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Since we are all bottled up inside staying out of the cold maybe this will warm up our insides for the winter. thanks Doug

I hear that an individual in Northern California recently stumbled upon a nugget weighing over 16oz troy - anyone have any photos or the story of this find yet? This is the largest CA find I am aware of since the Butte nugget.

The weather may have turned for the better in Northern Nevada. It was time to get out and check how my GPZ 7000, would handle the moisture/salt from the Winter Storms. I pulled into the Burn Barrel to camp, but it was like pulling into a KOA. I unloaded my trusty RZR and hit the trail to find a nugget. I ran into several folks out trying their luck, all had smiles on their faces and enjoying our outdoor hobby. I was told that Gerry was having his training at the Burn Barrel which explained the crowd of RV’s. I did get time for a short visit with Gerry and Lunk, before heading out. The soil, is a little noisy with High Yield/Normal. Using Difficult settled it down perfectly, but not my preferred setting for dink nuggets. Anyways, I hunted in Normal and ground balanced often to give my ears a rest from the noisy ground. I didn’t find any dink nuggets which are the Bread & Butter to any poke, but did find a couple of Steak & Lobster nuggets before loading up and heading home from the short Dirt Recon Trip. There’s gold out there, you just need to get your coil over it, I need some Bread & Butter Nuggets to complete my meal. Talking about meals, my Dog Marley refused to eat his normal dog grub on this trip, and only wanted what I brought “Fried Chicken”. Until the next Hunt! LuckyLundy

FINALLY got out on first hunt of the season! Snow capped mountains, plenty of sun, and the temps were cool enough the bugs weren't out yet. The take isn't much (.980g) but FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!!

I found this on a quick adventure in between jobs. It’s the prettiest nugget in my collection. Weighs under a gram but man it was fun! I found that running the EQ800 in single frequency really helped stability in this red hot ground. Here it is fresh out of the ground. On the 6 inch coil which helped me get between boulders to find it. After some toothbrush action almost looks like one of the 50 fired bullets I found today. But I’ll call it a flowing hair nugget instead. Maybe the coin shooters will let me hunt with them. Weigh in on the cheapo scale. Wasn’t wearing gloves because I’m no Nancy boy. But maybe I should have been. I think there was a parable about the guy above and his friend. It’s ok I needed the exercise anyways. But next time I’ll bring my big saw just in case. Hand stacked rocks are sometimes a good sign. The poison oak was in bloom, the air was sub freezing, and the square nails and bullets were practically jumping out of the ground. But hey I got a cool piece of gold, paid for my gas and got some threshold meditation in so it’s a win win for me.

Here are the results on the four gold specimens from the post "Cleaning Gold Specimens - Step By Step Methods". Specimen A: \ Specimen B: Close up photos of Specimen B front and back: Specimens C: Specimen: D

Plans dont always work out but the Gold we found metal detecting an old Gravel bar sure didnt disappoint !!!! Me and Gary ( Two Toe's ) had planned to do some Hydraulic Pit detecting in one of our favorite spots but old Mother nature had other plans. After a lot of discussion and a long drive we decide to Metal Detect an old Gravel Bar to see what Gold it might be hiding in its bedrock crevices. This time plan B worked out pretty good !!!!!! SG 034

Just the other day, I reached my goal of digging 100 Arizona gold nuggets with the GPZ 7000 this winter. Nothing of much size - the largest weighing in at only 5 grams - but even the tiniest bits are a thrill to find. As usual, I was targeting well known and flogged placer areas, working in and around the old dry-blow diggings. All up, 1.78 ounces troy. It will be interesting to see how much the GPX 6000 increases the number of nuggets found in this size range next season...only time will tell. Good luck out there!

I took my son down to a beach between rain showers today. When we got there I saw the beach was favorable for a hunt so when I took him home I turned around and went back. Well, not exactly. I went back and I forgot my scoop and rain coat so I had to go back again! There weren't a lot of targets but I did get a couple of quarters and some indicators but I couldn't really find a pattern/line. I knew I didn't have much time and I was a bit impatient with my 800/15 so I stepped up the pace and said I only want 'good' targets on my way to a beach area that has given me good success in the past. Before I could get there I heard this scratchy 8-9 but it was not solid like a good ring. After a couple of scoops I could see color in the side of the hole. That is not a normal thing for me. I wish I had taken a picture but I just scooped it and looked in the bottom. It was a great color, not as heavy as I would have liked and it reminded me of a cheap ring style. But that color had me hopeful for something real. The rain was coming so I had to turn back. I had gotten in 1.5 hours. When I got to the car I could see 18 C. When I got home I looked up 18 C and it said it could be the same as 18K or 18 ct if the ring was made in a country where English was not the spoken language. It cleaned up pretty nice with my ultra sonic cleaner. It weighs 4.6 grams and is only missing 1 of the stone inclusions. They are faceted but many are very cracked and chipped up so I don't know what they are made of but the ring itself catches light well and sparkles. This was the rainbow on the way home! This was the way it looked before I cleaned it up.

