Lanny

I love detecting in Nevada, so much ground and so little time.

I also love that Nevada is mineralized right from the bottom to the top, great place to find gold.

Keep swinging those coils, and hopefully sooner than later you'll get it over some nice nuggets.

All the best,

Lanny

I had an interesting experience this past summer. 

I was hunting virgin bedrock in a placer cut/pit. There were some nice nugget finds, and then I started to work a bedrock rise with a vertical edge that dropped about three feet into a larger sheet of bedrock.

Piled up against that edge about six inches high was channel material the large bucket on the excavator couldn't scrape out. (Sometimes these spots hide nice nuggets too.) I took my pick and worked some material off the top of the dirt and scanned the bottom dirt with the Goldmonster. I got a signal and watched the display. The bar jumped to the right, then headed back into ferrous territory. With each sweep, it read the same way.

I isolated the signal, and it was a flake of gold, about half the size of an oatmeal flake. I was surprised the display hadn't pinned all the way to the right in non-ferrous territory. 

I kept scraping away top material to detect the ground below. The same thing happened again, the signal ID'd off to the right then back to the left. Another flake of gold, about the same size. I looked closer at the material I'd dumped from my scoop, lots of little bits of magnetite and dark, heavily stained rocks.

I worked more material in the same way, and I kept getting flakes with every scrape all the way down to where the jutting piece of bedrock met the bedrock sheet. There were a few larger pieces that pinned all the way to the right, but all the others, a nice catch of flakes, did the iffy bounce.

With the Monster it really pays to check out those iffy signals or I'd have left a nice whack of flakes in the ground.

All the best,

Lanny

Quartz Rock With A Faint Tone

I was out in the Nevada desert with several buddies chasing the gold near a bunch of old hard-rock gold mines. I found so many pieces of old blasting caps with the Equinox, I thought I was going to go crazy because of the nice non-ferrous reading on the Nox. The Oldtimers sure did a lot of work in the area as there were massive mine dumps in front of the adits, all of them running in a crescent shape around the mountain.

I headed up a little gulch that ran up and away from a large mine, and I started finding projectile (lead) after projectile, over and over again. And, the trouble with spent rounds is they ring up on the meter right in the gold range, so after an hour of finding my own lead mine, I headed back down the mountain.

I walked over to another mine dump from a smaller mine, and I started finding square nails and more bits of wire and blasting caps (if I'd have kept all those bits, I could have started my own copper mine too), so I headed back to the rendezvous point to see what the boys had found.

One of them had an oval piece of white and stained quartz about the size of a folded pita, and he was swinging his Gold Monster back and forth over the rock, and he kept getting a weak signal. (The meter would hop over toward the positive side, but then skip back.)

My buddy had a rock hammer with him, and he started chipping off chunks of that quartz, then they'd scan them. With every chunk that gave no signal, he put them in a little pile. He kept chipping off chunks until there was only about a golf ball-sized piece of the original rock left. In that chunk there was a signal, and when he hit it with his rock hammer, it opened along a fracture line and there was the gold! Nothing big, but the only gold we found that day.

All the best,

Lanny

I've got quite a few more pages done lately. (It's a lot of work to decide which stories and notes to include, plus the time to rewrite them.) It's given me a lot of respect for anyone, anywhere, that's ever written a book.

(Sent the following to Jim today who asked about the writing--thought I'd share it as an update as well.) "I will admit that at this time of year the book writing is starting to conflict with the gold season, as I've been going through my detectors and ATV's to make sure everything is completely ready for the hunt to begin. Furthermore, I have to get out to check on the gold camp to make sure the trailers are all ship-shape for camping throughout the spring, summer, and early fall.

There's still a lot of snow in the mountains, and that's where we've been chasing the gold for quite a while now. In fact, the elevation where we've been getting the nuggets is way up there, so the snow won't be gone until June at the earliest, but there's lots of other places at lower elevations that hold good gold as well, and that will keep us busy." (My son and I chase the gold together as often as we can. As well, my wife is a great panner, and she loves to pan the nuggets we throw in the gold pans along with the attached clay, etc., so we don't have to take the time to recover each and every target--saves us a lot of downtime, so we use the time instead to keep finding targets to throw in the pan.

All the best,

Lanny

Thanks for the clarification, and all the best with your adventures,

Lanny

So, in your original post, you listed the gold as placer, but later in the post you said it was ore. Did you get that straightened out as you've done more research?

As well, is the follow-up with the other people you've contacted for the search/the current search a factual account, or is this another fictional story (like your other story posted on this site) that you'll be writing? Just curious, and I'd sure appreciate the clarification.

I have a good factual story about lost gold, all placer, that is quite the dramatic tale.

All the best,

Lanny

Interesting thread with lots of good information here that's made me rethink a few things. (I still have an SD 2100 [not a lot of adjustments on that machine] that went very deep on targets, but from what others have said, it looks like there's better options.)

