Reasons I Can't Find Any Gold?

I think if we re-phrase the question to "Why can't I consistently find gold?" (as in at least 1/3 daily outings) then we can just about take luck out of the equation. At the end of the day, 100% effort is all that's needed. Put in the effort to do your research (what equipment to buy/make/take, usage/settings, where to go, etc), the effort to free up sufficient time to go & prospect, the effort to do the hard physical work (trekking, swinging, digging, scraping, etc). Without the effort, you will not consistently find gold.

Prospecting for gold is an excellent hobby for teaching & practicing discipline, that's for sure.

navieko said:

Prospecting for gold is an excellent hobby for teaching & practicing discipline, that's for sure.

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It has certainly taught me patience and the true meaning of reward for effort :Y:
Luck is a term used by those who haven't caught on yet

ProspectorPete said:

navieko said:

Prospecting for gold is an excellent hobby for teaching & practicing discipline, that's for sure.

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It has certainly taught me patience and the true meaning of reward for effort :Y:
Luck is a term used by those who haven't caught on yet

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This isn't a thread about whether you believe in luck or not. Luck is another word for odds. And sorry to bust your bubble but gold is an odds game.
There is never a SURE THING.

So when you go out looking for gold, make sure not to dig any targets BUT GOLD, because there is no luck (odds) involved right??

4 hours today in 37 degree heat up and down steep inclines on foot for a total of 6kms. Effort 110%/ Luck....0.
But I extremely enjoyed myself and the search continues. Yes I found some specks, but that is not what I am looking for.

Good luck people.

I am quite happy with my odds.

I have actually done quite well for myself. But regardless of what is said, I was lucky I got their first, I was lucky I decided to walk left not right. I was lucky the gold was just shallow enough to be found, not 8 foot under ground.

Anyways.

I know the hard work and the reward. That is why prospecting is not my day job. Because I need to put food on the table.

I think my odds would be slightly increased if I was looking for gold in an area known for some of the most shallow alluvial gold ever found in the world.

I wonder if the guy who found the welcome stranger was lucky.

Maybe the 2guys in Germans Gully aren't the lucky ones but the old timers before them were.

I am not better than anyone else who puts in the effort. I just consider myself to have a bit of luck sometimes.

I can only do so much, mother nature and her ways do the rest. And I do not pretend to know more. or posses some powers.

Nice Debate

I dont understand how some prospectors think that all there research hard work and effort will always find them gold sure if you do not do this you will never find gold but when you do find gold a little bit of luck has shined on you otherwise everyone who has put in the research done the hard work all the hours on the ground would find gold every time they went out and I know that this doesnt happen I believe a lot of us serious hobby prospectors do the right things most of the time but we still need a little bit of luck.cheers Muk.

Having said that, surely it can do no harm If one first consults the entrails of an Owl to divine the Omens and Portents of a Journey? And then, whilst on the Goldfield proper, ensure that oneself is placed and orientated correctly with respect to approaching birds, in such a way that the Ornithomancy is favorable?
Deason and Oates surely must have also consulted Toads or Crystals prior to their successes????



Nah. The harder you work (& Research) The luckier you get

hAyyoUinAU said:

ProspectorPete said:

navieko said:

Prospecting for gold is an excellent hobby for teaching & practicing discipline, that's for sure.

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It has certainly taught me patience and the true meaning of reward for effort :Y:
Luck is a term used by those who haven't caught on yet

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This isn't a thread about whether you believe in luck or not.

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hAyyoUinAU said:

VicGoldHunter said:

Think luck plays a huge part in it. Good posts!

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Yeah....that is why I put luck at 40%. Agreed

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hAyyoUinAU said:

"Why can't I find any gold?"

I would say 20% research, 20% equipment 20% effort , and 40% luck. That is the gold game.

I hope this helps anyone out there who has been having a hard time finding some shiny.

Cheers

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Oh ok, must have gotten confused since you put luck at double any of the other factors, my bad.

