"Team work or no team work"..........

G'day to all.

It would be interesting to hear the view from fellow detectorists,on whether they prefer to operate independently,when it comes to prospecting for gold (and keep what ever they find),or work as a trusted team with others,and share in the spoils.
I myself(all things being fairly equal in terms of knowledge,equipment & ground time,between buddies) prefer to work as a team(all for one and one for all). What are others opinions on this?.....

Cheers kon61.

Well kon61,

You know what they say, there's no "i" in team.....

But there is a "me"...

Cheers, Phill.

Yes,i can certainly understand the me part Phill,but would you still be friends,with a detecting buddy if he were with you,struck the jackpot and gave you nothing?.

Cheers kon61.

Well kon61 would you still be friends with a mate if he won tattslotto I would.

kon61

I wasn't really trying to answer your post it was just me attempting humor...
Not very good at it though

As for your question, sometimes I think I've struck the jackpot when I wake up the next day!

I think I've invested a lot of $$$ into this hobby as most of us have but by far the biggest investment I've put in is the time spent researching and finding ground as well as the knowledge and time spent learning the machine and the tricks of how to use it.
When I first got into it I was going to go halfs in a 4500 with a mate but decided to get my own, which he did as well, when I showed him some of my finds he went off the boil and we haven't really spoken to each other since. (although I would be more than happy to rekindle that friendship)
How can you go halfs in someones knowledge? Mate you spent 30years looking for a patch so I'll come out with you and we'll go halfs?
To me the reward would be to see my mate do well.
I wouldn't expect anything else, after all if one off us did well the chance would always be there for the other would it not. i.e. on a patch?
I've had a few partnerships in the past and the only one that has really worked for me is the one I took with my wife 26years ago.
So far I haven't needed to flog any of the Au I've found but I have given some away as gifts which has always made me feel good. karma be with us!
Wealth is not measured by what you have in the bank but what you have in your head.
Yep, I'd be as happy as larry to see my buddy do well because he would give me something worth more than any amount of $$$ could ever give me.
Experience.
Cheers, Phill.

Hi Kon,

I enjoy going out on my own with my partner and I enjoy detecting with other people as well, although as yet I haven't gone halves with anyone but would be happy to do this if the occassion came about. If two people agree to share then I think they should stick to their agreement.

Phil.

just a personal concept, as far as I am concerned, true freinds are as hard to come by as gold, personally i beleive in the "many hands make light work", so there will always be room for others in our indeavours, gold finds, like money is nice, but won't keep you goin in the bad times, kinship and mates with a common goal will,, besides there is enough out there for us all, so why not share it with someone who is of the same mindset,,, greed is a human trait that bloody sux,, not that hard to level the playing feild and share rewards,,,, just my thoughts for what its worth lmao

happy hunting
Steve and Lea

I had a terrific mate as a prospector, not one problem. We did not share the gold we found but kept what we found, but always let one and other know as soon as we found one. If he found it I would ask which way are you gridding and take the second choice and vice versa. It work out great and we are still mates.
Now a days I would only share with a spouse, so get out there and get her the best equipment you can afford.

G'day Guys.

Phill I can fully understand what your saying.The jackpot is in always waking up the next day.Going halves in someones vast knowledge and experience is difficult indeed and there is no greater feeling than guiding someone in the right direction,increasing their chances of success.
Wisdom is the greatest wealth any man could have.
Universal,I can assure you,that by not only agreeing to do the right thing by one another and then proving that you've done the right thing by keeping your word,comes back to you in more positive ways than one.
Steve & Lea,very wise words.Through my eyes,your both champions.
Geof_junk,when prospecting together with a partner and even though each to his own gold,just by showing one another where you found your gold,is like giving one another a key to a door that opens up further opportunities in your quest for the so called "golden ointment".
All opinions are valued here guys.

Cheers kon61.

i do like taking people out detecting with me to my spot, what they find they keep... i have not realy thought about what would happen if one did hit that big one.... but i do like to be by my self sometimes detecting it's a good time to have time out from the world.
cheers
stoppsy

stoppsy wrote:i do like taking people out detecting with me to my spot, what they find they keep... i have not really thought about what would happen if one did hit that big one.... but i do like to be by my self sometimes detecting it's a good time to have time out from the world.
cheers
stoppsy

Totally agree with you stoppsy, I don't care who finds the gold, its about getting out there and sharing time with a friend and experiences. I'm wrapped when my friend finds gold, I don't go halves in the finds, I had a friend that found a nice size nugget and I even helped him dig it out.far as I'm concerned finders keepers.

