LuckyLundy

Mitch, Her first photo…I like her big natural nugget ring, gives me a new goal Rick

Some great finds and Smiles to match! Metal detecting/prospecting for Nuggets can be addictive as I’ve enjoyed my adventures since 1979. I had to run home last Friday and seen the Burn Barrel had a nice crowd and thought you may have had a class going on. Nice to see others enjoying our Hobby and putting in the time to learn the finer points of filling up their pokes. LuckyLundy

“A couple of those first set of 4 pics look like Steve Wandt creations. Specifically the 2nd and 4th in geof_junk's post. He was a master at making gold rings. Also the one on Lucky's finger in his post may also be one from Steve.” Mike, when he was hunting with us he made a dozen or so for our group members, but you had to have found a 1 ounce Nugget. That was the 1 Ounce Club signature reward. You got to design it with your found nuggets and the gottier the better! Rick

My Wife Robin, thanks everyone for your well wishes! Believe me, I’m the one you need to be worried about 😂👍 Rick

If you’re not swinging a Coil in the Goldfields of Northern Nevada in the Month of October you’re missing the best ground conditions of the Year. My Wife Robin, broke her Ankle on Friday the 13th last Month. She finally got her leg into one of them Boots and has more mobility and told me to hit the Dusty Trails for a couple days. That’s all I needed as one of my hunting Buddies was heading out for a hunt as well. Driving on them gravel roads I could tell it rained since the last time I was out, but my truck was kicking up a cloud of dust you could see for miles. I met up with my Pard and loaded my RZR up and headed out to stretch my legs. We wanted to Patch hunt and looked for some dirt with some Colors we liked. We soon found a spot off the beaten path and spread out for the afternoon hunt. We both picked up a few before we headed back to camp. It was just enough sign of nuggets to hit it again in the morning. There was no signs of old dig holes which we wanted and the next morning we hit it again. We both hit a couple of spots that could bring more joy on a future hunt. But, we both had to head back home mid Afternoon. I worked on my disappearing Calluses on my hands from a couple weeks worth of washing dishes and look forward to more time on this new area to find its hidden bounty that we only got a sniff of. Until the next Hunt! LuckyLundy

Always enjoy all things Gold!

Now you’re Cooking! WTG Rick

Steve, is more than correct “Under the Right Conditions”. Back in the old GPX days one of my Favorite Minelab Coils was the 12x15 DD. This coil worked the best in Mild Dirt and Peaked after the first sprinkles of Fall Rains. During some Drought Winters it didn’t come off my Detector. Under rated by many, but a deadly coil to the few. Rick

There’s still of Fortune of them little guys out there and a few more missing link patches to the fresh legged Detectirist! Rick

Geof-junk, Using Penny/Dime Weight may give away my age. It’s a much simpler measurement for simpletons like me to figure. 20 dwts to the ounce vs 31.1 grams to the ounce. Of course I understand both when it comes time to sell 😂. Rick

Well, not teeth marks like someone would have made. I use to do that But “Horse Dung Ridge” left a bad taste in my mouth! 😂

