Haha I rekon! Boy if trash could talk hey. Whenever I find a bit of trash my mind wanders to all the potential possibilities. I might try and clean it up a bit and see if it will reveal more of its secrets to us. Another great insight thanks silver.
Good question, how do we know? Another prospector could just walk along tomorrow and ping it. I would have less dramas if I didn't see cars on the way in and the tailings weren't so fresh.
No reason to be sorry mate. What is it you don't understand? I will do my best to explain. I assumed the target was very close to the surface due to the response I was getting from the detector ( by surface I mean the surface of the bottom of the hole haha). I thought surely its a shovel or...
I might also mention it was in a creek so the target was under about 600mm of water. Probably about a wheelbarrows worth of classified material on the side.
I really should have hey haha! I can remember several instances where I have left holes open with my bucket on a stick and two sticks making an x over it (as I thought that was protocol). And all I'll say is I didn't even get my buckets back..
I have a feeling they are local as I have seen one of the vehicles around town. Maybe it is a crowbar in the hole haha. I just have think if it really is what it could be and they had detectors they wouldn't walk away from it.
There were some cars as I came in but not when I left, no gear, just hole and tailings. I assumed they may still be working it because they left it open. But we get a lot of holes left open round here.
So I need a bit of help in regards to ethics in the gold fields.
My conundrum is this... After an hour or so of detecting I came across what looked like a very fresh tailings pile. As I passed I couldn't help but stick my detector in the hole they had dug and boy did I get a signal. It was...
Thanks everyone for your posts, there has been some very good arguments. I am also finding the polls very interesting (admittedly the poll could have been worded differently) I feel like it could still be helpful to others asking the same question.
I have to say I am feeling a slight sense of...