Regards Johnny

I go out quite a bit with fellow prospectors and we keep what we find, but we let each other know were the find was. But if someone showed me their special spot and were detecting that spot at the same time and I found something substantial I would then offer him a share or at least a very good meal and a slab. I have always asked anyone who has shown me their spot if they mind if I can got back up to their spot and have another go and also ask them to come along. I would never go unless I ask first.

Wombat

Hey Kon I'll share the gold with you but you knowwww I'll be sittin under that gum treeeee !!! (In joke folks!!)
A team must share time,knowledge,humor and the gold if found hey !! After all as people have said life is about experiences and some adventure.
Riches come and go - hubris is the word!!
what funny minds we sometimes have on this matter. I have shown and taken people to areas before and pleased for them when they find gold but boy do I look like a fool when they come back to me with multi ounces. Then on top of that I hear "some poor sucker dug out all the **** and left me all the gold"
So now it's split up with smiles on all comrades. But come on just let me have an extra coffee here and there !!!

Appreciate the feedback gents.Stoppsy/Johnny,true,there is no greater feeling than sharing good times with good mates.
Stoppsy there are times when we all appreciate just being alone doing what we like to do.Not many of us ever really stops to think about what we would do or say whilst prospecting together with mates and one of them lobs on to a multi ounce slug or a multi ounce patch,meaning the kg and above.
Wombat,I couldn't agree with you more,respect for one another has great meaning.
Vasilis put another coffee on for me.I think Iv waffled on enough for the night.

Cheers kon61.

I used to enjoy prospecting by myself in my early years when I thought I would find the big one and retire but now a little older and wiser I much prefer prospecting with my detecting buddy or other people. Nothing beats having company in the bush and the friendships you establish with some people last forever. I would never let gold come between me and a close friend, these friendships have been built up over years and are worth more to me than money or gold. These days when patch finding and big nuggets are getting harder to find and usually people pick up the odd gram nugget here and there and all the subgrammers with small coils whats all the fuss about? Pretty hard to split a one gram nugget or even still splitting subgrammers and even if they have picked them from my spot good luck to them its finders keepers. In the rare event a patch is found getting everyone to work at clearing the patch and dividing the proceeds is my way of doing things, it spreads the wealth and keeps the friendships. In reality very few people retire from the amount of gold they have found in their lifetime but plenty of people have lost good friends from being greedy.

There's probably no right or wrong on this subject. But there can be disadvantages of working with a group of others if there's no level playing field.

I've detected with groups of people that wanted to pool together our gold and share our finds ... although some of the members of the groups were new to detecting or simply had a bad attitude about how the finds ought to be divided. Some were relatives of other members ... people that were essentially tag-alongs. The problem with this type of arrangement is that some people are occasionally more lazy than others. They might not put any effort in or they might use really inferior or unsuitable detectors. I've seen some turn up with a K-Mart $79 special who didn't bother to even read their instruction manual on the (unsuitable) detector they'd bought - when others in the group were using professional detectors costing thousands more. Some will sleep part of the day expecting to take home a share of the finds. Obviously, it's a very lopsided situation and I won't involve myself with arrangements like this. I only subscribe to the keep-what-you-find principal. It's only fair.

I have also seen people with few resources go halves in a good detector - like those two chaps in Victoria that found the 400 ounces together a couple of years ago. They sold their original detector and went halves in a GPX-4500 (?) and took turns detecting and digging. Shortly after, they found 400 ounces of gold which they then shared the proceeds of between them. I thought it was a nice story and it was great to see this arrangement working so well. They still detect together and are richer for it to boot.

A few of the QLD detectorists I know of that have lent their detectors to others usually insist of half the proceeds. I know of people who lent their GPX to family members for free and the family members found several ounces of gold but gave nothing to the owner of the machine. I don't think that was fair. These days I'm working on my own spots that I prefer to keep to myself and those with me (wife & friends). With the exception of one particular arrangement, we keep what we find although I tend to give the biggest piece I find to my wife regardless of whether she's detecting on the day or not. But I've given away the odd nugget that I've found to a friend that hadn't found any on a trip.

