Unwritten laws

What are some of the unwritten laws of prospecting?

I know if I was having a chat with a stranger detectorist whilst they were digging a hole, and they found gold or something else of interest, that I'd feel uncomfy firing up the detector & swinging 3 feet from they're find.... Whats a suitable distance to start searching, 100m, out of sight?

What are some of the other unwritten laws.

IHi Rob,
I tend to go out with 1 or 2 mates and usually when someone finds something, we go over to have a look and then what I do is look at the land and the fall and try and guess if there is more gold, where has it come from and where is it heading to, and then I walk in the direction that interests me. At about 20 meters I turn my detector on and start detecting whilst walking away from my mate. Not sure if this is the correct thing, but it works for us.

Depends on the area. i like to be atleast 100m so theres no feedback from my machine to theirs.
Saying that, i met a guy last week, who had pulled out 8 nuggets, After a 5 min chat, he not only offered to give me his 5000 to use, but said i could reswing over his ground, with my detector or his.
TOP bloke, I know he doesnt read this forum, but cheers Ian for the opportunity.
Minelabs interfere within about 50m or somethines more even if your best mates its hard to swing close.
I myself like to be out of site from others, but even out of site in thick scrub can still cause feedback.
I also have met a friend recently called Bruce, that has not only shown me his sluice spot, but has no probs panning or sluicing shoulder to shoulder, A true Champ!!!!
His motto is ...Its not my gold until its in my Jar.... And i use the same motto.
I have never met an angry or ignorant detectorist yet, I think thats what makes the hobby so good and a credit to the people that are in it.
I always try to find my own ground regardless of where others are getting gold from, If you find your own patch miles away from them, hopefully they wont find it clean it out..


Much better than one of my past time hobbies ( speedway driving) You win on the track , they punch the ##@@### out of you in the pits, sometimes before you can even get the 5 point harness off.. Lmao so if you race speedway , keep ya helmet on...lmao

In WA we hated it if strangers approached us when we were detecting in the middle of nowhere and wanted to detect near us. We looked at this as they cannot look or find any other ground to detect or were scared of being on there own. They had to have ground shown to them where they might find gold. There is 100'km of ground so why should they set up and detect under your nose. One chap who tried this tried to detect within 50mt of us after he watched us digging up objects. He watched for a couple hrs and tried to be friendly but when his machine came out next to us we just turned up gain full and pointed coil in his direction. Upset his machine. We did point out nicely to him that with so much ground around surely he could look elsewhere, even over there somewhere. He ended up packing up and shifting on.
We know ground is open to anybody but why should others 'bumhug'. We usually looked for areas where there was no evidence of previous detecting or old shafts and nearly always found good results. Just a matter of trying to read the ground. Saying thiswe have never detected in victoria so do not know what area is available to detect on and how many people would be out there.
Good luck
travelergold

I didnt think detectors interferred with each other at those distances, intersting.

Oh well, hi ho, hi ho, its off to work I go for the night.

Back to Dunolly tomorrow, I hope I find my 1st gold, or at least a bullet that's not from a .22

Rob

Picks throw....if I can throw my pick at them and hit them every time they are to close , should get the message after the first few hits , I'm a very long throw .

I love it ill try it with the shovel !! like a spear!!

I was told if you put 9 volts across a fluro. starter it will play hell with any detector in the general area, have never tried it myself maybe worth a go.

This topic has been touched on a few times.
There is no doubt that if we find a good patch and somebody else trots up and starts detecting along side then one tends to get a bit cranky but it is a simple fact that you only have the rights to the gold that you have found unless you have a mining or exploration lease on the ground you are searching, even if you have pegged the ground it is not your ground until the lease is approved.
To assume the rights to any gold you have not yet found in free ground just because you happen to be detecting that ground is not a fair crack of the whip.
If anybody ventures inside the "Pick throwing distance" (and even tho I reckon it is a good yardstick), it is a simple indisputable fact that there is nothing you can do to legally stop another person from detecting nearby or even a couple of mtrs away; You can kick and scream and chuck your pick and axe at them or bounce a few .222s between their legs or whatever but if you cause any harm or injury of any kind you can/will expect to be prosecuted and you will loose.
How would you blokes have got on in the early days when the cry GOLD went out?...... In less time than it takes to say What Th F.... there would be a hundred other blokes appear from out of nowhere digging shoulder to shoulder with ya and if ya so much as gave a dirty look sideways at one of them he would likely give you a nudge down yer own shaft.

Yeah it pees you off but when push comes to shove there is no such thing as an Unwritten Law.

there is between the people I dig with !! its called mateship!

because i dont detect -- so the line of gold I find is mine till im finished and say so to my mates !! and vise versa
or invited by that mate to dig along side him and if that happens we put all the gold togeather at the end of the day and 50/50 ----------- to each his own tread your own path

Why would you not respect your mates right to work what he had found, would it be impossible to find another area to work???

Every body has the right to dig what they have found. but even if you find lasseters Reef you cannot stop anybody else from working part of the reef unless you put a lease in place that covers the entire reef.