I have been out the gold field with a pa member spent half the day detecting he was mucking around with his detector about 3 meters away for the car a found a nugget that was luck but at the end of the day he was happy and his research said there was gold in that area :Y:

Deepseeker said:

Having said that, surely it can do no harm If one first consults the entrails of an Owl to divine the Omens and Portents of a Journey? And then, whilst on the Goldfield proper, ensure that oneself is placed and orientated correctly with respect to approaching birds, in such a way that the Ornithomancy is favorable?
Deason and Oates surely must have also consulted Toads or Crystals prior to their successes????

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/13321/1574157174_catweazle.jpg

Nah. The harder you work (& Research) The luckier you get

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Ah Catweasle, 'Electrickery' is a term I remember fondly from my youth! It's also a key component in making coils work. Black magic I tells ya! :lol:

G'day

I have lost count of the amount of times I have stopped at a prospective spot and within minutes walked on to a nugget, then spent some hours detecting for sweet .. , never ceases to amaze me when this happens and its aggravating for sure but it is what it is, but the fact that you have found a nugget there means that it has come from somewhere, then it will usually get me to thinking about where it might have traveled from so the next step is to have good look at the terrain and branch out from there to see if I can get on to something else, if you find no more in any direction then I usually think its probably been dropped by someone or fallen out of an emu's bum, true, because emus are known to swallow rocks to aid in digestion, a nice shiny rock would be attractive to an emu for sure being that they have a brain the size of a peanut.

Finding consistent gold, one of the things that I see that contributes to not finding gold is people using too big a coil, as the choice of the coil you are using has to be consistent with the ground type you are working on, I wont go into the details as most people know what coils do what, but suffice to say if you cant get the coil close to the ground then you are using the wrong coil and you will miss gold, a big coil will not be as sensitive as a small coil regardless of whether or not you get the odd small piece of gold you will definitely missing some gold as well, so no use in swinging a large coil 99% of the time and then whinging that you cant find anything, coils are the tools of the trade and the right choice of coil to suit the ground type will contribute to you overall finds, don't be lazy about swapping coils over and try one size after another if you get on to some gold work the place with a small, medium and large coil to cover your bases.

One of the main benefits of using a small coil is that it will slow your swing speed down and you are in fact going to be searching more effectively, this is why detectors such as the Sdc2300 are so effective, a slow swing speed is also essential if you are using small coils on a Gpx or whatever plus you have the added advantage of better overall depth, I know from my own experience that I get more consistent finds with small and medium sized coils and reserve the bigger coils for covering open ground and checking for anything at depth, try this and see how you go.

cheers

stayyerAU

Those blokes at cadia mine are pretty lucky!
913 000 ounces this year !

bloody hell

There is no such thing as finding consistent gold.

Please do not tell people otherwise and mislead them.

Also do not assume that you somehow know better or are better than others. Talk is just that, talk.

Sorry, no one finds consistent gold. (But maybe you have a unlimited supply hey)

The reason why small coils find more gold is because there are more smaller pieces of gold than larger pieces. Its not rocket science.
So please don't make out like you have some special recipe.

For those who try, keep trying, that is what pays off. Persistence

West oz adventures find more gold than anyone. :bomb: :bomb:
Well anyone that is on here anyway :clap: :beer:
Keep up the hard work fellas. :Y:

Reg Wilson said:

A good prospecting detector has a fast reaction to signals which allows you to move over country at a reasonable pace and still get a very sharp signal at speed.

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I decided to hunt a nearby area where id got a few bits before. Decided to just put on the 18" Elite and detect at a walking pace. A sharp signal pulled me up real quick and it turned out to be half an ounce at a depth of 350mm. Detected around that piece for a day and found nothing. (low and slow)

On the next trip, I decided to widen my search area again. Moving at a fast pace I started at the top of a slope and detected around the hill, dropping down 3 meters each time as I worked around the hill. Still moving at a fast rate and swinging quickly another sharp signal pulled me up. This time it was a 2-gram piece at around 200mm.

