russfordAZ

Since I didn't have a camera on that trip, these photos were taken afterwords and on other trips. But this is the actual gold found. It's been awhile since I tried to post any pics....let's see if this works.

My contest story: February, 2006 It was a cold and cloudy morning and about 20 degrees on the front porch when we woke up. Not exactly the type of day you’d choose for a detecting trip. We knew Chris had another appointment at 3:00pm and daylight is short this time of year. That meant we needed to hit the trail early if we wanted to get in any detecting time. I knew the place we were going was only accessible by Jeep if we wanted to get in there with all of our gear, so I hooked up the towbar of the CJ5 behind “Old Blue†(my ‘77 F250 p.u.). Now to check the gas, oil, air, spare, jack etc….you know the routine, all the usual stuff in all the vehicles. You run over all the details in your mind right down to the power cord to connect your battery on the detector. Chris was going to follow me part way so he could head over to the outing later in the day. Ol’ Blue has a 3speed standard transmission which wouldn’t be bad if it had a second gear! Shifting from low to high while towing a jeep behind is a bit of a trick on some of these mountain hills and curves. When we got to the jump off spot it was still cloudy and cold. To make things worse, when I got out of the truck there was a stiff breeze and I immediately became aware that in my muddled state of mind that morning I had forgotten several important items including a coat, and even my drinking water. Oh well! It was cloudy …I should be all right. We got in the Jeep and I turned the heater on (which dindn’t do a hell of a lot of good in an open Jeep), and we headed into the hills. I won’t post any pictures of the area for two reasons. First, incase anyone is trying to find the location, and second …because I forgot my camera too! This area is in central Arizona, and is an old mining hot spot mentioned in many reference books. I was friends with the claim owner and had permission to work the area. It is a heavily mineralized area with steep canyons. You will hit iron-stone hot rocks on every swing. Not to mention trash from many years of mining in the area. So detecting is tedious and slow going. When we got to the spot, we walked over and looked at the creek. It looked like the bank had been undercut by recent floods and there was some newly exposed bedrock in several places. I said, “you pick where you want to work because it all looks good to meâ€. Originally I was just going to take some samples for panning, but after thinking about it for a minute I decided to go back to the Jeep and get my detector (good thinking Russ)! I hit that first signal on the first swing, and Chris said, it sounded like a "pennyweight’er". We were searching right on a Yavapai Shist and granite bedrock, but there were pockets and areas with some overburden. After I dug up that first 1.5 gm nugget I went over the area again and it became obvious that we had a pocket where multiple smaller nuggets had been traped as well. I was swinging a ML3000 with the Coiltek DD Joey. As I recall, Chris had a ML2200D with stock coils. I really like the small double “D†Joey for getting into tight spots, but it also works real well for working an area where you hit a lot of trash targets. Many people say they don’t like the descrimination on the Minelab SD/GP machines, but I’ve found it to be a real asset once you learn it’s capabilities and limitations. And of course you have to use a DD coil for it to work – hense the Joey DD. We worked the spot together and spent a most enjoyable hour or so pulling out little pieces from the decaying shist bedrock. I think that’s about the most fun I’ve had with my pants on in a long, long time. As we worked the pocket I looked over at Chris and he had the most serious look on his face…..he would stop every now and then and I would wonder what he was thinking, then he would say, “is that gold?†as he picked up one out of the dirt with his fingers (and a big grin on his face). After we had all the detectable gold I practically had to pry him from the spot. He didn’t want to believe that they were all gone. I always carry several canvas sample bags in my pack and they came in real handy for the dirt we scooped out of the hole when we were done detecting. In fact I even emptied my backpack to carry out more of the dirt. We didn’t have any screens with us and I think there was about 5 or 6 gallons of dirt and rock that we brought out. After we were all done and having a bite of lunch at the Jeep I said, “it’s too bad that the day is so cloudy and coolâ€, and Chris replied, “I’ll take a day with gold any time over a day with sunâ€. To which I replied, “Yeah, sunny days are a dime a dozenâ€â€¦.and we laughed. After returning home and running the dirt through a mini re-cycleing sluice, the total gold came out to about ¼ oz….all out of that one little pocket! Later that evening we sat at the kitchen table and flipped a coin for first pick. Then we took turns “ picking the pickersâ€!! Sure wish we’d had more time….anonymous (grin) Photos to follow

self edited.... What a deal. Good luck with it. .....rf

Hi Bob, I haven't seen the swap meet in Mayer in years, but don't get through that way too often. Just got a call from Travis and he will be helping out and demonstrating his pan at my booth. Here's a shot from the dredging in Lynx at last years Daze. (before they turned the water on) ......... russ

