Jump to content

Take From Last Trip To California (detecting & Sniping)


Recommended Posts

California looks pretty cool sniping rivers and desert and some nice looking gold

Link to comment
Share on other sites


On 12/6/2022 at 3:15 AM, blackjack said:

Hey Deep Beeps, Yes I was joking about the flies and heat, definitely something I don't miss about the mainland, I grew up in W.A moved to Tasmania when I was in my mid forties, 20 odd years ago, so I know it pretty well, I started detecting over there in the mid seventies. Small world, you mentioned Karijini NP my first big trip metal detecting was to a place just S/W of there called Top Camp on Fords creek a tributary of the Ashburton River in the mid seventies with my dad, we were the first in there with state of the art Garrett Groundhogs  We started sniping late summer before the last, last summer was our first full season, so summer is the best time. Winter is too cold and the rivers have too much flow so you are limited to smaller creeks if you can brave the cold the water in winter can get down to 2 degrees centigrade [ 36 fahrenheit] Summer is about 12-14 c. We work the same river as Levi and have bumped into him on the river a couple of times much to his surprise, it's all pretty low key and secretive over here, everyone's staying tight lipped, about locations. As a sniper you would know how easy it is to work out an area. At the moment are waiting for the river levels and flow to come down. We had some big floods last winter and are curious to see if there's been any replenishment to the areas we cleaned out last summer. See my post in Tasmania's Largest Nuggets on this forum for some pics, if you are interested. Keep your crevice hook sharp and stay safe.

Congrats on the first sniping season... I'll take a 4 gram average anytime. It use to be kind of unheard of here back in the 90's but once they stopped allowing dredging in California all those guys started sniping. 

I'll bet you and your dad did well up there.... Those Groundhogs, Compasses and you guys started it all back in the day. I didn't take the detector over as I was doing photography on that trip. I went up the 1 and wanted to come back on the 95 but ran out of time so had to backtrack on the 1. This was in May and had the whole place to myself.

You too!.... Watch out for those Platypus 😉 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Deep Beeps said:

Congrats on the first sniping season... I'll take a 4 gram average anytime. It use to be kind of unheard of here back in the 90's but once they stopped allowing dredging in California all those guys started sniping. 

I'll bet you and your dad did well up there.... Those Groundhogs, Compasses and you guys started it all back in the day. I didn't take the detector over as I was doing photography on that trip. I went up the 1 and wanted to come back on the 95 but ran out of time so had to backtrack on the 1. This was in May and had the whole place to myself.

You too!.... Watch out for those Platypus 😉 

 

 

Hey mate, interesting to here the history behind sniping I figured that may of been the case, same thing happened in Tasmania with dredging, only thing, when they stopped, it didn't lead to sniping. It's a pretty new thing here. May is a great time to do the trip you did, shame you couldn't come back through Meekatharra.  Platypus, we had a visitor to our camp I'll send the video, but I'm tech dumb, hopefully you will get it 20210416_215407 (1).zip

20210416_215407 (1).zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

image.thumb.jpeg.91ce57ebc9379c5f028c04c741efc48b.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.22b327da2a2b2147f54024e044372868.jpeg

Couple more trash and relic finds from this trip. Only the pulley was from the water and Im sure it moved many a rocks back in it's day. It was found right in front of some 20' tall rock piles on an inside bend of the river. That day, the rock won, broke the cable and the miners lost their pulley. Even more sad, there wasn't any gold with it in that crack!... Always amazes me.... Found 2 memorable cracks... both littered with square nails and fishing sinkers and not a single speck of gold. Go figure.

I'm sure you have all found a Prince Albert can before but those 2 little stars are also from tobacco... Star Tobacco. It was sold in hand cut lengths at the general store and had these tin stars every 2 inches fixed to it. 

Oldest is most likely the pick.... It was found in one of the hydraulic pits. Most likely made in the 1850's and has that "old iron" weight to it.

 

IMG_7030.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, blackjack said:

Hey mate, interesting to here the history behind sniping I figured that may of been the case, same thing happened in Tasmania with dredging, only thing, when they stopped, it didn't lead to sniping. It's a pretty new thing here. May is a great time to do the trip you did, shame you couldn't come back through Meekatharra.  Platypus, we had a visitor to our camp I'll send the video, but I'm tech dumb, hopefully you will get it 20210416_215407 (1).zip

20210416_215407 (1).zip 23.24 MB · 1 download

That's nuts!.... He came right to you.

