Bald Eagle Chapter of the GPAA
Monthly Newsletter
The Paystreak

June 2008

The Bald Eagle Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association (GPAA) was founded in 2001 to preserve and promote the great heritage of the North American Prospector. The club is dedicated to providing a platform for the exchange of information, presenting an organized voice for recreational and professional prospectors and helping it's members find more gold.
Today, the GPAA has become the worlds largest prospecting organization, but our goals haven't changed one bit. Through television, the internet and print media, the GPAA today provides more information and is a more effective organized voice that ever before. GPAA programs provide places to go, local support, free information service and much more.

June 2, 2008
Gold $891.20
Silver $16.81
Platinum $2009.00

President
Bob (Ziggy) Seager
717-935-5484
caverzig@embarqmail.com

Vice President
George Dunkle
814-643-0794
geodunk@ msn.com

Secretary/Treasure
Gail Fletcher
fletcher8@pennswoods.net

Store Manager
Jim Johnston
570-398-2312

Outing Coordinator's
Volunteer's Needed

Dates to remember:
Dates to Remember:

June 7 Regular meeting 11:30 am
June 27-29th Nittany Mineral Show at Park Forrest Middle School Set up is Friday
>>>>(Ed will be providing us w/more info at the June 7th meeting)
July 5th Regular meeting 11:30 am
Aug 2nd Regular meeting 11:30 am

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING A COVERED DISH, DESERT, OR SODA FOR THE POT LUCK LUNCH FOLLOWING THE MEETINGS.
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Club Meeting and Directions....The Club's meeting place is the Halfmoon Township Building on Municipal Lane in Stormstown, PA and we meet on the 1st Saturday of each month at 11:30am The Bald Eagle Chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association (GPAA) was founded in January 2001 to preserve and promote the great heritage of the North American Prospector. The club is dedicated to providing a platform for the exchange of information, presenting an organized voice for recreational and professional prospectors and helping it's members find more gold.

Directions to the Bald Eagle Chapter Cub Meeting

State College: Take 322 North out of State College until you get to Rt. 550 at the flashing light. Turn left and go 4 miles. Turn right onto Municipal Lane in Stormstown and continue down the street, the township building is on the left.

Port Matilda: These directions may seem confusing however it is really just a matter of staying on the main road up and over the mountain. From the traffic light on 220 turn RIGHT (South-East) onto High Rd [High St] and go 0.3 of a mile where you turn LEFT (North-East) onto E Oak St [Oak St], then immediately bear RIGHT (East) onto Beckwith Rd and go 0.2 of a mile. Turn RIGHT (South) onto SR-3017 [Port Mountain Rd] and go 0.9 of a mile. Bear LEFT (South) onto SR-3017 [Beckwith Rd] and go 0.8 of a mile. Road name changes to Beckwith Rd < 0.1 of a mile: Turn LEFT (North-East) onto SR-550 [RR-1] and go 1.7 miles and turn left onto Municipal Lane in Stormstown and continue down the street, the township building is on the left.

Altoona Area: Take I-99/US-220 north. Turn RIGHT (East) onto SR-350 [7 Stars Rd] and go 1.8 of a mile. Keep STRAIGHT onto SR-350 and go 0.8 : Bear LEFT (East) onto LR31071 and go 1.4 of a mile, Bear LEFT (East) onto SR-550 and go 1.8. Keep STRAIGHT onto SR-550 [RR-1] and go 5.6 miles. Turn left onto Municipal Lane in Stormstown and continue down the street, the township building is on the left.

From I-80: At exit 158, take SR-150 west. Road name changes to US-220 [SR-150] and go 15.9 miles. Take 322 east up over the mountain at the flashing yellow light turn right onto 550 and go 4 miles. Turn right onto Municipal Lane in Stormstown and continue down the street, the township building is on the left.

Collinswoods Properties ---If you need maps, or have any information on these properties, please let me know.

Outing co-ordinator....The club needs an outing co-ordinator, please see Ziggy.

IDEAS...Please bring any ideas about where to go or what to do to the meeting. If you don’t like to speak out, you can write it down and put it on the table up front. Make sure that Ziggy’s name is on it, and he can read it for you.
Please feel free to make suggestions for guest speakers.
(Likewise, if you have recipes, prospecting tips, or any other suggestions for the newsletter please let me know)

New Members... BADGES:  This is mainly for the new members….. Does everyone know that we have an annual nugget drawing for members based on having and wearing your name badge to the meetings?  For every meeting that you attend wearing your name badge, I will put a check mark in the attendance book.  You must be present at the December meeting.  When you attend the December meeting, you will receive a raffle ticket for the nugget drawing for each meeting that you attended wearing your name badge.  (attend 12 meeting, receive 12 raffle tickets)  (Note:  Here the term member applies to member, spouse and dependent children) If you don't have a name badge, we can order one for you, the cost is only $8.00.  Any questions, please see one of the club officers. If you have any articles of interest that you would like to see here, please let me know. Also, feel free to speak up if you know someone who would make a good speaker for one of the meetings; likewise, we want to hear about places to hold some group outings this year.

