G'day, my name is Sam, I hail from the state of Victoria, in the land down under, Australia.
I bought my Minelab GP 3000, 9 months ago and have just got my first run on the board, man was it worth waiting for.
I swing with my nephew Aaron who has a GPX 5000, we detect almost every weekend. Some of the places we hike into are pretty isolated and mountain goats don't even appear to venture there. To us it's a hobby, but ask our partners and it's an obsession.
We left home about 6.30am and headed to a spot in the bush that Aaron had been researching. We had been detecting for about 4 hours without any success, other than the usual bullets, nails and horse shoes that the old timers had left behind. I was feeling quite despondent while taking a lunch break. I was thinking to myself, maybe we should call it a day and start the trip home. After lunch, Aaron suggested we put another hour in, that there was an area East of the car that looked promising. What an excellent choice of direction that turned out to be.
We were into it for about 20 minutes, with no targets at all and then it happened. The sound from the GP 3000 was like many I had heard before, it was going to be a lead bullet about 4 inches down. I scraped 3 inches off the top and swung the Commander 11" DD coil over the target, it was still in the ground and a little louder. I took another 3 inches off, the machine was now blanking when passed over the hole. Now I'm thinking it is a horse shoe or larger piece of junk. I don't know if it's the Irish in me or not, but I have a never quit attitude. I was committed to removing that piece of junk from the ground. The pick opened the ground to a depth of 13inches, then the GP 3000 showed the target was out.
I looked on the pile of sloppy brown dirt and seen 2 good sized nuggets, one poking out of each end of a clay ball. Eureka, I had found my first bit of gold. I think I was a mixture of excitement and shock, I called Aaron over to share the excitement. Aaron and I struck a deal when we first got our detectors, we would share 50/50 any gold we found.
Aaron was excited to see the two chunky nuggets, as he reached down to remove one of the nuggets his facial expression changed, I will never forget what he said next, he looked me straight in the eye and said Sam, "it's not two nuggets, it's one big nugget ".
We shook hands to confirm our 50/50 deal, then sat in the bush making laughing faces in silence, as if to not want to attract attention, but we were the only ones there.
Aaron is my wingman, we are tight, we would never think about short changing each other and gold will never change us. I think I may have peaked a little early, finding a rock of this size. I hope I'm not too disappointed if my next find is a .7 gram. Most people go a life time detecting without a find of this size, I am so grateful that the gold gods relaxed their grip on this nugget. 300+ GRAMS of VICTORIAN GOLD!
I can see a GPX 5000 upgrade coming my way very soon, then Aaron and I will be equally armed with the same weapon. Never give up people, you could be just one step from walking over it. Good luck all.
Regards Sam.
Sam - VIC, Australia
