Simple target Recovery - Smash into it

I've noticed that we all use diferent sized picks, but the one thing ive noticed when watching
videos on youtube is the defferent ways that prospectors attack a target.

While it seems most Eastern operators tend to attack a signal with a delicate aproach only taking
sometimes 2" off at a time, over here we tend to smash off 6" to 12" for the first scrape, speaking
for myself only, i get a bit annoyed at the way i see blokes pussy around digging up easy tagets, i'm
not being critical of Bushies but i do think that the "Get it out & Go" method quiet simply gets you
more gold, lets look at it in a very simple way
you get a target all well and good, so what do we do ???

Regardless of the type of coil DD or Mono we are using, the one thing we need to do once we have
a "repeatable" target is aproach the target in the same direction we first aproached it from, and concentrate
on the very front edge of the coil, you need to use the coil like a knife edge and take small slices at the dirt
where the signal is, as soon as you start getting a response from the target the item is usually only 1'-2'
inches from the leading edge of the coil, deeper targets will be directly under the centre of the coil response.

So the next thing you need to do is, do a boot scrape and take all the leaf mulch etc off the ground,
and then re swing the target to make sure its still there, if its still in the exact place and still giving a strong
signal its time to get stuck in , dont be gentle, take 6" off straight away, and take enough to equel the width
of your coil, re scan the hole, targets still there???? well thats it, dont wanna waste precious time diggin up
this nugget so belt another 6" minimum out, re test the hole and if its out then go into recovery mode, first thing to do is flaten out your pile of wash, if you dont do this it will give you a positive signal due to the mound of dirt being pyramid shaped. again concentrate on the leading edge of your coil and use it like your shaving slices of ham "ie"
scan with the coil moving forward only 1-2cm forward at a time, when you get a signal under the coil then we attack the dirt, focusing on the leading edge of your coil slice at the pad, again you get a good strong signal, now
reduce the width of you swing until you can centre your target to within 4" a circle, now a lot off people these
days seem to use a plastic scoop, personally i dont like to use em, each to his/her own, grab a hanfull of wash
where the signal seems to be the strongest and wave it over the TOP of your coil (same response as bottom)
and then we go in to the 50/50 breakdown, keep doing this until we can either see the nugget or if its to small to
see the best thing to do is to sprinkle the dirt onto the top of the coil, when the target hits the coil you will know.

I personally dont use a Super Magnet, i am a typical prospector, susspect
if you get your pinpointing technique spot on as above and trickle the dirt onto your coil you wont need to
use a magnet which can not only cancel all the info on your bankcards but may also sap your detectors punch.

I havnt done or know of tests to do with Super magnets but i do believe that any large magnetic field that
comes close to a pulse detector cant be good, i also turn off my mobile phone for this reason.....


Happy Hunting

Never walk from a target no matter how deep.


Crazy Pete

Pete

That's as good a post as I've ever seen on pinpointing and going after a target.
I personally love using a scoop - but only because there is so much silicon in the dirt
in places here, it tears your hands up and now I've gotten used to using it.
I do think it's slightly faster using yer hands but if you use the scoop right (keeping the
gold at the bottom), it can be pretty quick too.
I also notice that the longer the signal stays in the scoop, the more likely it is that it will be gold.

Great stuff thanks...

Good advice Pete but...

It's not easy to pinpoint when the coil is in the hole i.e. under the natural ground level.
If it's a largish target, the coil will be "swamped"
You can try to centre the target by waving the coil just above the hole but I find the best
way is to use Coiltek's pinpointer. It never fails.
Btw, Trevor is going to produce a Youtube video on how to use one shortly.

Robert

Interesting Comment, but Crazy one, when you get to my age you dig as little as you have to. I just scrape the first 1" off and if the target is still there I dig, then have a smoke, then dig, then have a smoke......

I do have a rare earth magnet in the handle end of my pick and wouldn't be without it.

On a loud target i smash into it. But over here where the gold is much smaller around .2 to .3 i scrape 2 inches at a time , just incase the lil bugger rolls onto its side and then i cant find it. It does me head in watching people pussy foot around too much when digging. And when they take 15 mins to pan a pan of wash dirt i could just grab it out of their hand and do it for them.lol... Gold is so heavy its always gonna stay in the pan unless you do something very silly..
I use my hands on the beach for locating, and in a 2 hr session usually recover a target every 2 mins or less. Got over 100 targets yesterday in exactly 2 hours.
If you want to learn how to pinpoint, go to the beach and dig a few hundred bobby pins in the dark with no torch...You will be amazed at how fast you cant do it..
But in the scrub i use the scoop where possible. Its easier to pick up the lil bits of wire in a scoop, that normally are so hard to pick up with your hand as they roll under the dirt.
Also, there are so many scorpians, and centipedes, and meat ants, in the thick scrub where i go, a scoop is a must unless you like getting tagged by the bities..