mn90403

There are two numbers for each point.  What is the format to put them on the Google Map search?

15 minutes ago, phrunt said:

holy cows, makes my adventures seem placid, I did slide a bit on some loose gravel and could of fallen over while detecting today.  It's a risky game.  Good going on the ring and thanks for taking us along for the ride with the story and pictures.

There is always 'more to it' than just finding a nice ring.  haha  Most of the time I don't tell it.

Well, I'm back from the meeting and Chris showed a lot of pictures I had never seen.  He had some of a red tractor pushing dirt in Rye Patch!  There were others also but I'm going to a Yuba River claim tomorrow.

At the meeting someone told me that the ring has a palm tree on it.  You can see it in my picture but it is upside down.  haha

Now I know.

Paul,

Your story reminds me of a sound I heard near my head near the end of my detecting.  I could have sworn it was a wiz-by even with my headphones on.  It made me look around everywhere to see if someone had taken a shot in my direction at a distance because I didn't hear a shot.

Mitchel

I'm on another trip to Northern Nevada.  This time I had a change in plans and came a day early for a meeting and to hear Chris Ralph speak at the Comstock Gold Prospectors Club.  I had a chance to detect a local park.  I found a few coins and a half ounce, 10K gold ring that fits me.  Those are the facts.  How I got here is the rest of the story as Paul Harvey use to say.

The rest of the story begins yesterday about 2:30 AM I left Santa Monica for northern California and some claims I've been on several times.  I really haven't found a lot of gold there but I know others tha have so I was on my way.  This was not one of my focused trips as it turns out.  I knew I was going to a meeting in Reno on Tuesday night but I had already delayed my departure by a day.  My hotel room was booked and I was going to stay a night in the 4Runner.

When I was going through Sacramento my GPS was going haywire and I couldn't tell the route that saved the most time so I went up to Auburn and got on the 49.  Anyone will tell you that is a long and winding route to Sierra City.  Many will not go that way if pulling a trailer or have a high camper.  My 4Runner has a peculiar problem with the front stability sensors.  I've not been able to determine what makes one or the other of the wheels 'grab' in the turns sometimes but it does.  This trip was very bad for that problem.  It made me constantly aware on the turns and made driving difficult.

That I can take.  I've done it before but this time they were working on the road.  I got to a point where there was a stoppage for about half an hour.  When I finally got to the claim I wanted to detect it was after noon.  I was beat but I wanted to follow the plan.  I detected for a couple of hours in one spot and then a couple of hours in another spot and my mind said I'm done.  Only trash to find.  

While I was detecting in the perfect weather I noticed a Cal Fire truck had gone past me a couple of times.  On my way out of the forest I noticed a logging crew had left with plenty of daylight left.  Off in the distance I could see something like a cloud over the mountains.  After looking at it a bit I determined it was probably a fire and over 20 miles downwind from me but it got me thinking.  Did I really want to spend the night in the forest?  No.

I drove to Graeagle and added a night to my hotel stay and headed off the 60 miles to Reno/Sparks.  On the way there was another 25 minute delay for road work on Hwy 70.  I had never been this was to Reno before but it could be a good way if you are pulling a trailer.  I think Fred goes this way off of the 395.  

The day is getting long and tiring after 500 plus miles and I finally make it to the Motel 6.  I choose this so I can walk my stuff into the room and charge it and other things.  They assured me I was on the ground floor and then they said it is down the walkway!  What?  I want to park in front of my door.  Well, I couldn't.  I almost went back to the desk to cancel but I found a parking place in one of those 'questionable Motel 6's' but I was here.

The room was ok but the heater doesn't have a working fan.  I went to find a Safeway and it is 9 miles away.  I'm fairly irritated ...  I get in the room, eat, watch until I fall asleep.  I sleep and sleep until 9AM.  I sleep a bit more and hang around the room.  Where to go and what to do?  Nothing grabbed me.  It was just time to recharge my batteries.

So now I determine I'll visit a park.  Which one?  I had looked at some parks last night and had ideas so I put one in the phone and headed out about 1PM feeling a bit like I had wasted a day.  The park was close but the streets are confusing.  I passed by a sign ... Fisherman's Park ... that wasn't where I was going.  I had given thought to detecting the river and remembered some stories of a big flood in Reno many years ago that threw everything into the Truckee River.  I tried to turn around but everything is near the freeways and no turns.  I could have just gone on to my park on my phone but I was 'pulled back' to the river park.  After several turnarounds I made it back.

