Research and Planning pays off.

There is a thrill in digging up a piece of gold. Something that has been in the ground and the earth for many thousands or even millions of years and has not seen the light of day in all that time. Something that no one has ever seen before. It doesn’t really matter how big it is, but it is just that little bit sweeter when it is of the bigger size because there’s fewer of them.
I consider myself half lucky by some standards – I get to go out about once a month. Some people are only able to go out maybe once a year during their annual leave. Some very lucky people, have the freedom to be able to go once a week. Some even luckier people live right there in the goldfields and are able to go out everyday and maybe even make a comfortable living out of this great hobby/sport/pastime of ours. For now, due to other commitments, I spend as much time as I have available in the goldfields and for that I’m grateful.
The times between the visits are not wasted though and are spent doing what I consider, just as important as actually swinging the detector – “research and planning”. Just as Jack Lange showed in one of his previous videos on the SD series, I study maps of the area that I am considering visiting, looking at the terrain, the contours, any diggings and trying to imagine the possible route of any travelled gold. I believe that it is a vital ingredient for a successful outing to pre study maps, or really you may as well be swinging in the middle of Bourke St. Of course luck plays a part in this and so does confidence in yourself and your machines abilities.

In my last month, many many hours were spent in front of computer screens, researching maps and Google Earthing different possible locations and of course studying the great John Tully maps, carefully planning the next outing. After what seemed like forever, the great day came and 3.15am in the morning I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm, packed the final things and was out the door like a lightning bolt. I tried to be as quiet as possible but somehow I managed to wake the missus and the 3 kids and to my surprise instead of being upset, they all came out to say a final goodbye to me. With a smile under my hat, I was off…..FINALLY.

”X” marks my spot, watch out, here I come.

Well after driving FOREVER, I finally get there. I drive to a spot that I plucked out a little piece during a past outing and start my assault. This isn’t the place I studied for, but it’s close and it’s on the way and I figure that I just have to look here again. 2½ hours later I struggle back to the car, starving, thirsty and mighty tired, with a big fat zero to my tally. I eat and drink and then look towards the direction that I need to drive to get to my “studied” area, my “spot”…it looks a lot harder to get to than it did on Google Earth. Damn I couldn’t see all those sharp boulders and knife edged rocks on the computer screen. I take a walk around, up and down until I find what could be a possible route (with a little care). Anyway if my tires do get slashed, I know my mate Gully Hunter is coming sometime tomorrow and he’ll help me out somehow. 

About 20 minutes later after some very slow and careful driving in 4x4 mode, I end up near where I want to be! Open the back doors to the Patrol, throw out my gear and 10 seconds later, I’m off. Slowly swinging, make my way down the slope to some old timer’s diggings, briefly look over them and then studying the slope above. I’m looking for the possible direction that gold may have travelled to get to this point. Damn thing is that looking upwards, it all looks good. I’ll just have to swing my detector over all of it. Anyway I start heading in a direction uphill and looking and listening for that elusive gold nugget. About 2 hours later and after a bazillion junk targets thanks to a nearby farmer dumping his old rusty fence on the “public” side before erecting his shiny new one on the border, I pick up what sounds like a target or is it ground noise???





I nearly walked away a couple of times. After digging up a lot of junk and a few hot rocks, I lost a little concentration and half doubted what my machine was telling me, and I nearly walked away. I’m so glad I didn’t as I was soon rewarded with that 0.90gm piece of gold – my reward for the very many hours spent in the “research and planning” phase. As I mention before, big nuggets are great, but to find even the tiniest of flyspecks after so much prior pre-planned effort is an absolute fantastic feeling.
Then an utter eerie thing happens. No sooner do I turn the video off and Gully Hunter rings me on the phone. I swear that guy is an absolute MAGNET for gold. I tell him of my find and I can hear his excitement over the phone. We made plans for his visit the next morning and I’m off swinging again.
Well so as not to totally bore you, and to cut a long story short, after hours of swinging, I don’t find anything else that day and I get VERY cold that night whilst trying to sleep, so much so that I can’t feel my hands in the morning, even when I slice it on the gas cooker’s top. I stick my stuff on and just as I’m about to go back out, I get a phone call from Gully Hunter wondering how in heaven is he going to get through the rocks and boulders. I little direction pointer and soon he’s down coffeed up and geared up, ready to “swing”.
I guide him on a little tour of the area with the intention to show him where I found that little piece yesterday and 20 minutes later, BANG out pops the ouncer. The Gully Hunter strikes again. We look down at it and it looks very dirty. Could it be gold? Scratch, scratch and there’s a smidgeon of yellow. It really is GOLD!!! That’s what it’s all about, being rewarded for all those hours of “research and planning”. The new area pays off!!! Over the course of the next few hours GH plucks out another 2 bits and I’m feeling a little bit bruised as I’ve yet to strike it lucky again. Times up for Glen and he has to go. I’ve still got another 2 hours allocated before I have to make tracks myself, so I decide to walk Glen back to his car, shake his hand in congratulations and see him off proper.
About 10 meters from the car and walking about 10 meters apart, Glen picks up a signal and so do I. I joke to him that we might be on a patch and he says his is just rust. Hmmmm mine sounds a little bit more serious than just rust, so I keep on scratching. He comes over to help and offers to be my digger. Well that’s a sign from God isn’t it??? The GOLD magnet man himself is offering to be my digger. Well true to his form, Gully Hunter strikes again…the magnet-man has attracted this 6.56gm piece of beautiful GOLD!!!





