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Found this today while doing a little park hunting...... 414 grains of 10k

Here is my favorite nugget

I'm no photographer by any means, and the only technique I use is aiming my iPhone. That being said, one of my better close-ups is this one of a 28 gram Arizona nugget that I had just unearthed and given a quick water bath.

Shows unique sliding center mount design....

Here's a few solutions to deal with the ban on non-motorized mining near any California stream. The first is to process "select" material off site with a 12 volt pump driven recirculating high banker. The second is to process material on site with a coffee can driven recirculating rocker. The rocker requires 5 gallons of recirculating water. After getting the hang of feeding, scooping and rocking, the amount of material the rocker processed was surprising. The pay material is hammered and chiseled from an old cemented bench above Big Jackass Creek. The pay sets on a feldspar clay deposit 4 feet above bedrock (black slate). Soaking the material prior to processing helps break up the heavy clay. The third option is a battery driven metal detector. The claim sets right in the Melones Fault Zone. The workings date back to the 1850's with signs of ground sluicing, hydraulic and a few small pocket mines. The placer deposits appear to be from a contact between feldspar porphyry and diabase located upstream on a lode claim. The only cabin site discovered is of 1950/60's, found some depression era trash. Metal detecting to date has only produced recent poker change- pennies and dimes. Several exposed quartz stringers in heavy thick brush but no gold detected. Been using both the TDI Sl and Xterra 705 with 5x9 coils, both detectors handle the ground conditions. Lots of magnetite. Use the TDI Sl over the serpentine. The smaller coils are a must, just can't sweep the larger coils in the brush while unwrapping the headset cable. Been looking at the Fisher F19 and F75 ($599 Xmas version) which both seem comparable to the Xterra 705 and AT Pro. Like the option of searching for coins when hung up in the brush detecting for gold. Any opinions on either the F19 or F75 compared to the X705?

Tom, you have some great pictures of your amazing nuggets. Well done! The guy who is arguably the best mineral photographer is Jeff Scovil. He has a website, http://scovilphotography.com/ ,with examples of his work and also teaches a class at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February. He often uses a glass top platform. This allows him to set up lights and reflectors as well as use colored backgrounds. Here is a picture of his set up:

Lots to look forward to. I suspect the new Minelab will be Africa only - like the deus variant distributed there.

The adapter for the SDC is an aftermarket product not a genuine accessory from Minelab. The SONIC-PRO will come with an adapter to suit the SDC so the transmitter can be hooked up to the detectors audio. Hope this helps JP

Paul is his own 'high pressure' system so he should be fine.

More "cold gold" adventures NOW over in the Nevada high desert! A note about Macro's customer service that we have become accustomed to hearing. Problem: MGRacer has an intermittent issue. Sometimes the coil is working, others times not. Merton and I checked it out against his and decided it was the control box...coils were fine. One little thing is the jam nut ..the inner plastic tab has a tendency you snap off. It is on the inside and small, so if you have old man eyes like me it is hard to spot. Merton showed me where it was. Fix: Wrote Dilek an email.... That email was answered almost immediately. Then I got another from a tech backing her letter up with instructions on his to proceed... Outcome: Pleased PS I really like the big 15x13 coil !!!! Back to the desert today to play...

Beatup, Not to get off subject but it appears you are in Wyoming. - A few years way back between Rawlings and Bags, came across an old log cabin with a shaker table setup. The cabin was along north side of a dirt road with a small stream to the south, a stand of black timber beyond on the NW side of Medicine Bow Mountain. We picked up the road from the east near the closure gate on on main road from Rawlings to Medicine Bow then headed west northwest on the dirt road around the NW side of the mountain. The cabin and shaker table had not seen use in some time. At the time I was in pursue of food, gold and silver were not on my mind. Might be worth a look. .

Dale Re ( My pinpointer is a minelab one it dose not interfere with the detector when off.) I have a Ml PP and have probably lost faith in it after digging a deep hole with the Z14, the PP could not find the signal and asked my wife to change over her ML4500 coil to a small Mono and so found the signal on the side of the hole 2/3 way down. ( Asking Wife/Partner to change down coils while she is detecting, is not a recommended way to keep a relationship on a happy footing specially if only a rusty nail is found.)

The 14 was on my Zed. My mate runs a 5k 14in elite combo.

Thanks! Tom, I'm learning a new technique called focus stacking when taking and processing photos. Upside is a decent photo, downside it is a very tedious process. Here is crystalline gold specimen, front and back side.

As Claims Advantage Members know we have begun our annual Special Reports on the year in Mining Claims. The first report is 14 pages covering the last seven years claims numbers on a State by State basis. We've produced a public one page report to give you a look at the basic numbers over those last seven years. Land Matters Annual Mining Claims Review Overview 2016 Public Report is available free online and as a PDF download from this page. From the charts and tables in the report you can get a good overview of claims activities over the last seven years. There's also a depiction of all the mining claims current by State and Type at the end of the 2016 mining year. (see below) I'm hoping this information will help clear up some of the large amounts of misinformation being put out by different groups over the last few years. You can get a feel for the actual patterns for new and closed claims as well as acreage and small miner status over the seven year period. Land Matters will be following up soon with a very detailed 15 page 2016 State by State comparison for Claims Advantage Members only. Shortly after that Special Report Land Matters will send a 14 page administrative report to Claims Advantage Members. That's the BLM mining claims "report card" for 2016. That report will be very enlightening as to how well and when each State's BLM office handled their claim duties in 2016. Land Matters will be offering a briefer public version of that report too. I'll post an announcement on this forum when that public report is available. Here's a quick look at active mining claims at the end of the 2016 mining year. The Land Matters Mining Claims Maps were updated yesterday as they are twice each month. It's the most current claims mapping available. Land Matters is a fully qualified non profit educational organization with no paid employees and no advertising revenue. We depend on individuals like you to help us continue our work. If you appreciate our efforts please consider a donation or a Membership.

Here's close up of a nice piece I got in Nevada a few years ago. I had it made into a pendant, hence the wire you see. I was just playing with a new camera to see how close I could get and still maintain the detail. You can't tell the size but it's about an inch long and rather thick.

Judging by the video he was ridding on the right hand side. Here in the USA that means that there was another idiot out prospecting with him. Sourdough Scott perhaps?