As soon as I got there I could see all the tents.  This park and part of the river is loaded with what we would call the 'homeless' but in fact this is their home.  There were many fires burning and shopping carts are everywhere.  Their camps follow the river bottom.  I guess this time of year the chance for a flood is small.  Above some of these tents was a bike path and on one side of the bike path was a grassy area and then a slope with some trees and a fence.  I went back to my car and got the detector and headed for that slope.  It had little grass and I thought I'd get a feel for the ground.  If I had to go on to the next park I would.

My first target was the little lock.  It was a scratchy sound but in the 18-20 range.  (I just realized as I'm writing this I used Beach 1 with the 11 inch coil for the full hour!)  I moved up to the tree line and saw a sunbaker quarter.  Around it was a bit of a spill and I kept working this area for several minutes using the pointer for very shallow coins.  Nothing was coming up wheat or silver.  It was all too new.  After a bit of time I moved down closer to the river but was unwilling to work the area because a tent guy and his little black dog were near.  I'd been there about an hour and it was time to go.

On my way out I thought I would hit the grassy area.  I got a couple of tops and caps that were just under the grass but not deep.  Then I got another penny sound (19-20) but it didn't look too deep.  I had been skipping some of these like I do at the beach in favor of finding and digging higher numbers but this one was a digger.  I used the pointer to find it and the knife to lift it a bit and then I saw it was round like a penny but had a hole.   No way ... a RING!  It had some weight but I had my gloves on and couldn't tell.  I rubbed the front and it took some of the dark dirt off of it and looked golden.  I couldn't believe it.

I looked at the sides and it was tarnished.  No way could it be gold and then I saw some bluegreen color.  It must be copper I said to myself.  That is why it has the penny sound.  I didn't have my glasses with me they were a few hundred yards away in the car.  I headed back to get them and I said let me take the pictures.  I did that and then went back to the car.

When I got there I did some rubbing and couldn't see any marks in the usual places.  The tarnish was also not coming off so I said ... no gold.  But then I spotted a mark.  It says 10K!  What a reward for a long trip.

It reminds me of a 10K Masonic ring I found in Tonopah but that is another story ...

I use Google Maps for most of my navigation and prospecting trips.  It gets me to where I want to go and if I download the offline map I still know where I am out in the field with the GPS on my phone.

I can put in locations from various formats but I still have not been able to find the format for putting in the numbers in the UTM-EAST and UTM-NORTH format.

How is that done on the search bar in maps?

Mitchel

Yes, they come in with a scratch iron sound but the smaller ones can sound like a ring.

I spent the afternoon at a beach that likes a NW swell.  It kinda pushes everything up and out if the waves are under 10 second intervals.

I found 10 'hoops' for the afternoon but I worked a bit over 4 hours to get them.  One set of hoops is a pair.  In addition to the hoops I dug 108 coins and 4 rings.  One ring is a 6g .925 that looks a bit like a nail made into a ring.  Some of the targets were in the tops of the 3-5 ft waves I was walking in.  It was getting near sunset so I had to cut the trip a little short and cherry pick to get my car before it got a ticket.

On 10/8/2019 at 3:41 PM, phrunt said:

You're now part of a small elite group Steve. 😀 Well done.  

Simon, we beat the Master into the group!

On 10/16/2019 at 6:17 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

Mitchel,  Those are some fine Rye Patch pieces and glad to see you add a few more to your total.  I'll be training customers down there in a couple weeks and hope to scrap up a few myself.

If the weather holds out and there is no rain, we should be able to break a few golden grins.

Are you 100% convinced on the X coils yet, as I have been thinking of pulling the trigger, but would like to know someone who has personally done a side by side test on a few targets.  Yes I realize a small 10" Ellip coil will find smaller gold better than a 14", but what about a 1 to 3 gram size?

Thanks for sharing your info and photos.

Chat with Chet.  He has a chart.   You may get one because you will be going much more often than I will over the next few months and you already know where the deeper gold is.  My trips will be limited on length of time and frequency so I am holding off for now.

I kinda hoped you would say you don't need one because Minelab will have one soon but maybe it won't beat the Xs anyway.  I'm a user and customer and not a very good technical tester.

