Research what how?

I've been prospecting for about 4 years now (about 2 to 3 times a year) I've been to Cue, Mount Magnet, Sandstone, Yalgoo and Laverton. I've been lucky enough to find small bits between .10gr to 1.2gr pieces, I'm swinging a 2300 (which has been a great machine)
My question is I hear a lot about "do your research" what research is there other reading about older gold finds?
I have volume 1 & 2 of gold and ghosts and they both seem to be filled with great areas however I'm told this information is old and the areas in the books have been beaten to death. I'm serious about trying to learn how to better my odds and spent a bit of time with another prospector who taught me about the Ironstone and Quartz (and this information was very helpful) but where do I go from here?

The gold @ ghost books are great, but if you just go to direct sites in them they are flogged. These will put you in gold areas and then you need to look at ground and travel wider to find new patches. We also mark them on maps and then draw lines between them. East / west. But gold is found in some spots you would not expect. We are not geologists and have only started detecting from 2009 for a few mths of year to start of with and then more often. We were green as and just take in every thing you find and have good eyes to remember what ground condition are like when you find something. Very slight rises, northern side of slopes.
Others will be more helpful, just be legal where you are, that is learning curve till you get the hang of it.
Happy yellow hunting

Contact Reed's Prospecting and ask about their projected courses.................



Be lucky.

Prospecting takes a lot of time and shoe leather .

I did find good info on old parish maps in NSW. In those days they marked leases and claims on the parish maps. At that time I went into the lands dept. in Sydney and got copies of them.

Go to some of the known gold areas, check out the type of rock etc and then keep moving out further
looking for similar locations. as said you can spend a lot of time for little return but if you do find a spot
it could be good. When I first started out many years ago a prospector said to me {don't spend a lot of time where the gold has
finished up,find where it came from} I don't go out know but spent the last few years in some of the less worked areas north
Meekathara and east of Wiluna .Not many spots but when you found one you were usually the first on it.


Cheers

Coverage will greatly improve your chances in such vast areas.Many use the 2300 with a partner running a 7000 , 5000, or 4500 etc.The latter machines with medium to large coils give more coverage.This combination improves the chances of finding gold.
Cheers Dig

thank all of you for your help, any advise at this point is of great value to me as I want to start 2019 on the right foot, am I wasting my time with the 2300, should I sell it for a 4500?

Victoro
Lets see what other comments are made on this.Me personally, l would.Thats not knocking the 2300 they are a good machine.There are a lot of factors in finding gold and generally its like an apprenticeship. The more you do it the better the collective memory you have of what ground seems promising. This takes time.So I always go back to how much dirt we process.Theres a huge difference in tonnage between swinging a small coil, a medium coil and a large coil.I dont know the exact maths but I would think that 1 swing with say a gpx machine with a 14 mono would cover more soil in width and depth by a factor of 6 compared to the 2300.To me that increases the odds greatly. Against this you have to balance the fact that the 2300 search though smaller is more concentrated.It also depends on the type of detectorist you are or want to be .Some hammer the known ground others breakaway and trust their judgement.Hope this helps and more comment.
Cheers Dig