This could be put in your detecting 101's

When Porspecting with mates share, unless you already have an agreement inplace .

Most of all keep your mouth shut what you find is between the 2/3/4 of you, flapping gums sill destroy many friendships, sneaking back to patches/areas destroys friendships. You might find a 7 oz patch and lose your best mate over it, then you find out your x-mate just found an 70 oz patch, then wish you had kept opinions/speculations/desires to yourself.

If you do something wrong . Be a man about it, go to the person look them in the eye and appologize. There are a lot of years in front of you and your prospecting mates, just to loose it over a few ounces of gold hell I would give a mate $10,000 if he was in need, so why would I worry about a few ounces.

Once you have done wrong by your mate, it causes doubt . That puts friendships at risk .

I have lost 2 Friends to prospecting, and it is not worth it, I miss their company badly.
One of these mates was rumoured to have dug up a very large nugget I had detected and couldn't dig due to the rock and couldn't get back to straight away due to work., enough to buy a new detector and accessories.

Can I trust them again, I dont know. But I would try.

thank you aubs it makes very good sense,i couldn't put it a better way,good honest ppl are very hard to find but when you do find them cherish them and stay honest with each other.once they do the wrong its hard to trust that person again especially when that person repeats his or her dishonest ways.so yer when you do find a patch keep it to yourself and ONLY to the ppl you truly trust ,though it does take a long time to get to know a persons ways but if you have doubt of that person its best we listen to our instincts instead of ignoring them,when i find a patch i get very excited and all i want to do is tell everyone but then theirs consequences that come from it.(its a shame really)so please if you have real doubts of that person than don't invite to your patch,its so easy.anyway good luck to everyone, go and find that patch.just my to bobs worth.cheers

Too true, Some people I've detected with think you're a bit silly saying 50/50 or finders keepers but it's important to have an agreement.
I guess it would be even more important if there was a patch involved. I would be disappointed if I was out with a mate and he got onto a Oz+ patch and I got nothing but if the agreement was finder's keepers, I would be happy for him. If it was the other way around and I found the patch, I would invite him to help and go 50/50.
I once had an agreement with a property owner mate that he would get 50% of what I found (didn't find anything anyway) but what if I found the big one and didn't have an agreement. Could have got messy.
Good mates are a very rare breed ..... look after them.
I dare to say, this is a subject worthy of the 'detecting 101's' thread.

I have had that problem but I find that the best way around it is to tell a little white lie,If I find a nugget I tell a few good friends but I actually move the location a few klm's from where I found it.This way I am not telling a lie I am just expanding the location from a pinpoint to a football oval,keeps everyone happy.
I detect alone and that means I do not have to tell my mates about the location,I tell them what I found and offer to take them with me prospecting,if they decline I just move the location and generalise it.
I think where I detect in WA is different to Victoria just by the big areas covered here,I would love to drive over to Victoria and have a go there but its such a long trip.

Cheers Billy

Good post aubs,detecting with more than one person can be difficult,going out by your self all the time can be boring.You need to have an agreement in place before you start.Chookfoot a patch can be 70 metres long ,one person may get the first gold nugget at the start of the patch ,or in the middle ,or the end ,he may find the patch, but the other detectorist may detect on the same shed of gold, but be 40 metres away, the second operater may hit bigger pieces of gold,the gold may be running down a slope in three different directions.you may get the first piece of gold ,but then do you have the right to tell the person your detecting with ,that it is all your patch.but if you go detecting with another detectorist and find one nugget of say 12 grams, it is not worth splitting up,their are many different scenarios you can find yourself in .But at at the end of the day ,it is not a bad problem to have ,because it means you have found some gold and that is part of what we are looking for. Regards .keo .

HI ALL- gold does funny things to people but sometimes you have to take a leap of faith- the rewards of a good friendship can't be valued!

cheer's- dusty!!

Hi All, I treat people as how I would like to be treated, wish a lot more folks on this planet had this view, cheers Frank.