Not a Sole to be seen! Granted the Weatherman was calling for Winds from a mild Cold Front moving in from the North East. Condor, gave me a call stating he was heading out for a Hunt, I gave him the Weather report for the area and a turn down to join. It brought mild rain to my area of Reno. The next day another Partner gave me a Call, I told him I’ll watch Weather and told him Condor was supposed to be out there. Weather Report was perfect, I text my Buddy…Hunt’s on and to met at the October Patch (a gold patch in Rye Patch) to setup Camp. Perfect weather, Cool and Sunny as I unloaded my RZR and remember all the Bullets of Sweat of the hot Discovery Day of the October Patch. My Trusty Hunting Partner pulled up and geared up as I text Condor asking his whereabouts! He called back and said, he headed back home after his day hunt with limited success. Again, not a Sole to be seen with the perfect Fall Weather! Giving it some thought of where to start on the drive up, I remembered this long Ridge that I found a Patch of Gold at both ends, but few nuggets in the middle. Both of us feeling fresh legged at the Noon Hour we set off to the ridge. I dropped my Partner off at the edge of the well hunted end of Ridge Patch and I’d pull up 1/2 mile with the RZR and start there and head up Ridge and then when he reach RZR he’d pull up 1/2 mile ahead of me and I’d repeat to end the days swing for the Missing Link Patch. Well I’m swinging away, enjoying myself when I feel my stomach telling me to refill it. I turn around to see where my Mobile Chuck Wagon was at! It was at least a Half Mile back and my Partner wasn’t in view below it. I swung back to the RZR, picking up one dink nugget that lead to another One Nugget Patch. Refueling my growler, my Partner comes screaming up the side of the Ridge, like he is running from a Mad Coyote that was chasing him. He had something in his hand, but his Smile gave it away at 20 yards! He plopped one of those Legendary Nuggets into my hand. My eyes and smile matched his! 😳 Both of us with filled stomachs drove back to his 8 Nugget Bonanza! A small drainage feeding off the ridge with a Dink Nugget at the head and a dink at the bottom lead him into the Flats between a distant Ridge. I’ve always considered this a No Go Zone as a No Gold Zone…as I’ve spent more than few hours in that Sage Brush with No Joy. We reach his Discovery Patch, in the Middle of Nowhere! 100 yards off our target Ridge. We named it “The No-Where Patch” right then and there. Partner, found the sweet spot of his Patch and I circled it like a hungry shark extending the perimeter. The No-Where Patch had two gaps that anyone could have swung a coil thru the middle of it without a clue of a missed Payday. The length of the Patch is around 30 yards and maybe 12 yards at the widest. We pounded it with our 6000’s and the next day I went over the sweet spots with a very slow swing with my 7000 with hopes of some deep missed ones, zero missed nuggets. Which indicates the vast majority of this Placer, shallow patches. We did pick up a few on the very outskirts of the No-Where Patch, which may lead to the next nugget patch yet to be named! Wore out, we headed home at sunset of the second day. Partner’s Big Boy at 1.6 ounces and his other big nugget to the right of that was a near 1/4 oz at 4.9 dwts. My Big one was 3.6 dwts on left. The High Plain Deserts still yield its treasures to the hungry seekers! Until the next Hunt LuckyLundy

FlakMagnet, Yep, Bob “29 Prospector” was a great man. He gave me a few pointy fingers in them rugged Hills and a couple of the long hikes paid off too. Love the Dale District! Rick

Never met Richard, but hunted in and around Area 51. I held a few whopper nuggets found within a Sling Shot distance from his discovery hole. Love that District and wish it was closer…but those Winds 😂 Rick

Reese, Nice Hunting you’ve had! There’s plenty of Nuggets to find out in that vast desert. Sounds like you sell your Pokes to refineries and need a few extra Karats to make the best of your time and effort. There is better Karat quality out there in spots. There’s also, some of the best Chevron nuggets out there in the World and many other Crystalline structures that will raise and eye on the oldest dealer/buyer at the Tucson Gem Show. I’ve left gold to find gold countless of times and Gold Basin is on that list. Keep adding patches to revisit in each Gold District you hunt, they are all separately special. LuckyLundy

Steve, Change Fuel Pump! Easy change, buy cheap one off Amazon (get extra 😂) OEM replacement will take your Wine money! Rick

😳 That’s a keeper! WTG! Rick

Great story of your adventure! Rick

Steve, Glad, I bowed out…any temps in the Nineties hampers my mental abilities to find Gold 😂. You did great in the heat and I’m sure your enjoying back home temps. Rick

Doc’s innovations are endless! I have many of he’s products some dating back more years than I care to mention 😂 and still work as great as day one. He has made everything from Hats to Boots…Doc is a great Outfitter of our “Toils in the Soils.” Thanks Doc! Rick & Robin

I have a set of the Avantree neck headphones! But, of course I left them on my workbench charging up, as backup to stock head set! Always forget something, but never drinking water! Rick

