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Showing posts from 2009

GOLD BUG DETECTOR

We recieved a question from a Youtube user and wanted to share our response as an educational prospecting tip! Hi , I've just purchased a Gold Bug Detector and have been enjoying your Videos and would like to ask a few questions . Noticed you use the small coil , do you use it all the time or just mainly in bedrock areas ? I will be detecting Bushland here in Victoria , old Aluvial sites . My detector came with the 3 coils so what would you recommend I use ? Any other tips on using the Gold Bug would be greatly appreciated . I have just ordered Zip Zip by Larry Sallee and also Advanced Nugget Hunting by Heydelaar and Johnson , they look like good books . Keep the Videos coming they are great , regards from Down Under. Is your detector an original Gold Bug, or the new Gold Bug 2? I use the 3" coil exclusively. Less tiring for searching the hillsides, and gets down in the tight areas of bedrock after we have prepared our dig. One tip I can give you is to use a board, 4' x

YOU WANT TO FIND GOLD-YOU GOTTA DIG

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VIDEO SERIES OF 8 ON HOW TO PROSPECT YOUR CLAIM

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DESERT SURVIVAL 101?

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The relatives had come to visit. Cindy's sister, Teresa, and her boyfriend, Jack, had never been to Arizona and naturally, wanted to spend a day in the desert and see how we use a metal detector when we prospect for gold. We had been living in the desert for a few years now and so it seemed reasonable to explain a few things. Jack carried a pistol. I did't carry guns, so I told him to leave it in the truck. We did'nt use our desert critters for target practice, not even the occasional rattlesnake we might encounter. Next, we explained that everything in the desert will bite you, sting you, including the plants, so be aware of your surroundings, watch where you step, reach or squat. Then away we went. I took Jack to the creek, scratched some material around and found a small piece of gold with my Gold Bug detector. Cindy and Teresa went exploring down the canyon. Only a few minutes went by when there was a ruchus down canyon, and Cindy and Teresa came running up. Seems

ANOTHER NUGGET FOUND

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This was our total take from our dig today, 4.4 Grams. The 3.2 nugget on the top right we named, The Pack Man Nugget! Buddy.

VIEW OF OUR CLAIM

Chris is speaking and giving a description of our work area at the claim.

Finding Something Of Value

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Like all new ventures, it's taken time, patience, many disappointments, and many mistakes to become completely confident in my abilities to prospect, and trust the detector's ability to locate the gold. My demonstrations on how to use the Fisher line of metal detectors are not designed around "mans" inate ability to contract "Gold Fever" by reading a book, seeing a large piece of Gold, or hearing all the "hype" from someone, who is more anxious to separate you from your money than be concerned with what your potential is to actually find something of value. Into 5 months of prospecting on our claim, 2-3 days a week, we found a 3.2 gram nugget! We arrived around 10am. This particular area of our claim required us to remove a yard (27 cubic feet) of barren boulder and gravel-pack, to expose a 2ft x 6ft area of bedrock. After a 9-hour day of digging, bucket sampling, detecting, there it was, all by itself, 3 inches in the crack of the bedrock. It was

Some Visiting Critters Not So Easily Seen

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A deer observing us while we are observing it. A little tree frog resting on our equipment.

Some Visiting Critters Not So Easily Seen

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A deer observing us while we are observing it. A little tree frog resting on our equipment.

Some Unexpected Visitors

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On one of our trips back to the truck after a long day at our claim we came across this beautiful Mohave Rattlesnake. Then a Transula had the right of way! We respected their Territory!! This brings to mind a paper I wrote for my college english 101 class back in 1986. It was titled: AN EXAMPLE OF "CLASSICAL CONDITIONING" AND "OPERANT CONDITIONING" by Raymond Pomichter. One of the best examples of "Classical Conditioning" I can give is an experience in conditioning that I, myself, acquired while living and working in the Arizona desert. I spent many hours roaming the desert, "prospecting" for precious metals, or working on a mining claim, and I often came upon rattlesnakes. The sight of one would bring me to a halt, and send twinges of fear through me, until I could see for certain that I was in no danger of being bitten. By keeping a safe distance and prodding one of these snakes with a stick to get him to "rattle" so I would know

MOST MEMORABLE DESERT CRITTER

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One of my most memorable encounters with a desert creatue was when I prospected the Mineral Mountain area east of Apache Junction, Arizona. I spent a few weeks as watchman on a mining claim, where I stayed in a little camp trailer provided by the owner. It had sat idle for quite some time and a packrat had obviously decided to set up housekeeping. Now, packrats are interesting desert critters. Aptly named, they collect and save anything and everything. They are also noted for their tendency to barter and trade items of interest. My first day on the job, I knew a packrat was somewhere, as I spent a good part of the morning picking up silverware that had been strewn around the ground near the camper. When I opened the sillverware drawer, sure enough, it was crammed with cactus beans, twigs, acorns, and various pieces of ribbon and cloth! Late in the evening I would start the generator to freeze water in the fridge to keep my foodsuffs fresh, watch a little TV or read, then

"WHEN YA GOTTA GO-YA GOTTA GO"

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From the story, Living And Learning From The Desert, Buddy has added some details I left out! Here is his story! I had decided to up-grade our situation a little, and build us an out-house. After all, I did have the material just laying around, a tree saw and a hammer. After a few hours work and no major incidents involving gushing blood or smashed fingers, I stood back to view my work of art. This was a thing of beauty. Solid 2x4 construction, with plywood flooring, and I had gone so far as to buy a padded seat and cover. One day while I was enjoying a cup of coffee, an SUV vehicle pulled up in the wash, and a little old gent jumped out and made a bee-line up the path to our little building. "The nerve of some people, not even the courtesy to ask if they could use the restroom!" I watched with some amuzement as he opened the door and stepped in. Now, give it a few seconds, the door opens, and there's no way to describe the look on this old gent's face, as he waddled

RUN IT! GRAB IT! PAN IT!