What I suppose I’m saying guys, we all want to spend as much time out there, in the bush, swinging our detectors. God, I feel that I could spend every minute of everyday, swinging my old 2200d and still it wouldn’t be enough. Even on my drive back to Melbourne, tired and half asleep, I’m pretty much always planning my next trip away and feeling sad about the drive back and that LONG month of waiting ahead. I always used to say that in this hobby to be successful, it’s a 3 part process, confidence in your machine, confidence in your abilities and of course luck, but now I say it’s a 4 part process and have added “research and planning” in the scheme of things. I always knew it but now I’ve formally added it to the equation. Without proper planning, you can waste hours and achieve very little (unless you have a great deal of luck on your side), but with the right planning, you can increase your chances and need less “luck”, of finding a little bit of yellow.

And this trip has made me mindful of this once again. (….and I suppose having the magnet-man GH there somewhere near you, also helps…)

Great story and a happy ending.
Nice gold there.Good going guys.
Good luck in the future research.
Looking forward for more pictures.
GoldEN

Great story, well done. Which part of Melbourne do you tavel from?

Good onya pal, thats a nice looking slug you pulled out, quality not quantity thats what its all about
Since you love researching can I send you my homework, just put X marks the spot on all my maps

terrific story mate and great pieces of gold
cheers dave

Hi CostasDee,

Well written mate, your story activated my detecting nodes >>> they started pulsing

Regards
Paul

Thanks for the kind replies guys.
Golden Child, I can certainly put "X" on your maps, and I can almost guarantee you success, but a lot of hours go into the research - are you sure you want to pay for it? My hourly rate can be a bit expensive for some.
Cams 4500, without being too exact on the open forum, inner east of Melbourne.
Paul, it's like a drug, a narcotic doing this hobby. My missus recons I talk like a "gambler" when I discuss gold detecting with her (for the very little time she'll actually stand listening to me talking about it that is). I tell her it's not what she imagines, it's just a passion I have for the hobby. The thrill of finding something that has NEVER been found before. The excitement of just being out there & away from the daily grind, even just for a little bit.

Great work CostasDee and the magnet-man Lots of hard work and dedication always rewards the ones that do!

Ren...

CostasDee,

Great story and good finds. I read this post earlier and thought it was a great video you posted about hot ground or target, everyone could learn from it, I'm not sure why you removed it but was wondering if you could repost it or a shorter version as after watching and listening to the sounds it had me wondering if I'd mistaken target signals for hot ground and just walked off leaving a nugget behind.

G.B.

Hi CD,

Great story and very good info mate.

Even though GH pinged the big one, I'm sure your turn will come again soon, you will just have to put the gold Hoover on a shorter chain

Any way good luck and keep hitting the research.

Mariner3800

Hi G.B., thanks for commenting and you are quite right. I wonder how many nuggets I may have walked over or given up on thinking they where ground noise. Sometimes you start digging and expect the sound to get louder straight away, but it may take a few scrapes before the sound actually increases, especially with smaller ones and DD coils. Monos with their extra sensitivity probably suffer from this to a lesser extent.
I relooked at the vids and they were a little long and there was so much noise from the pick being near the coil, so I'm uploading the "shortened" version now. I'll attach them to the top/first post soon as it finishes for all to see.

Cheers all and a special thanks to GH for a great day out.

Hi Con , Fantastic write up , great pics & awesome vids Bro !!!
Congrats again on your sweet finds ... Your research & planning certainly payed dividends that day- Top job ....
See ya soon pal !!!
Regards
Gully Hunter

G'day CostasDee
That's a great story there you should be paid $$$ for you terrific story. And those great vids as well congrats to you and G.H that's fantastic finds and great research on your part.... It really does pay.

Cheers.

Mike.

Well done CostasDee. As you have proven that research pays of. I'm a bit more luckier than most, by living up in the goldfields but I to still do some research, but then I can go straight out and check out what I was looking for. Were people living outside the gold fields can't do that every offen. I noticed from your video's that there was no old diggers holes around, like it was virgin ground,on side of a hill. Am I right or was there diggings not far away but we could not see them in the Video.?
wombat

Hi Wombat,
You are indeed very lucky to live out there and have a passion for detecting. i would absolutely love to have more time avilable to spend swinging the detector and less time dreaming of what adventures are in store for me next time I do get to go out. Planning and researching are great and indeed necessary, dreaming of the experience is great, but actually being out there and living your passion, well that's just the best.
As far as diggings go, well Wombat there's not much of this "virgin land" that you mentioned, in Victoria anyway, left anywhere. They are some diggings down in the gully, like you would expect, and quite a few test holes down the slope, but obviously the old times didn't think it was payable enough for them so they didn't do to much on the slope. A few detector scratchings dotted around the place, not alot but a few, but lucky for me, nobody has ever found the 2 little pieces I managed to score and weren't thorough enough to get the other 3 nuggets GullyHunter scored.

Well done on your recent finds and a nice story. GGT material. Pm sent.

Good story and great result on your finds well done

Eureka Dreams

Hi CostasDee
yes, research is probably the most important part of chasing the yellow.
Very nice find and great story to go with it!
congrats
bedrock

awesome stuff mate love the vids.... if you do your homework it can pay off.
cheers
stoppsy