mn90403

I watch the Tuna shows and some others and the bottom line for me is the size of the live tuna.  In what order they were caught and the splicing together of the good weather/bad weather segments to make one 'story' is very distracting.  I just want to see the fish that are caught.

If Parker is holding new nuggets that have not been previously shown or found before this series then I'm glad they did it and they are not fake nuggets.  If they are fake then kick all of them off and Discovery Channel with them.

Thanks Simon.  That is worth noting.  What year did he write that?

This 'ferrous id' first syndrome occurs with detectors other than Minelab too as Steve has noted.  When I am on the beach I dig mostly everything in all metal.  I have turned up my ferrous volume from 5 to 10.  I might bring it up higher because the ferrous first ids in all metal can turn into a deep, good target up to 30% of the time depending on the beach.

Mitchel

A good story.

Parker has been put on to some Australian gold.  They are great looking nuggets!  We'll have to wait to see how he did it.

https://www.tvshowsace.com/2019/11/04/gold-rush-parkers-trail-season-4-filming-in-australia/

I just looked up my first posting of meteorites and the Zed.  I hadn't remembered it to be that long ago.

Well, I was thinking ... if it is Aus$ then that would be a good deal and I might want to buy two!

Would anyone know if you could run two of them within 10 miles of each other?  (The frequency thing you understand.)

I'm ready!  (I hope they're not sold out.)

Is that a US dollar account I need or Australian?

Well, much gold has been found on that GPAA set of claims.  With your skills I'm sure you will find more.

Another group to consider (I am right now) is MPA out of Kingman.  They are the 'forgotten' big claim holders of the basin.  I don't know how many people jump them but I don't see people on their claims when I'm there.

Call me 'late to the party' but maybe, just maybe it is no longer possible to 'cruise' at Rye Patch?  haha 

I pulled my nuggets out of the trash the last couple of trips and you can't really cruise that either.  Crawling obviously produces more after all of these years.

I went to Gold Basin with the IDEA of finding gold.  That proved futile so I went back to a couple of places where I've found meteorites.  I managed to eek out a couple (10g partial sunbaker and 2.7g from near the helicopter pad) before I headed home via Franconia on Thursday morning.

This is the patina you expect on a sunbaker meteorite.  I haven't cleaned it and I'll let this one stay with the little bit of dirt.  I heard it but didn't see it before I scooped it.  I also didn't have my camera with me to take a picture.

I have not been in Franconia with the 7000 since it came out.  On that trip I got a couple of nice chondrites and about 20 irons.  The picture and story won Minelab find of the month.  I was hoping for a repeat but I also wanted to target a different area.  Part of that plan worked and part didn't.  The first half of the walk I didn't find any irons and found one deep target that is not a meteorite even tho I've found a meteorite there at a similar depth.  Here are the beginning panoramas for Franconia.

It was a good 'second half' of the trip because I swung down to where the irons fell and found a few on the patina patches I had missed before.  They are not very big but they sound off really good. 

Beginning at 1 o'clock on the dime and going to 12 the ten meteorites are: .06, .06, .07, .07, .10, .18, ,25, ,28, .32, and .34 grams.

Just like gold the meteorites in Franconia are harder to find!

Mitchel

Frank is an expert out there in the basin and most other places.  I wish I knew you were out there because I was there Tuesday and Wednesday.  I stayed in Kingman because it was just too cold.

I did find a couple of small meteorites.

Thursday I went to Franconia and got 10 little irons.

Next trip I'll get together with you and you can show me where the gold is!  haha

It seems that it is still where most people have found it and it takes a new 'attitude' to find what is left.

Mitchel

Well done.  I was just there a couple of days ago and got nada.  I did get a couple of meteorites.

The crystals at Trona were not available this year because of the earthquake.  I've never attended but I wanted to the last couple of years.

I can't find an online link to the full videos.  I saw there was an air date today for part 3 but I was not here to watch it.  I thought there would be an easy link to the full episode but I don't see it now.  The short video on all the episodes is the same.

The local public TV station KCET has put together a series about gold in the Mojave Desert.  I think there are only 3 parts and I have not watched the episodes yet but I have skimmed the online portions and they are fantastic.  I've been to many of the places depicted and now I'll know a lot more about them when I make time to read and watch this history of my gold hunting areas.

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/desert-gold-part-i

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/desert-gold-part-ii

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/desert-gold-part-iii

Fred,

I enjoy the 'teasing' so you don't have to stop.  I know you wish me and all of us the best.

As you know, I found my best nuggets in a meteorite strewn field and I'm going back there today.  Having only a day my choice is to go after the best meteorites or go back to areas where I've found gold and no meteorites.  It is hard to do both with the walking distances involved of several miles.

I'll let you know what I find and the choice I made but little irons are calling me.  haha

Mitchel

Gerry,

You've gotten lots of really good comments.  I wish I could react to many of the commets one at a time but have to 'put something together' that tells what I do and a little bit of what I think.  Steve covers most of my bases with his style and comments.

I feel like I've been 'called out' so to speak.  (As a help to me and others too!) I seem to be the poster boy for skipping around.  I have to admit you could call me the beach hunter of the desert or just call me impatient.  I don't know where to find gold in Rye Patch (and other places).  It's everywhere and it's nowhere.  I don't know where the 'known' patches are.  I just look for the random nuggets and if I find one I try to find another.

My last two trips to Rye Patch are my current pattern.  The first trip I drove all night and went out to an area where I had found one nugget before (3 years ago) and I stayed there for 2 hours.  Enough.  (I've been to this area at least 3 times since I found that nugget but didn't find any more.)  I go to another area where I had found a nugget and repeat the pattern not knowing if there is a patch there or not.  I camped out near the burn barrel.

