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Lanny

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Posts posted by Lanny

    4 Big Gold Nuggets

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    This is a great little thread on the advantages/disadvantages of the varied types of detectors.

    I too have dug it all, but when I had the opportunity to follow large-scale placer miners around their bedrock workings (they removed 50-60 feet of overburden to get to the bedrock), workings that included uncountable bits of steel track and bucket or blade, it was no place for a detector without discrimination. Moreover, I'd have lost my mind trying to dig all of the audible targets. My little VLF's with their discrimination were outstanding! (A geologist joined me one day that had the Minelab SDC 2300, and he couldn't get out of the excavations fast enough! Hundreds of signals in every direction for him, but no advantage of discrimination.)

    I have also dug deep holes chasing non-gold signals from my PI's, and I'm hoping one day there will be a way for them to discriminate effectively at depth, but that seems as if it may never be.

    So, until the deep seeking metal detectors can conquer the seemingly impossible discrimination hurdle efficiently, I'l always pack the one-two punch of a deep seeker (for its strengths), and the light little VLF's with their amazing discrimination.

    All the best,

    Lanny

    Golden Grams Of Goodness: Nugget Shooting Stories

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    ***Annual Christmas Prospecting Poetry***

    Christmas Blizzard Gold

    A minin’ boom drew young and old
    To find the fabled yellow gold
    That Nature’d cached in hills up high
    So long ago, in days gone by.

    A town erected far below
    Was clogged with folks, their hopes aglow
    That soon they’d bag some treasured gold
    Before the winter got too cold.

    Well Jill and Jim were clever folk
    Who listened well when others spoke.
    They took down notes for finding gold,
    Birthed from that fabled Mother Lode.

    Those golden tips they cached away
    A-waiting for that special day
    When grub-staked Jim would ready be
    To glean the gold to set them free.

    To chase the gold, you’ll need the will,”
    (Was told to him by his gal Jill)
    “That drive to go and never quit
    No matter what to get to it.”

    “Then lookey here,” said Jim to Jill,
    “I think I’ll prospect yonder hill
    Where alders grow all mighty thick
    Along its steeply flowing crick.”

    So, Jill helped Jim into his pack.
    “Now hurry off and don’t come back
    Until you’ve found the nugget gold
    That Nature’s hid from times of old.”

    So Jim, he grabs his mining kit
    And then he goes out after it!
    He pans the stream and finds some specks
    So farther up that crick he treks.

    He scouts a spot with workings old
    Ones antler-dug, while chasing gold.
    Stout trees there grew up out from it,
    That long abandoned placer pit.

    “Well here’s a mystery, yes siree.
    I’ll dig around a bit to see
    Jest what those diggers dug for here.”
    (He digs a bit, then gives a cheer.)

    “Well I’ll be durned.” He says aloud
    “These nuggets here will do me proud!”
    I’ll rustle up some more of these
    To give my Jill a life of ease.”

    The work was tough, the days were cold,
    While Jim dug out that precious gold.
    The season turned, and winter rose,
    But Jim toiled on through frost and snows.

    He soldiered on through brutal days
    A diggin’ through the rocks and clays.
    At last he hit the bedrock true,
    That cradled clay all colored blue.

    He stood there dumb and gazed in awe
    At all the gold he surely saw.
    “This here’s bonanza gold for sure!
    Them nuggets bright look awful pure.”

    He worked the clay and freed the gold
    That slumbered there from times of old.
    He bagged it up, then started down
    On Christmas Eve to get to town.

    But on his way, a blizzard grew
    The drifts were huge, so Jim he knew
    His hopes of getting back to see
    His precious Jill might never be.

    Now Jill was home, and worried sick!
    Her Jim was in that blizzard thick.
    He’d promised her that home he’d be
    To help her trim the Christmas tree.

    Her snowshoes stout were resting there
    Beside their cabin’s only chair.
    “Before I go, I’ll write out quick,
    A prayerful note to Old Saint Nick”:

    “Now Nick”, said she, “I’m in a bind
    Yet filled with hope my Jim I’ll find.
    My wish is that I’ll git to him,
    Although the chance is mighty slim.

