hawkeye

Are you planning a vacation for a certain time of year, or will you be picking a location and letting that choice dictate when to go?

Garmin acquired inReach from Delorme (or may have totally bought out Delorme??). The Garmin is their newer model and the Delorme is the old pre-Garmin model. I have the older model. The new model has a larger screen and may have some additional capabilities. I use the "TopoMaps" app on my phone or iPad in conjunction with any GPS device with Bluetooth.

Thanks Steve. Nice to see Montana gold. I hope one day to find some. My heart is still in Montana where I was born.

Gotta love your hunting companion.

Walker, I am impressed. The hours and hours of work involved, and having the know-how to put yourself over that much gold is truly impressive.

They look like April Fool's nuggets to me.

I think Francisco may have picked a few magic mushrooms before he laid under that tree.

Very nice mod. Do you have any pictures of the control box construction phase of the build? It is impressive. Especially to a ham handed ten thumb guy like me.

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Tailings from a heap leaching/cyanide recovery operation should not have any detectable gold if any at all. A mine dump may have some gold as Andyy suggests. Dredge tailings maybe have nuggets if the area they dredged was known for nuggets rather than fine gold. Most of the dredge piles in Montana are now sitting on private land because the original claims were patented. I am not sure where one could get access to dredge piles. If you don't already have this book get it. It shows all the places in Montana that were placer mined: http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/mbmgcat/public/ListCitation.asp?pub_id=11597& I would think your best bet would be to check for open land on the streams indicated in the book. Also check our the Libby Creek free panning area south of Libby. The Northeast Montana Prospecting Club has claims in that area. Cost to join $50 or $75. http://www.nwmtgoldprospectors.com

Not sure if you made your decision yet, but I had a Keene 12 volt "puffer" dry washer. It worked good, but it is heavy and setting it up is somewhat awkward. If you are going to be packing your drywasher for any distance I would get the Thompson. I have read many good reviews of the Thompson.

And for enthusiasm and colorful language you can't beat General Hercules. (I know he has been on the forum before but I couldn't resist)

Nice gold. You gotta love the 7000, but on the other hand you got to hate all the tiny pieces of iron junk they target. I have reached the point where if the target moves after a boot scrape I'm moving on. How do you cope with this annoying problem?

How did you install Land Matters on Google Earth? We are still in the 19th century when it comes to getting the actual location of a claim. That has nothing to do with Land Matters. At least many county records can be searched online.