When a lead was located in the early days bazillions of people worked the lead shoulder to shoulder.
Can you imagine the uproar way back if one person found an underground lead that went for miles and the finder claimed the entire lead to himself even if he had not pegged the ground.... he just wanted all of the gold for himself.....And iz mates

Some companies did work entire leads after have tested the ground and traced the lead and then pegged the ground, that is fair enough because it was then legally their ground to mine exclusively.

thats why mates got together and went to the diggings in a group -- they took out there 10x10 claims in a line and worked cooperatively in some cases or if they were digging shafts they had at least 1 up and one down at all times 24 /7

you try pegging ground as a little guy in Vic these days !! -- i had one of the last MRC's in vic and let me tell ya it was a nightmare -- as you say i cant stop ppl digging along side me sure__but if i come back from having a bite to eat and your in the hole I dug watch out!!!

Adrian it seems your talking mining were talking respect among fellow prospectors and that is all it is respect.

Murachu wrote:because i dont detect -- so the line of gold I find is mine till im finished and say so to my mates !! and vise versa
or invited by that mate to dig along side him and if that happens we put all the gold togeather at the end of the day and 50/50 ----------- to each his own tread your own path

Still tossing sticks on the fire.
Suppose you and your mate have agreed to go 50/50 on the gold found in your patch (you are ALLOWING him to work YOUR PATCH)and you are working out of site of each other and you have both found some good gold but then you unearth a 20kg nug plus the other stuff you have found and your mate comes back with his gold and it is time to divy it up. Whatcha gunna do with the 20 kg bit that took you an couple of hous to extract from its resting place?

That would depend on what type agreement you have made. but if you give your word you stand by it simple.

50/50 no problems live by your word and handshake

20kgs WOW! that would be nice !!

Adrian SS as you can see there are some of us who are very old school --they way we were brought up as kids they way we live our lives!!
Its not about the gold its being able to look yer mate in the eyes !!

James 101 wrote:Adrian it seems your talking mining were talking respect among fellow prospectors and that is all it is respect.

Yes I agree it is all about respect... which should include respect for other detector operators and their right to a bit of the pie. But gold does funny things to a bloke and it is suprising how fast respect can go out the window when there are a few big nuggs at stake.... or even a bit of gold dust at times.

It can indeed thats why you surround your self with like minded diggers in the field !!

Murachu wrote: Adrian SS as you can see there are some of us who are very old school --they way we were brought up as kids they way we live our lives!!
Its not about the gold its being able to look yer mate in the eyes !!

Yeah, I'm with you mate and from the responces to this thread it would appear that there are a lot of true blue Aussies still out there.

I was just testing the waters to make sure I am still in Australia because walking throught our local shopping centre today I though I might have been in a country far far away

Getting a bit off the original question here guys.
I find old prospectors who have been doing it for years do have some ethics about getting to close to other prospectors. Earlier this year we where cleaning out a patch when a old timer and local that was detecting a fair distance away on the other hill came down to say hello and see what all the commotion was. He saw we were on a patch but after a yarn he said he will leave us alone to carry on but soon as we leave he asked if he could have a go in our area. As you guys have said its not my land to say no so we did a good job cleaning it out over the next 2 days before we left. After that anybody had a right to go over the area.
New commers to prospecting aren't so polite, maybe because they still haven't learned the skills to find there own ground or maybe they are just bitten by Gold fever that nothing else matters including ethics, and tend to stick around you and get in your way. You either confront them and tell them how you feel or pack up and go elsewhere and hope they don't follow.
As far as Gold and sharing are concerned between mates, there is still plenty of Gold to go around for everyone if you are prepared to work for it, but true mates are irreplaceable, just make sure you both have an agreement just in case you do find a 20kg nugget.

Adrian SS wrote:I was just testing the waters to make sure I am still in Australia because walking throught our local shopping centre today I though I might have been in a country far far away

a true observation indeed !

grams /oz/kg dosent matter to me ---equal shares no matter what !

Yeah, the newer blokes growin up seem to have no morals, We were in WA and about 80km to nearest town and about 10km off the nearest dirt track. A 4WD rocks up and said he thought he saw some tyre tracks come of road and could of been fresh. "Are ya findn anything'. Our usual answer, 'Na, not a bloody thing'. We decide to boil the kettle and low and behold soon as we put down detectors quick as a flash he's wipped his out and starts detecting right next to us.
Yes the gold you find is yours and you do not own the rights to a patch, there are ways to let them see that they want to move on without causing trouble. couple detectors laying on ground turned on with full gain in there direction moved these guys on. They thought ground to hot to dig.
Another tip, always fill your holes. WA is good as you can fill hole generally and leave ground looking like not really disturbed. BUM HUGGERS generally dont look that hard cause they to lazy to do any hard work. Want it handed to them on a plate.
We have called mates to a site to help us clean up. When you are on a good thing you want to get the most out of it before 'bumhuggers' turn up and muscle in onto easy picking proceeds.
good swinging fella's
travelergold

"BUM HUGGERS generally dont look that hard cause they to lazy to do any hard work. Want it handed to them on a plate".

How true is that !! I blame it on the price rice of gold ! well most of it but there are some who never learn that respect is earned not demanded!