Etrac use around Southern California mines

[orma32]

My first experience with a metal detector was in 1980 when I saved up money over the summer to buy a Bounty Hunter detector. After 5 minutes of sweeping across the front yard ivy, I got a hit and for some reason, 5 inches down, there was a bag of plastic filled with 86 pennies. It was awesome.....and pretty much the end of things. 35 yrs later, I randomly and for no reason bought an Etrac which is great at the beach but I have no clue how to properly use it in a desert/gold district.

I am heading on a family adventure next week thru Death Valley and surrounding areas. I am aware of the rules of not detecting in national parks/monuments etc but have found a few BFE locations outside of these areas. Since I will be with a 12 yr old and 14 yr old, my tmespan to do anything is very limited. I have a few locations old old mine shafts where I want to have my kids try to find 'gold' in the rocky rubble. Looking for 'gold' in rocks, what readings on the Etrac should be our focus? I have plenty of sheets looking for gold and silver coins but we are looking thru rocks for the fun of it.

Any information provided would be greatly appreciated. I am under the impression that 12 & 13 readings are a great start but if we are in a known for gold only area, what numbers should we only be focused on? We will be traveling the Bakersfield/Big Pine/Beatty/Mohave areas and have some great areas picked accessible by 4wd only and it being August, short stopovers are the only option. This is more about the adventure than finding anything....but finding something, especially if it happened in the Kern River, would make the trip unforgettable.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and ideas.

 

[orma32]

Just to ensure everyone is aware, I am talking about going thru the rocky rubble outside of mines, not in them. We are adventurous but not quite crazy.

 

[sprchng]

First , I would suggest you repost in the regular etrac forum where more people will see this and respond.

Using an etrac to find gold is a bit of an endeavor to be sure , not the best choice for that type of hunting especially when it comes to small nuggets. Tailing piles can hold some surprises but they are rough and jagged surfaces, therefore I would recommend you try to pick up a smaller coil , say a 5 or 6" , or 6x8 , 5 x10 type coil. It will be more manageable and more sensitive to small targets. Away from the tailing piles a smaller coil may also pay dividends if the iron trash is heavy , which is usually the case at old mines , as you will have fewer targets under the coil making ID better. Study the two tone ferrous settings and dig all the solid targets that have good conductive readings with FE readings below 20. Use the relic pattern in TTF and you might find some cool tokens , old coins , bullets , mine tags ,,,all kinds of interesting stuff other than gold.