1515Art

The Gold Basin mining district is around 30 square miles A mix of public and private land most of the public land I’d imagine claimed at one time or another, I’m not sure how much of that is off limits now due to being inside lake Meade recreation area. The minimum Claim size I believe is 20 acres, some club claims are multiples of that however I’m newbie out here in the southwest desert so hopefully someone with more knowledge of the area chimes in. There is also the gold basin meteorite strew field that’s around 150 square KM and about half of that falls off limits inside the lake Meade national recreation area. Most of the public land has been under claim at one time or another its now a patchwork of active and inactive mining claims.

All but 1 have been in washes and most of those with the exception of 1 other under shrubbery But the hunting has Been tough 14 hour nonstop days, I just have been going slow listing for those faint sounds I hope others have missed I still don’t know my way around enough to find my own spots hope to do that a little soon like to find us a virgin patch out there someplace. I also joined gpaa and mpa next week I’m going to try out one of the gold basin MPA claims has some nice washes visible on google earth and it’s located more on the western edge, if its any good I’ll let you know where. It is nice being only a couple hours away be even better if I can find a little off road camping trailer I can tow behind the Jeep so I can spend a couple days at a time and hit some completely new spots.

I poked my hand in the early morning I was concerned there could be some allergic reaction thing, don’t know. Medics thought it was dehydration I drank at least a half gallon of water and a thermos of coffee, wore a big ol ladies sun hat from Target I cut the band off and had a evaporation scarf to keep me cool, I was comfortable all day? The jerky was on the moist side and sat in the Jeep in 100 temps for a week and sure came on like food poisoning? Vision changes were similar to one time a while back I accidentally ate some leftovers that had gone bad along with everything going grey the last time that hit my vision want fuzzy low definition amber too along with my blood pressure dropping, guess I’ll be more careful with my snacks...sure was tasty sweet spicy jerky. this is a really comfortable hat!

OK now just a tiny bit sore I really don’t notice it much, the next morning I was a bit concerned I could feel it almost up to my shoulder and it was swollen No unusual colors so that was good thought about going to the doc and by the next day it was a little better, another lesson stay clear of the big spines😩,lol.

thanks Gerry, went back out again Tuesday and found one more tiny piece, managed to slip And fall against one of the Agave Spines Next to me when I looked down about 1/8” long stub of the spear was sticking out from the back of my left hand about 3/8” in diameter. I grabbed on to it and gave a tug it was stuck so I tugged again harder and it began to move a little so I kept pulling and the damn thing was about 1 1/2” long at least and went between the bones in the back of my hand And into my wrist. It didn’t hurt pulling it out about 15 seconds later it began to burn and pretty soon it began to swell up, made it tough to swing the 7000 I’m left handed, I thought this is gonna hurt tomorrow...it did. I knocked off around 5pm the pain in my wrist was throbbing up my arm, driving on hideout rd I munched some beef jerky I had in the Jeep from last week drank some water then just about a mile before hitting the 93 I began to feel a little sick looking fo a place to pull over so I could get rid of the Jerky I’d just eaten things went grey, pulling over quickly I had time to get out walk to the back of the Jeep and a few seconds later everything went black. I felt my head hit the ground hard, then sunshine was in my eyes it felt comfortable for a split second until I remembered where I was. Couple ladies living across the street called the medics for me, they said I was out for about a minute the grey came and went but by the time the medics got there I was feeling better don’t know if it was the jerky or if I got my self dehydrated? Drove home without any more issue but I felt kind of beat up the next day.

on this one I don’t think you need to beat yourself up over it, when you factor in the fun you had hunting it, the experience selling and the $60, like Mitchel says “find another” it’s history now and sometimes it boils down to the price of an education. Heck, $60 bucks is $60 bucks you are money ahead, better than I can say on a lot of my deals, only thing is... why no picture 😀?

Thanks Chuck, the way things started thought the day was going to be epic, almost was except for the snake not the gold. I was clueless in front of that pissed off little bugger for way to long And looking back I have no idea how I escaped getting hit by him. Luckily it turned out just a good lesson I won’t let it happen again. I remember buddy getting bit amazing luck he pulled through...I’ll bet he’s cautious now. Chuck I’m starting to learn my way around a little, hopefully by the time you and Lisa make the pilgrimage to the Basin I’ll know what direction to point you in👍.

Jim, this is the rubber broom attachment for the power head, the bristle broom is the exact same thing just different brushes I think are interchangeable I’m just not sure they sell them separately.

I ordered a brush broom they sent me this by mistake and I decided long as I had one to see what it would do prospecting? The wheel set is indestructible, broom runs on a 56v battery jury’s still out if the broom will last or explode from the abuse?

OK Jim, promise mums the word but those welds look clean to me very nice piece of metal art it is indeed. I think this is gonna be a whole new ball game for the sweeper😀, 40% more sweep from the ZSE7000 (Zero Sweep Effort) just the name not the price, lol, actual price may be higher.

Jim, very cool I’ve got a couple places to try it out on and am excited to get a chance to show off your work.

The conversation is informative and fascinating there’s a lot of good information for I guess a desert greenhorn like me I need to know, I had no idea the differences in toxicity and was regarding most of the rattlers like the ones back in Northern California. The one I saw seemed skinnier than the western diamond back and the venom glands were pronounced I don’t really remember the color except while the markings were defined in the evening shade of the bush the colors were subdued.

