The Prospectors Journal

It is true what they say, your very first nugget is the hardest. But what can help you find your 2nd piece, and 3rd piece and so on?? If you want to become a successful prospector, and keep finding gold nuggets for years, the most valuable tool to have in your arsenal is actually the cheapest – a Journal. So what is it?

The Prospectors Journal is basically a record of your gold trips, whether successful or not, as well as any information that may be of use to plan your next trip. Keep the records simple but thorough, i.e. don’t write down how many birds you saw, or how many times you nearly tripped on a fallen log, because although the latter may have been funny to your prospecting buddy, it’s not really going to help you find gold.

Every prospector has their own method. Some use a spreadsheet and laptop to enter all their data, which is fine, but if you are keeping your entries digital, keep at least two copies on separate drives or computers in the case of a corrupt drive, viruses etc. I would strongly recommend you keep a written copy, even if you keep a neat digital copy. So what information should you record? Write down the location of your find, and GPS reading if it is in a remote or hard to find spot, the detector/coil combination used, depth of the target, soil conditions, switch positions, etc. Keeping a record of all this information will become a useful reference when returning to the same area, or for comparing the results of different coil & switch combinations.

Here is an example entry for your Journal:

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Notes: The ground was fairly moist near the top, but still dry underneath. Tried detecting in Normal, but was a bit too noisy, particularly around the surfacing, so used Enhance timing. Used my normal settings, but had to drop the Gain to 7, maybe due to the moisture?? and then it worked great. The 1.2 gram piece was found about ten metres down slope from what looks like the remains of an old puddler, and the 0.6 gram piece was found right on the edge of the surfacing.

Summary:The southern slope looks good for gold, so will have to come back with a bigger coil, as the ground seems to have a bit of depth to it. Dug a test hole, and it’s about 45cm to the wash.

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You can see from the above, that after 20 or so trips you will have collated some fantastic information, which would be virtually impossible to remember. Also, by reading through your Summary, you will never run out of places to try!!