nuggethunting

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About nuggethunting

  • Birthday 09/18/1972

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  1. Fishing - I hate detecting in the mud, unless the gold detecting is really good .... Haha It's a pain in the butt, beyond having mud all over you to recover at least smaller targets. The magnet will also not work as well when you have targets in mud balls.
  2. Thanks Flak. I wish I had more time. Hopefully if I can retire in 10 years I will be able to get out more, as long as my Health and Body holds up! Rob
  3. Hello All, A customer purchased a new Minelab SDC 2300 from us back on 5-13-2022. The unit is new, never taken out of the box. He is asking $3000. Anyone interested contact Gregg at - windycamp@gmail.com
  4. Hello All, Over the years I have been fortunately to help a friend work and maintain a small placer mine here in Arizona. Like all mines, placer or lode, I have been able to see all the ups and down, highs and lows. This includes good gold, poor gold, tons of equipment breakdowns/failures and even personality conflicts. That all being said, I would do it again in heartbeat, as I truly have a passion for electronic prospecting and gold mining. Over the years, we have been able to open up a lot of ground that contained "Coyote Holes" or Placer Drifts. These are normally in areas where there is rich, ancient alluvial gravels. I have found these in many States from Nevada, California and Arizona, but I'm sure all rich gold areas could have them. They are basically tunnels dug into the rich gravels normally right on top of bedrock and can vary in weight, height and length. I have seen some that are just small holes punched in the side of a bank, others that are extensive tunnels running for hundreds of yards with many side shoots. In many areas if the ground is hard, meaning caliche and ancient gravels, no timbering was needed. They would use hard tools, dynamite /blasting caps and a lot of back breaking work to muck out and work the tunnels. It's just simply amazing when you find these and see what type of work was needed to dig, maintain and work them. What does this mean to prospectors and electronic prospectors? Well first, it's an indicator that gold was found. No one does this type of work for no gold, so it could be an indicator that good gold was found at some point. The old-timers were pretty good, they knew that the gold and nuggets would be at or near bedrock in these areas, so like anyone they did the best job they could with what they had to work with. We can all quarterback why they might have left a nugget here or there, but keep in mind, like anything, some productivity in their minds had to happen. They had to move as much ground as they could effectively to make a living, so it wasn't possible to break every crack open or find every overlooked gravel pocket on bedrock. This allows modern day prospectors to find missed gold whether thats with a metal detector or re-working some of the old workings using more modern tools. What's normally found? Well, keep in mind, depending where you're located in the World, the weather could be different. Some places freezing cold, while other places blazing hot. This means in a lot of cases, they used them also as shelter from the weather and wild animals. Over the years we have found hundreds of hand-tools, mostly destroyed, broken or half rotten away. This would include shovels, hand-tools like pocket knives, crevice tools and such. You will also find old cans, mostly rotten away, which is a real pain for metal detectorists. You could find anything from old relics, potentially coins, trinkets and gold (fines, flakes or nuggets). I did find some really nice candle holders, which they would hammer into the walls and use candles for light. What I can personally tell you, is they always leave something behind, maybe nice as they couldn't physically see or hear it (metal detector), but on the same note they were good. It always makes you think what they found, as most old documents are not going to have this type of detail in them. I always thought it would be nice for just a day to go back in time and see the guys/gals that are working these areas, interact with them and also see what they were really finding. I'm sure you would see many smiles, along with many frowns ... Safety and Dangers? Below you will see a short Youtube video from about 10+ years ago I filmed. It will give you a general idea of these tunnels and you can get an idea of how deadly they could be. There will be always someone that is curious, but keep in mind, curiosity KILLED the CAT. These tunnels can be extremely dangerous from cave ins, poor oxygen, unknown stuff on the floor, animals, reptiles and insects. If you ever attempt to mess around these, always be prepared and have at least one other person with you for safety. I personally don't recommend try to enter them, regardless of how safe you think it might be, it only takes a second for something to go bad. When your focus is digging a target from the wall, or scratching around on the ground, things happen. Youtube Video on Coyote Hole - Placer Drift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uhhDAz_wJo Many years ago, I was invited to a famous placer mine in California (Ruby Gold Mine) noted for some of the largest gold nuggets recorded. We spent the entire day walking, exploring and even did a bit of metal detecting. These were some of the most extensive placer tunnels I ever experienced. In some places were were hundreds of feet underground, water dripping from the ceiling, but the experience was mind blowing. Were were able to see some of the gold being found, some of the huge gold nuggets still in their collections from years prior and to imagine all the potential that is still there. I figured this would be a new subject not talked about much. Figure we could open it up to discussion and hear about everyone else's experiences with Placer Tunnels and what they found. I will post more pictures and add to this as we go. Gold Bless & Be Safe, Rob
  5. Beautiful Gold you found there. Hope you find more, a nice patch or vein! Rob
  6. Super Impressive gold you found there. Keep up the great work and sharing with us here. Rob
