What do you do when you come across a fellow prospector/detector?

[Westaus]

I think it depends on where you are and what you would expect when out prospecting. Like at the beach or a park you would expect to come across another fossicker. Yet out the back of Laverton you would like to think that you should be able to get a bit of space to yourself.

In saying that last trip out the back of Laverton I was detecting and I was sure I could hear voices, after a while it got the best of me, so I turned off the detector and headed towards the voices. Sure enough about 100 odd metres in the bush was a few guys around some atv's I didn't go over but headed back towards my camp as to not interfere. About 1/2hr later they set off but it was a convoy of about 3 atv's with trailers, plus a 4wd in the lead with a heavier trailer. Not sure if they saw us or not.

Usually if I see someone out I will just give a nod or a wave to let them know I have seen them and I will the try to keep a separate path and respectable distance, if they do the same all good. If not I would then go and have a chat and see whats happening

I do know that when we are out, we really don't want to come across other people, after all that is what the bush is about in my view. If we come across a camp we will move a long way away, I would expect the same from others. I am always happy to say hello and quick chat, but I am not generally up for a long chat and just keep it simple. That may come across as grumpy, but really just means take care mate. Time to keep moving.

 

[Jon]

To date I find other detectorists, for gold, 50/50 good and bad.
I sus them out with a quick and easy method that shows their real intentions of stopping for a so called chat.
The good ones ill happily chat to, the others I act dumb.
Unfortunately there are a lot of vultures out there looking for others to do the hard work in finding the gold and giving it up to them, a good spot.
Im guessing there are a lot of the vultures out there who drove off thinking "that guys and idiot". Whilst I went back to digging up gold when they were out of sight

 

[slipped disc]

Better a rich idiot than a poor smart arse.

 

[AtomRat]

You are a tall bugger Im 6'4 about 140KG.

Yeah my weight kinda takes away the tall issue.. I'm around the 95kG mark hahaha :lol:

 

[Cheese]

If they hear you a chipen cap rock, Im sure they will come over
and say hello, lol,
Around au theres always a fox that looks like a sheep,
I have see some real crackers.

 

[slipped disc]

I usually hunt alone and by meself. I did a few hunts with some-one that had an etrac, and it was interesting to check and compare signals/targets. the etrac was obviously more accurate and deeper than the ace 350 and m/l 305 we others had and he found more of course.

 

[Bigjilm]

I always say hello,the ones that don't say hello back I just keep on walking,the best people i like to talk to are the old boys out there,love hearing their stories about their gold finds over the years,and where they have been in Australia looking for the gold

 

[Danielkrupski]

It's always been good for me.had some guys in 4x4 take all my gear plus another recently gave me a spare part on the pump maybe it's creek vs beach vs hills. If your on the creek your spending all day together so why not make new friends

 

[dwt]

Being an aussie prospector is all about saying g'day to your fellow propectors that enjoy the same activities, ive meet some bloody top blokes on this forum that i now proudly call mates, and im looking forward to meeting a heap more, sharing info and locations with eachother is just all part of it, yeah sure there are locations we keep to ourselves for easy pickings and to share with close friends, but thats the nature of it all, reality, there is more gold under our feet than we are ever going to dig up so why bother being an arrogant SOB and pissing off a fellow prospector who might just wanna say g'day.
Ive always said one can never stop learning, so why would one ignore the friendly gesture of a fellow prospector, when it could lead to so much more, and to the snobs and rude buggers out there, the word "douchebag" flows freely from my lips

 

[AusFX]

You are a tall bugger Im 6'4 about 140KG.

