Are You Walking Over Nuggets?

Tips on coil swing speed

BOB DANSIE

I often get calls and e-mails from beginners who despite many trips to known gold areas just can't find any nuggets. They are going to patches where others find gold but still come back empty handed. I almost always know what I will find when they join me for a lesson. Almost without exception I see a wild, fast, uncontrolled coil swing. This will work just fine for large shallow targets; bullets, nails and the like respond just fine to this approach. So will a large shallow nugget. But how many of these are left on a really hammered patch? How do some operators find gold day after day on hammered patches? The answer: A slow, calm, plodding approach!

With a PI detector a weak, tiny, or deep target will not be heard with the fast swing. It's that simple. Rapid, jerky movements can also cause false signals. A very small nugget or a deeply buried one will respond far more clearly if the coil is being moved VERY slowly. Being a motion detector it has to be moving a little. In fact a target will fade away rapidly if the coil comes to a total stop over it. But just like with medications, more isn't better. I can make a weak signal totally disappear just by increasing my swing speed. Increasing swing speed can also increase the signal response on hot rocks, hot ground, and black sand. I can make the signal response virtually disappear on these unwanted “targets” by drastically slowing my swing speed. On the other hand, a good metal target will increase in signal response!

This is where the slow swing comes into play on a hammered patch. You are looking for that nugget that got missed by dozens of others who were there before you. The chances of this happening increase if the ground has some difficult factors like those mentioned above. By decreasing the unwanted signals and increasing the wanted signals you will hear that faint signal that got passed up. The real pros that use this method often don't even actually swing the detector. The coil is placed on the ground or very close to it, and poked and guided around obstacles. Taken to extremes like this, virtually nothing is missed and I use it often on the once very rich patches that have really been hit hard. It might not pay huge financial rewards but if it gets you that first nugget it can be a real eye opener.

Finding the first nugget no matter how small is the most important milestone for anyone who has recently gotten involved with the hobby. Going home with a nugget in your pocket will make you love your detector and the dear wife/husband may quit calling you a fool.

These photos are of some nuggets I found over the last few days using the “creep-and-crawl” method on some of the Bradshaw’s most pounded patches. The 3 smallest combined wouldn't even register on my digital scales which take 1/10 gram to activate!

Now we'll get to the exceptions. When hunting for new virgin patches you simply can't cover enough country scrubbing your coil on the ground. In desert situations a new patch will usually have some nuggets sitting very close to the surface. It will often have some large nuggets in the 1/4 ounce range or bigger. There will be some “sitting ducks”. The sitting ducks are what you are looking for while patch hunting. These will respond well with a ground covering swing. A few years ago I stumbled on to one of these. It wasn't really a patch in the normal sense but a vast area of gullies with nuggets in almost every one of them. One gully in the area had been extensively worked by the old-timers, but the rest of them had been totally ignored. I suspect that this rich gully was so rich that they never bothered to dry-wash the surrounding gullies that were not so rich. Since these poorer gullies weren't messed with the trash was almost nonexistent. Once I realized what the situation was, I hit these surrounding gullies very quickly swinging only for the sitting ducks because I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone else stumbled onto the area.

By taking the sitting ducks I knew that someone exploring at a searching pace would be likely to pass through the area empty handed. I could then return later and pick up the smaller and deeper ones at my leisure. It worked very well and I still return to the area and get nuggets on a regular basis despite the fact that there are now club claims in the area. As far as I can tell, no one has stumbled onto it. This now has become a pounded patch and the low and slow approach is the only way to pick any nuggets out of it. The few nuggets that remain are either deep or very small and I really have to work for them.

The beginner with no idea about geology or indicators or how to recognize tell tale signs of old-timer activity has a slim chance of finding a new patch with only blind luck working for him/her. It does happen but it's akin to hitting the lottery. They are far more likely to find gold by carefully working some known patches. Once they have seen several of these patches then he/she will have a good idea of what to look for and with a few nuggets in the poke will have the confidence to start exploring for a new patch of their own. Those who really pay attention to what productive ground looks like and are really observant of their surroundings catch on fast. Those with their head in the clouds, wandering around day dreaming, or worrying about problems at work or home will have a tough time.