Picked up my GPX-4500 from my local Miners Den [Melbourne] store [Thanks to Duncan for all the advice] and headed off to my favourite spot in the Golden Triangle, running recommended settings and the Minelab 15x12 Mono, half way through the day I detected a subtle low high signal working the edge of a gully that had extensively surfaced in the 1800’s. Proceeded to scrape back the top inch of soil and the signal got louder, first thought it was trash as had already dug a number of rusty iron pieces 4-6 inches down, dug down to 6 inches the signal started to scream excitement and adrenalin was starting to kick. Kept digging hit 12 inches and I hit a tree root, proceeded to make the hole bigger to work around it. At around 16 inches another tree root things were now getting difficult, I continued using a plastic scoop scraping as I couldn't get the pick in. I then hit what looked like compacted river gravels, my heart started pounding, I thought surely can’t be trash. Scraping the gravel with my scoop what appeared to be a familiar gold speck.
Ran and grabbed my bottle of water and proceeded to splash and clean yes there appeared a nugget sitting vertical in the gravel. I scraped around with my pocket knife ever so gently and managed to gently pry the nugget loose. In my hand was a little beauty my first major find with the 4500 after having it for 2 weeks. My first thought was I have paid for the detector, great investment. After giving the nugget a quick clean and weighing it came in @ 36grams, I thought to myself I have finally joined the ounce club. Below is the shot of the nugget in its natural state, and after it has been cleaned. I hope my luck continues and more stories like this come out of the GT.
Tryhard1968 – Vic, Australia
