I have an assignment for all of you, I need your help.

[DOC]

OK, first let me start by saying I am nominating myself for the Metal Detecting numb skull hall of fame.

OK so here's the story.

Remember March 26th I went out and had one heck of a day. 8 nuggets in 1 day, the last one being that sliver that was down in bedrock 18 inches deep. That one really took the wind out of my sales. I finished the video I did, it is posted below. I put the coil in the hole and took some pictures of it. Turned the machine off, filled in the hole and headed for the truck as it was late. I was pooped and it was time to call it a day.

OK, so I go back to this virgin gully today, (By the way this is not an April Fools joke or anything) although as you will see I am the April Fool.

I figure I will work this virgin gully real slow and see if I missed anything, and maybe find that darn nugget number 5 that I lost. It was really small but it still irritates me that I was stupid enough to lose it.

OK so as I am passing by the place where I dug that 1.2 dwt nugget at 18 inches I get a screaming target. And I do mean screaming. I thought, "Oh heck I must have dropped a coin out of my pocket when I pulled out my container to put that nugget in." I mean this target was right in the middle of the dirt I put back in the hole and I could tell it was shallow. At least it was loud enough to indicate it was shallow. So I take one scoop of dirt to see what the heck I dropped, and pour it back and forth in my hand and I about passed out. A nugget, turns out it weighed .79 dwt.

There must have been two nuggets in the hole that I dug. I never checked the dirt I was pulling out of the hole because the target was in the hole and it was screaming. Well apparently it was TARGETS. So at some point I apparently dug out the nugget I found today and it was in the spoils pile while I kept digging for the other target. If you watch the video, when I got the bedrock broke up I laid the coil beside the hole and scooped out the loose stuff with my plastic scoop and that is how I recovered the 1.2 dwt sliver that I am sure was sandwiched in between bedrock because it is all flattened.

The piece I recovered today is .79 pennyweight and it is rougher and was probably in the gravel before I got to bedrock.

So what I would like you to do is to watch the video of Nugget Number 8 and see if you can tell when I possibly could have dug the nugget out of the hole that I found today. It seems like I remember at one point saying something like, "It seems like I moved it." Well I couldn't have actually moved it because it was wedged in bedrock. So I wonder if it sounded like it moved because I got the .79 out of the hole and now all I was hearing was 1 nugget instead of two.

I really committed a rookie mistake. Not checking your spoils pile for other nuggets. How it ended up on the top of the dirt I put back in the hole I will never know, Although I had three piles of dirt going so when I filled the hole in it wasn't like I put the dirt back in order.

So I found this nugget first thing this morning and I didn't find another thing all day, I think being so stupid threw me off my game. However, I did wander off trying to find some new ground with potential.

Tell me what you think. Just make a notation of how many minutes into the video you think I pulled the first nugget out of the hole back on the 26th.

Thanks. I see Rob talking about paying for a GPZ7000 in 1 day. I think with tenth of a gram nuggets and an occasional pennyweight nugget it will take me a little longer than a day... especially if I keep leaving nuggets in my dig holes.

I just watched it again at around 7:50 I say, "It sounds like I moved it over to the side of the hole, before it sounded like it was in the middle."

Doc

Here's today's nugget video is short:

Here's is the nugget from March 26, 2015

[oldies1955]

Doc...it was hot, you were tired, beat up and glad you finally found the target after a ton of digging.

Your mistake can be excused

Happens to all of us if were out there burning ourselves out. But HEY...you got its brother!!! Whoo HOOO!!

It wont happen again....im sure of that. Good learning lesson.
Rob taught me about hitting the sides of the wash in a spot I had hammered....he got one....now I hit all the sides of the wash and I pass it on to the youngens
Gongrats.

Tom H.

[AZNuggetBob]

Doc after watching your vid Im not sure I have an answer to your question.you may have split them (two nugges)one in your hand and one in the scoop and thrown one away because you didnt check both or the pile.

BTW Nice vid and I like the body armour too.

AzNuggetBob

[nvchris]

It's the experienced ones who get complacent!

Easy to do when tired.

I thought you had dug past it at one point in the vid.

Your a natural entrainer Doc, please keep the videos/stories coming!!!!

[azblackbird]

Thanks for the reminder on checking your holes and dig piles. Easy to become complacent.

[Mike Furness]

Hey Doc ... could tell exactly when you may have 'moved' the second nugget but great video. Over the years of checking old dig holes filled and unfilled when I come onto them I have found a few 'extra' nuggets left for me. I'm betting you have done the same. As someone said already ... Tom I think ... you were beat, hot and tired from digging those craters the GPZ forces you to dig.