Yeah, that whole trip didn't go as planned. Good reason to get back there I guess. Maybe I should pack a few Axioms in a bag and head back over.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Deep Beeps said:

That's nuts!.... He came right to you.

Yeah, that whole trip didn't go as planned. Good reason to get back there I guess. Maybe I should pack a few Axioms in a bag and head back over.

Yeah you said you got medivacced nothing to serious I hope. So clearly I know enough about computers to get myself into trouble, so I need to ask, the rest of you can have chuckle at my expense. when I open that file at my end it gives access to my computer, tell me I haven't opened my desk top to the world. I'm going to have a hard time explaining it to my wife, maybe I just won't tell her. The Axiom is pricey here $ 7,385 au.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, blackjack said:

Yeah you said you got medivacced nothing to serious I hope. So clearly I know enough about computers to get myself into trouble, so I need to ask, the rest of you can have chuckle at my expense. when I open that file at my end it gives access to my computer, tell me I haven't opened my desk top to the world. I'm going to have a hard time explaining it to my wife, maybe I just won't tell her. The Axiom is pricey here $ 7,385 au.

You're fine. Just double checked.

I flew into Sydney and got really bad food poisoning. Dealt with it for 2 weeks there and finally cleared up after seeing a doctor and getting some meds. So decided to finally head over to Perth. Got there, rounded up enough stuff to head out camping in the bush and on my second day out from Perth started bleeding internally. I was in Cervantes at the Pinnacles when it happened. Drove to the nearest clinic and by the time I got there I had lost over 2 liters they estimated. So they called in a chopper. An old Vietnam war hand me down Huey. Took them almost 2 hours to get up to the clinic....Another hour back to Perth. Ugh. Ended up in Sir Charles Garner for several days. Got out, caught a bus back up to where I left my car and went to Karijini for a week. Not the smartest thing to do but you only live once.

That's why I would bring a few. Their almost half that here. Could probably pay my way with them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Deep Beeps said:

You're fine. Just double checked.

I flew into Sydney and got really bad food poisoning. Dealt with it for 2 weeks there and finally cleared up after seeing a doctor and getting some meds. So decided to finally head over to Perth. Got there, rounded up enough stuff to head out camping in the bush and on my second day out from Perth started bleeding internally. I was in Cervantes at the Pinnacles when it happened. Drove to the nearest clinic and by the time I got there I had lost over 2 liters they estimated. So they called in a chopper. An old Vietnam war hand me down Huey. Took them almost 2 hours to get up to the clinic....Another hour back to Perth. Ugh. Ended up in Sir Charles Garner for several days. Got out, caught a bus back up to where I left my car and went to Karijini for a week. Not the smartest thing to do but you only live once.

That's why I would bring a few. Their almost half that here. Could probably pay my way with them.

Hey man that's quite an adventure. Really bad luck to get that sick on holidays, was the bleeding caused by the food poisoning ? Sounds like you made the best of it. I haven't been to Karijini, but been to Paraburdoo, I would like to see some pics, why don't you post some, not gold but gold country, I'm sure people would be interested. It's one thing I miss living in Tasmania red dirt desert country. I'm heading to Tibooburra in far N/W N.S.W. next winter to escape the cold, it's been on my bucket list for years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Deep Beeps said:

image.thumb.jpeg.91ce57ebc9379c5f028c04c741efc48b.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.22b327da2a2b2147f54024e044372868.jpeg

Couple more trash and relic finds from this trip. Only the pulley was from the water and Im sure it moved many a rocks back in it's day. It was found right in front of some 20' tall rock piles on an inside bend of the river. That day, the rock won, broke the cable and the miners lost their pulley. Even more sad, there wasn't any gold with it in that crack!... Always amazes me.... Found 2 memorable cracks... both littered with square nails and fishing sinkers and not a single speck of gold. Go figure.

I'm sure you have all found a Prince Albert can before but those 2 little stars are also from tobacco... Star Tobacco. It was sold in hand cut lengths at the general store and had these tin stars every 2 inches fixed to it. 

Oldest is most likely the pick.... It was found in one of the hydraulic pits. Most likely made in the 1850's and has that "old iron" weight to it.

 

 

All finds are good finds detecting.. 👍👍

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...