Reasons You May Not Be Finding Anything?

Ive been gold detecting for around 9 months and have been out dozens of times at least once a week to known gold bearing areas but I never find anything....I feel I know what Im doing been showed by people who had done it for years and all though I have found 2 sub grammars which I was over the moon about when I first started and one couple weeks ago I remain gold less 99% of the time. Considering the effort and hours I put in it doesnt make sense. I know gold is RARE but come on Ive surely walked over some? When I see people just starting out finding a couple grammars over a short period of time it confuses the hell out of me. Of course I definantly dont expect to find something al the time but when you constantly come home empty handed its disappointing in a way. I truly believe most of the gold has been picked up over the years detectors have been out. I thought it was impossible but theres holes everywhere even when you think your in the middle of nowhere. lol

Welcome to the real world ..... I hope a lot of Aussie Gold Hunters viewers see this, realise it's not easy and (better for the rest of us) stay away.

But seriously, you've at least found gold, I've been helping 1 bloke on and off over a few trips but his score is still zero, nil, SFA.
Another 'pupil' picked up a great historic button AND a 1gm plus piece without owning a detector on his 1st day out (he was using mine) but went out the next day and bought 1 ....... since that day about 9 months ago he now finds gold on 90/95% of his outing, my hit rate is very similar with very few trips without finding at least 1 piece ...... BUT others are still doing much better.

Difference is I'm using the SDC but also use a GPX (with fewer results).

In your case maybe a coil smaller than the 15" may change your "luck", you may be walking over gold but the bigger coil is targeted to bigger pieces down deeper.

Probably doing nothing wrong and probably in the right areas but just need a coil more sensitive to the smaller gold that's still out there.
IF you're not into small gold, keep going as you are, sooner of later you'll walk over a big one that will make up for the goldless days.

Cheers T.

Hi VGH,

I would seriously consider doing a course with a reputable trainer.
What you need is some one on one. Some one to walk with you to see your technique, hear what you're hearing and probably more importantly hear what you're not hearing.

The main thing I see reading your last number of posts is a lack of confidence, in your gear and most likely yourself. This is a huge barrier that a good trainer will help you overcome.

9 months is not a long time. Becoming a good prospector is like most trades, to become good at it you need to do your apprenticeship, that can be years.
It's not just walking the ground. It's reading the ground, reading vegetation, reading the gold, learning to listen and hear something almost not there. And of course, that all important research.

Good luck mate!

VicGoldHunter said:

Ive been gold detecting for around 9 months and have been out dozens of times at least once a week to known gold bearing areas but I never find anything....I feel I know what Im doing been showed by people who had done it for years and all though I have found 2 sub grammars which I was over the moon about when I first started and one couple weeks ago I remain gold less 99% of the time. Considering the effort and hours I put in it doesnt make sense. I know gold is RARE but come on Ive surely walked over some? When I see people just starting out finding a couple grammars over a short period of time it confuses the hell out of me. Of course I deffiently dont expect to find something al the time but when you constantly come home empty handed its disappointing in a way. I truly believe most of the gold has been picked up over the years detectors have been out. I thought it was impossible but theres holes everywhere even when you think your in the middle of no where lol

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Stick with it and take MadTuna's advice...Maybe you are listening for the big noises, but missing the little threshold blips and wavers, a trainer could help
In regards to dig holes everywhere, people do miss stuff....My first patch had one dig hole about 10 foot to the south...whoever dug that should have turned north, but lucky for me they didnt

I walked around for two years every friday night from sun down to sun up 12+ hours every time detecting before I found a piece,

Wow, I could have written this post VGH. We seem to have so much in common in terms of our experiences. My wife and I have not been at it as long as you however, as we started out with the SDC we did have some immediate success - around 9 small (very small) nuggets for not a lot of effort. I recently added a 4500 and the results since have been few and far between.

Like you, I have walked miles into the bush to get away from the hammered grounds - seriously I have gone to places thinking I must be the first white person to visit. It doesn't take long however, to discover traces of those before me though; bits of rubbish, plastic drink bottles, gaping detector holes not filled in. It seems like there isn't a spare inch of Victoria that someone hasn't had a crack at.

I think a lot depends on attitude though. Right from the outset I decided to view the detector like an electronic dog - just a means of getting out of the house and into the bush. My wife and I always go together, we take a picnic - perhaps grill a few snags and boil the billy. It's a great day out and if we find a bit of gold it's a bonus.

We have also taken the caravan and camped a few nights. In between games of scrabble and a few bevies one of us will have a detect. You don't feel like you are flogging a dead horse that way.

I have given up looking for the hand of faith. Just enjoying the experience now. A bit like fishing - any day on the water is a good day.

Archimedes said:

A bit like fishing - any day on the water is a good day.

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Nailed it :Y: :Y: :Y:

Teemore said:

Welcome to the real world ..... I hope a lot of Aussie Gold Hunters viewers see this, realise it's not easy and (better for the rest of us) stay away.