I'm headed to Gold Basin later this morning and will be in the GPAA camp ground if you will be in the area ... stop on by. White GMC Sierra and Prowler Toyhauler ... red Polaris RZR if you see me flying by somewhere.

Mike F

[DOC]

Bob,

I usually always hunt alone. So I take the precautions necessary to make sure I don't suffer an injury. I have always wore gaiters and knee pads. The gaiters I wear primarily because of cactus, not snakes. The knee pads because my knees are shot from 44 years of marriage being on my knees pleading with my wife to let me go prospecting.

One time I was coming down this steep gully and slipped, went down on one knee on this really sharp quartz boulder. You should have seen the gash it put in that hard capped knee pad. It made me shudder to think what would have happened if I had been my bare knee.

After that long dig on March 26th. I go back to my truck take off my knee pads and gaiters and shove them in the back of the truck. I go to the passenger side of my truck to put the Minelab battery in the seat so I will remember to take it in and charge it. In the process I just power through a bush not realizing the bush has a tall cactus in the middle of it. WHAM about 15 long spines right through my jeans into my right knee.

So there I am standing in the middle of the desert with my jeans around my ankles pulling cactus spines out of my knee. They hurt like hell and they didn't want to come out. I assume they must have some small reverse barbs. Several I had to wait until I got home and have my wife take a tweezers to them to get them out.

I also had to listen to a lecture from "SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED" about "I thought I told you to be careful? Why weren't you paying attention? You told me you were going to be careful!"

OH FOR GOD's SAKE you can just put the cactus spines back in if you will just STOP YOUR NAGGING!"

As I have often said, make sure you marry an ugly woman because when you marry a HOTTIE, you have a tendency to put up with a lot more, because you can't believe a woman so beautiful would have you.

So look at the pictures below. Beautiful women stay beautiful however, they are so high maintenance look at the terrible toll they take on us men. My wife looks like she did when I married her, she was 18. Me on the other hand... not so much!

Doc

[AZNuggetBob]

Wow Doc sounds like you been clearing cactus. you big city guys always do it the hard way, as you probubly know I also usally hunt alone. personal protection is at the top of my list because when your hunting alone getting hurt is not an option. Thats why I noticed your body armour. the term I use may sound extreme but thats what it really is. Anyway good to hear things are going well for you and your wife. she is pretty, and btw Doc I dont think age has taken a toll on ya, you look just as good as the last time I saw ya. but you could cut down on the jokes.

just kidding. AzNuggetBob

[oldies1955]

Doc.....and CONGRATS for still being married to her
My wife and I passed our 31 yr anniversary.

Tom H.

[strick]

Hey Doc you two make a cute couple then and now. I'll trade some cactus spines for gold nuggets any day. Thanks for posting those videos as they fire us all up.

strick

[DOC]

Bob - thank you, I guess I am looking OK and I am in general good health, but my lower back is just killing me.

Oldies - Congratulations! 31 years is nothing to sneeze about in this day and age

Strick - Thank you, she has alaways been "my girl" I can't imagine my life without her. I wouldn't be where I am in life without her. She has always been my biggest cheerleader.

Mike - Wish I could get out to see you, but this is Easter weekend, a big thing for us Catholics. So I will be going to church a lot, all the family is coming over on Sunday. How long will be out at Gold Basin?

Doc

[shep]

cradle robber you!

[Grubstake1]

Doc, at least your church is easy to find, in any town, you just look for the bingo signs. Yeh, my fist wife was a catholic. I'm on #6 and we have been married 22 years on may the3rd. , oh and always carry a leatherman with you, good for the catus spines. Grubstake

[AZNuggetBob]

Doc Hope you dont mind me putting this up here and putting up with some of my jokes on my last post. Hey at least you found your second nugget,

it could be worse.

Like having your buddy show you were he found it.

Multy nuggets in the same hole are more common than people may think.(Ive learned)

I was there when Jimmy Malone found his big nugget in N.Nv. up at his Lunker Hill Mine. it was around 22-23 ozs. after cleaning with Hydroflouric.

but the kicker, I was working at a the dozer scrape down below on his property for 25% and heard all the screaming when Jimmy found it with his detector,

so I went up to see what was going on.

by the time I got there Jimmy had the monster

nugget in hand and walked away from the hole headed back up to the cabin to weigh it and left his Minelab laying there.

The hole was about 2 to 2-1/2 feet deep.I picked up the detector and wanted to see if there was an aura left in the hole from his nugget.

Ive heard that some large nuggets leave an aura from natural leaching?.

