Method in the madness

Hi all,how do you approach detecting an area ? I'm wondering should I select an area ,mark out a ten metre square,for instance,and then go over every inch of my marked area ? My method to date and very unsuccessful I might add, has been roaming over the area I have selected looking like I'm walking an out of control dog ? !
Cheers Crushed

New method sounds like a plan

Agree with moee
Marking out an area and going over every inch would seem the logical way to go..

Crushed, you would be crushed to meticulously detect that area and find nothing. There has to be gold there first. Our method, just walk in all directions aimlessly and ehen you get a bit then concentrate on that area. Hey good luck finding a bit.

When I have decided on an area and want to work it properly (ie hill slope), I see a tree in the distance and use that as a marker and walk in a straight line towards that tree. If I get no targets, I turn around, pick another tree maybe a meter up from where I started and walk back. I keep doing this until I find a target.
Once I have found a target that's gold, I tend to spiral out from that target and try to locate if its just a one off or its part of a run of gold.
If its flat ground, I basically lay out a grid using trees, bushes etc until I find a target. And then I spiral out from that target and work the ground thoroughly.
I dont always find gold but its always good to have some sort of method in place.

that is the way to do it I have a few plastic tent pegs and I mark out a spot do it from north to south and then go east to west move on I see heaps of people doing the marathon detecting and start at one spot and end up 2 km away I find a 5x5 meter patch is a good size then move forward sideways you not stuffing your self out and not getting bushed

I'm with SteelPat, once I find a bit, I tend to methodically work out from where I found a bit of gold. The challenge is finding the first bit.
When, I first started I wandered a fair bit and got lucky a few times.
The past few months, I've gone back to those earlier spots and found a quite a bit more by just by being more thorough.
If I do find myself losing concentration and getting the wanders up, I pack up and go home.

I'd be overjoyed if I could find a 5x5 area I could grid and detect here in Tassie! Spend half of the time with the detector above my head beating through the undergrowth here.

understanding fault line directions, say north/south then work east west. thats my GOLDen tip

All great methods guys but don't forget most of these methods can be used for coin and relic hunting as well.When coin and relic hunting I tend to wander,but when finding a nice coin or relic it doesn't hurt to thoroughly check the immediate area.This was proven a couple of weeks ago when I found a florin and then found another 4 silvers all within 1 sq/m.

Eldorado said:

All great methods guys but don't forget most of these methods can be used for coin and relic hunting as well.When coin and relic hunting I tend to wander,but when finding a nice coin or relic it doesn't hurt to thoroughly check the immediate area.This was proven a couple of weeks ago when I found a florin and then found another 4 silvers all within 1 sq/m.

Click to expand...

I have found that to my self and another pa member hit two lots side by side and we have found areas were you will pick up silvers and areas were you pick up 2 and 1 s and so on

1) research at home

2) transfer structure and fault info from google earth to my garmin handheld

3) spend first two hours or so at a new location walking around with my geopick, asess the lie of the land, try and identidy fault locations, make a plan for detecting

4) walk across structures, not parallel working in the structure trend direction

5) when first gold is found, look at it very carefully (jewellers loupe) is it source gold (reef) or alluvial ? Mark on my gps

6) slow right down, grid a 5 x 5 square around the first piece, quite often its friends are close by. I do 3 passes North south, east west and diagonal across the location

7) if you find a second piece you have a heading to look for a third, if not i work 5 x 5 grid all around the first, careful and slow. If no luck i carry on gridding in the known structural direction

8) i like to pile a couple of rocks up on each find, sometimes a pattern emerges

9) after two hours careful gridding i tend to swap back to a looser "preliminary" search method if i havent found anything further

10) I tend to finish my day out with a long walk swinging my NF Evo 12" as i go, a bit random but sometimes strike it lucky and start 5x5 over again

11) if i camp for say 5 days I will work like that for 3 days hopefully have marked a few spots and on day 4 i get out the 19" coil and go back over my finds locations in a deep slow search

Good Luck and be sure to keep some kind of record of your finds

No fault lines, no diggings, no gully,
And when it happens, it is really good fun.

Hi Nuggz I was wondering if you could expand on.

4) walk across structures, not parallel working in the structure trend direction

It appears that you are advocating to work across say a reef line / indicator rather than along it but off set.

AuTitch

autitch said:

Hi Nuggz I was wondering if you could expand on.

4) walk across structures, not parallel working in the structure trend direction

It appears that you are advocating to work across say a reef line / indicator rather than along it but off set.

AuTitch

Click to expand...

yes, that`s my understanding, identify structures/faults crossing back and forth over said structures/faults moving in there direction.
in doing this you are crossing back and forth over areas of possible gold location. faults and structure in the greenstone, is the birth place of gold.
if you work parallel to a structure you can be walking past gold and never know it, crossing back over again and again, gives much better odds.
first step to identify structures/fault lines is research at home. that`s my two cents

Thanks Spoon,

Now I got the concept. ZIG ZAG!

AuTitch

spoon said:

autitch said:

Hi Nuggz I was wondering if you could expand on.

4) walk across structures, not parallel working in the structure trend direction

It appears that you are advocating to work across say a reef line / indicator rather than along it but off set.

AuTitch

Click to expand...

yes, that`s my understanding, identify structures/faults crossing back and forth over said structures/faults moving in there direction.
in doing this you are crossing back and forth over areas of possible gold location. faults and structure in the greenstone, is the birth place of gold.
if you work parallel to a structure you can be walking past gold and never know it, crossing back over again and again, gives much better odds.
first step to identify structures/fault lines is research at home. that`s my two cents

Click to expand...

Looks like a good bit of racking there Redfin . Fit and rich ?

Spoon is correct.

If the structures trend North South you would zig zag across it walking East West, slowly headed North for example

If you walk parallel to the fault it is more than possible to completely miss the gold

I think the detector you have should also be factored in.
If I'm using the SDC, my technique will be strictly like Redfin has illustrated. Clear all debris, very slow, coil always touching the ground, very thorough.
With the GPX I may use more of a "structured wandering" as others have already mentioned.
Whatever you decide, get it in your head and don't doubt yourself. Stick to your plan and accept that for all your hard work, some days you end up with nothing but junk

Just to clarify, we use a 5k and a 45.
We only rake and use multiple coils after finding 2 or more pieces in close proximity, after wandering aimlessly in ground with good indicators.
The pic above was in a wood collection area. Mrs got bored and had a swing while I was cutting wood. Flat ground, no faults or diggings for miles. No indicators.
Got me stuffed why/how the gold was there.