Stay Out Of My Swing Path & The Biggest Rye Patch Nugget Ever

[Steve Herschbach]

8 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Us Aussies would say only in America 🤣

Talking about road nuggets the funnies incident I have witness was the wife. The roads/tracks were her forte. Nickname some times was one in the road. Anyway the one I'm writing about was a track going through the middle of a remote patch that we were working for weeks with no traffic the whole time. As our access was off road she had got a dozen or so nuggets when we heard a vehicle trying to get somewhere off road and heading towards us. Carol got a branch from a bit of scrub and frantically sweeping the the track to hide the colour difference of the filled holes. It worked when the got near us 45 minutes later we helped them to get out to the main road and did not notice the holes. I said to her I will get her a broom next time  🤣

In Alaska it is mostly all old placer mines. All disturbed dirt is a target. Every road, every building site, airstrips... all made from or on mine tailings. The roads, airstrips, and building pads, being graded mostly flat, always produced very well for me. As in pounds of nuggets. Gerry I’m sure saw it at Ganes Creek in Alaska in the early days before they started dozing the tailings for the detectorists. People got lazy after that and rarely hunted outside the most recent push.

The camp was built on tailings. I found nuggets scattered all around and in camp, one right at the front door of the cook cabin that people walked over every day.

My Last Visit To Ganes Creek

Same thing at Moore Creek, I dug quite a few nuggets out of the airstrip and trails. Yes, this is what we call an airfield in Alaska! 

 

My point - never overlook roads or anything that scrapes the surface off, or piles dirt up somewhere. 

[MSC]

Great story Gerry, what a nugget. Found 2 nuggets in the road myself just heading back to my side X side to take a break!

[madtuna]

6 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

In Alaska it is mostly all old placer mines. All disturbed dirt is a target. Every road, every building site, airstrips... all made from or on mine tailings. The roads, airstrips, and building pads, being graded mostly flat, always produced very well for me. As in pounds of nuggets. Gerry I’m sure saw it at Ganes Creek in Alaska in the early days before they started dozing the tailings for the detectorists. People got lazy after that and rarely hunted outside the most recent push.

The camp was built on tailings. I found nuggets scattered all around and in camp, one right at the front door of the cook cabin that people walked over every day.

My Last Visit To Ganes Creek

Same thing at Moore Creek, I dug quite a few nuggets out of the airstrip and trails. Yes, this is what we call an airfield in Alaska! 

 

My point - never overlook roads or anything that scrapes the surface off, or piles dirt up somewhere. 

Unfortunately that’s not advisable where we are. Digging in a road or airstrip will get you drawn and quartered and could be another nail in the coffin for detectorists.

[Gerry in Idaho]

19 hours ago, geek4gold said:

Hi Gerry, Is that a 25" nugget finder coil on that set up?

G4G

Probably 20" round Super Lite.

[geof_junk]

Tuna the old discarded Murrin Murrin air strip was tried by many but too much junk but some nice big slugs were found. Two much junk for me.

[Gerry in Idaho]

18 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Drag coils make sense, but this? Does he keep backing up? Going forwards, it's just going to catch and snap.

Gorgeous chunk of gold!!

I was told he'd sit in 1 spot on the ATV, turn the pivot and that coil would cover a swath of ground about 30 feet.  He'd pull forward 2 feet and do it again, pull forward 2 feet and again.

I've seen drag coils out here as well.

[Gerry in Idaho]

19 hours ago, Joe D. said:

 🎶🎵 Swing, swing, swing your coil, gently down the road!! Merely, merely, merely, merely, find those chunks of gold!! 🎶🎵 🤣👍👍

Joe,  You have a security job in case your other falls apart.  That's some pretty good rhythm and it reminds me when I was in Alaska chasing big gold.  We used to come up with some crazy tunes and laughs while riding the famous "Gold Nugget Express" on our way out for a days hunt.  Usually on the way back, most tunes were of worn out prospectors snoring away with a little shut eye .

[Steve Herschbach]

1 hour ago, madtuna said:

Unfortunately that’s not advisable where we are. Digging in a road or airstrip will get you drawn and quartered and could be another nail in the coffin for detectorists.

Same here if you do not fill holes, and the plane you need to get home in could crash! 😱

[GotAU?]

On 2/4/2021 at 8:36 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

Years ago I had a wise customer who was always trying to make things better.  He spent much of his free time chasing gold nuggets at Rye Patch, NV in the 90's and early 2000's (when pickings were good).  He always wanted to cover ground and chase the big ones.  One time he calls me to order some Coiltek coil wiring (extension) as he has long dreams. I seen him out there with his new  long shaft and boy was it longer than I had expected.

Has anyone seen anything similar or just as crazy?

On a side note, this beautiful Horse Nugget of 6 ounces was found in the road at Rye Patch proper.  Seems most of us had walked over it for years thinking a beer can in the middle of the road when in fact it was the biggest piece of gold I have seen come from Rye Patch.  I know one of my Staff found a 5+ oz'er one time and Chuck/Gracie from TX showed me a 5 oz'er, but this one has character.

If anyone knows of bigger gold nuggets from actual Rye Patch proper or of a longer shaft on their Minelab, I'd love to see.

Enjoy everyone and stay out of my swing path, all 30 feet of it.

I don’t know Gerry, I think Jim Straight would have cleaned it all up even faster with his Bismark coil had he the chance!