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First Hunt In The South, Meteorites? + 2 More


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Been going back and forth to the new place in Las Vegas setting up all the little things that need to be done to move in and flying back and forth on frontier’s Special rates sometimes for as little as $15 one way the only catch is you can only take a little personal bag with you on the airplane. Got tired of renting a car and not having any prospecting gear so I loaded up the Jeep and drove it down for a longer stay and a planned first hunt. Friday had everything ready and my Jeep fully loaded for an early start in the morning, that evening I headed out the front door no shoes or shirt to check the mail box and in the dark missed the edge of the front step rolled my foot and did a summersault down the front steps praying I was going to be able to walk when this was over as I watched the world spin around me out of control. When I came to a stop laying there foot throbbing I summoned up the courage to raise up and put weight on the injured limb, painful but I could hobble,

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I downed a few Alive and met friends for dinner at an all you can eat seafood buffet my foot still hurting but slowly improving. Next morning after warming up and more Pills I’m limping but feeling like things are worth a try and head out the door for the little over 2 hour drive to gold basin, Arizona from my house. By the time I got there after a few stops and marking my claim borders on the gps my hunt started around 7:30AM navigating the wash with my hurt foot a challenge and my detector kept signaling on my metal free Keene boots?  Turns out the pair I’d grabbed and threw in the Jeep I’d used pulling up carpet puttin in a new wood floor and both shoes had a dozen or more staples stuck in the bottom, without pliers I got all but one tiny piece out of the bottom of my shoes the little staple end stuck in the bottom of the shoe on my hurt foot interfering every time I forgot it was there. Learning a new place I learned where not to hunt but I felt good about my detector small targets were  slamming and I’m sure I’d have heard the gold if I’d been over any

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by around 2 in the afternoon my left knee was hurting as much as my right foot from taking up the slack walking uneven terrain and standing up from digging that I decided to call it a day and I’d accomplished my goal of some exercise and finding the place to hunt. As I was directing the 7000 around the area I kept 3 rocks that hit hard on the gpz, the two smaller very magnetic the larger magnetic but less than the little ones. The smallest roughly 130g on a little analog food scale the larger around 230g and the large stone (?) somewhere between 5 and 10#’s I’d guess for both pieces found several feet apart from each other.

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looking at other examples on the web they seem to hit the correct marks, any thoughts? Just earth rock or did I get lucky?

 

 

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No idea, but I hope you got lucky! I'd be tempted glue metal strips to the edge of the steps just so you can see them better.

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They look more like your standard earth rocks.

Looks like some quartz mixed in on one of the rocks, but I do see iron on another one.

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10 hours ago, Lacky said:

No idea, but I hope you got lucky! I'd be tempted glue metal strips to the edge of the steps just so you can see them better.

And turn on the light, lol 😂 the lucky part is in a couple more days be just a memory. Something around the edge of each step would make them easier to see i could also change the soldier course to a different color stone that would help. I need a tile guy anyway for some other work I’ll do it then.

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1 hour ago, fredmason said:

Not meteorites!

some of the hot rocks in Gold Basin can fool you.

if in doubt just use a whet stone to grind off a small area. If a meteorite you will see flecks of nickel / iron....

fred

I hoped you’d chime in on this and well I didn’t think they were but I kept trying to talk myself into it the two small ones have a lot of iron in them and attract a magnet like a piece of metal, but did streak lightly blackish brown, the large one initially left a light brown mark that could have been just from the surface then it was hard to leave a mark after a few passes on my tank lid, so I had to ask because obviously don’t know what I’m doing? Eventually I find one out there and the difference will be obvious, it’s hard to go by pictures cause there’s always one you can find to create doubt in my own mind if I look to long, lol.

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7 hours ago, 2Valen said:

They look more like your standard earth rocks.

Looks like some quartz mixed in on one of the rocks, but I do see iron on another one.

Yep, thanks... more rocks and probably won’t be the last undeserving mineral getting a free pocket ride from me, 😆.

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Fred's right, the darker rock is not a meteorite for sure, quartz and magnetite. The others, not sure but not like any I have seen or found myself.  The University of Arizona can and will verify Meteorites if you send it to them, not sure if there is a cost and it will take a while.  

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I think anyone can read, understand and do the basic tests for common meteorites...

I don't think they will want to test them. Apparently, scientists think they know everything about the many "Ordinary Chrondrites" and it is expensive and time consuming.

the others are so rare that you will likely walk right on by a cold find and never know....if it is a new fall and the buzzards are flocking you better get there too....

but, that is my never humble opinion

fred

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