But seriously, you've at least found gold, I've been helping 1 bloke on and off over a few trips but his score is still zero, nil, SFA.
Another 'pupil' picked up a great historic button AND a 1gm plus piece without owning a detector on his 1st day out (he was using mine) but went out the next day and bought 1 ....... since that day about 9 months ago he now finds gold on 90/95% of his outing, my hit rate is very similar with very few trips without finding at least 1 piece ...... BUT others are still doing much better.

Difference is I'm using the SDC but also use a GPX (with fewer results).

In your case maybe a coil smaller than the 15" may change your "luck", you may be walking over gold but the bigger coil is targeted to bigger pieces down deeper.

Probably doing nothing wrong and probably in the right areas but just need a coil more sensitive to the smaller gold that's still out there.
IF you're not into small gold, keep going as you are, sooner of later you'll walk over a big one that will make up for the goldless days.

Cheers T.

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Gee thats hard to hear just bought the 15 couple days ago! The sdc does seem to get much more gold mostly small but still small stuff is better than nothing. Ill really consider a days training. But I dont think its my skill level as to why Im not finding anything, I think its the places Im going they all seem completely flogged

You won't find a goldfield that isn't flogged in Victoria. You are gaining experience just the same way most of us did and anyone new will and I'll back it in your missing targets due to your experience. Take madtuna's advice and book in for a one on one.

Do you go out on your own or with others, are you a member of your local PMAV.

PMAV is a great way to tap into experience with the added benefit of field days / weekends. If you are going on your own most times it would be a good idea to buddy up with others who have had success. By doing these things along with madtunas advice you should become successful more often.

What detector are you swinging?

VicGoldHunter said:

Gee thats hard to hear just bought the 15 couple days ago! The sdc does seem to get much more gold mostly small but still small stuff is better than nothing. Ill really consider a days training. But I dont think its my skill level as to why Im not finding anything, I think its the places Im going they all seem completely flogged

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As has been mentioned one on one training WILL boost your confidence.
I've done trying to varying degrees with Nenad L., Corey M. Robert Thacker and Kim & Linc in NSW ....... each added a bit more knowledge, experience and confidence (as well as GOLD).

That said some are just as happy to keep going and chance their own skills, nothing wrong with that.

Areas where you detect is a definite factor ...... all areas have been detected, some more then others but there will be pockets that have been missed ..... move logs, stones, rubbish and anything hat looks as though it's been there a while .... these "harder" areas are often overlooked by lazy swingers.

Also worth remembering that on some forums/FB pages there are those with a barrow to push be it headphones, boosters, coils or detectors .... helps to know who's who in the zoo and treat those posts accordingly based on what you know about them (remember some of these will have/may have access to places we can't get to).
Also worth remembering that a heap of great gold comes from areas other than Victoria.

Most of all don't be discouraged ... my best piece came about by pure chance/good luck, sometimes that's all you need.
Cheers T.

VicGold, We owned and swung the 4500 for 10 years before upgrading to a SDC & GPZ. Those two detectors paid for themselves over and over, nothing big, on average I would say many 1 - 2 grammers.
Probably 90% of the time we used the Minelab Commander 11" Mono.
My suggestion VGH is to follow MT's advice, read the manual over and over, (download one for free from Minelab if you don't have the full manual) use a shotgun pellet buried an inch or so and try different settings and most importantly play with the tone that suits you. I used a lower "hum" frequency and my partner up near the "mosquito" level.
Set a tone and swing over the target, alter tone and swing again, you will find a tone that particularly suits your hearing and the target signal will jump out of the ground.
Lastly I see you are swinging a 15" and are probably trying to cover too much ground too quickly, down size and the old adage, "low & slow.
You're seem to be searching known gold bearing ground, no one gets it all so your luck will change.

Very true Tremors!
Some accidentally follow a sheep's trail without thinking.
Walk around the fallen branch, than under.....
Let your brain learn to take you where your feet don't....

VicGoldHunter said:

Teemore said:

Welcome to the real world ..... I hope a lot of Aussie Gold Hunters viewers see this, realise it's not easy and (better for the rest of us) stay away.

But seriously, you've at least found gold, I've been helping 1 bloke on and off over a few trips but his score is still zero, nil, SFA.
Another 'pupil' picked up a great historic button AND a 1gm plus piece without owning a detector on his 1st day out (he was using mine) but went out the next day and bought 1 ....... since that day about 9 months ago he now finds gold on 90/95% of his outing, my hit rate is very similar with very few trips without finding at least 1 piece ...... BUT others are still doing much better.

Difference is I'm using the SDC but also use a GPX (with fewer results).

In your case maybe a coil smaller than the 15" may change your "luck", you may be walking over gold but the bigger coil is targeted to bigger pieces down deeper.

