Not A Bad Evening Out Detecting

Hi Guys, Hadnt been for a detect in over a week as my eldest son & his girlfriend were down for a week & I was playing tour guide all over Central Otago. Took them to places your average person wouldnt know existed or didnt have the means of getting there.
I was very impressed with another detector operator in my neck of the woods here in NZ find of 22 pieces in one crevice & thought that would be bloody hard to better. Damn good find that lot. Took him 3 hours to get all the bits together as well. He was using a gold bug pro. I think my best was about 9 pieces in one crevice.
I went out wednesday evening after work & was having no luck what so ever. Headed to a rocky outcrop of schist at 45 degrees just sticking above the surface. Got a very faint signal that didnt sound too positive, but as I dig all signals just to satisfy my conscience & curiosity so i can sleep well knowing what it was or wasnt. LOL
As I scraped & dug down it still wasnt sounding like a good positive gold signal, but I kept at it. Well bugger me it was a little slug of sassy gold. What was that....another signal in the hole.....out pops another ......& another . Bloody hell. I back up & scan the dig pile.....more signals.....more gold. It was about 8.15 pm.......Two hours later & with darkness getting darker & a long walk back to my truck I had 32 pieces of gold & still signals in the ground. I hated to walk away but had no choice. Didnt take my head lamp with me. So I bailed.
Went back the next evening & got 8 more pieces out & that was the end of that little glory hole. All up 40 pieces for a total of just over 8 grams. Damn, 8 ounces would have been nice. Smallest was just .03 of a gram & the biggest was 2 at .78 of a gram. GPX 4500 & still the 11" commander mono. I took along the little joey mono to wack on to go back over the digging pile to get maybe some smaller bits that the 11" may have missed, but didnt bother putting it on. I think I will go back & put the dirt through my little 12 volt bilge pump powered highbanker. Just means taking in the water with me as well & recirculating it. Not really looking forward to doing that.
What a blast I had getting all those little bits. My best haul for a while.



The Glory Hole



Good luck out there

JW

Hello kiwijw,

Great story >>> and with piccys

Thanks for sharing
A

Very nice find mate
And every photo
Of the ground your working
Keeps me in awwe
As its really interesting
To see other parts of the world
And we're people are finding gold
It gives me a better understanding
Of goldfields afar
Great story and great effort

The ground were you detect looks different everywhere you go
One part of nsw

JW that mate is awesome man

You should get yourself in the exited mode for running your little HB, odds are good for much more gold to add to your tally

Cheers
Chris.

P.s. Maybe cart the water in a bit at a time!!

G'day JW that is good haul from one dig.. .. Great story and pics congrats to you...

Cheers.

Mike.

Great digging JW! Fush and chups all rund!

Bloody Hell JW you have done well there mate. Looks like your machine was running really well to get so many. 40 for just 8gms
wombat

Good story, great result !

Phil

Nice collection Kiwijw , well done . cheers Mick

Hi guys, Thanks for the comments & feedback. I went back this afternoon with my little highbanker banjo & some water. What a bloody hassle getting the water in there. The water soon turned to custard but I managed to get 2.18 grams & I am only half way through the pile.



I get the feeling that I will end up digging a lot more ground than just the area where I found the gold with the detector. LOL . Will let you know how I get on after tomorrows effort.

Good luck out there

JW

Good one JW !!

I'm excited for you mate good luck. cheers Pete.

Jack outwest wrote:Great result see if you can get hold of a Whites goldmaster or Fisher gold bug 2 & go over that spot again , bet you will be pleasantly surprised

Hi there Jack out west. I actually do have a whites goldmaster but I reckon nothing will beat the banjo (highbanker) now I have it in there & stached in the bushes. LOL

Cheers

JW

Good onya JW, you found a nice little stash of mother natures gold..... excellent work mate! ..... Also love your photo of the dig site... I would say keep a lookout for more schist outcrops with that magic angle of 45 degrease hiding a few more little golden delights ......

Good luck in your search...
Ren...

Hi Jw, thats a great haul coming out of that hole.
need to find myself one of these .
Hope your next one won't be far away.
cheers
bedrock

Bedrock, Ren, Jack, Pete, Ark, Thanks guys for dropping by with your comments & well wishes.
Yes this schist outcrop was the perfect gold trap. 45 degree angle sloping like a natural riffle in the right direction to trap any gold going over it from past glacial/river movement down this valley. Not only that but the layers of schist, like pages in a book, has gold in between these layers as well. That is what was happening as I dug into it chasing the signals & targets given to me from the detector. As I dug down opening up more "pages" of schist the gold kept coming.
I am sitting here trying to dream up an easier way of getting water into the area But I can only keep coming up with me packing it in with out involving any one else. Oh bugger......such is life.
I always thought to myself when I was digging a target in this type of ground that there had to be more gold than what the detector was telling me. The carting of water always put me off but this time I was determined to give it a go. I can now see I will be going back to quite a few other places.

Good luck out there

JW

G'day JW sounds like your onto a good spot for sure.. .. Good luck with it and don't bust your back...

Cheers.

Mike.

Nice effort Mate
I love working ground like that. I would double check that hole with the Joey to see if you missed any stragglers.
The 11 inch is a great coil to find the first indicator nugget,then the 10 x 5 will sniff out the rest.
Im sure there are other rock bars in the same spot that will hold hidden secrets.
Good luck mate.

nice gold kiwijw and a great story
blue

Hi guys, Thanks Mike,Gus & blue. I went back on sunday & processed 3 bucket loads & got just .85 of a gram. I guess that was because the last lot of the material was actualy the first lot of dirt that I dug off the top when I first started digging for the targets from my detector. So pretty lean until I got down a bit. The good stuff was the first stuff I put through the highbanker on saturday as it was on the top of my digging pile.
I went back after work tonight & used my Falcon MD 20 Gold Tracker which runs at 300 khz. Scanned around with that & just dumped all signals into a bucket. Brought it home & panned it out & got .88 of a gram.
Detecting is a lot easier on the body.

Cheers

JW

Hi guys, Went back to my glory hole after work last night & got a few more bits with the Falcon Gold Tracker & also processed one bucket of material & got just .35 of a gram. Think it may have done its dash now as I went again tonight equiped with the 4500 & the joey mono & bugger me got one more piece that weighed just .05 of a gram. I then went a bit further afield & got 6 more little bits for a total of 7 & 1.3 grams.



It has been a week since I first found the little glory hole with the detector & the little piece I found with the detector tonight made a total of 41 bits found with the 4500 for just over 8 grams & with the Falcon Gold Tracker & the highbanker/banjo just over 4.5 grams.....



so making a total of just over 12.5 grams all up from the one crevice. I was trying so hard to crack half an ounce but I donr think it is going to be.
Just got to find another one now.

Good luck out there

JW

Very nice JW.. .. Hope you find another one soon... (Glory Hole)

Cheers.

Mike.

thats a great result jw, there must be plenty more
crevices containing similar amounts of gold out there.
Wish you luck
bedrock

Thank you Mike & Bedrock. I certainly had a lot of fun. Not so much carting the water in for the highbanker/banjo, but using three methods for recovering the gold. Well 4 actually as I also did a bit of dry panning that I forgot to mention. So dry panning, 4500, Falcon Gold Tracker & the highbanker/banjo.
Thanks guys

Good luck out there

JW