burta

Jen and I are so sorry to hear of your loss. Saying a prayer for your family. Al

Just got back from Virgina also. I hunt the battlefield two or three times a year. Its as good as it gets for civil war relics and anyone with a interest in history should give it a try. Its unbelievable how may artifacts are still in the ground after 150 years. Now that most people are using PI machines for that red Virgina ground one has to dig deeper than before for the goodies as the VLFs have taken all the setting ducks but the stuff is still there and my Mine lab has no trouble sniffing them out. I dug a South Carolina camp a few days this year before spending a week at Cedar Mountain and found my first South Carolina coat button. Its a thrill just to be on that hallowed ground and I look forward to many more years of helping save some of that history. Nice save on that button McGator.

Beautiful, my man. I'm guessing your weren't down in Greaterville. With stuff like that on bed rock I think you will be very happy with what you get with the vac. Hope you do great. I always thought I'd run into you down in Greaterville as I'm there a lot but we must have been there on different days every time. Maybe some day. Good luck and keep them nuggets coming.

Hope all is well with your daughter. Wife and I will pray for her quick recovery.

Clay you said. "We spent quite a bit of time with the Forest Service in Greaterville and they never said anything like that to us or any of the other prospectors we met working in the 50/50 area." Are you saying that you was with FS law enforcement as you and others worked the gulches of 50/50 land? and they said that was okay? Could you give me those enforcement officers names and how to get in contact with them. Were these Law enforcement officers? I need to talk to these guys real bad.

Good to hear you are alright Rob. Stay the hell out of that heat, those big nuggets will still be there when it cools down. Take care. AL.C

Hey Justin L, Call Wes Morey at 323-0071 he has every thing you need in his shop. Nice guy to boot. AL.C

Hi Frosty. I don't know anything about the beaches down there. I just wanted to thank your son for his service. I pulled some duty there in 1965. He'll remember MCRD and be proud to have been there. Tell him I wish him well. Happy hunting. AL.C

Nice nugget Doug. Glad to hear someone is still putting some time in down there. I gave up on Greaterville a year ago after someone staked most of the ground and the FS closed off one of the claims. That wouldn't have stopped me but I was coming up out of a wash one day with a 1/2 ounce piece and a couple smaller ones in my pocket and there was a forest ranger waiting for me. He told me not to be beeping on FS land or 50 50 land. That leaves only a couple claims to work and they have been beat to death. I don't want to lose a $5,000 machine to smokey the bear. Its to bad because there is still lots of big gold down there but not worth the price so the 4500 has been in the closet since then. Think I'll get rid of it and get a new relic machine. Maybe I can at least hunt something somewhere. Happy hunting. AL.C

Hey guys, I'm headed up to Helena Mt next week and was wondering if anyone knew where around there I could spend a day or two beeping for gold. Spending a few days with my daughter and grand-kids and would like to try my luck in some new country. Let me know if any of you know anything about that country. Thanks. AL. C

Fools we are. Back in the seventies when I was a young man I was dredging on the Smith River. I was staying up river at the Wagon Wheel and leaving all my stuff with the dredge except each night I'd bring out the empty gas cans to refill for the next day. It was a two hundred foot climb up out of the river on a terrible steep trail I had made down to the river. As every night, I would put the baby food bottle up inside the sleeve of my wet suite grab the gas cans and head up the hill. Well when I hit the road and my truck, put the cans in the truck and went for the baby food bottle it wasn't there. Having picked the header box of the good stuff to fill the bottle the thought of it being lost tended to make me want to puck. I did find the bottle, broke and splattered all over the hill side. I was able to find four of the bigger nuggets but the rest was lost in the rocks and cracks. I didn't know anything about MD's in those days so gave it up to just me being stupid. The summer of 1990 my partner went back worked the grown up trail for two days and recovered just under two and a half ounces. The rest, he thought was lost forever in the cracks of the bedrock. From that day on I wrapped my jar in duck tape so if it hit the ground you could just pick it up and go on. Yes, I too, have been a fool.

Hey Rob, I got these with the GB2. the MineLab is broke down. Just hearing about the Feather River and a 10" sends my heart to pounding. In that country if you are moving car size rock you are going to be happy with what is under it. There is still a lot of big gold down in that country but its under those rocks the size of cars that have not been moved in thousands of years. Wish I was young again. Sounds like the boys are doing well up in the far north also. Can't wait to see some pictures. AL. C

Hey Ron, I think the reason I don't get any dinks is because I don't know how to run my machine so I walk right over the little ones. That's not good because we all know that most of the gold is small. Even a dummy like me can hear the big ones. It takes guys like you who know what they are doing to get the smaller stuff. Hope to figure it out someday. AL.C

Well I made the trip up to my claims in Oregon to do a little beeping but the weather was so nice (cool) I ended up spending most of my time just enjoying the shade and remembering all the great days there dredging. To bad we can't dredge anymore but that's the way things are now days. Anyway I did spend enough time on the beeper to kick the dirt off of these three. The big one was over 1/2 oz. Brought back the memory of the good old days there pulling hands full of these everyday with the 8inch. Forgot about the 100 degrees each day here, guess I better get a new hat, AL.C