How did you lose your { gold} cherry?

howdy folks.I bought a gpz 5000 awhile ago and was pretty clueless how to use it even after reading the manual. So, at the suggestion of a long time friend whose been prospecting for years I did the minelab intro course. -money well spent! Anyway, I found my first nugget ! {more of a speck, but allow me my moment of glory}. I'll post pics later .{ bit like a proud dad}.

We joined a prospecting group on a week long field trip. At that time we never knew what a gold nugget looked like but with a little guidance from a few like minded people we found our first 0.8g piece of gold. It was under a layer of calcrete so we worked for it too. An hour or so later we dug a huge hole for a coke can that had been dragged down a rabbit burrow. I was sure it was gold because we had to chip our way through rock to get to it.

The following week after the group left for home we dug our second, a 35g nugget at about 400mm down.



My first thought was "This is easy" so we left in the morning and headed for a new spot. On the way we met a couple and showed off our finds. They said "Where did you find that? You never leave a spot like that". So we turned around and headed right back and pulled a 6g piece out within a metre of the big one.

It took us several years to find another as big as our second ever nugget.

was about 48 years ago, Dad had just bought his first detector.. a 5000D. So loaded the car up and off we went, back to his old stomping ground. Got out the car, fired it up and paid for the detector within half an hour. Needless to say many more followed

First flakes were dredging in the highlands up Dargo way, was about 15 years old.
First decent but ( maybe a couple of grams) was with a Whites 5000D when Dad moved to Wedderburn, low to mid 80's.
Mrs Redfin similar, panning as a teenager, then the SD 2000 when her Dad moved to Dunolly about 1990.

Moonambel GT Vic. - 1st gold find.
Exactly the low and deep threshold signal I had been waiting to hear, 30cm down and I thought it, when in hand, that it was lead. It was very very hard mud encrusted. Wetting it and rubbing it against my trousers it wouldn't show colour till I got a raised edge to change from dull to golden.

Nice first piece. Was there the other day, Moonambel that is. Summerfield winery for woodfired pizza and a glass of red. Great spot.

After 10+ years of looking I'm still a V I R G I N, apparently .au is not easy 2 find in SA !!!

Still waiting to find the first bit..
The detectors are long out of warranty….
They have been sitting in the cupboard for better than 6 years …
Bloody work keeps getting in the way ….
This year maybe lol

stevewilko said:

Moonambel GT Vic. - 1st gold find.
Exactly the low and deep threshold signal I had been waiting to hear, 30cm down and I thought it, when in hand, that it was lead. It was very very hard mud encrusted. Wetting it and rubbing it against my trousers it wouldn't show colour till I got a raised edge to change from dull to golden.
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That is just beautiful, well done!!

Nanjim said:

Still waiting to find the first bit..
The detectors are long out of warranty….
They have been sitting in the cupboard for better than 6 years …
Bloody work keeps getting in the way ….
This year maybe lol

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It's a decision you have to make. Wherever you live gold is usually only a few hours away but if you never drag the detector out and put it in the car then life just passes you by. Work for most of us is not really living. If we have to work all the time then we are spending too much to be able to enjoy the short life we have. I just sorted out the drag coil yesterday so I'm about to head out to see if it'll work behind the Honda quad. I most likely won't earn anything but I won't spend much and I'll enjoy myself

When I was about 6 or 7, camping somewhere around Sandstone. Was looking for bottles and relics to load dad's car up with but found a 3g sunbaker instead.

Got my first gold panning in the Yarra river during a drought in the early 60’s.
How did I then lose that? It was after I got married and the kids got to my little bottle of gold and sprinkled maybe half the contents of those shiny little bits on the shag pile carpet.
A bit later when I noticed the contents of the bottle had significantly decreased and commented to my wife she told me she had seen the kids with the bottle and had put it back. Putting 2 and 2 together I scoured the carpet outside the cabinet and found a few bits but then my wife told me she had since vacuumed there.
Back in those days we had incinerators and that is where we burnt a lot of our rubbish including vacuumings so I spent a messy few days panning ashes from our incinerator and found some more gold but alas years of work was still missing.

To follow on - I have a first find as a sunbaker!
Little Doris Creek tributary Erlistoun Station last year.
I saw it just before my coil swing went to it. 5.7gms. It had shed most of its ironstone component but still a rough and prickly nugget.

I use to detect for coins and jewellery on the beaches around Wollongong and always dreamed of gold detecting and had a subscription to gem and treasure magazine. For my 40th birthday my son bought me a voucher for a prospecting tour with an outfit near Mudgee in the central west. They supplied a detector and lessons and I found my first piece weighing 1.2grams which I still have. The following week I bought a gpx4500 which I also still have though I mainly use a gpz7000 now.

Hi I bought xterra 705 first about 4 years ago then upgraded to gm1000 2and half years ago and still a gold virgin but only go out a few times a years on annual leave [ twice a year for 2 weeks and occassional sundays ] but hey its the thrill of the chase and our great aussie bush that keeps me going.

trekkie said:

Hi I bought xterra 705 first about 4 years ago then upgraded to gm1000 2and half years ago and still a gold virgin but only go out a few times a years on annual leave [ twice a year for 2 weeks and occassional sundays ] but hey its the thrill of the chase and our great aussie bush that keeps me going.

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Steve, most of the gold left out there is quite difficult to find so you really need a more modern detector to improve your chances of finding gold. The 705 will struggle to find much of what is left. You'd have a good a chance as anybody with a good used SDC2300 although I have seen good results with the Gold Monster but the higher value Minelab detectors improve your chances.

Thanks Moneybox I use the monster for gold when i get a chance to go out and the xterra for parks these days

You're probably walking over it! If you're going to invest your time to gold prospecting you need to invest your wallet first. If you ever lose your gold virginity with one of those machines, when you've gridded the area and are completely happy there's no more gold there, Please contact me so I can go there with a Z and get the ounces you left for me.

trekkie said:

Hi I bought xterra 705 first about 4 years ago then upgraded to gm1000 2and half years ago and still a gold virgin but only go out a few times a years on annual leave [ twice a year for 2 weeks and occassional sundays ] but hey its the thrill of the chase and our great aussie bush that keeps me going.

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Second moneybox’s comments. You need a top grade detector otherwise you are behind the eightball with others going over the ground not only before you but also with better detectors.
When I was working I used to have your problem of only having limited leave time each year and with a young family limited finances to be able have thousands of dollars sitting in a cupboard for most of a year.
The way I used to get around it was to buy a second hand top grade machine (in those days through the Trading Post), use it during my holidays and immediately resell it through the TP when we got home.
Much cheaper than hiring a good machine as over a few weeks the asking price didn’t diminish that much and in one instance was lucky to get more than I paid for the machine.
There are lots of good secondhand 2300s and 5000s about at the moment that will almost guarantee you to find you gold. With the 5000 make sure you get a good small coil such as a 8” round or 8 x 6 Sadie. Large coils will almost guarantee newbies will not find gold As they are best used to winkle out the deeper nuggets after the small ones have first been detected In an area.

Dave79 said:

When I was about 6 or 7, camping somewhere around Sandstone. Was looking for bottles and relics to load dad's car up with but found a 3g sunbaker instead

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Awesome, mate! I didn't sunbakers were real until I was working a patch with a mate recently and watched him walking along line and grabbed two right off the surface.