Great post by Freshwater on the thread detecting 101'shttp://australiangoldfields.freeforums.org/post10655.html#p10655
But i would like to add a little to his last line, and it would better suit this thread.

A lesson i have just learned, is one should be more choosy who he helps and puts on gold locations in the future.
Helping others find gold has been something iv enjoyed doing since i got into prospecting myself, and there are a few that have found gold by my helping them, and i have made many new friends because of this.

There are more takers then there are givers i was told, and now i no why, i am a little slow i guess.
The advice i was given with a smile that the day would come when your bitten by a few takers, was taken lightly, but was very correct because that day has come. I now await the " i told you so" and i bloody welcome it.

My views (may vary from other members)

Well known spots, flogged spots or a very experienced user and a novice maybe? ..its finders keepers.

Patch hunting reguarly with a group of 2, 3 or 5 speading out to cover an area or ridge etc it should split evenly between the team.

On one day trips maybe up to the first ounce( or agreed amount) found by the patch finder being their bonus and if only a couple bits are found on the search its finders keepers or ..into the shared tin if agreed.

All longer detecting expeditions (few days or 5 months in WA) it should be everthing in the tin for splitting at the end of the trip.

There would be nothing worse then patch hunting a new area and agreeing to finders keepers i believe. You may back your skills/luck but the scenario could end up with one person getting tens of ounces and the others getting a nugget or two when the patch fnder lets them detect a consolation nugget or two.

Agree with other posters... You must have agreed rules (whatever they are) between friends on extented trips or patch hunting sorties.

Re friends/ people doing the wrong thing, gold does strange things to some people, consider giving people a second chance in most cases and keep communication lines open enough for someone to explain, apologise or otherwise i say. One of the group going back on the sly to a rich spot however.... they should be dragged to hell screaming.
Duck

With this season coming fast upon us, with a lot of new members, I thought I may find and re-junivate this post.

I am now down to only what I class as 2 prospecting friends that I can truly trust.

In the last couple years I have seen first hand the destructiveness caused by thoughtless so called "mates" that take advantage of knowlege and friendships. They have no value on friendships, no intregity, no conscience, and could not get past their greed.

They seem to be able worm they way back into the mateship, they know you are the one out there doing the hard yards and you are the one most likely to find that small patch, so do you thrust them again?

JP gave me some advice once, "Prospecting with mates is like giving them your ATM card and the pin. You only do this if the trust is earnt in the first instance,

WHY? GOLD IS MONEY.


So what do you do?

My motto is "Bust the trust, and you can't start from scratch with that person...". That's pretty harsh though.

I don't believe this phenomena is restricted to the yellow stuff. I'm actually a scientist, and in my field I've seen people get caught up with issues like: the first to discover, the first to publish, the first to patent etc. etc... These are often all wrapped up with big carreers, the prospect to run your own lab, get your own equipment, students etc. etc.. I'm afraid I've seen supervisors act like the North Koreans, while others who give you the warm fuzzies while both undermining you and rearranging your authorships, and the countless hours of artwork you have done, to become lead authors and be promoted to Chief Scientists!

Mind you, it's not all like this, and I have enjoyed working with other scientists, and as a group, particularly where we have all been rewarded. One motto, I tell prospective students and junior researchers is go talk with all the lab members as to how it is like working here in this lab or that lab, with this person or that person. It's the only way to get a truer picture.

I think in prospecting, working as a group would be extremely hard and probably needs to be avoided. Preset rules would be a must, and if you were working with a mate, then small steps initially. Then again, most of my prospecting has been solo or with family.

Unfortunately, in 99% of instances, gold detecting is not a team sport.

Robert

If you can get the "detecting with mates" thing right, it can be an awesome experience.
Most of the gold I have found has been while out with mates, often with them watching.
OK, Only talking sub-ounce areas here (maybe that makes a big difference but I hope not)
Perhaps I will feel a bit of jealousy when Casper and/or Dingodon pull a bigger nugget than me, but I will just have to get over that !
Bring it on guys

Would I be right in assuming we have been burned by the same person aubs? Only I saw the light a very long time ago

Regards
John