As I have mentioned in times past, I enjoy chasing different types of gold and have learned that in many instances the power of a PI is not the tool of choice. Now with this new GPX-6000 coming out and Minelabs claim to better sensitivity and depth to small gold, I'm hoping it opens up some more gold for my old hunt sites. Yes the SDC-2300 and GPZ-7000 could do better than my GPX-5000, TDI, and ATX, but none of them have the Sensitivity as my GM-1000 and EQ-800. I've got a good feeling about this new 6000. Oh would you crush it or keep it?

I packed up the girlfriend, 5th wheel, RZR and 2 GoldenDoodles and GPZ 7000 for a long weekend of detecting with another Forum member. We've been exploring a gold area off the beaten path for several weeks, finding the odd sub-gram pieces here and there. The area has very little placer history, mostly load gold from back in the 30's. After studying the maps we were determined to keep pushing west, hitting as many little feeder gulches as possible hoping to find a hot spot. Day 1: I found 2 small pieces after a lot of walking. Fellow Forum member found nothing but skunk. Day 2: We decided to abandon our original plan and go back to an area near an old lode gold mine. I found the skunk, friend found 2 pieces for about 1 gram total. Day 3: Back to the plan, keep pushing west through a series of small gullies. I hit an area of shallow bedrock for 6 small nuggets. I get back to the RZR and my friend has that grin and tells me he thinks he found an area worth exploring. He then pops a 3/4 oz nugget in my hand. He says "oh, I also found these in the same area, 5.5 grams of chunky nuggets. Like a lot of fellow prospectors, I'm just as happy when someone, anyone finds some decent gold on a joint excursion. Sweet, what a day. He points out the landmarks and gives me a general description of the area because he has to return home to grade college exams. Day 4: I head back out to the area he described. I spent close to 2 hrs scouting and had about given up finding the zone he described when I saw a fresh dig. I worked up the gully and saw several more fresh digs, being that we are the only prospectors within 50 miles, I start the search in earnest. I'm confident he has covered the gully, so I start detecting the flanks and hillside. I immediately find the 2 small pieces in the photo. Small in this context is relative to the big nugget next to them, they are by no means small considering my past month of detecting finds. I expanded out from there and get a faint whisper of a target in the flats between 2 gullies. I dig for a solid 20 minutes in hardpacked gravel and caliche. I had to summon a couple friends nearby to come help. We took turns digging, making sure not to hit the nugget. We busted out 2 big rocks cemented in the caliche and finally the target was screaming at sensitivity of 1. Down to a dental pick and a pinpointer to pick around in the caliche and not damage the nugget. Probably close to 45 minutes and a hole about 2ft wide and 18 inches down before Eureka. There she is. Days/weekends like this are pretty rare these days. We need one every now and then to keep the fire going and keep pushing that coil.

I'm out there swinging that coil nearly everyday and finding nothing but crumbs. I got out late this morning in an area that was shown to me about 16 yrs ago by Rob Allison and Bill Southern. I detect that area all the time because it's nearly in my backyard here in Sunny Yuma. This morning I noticed a short gully that was kind of hidden by the rolling hills that I had overlooked all these years. Lots of drywash tailings stacked on a low bench above the gully. I didn't see any obvious dig holes and started working the bench. Not 5 minutes in, I get a decent target signal smack dab in the middle of that bench. After digging through the old tailings, I started hitting virgin hardpack caliche about a foot down. At a sensitivity of 1 on the 7000 with the 15x10 X-Coil, I could just barely pinpoint the nugget without blowing my ears off. I got out the dental pick and started breaking up the caliche so as to not damage the nugget. A good 30 minutes of work and out popped this sweet specie nugget. I'm running High Yield, Normal, Sens 12, Threshold 27. I criss-crossed that bench 4 more times without a target. As a last resort I jacked up the Sensitivity to 20 and turned down the threshold to 21. The threshold at 21 sounds like distant Morse Code blips. In these conditions I listen for the distant blips to blend with a slight hum. I chase a lot of hot rocks and seams of clay, but every now and then it pays off. So I found the small nugget about 20 ft from the bigger one and a solid 12 inches deep. Slowly working my way towards that new GPX6000.

I made it out to Gold Basin for a couple days of hunting until a high wind advisory chased me out on Saturday with a wind gust forecast of it hitting 50mph in the Arizona desert on high ground. The wind started to pick up around 7pm by morning it was buffeting the trailer pretty good. I picked up camp and found a spot protected enough from the wind I could unlatch and drop the top on my a-frame without a strong gust hitting at the wrong time ripping off the roof. Luckily all went without incident and the drive home was uneventful. the couple pieces I picked up were found on a low bench above the wash at the beginning of the transition from the hillside the larger specimen 19.8g total (tested around 1.5g gold) down about 8” gave a soft deeper mellow high-low, the small piece at .3g with a bit of quartz attached a similar signal down a few inches. the little meteorite also in the same area and down a few inches hit really hard on the GPZ, a small window shows a high concentration of Iron nickel specks.