I got up in the morning and my first target was a nice nugget.  I stayed there all day and didn't find any more.  I had done some research and joined a new club and I wanted to see Placeritos so I drove there and spent the night.  No nuggets but an interesting place to see.  I have no idea how to work this place so I leave, try to find a couple of meteorites on the dry lake and spend the night in Winnemucca.  The next day I drive to north of Elko on an exploration and drive back to the Eugenes and spend the night.  I hunt the area where I parked for half the day and go back to Rye Patch and find a little nugget on my first target but no more for that half day.  At the end of the day I drive back to Santa Monica.  I had a good trip.  

My next Rye Patch trip about a month later I come to the patch later in the afternoon and meet up with Chet after 2 PM and we go near where I ended the last trip.  I get out and start walking and my first target is a nugget.  A few minutes later I get another one and before dark at 6 PM I have another tiny nugget.  The next day Chet takes over that 100x100 spot to see if the Xcoil could find more.  He finds two nuggets there all day and I find one other nugget within 1/4 mile.  Next day we hit two spots (Fred saw us at one where I had found a nugget before but not this trip) and then we went back close to where we had been at the previous day and I found one more nugget.  I went back to near that area for half of the next day and that was my trip.  I detect sections 17 and 19 only when in Rye Patch.  I have it marked on my phone.

I'm on another trip now to Gold Basin.  I wanted to find a nugget with the 800 so yesterday I went to 4 places where I have found nuggets before.  There were no tiny nuggets for the 800.  I take shorter trips but I go back to where I've found nuggets.  I'm mostly a solo/skunk hunter.  I don't have a quad and I don't have a trailer to camp for a week.  

My Australia trip was a map trip.  I looked on a map and got to an area and detected.  I tried to understand the workings and get started as Steve has said but day after day it just didn't happen.  There was no one to tell me how to change that pattern.  After the first week I worked myself into an area where I had been given an exact pointy finger for a found nugget or two and I went to those places with the help of my phone GPS.  It resulted in nuggets but I found very little for my 20 days ... don't remind me.  If I'm not finding gold in an area that I know nothing about ... why should I stay?  I think I have a better chance of getting lucky than concentrating on an area that doesn't have any gold.  Experience is not my friend when it comes to gold hunting.  I started in 2011 after many of you hunted out some of the best spots.  (I must add that Adam and Mop took me to their patches and we didn't find anything either so the trip was not entirely solo.)

I've had a couple of areas over the years where I hunted that I would call a patch.  I could go out and find missed nuggets and new areas at the same time.  It is a foreign language to me to suggest that I go back and look for the deep nuggets on a patch I detected over 10 years ago.  Many clues and lots of nuggets are gone before I ever get to these patches.

Bottom line for me is I think I take short, intense trips to places I've been before expecting better results.  I might continue to find 'once in a lifetime nuggets' as Fred calls them if I did go to new places more often.

Mitchel

PS:  I thought all day about an important individual in Australia I did not mention in this post.  Thank you Reg Wilson for making a map for me near where you live and also putting me up for the first few days.  I was jet lagged and getting over a head cold and I didn't learn as much as I could have.  I did go back towards the end of my trip to the places you showed me when I stayed in Maryborough and followed that ridge you showed me.  Adam now has your map.  Thanks to your wife also.  Your home is something I'll always remember as picture perfect.

They're releasing some new land that should have some gold!

https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/victoria-braces-for-another-gold-rush-with-land-release/

Well done Gerry!  I can't even imagine where an old diggins around there would hold that much gold.

I need more lessons!

Mitchel

Ken,

I don't know the detecting much around Laughlin.  You can head towards Dolan Springs and go to Gold Basin.  You could go to Kingman and go to the Gold Lady and get some ideas.  You could go toward Oatman and Lake Havasu or Franconia. 

Jeff Williams is from the general area and he has a lot of videos if you don't mind the antics.  Even if you do mind there is a lot of good information provided.

I may go to Gold Basin in a couple of days and be there a couple of nights.  I'd say there is much more potential still in Gold Basin than Rye Patch but I get skunked there too but I can usually find a meteorite or two.

Mitchel

Well, thanks everyone.  I thought I had made it clear I was going to see Chris at the Comstock meeting.  The next day I met up with Gary who will be the new VP and we went to a Yuba River claim and panned gold for the day.

I'm not much of a panner but Gary did a good job.  It was a perfect day.  I learned to pan a bit better but I can't make a living at it!

I'll make it back up that way one of these days but I've been up north 3 times in the last couple of months.

Thank you very much.  Your link showed me what I needed to look for and it is the reverse of your link.  I have the UTMs but needed to convert them and now this link shows them on Google Maps.

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/utm-latitude-longitude-d_1370.html

I'm often times stumped by the simple things.

Well done.  Over what period of time did it take to accumulate this amount?

It's that loooong Indian summer!

On 10/23/2019 at 6:55 AM, Gerry in Idaho said:

The antique red dozer was pushing at Rye Patch years back and getting plenty good gold.   I can't remember what issue,  but it was on the front cover of ICMJ magazine.  Those guys doing it would work a few days,  grab the gravy gold and then head back home to their regular jobs and family.   As soon as they left the locals would show up and clean up the smaller ones with VLFs.  It was a win win for everyone and kept the locals happy.  Oh well... nothing wrong with sharing a little gold.   On a side note,  a couple of those guys will be down at Rye Patch swinging next week. 

Glad you were able to learn some history of RP and had a safe trip home. 

I thought I recognized them!  haha  Some of these 'thoughts' should be added to that thread called Rye Patch Claim jumpers.  I've been keeping my mouth shut over there about any of this.

This is maybe how I had been given the impression that some people were in on 'common digs' when in fact after they were done with the GPXing of the push they let the locals have a crack at it!