1 hour ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

The small coil will do just fine and even better on tiny stuff like earrings.  I just feel the little coil is not getting the ground coverage I want.  When the 10" Ellip comes out, it will certainly fill a void many of us want.

Are you heading back to Rye Patch for your 6" bedrock hunt?

Good to see a little gold in the sand on occasion for you and the diamonds are a bonus.

 

I'm going to some Southern California mountains with Jim.  😊

55 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Say what now? when the 10 Elliptical comes out? not IF? Do you know something we don't? 🤞

Of course he does!

I'm getting ready for another gold nugget trip.  I've been told where we are going to bring a VLF for all the bedrock.  That is a style of detecting nuggets I don't normally do so I thought I would need practice with the 6" coil.  I live in Santa Monica so where am I going to 'practice?'  The beach of course.

Waves have been very small for a week or more.  I went out a couple of days ago with the 11" coil and got so few targets in the tide zone I detected back to my car in the dry sand.  I prefer wetter detecting.  That is what I did with the 6" coil for about an hour and a half.  There still weren't many targets but I was going to dig everything I heard.  It is a little weird going out there with such a little coil but I did it when I first got the 6" coil and I got 4 cheap rings that day but the conditions were better because of the waves.

This afternoon I used Beach 2/F2 4/25 sensitivity/5 or 6 speed.  I had just reduced to 5 (for the ring) when I got a slight negative target but it was repeatable.  I turn up the negative sound so I can hear it and see it.  I dug a bit and the sound was solid.  It took several scoops and it was still in the wet sand hole.  I was not fighting the waves but the hole was filling with water.  My scoop is 6" and I was now down a full scoop and the number came in at a solid 10!  Its been a long time with any of my coils for that sound.

It came out of the hole and I swung over the pile and it was still 10 so I was hopeful.  I might have hit it with the scoop.  When I shook the wet sand away I saw it.  It looked good now and it sounded good so ... please don't be a cheap ring ... haha  There were lots of people about and I didn't want to answer questions so I put it in my pouch and hunted for another hour after I found it.

It's a 14k Lee that is .1 oz (2.7g) with 5 little diamonds.  It seems I'll have to use the 6" coil on the beach more often.

1 hour ago, afreakofnature said:

What cabins did you stay in?  I stayed in Lovelock last time, not sure if I want to do that again. 😆

The cabins are part of the Humboldt Home Owners Association.  A couple of WSPA members have lots there and make them 'available' for this outing.  They are not commercially available.

1 hour ago, cobill said:

Mitchel, 

Great trip report and good gold for RP. What were your thoughts on Chet's 17" XCoil compared to the GPZ 14"?

Bill

Chet said he will never take the Xs off and put the 14 or the 19 on again.  He used the 19 quite a lot when it first came out.

I forgot to add as part of our 'test' of that 150x150 ft area when Chet was 'done' with the area using the 17 I put the 19" Minelab coil for 30-40 minutes at the end of the day.  All of the trash was gone except for a couple of spots where some had been buried from camp pits.  That coil even with the Hipstick is a beast.  I was not able to find any targets to dig.

Your question now bring up the fact that I never listened or swung the Xcoil!  When I first saw Chet in Gold Basin he had the 10" coil on and I lifted it but I was surprised at how 'head heavy' it seemed.  Beyond that I have not handled one.  I was told that the bigger coils were about the same weight.

The next time I see Chet I'll want to tease the ground and some sample targets with it so I know more. 

6 minutes ago, phrunt said:

As I understand it that's a fantastic haul from Rye Patch.  Well done! Decent size nuggets too, and to think you traveled all the way to Australia in search of a nugget and you have them a few hours drive away from home 🙂

 

Simon,

I heard there is some gold in Australia but I didn't manage to find much to bring home.  The metal detector at the airport was as unimpressed as I was with my 'haul!'

Mitchel

It was time for another Rye Patch trip.  It was a group outing this time and I had invited Chet.  He was already there when I showed up out in the field about 3 on Wednesday afternoon.  It was an 8.5 hour drive and I had added a couple of hours onto it getting checked in to my cabin but I was there!  Chet had not found anything so he said I'll follow you.

We got set up and he said he would catch up on some things and it was near the end of the day so I headed up.  Before I got up too far my first target gave me that nice, warm sound.  Even with the little sleep I had I thought it was a good target.  I scraped and it didn't move and down a bit farther it didn't come out of the hole and then down about 7" I had it in the scoop.  I sometimes overestimate so I put on my 7000 navigation that it was 1 gram but later not to be.  It is just .72g.  It is the nugget on the top left on the scale.

