Jim McCulloch

Paul, keep up the good work, buddy! Every life you help save is wonderful! I agree with Glenn in Colorado, powerful magnets are extremely important for removing the tiniest bits of iron. The problem with trashy sites is that no form of discrimination or target ID is going to prevent you from digging a lot of trash. That's just the way things are. One such pile I dug, at an old minesite, about 8 cubic yards total, was full of square nails and other bits of 1890's trash, and yielded one piece of rich highgrade ore for each 100 or so pieces of trash. Thus lots of digging. Very tiresome, even using a magnet, but gold is gold. HH Jim

At the Phoenix GPAA show on Friday, as I was setting up my booth, Brandon Johnson and Kevin Hoagland came to my booth and informed me that they were postponing, not necessarily canceling, the Sacramento and Vancouver shows. At this point it is unclear whether one or all of the shows will be cancelled or rescheduled. You can keep yourself updated by going to the GPAA website. Hope this helps. HH Jim

Lunk's nugget is even prettier in-hand then the photos reveal. He and a companion stopped by my booth at the Phoenix GPAA Show and showed me the bauble. Sweet! HH Jim

Here is my opinion of "The Nugget Shooters Field Guide" by Reese Townes. A very informative book, nicely formatted, with excellent photos, with strong emphasis on the alluvial geology of Montana, Idaho, and similar areas. Plenty of good information, and as I always say, if you glean just one new tip from such a "how to" book, which helps you find more gold, then it's worth buying the book. In fact, I have sold thousands of copies of my own books to folks who have exactly the same opinion. Yeah, this old Desert Rat learned a bit more about finding alluvial gold. Well done Reese! I recommend it highly. Good value for the money. HH Jim

Way cool, brethren. Over 90 grams, and hard-won, too. Thanks for sharing. HH Jim

Was totally awesome. Nearly 2,000 attendees on Saturday, and they were in a buying mood. Maybe the current price of gold helped spur sales?. I totally sold out of Goldmaster 24k's by 2pm Saturday, and had to begin taking orders. It was great chatting with our esteemed colleague, Chris Ralph. I was plessed to see his dad looking so healthy. Also had a chance to spend some time with "Broken Arrow," you Southern California gold guys (and movie buffs) know whom I'm talking about. He's looking good. And Pete Pedersen was there, too, looking good for a 92 year old. Looking forward to seeing some of you at Phoenix. Drop by my booth, will also have GMX's available. HH Jim

Craig, I would assume you were addressing Simon. Very kind ofyou. Simon, this is your big chance brother! Remember this is the very machine that Craig is offering to loan you is the one that he used to find that 6 + ounce nugget in New Zealand. Don't block your ears this time! HH Jim.

Craig, right now White's is using all of their 6 by 4s in the promotion for the GMX. The demand for the GMX has been greater than expected, thus 6 x 4's are in short supply. It might be a couple of weeks before they are available publicly. I have one of the first ones and absolutely love it! Just be patient bro. HH Jim

Black, semi- metallic, semi-crystalline, reads high on the scale, start considering a silver ore complex.

Thanks. But i need to correct my comment. Substitute "99" for "95". "99" is the "wrap around" number for certain types. of hot rocks. 00 and 99 are almost the same target zone.

A gold star for deducing my "see the elephant" pun. But I gotta 'fess up, although Mitchell found the cartridge, we really didn't find any elephant remains.

What a cool find, Klunker. Mitchel N. and I were out in the high desert a while back, seeking yet more of the Most Happy Yellow Metal, and he found an old Holland & Holland 300 Mag belted cartridge case. These were often used to hunt elephants. The rule of thumb is you had to be within 80 yards of the elephant able to drop it cleanly, so using his rangefinder, we ranged around until we found a quantity of very old petrified elephant dung and a fossilized pool of elephant blood. We used the carbon dating app on his phone, and found that it dated to 1883. This corresponded to about the time when elephants were last seen in the California high desert. So I can appreciate the high tech science involved in your find.

Larry, as usual Steve has done a masterful job of explaining the issues involved. As he stated, the purpose of compressing high conductivity targets into a very narrow band at the high end of the scale is to allow for a much wider spread on the lower end of the scale. Doing so helps to better separate and identify varying levels of soil mineralization, Hot Rocks, and smaller ferrous and non-ferrous targets. A target that registers at the high end of the scale, 70's or 80's, etc. is virtually guaranteed to be non-ferrous. In the goldfields those targets ALWAYS get dug. However, low-end numbers like 99, 00, 0, 01, 02 tend to be hot ground or hot rocks. Actual metal read higher. But not always. In really hot soil even sub-grainers can read 00. Remember, any form of target ID or discrimination is merely a tool. Wisely used, it saves time. Best wishes for your success with your 24k.

As detailed in "Advanced Nuggetshooting", I use two parallel rows of plastic spoons to grid an area, to more thoroughly work the area between the rows. Once an area is worked, I transfer the "downhill" row of spoons into the unworked "uphill" area, sort of a "leapfrog" kind of thing. Much more environmentally friendly than chaining. This is especially effective in stream beds, where I can grid a limited area, and then work that area both upstream and downstream. No, the spoons are not abandoned. When random hunting, I mark a nugget find spot with a spoon, and then I use more spoons to grid that immediate area to see if I'm onto a patch. An area which has several "find spot" spoons in close proximity gets hammered. Hope this helps clarify things. HH Jim

Another option, one that is biodegradable and unobtrusive, is to use the brightly colored yellow plastic forks or spoons purchased at party supply stores.