Chris Ben

Great job defeating your nemesis!! Don't let him back into the fight lol.

I have an out of the way spot that I pass by on road trips to visit my family. I've managed to detect it 6 or 7 times, but only for a couple hours each time. There are tailing piles everywhere,  from hand workings. It is a known gold area, and also has been known for large nuggets. I've seen no evidence of modern day work, no detector holes. It is a pretty trashy area, and I've dug much lol. No nuggets.  I have panned dirt from the area and found flakes in every pan. I do need to spend a couple of days there to attempt to figure out. I'm not really sure how to approach the area from a detecting perspective. It's a bit different than the desert I'm used to detecting.  The rock piles are extensive,  mostly large rocks. Have not seen areas of gravel tailings. Hopefully I'll figure it out one day. 

Chris.

Much respect for making it happen 👏 

Chris 

Hi Chris,  I definitely understand about the trash. Did you dig only the targets on the right? Or some that flashed left and right on the Gold monster?

Thank you, 

Chris 

Hello, gold Basin can be tough. I would find an area that someone has drywashed. Check both the header and tailings piles. Also detect around the bottom and edges of the hole. You should be able to scratch out a few pieces with the Monster. 

Good luck,

Chris 

Great nugget,  lots of character!! I have started using my equinox to find gold. I think the gold I've found registered from a 6 to 11 on the EQ. Gerry what range has your gold been with the Equinox? 

Chris 

Hello, I had one in 2019. Best thing I did. I probably do to much, but I am a personal trainer and a boxing coach. So I lift heavy, I even spar a bit. I even do some trail running (probably against Dr's wishes) but these are things I have not been able to do for 30 years. It has only benefitted my detecting. I'm more mobile, better endurance and less things hurt when I'm done than before I hD the surgery. Hiking is actually great rehab when you get a full release from Dr. My only concern was weather or not my hip would set off my detector lol. Listen to your Dr,  but you should be good.

Chris 

Yeah I haven't figured out gold with the Nox yet. I've had nuggets from 6 to in mid 20s

Chris 

I had one standout deep hole, it was also my largest nugget! In Gold Basin I was walking back to to truck to meet up with my buddy Dave. Moving quick but still detecting. I had done pretty well already with a few nuggets,  but more is always better lol. I decided to hit a bench in a wash where we had found a few good nuggets. I run my GPZ very hot so I am used to a bunch of noise. I heard something I thought was ground noise, so I ran the coil over again. Nothing convincing.  I almost walked away but did a boot scrape, still wasn't convinced. Another boot scrape, and I almost walked away again, but the bench looked good, a bit behind some raised bedrock. It wasn't till the 2nd dig with my pick that I was convinced it was a repeatable signal. After a couple of digs, it started getting really  loud,  so now I was convinced it was trash lol. Already down about 18 inches i figured I might as well finish up. Around the 2ft+ mark I hit a hard pack, and started getting a little excited. Absolutely screaming now, the next dig got it out of the hole. I could immediately feel the weight in my scoup.  It was a 1.4 Oz specimen, mostly gold.!! Got to dig all targets!! 

Thats a bunks large pick in hole, not sure it was even in bottom of the hole! 

Thanks Chris 

Congratulations! Research like that definitely stack odds in your favor!

Chris 

Well since my buddy Dave showed of his Nevada nuggets I figured I will too. Great thread Gerry. Seeing all the photos I realized I missed the nugget shooting heyday,  but that doesn't mean I'm giving up lol!! Here are some of the bigger Southern Nevada gold i found,  mostly from the Johnnie district. 

Cheers Chris 

Congratulations great find!!

Congratulations on your great 4th finds!!!

Chris 

Tailing piles.....hmmmmmm I need to find some tailing piles 😗. congrats to the finder!!

Chris 

19 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

Chris, I want to see… thanks.

…and Dale that pack looks unbelievably functional.

Ok ill get on it. 

The 7000 is amazing on small deeper gold!!

Great finds, and great info, for people trying to learn!!

Chris

Great job, that "little stuff " adds up quick!!