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The total take for the day! After we detected the .6 gram piece of placer gold we used our sluice box in the one day excavation. Videos filmed by our son, Chris. BUDDY.

DETECT IT

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Using a metal detector can greatly increase your chances of finding placer gold. I use the Fisher Gold Bug with the small coil, which is good for narrow and tight spots with-in the bedrock. You can see in the video, that the coil comes in handy again for reducing your dirt material you grabed from the ground. "ZIP and FLIP" I call it! At the end of this dig, there it is in my palm! It is a .6 gram nugget. This is the first video in our instructional set of Gold Prospecting Videos. Video filmed by our son, Chris who is also helping with the digging! More to come! BUDDY.

Metal Detecting Out On The Claim

Back Drop To Our Claim

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Live With or Live Without Conviences

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We get so used to modern living with electricity, running water, gas and electric stoves and a store or shopping center close to home that we can't imagine that it's possible to get along without these conviences. My family and I lived for eight months in the Arizona desert, and it is possible to live without modern conviences and even fun. How many times have you turned on the shower and stood there for 20 minutes while gallons of water flow over you and then disappear down the drain? You may not be paying for the water, but the electricity to heat it costs quite a bit. When water is scarce, you can get just as clean by sponging down with a gallon of water! As a matter of fact, my wife, two boys and I used only 65 gallons of water per week, to drink, cook, and bath in. Cooking can be fun and save money when your away from modern conviences. We had a coleman stove that used white gas, and by cooking most of our meals, and heating our water over a campfire, we used about one gal

Living and Learning from the Desert

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I remember our last camping experience in the desert before the boy's had to enroll in school. We had a chevy stepvan then, with bunkbeds in the back built by my husband. We were invited to visit Arizona by some folks we met at Buckskin Joe, near Canon City, Colorado, during our previous visits to Colorado. We found a dirt road leading into the desert from the highway near Apache Junction, Az. We parked along side a nice dry wash. Did some Gold Prospecting and seached for Arrowheads, Driftwood and such. We came upon a natural spring along the top of the bank of the wash, about five foot up. My husband put holes in a tin coffee can and attached the can to a shrub just under the spring. We now had a shower! Ice cold, but in the heat of the day it was great! We had the neccessary camping equipment to cook, and light our camping area with and a huge ice chest that kept our food cold. Once a week we drove into town to replenish our supplies and do laundry. We met several interesting pe

Gold of Lynx Creek

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Lynx Creek, and surrounding area, located just out of Prescott, Arizona, was discovered around 1863-1864. The area was a major gold producer and is filled with interesting mining history. The area has a huge drainage system and each spring run-off and summer monsoon flooding has a tendency to move material around, replenishing small flakes & dust of gold. This makes the Lynx Creek Recreation area a perfect location for the novice prospector to get started. Try shaking out the grass roots and moss in your pan, or sweep the cracks in the bedrock. You are almost assured to find "color" and small flakes. The gold at Lynx Creek is in the form of real thin small flakes, and there is plenty of "super dust", pin-point little pieces. This makes for an ideal place to perfect your panning techniques. I have always said, "If you can pan gold at Lynx Creek, you will be able to pan anywhere in the country". Good Luck and Happy Hunting!! There will be more informativ

Gold & Critters

The power of the mention of a gold discovery brings to mind the time we were on one of our early camping and prospecting trips to Lynx Creek, just out of Prescott,Arizona. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and the creek was lined with people enjoing themselves and panning along the banks and small pools of water. The soothing buzz of insects, chirp of birds, and clinking of tools against bedrock, was suddenly broken by an excited, "Gold, I found nuggets"! Heads turned up creek, and a few folks actually grabbed up their tools and headed for the "discovery". Of course, the "rush" was short lived, when the "prospector" turned out to be Jim, our 2 -1/2 foot tall, chubby, little three year old! He had just panned his first little pieces of gold and just had to let the world know about it! The rest of the afternoon and well into evening around the campfire was filled with joy and laughter as the story was told and retold, how little Jim had created s

Our First Trip Out West

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Buddy, my husband, and I, Cindy, and our sons Chris, 4 and Jimmy, 3 lived in a tent and a blue van, during our vacation in Colorado, at the Royal Gorge KOA campground in 1979. I worked at the Emporium Gift Shop at Buckskin Joe during our summer stay that year. Buddy was hired there also as a Gunfighter in their every hour shows for the tourists. Both Buddy and I sang country songs inside the saloon in between the gunfights and the magic shows. We worked for tips. We fell in love with the western way of life; easy laid back style. When it came time for the boys to enter school, we moved to Arizona. Buddy became interested in Gold-Prospecting and Geology. He took geology classes at Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ. We took the boys out with us camping and prospecting at Lynx Creek, in Prescott several times. Go to http://www.cynthiamargaret.com/cm_my_blogs_adventure.php to see the photo of Dad and the boys! The story that follows is written by Buddy.

Our First Family Blog

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Welcome to our blog where we will be sharing our own true family stories with a touch of humor! Since the purchase of our own mining claim we call, Cinbud's Gold, and the use of this blog, we can now share our Gold-Prospecting experiences with you. We hope to be an informational resource for you in the Art of Gold-Mining!

Our First Family Blog

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Welcome to our blog where we will be sharing our own true family stories with a touch of humor! Since the purchase of our own mining claim we call, Cinbud's Gold, and the use of this blog, we can now share our Gold-Prospecting experiences with you. We hope to be an informational resource for you in the Art of Gold-Mining!