So true TheGoldenChild.Nothing does beat having good company out bush sharing both good and tough times together.As for friendships,
"man has many friends but few are the ones he keeps".
Well said Nero.I seem to detect a heart of gold towards reading your last paragraph.

Cheers kon61.

Gday

In my earlier days of detecting I found I preferred to be out on my own, mainly because I could suit myself and go where I wanted to go, in later years when getting involved with others I found myself being enticed to go where they wanted to go, and found that some people are capable of befriending others to do the legwork and to find the gold, and then jump in and claim the prize, using them to cover ground that they had worked themselves looking for anything they had missed before.

Also I discovered that gold does funny things to people and some people will hide their true selves from you until you are in a situation where there is gold involved and then you will see the real person, as I have seen this happen for myself I have realised the power gold can have over some people and that they will lie cheat and decieve you if they think that they will get the gold.

Working in a group is a good way to go, there is safety in numbers, and you have the added bonus of the social side of it too, like sitting about the campfire at night and having a yarn etc, and the best thing about working together is that you can cover a lot of ground between you, but there are a few rules that you MUST have in place before you start.

1. make sure that you have an agreement on how to share the gold found or if its finders keepers.

2. everybody has to be capable and willing to put in the same amount of effort.

3. all gold finds have to be reported to other members of the group.

4. any areas found by the group are kept within the group and not re visited by group members and others at a later date unless agreed apon by the group that they have finished with it.

5. only the people actually detecting are intitled to a share of the gold.


There are probably other things that you would want to agree on depending on your group, but I cant stress highly enough on you having a hard and fast agreement in place before you start working together, and before the gold starts to come in.

I have seen the changes in people first hand and it can vary from then becoming sullen as others are getting gold and they are not, to people becoming downright aggressive and arguementive, and also people stumbling on to something or a nice piece and then keeping it secret so that they can go back at a later date on their own, also people who are able to pocket what they find then happily share the gold found by others.

By all means partner up with someone but decide right from the start the terms and conditions of the partnership, because when the gold appears things can and will change.

cheers

stayyerAU

stayyerAU, Totally agree with your post . The only problem is that agreements are only as good as the people making then. Have seen & heard of both very good & very bad out comes when a good find is made.
Those on this site have such a wide range of experience from just starting, hobby through to part & full time, it's hard to provide info that may help.

Just another side a few not all tour group operator's use the paying guests as pointer dogs to locate good gold then return to locations after tour.

StayyerAU, I too couldn't agree with you more.There are rules that have to be put in place,and once agreed upon must be adhered to also.Right you are there TWO BOB,you've just said the magic words."Agreements are only as good as the people making them". The future of ones thinking and motives is unpredictable,people do change with time. As for now,I feel like I'm lucky to have such descent open and trustworthy company,which did not come about over night.I can assure you talking about something that your guna do is one thing,following through and doing it is another.Crumbs,chunks,patches or reefs,we've all been put to the test and have come out with flying colors.
Boys believe me when i say,prospecting with such a crew is not only a pleasure but an absolute delight.

Cheers kon61.

DiggerJack and i have a verbal agreement...
We both detect the same area, we let each other know what is found and where, if something is found we then work as a team together, we keep what we find seperately and eg: I get a signal and DJ helps dig, its still my target and vise versa BUT if i get sick of chasing that signal or think its ground noise and walk away from that hole, DJ can ask me if im finished with the hole and he will then attempt to chase that signal and whatever he finds from that spot is his.
BUT if either of us dig something worth $$$ (i mean really worth it, lol) then it is split. Thats not counting small stuff being cashed in, just a large lump

That applies to rare coins or gold or anything else of value. But if DJ went on his own and found that large lump then i will not get half because i wasnt there. But since i do all the research, chances are DJ wouldnt be on his own anyway, lol

cheers

stayyerAU wrote:

Working in a group is a good way to go, there is safety in numbers, and you have the added bonus of the social side of it too, like sitting about the campfire at night and having a yarn etc, and the best thing about working together is that you can cover a lot of ground between you, but there are a few rules that you MUST have in place before you start.

1. make sure that you have an agreement on how to share the gold found or if its finders keepers.

2. everybody has to be capable and willing to put in the same amount of effort.

3. all gold finds have to be reported to other members of the group.

4. any areas found by the group are kept within the group and not re visited by group members and others at a later date unless agreed apon by the group that they have finished with it.

5. only the people actually detecting are intitled to a share of the gold.