Probably doing nothing wrong and probably in the right areas but just need a coil more sensitive to the smaller gold that's still out there.
IF you're not into small gold, keep going as you are, sooner of later you'll walk over a big one that will make up for the goldless days.

Cheers T.

Click to expand...

Gee thats hard to hear just bought the 15 couple days ago! The sdc does seem to get much more gold mostly small but still small stuff is better than nothing. Ill really consider a days training. But I dont think its my skill level as to why Im not finding anything, I think its the places Im going they all seem completely flogged

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Now you've just gone and got more doubt...."I just bought the 15 and should have got a smaller coil" "I need an SDC not a 4500".

It's NOT your gear. The 4500 coupled with the standard 11" commander coil or your new 15" will find gold all day long in flogged gold fields. That is a fact that plays out every weekend as can usually be seen on this forum.

That leaves mindset, technique, hearing training and experience. The first 3 can be corrected with some one on one with either a good paid for trainer or teaming up with someone with all 4.

Hi VicGold, some great advise to follow up on has been mentioned above by others.

It took me 4 years and 4 different detectors to find my first piece of gold and trust me, my confidence, patience and determination were shot many times over those 4 years.
I finally bought a 4500 and bingo got my first bit at .15g, since then I've learnt lots by research, talking to the right people, going detecting with others here on the forum and so on, it takes time to learn the skills and the more you can get out with others and learn off them the better your skills will get.

A piece of advice would be to take one of your sub gram pieces with you as your test piece on every trip, find the hottest piece of ground in your location that day and bury the gold so it is just detectable in your normal settings you would use, then spend 30 mins going through your settings one at a time and testing, take note of which settings were best, if you can hit that test piece in the hottest ground for that location then you won't miss much if you swing over it that day.
You need to do this for every trip as what works in one location may not work in the next gully.
By taking 30 mins doing these tests every trip out you will spend the rest of the day confident you have the best settings for that area on that particular day (next day may require different settings due to emi).
This doesn't always mean you will swing over a piece of gold but if you dod you will have the best settings to hear it.
Then there's learning to read the grounds and know where to swing, this you need more help with learning so you are not just swinging over barren ground that others have dug for noise, trash etc etc

The 15 evo is a great coil and will find you gold no problems, you just need to learn when to use each coil, depending on depth of ground, size of gold in that area, emi conditions, percentage of clear V's scrub covered grounds and the list goes on.
It all takes years to learn, especially if you are going solo on trips. Keep and eye out for some members trips that pop up mainly on long weekends and join in, take it as a learning trip and you'll find the guys will help you where they can.

Good luck and keep at it, just try to take 1 new bit of info learnt each trip and it will soon start to come together with better finds.

I had a 3 day trip last week with a mate, him on his SDC and me with the Gold Monster and 5" coil, he got 2g and me 4.3g, all tiny stuff but it's not always about how big a nugget you can find, sometimes it's using your equipment in the right locations, understanding it's limitations and hearing what it's saying to you, I got well over 100 bits and as I said, it's tiny gold but it adds up pretty quick on the scales erfect:

But all the FB posts with gold nuggets every day. Its on FB it must be true.

Sorry; so over FB. There were a few good pages on Detecting / Fishing / Bees and Coin collecting.

But these days 100001 people and a hard work to pick the real data/information between all the scammers / people wanting to get rich quick / fools and people re posting urban myths.

At least here life is a bit more real; if you can handle the truth.

Gday

I have said this before and I will say it again, finding gold with a metal detector has a lot to do with mindset and learning to hear what is not easily heard, you have to correct the way you think, I told a mate this exact same thing when he was a green as grass and he scoffed at the notion when I said that you have to get your mind in tune with your detector, eventually the penny dropped and he has told me since that I was right as he had learned to get himself into what I call prospecting mode, where you clear your mind of whatever has been going on in your life and develop your concentration span, now after a few seasons he can easily keep up with me in relation to nugget finds.

Sometimes I have found that it will take me a day or so when back in the bush to slide back into the prospecting mode and become familiar with my detector after a bit of time back home, and sometimes I will get gold on the first afternoon that I arrive at a spot, sometimes not, but the last thing I do is let it worry me and let it mess with my mindset, so it may well be that you are in too much of a rush to get on to the ground and trying to cover too much area too quickly, you need to relax and take your time and put yourself in the mindset that you don't care if you get the gold or not, make the being there the cake and the gold if you get it the icing, also trying too hard and being desperate to get the gold seems to always go against you, relax and just enjoy the experience of being in the bush and the gold will come when it comes.

cheers

stayyerAU

Also might be a good idea to check this out. It surprised me at the end

[video=480,360]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD3cKMcKIPQ[/video]

Bet that hurt some guru's! :lol:

Well the way I see it gold is rare if it was easy everyone would be hunting it.

If it helps last 5 trips Ive swung for hours dug every signal, picked up super faint targets which ending up almost 2 ft deep and found sweet FA in terms of gold. I guess it makes the next find aooooo worthwhile