Once the initial discovery was made then I grided the area using many different sized coils and many different timings/settings. Turns out most of the gold was concentrated in a small patch 20m away from that half-ounce piece.

hAyyoUinAU said:

There is no such thing as finding consistent gold.

Please do not tell people otherwise and mislead them.

Also do not assume that you somehow know better or are better than others. Talk is just that, talk.

Sorry, no one finds consistent gold. (But maybe you have a unlimited supply hey)

The reason why small coils find more gold is because there are more smaller pieces of gold than larger pieces. Its not rocket science.
So please don't make out like you have some special recipe.

For those who try, keep trying, that is what pays off. Persistence

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I beg to differ.
Plenty of people on here and elsewhere consistently find gold. Nothing misleading about that what so ever.
I'd hate to try and count the number of people I know who's income is derived solely from gold, they couldn't do that without consistent finds.

Nobody is stating they are better than anybody else, nobody is claiming to have some special recipe. Just some people have different opinions and experiences than you.

OrangeNugget said:

Those blokes at cadia mine are pretty lucky!
913 000 ounces this year !

bloody hell

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I think their motto is "The more you spend on Geo reports, Equipment, and the deeper you dig, the Luckier you get"

hAyyoUinAU said:

Sorry, no one finds consistent gold. (But maybe you have a unlimited supply hey

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I tend to disagree.



These are the bigger pieces I ve kept, just shy of 48gms. I sold over an ounce of the smaller stuff 6 months ago.

Over many many trips it accumulates. I shoot for a gram a day. I did have one day goldless, but broke golden rule #237: Do not leave gold to find gold.

After all the hard work, paying attention to what the experts say, research etc etc your chances of finding gold are increased substancially.

We call it luck AFTER we find something, not needing luck @40% before we even turn the detector on.

Rituals, wearing a certain hat etc has no real tangible outcome BUT it can get your mind in the zone for ultimate complete concentration.

When my concentration wanes. I stop for a break. When I can't be bothered digging that target cause my mind tells me it's rubbish again. I stop and take a break.

Your mind is your worst enemy out detecting. Quieten the internal chatter and you will consistently find gold.

I'm talking less than a gram a day, really only pays for my diesel and accessories accommodation fees, if I'm lucky!

I really believe I will find gold every trip. If anyone believes they won't then. I guess we both will get what we want.

The universe has ears!!!

I m no guru, I am just a dumb Train Driver but I am smart enough to know, that I know nothing about gold prospecting and I LISTEN to what the experts on here have freely shared and with much much practice, apply the experts advice in the field, not from my keyboard.

I rely on expert advice and hard work. Luck comes later if I find something.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers

RS

Yeah -- just to clarify -- I wasn't saying it doesn't take any "luck", but that luck comes (consistently) as a result of effort. Sure you can put in 100% effort and not find gold (gold is rare and hard to come by after all)... which is why I think it's more accurate to say "consistently find gold" as opposed to just find gold. On the other hand someone can put in very little effort and still find a nugget. But they absolutely will not consistently find gold with very little effort.

Let's just call "luck" one of the rewards of effort. The more effort put in, the more luck (gold) comes out.

Hey mate,

I'm not trying to have dig at anyone, but reading my posts they may come across as harsh. My kids know it as tough love!

I'm trying to drop some red hot clues to those that can't consistently find gold and answer the topic question with my take on the answer to that question.

If anyone is not finding gold and you keep doing the same things, you WILL get the same results. Good or bad. Lucky or unlucky.

RS

If I buy 'lucky' dowsing rods then I'll find gold right, because they are lucky? I won't even have to read the instructions, they will just take me the gold! It's all about luck, right?

Acquired knowledge, research, practice, equipment and being in the right area that's how you will find gold. Dust and magic plays no part in the exercise.