Chris 

On 2/21/2020 at 2:27 PM, kiwijw said:

Well, well, well.....for those of you who have walked away from a ground mineralization type signal or an iffy sounding signal.....here is proof of what it just might be. Goes to show, you just never know what ANY signal is until it is in your hand. I don't care what anybody has to say about how they reckon they tell a crap signal from gold. There is no way to be 100% sure until it is in your pinkies.  

Good for you Chris.👋 You were rewarded for deciding to dig it anyway.

snip.....

Best of luck out there

JW 🤠  

Thanks JW, looks like you had a great find yourself. I found this mineral the same way. I was detecting bedrock on a slope and thought I had a signal. 18 inches into the rock I chipped this outnot really sure what mineral it is.. I was hoping for gold though. Best of luck to you,

Chris 

1 hour ago, fredmason said:

Very nice! Did anyone stick a vlf in the hole.

fred

Yes, a few different models. I have a GMT that got a lot of small quartz specimens out of tailings. 

55 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Do you think that was actual in place pocket vein material, or possibly just a large quartz specimen that decomposed/shattered/broke up in place? It's hard to tell from the photo if you are into decomposed bedrock or talus.

Definitely vein material, a lot of work with pick axes and rock hammers.  Overburden kept falling into the hole so it looks dirty. And the gold would pinch out, but wed dig deeper and find another signal. The GPZ definitely helped 

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. There was a lot of luck involved.  Here are a couple of other pictures. 

Hi all, been pretty busy lately, and what started out as a really slow year ended up being pretty good prospecting wise. The first half of the year was very slow, only able to scratch a few nuggets out of some old patches. Not much luck looking for new areas. 

A few buddies and I decided to meet up in the middle of the summer in Gold Basin. Dave, Steve, and a couple of other Chris' . They were out there since Friday evening,  but because of work I couldn't get out till Saturday afternoon. Dave was meeting us on Sunday. 

I made the drive out from Vegas, and when I got there I tried reach the guys, but no luck. Cell service can be spotty out there, and the must have been out detecting. I figured I might as well get started on my own till I was able to reach them. I ended up in an area where I had found a nice gold quartz specimen years ago, and figured I might grid the area to see if I could come up with a few scraps. 

It was found 3/4 the way up a tiny drainage where nothing else was found (by me anyway) I detectected the drainage top to bottom with no luck,  so I decided to hit the hillside. About 7 or 8 feet from where I found that specie I jammed the coil under a creosote bush and got a strong signal over a large area. It wasn't a distinct signal like a nugget,  so I kind of thought I was some mineralization but decided to dig anyway. There was only about 5 or 6 inches of overburden, so I scraped that off, and now the signal was sounding much more like a target,  but still over a 2 sq ft area. I carry a rock hammer in my pack so I used that to tear up the bedrock. I got down about a foot total and now the signal was screaming.  One more attempt with the hammer, and now I have signals in the tailings. I pick up a piece of quartz and put it over the coil...bingo!! I found my first pocket. I actually found the source. 

I kept working on my hole, still pulling gold out, and still getting strong signals in the bedrock. I was finally able to reach the other guys and dropped them a pin so they could meet up with me. Everyone got some specimens out of my tailings.  

Over the next several weeks I brought home several buckets of ore. I kept at it till there was no more signal in the ground with my GPZ. 

The next step was to crush and pan...geeze that is tedious work when you dont have a proper rock crusher. It took several more weeks to process the ore.

thanks the pocket ended up being around 4oz!!! And a big to 1515Art and his contest I got to use my kiln to make my first gold bar. Took me a while to figure out how to use the electric kiln, it does take a few hours to reach proper temps, but works great!!

added to the nuggets I found, it was a 5z year!

I still have some ore to crush and a nice speci I may just keep. But definitely learned a lot. I'm going to be looking for more pockets. 

2020 has been a pretty good year so far as well.

Cheers, 

Chris 

13 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

A combined bagpack/harness would be great. Haven't found one yet.

I use a tactical backpack from Cabelas with the GPZ sliding harness attached room for 2 camel backs plus pick and a bunch of carabiners to attach anything else I want. Can send a picture later if you want to see.

Chris

Or you could look for meteorites!!!

??? Hmmmm