I couldn’t wait to get out after seeing Calmark & Gerry’s Flood Pictures of Rye Patch dry washes! Though I’d give it a few days to dry out and for a Road Crew to fix the main dirt roads. Road Crew, did a great job with a new Culvert installed on the main drainage of Poker Brown wash and regraded it to my left turn to the Majuba Placer. I was impressed with the erosion of this storm, had to be one for the record book. Being a student of Hydrology during my dredging years, I learned each flood was different from each other in their course of moving material down a drainage. I had my eyes set on two dry washes that produced well for me in the past, both with shallow bedrock. Parked and loaded up my RZR, I headed off to the first location. Donning my gear, I was hoping my Headphones took a charge. My charging light wouldn’t show it was charging, I was hoping the light was just burnt out. Anyways, it was working just fine as I was swinging my coil on the short hike to this small section of dry wash. I arrived, and looked down at my location…it was nearly unrecognizable and was covered with yards of fresh packed dirt. I looked up stream, to see what caused this mess. The wash had such a flow 25 yards above my spot it cut a new channel and layed all the overburdened to the slowdown bend of my location. I still swung it and the new cut to no avail, I’ll wait for the next flood to see if it moves the overburdened…I hate shoveling 😂. Next spot, was perfect! The flow exposed my favorite 10 ft section of Shale. I swung into this area 20 ft above the exposed section to give my 6000 a chance to ground balance. I was eyeballing a spot during my slow sweeps of my 10x5 Coiltek and as soon as I went over the bedrock I heard the sweet sound of my plan come alive. Keeping my eye on the spot, I set my detector down ahead of me it made a familiar tone and I gently raised it up and back down, yes another target. We’ll long story short, I pulled these seven out of the 10 ft section. When I first found this spot many Moons ago it was a good 8” down to the bedrock and produced several 2+ dwt nuggets. Thru the many new models of Minelab detectors it produced other nuggets and I’m sure the 6000 just clean this exposed section out for good. Except now, I’m sure the Gold goes into the 3ft bank of overburdened of the wash on top of this bedrock, I hate shovels! I’ll bank this spot just in case they redesign a shovel into a backhoe! It was late in the day and I headed back to camp before dark. It was a windy night and the morning it died down to a tolerable wind speed for detecting. At my location and 10 minutes in, my detector made a noise I hadn’t heard before! I looked down at my battery charge and it was only down a third. Well it was working fine and continued my hunt a few minutes later the same noise? A few minutes later and my headphones turned off 🙁. I tried, for 30 minutes with just the unit’s speaker and as much as I like the speaker it wasn’t good enough with my worn out Military Hearing fighting against the breeze of the High Plane Desert. Beautiful weather and I hated to leave, got home and found the On-line repair ticket of Minelab USA. Until the next Hunt! LuckyLundy

Mitch, WTG! You earned them Nuggets. As you know they don’t come easy, keep on the trail and fill your poke up! Rick

Mark, WTG! Crazy wet weather for Northern Nevada. It should be drying out here real soon, but that includes Summer temperatures 🥵 Rick

Strick, Dual batteries would be nice and I wish I thought about that before I screwed my Winch connectors in the extra battery slot! Anyways, further diagnostics on my SxS with my limited Mechanical Mind: I fueled it up, after a ride between more afternoon rain and I noticing a strong smell of gas when I parked it in the garage. 🤔 I thought! Next morning the garage had a very strong odor of gasoline. I looked under the Buggy expecting to see a puddle of fuel, nope. Then I removed the passenger seat to have a look at the fuel tank and seen the fuel tank air vent hose. I followed it to the engine area and it had a section full of water in the low spot of the hose as I turned up. I fired up my air compressor and unhooked hose from fuel tank and blew that water out the other end. I just may have found the real problem with Little Red. Took her for a long ride after that and gas free smell. Watching Local News last night Weatherman said, 3rd wettest May on record for Reno. I’m sure in parts of Northern Nevada it’s the Wettest ever, but no one lives there to measure it, lol. Rick