Yeah my weight kinda takes away the tall issue.. I'm around the 95kG mark hahaha :lol:

Maybe the bloke I ran into was a bit intimidated, 103kg of muscle here

So I had another run in with a fellow detectorist at the beach today.
Older bloke, I said hi and he said hi back, we stopped and ended up chatting for about 15 minutes, we both had 705's but he had a few years of experience on me.
About 6 seconds after we parted ways he yells out "hey mate, got a torch". He had just dug up a ring about 3 meters behind where I was standing and couldn't tell if it was any good.... Turned out to be an 18K gold ring... Could have been me if I hadn't stopped swinging the detector to have a chat! haha

 

[Twapster]

Your turn will come, the Chat with an experienced detectorist prob worth more in the long run!

 

[Jaros]

I always say hello. If I don't my dog does i for me. So it becomes quite easy to make an aquaintance any where. The thing is, if they don't like a cocker spaniel then they are not human and should be treated the same way.Douchrbag " ditto.

 

[jamie]

i wish i would run into more people detecting on the beach that love a chat, means i may make a friend to go and detect with, despite my appearance (tattoos, piercings and funny hair cut lol) i am shy so i dont really like to bother other people and i go at night to avoid the general public, the one time i did stop and say high to someone as my fiance (again alot of tattoos etc) and i was leaving oallen ford it was obvious they thought it best not to talk to me, how bad can someone that drives a cute little suzuki sierra be lol

 

[Joshuah85]

I read this topic and then last night came across another person for the first time at the beach. Nice bloke, gave me some tips on beachcombing and parted ways after he found a silver ring.

 

[nuggetino]

You are a tall bugger Im 6'4 about 140KG.

Yeah my weight kinda takes away the tall issue.. I'm around the 95kG mark hahaha :lol:

Maybe the bloke I ran into was a bit intimidated, 103kg of muscle here

Well if you look anything like this I can understand the intimidation/shock the other bloke experienced

Arny in his prime. 6'2 and 108kg

 

[AusFX]

You are a tall bugger Im 6'4 about 140KG.

Yeah my weight kinda takes away the tall issue.. I'm around the 95kG mark hahaha :lol:

Maybe the bloke I ran into was a bit intimidated, 103kg of muscle here

Well if you look anything like this I can understand the intimidation/shock the other bloke experienced
http://ericsgym.com/arnoldschwarzenegger/gym_pictures/arnold_8.jpeg
Arny in his prime. 6'2 and 108kg

Working on it

 

[Minsc2893]

I just got back from a week of prospecting with my uncle and his gf, we met a fair few other prospectors while we were out there.

First couple of days we were up in Eldorado, first day we didnt see anyone but the second day another prospector turned up to the same campsite we were at. We went over and said G'day to him, had a bit of a chat. Checked out each others gear and swapped a few tips/stories. Pretty friendly guy(i think he was a little disappointed we headed off the next morning but we wanted to head over to Bendigo to run the highbanker at a spot we got some decent gold panning a couple of months ago.

In Bendigo we met a couple of guys panning, had a short conversation with them but they were fairly abrasive and had some fairly racist views of the world which was a little disappointing. Didn't end up talking to them for long and headed up river a bit to wash some gravel.

Then we went to Slatey creek in Creswick for a few days, we were pretty surprised when we got there(early on thursday) as there was already about 3 or 4 camps set up, we thought it would be pretty quiet during the week. But all the people around there were great, a fair few different characters there(one guy was showing everyone how to use divining rods and bent us up a pair to have a go with) lots of long chats with them at night around the fire with a few drinks and a bit of show and tell for what we all found for the days(told one of the girls in camp to come up to near we were as she was more interested in gems than gold and we had been finding some a fair few nice sized little gems up there). Another guy turned up on the saturday that my uncle had met there a few months ago so we had a good catch up with him and told him to come up to the spot where we were digging since we were finished with digging on saturday arvo(after nearly a week of digging we were both pretty stuffed)

So all in all we would have met maybe 15 different people over the week, overall everyone was great with the exception of the two guys we met in Bendigo. Im not expecting everyone to want to have a chat which is totally fair enough but i really don't like to see racism. Still over a 90% good apple rate for the people we met so you have to be pretty happy with that.