There are probably other things that you would want to agree on depending on your group, but I cant stress highly enough on you having a hard and fast agreement in place before you start working together, and before the gold starts to come in.

I have seen the changes in people first hand and it can vary from then becoming sullen as others are getting gold and they are not, to people becoming downright aggressive and arguementive, and also people stumbling on to something or a nice piece and then keeping it secret so that they can go back at a later date on their own, also people who are able to pocket what they find then happily share the gold found by others.

By all means partner up with someone but decide right from the start the terms and conditions of the partnership, because when the gold appears things can and will change.

cheers

stayyerAU

stayyerAU, they are 5 very sensible rules & are a must when detecting in a group - well done!!

thanks TH, yes, that agreement has worked great for us & will continue to (one 'o' or two - i never can guess, you know what i saying TH lmao).
i did find us somewhere else to detect yesterday on my travels (refer to my pics on facebook), an old picnic/bbq site, very simular to where we detect up near hamilton where we go but a bit smaller lol.

Many years ago (5000d) myself and a mate would go detecting and we always shook hands when setting out for the day in full knowledge that any gold 1oz and over was a 50/50 split all the little bits were keepers with the areas divulged over a beer at the end of the day. No visits to an area previously worked was done without a phone call to the other partner and if the partner was unable to go any gold found belonged to the bloke who found it. Now this worked well and over time we both got busy with businesses and we drifted apart but it was a great time with a true mate.
Rolling on the years a bit i now am involved with a few people who are so like minded its not funny !! great mates with knowledge of areas and spots flowing backwards and forwards in full confidence of no dodgy dealings between us ,it truly makes it a joy to prospect with these gold miners and not to be looking over your shoulder all the time.
Well said stayyerAU i couldn't agree more with what you said in your post especially point number 4

StayyerAU, Murachu

Hey guys, good rules and answers.

From personal experience:

A good mate and i share anything 1 oz and over, and anything under is kept by the finder. We show our spots to each-other, down to which hole the gold was found. There is understanding that you don't go and bash another mans patch.

However, i ve been in a group where rules are that "sharer" is only a shared if you can hear it. E.g. you might get called over on a good target to ensure that you could/would have heard it too. THis really works when the group has very uneven equipemnt - 5000 VS sd2000 kind of thing.

Couple of funny stories:

Heard of a guy who would deliberatly NOT dig his good sounding targets and come back later at night to dig them out.

Heard of another guy who did the same when he was hired to detect a claim. He would walk past some targets and come back later to dig them.

I share my finds with my detecting mates and also when we work together sluicing.
This way we can all have a good go at it and we all work hard at it.

Heard of another guy who did the same when he was hired to detect a claim. He would walk past some targets and come back later to dig them.... that's just wrong as if your getting paid to detect for a person on there claim that they have paid good money for. you should do what your getting paid for not ripping them off.... i would love to get into getting paid for detecing as long as i got photo's off the finds i would be happy. i suppose there's people out there that would try and do the swiffty on you but if they get cought what can you do? they can't be that good off a friend but gold does bring the funny side out off some people
cheers
stoppsy

Ive had 14 years of experience with gold, patches, and human nature. It`s true that gold does strange thing to people, I always say that working together gets alot more ground done, like the saying TEAM Together Everyone Achieves More. Dont split gold cause it usually turns sour. instead you keep your own gold and when you find a patch you get the first hour or so to yourself then you mark an area that you want to grid, and others can then work around you (without interference) working together your sacrificing the entirety of the potential area but your finding a hell of alot more patches. Although there is alot of greedy people lurking in these crowds who dont say anything when they find gold and stuff the system completely but hopefully you can find good partners to hunt with. I really dislike the selfishness and greed in gold hunting but the trust and TEAM work will usually pay off.

Gday
Ive got a mate which we try and go out at least once a week, we carry walky talkies, tell each other when we get one, then it becomes a competion to see who gets the most, we keep what ya find and both happy with that.

I don't know a great deal of people to go detecting with yet but sharing the spoils seems the way to go! That said I do go out with my dad on occasion and we always agree to go halves but I always wonder after we've found 'nothing' for the day why he has a big smile on his face for the next week, cunning old bugger lol.

A few years ago i stumbled on a 13oz patch i was so excited, i then done the mistake of telling a couple of people about it and before i new it there were people everywhere all over it now theres nothing left apparently. Ive got two mates i trust and thats pretty much all who i tell.