Oh I could hear somthing but it was strong?.

so I kept digging side ways along a big crack in the decomposed bedrock

and found a 10 ounce next to it. except for size of the nuggets they looked alike. we tryed to piece them back together, I was sure they were part of the same mass.

Great Times for sure. I walked up to the cabin with the nugget. they Tim (a friend) and jim were all excited trying to get a weight on the Big nugget.

and I reached in my pocket and pulled out the 10 ozer and just layed it on the table.

and just said, I found that in the hole and brought up your detector.

should have seen the look on Jimmy's face.

It seems like with all the excitement,finding a big nugget,being tired you forget about all the rules.

makes me wonder how many doubles (or more in the same hole) I've walked away from?.

I didnt get to keep the nugget but Jimmy handed me a box of his personal stash nuggets and said pick out about 2 1/2 oz's.

Couldnt argue with that! Great guy, sure going to miss him.

Check the pile and the hole!.

AzNuggetBob

[nuggethunting]

Hey Doc and all,

Great story, video and lesson on re-checking your hole.

Funny, the last video of my biggest nugget found so far with the GPZ was the 1/3 ouncer. I placed a Youtube video here on the forums of it. The video was pretty clear, but I didn't recheck the hole. Once I shut off the video, packed up all my gear from the location, I grabbed my detector and re-checked the hole. Low and behold, it sounded off. Crap ..... I was excited thinking another big one, but right in the bottom was a 1.1 Dwter that I missed. Glad I re-checked the hole before burying it back up.

I couldn't tell you how many nuggets I have dug from the same spot. The most so far to date is 7 nuggets from the same hole, most of them being smaller pieces under a Gram or so all in one spot.

AzNuggetBob - Jim "Oakie" Malone was a character at best. Sure missed the times I was able to hunt up there with him and seeing all the gold that was being found up there. He always had a handful of guys detecting around on a percentage type deal, but for the most part it seemed productive for the detectorist and good for him.

Great times for sure. Never hurts to cherish the past and look forward to all the nugget hunting ventures we all will encounter in years to come.

[DOC]

Bob - Great story. 2 1/2 ounces isn't a bad consolation prize.

Rob - I had one of those multi-nugget holes once. I was with Digger Bob and he took me up to some old hydraulic workings up in Northern California.

Never been anywhere like that. He was a fantastic guide and host. He took me to this spot and said, "Doc I have worked the side of this ridge and took numerous nuggets out of it. But if you go real slow you might scare up another 1 or 2."

So I got a real faint target and pulled a nugget out. Checked the pile, there was another in the pile and one in the hole. This when on several times, each time I would get a nugget out there was another target still in the hole. It was a lot of fun.

Also it was nice to be in a totally different environment than the desert. We were up in the mountains, tall pine trees, a hard running clear stream nearby, a bear walking across the road occasionally to go down to the stream. It was very memorable.

Then on the way home I hit a deer. I was going through some kind of national forrest on the way back through Susanville. There were deer everywhere. It was late at night. So I was going really slow. The deer were just standing in the roadway, So I come up on this rise, and I am thinking, man right over that rise would be a prime place for a deer to be standing. You are tooling along going 70 come up over that blind rise in the road and WHAM, hit a big buck goes through your window, impales you and the deer is dead and so are you. I wasn't going 70 of course I was going like 30 and honking to make the damn deer run away.

So as I approach the rise, with this ghastly mental image of my head pinned to my head rest because the antler of a buck deer has pierced my forhead and driven itself all the way through my brain and head rest, I slow down to like 7 miles an hour.

I crest the rise, and all is clear. I breathe a sigh of relief and start to accelerate, at about 25 mph a F--KIN deer jumps from out of nowhere along the side of the road and in one leap lands right in front of the left front of my truck. WHOP.

I must have hit him just right and driven a rib through his heart or something because he was DEAD DEAD DEAD. The left front of my truck looked like it had been nicked by a rocket propelled grenade. Headlight dangling, fender buckled, grill broke. I duct taped the headlight back on as good as I could and made the trip back to Las Vegas without further incldent.

The deer was big. There was no way that I could drag him off the highway. As soon as I got cell service I notified highway patrol. So the whole trip was sort of bitter sweet. 9 nuggets and a torn up truck. Fortunately I had comprehensive insurance so that took care of my truck.

(It's always something!) :-)

Doc

[DOC]

cradle robber you!

Started dating her when she was 16, married her the month after she turned 18.