The Club Library is now available!!!! Check out the recent new acquisitions to the library. See George Dunkle, for anything that you would like to sign out. We’ve got some information regarding some of the club’s DVD collection. Ernie has taken some notes on the movies he’s watched and wanted to share this info with fellow club members. Please remember that this information is for informational purposes only; just to give you an idea of what the video or dvd may be about.
PLEASE REMEMBER : Old abandoned mines are potentially dangerous, and you should NEVER try to enter them. Safety always first. So with that said, each month we are going to try to give you a brief synopsis of what three of the DVD;s/Videos from the library are about, to try to help you with your selection. THANKS ERNIE!!!

VCR#1/DVD#1 – Bed Rock Bustin’A two part program first covering the basic tools and equipment necessary, and the operation of a dredge. A gold show convention, makes available different pieces of equipment and products

DVD#3/VCR#3 Prospecting America
A three part program where we join a crew for cleaning out cracks in bed rock using a gasoline powered shop vac. Then on to a dredging operation and finally to the LDMA’s Italian Bar claim for a hi-banker/sluice operation.

DVD#8 Ocean Dredging
A fun trip to Alaska and out onto the Bearing Sea for a days recreational dredging operation. (I wonder how the problems of open water prospecting can be related to rough weather, inland lakes conditions?)

DVD#32 - Devining for Gold
A road trip through the Burnt River Canyon area of Oregon. A local Indian prospector takes 2 vacationers on a rather unsuccessful prospecting journey but many old workings are noted, and musicians could like all the background music.

DVD#45 - Nome Alaska A short history lesson of Nome & visual overview of the affects of wind and surf on the sea wall.  Tom takes us to a burned out dredge & discusses important of working the tailing piles.  The last part visits Italian Bar Camp where the tromel operation is beind fed by a back hoe.

DVD#60 - King Solomons Mine - A hollywood style full length movie not dealing with prospecting.  (although enjoyable)

DVD#68 - Gold Fever - A Gold Prospectors convention at State Line, Neveda.  Vendors, metal detecting, mucking contest, and world panning contest.

Club Store: See Jimmy at the next meeting for your prospecting needs: pans, hats, T-shirts, vials, etc.

Bags of Concentrate. … are available for sale at each
meeting $5.00 each (+tax) - see Gail

The Club’s Chat room is up and running!!! Log on to talk to your fellow prospectors.
Just log on to www.pa-gold.com and click on Chat room. You can usually catch someone between 7-9pm. Feel free to explore the site, and check out the message board.

Detecting Tips and Tricks from goldfeverprospecting.com

Tip #1 Always use headphones when metal detecting. Small variations in tone will go unnoticed when drowned out by background noise.

Tip #2 Anytime headphones are used, and your hunting anywhere there is the POSSIBILITY of poisonous snakes, wear sturdy leather boots and snake chaps. Nothing will ruin a great day of metal detecting worse, than ending it with a nasty rattlesnake bite.

Tip #3 Use a small, strong garden pick for digging down to targets, and attach a strong magnet to the digging blade. This will grab onto ferrous (iron) targets and expose them quickly, so a minimum amount of time is wasted.

Tip #4 To search an area known for having a lot of nails and other ferrous trash, rake the area first, pulling out most (or all) of the nails. Make a magnetic rake out of a 4-prong garden rake and cow magnets (available at any feed store). Attach the magnets with small hose clamps.

Tip #5 Carry digging tools, nugget bottles, magnifying glass, and other accessories on a tool belt. Use a carpenter's single nail pouch on a 2" web belt. This can have additional hooks and loops attached to "customize" it for your own personal tastes.

Tip #6 Wear hard-cap knee pads. There is a lot of bending and kneeling involved in metal detecting. Hard-cap knee pads are well worth the few bucks you pay for them.

Tip #7 Don't coil the cable from the control box down to the search coil. Instead, tape the cable in a single line up the shaft to a point above the collapsible joint. Start the coil from there. As you swing the coil from side to side, a loose cable coiled around the shaft, and near the search coil, can give false signals.

Tip #8 Always use a protective cap on the search coil. Protective caps are cheap, search coils are not.

Tip #9 Carry water, or have water available in your vehicle, if your vehicle is close. You may not be physically exerting yourself too hard, but in the heat of the day, you will sweat out lots of water.

Tip #10 Unless you know the area you will be working in very, very well, take along a map and compass. Make sure you know how to use them. (See also Land Navigation at rockerbox.com)

Tip#11 Once you get familiar with your machine lower the discrimination and you will find deeper and smaller targets. Remember to go slowly.