I looked around the area and saw old dig holes so I knew I had to stay.  I circled and gridded in the late afternoon sun and I got another signal.  This one was a little deeper at 8".  The size slightly larger at .75g.  That was it for awhile until another repeatable signal.  I don't remember the exact depth but I think 5" and I didn't really know if it was gold.  It is and it is .11g!  I didn't have my phone with me but that was it.  I was beat and so was Chet so we took the 35 minute ride back to camp.

Overnight it was pretty cold at 17-19 so I left the lid on my coolers open in my car and outside.  When I got up the drinks had frozen in both of them but we were off for the same location. 

This time Chet hit the area where I found those three nuggets.  I walked up the hill as I had intended.  We didn't move the cars all day.  Chet was working the little bowl and I was up on the sides of the big gully and anything else that looked promising.  I heard a promising signal in a little dry, side run and it had shale type rock around but the signal would go away when I scraped and scratched.  I was into some harder rock and it stayed and stayed and then I blasted it with my pick and it was out.  It is the nugget in the middle.  A solid 1.5 g nugget!  I didn't have my phone with me as it was affecting my detector.

Down in the distance I could see Chet working his 17" X Coil very slowly over and over the area from the day before.  He had been digging some deep holes.  When I made it down to him he said he had found one down about 10" that I didn't get.  He also found another smaller one.  In addition he had dug some really deep holes where some type of metal pieces had sounded off for him.  It was a good day.  I had a nice nugget and he had a couple.

Friday we started at a different location but soon I wanted to get back to 'the area' but a bit higher.  We both walked a long ways checking piles, pushes and holes.  I was heading back up the hill and hear that nice sound again.  This was only 4 inches or so and out came a nice flatter nugget (.84g).  When I looked around I saw someone's recent filled in dig hole but they didn't get this nugget.  The trash was hiding it!

Things die out in the desert but not like they do in Australia!  Australia is one big kangaroo graveyard!

Here is the total for this trip.  (I didn't find anything with a half day Saturday.)

If I add in the two nuggets from my last trip then I have about 1/4 oz of Rye Patch gold.

Thanks Chet for the companionship and the stories.  You have some really great ones about gold, jobs, life and I wish others could hear them.

Mitchel

Yes

I saw the 17 inch X Coil in action on Thursday and Friday at Rye Patch.  The operator didn't really experience hot rocks as much as deep trash that would be missed by the 14.  We had a test area where I had found a couple of .7g nuggets using his max settings.  I was there for a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoon.  I dug down 8" which is deep for me on a nugget.

The next day (about 6 hours total) he went back over my area which had been gone over numerous times before me and he found 2 additional nuggets.  One was at 10" about the size of my nuggets and another nugget was smaller.  He also found some deep copper/tin pieces and other things I had not tried to dig the day before.

Neither of us was much bothered by hot rocks in that area.  He has no plans to go back to the 14!

The SS Central America had lots of coins and lots of treasure to say the least.  We has a presentation (with coins and gold nuggets) at a PCSC meeting in Downey, California last year.  The author said this book was coming.

I don't see much of a preview online but it may be a reference book that will show up in your local library!

https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/new-reference-details-gold-silver-recovered-in-2014-from-ss-central-america

On 10/12/2019 at 1:38 AM, phrunt said:

I am forever going to use that as an excuse as to why JW finds so much more gold than me 🙂

I also know it to be true, JW's 10" X-coil is going deeper on the dinks than his stock 14" GPZ coil, that's why he's found gold in flogged ground that was missed before.  It really adds some depth to the smaller bits.

Where is he?  Isn't his probation over?  haha

I am in Rye Patch right now!  I know the area pretty good.

It has been below 20 the last couple of mornings but perfect during the afternoons with very little wind.

I suggest you send PMs and you'll get more details than just open forum.

Mitchel

WTG!

That is more than I've found in a longer season in a few years.

Micro,

I'm glad you posted it here on a forum where everyone appreciates the Nox's abilities but we sometimes don't stretch it like you did!

Could you tell us a little more about your 'technique?'  I mean did you rake and detect, micro-swing, gully or side hill and was the patch big?

Mitchel

JP,

Are we throwing things 'off' when we turn the coil on edge to pinpoint?

Mitchel