Goldseeker5000

Rob, from top of old tailings all the way down and past native material and into the bedrock.  Working a second claim as well. These 29 pieces came from 3 days of detecting. Some areas I am just walking and detecting. 

Got another 5 yesterday. 

Getting the gold of all sizes is the bottom line! The one that gets the gold gets my money. 

So Steve, I am a skeptic of Garretts gold machines being able to hit on gold as tiny as what Minelab's can hit on and as deep as Minelab's can reach the gold. Years ago I used to be a Garrett fan but their so called technology advancements have seemed to me at least to be little more than a shell make-over. I also have seen first hand the electronic components seem low end and cheap compared to Minelab, such as the wiring on the coils. Every Garrett I have owned started falsing and developing cracks in the coil wiring exposing the copper wires. Have they upgraded the electronic components on the Axiom? For roughly $4000 I certainly hope so. I had bought the Infinitum L/S many years ago and was pissed when I got it in the mail and it was visibly cheap. Every time you swung the coil the lower shaft would slop back and forth because they didn't seem to see the need for a twist lock knob between the lower and upper shaft. After that it started falsing constantly before a year was up. Then the atx came out and it was essentially the Infinium in a new shell. The cord coming out of the control box on the Axiom as far out as it does I think will eventually become a problem getting caught on all kinds of stuff and weakening the coil plug housing. Can it hit on gold as tiny as the 6000 or 7000 can and as deep 

Geof_junk, I have done that before as well. I have also used a small board or Plexi glass, but with this claim we need to be mindful of backfilling. I got a lot to do regarding this. I am detecting on fairly flat rotten bedrock and keeping amount to detect between digging small to keep as many nuggets coming as possible and to backfill as I progress with very little added work. Two birds with one stone.

Gold Seeker, no there is no fines. It is all nuggets.

It is a dry gulch. The old timers had to transport the dirt and gravels in wagons down to the bottom of our gulch where there is a spring, to process.

Jasong,

To the side of my hole is where the old timers dug and got their gold. They pile the tailings in long windrows where my hole is, in the side of the piles.  There is bedrock under where they piled the tailings that has gold all through it. There is also still alot of gold in the piles as well. The old timers missed alot. Good for me and my claim buddies. My hands completely and totally hurt. But I will keep at it despite the pain. Gotta get that gold.

My buddy Chuck pulled a 2.3 grammer out of his hole today. There has gotta be a bigger one lurking near my hole. Tomorrow is a new day.

I got 1 piece of gold in that hole. Not good enough to stay in it. I moved below where my buddy is digging and started a new hole. Got three right off the bat. I'll get pics tomorrow after tomorrows tally of gold.

Dig4gold- Jed? Who? Do you mean Jed Clampit from Beverly hillbillies?

rvpopeye- I am sorry this reminds you of ghost miner. I don't fancy being compared to him and his threads. I see him as a claim broker trying to drum up interested suckers to buy claims. Me, I am just trying to work my own claim that still has really good gold. The problem is beetlekill and forest service. Equipment can make this digging and testing the ground way faster as y'all know and I would much rather do that. This digging deep and big holes is for badger, not this old boy!😆

Jasong, we are not going to try this year. That is disappointing to me but the equipment belongs to two of the other three claim holders. If we do that we are opening a very nasty Pandora's box. Including only being allowed up there to work ten days out of the year, from what I have been told. It beats this digging by hand though. 😜

Well today was another long day digging and detecting every 6". No gold. 3 targets that turned out to be slivers off of my pick. Definitely no mistaking a target with the 6000. I am starting to have my doubts about this line we are digging. I think the gold on the edge where my buddy stopped pinched out for some reason. I have to keep digging though till the bedrock is exposed over the whole area I am digging down and layering. I may go back to my old spot and layer down. I know there are more nuggets there but I seriously doubt there will be any nuggets over a gram there. I have to see this hole through to the end, even if it holds no gold. If that happens then at least I have data to apply to other future holes, if I start seeing certain features.

Jasong, Valens Legacy, It is the gut of the gulch. The old timers were working the gut and working up the gulch and they never worked the ground to the emediate side of their trench because they were putting their overburden there. They were sloppy at working the gold. There is gold all along this side. The pay streak was wider than they were working. My buddy pulled over 41 grams out of this line to the side in two weeks. I am starting from the top end of where they visibly stopped and working back towards his trench. Bedrock at his trench where he left off is only 3ft down. The stretch between where he left off and my pit should have more good gold. Gold nuggets up to 6 oz have come off of my claim in recent years.

Not yet. I got two tiny ones when I took a break from digging and went down to my worked out patch. Then went back to digging. Tomorrow is a big day. Hopefully I will start seeing gold.