Tip #12 Many years ago, I obtained a Garrett Groundhog, with disc settings... Naturally, I first opted to cancel out ANYTHING save for those valuable coins that I felt sure would now be LEAPING from the ground before me! Well, my six yr old son was following me with a $29 bargain detector I'd bought just for him, and to my amazement, was pulling pennies, dimes, and nickels from the 'barren' areas I'd just passed Also, I found that high disc settings caused me to 'skim over' many otherwise nice finds, such as brass shot shell casings, some jewelry, and misc. hardware items that I also desired to find.. IN SHORT, please let me state, it is now my preference to dig twenty five 'junk holes' and find but one keeper, than to skip over not only junk, but perhaps that one special find of the day.

Tip #13 Here's a suggestion for increasing the clad to copper ratio. Lets start by suggesting modern vlf/tr circuits are great for detecting the presence of round (disk-like) metallic objects (coins - rings). Unfortunately pennies fall nicely into this category. They really are nasty targets due largely to their "sweet" broad spectrum registry and of coarse their prevalence - most coin shooters would appreciate a detector with greater resolution/discrimination regarding copper content. This unfortunately is outside the abilities of the most expensive of standard coil type vlf machines. The inability to positively indicate the presence of nuisance pennies. My suggestion; using a standard coil type machine - mark all coin hits with golf balls - having done this to however many hits (20-30?) drop the detector and approach each designated location with a powerful hard-drive type magnet. Attempt to induce residual magnetism in the yet indeterminate target. This can be approached by employing a pinpointing type detector to guide one in the application of the powerful magnetic fields. Now removing the magnet from the area will allow for the ready detection of residual magnetism as registered on a gauss meter/magnetometer. Here in Canada our $1.00 and $2.00 coins respond quite nicely to this whole process which I have chosen to refer to as "enhancement". The gauss meter is readily available as the "Gauss Master" $50.00 CDN @ Efston Science. Trust this as interesting reading.

Tip #14 When digging a target use a dog Frisbee to put the dirt on. When done pour it back into the hole.
(a gold pan also works)

Tip #15 When you dig a coin and its dirty I put the coin in a m& m mini candy container and put 2 cotton gun patches on the top of it. Next coin do the same, then the coins won't get scratched.

Tip #16 A little tip that might help save some time from digging that piece of pipe or cable, wire. Ya get the idea. I sometimes hunt areas where houses have been torn down. When I come across a target that I think might be worth bending over for, I'll swing my coil in a cross pattern, get a pin point, then swing the coil in a circle around the target far enough out so that you don't pick up the pin pointed target. If I get a tone on each side chances are it's long. This works well in areas where you know there to be trash such as pipe, wire, etc. Of course you might try digging a few times till you get the hang of it.

Camp Cooking…….. Grilled Meatloaf  from thecampingsource.com

Ingredients:  1 meatloaf recipe, and 4-6 onions depending on size.  Hollow out middle of the onions.  Mix your favorite meatloaf recipe using the leanest beef, stuff the onion with as much meatloaf mixture that will fit.  Place onion in middle of foil.  Pull sides of foil together & twist.  Bake on grill until beef is no longer pink.  Usually 45 minutes or more, depending on size of onion.  You can mix, stuff, and freeze these at home, pop into cooler, and these will be ready to cook your first night at camp.

Memberships: Show your support...Don't forget to get your membership to the GPAA, WWATS, or DEF from the club. Do it through our chapter. We benefit. Do it directly with them but tell them you are doing it through the club and we benefit. It doesn't cost you any more and we benefit. Want to know more about memberships ask a club officer.

License Plates....Club license plates are now available for just $5.00.

That's it for this month.....
Dig into our chapters web site at http://PA-Gold.com and stop in our chat room.
Note, present chatroom requires the turning off of all pop up blockers.

Finally Just For Laughs.....… Dress Too Tight
In a crowded city at a busy bus stop, a beautiful young woman wearing a tight leather skirt was waiting for the bus.
As the bus stopped and it was her turn to get on, she became aware that her skirt was too tight to allow her leg to come up to the height of the first step of the bus. Slightly embarrassed and with a quick smile to the bus driver, she reached behind her to unzip her skirt a little, thinking that this would give her enough slack to raise her leg.  She tried to take the step, only to discover that she couldn't!
So, a little more embarrassed, she once again reached behind her to unzip her skirt a little more, and for the second time attempted the step. Once again, much to her chagrin, she could not raise her leg.
With a little smile to the driver, she again reached behind to unzip a little more and again was unable to take the step.
About this time, a large Texan who was standing behind her picked her up easily by the waist and placed her gently on the step of the bus.
She went ballistic and turned to the would-be Samaritan and screeched, "How dare you touch my body! I don't even know who you are!"
The Texan smiled and drawled, "Well, ma'am, normally I would agree with you, but after you unzipped my fly three times, I kinda figured we was friends."