Here is my Geo pick and Rare Earth magnet setup. Last year when my Uncle and I were wandering around out bush we were carrying speaker magnets around in sample bags for trying to pick up ferrous targets. Even though they were helpful items it became frustrating pulling them from the back pocket with each signal.

When I decided to get the GPM and a whole dose of enthusiasm I ordered a Rare Earth Magnet from Ausie Magnets. I decided on a magnetic rod 22 X 25.4mm. It was only $20 and had an approximate pulling power of 30.5Kg.

As I prefer to use a Geo Pick, I was trying to figure out the best place to fix the magnet. Would I glue it to the handle, make a small wooden handle for it like a chisel handle or just use a cloth pouch again. After doing a few tests with it out the back seeing what I could find through the mine scats I found that it was really quite easy to remove targets from the magnet even though it had some extreme pulling power. I took a look at the Geo Pick and noticed the rock breaking face of the pick fitted the magnet perfectly. So this is where it now lives.

I find it is an amazing resource and saves so much time with less small ferrous targets having to be dug out and pinpointed. When I get a target I scrape the top soil and rocks and if the target has moved I run the magnet through the pile. So far I’ve only missed a couple of small targets with the magnet. And offcourse if the magnet doesn’t’ pick it up it makes the heart beat with anticipation of gold. More often than not its lead or shell casing.

As our current little patch has a truckload of hot rocks laying around everywhere I also tested to see if the magnet had any effect on picking them up and its great! Once again it saves so much time when figuring out if it’s a good target or not. The hot rocks and their little magnetite friend stick to the magnet like crazy!

These magnets would also go well inset into the wooden handles of larger picks as others have suggested.

Now I just need a trash and hot rock bag instead of pockets.

Cheers

Eric

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