DJS DETECTORS APRIL 2004 NEWS LETTER TIPS METAL DETECTOR DETECTING

Hello All,

Spring has sprung and many have been out doing their treasure hunting. I have seen many great finds from folks already this spring. The prospecting season is starting in many parts of the country as the water is warming up. As for myself, I haven't had to much time to hunt this spring yet. I am however planning on doing some water hunting as summer approaches. I haven't detected in the water so far in the years I have been detecting, and I am really looking forward to finding many great finds.

Jartia and I have spent a good part of our lives since the last newsletter in different hospitals with our son Mason. He has had a bit of trouble breathing. It turns out it is a hemangeoma ( a birthmark ), growing inside his throat. Now that we finally know exactly what it is we are dealing with, we are trying to treat it, and keep it from growing, to give Mason time to out grow it. The Doctors tell us it should stop growing anywhere from 6 months to a year of age. We are trying to give his throat time to grow enough to stay ahead of the growth of the hemangeoma. We are using steroids to do this. The main side effect of the steroids is the weight gain Mason will have. The next treatment if this doesn't work is a Tracheotomy, and laser surgery on a regular basis to control the growth of the hemangeoma. Mason is finally back home with us, and is doing well with his treatment. He had a very tough month in the hospitals. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for our son Mason. They sure are helping.

Links

Here is a link to Mason's Guestbook if anyone might want to leave a message for him to read when he learns how.

http://www.djsdetectors.com/Photos/Mason_Heidebrink/Guests/mason's_guests.htm

Here is a link on Mining laws and other information to do with mining. I have posted this link before, but thought many might want to revisit it. Lots of interesting links on this page.

http://imcg.wr.usgs.gov/usbmak/anat0.html

How do I grade my coins I find? Try this link.

http://pcgs.com/

Is there gold in my state? Check here.

http://www.iowagold.net/iowagolddotnet/WHERE_TO_FIND_GOLD_USA_PAGES/where_to_find_gold_usa.htm

Mineral identification pages.

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/byname.htm

Detecting Tips

By Paul Melkus

Here are 20 tips for metal detecting that I put together.

1. Keep your coil flat and low to the ground, otherwise you will lose depth.

2. Sweep slowly. Modern computerized detectors need a little time to lock up on the target to provide accurate readings.

3. Always use headphones.

4. Overlap your swings. If using a round coil overlap by 50%. If using an Elliptic or DD coil overlap slightly.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice - pin pointing and digging small, neat holes.

6. When cutting a plug either leave one side connected or cut an irregular shape so it can be replaced exactly as removed.

7. Use a golf towel or dishcloth to put the dirt on. It can easily be put back into the hole leaving no trace you were there.

8. Don't be afraid to ask permission, even on posted property. More often than not you will get permission to hunt. It's better than a fine for trespassing.

9. Use Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMh) batteries rather than Nickel Cadmium (NiCad) because they do not have memory. They can be charged at any time.

10. Keep your Tetanus booster up to date. You never know what is in that hole. It could be a rusty nail, a piece of glass or something worse.

11. Wear construction knee pads. They give you some insulation and protect your knees from small stones.

12. Don't forget to search each edge of a sidewalk. Coins often roll here and get lost.

13. To find potential sites go to the LOCAL HISTORY section of your library. They usually have newspapers going back many, many years. Don't forget a pad and pencil.

14. If possible carry a cell phone with you whenever you go off the beaten path. Always tell someone where you plan to detect.

15. When you make your test garden MAKE SURE you remove ALL IRON before planting your targets. This can not be stressed strongly enough.

16. If you are just looking for quantity of targets choose a school yard over a public park because of the sheer numbers of people there day in and day out.

17. Use a high quality digging tool.

18. If you have TONE ID learn the tones for the kinds of targets you are hunting.

19. Make sure you properly ground balance your detector if it's not auto GB.

20. Always take an electronic pin pointer with you. Some of the new vibrating pin pointers work really well.

Sierra's Prospecting Tip

By Bill Anderson

Small things that might make your day on the creek go better:

1. When you are panning fines,, tweezers take too much time. Tap the gold to one side of the pan, let the water run off the gold, wet a fingertip with saliva, touch gold with fingertip,, all the fines stick to finger. Touch finger into water filled bottle,, all the gold falls off.

2. If you are panning extreme fines, and the gold tends to float,, a squirt of Windex into the pan sinks gold, but doesn't foam the water.

3. If you are using a steel pan, and you get a small silvery piece of soft metal, if you rub it on the pan and it leaves a white streak, it usually is lead. If it doesn't streak, it might be amalgam.

4. If you use a magnet to strip magnetite out of cons, make sure there is no mechanical entrapment of the gold flakes by the strings of magnetite. It is quite common to have that happen.

5. If you put cons into a tin can for cleaning later, take care any mercury in the cons doesn't stick to any galvanizing inside the can.

6. If the same cons are in the same can, don't let them sit so long that they rust into a glob.

7. If you're panning, try to pan in still water. If there is only current, pan facing upstream. The eddying action of water entering pan facing down current can wash out good material.

8. When panning, always keep watch on what washes out. Often a nice nugget in quartz will be light enough to act like light rejects, and will want to wash out early.

9. When you're panning don't bend over at the waist,, too hard on the back. Sit gracefully on a rock. If there's no rock handy, at least don't let wife get behind you with a camera. Too much low class humor material then at the next party.

Happy prospecting, and be safe,

Sierra

Jarita, Mason, and I would like to thank all of you who have purchased products from us in the last month. Also to all of you who stop in the chat room on a nightly basis to share your wisdom with the new people in our hobbies. For those of you who are interested in learning more about prospecting or detecting, be sure to stop by the chat room, and don't be shy. No matter what the conversation is going on, we are always happy to change it to treasure hunting. We chat most every evening between 8 and 10 Central time. Have a great month everyone and we are looking to talking with you all in the chat room.

May you all find many treasures,

Doug, Jarita, & Mason Heidebrink

DJ's Detectors

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