IdahoPeg

Yes, you are the God of Rye Patch! What a great haul for such a short time....I spent a week there early this summer, and didn’t even find half that much! Great job Rick!

That is some serious gold on that Bonanza bench!?

I have so many of these blue scrub pants from working at the VA hospital, I’ll probably be wearing them when I croak! ?

He says “amazing feeling of joy” uncovering any nugget....how true! Amplify it a zillion times if you found a whopper I bet!

Dang, could you imagine what that would be like? To find something so awesome? Incredible!

Hi Mitchel....re the rig, yep it’s nice to be comfy in the boonies!?

Steve, that’s right! I remember you used that pic in an article, and yes, I do remember meeting you but you were surrounded by your fan club so couldn’t chat much lol!

Yes, it does look bigger, but it’s very porous “sponge” gold. If solid, would’ve been twice the weight I think.

Cool find! Interesting how the nickels found their way there too.

OK, so not really a BIG adventure....I just like the title!? I decided the Zed needed to get out and play, so we headed to northern Nv for a week...skipped my usual Rye Patch, and hunted 3 other areas instead. My 1st bit of gold was from Placerites, a sassy piece: Got a dink at Sawtooth, then moved on elsewhere. Had a couple skunked days but still enjoyed the scenery: Even found me a cool high desert hood ornament lol! Ended up with over a quarter oz, including a rough beauty of 3.9 grams about 12” deep: Wanted to meet Steve at the Nugget Shoot, but had to head home to meet up with some loggers up by my cabin. All in all, a great trip!

Thank-you Steve! This is a very informative and helpful article. You are a really good writer, by the way??

Awesome Find! Congrats! ??

Was about 2hours into a skunk the other day, so I decided to head back to the main area I’ve been working this summer. There’s some sage and brush adjacent to the rock piles I had been moving....time to investigate! Pulled out a large sage and got the Monster in there...hit a good target right away! Nice little beauty: I proceeded to pull out more sage and rake aside the bed of needles and pine cones. I cleared a small area around a skinny little pine tree. I did leave that one clump alone to the left of the tree, as there is a HUGE anthill thing built up into it and I didn’t want to disturb them and get carried off into the hills by an angry army of ants lol! What a fun little area! It was like the skinny pine had shed gold lol.....here’s that afternoon’s Monster and drywasher finds. I got about the same amount the next day by scraping, detecting, and puffing the area some more! ?

Love the story and pictures! Must have been a wonderful time, for sure!?

Looks real purty to me! ?

Wow great job! That’s a really nice collection! Congrats??

Wow, those are beauties!

I posted earlier in the summer about a new spot that I was using the Monster and my Puffer drywasher at; well, I went ahead and claimed it so I could have a place to go play all the time?The process was a great learning experience, and the guys at our local BLM were really helpful to a newbie like me! I finally got the quarter mile of brush, downed trees and rocks cleared so now I can get in there with my side x side....a bit gnarly still, but doable. I initially attacked the old timers stackings...here’s one that was a screamer in a small depression, seen to the left of the Monster in 2nd pic: I continued to move rocks, detect, then drywash.....here’s the area now, and a sample of a good day’s detecting: I explored other areas of the bench, and Woo Hoo, got my biggest piece....a whopping .43g lol! It was almost 5” deep and pretty faint...pic doesn’t look that deep, but it was: Here’s one scraping/dig hole that had 6 pieces in it! Good thing I kept checking it, for sure: If you zoom on the scoop you can see all them little babies? So the pup and I have been having a fun summer.....nice utv rides along the creek and in the pines, picnic lunches at the claim, and I’m finding a bit of gold while she’s chasing chipmunks all day! Life is good??⛏

Great review AND great gold, Lunk! I only have the Nox 600....wonder how Park 2 or Field 2 with 6” coil would do on gold? Any thoughts? Thx!

Beautiful stuff! Congrats on some great gold!

Wow, nice find! Congrats?

Wow, nice nuggets from your new patch! Congrats.....and good luck with the hip.

Some nice chunky little nuggets there! Congrats ?

What a fun little patch! Thanks for sharing ?

Have a great time and hopefully get on some nice Gold! ?