Thanks for starting the thread, and I hope you find something that will work for you.

All the best,

Lanny

Sounds like he was a great guy that was always generous and helpful with other people, a serious loss to have him gone.

All the best to those of you that knew him and benefitted from his genuine friendship,

Lanny

Doc, nice write-up!

You did a great job of paying wonderful tributes. As well, thanks for the back-story of some great Minelab dealers, your trips and outings with them, and thanks for the extra information about the Gold Lady--she seemed like a real treasure.

You've always been a great guy not only to help out others, but also to show genuine appreciation for others, all the best,

Lanny

This thread is the perfect cure for winter cabin fever! What an amazingly beautiful collection of gold photos and history.

Thanks for this, and all the best,

Lanny

On 3/11/2024 at 3:15 PM, Vance in AK said:

This is great news!!!  Cant wait!

Vance, thanks for dropping in to say a kind word, much appreciated.

All the best,

Lanny

On 3/10/2024 at 8:46 AM, Joe L said:

I’ve read a few of your  pages in these forums and if your book is anything like them, it will be Fantastic!!  I am looking forward to it. Joe

Joe, thanks for taking the time to be so kind with your compliment. I really appreciate it. 

All the best,

Lanny

On 3/8/2024 at 3:19 AM, Goldseeker5000 said:

Glad you are making the plunge. It's a big undertaking isn't it. Putting it together can be simplfied in Quark Express or InDesign. Congratulations Lanny. 

Thanks Reese, it's a lot of work, as you well know, thanks for the tips on the software, really appreciate it.

All the best,

Lanny

Seeing all that gold gets me itching to get back to the goldfields, so thanks for posting. I'm never too busy not to look at sweet gold shots.

All the best,

Lanny

Yes, I used one of those 18'' with my 2100 years ago. I used it on bedrock after I'd detected it with smaller coils, and it sniffed out deeper gold the little ones missed.

I didn't find any monster nuggets with it as I wasn't in country where the big nuggets were common. The reason I had that coil as part of my setup was because of how wickedly hot the bedrock was, and I had to try a PI to get any gold as the VLF's couldn't handle the mineralization.

So yes, it will find gold. (And lots of others have already jumped in to post and show, seems to have been a good gold getter.)

All the best Gerry,

Lanny

On 3/8/2024 at 12:32 PM, dig4gold said:

I too look forward to it. I know it will be as gem, well gold actually. 😊

Thanks too Lanny for your email. I will  be in touch.

D4G (Greg)

Greg, I hope you'll enjoy the stories and find some use for them in helping you find some gold in the future.

Thanks again, and all the best,

Lanny

On 3/4/2024 at 6:35 PM, Kodiak said:

Great News! 

Ive always enjoyed your stories, and it will be great to be able to reread the old stories that were on The Alaska Gold Forum. 

When the time comes, please do let us all know when and where it will be available.

Thanks,

Kodiak

Kodiak, I sure do appreciate your comments, many thanks.

I'll be sure to post when it's done, but as this is my first attempt at a book, I have no end date yet, but it's been lots of fun looking back at my first stories when I got serious about getting the gold. My brother-in-law was responsible for my original case of gold fever when I was just a kid (12), but I wasn't serious about prospecting until the mid 1990's. Since then, I've had lots of interesting times, learned what to do and not to do, and yet, I'm still learning!

All the best, and thanks again,

Lanny

On 3/4/2024 at 4:04 PM, delnorter said:

Good for you Lanny. Looking forward to the new book.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I'm finally writing it!

I'm not writing another general purpose how-to book on finding gold, just a book of my stories and adventures while out chasing the gold. But in the stories are lots of tips and tricks people can use on how to find gold, as well as some strange and amusing things that have happened while I've been out getting the gold.

All the best Mike,

Lanny

23 hours ago, dig4gold said:

Good for you Lanny. I have read many of your adventures on one or two forums over the years. You are very gifted with the pen, or should I say keyboard.

All the best of luck to you.

D4G

Thanks for saying that. I really appreciate it.

All the best,

Lanny

DSmith,

If it wasn't for stupid/dumb things I've done while out prospecting, I'd have far less stories to share with others.

You're now a member of a very large club of fellow gold hunters that have made similar mistakes.

Life without mistakes would be very boring (that's what I convince myself of when I mess up). 😆

All the best,

Lanny

Thanks for the videos, good on ya. 

Hope you're well and still having fun chasing the gold.

All the best,

Lanny

Nice find, and congratulations. It's always good to be rewarded after time away from swinging the coil.

All the best,

Lanny

Nothing better than a birthday nugget! I feel your pain on losing that target multiple times--those little ones can be super frustrating.

Congratulations on the recovery, and all the best,

Lanny