Golden Weekends

[Crow Terminator]

Well I took me a mini vacation and headed off to the mountains of north Georgia. Brought back home some of that yellow stuff. Here's my take for the trip:

Well that was Saturday about half a day's worth. I was able to top off my 1 oz vial. So by the book that should have me an ounce or right there at it anyways. Gold is running around $660 an ounce right now. It sure is purdy looking at but I'm gonna get around to officially weighing it and sending it off to get a big check for it. It's about $660 that I've got $1,500 invested in with gas and equipment. LOL. I remember back when I first got started in this stuff and posted my little specs of gold and ya'll laughing at me and giving me a hard time. Funny how that stuff adds up over time huh? hehehe

 

[RUGER]

Not sure if I remember anyone laughing at you or not, but that is pretty dang cool right there.

Funny you mention what you have invested in it, that is kinda like breaking down deer meat to a price per pound.
Just not something that is wise to do.

Congratulations dude.

 

[robg606]

nice gold there Crow!keep up the prospecting and pics!

 

[Cuttin Caller]

 

[Hogbear]

That's way cool! I went panning near Dahlonega back in the early 80's and got a few tiny flakes but you done good.

Hey Crow Terminator, not to hijack your thread, but what do you think of the Tesoro Tejon? I just ordered a dealer demo with full warranty for $485. From everything I've read, it seems to be a pretty good machine for the price. It's got to be better than my 1980 Garrett ADS.

 

[LA man]

very nice gold, for fathers day my kids got me a gold pan, now i need a place and SOMEBODY to go with. hint, hint

 

[strutandrut]

cool

 

[Crow Terminator]

Thanks guys!! It sure is fun getting out there and it's something the whole family can get into. I should know...I somehow have got my parents into it, got my cousin and uncle into it, and my wife is into it, and not my inlaws are too.

Someone asked about the Tesoro Tejon. Well...I've had 3 of 'em so I'll tell you what I think anyway. $485 is a high price for them BTW. Last one I bought was $325 but it was used, and still had a blank warrenty card though.

But for the nitty gritty on them. They come all different from one another. What I mean is, one will be hotter than the other and it may be colder than this one. Of the 3 I had, I got one that was just awful, and had one that was considered a "hot" one. The difference between my "cold" one and "hot" one was about 2 1/2" depth wise, set up exactly the same. Might not sound like much but believe me, it is. Make no mistake about it, they will find stuff but I don't believe they are the best you could have got for the $. I live in Southeast TN and our dirt varies quite a bit. But I've hunted with them in and around here, and in north GA quite a bit. For red clay and well, any kind of clay for that matter, they don't do well at all. They like sandy dirt the best for the best performance. You are looking at around 10-11 inches on civil war bullets in sandy dirt. I have a few sites I could take you to right now though with clay, that you wouldn't hear a bullet 5" in the ground no matter how the machine was set up. So they are a decent machine, but VERY hit and miss with where they work tolerable and where they work GREAT. You might be wondering why I had 3 of them if I didn't like them so well. Well..the first one I got when they first came out. That was the "cold" one. After a while I decided to try another one and that's when I got the good one. I hunted it for a year or so and traded it off for an ID machine. Decided later on if I found a cheap used one that I'd get it for a backup to my ID machine and I could tell right off it wasn't as hot as the previous one.

My uncle from Rome, GA has a Tejon and a Whites XLT. The XLT is an old machine...been around for years now. And he was hunting a site down there with his Tejon. Wasn't finding anything much but dug an iffy signal because of lack of signals he was getting and found a drop minie ball a few inches down. He went to his truck and brought out the XLT and went back over that little area and came up with over 20 more drops he'd missed. That red clay struck again.

 

[Hogbear]

Thanks for the info, hopefully I'll get a "hot one." Luckily we don't see much red clay here in W Tenn. I got this one from an authorized Tesoro dealer who had used it as a shop demo for two months. He said most of his customers coming in these days wanted to see the ones with the ID meters so he's getting rid of the Tejon.

 

[Paul J]

That is very cool. Do you see a lot people doing this in this area?

 

[Crow Terminator]

Paul -- Yeah I was actually surprised at the number of gold prospectors in the local area. I had civil war relic hunted for years and rarely bumped into others doing that around here; with the exception of going around Chattanooga and down in north Georgia. But gold prospecting seems to be a totally different story. I actually ran into more of them during the winter months than I have so far in the summer.

Hogbear -- I'll tell you a quick way you can tell what kind of Tejon you got when it comes. On the Sensitivity knob...where you'll turn the machine on and off, you'll see the orange area of it. It's called the "max boost" area of the sensitivity. If you have a cold one, when you turn the knob into that area it will just barely start to chatter. If you have a normal one, it will chatter fairly consistent as you get into the orange. If you have a hot one, and I hope you do, it will start to chatter around the actual 10 mark on the sensitivity and REALLY chatter as you get into the orange.

 

[David J]

Crow, did all of that come out of Big Creek?

 

[Crow Terminator]

David J -- Not all of it. I didn't get to play around much up in Ocoee like I wanted to. I sample panned around and did find a few flakes in and around Big Creek. Most of that is actually from Coker Creek or northeast Georgia.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Now that is cool.