IDdesertman

Most parts of Colorado and Wyoming (with some notable exceptions) produce very small gold more suited to panning and sluicing. Overall, I think its pretty tough to find nuggets compared to the other states you mentioned, but I'm not one to tell you not to try! I've seen a few big nuggets that came from the South Pass City/Atlantic City area.. I suspect that area is claimed pretty heavily. Colorado's produced some big nuggets and specimens. There's an impressive collection on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. A specimen called Tom's Baby weighted 13 pounds, and the Breckenridge area has produced some cool crystalline gold.

The auction ended. Can anyone see the final price that it brought? Looks like you might have to be registered with them to see it now.

If I had a 20k CASH offer on that piece, I'd take it all day long. 👍

Always great to see someone find a big patch! 🤙 Would love to know how far away from a "known area" the find was. 1 mile? 5 miles? 20 miles?

Wow that big piece is exceptional!

The Yankee Fork is small gold country. I don't think I've ever seen a nugget from that area, definitely not anything bigger than 5/8". Not to say there aren't any but I would personally be looking at other areas for detecting.

That must have been a rush when that popped open!

I'm always a tad skeptical when they proclaim these extreme premiums due to their rare location. 80,000 GPB ($105k USD) for less than 4 troy oz's?. I'd think the seller would need to go above-and-beyond to prove the source was true before making that sort of claim for ~$6,000 worth of AU. And I agree Steve, a sniper pulls up a 3+ ounce nugget and casually.tosses it in the bucket to inspect days later. Hmmmm...

I like this guy. ?

Man that is the truth. I've seen some pretty amazing gold found by detectorists in CO. High grade stuff worth $100's per gram. Most people are panning for crumbs at parks set aside for the public. There are thousands of abandoned mines well off the beaten path, on unclaimed public land. If I were in northern NM I'd be heading north to do my prospecting.

I'm pretty sure they went out of business a couple years back.

Lots of good info above. This in particular is worth highlighting....

I heard it goes 30% deeper!!

That is some mighty fine looking AU! ?

That isn't an excessive amount of trash. I assure you, even the best detectorists out there are digging loads of trash. For some areas, the pics above would be an "easy day". You have to dig that stuff to get to the gold. With that said, I probably wouldn't hunt an area that people are using as a shooting range. Putting on the hiking boots and getting a good distance from roads is a good way to cut down on modern trash. I would recommend you stop ranging hundreds of miles to find gold. Find a gold district near where you live, hunt there and learn it. You don't have to go all over CA and NV, driving hundreds of miles in search of the "happy hunting grounds." I would guess that there are plenty of nuggets much closer to you and you can save your gas money. Good luck, I know it can be frustrating not finding gold. It is out there though.

Chris, Yes you will get better results if you refresh the Whink periodically. It seems to lose potency after a relatively short while. Even every few days will speed up the process a lot. Also if you carefully pick at it with something sharp, (tweezers) you can chip off the softened quartz and expose more of the harder quartz underneath that still needs to soak. I can see why you would use it on that larger piece since it doesn't have a lot going for it visually. I have the same thought as LipCa, I only use it on pieces when I want the quartz completely gone. If it doesn't get removed completely then the quartz looks chalky and it really detracts from a natural specimen IMO. Nice gold you keep finding! Matt

That's a pretty awesome little piece of gold!

That is some beautiful gold.. .

Around Silver City and War Eagle the entire area is mineralized, though it isn't really nugget country. Most of the production has come from the lode mines, but there is some placer in Jordan Creek and other tributaries. Very silvery gold with high silver content. If I was intent on metal detecting there, I'd be more focused on coins and relics. I suppose the mine dumps could possibly produce some specimens.

That's cool I love the contrast.

Dandy Arizona nugget!

Thanks for the super detailed review Sheldon. Looking forward to seeing it in the field.

Chris Ben provided some good info. One other thing that can to help determine if you've got ground noise or an actual target is to scrape a couple inches from over the target, and then scan your coil at the same level (a couple inches above the ground and not down in the hole) and see if the signal gets softer. Ground noises will often go away completely once the coil is a few inches off the soil. Might help you prevent yourself digging endlessly for a target that doesn't exist.

I expect this will be a winner. I have found the Gold Racer to be a sweet little detector for general VLFin' and am would expect that the Kruzer is probably similar with some additional refinements done to the Gold Racer platform. People are expecting more from new detectors these days. Things like wireless headphones and waterproof are pretty much must-have to stay competitive in the current market I would think.