Doc

[AZNuggetBob]

Hey Doc, Rob another time when I was working up at Jimmy Malone's Lunker Hill gold mine in Eugene mountains Nv. the sun was going down so I went over to see what Jimmy and some friends were up too. Jimmy says grab a beer and have a seat,we were sitting around in lawn chairs drinkin beer in that upper scrape on the left and I think I see this chunk of pay streak.

I picked Jimmy's Minelab and with minelab in one hand and a bud in the other I started swinging in some old ground they had scraped all the gold off down to decomposed bedrock they thought. I get this light signal and I start digging using Jimmy's little pick and I notice Jimmy is looking around like wtf? and after getting down about a foot. it was packed tight schist. I said screw this Im going to the truck to get my pick.

so I get back and Jimmy and the other guys are sitting there with grins on there face, I should have known something was up? anyway I pick up the detector I check the hole, pin point the target again and continue digging. a few more scoops and its out of the hole. I grab a hand full of dirt swing it over the coil,and I got it in my hand,drop it on the coil and I hear it plunk on the coil and it screams, its an almost perfect cross shaped nugget. they all bust out laughing and hold up another nugget about the same size they had dug out of the hole while I was up at my truck getting my pick. I got to keep that one.

I hunted with Jimmy for years in Az. too, he was always playing practical jokes.

Dang it Rob the best Ive ever done is six in the same hole. they were small lined up in a crack.

AzNuggetBob

[AZNuggetBob]

Doc you probably already know this, I'll throw it in for others who may not. I watched your vid again and by the sound when you were digging, I'm pretty sure you were down to bedrock and thats were Ive seen a lot of multy nugget holes found. the bedrock usually has an obstruction, low spot or crack that traps the traveling nuggets. like a riffle. It looked like you were in a little gully/wash. but Ive seen this happen on a hillsides too. Ive also seen a lot of junk, bullets etc. in the same hole as nuggets for the same reason. it happens in creeks alot but also happens on ridges too. like I said the most I've found in one hole was six small nuggets. once I cleaned the hole out and brushed the bottom off with my hand I saw it was a bedrock crack running horriszontal to the ridge that the nugges had all lined up in, coming down a low area on a ridge, but were so close together sounded like a single target. I had to chip the edge of the bedrock crack with the pointed end of my pick so's not to damage the nuggets and get them out .

I lived in Shingletown and Readding in the late70's. Its where I first got into gold mining. I saw a lot of road kill up there on the road over to Susanville. I managed to dodge the deer but I did get my bag limmit on quail one day. I stopped and picked them up. dinner without firing a shot, although I did get a grill broken in my Nissan. that area was crawling with game because of Lassen park. the logging trucks thinned the heard on deer around the park. it was hit em or risk putting your truck in a ditch and hitting pine tree(s) followed by a bunch of logs. some of the trucks had Roo bars on them for the deer. it was fun dodging oncoming logging trucks on dirt roads up there too.

I did hit an elk in a full size pickup truck in Az. on the freeway up by Flag. so I got an idea of what your saying Doc about hitting a deer in a car. as a matter of fact I remember the HP telling me he'd seen people get decapitated hitting an elk with a sports car. that made me feel better? It totaled my truck and I didnt even get to keep the elk.

Anyway besides the gold I did find some small diamonds and my first little platinum nugget up there dredging.

AzNuggetBob

[Uncle Ron]

Those critters are always a hassle up in the Siskiyou and Shasta and Trinity areas...Live there for 20 plus years and mainlt dodged them...Had blonde live-in girlfriend who looked like Marilyn Monroe who wiped out a couple deer herds, I think... She drove my old 70 somethlng heavy duty Malibu ex cop rig I called Narcarama ... Three on the floor, big engine .. Built like a tank ... She didn't even try to dodge the deer, just accelerated when she saw them, just for the adventure I think.. ... Narcarama had a million stories to tell! And never a dent!

... Cheers, Unc

[DOC]

Bob- I was for sure on bedrock. I had to break it up to get the nugget out, so you are probably right it was down in a crack, It was in a small 20 inch wide gully.

Uncle Ron- You are spot on that is where I was detecting, up North of Mt. Shasta. I just did not realize how prolific the wildlife was up in that neck of the woods. Not used to seeing many animals here in the desert.

Doc

[Uncle Ron]

Doc, were you with Digger Bob up near Callahan? I gave him a pointy finger to my old claim in the upper Scott River drainage? Very pockity gold there. Once found a teacup size hole in bedrock full of fine gold and larger nuggets. I gave Dodacious the largest nugget as a pendant for our 1st anniversary 20 years ago. The teacup hole held 6+ ozt. Cheers, Unc