neighbour who moved in beside us. I remember spending many weekends dry-blowing gullies and being pleased with the few grams of gold got. I bought a VLF machine and spent time learning how to fly it before I was rewarded with a “massive” first nugget weighing 0.1 grams.
The nuggets rose in weight as I learned more about this strange machine until I got to a stage that I thought I was proficient in its use. In those early days, gold was reasonably plentiful and I scored many good pieces in those early years.
I would encourage my brother in-law RD to come out detecting, but he reckoned we were like “fairies” waving our wands around. Eventually he succumbed and as he was still learning, I got plenty of exercise cross-checking signals for him, which often turned out to be ground noise. One day he came to me with shaking hands, clasping a 1-1/2 ounce beauty that he’d just released from its prison.
We informed him that everyone keeps their first nugget as it is special, but sharing starts from then on. A half hour later he asked me to check another signal for him as he thought it was ground noise. I waved over the hole. “Ground noise, my butt” I offered, and he reached in pulling out a 67 gram nugget that he’d hidden back in the hole. He’s still a trickster.
As things happen he and I ended up detecting as partners. We have always shared our finds and still do. If one of us is having a bad run of luck, it usually gets a prop up from the other person and vice versa. We also “encourage” each other and have remained great mates. I believe that you make few friends searching for gold unfortunately, but there are exceptions.
Prior to the release of the Minelab SD2000, I ceased detecting due to work commitments, and RD did also as he had other activities. This carried on for about 10 years, something with the gift of hindsight I regret, but life makes us choose our own paths. I worked at the Ravenswood gold mine for 3 years, before opening up an Auto-electrical business for myself.
In early 2005, RD turned up at my shop around midday. I asked what he was celebrating and he showed me a few ounces of gold he’d just detected from one of our old patches. The gleam of gold lured me once again and I cranked up the old VLF. I struggled to try and keep pace with the SD2000 he’d purchased and eventually found one locally so we set about detecting our old areas.
The first upgrade was when we met another prospector on an area that RD and I had chained the previous weekend. This bloke showed us where he’d dug a 16 gram nugget and an 8 gram bit using his GP Extreme, right in our chain marks. That did it. We both upgraded to the GP3000. These 2 detector scored us enough gold to allow an upgrade to every new Minelab detector until we get very old.
I have upgraded to every release from that day as each machine held an advantage. The GPX-4000 took some time to get to terms with, but we hit a patch on which “Smooth Timings” really shone. The ability to ignore the copious “Hot-rocks” was a Godsend and we started to clean up.
The release of the GPX-4500 saw numerous bits found using the “Enhance” timing option. This particular spot has netted well over 700 nuggets for us as I stopped counting at that figure, and we still get gold there, albeit not as easily. This was the first area I tried the latest Minelab GPX 5000 and I’m still finding gold we missed, even after combing this spot at least 30 times using a variety of coil combinations.
I find that the digital menu driven GPX series detectors are now a piece of cake having used the previous models, and being familiar with the options, it is just a case of selecting what I believe is the best combination of settings to suit the ground I am detecting.
Experience is your teacher - start learning now!
Peter Cragg (aka Qld Sandy)
Gold City Detecting - Minelab Authorised Dealer
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