    But if you’ll let me find my beau,
    In all that whirlin’ winter snow,
    We’ll give what gold my Jim has found
    To help the needy folks around.”

    Well, Jill set out into the night
    In all that howling wintry fright
    In hopes Saint Nick would surely show
    Where Jim was lost in all that snow.

    She trudged and toiled for quite some time
    Before she heard a sleigh bell’s chime,
    When wind had lulled enough to know
    She’d heard that noise out in the snow.

    “A bell,” She said, “A way out here?
    Saint Nick’s sure sign my Jim is near!”
    And she was right. Her Jim she found
    By seeking out that wondrous sound.

    No bell was found on Jim or pack.
    His nose was froze, his toes were black,
    Yet Jim was safe on Christmas day
    So Jill gave all the gold away. . . .

    No needy folks could then be found
    In all the country there around.
    And Jill, well she was mighty quick
    To give her thanks to Old Saint Nick.

    ******************************

    The seasons changed, the warmth came back
    And Jim put on his mining pack.
    He winked at Jill, and grabbed his kit.
    “I’d best be getting after it.”

    “And what is that,” said Jill to Jim,
    “That gets you out on such a whim?”
    “I marked a spot,” said Jim to Jill
    “With nuggets thick up on that hill.”

    Merry Christmas 2021, and all the best,

    Lanny
     

    Define For Me "sunbaker"

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    Always fun to find gold on the surface, better for a wow factor when you actually see it before the detector does, also lots of fun to find nuggets with the eyeball when you don't have a detector!

    I'm no expert on the sun-baker definition, but I really enjoyed Geof_Junk's definition, response, and photos, amazing finds!

    Interesting find GoldTree, keep swinging that coil. . . .

    All the best,

    Lanny

    Why I've Found More Ounces Of Au With Sub $1000 Detector, When I Own An Sdc, GPX & GPZ

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    What a great post, and it's one that contains a lot of information on why VLF's are sometimes better at finding particular types of gold as well.

    As I too chase the gold on steep hillsides, I enjoyed your comments on detecting in those conditions. Moreover, I learned a few new ideas from your post on what to do a little differently with a VLF, always a welcome discovery.

    Thanks for putting together your post, and thanks also for the pictures.

    Nicely done, and all the best,

    Lanny

    Golden Grams Of Goodness: Nugget Shooting Stories

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    I found a prospecting entry today from the summer of 1997 that I’d like to post:

    “Most of the prospecting I get to do is in the summer (up here in Canada) because that's when things thaw enough to get out and root around. Well, one summer in the Omineca region of British Columbia, I was working with some miners who were stripping a large placer cut in an area that had historically produced coarse gold in quantity.

    They got down to bedrock and as they worked the excavation of the pit, the gold got better and better as they worked from the front (south) to the back (north) of the pit.

    When things got real interesting (that is when nice nuggets and coarse gold were turning up in the sluice) they hit a massive series of what the local miners called drift mines (they described drift mining as tunneling from a lower elevation in relation to the pay-layer to allow for drainage from seepage). Once the old-timers hit the pay-layer, they worked back and forth following the good pay. It could be done underground all winter long and the stockpiled material was then processed in the Spring.

    In fact, the entire back end of the pit had been roomed out (roomed is the term they used when the tunnels were so close together they went back and forth in a series of parallel tunnels literally taking all of the material from a pay layer, thus leaving a large underground pillared and lagged [wood that forms the roof of the room].

    At any rate, the placer pit was now abandoned and scheduled to be refilled. They said I could poke around, but to stay out of the old drifts as they were dangerous. Well, that didn't take any convincing on my part. I have done a bunch of caving and rappelling but the tunnel works were there for well over a hundred years and the wet lumber had changed somehow and broke in chunks with the consistency of celery, nothing like wood at all.

