IdahoPeg

Good luck! And yes, it's going to be brrrr cold!

Very nice! Congrats :-)

Congratulations Chris! How cool....thanks for sharing the dig and excitement! Love it!

Wow! Now that's a speci! Congrats......looking forward to your future posts! :-)

Great detecting Rick! It's amazing how you can always pull nice gold out of there!

Nice chunkies! :-)

I agree, Mxt Sniper, I worked on getting my toys and camping gear etc several years before retiring....wanted everything paid for so money could go towards trips etc. With no big bills, it's amazing how little you really need to live on lol! I'm so glad I retired when I did! SteveJJ, if you want to start cheap and will be going where there's small gold a used Goldbug2 sounds good, but if can spend a bit more I'd get the Monster. And Gerry's training is great...he got me started in this fun hobby. ( Hey, I have 2 neglected GB2s sulking in my shed since I got the Monster....I'd give you a great deal to help you get started :-) If you will be hitting the SW and other gold areas once retired, you'll definitely want to look into a PI or even a used 7000....but that's some serious $ for sure. Good luck with your "pre-freedom" plans!

I apparently have way too much time on my hands lol! ?

Hi Steve...nice bits of gold! I also notice I can scuff the little coil and it will only sound off on small hot rocks mainly, and of course if I bump the cord. I am fortunate to be in milder ground here so usually run at 10 sensitivity....check out these tiny dinks from several days ago! Makes your gold look much more impressive lol! :-)

Congrats! Those are some great finds!

Absolutely beautiful! Congrats!

I hope the baby turtle made it to sea with your help, lol! I've seen the females lay the eggs, but have yet to see a hatchling! Maybe cuz I'm out west during their peak hatch season....when's the earliest they hatch, do you know?

Wow, that's a really nice haul for the day....some great gold! Congrats!

Thanks Steve! Yep, life is pretty darn good....and I am very grateful! :-)

Well I'm back from my California gold trip.....was a bit under the weather with a summer cold that turned into a sinus/cough thing that lingered the whole time! Argh! Anyway, took a day off early on and rode the quad to this beautiful view of the N Fork of American River: But on to the GOLD! Spent a lot of time playing with the Monster at a nearby hammered hydraulic pit, working bedrock areas like this: Found numerous small nuggies chipping away at the fissured areas, including this nice 1st one using the larger coil, which I love by the way! : However, I was eager to get out with the 7000 and went back to the American Hill area where my buhzillion dollar machine found me THIS!: Hmmm...the Monster was killing the Zed, until it redeemed itself in a wash finding me this nice 4.4g speci! : I had a nice time in CA detecting with Mike B. , Chet, and others, but since not feeling well decided to start heading home with a stop in Rye Patch to experience the solar eclipse at one of my favorite places: And I was rewarded with a beautiful 2.4g eclipse nugget: Here's a better pic: Thought I was the only idiot out there in the heat, but ran into 2 gals, Carol and Janna who had Gold Monsters so we detected together a few hours....Carol got her 1st Rye Patch nugget! Then I ran into Rick and Rudy who as you know from Lucky Lundy's recent post, found a fantastic 1/4 oz nugget. The guys were very generous with their time and gave me some nice tips! So no big lunkers for me, but I had a great time with some great people, and ended up with just about a half an ounce of beautiful Calif(Monster, 2300, 7000) and Nv(11 pieces on left w 7000) gold, along with a very special Troy oz silver Prospector coin given to me at the Goldhounds meeting by El Presidente Mike B! Till the next hunt! Cheers! :-)

Great seeing you guys out there and watching the Lords of the Lunkers at work lol! Really appreciate the tips and tricks in looking for those big ones.....though for now I'm still just Queen of the Dinks! ?

Wow, great finds for just a few hours! Congrats!

Incredible! I can only dream of finding beauties like that! You do your homework, and it sure pays off...congrats!

Now that's a nugget! Congrats. :-)

Nice weekend haul there, guys! :-)

Beautiful stuff! :-)

What a great find.....congrats!

Wow Jin! You are doing amazing! Congrats and enjoy.....what a thrill to find that kind of gold, I'm sure! :-)

Very interesting and informative write-up Steve. My GM1000 use falls into your "20x20" clean up category....small coil, manual 10 most of the time, deep all metal. You gave me some good pointers for when I use the larger coil! :-)

Klunker: you are a hoot! Made me lol! Steve: yep, she is a happy little rescue pup who makes me very happy too! :-)