Looks like the Fever will continue! Saturday and Sunday Sept 30 and Oct 1st. at Fain Park in Prescott Valley. I had a talk with the guys from the city and there will be more events and doins' this year. I'm not sure what activities are scheduled, but will keep this thread updated as it gets closer. Hope the dredgers will be allowed again, but not sure at this point. I do know that russford Prospecting will have a booth and John will have a booth for the Gold Tube. I'm not sure about Travis. Also, they have asked me to run the panning demonstration and dress up as a "Prospector" (now that should be a real trick) We will miss Kevin this year and probably Rick also, but are still hoping to see hundreds of prospectors at the event. Most of the Gold events are scheduled for Saturday I believe. Don't miss it! ............ russ

I've had the X-Terra out a half dozen times and am starting to feel pretty comfortable with it although no gold found yet. Here's my opinion: Pos: Very good target I.D. in the coin mode on shallow targets. Very good depth and sensitivity in the prospecting mode. Ability to hunt in prospecting mode and check targets in coin mode I.D. with one click. Very light weight and easy to handle. And will handle mineralized ground as good or better than most VLFs. An excellent dual purpose machine. Neg: Learning curve is slightly longer because of so many features. Coin mode has less depth and I.D. works best on strong signals. Prospecting mode is audio only, but does have good iron des. Target I.D. in coin mode can be confusing in mineralized ground because of mixed signals. I like this machine and will use it for taking into rough areas for the first time because of it's light weight, good descrimination. sensitivity, and mineralization handling capabilities. However, since I sell this machine for ML, I know some of you will take what I say with a grain of salt.....so be it. Good luck. ......... russ

The stuff that whatsforsupper mentioned is great to have along, but not all of it is necessary for a short testing trip with a puffer. The pull string Keene is O.K., but I like lighter/smaller/wooden models better for testing. However, the Keene can be converted to 12V operation without too much difficulity if you are handy, and that makes a real good DW for short trips (not really a backpack unit). Anyone interested in drywashing should check out this page off my website and read my story "drywasher discourse" found here: http://www.russford.com/wst_page4.html ......... russford

"..Nice nug and pic you have also, what camera ?.." It's a Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 5mp. ...... rf

Good idea Mike..about the tripod and 2sec timer. I usually try and grab a clear shot in super macro by moving the camer in and out. Doesn't work too well usually, but here a clear shot of the nug I got today. ....russ http://www.arizonagoldprospectors.com/invi...?showtopic=1419

Hey Rob, did you take a good look at Grubstakes photos? That isn't the way I way picturing it at all when you were describing it to me. Looks like you could manage those verticle hillside pretty well with it - don't you think? And the ball has downward pressure on it so there shouldn't be any problem with the ball coming off. Am I picturing this right? ........ rf

I was pullin' for ya Rob and Chris. Maybe I should have kept my Karma outa the way. ........ russ

Rob, Thanks for referring your friend up this way for a dredge. We'll try and fix him up. Eodseal, The Arizona dealers network are all honest, good guys. We work together and are all friends. Ryan, I made quite a bit of progress with the X-70 today. The more I work with it the more I'm impressed. I think the biggest advantage of this machine is the fact that you can hunt in the prospecting mode with extra depth and sensitivity and when you come to a target just click a button and you're in the coin mode with increased descrimination. Check the target out and if it's trash, just click a button and you're back prospecting again. It's like having two machines in one hand. And the whole thing only weighs 2.9 lbs. Digital technology is tops! I predict this will be the top selling detector in the nation this year! .......... russ

I rented one of our houses to a real nice Mexican family. When they left my property looked just like some of that video. It took me weeks to clean it up. NEVER AGAIN! That's how they live south of the border and that's how they want to live in our country. ......... rf

A spot with pickers like that ought to be drywashed. Any tailings in the area? ..... rf

Congrats Mike! That's the 18.75 kHz right? How did you like it? How did it handle the mineralization and hot rocks? I've got one set aside for myself, but haven't had a chance to take it out yet. Did you try switching to the coin/relic mode for descrimination on any targets? I realize it's not an SD/GP, but how would you say it compares? Thanks. ...... rf