    As I poked around, there was seepage everywhere, and the lagging on the ceiling of the tunnels was all cracked and caving. In addition, the pit was rapidly filling with water from the front to the back where I wanted to prospect, so I didn't have much time.
    The modern miners had displaced a bunch of the large upright pillars (large hand-hewn logs) with their machinery when they hit the drifts. I panned some of the material from the false bedrock and true bedrock they had scraped. There was a little gold, mostly small flakes. I reasoned that when the old-timers were putting in their pillars and posts they must have covered up some pay, even if it was a small amount.

    As well, I knew from all the work they had done (extremely difficult manual labor) that the pay had to have been excellent; the modern pit had proven that as well.

    So, I found a nice fat displaced pillar, levered it out of the socket with a large bar and carefully collected the material from around it and in the socket forming the bottom of the hole. I panned it out and man you should have seen the pickers!

    I scratched around the base of another pillar but I couldn't move it out of its place and yet I still found some more coarse gold.

    However, time was running out. The seepage was real bad and the upper bank material started to slough off from above, and let me tell you, when that starts to happen, it’s time to get out fast! All the gold in the world isn't worth a lick if you’re dead.

    Standing above the bank I watched as the wet material oozed down into the pit which then collapsed the bank, with a slurping sound, down into the cut.

    There would be no more getting the gold there anymore, it was kind of sad, but I had found out something truly valuable: anytime I come across old drift workings that are exposed by modern mining, if the conditions are safe, I'll happily gather the material from around those old pillars and pan it.”

    I found out more about the type of gold some of that false bedrock (I mentioned earlier) was holding on another day, but that’s a story for a later time.

    May you all find something golden to smile about, and all the best,

    Lanny

    Golden Grams Of Goodness: Nugget Shooting Stories

    in Detector Prospector Forum

    Posted

    (Annual Christmas Poetry)

    Santa’s Fate

    One winter’s day, in ’82,
    Well, things were lookin’ mighty blue,
    Cause Santa’s sleigh was runnin’ late,
    And this produced an awful state.

    The kids was feelin’ mighty down.
    ‘Cause Santa might not get to town!
    An avalanche had closed the way
    To block their local Christmas sleigh.

    Now Santa’s name was Honest John,
    A muleskinner off and on,
    He cussed and chewed, he liked his booze
    And in a brawl, he was bad news.

    So, not your average Santa, no.
    But Christmas set John’s heart aglow
    That he could freight the gifts and toys
    To all those little girls and boys.

    His mules he’d garb in greens and reds,
    With antlers mounted on their heads,
    Then off they’d scoot to meet the train
    Down far below, out on the plain.

    So once again they did the same,
    But Fate had run a crooked game
    And choked the pass with tons of snow.
    So, Honest John was stuck below.

    A telegram he quickly sent,
    And this is how the message went:
    “Just meet me at the closest spot
    Where all that snow just ain’t quite got.”

    The folks was stumped just how to go
    Through all the piled up winter snow.
    Why, snowshoes might just do the trick
    To meet their hometown Old Saint Nick!

    The Sheriff rounded up a crew
    Of miners, ranchers, gamblers too
    With packs and bags they quickly went.
    This telegram to John they sent:

    “We’ll get to you just at that spot
    Where all that snow just ain’t quite got.”
    This news was something mighty big!
    So John, he danced a merry jig

    To know the good he done each year
    To fill that town with Christmas cheer
    Would once again get carried out,
    On Christmas Eve, without a doubt.

    Well, Honest John, he met that crew
    And filled their bags and packs up too.
    He turned his mules out far below
    Then snowshoed off across the snow.

    *******************************

    On Christmas morn, the kids they found,
    With wondrous feelings quite profound,
    Their toys and goodies 'round the tree
    Just like the way things used to be.

    But Honest John was fast asleep.
    His promises that he did keep
    Had left him tuckered, plumb worn thin.
    Yet on his face, a peaceful grin.


    All the best, and a Merry Christmas to all,

    Lanny

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