I spent almost an hour on their website imagining the possibilities, I’d have to give up my extra fuel tank and rear approach angle plus the extra weight back there makes an already poor handling rig miserable on the freeway, or I think I try one. I started with little yamaha’s and Kawasaki’s when I was 11 years old rode every day in the orchards and hills where we lived and when they built the local college drove the campus cops nuts for building in what had been my playground for years, it was a game for me and they never caught me! However, I’m 67 now and last time I crashed the mountain bike in the Santa Cruz Mountains woke up on the trail with a crowd around me separated shoulder and chipped pelvis not sure if I’d been going up hill or down. When part of my senses returned under crowd protest I mounted my bike and headed downhill into town where they bought me a cup of coffee and insisted on calling my wife to pick me up. That hurt and I’ve cooled it a little since then too, we do heal slower now.

Wow, bad as it was you were lucky to get out of that, little story on my first trip up detecting in north of the rye patch by 40 miles roughly and wandering around looking for the claim I couldn’t find one of the local ranchers stopped to see if I needed any help. We chatted for a while, he knew the area I was headed for and told me to follow him he led me there. We talked a bit more anyway next year back out there I asked another prospector about him and was shocked to learn he’d passed from an ATV accident (4 wheel) obviously the Rokon’s lots lighter but he rolled it on a hillside and got pinned under for a couple nights till they found him, he survived the accident but died a week later after discharge from the hospital with complications from blood clots being pinned under it for so long. Point being I guess we take chances, but it’s lonely out there, good you switched to the RZR good equipment is our friend... hmmm, I’m 67 and that Rokon sounds kind of fun wish I could fit it in the Jeep.

I’ve run my whites SST over 1 ounce gold eagles should be about the same as Kruger I would think? Because of the mass and alloy it had high ID numbers in the low 90’s on the whites in an air test. Depending on the area you need to cover you could first mark and dig all the big target signals starting with fence lines and around any thing that stands out for you as as a monument, then if you don’t find it dig everything you get a hit on. I don’t know what part of the country you live in if there’s a time crunch put out the word I would imagine you could get a lot of help be a fun hunt to be a part of helping someone retrieve a lost family treasure.

Wow, that must have been difficult very lucky you were able to figure it out👍.

I just started doing that I picked up a 1qt dolly pot and so far I haven’t picked good rocks, but at least I’m learning. To speed up the sampling I also bought what looks like a well designed and durable mill powered by any angle grinder should have it in hand in a couple days and I’ll process some more rock from this last trip. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=mighty+mite+gold+ore+mill&docid=608056318056532948&mid=27C0E425DB4BF47A76B927C0E425DB4BF47A76B9&view=detail&FORM=VIRE this quart conglomerate weighs about 15 pounds hit very hard on both the 7000 and sdc with stronger signals in different spots and minimal magnetic attraction, breaking it off a 6 pound chunk it looks very mineralized and has many metallic specks although some of that could be light refraction through micro crystals I guess I’ll see what shows up after a good crushing?

Cleaned up my specimen nugget a little, lost about .1gram from when I found it most of that was sitting in the acid wash after panning out the liquid.

Has he a little tiny rattle on his tail to give a warning or is it just silently dangerous? Thankfully we don’t have those, you fellas have some nasty critters. Night time and death adders, sound like a party good thing you got giant gold nuggets I guess you get used to dealing with them and the gators are a must have you ever had one strike detecting out there at night? Would you even know?

I’ve never picked one up, you are braver than me I used to see them all the time when I mountain biked, occasionally we’d run over them when they were sunning in the middle of the trail with our bikes it pissed them off but didn’t seen to do them any harm.

That pretty much must have sucked I’d guess, how did you eventually get over it?

Lyme disease something to get you out there in all sizes, that sucks you had that infection I have lucky and avoided the ticks, now no more snakes. good tip thank you, that would help a lot.

I was never inclined to kill anything out there, but am especially sensitive now in honor of Fred’s memory that was something he was passionate about.

I’m not really sure why I didn’t get bit, just stupid luck I could hear him buzzing for a while and he was right at my feet, think I might have been really close at one point with my hand reaching for my rock, that I later set down and forgot because I was still a little jumpy from being so close and not realizing it. Luckily I’d used the coil to drag my found prize I’d soon forget to drag the target within my reach. I don’t usually carry my phone, I did have the gps that has a geo camera just so I don’t loose where I’ve parked the Jeep, but the picture quality is kinda poor and well, I was to freaked out to take pictures although I did think about it. He was pretty good sized several coils scattered about a couple foot area and his head was up another 6 to 8 inches s-curved ready to strike, so he had to have been a good 4 feet. ill take morning gold any day, something to rattle in my cup while I’m walking around digging hot rocks and trash😃.

I forgot to mention had my first rattle snake encounter out in the desert anywhere and I’ve become careless from never seeing one. I bought snake gators years ago but they always wind up staying tucked away in the Jeep as unnecessary extra weight hanging on my legs and in the future I’ll be using them. It was evening probably 630’ish, I’d picked up a signal and after retrieving a goose egg shaped piece of quartz half rapped in magnetite I had the rock in hand looking it over and I kept hearing this rain bird sprinkler sound in the distance, pulling off my earbuds the sound was more clear and the light in my head clicked on when I spotted a rather pissed off looking large snake not more than 3 feet away coiled up warning me this was his spot. This old guy can move pretty quick and in less than a heartbeat we had another 6 feet between us but that was way to close and just lucky for me he gave a good warning. So, they are out... be careful everyone!