What Do You Think I Found? (2013)

[mn90403]

Several of you looked at my recent dig hole in Quartzsite.  That thread is What do you think I found?  
 
http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1514-what-do-you-think-i-found/
 
A couple of years before this hole and before I was on this forum of Steve's I was in a similar situation.  I was in the Arizona desert on Thanksgiving Day a hundred miles north of Quartzsite.  I had spent the night watching meteors in my Isuzu Trooper (I miss that SUV) near a wash/gully that I wanted to detect.  When the sun came up in the morning I started again as I had done the previous year.  This was now my 3rd or 4th trip.
 
There have been many meteorites found in this area.  I had found one on my first trip.  It is a large strewn field that had been hunted for at least 10 years before I went there for the first time.  In addition to the large number of meteorites in the area, there is also a lot of military trash in the form of 30 cal, 50 cal and the clips that held them as tanks and aircraft used the area for WWII training with Patton.
 
When I got up from sleeping in the car I just started detecting.  There was no one around (or at least within a couple of miles) when I dug a couple of trash targets.  About 45 minutes into the hunt I got a signal and dug.  I dug more and more and the hole got bigger.
 
(At the time I was using a 5000 and I had recently bought a used 18" Nugget Finder coil.  This was the first month I had used anything other than Commander coils on the unit.  In the summer I had purchased a CTX 3030 and it was with me.)
 
This hole got so big and I got so tired I had to take a break and go back to the Trooper about half a mile away and bring it closer to the hole.  I got the 3030 and tried to use it as a pin pointer.  It registered as a good target (not iron) but it didn't tell me where in the hole it was.  I expanded the hole by lifting out the objects on the sides and the target was out of the hole.  I didn't see it.
 
What do you think I found?  (I'll add the find pictures in a couple of days.)
 

[Norvic]

Well again it appears to be towards the inside of a bend where the heavy stuff can accumulate, the bottoms not showing again, thus am thinking not gold but because suspect this is a bit of a trick quiz, also 45minutes into the search before a signal. I`ll put at least 40% on it being a sizable specimen with some gold in it.  Plus us OZs will gamble on two flies walking up a bar wall, and have a ball doing so. Tis mind stimulating certainly not boring for me. How about some more clues? But do suggest you beg/borrow/steal Pauls pinpointer.

[mn90403]

Norvic,

 

Just for you.  I did have a Garrett pointer.  It started sounding off in the air in the hole.  Same with the Minelab.

 

I did have a couple of targets before this.  I thought I left it in the final version.  It was trash, a couple of 50 cals.

 

Also, I didn't have this find in mind when I started the other one but similarities now compel me to tell this find story also.

 

Mitchel

[Norvic]

Yeah, those similarities to the other quiz is why I felt the signal was the real stuff, you wouldn`t come up with a bit of foil for a quiz again, but because in the 45minutes before the find you got signs modern man has been there before, only "certainty" is it is metallic and perhaps not a hot rock. I surrender what was it?

[mn90403]

Norvic,

 

You are a good clue reader.  You see what is in the clues and what is not.  Are you sure you have not been to Arizona?

 

Since no one else has 'chimed in' on this one I'll post a few pictures.  If you look closely you can see the find/specimen is already in the picture. (Can you see it?)

 

At the time I found this I only posted a picture of the find and it got put up on other forums.  I haven't posted it on Steve's forum under 'best finds ever' threads but some here have seen it and hefted it.  I was going to write an article about the find but didn't do it yet.

 

The location was not shown as I was still checking the area for more for a few months.  Only a couple of small nuggets were found other than the sunbaker I found before this one.

 

A difference you may notice between this wash and the other one is that the cobbles in this wash had been locked into place for many years and they were also larger.  I guess with those things being said I'll answer questions if anyone has any.

 

This one will let you know where it is in the first pictures.

 

Some color showing.

 

Some water poured over it to remove dust.

 

Cleaned not far from the hole.

 

The specimen as it still is today.  (8 ozt/20.5 ozt)

 

 

[TAZMAN1972]

Wow!  that is just crazy!  congrats.  Something told you to dig it.  I have been in areas like this before and "usually" do not have the fortitude to dig a target that loud.  I need to rethink.

Tobin

[Lunk]

Great find Mitchel, 8 ounces of gold would make a fantastic day!

[Tortuga]

Wow that thing is beautiful. My favorite kinds of specimens are the ones worn a little bit like that. I love all gold but I've got a few (much smaller) specimen nuggets that look sharp and jagged, like they just fell out of the vein. I like specimens like yours, that are solid and look like mother nature worn them a little bit.

My dream is to find a gold nugget "river rock" specimen like they find in tailings piles in Alaska that's just a smooth, round stone shot thru with gold.

The gold on your piece looks nice and yellow too. Really pure.

[Norvic]

Lovely piece, congrats, yeah I guess with the years one gains something( well hopefully), your ground is similar to mine not totally but heh gold is gold wherever. Plus I was reading you too, I didn`t figure you`d come up with trash on your second quiz. At least 40% a lucky guess but a lot more fun than those two flies, especially when the barmaids a spoil sport and hits them with fly spray.

 Trust the Goddess of Gold keeps coming across for you.

 

Yeah went back for a third look, tricky devil was there for us to see all along. Very well done.

[Tortuga]

You never mentioned if it was a whisper or a boomer with that 18" coil? Did you say it sounded like trash?