  7. Hi All, I posted on a thread over on DetectorProspectors forum when a person asked about where to look for gold nuggets? You could write a book on it, but here are some quick basics I mentioned - Hello all, This is always one of the first questions asked for new prospectors/detectorist. Where do I even start looking? I think you could write a book on this subject as it's very complex to be honest. You have to first understand gold, the basics of how it's formed and the processes of erosion or weathering to get the gold to it's first location, to it's final location and anywhere in-between depending on it's timeline. Once you have a idea of the basics of gold, say placer gold for example you can understand that due to it's specific gravity it will likely make it to the lowest point in given time (this could be hundreds or thousands of years). The lowest points in most areas is going to be wash bottoms (gullies, washes, rivers and any water water). This is normally why you will see some past placer activity in rich gold bearing areas. Normally, for metal detectorists, this is the first place many will start. Keep in mind, the old-timers did also by sampling and then trying to see if they could be lucky enough to track the traces of gold back to the original source that may/maybe be left. Many of the major gold mines were found by locating the placer first, but this is not the case all the time, many visible quartz veins can attract someone to them to sample and find out if there are any values. I'm sure many of the visible quartz vein in gold rich areas have been sampled from the beginning of mining history. Then the question comes to coarse gold, or nuggets. Many placers throughout the World are not noted for larger, coarse gold, like nuggets. You can do a lot of research and find extremely rich gold areas, but very little coarse gold was located due to the type of deposit. These area might not be very beneficial to electronic prospectors. I have always stated to seek out "Pocket type" deposits if you can find any info on them. These are the types of deposits that contribute to large, nugget gold. For beginners, just try to research areas that historically have produced gold nuggets, even very large ones. Worst case, if you can't find info on what the placers produced, just find the gold areas and work within and around them. This will at least give you a chance of potentially locating something at some point. All that being said, the subject can be simple or very complexed, depending how much you really want to know. To keep it simple, I have always stated, invest in good equipment (right tool for the job), do whatever research you can (knowledge is very helpful) & develop a plan of attack. This basically means finding a potential location, exploring and metal detecting likely locations. It all comes down to a process of elimination, searching here and there the best you can, eliminating spots and exploring new. At some point, you will be successful at finding a nugget or two. You can speed the process up by forming a small group of close friends, all being on the same page that allows you to have the comradery, safety and more ground be explored and sampled quicker. Final notes, don't allow Greed to get the best of you, Gold Fever as some will say. Enjoy the good times, don't get discouraged, stay positive, appreciate the creation around you and give praise to when you find your first, gleaming gold nugget! Wishing you all the best out there, Rob
  8. Hello All, Many have known the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 has been probably the best all around VLF gold detectors available today. The original version, which is still offered while inventory last, had 2 searchcoils included. This new Gold Monster 1000 offered at a lower MAP Price of $799 will only have the 5" Round Searchcoil and 2 batteries. This is a great deal and most were probably only using the 5" coil for small gold, bedrock hunting, mine dumps and such. If you're interested in this new Gold Monster 1000 Package, contact us today or visit our online link here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/product/minelab-gold-monster-1000-metal-detector-1-searchcoil-2-batteries/
  9. Hello All, Many have known the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 has been probably the best all around VLF gold detectors available today. The original version, which is still offered while inventory last, had 2 searchcoils included. This new Gold Monster 1000 offered at a lower MAP Price of $799 will only have the 5" Round Searchcoil and 2 batteries. This is a great deal and most were probably only using the 5" coil for small gold, bedrock hunting, mine dumps and such. If you're interested in this new Gold Monster 1000 Package, contact us today or visit our online link here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/product/minelab-gold-monster-1000-metal-detector-1-searchcoil-2-batteries/
  10. Hello All, Many have known the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 has been probably the best all around VLF gold detectors available today. The original version, which is still offered while inventory last, had 2 searchcoils included. This new Gold Monster 1000 offered at a lower MAP Price of $799 will only have the 5" Round Searchcoil and 2 batteries. This is a great deal and most were probably only using the 5" coil for small gold, bedrock hunting, mine dumps and such. If you're interested in this new Gold Monster 1000 Package, contact us today or visit our online store link here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/product/minelab-gold-monster-1000-metal-detector-1-searchcoil-2-batteries/
  11. Hello All, Was able to get out the last day of 2023 to see what I could end the year with. A partner and I discovered some coarse tailing piles that I believe have been overlooked for years. There were no digs, scraps or anything in them. One of the first targets was a nugget right on top for me. This was a great way to start the day knowing there were a lot of piles to scan still. Like all tailing piles, we both dug the typical iron rubbish, maybe a bullet fragment or two and some nuggets. We didn't discover anything super larger, the biggest nugget was around 2 Dwts, most of them smaller in size. We both were using the Minelab GPZ 7000's, one with a stock 14x13" Searchcoil and I had the Nugget Finder 12" Z Search on mine. The weather was good and we scored some gold! Here are the nuggets I scored on the final trip of 2023 - 5 Dwts total (Quarter ounce of gold). P.S. Sorry for the poor picture quality, this is what happens when you purchase a $1200 cell phone and drop it weeks after the purchase and break the camera lens .... Rob