Hello to all , And again i went to the same beach secluded where nothing happen,the road potholes have been filed partially meaning you can go up to 9.5mph😂😂 I started at 7.30 once i found the right spot bullets and shrapnells.... silver ring came up then more of the deep debris from ww2 and then BINGO this nice 9ct ring maybe at 30/35cm. i finally gave up at 10.30 may go back tomorrow

I nabbed a pretty neat find the other day and I think it was sunbaker... Is it only a sunbaker if you saw it before you disturbed it or is it still a sunbaker if the rock that it's lodged in tells a sunbaker tale? Every dirt dog can tell what half of a float rock was in the ground and what half was face up. This is a rock with a nugget lodged in it that tells one of those sunbaker tales. Is it a sunbaker? -OR- Was it a sunbaker? -...OR- Is it not a sunbaker? It's wedged in there really good! I haven't tried to yank it out because it's so unique as a sort of specimen of a bedrock nugget trap. I've picked at it and got no movement, plus it survived getting tossed around in my pack on my hike. An interesting find too! One of those days, patch hunting a new area (this new area hasn't met the three nugget threshold). All I had in my pocket was trash and my nug jug only held my test nugget. But lo, another signal! Few and far between, they are out here. Giving the spot a boot scrape moves my target. Probably surface trash, a bullet. Gotta know. These 4 rocks. These 3. These 2. That one... it's not a hot rock? Turned in hand to reveal a little smooshie stuck in a crack! WHOA!!! My strongest theory is that this "specimen" is a remnant of the bedrock that trapped some gold, all the bedrock having been eroded away. The gold since washed down the hillside and into the main drainage, perhaps all the way into the basin... But hopefully it has only travelled just past where I stopped detecting for the day and I get a whopper bonanza another day! 😂 Yeah right.

Hello All, Here we are again, a partner and I placering a dry creek bed. The process of placering is to remove all the overburden (rocks, gravel) and process or work the paypayer/bedrock. We are doing that by using rakes, shovels, crevice tools and then using metal detectors to scan the paylayer and bedrock for gold nuggets. This process is back breaking hard work, but can be very rewarding in the right locations. As you can see in this video, we hit a nice crevice that had a hidden beauty in it, a 3/4 ounce gold nugget. The nugget was wedged below the hardpack gravels and wedged in a bedrock crack. In this video we were using the Minelab GPZ 7000 metal detector, Garrett AT Pinpointer and several hand tools, including "Two Toes" nice crevice tool he shipped me. We have gotten a ton of use from this tool, very good on narrow bedrock cracks and holds up well. Contact Gary for more information, or visit his "Two Toes Youtube Channel. Thanks Gary!! Remember, the true treasure is the ability to get outdoors and enjoy your friendship with others that also enjoy this hobby. God Bless, Rob

Here are a couple things I've run into detecting lately that I figured I could share here for some motivation! This first one comes from a patch where the trash is elusive and the hot rocks are warm at the worst. This one gram specimen is the first specimen I've ever found at this location. I found it detecting a small gully on a big hill sitting near the top of a cut bank about 2 feet above the surface of the bed of the gully. It was the first gold find on that particular outing and in an area near my main patch which I hadn't yet found gold, let alone detected much at all. What's more special about this little guy is that all I had found up to that point detecting new areas was trash (bullets and bits of steel). When I started detecting this gully, all was silent for about 20 minutes until I swung my coil over something that screamed really loud and sharp. After I moved it in one boot scrape into the gully, I knew it was going to be a .22 shell or some nice chunk of a bullet. But I gotta recover it right!? Whether it's just to remove the trash to clean the area up or to find out for sure if it's trash. Well, these finds are the most satisfying type! KNOWING I found trash and then somewhere along with all the nudging around I somehow managed to perform some alchemy and it turned the bullet into a nice little chunk of gold! So dig it all!!! Bringing me right into my next reality checker find! Back to a very old patch where there is a lot of old diggings, trash, and black hot-HOT rocks! Here I am on this trip, 13 hours of detecting, 0g of gold, 10oz of steel/aluminum/brass, and 50kg of HOT iron nodules kicked and/or tossed behind me until finally, I get back onto some gold missed by who knows how many enterprising prospectors. Now it's about enough to drive me mad and hopeless with that much skunk! Is my detector working? Yes, remember all the small bits of steel found at depth and how well the detector responds to air tests today. Is all the gold gone? No, you're still digging targets no one else has bothered with in old placer diggings that you've found gold in before. Should I stop digging at signals when I can see a hot rock sitting on the surface under my coil? No, what if it's masking a nugget! Well, it happened! I moved one of those hot rocks, still a signal... Another hot rock! I'll move it... Still a signal. Another hot rock!? ...finally 8 inches deeper into the hot rock hole and I'm dealing with a steady signal, no visible hot rocks, and not much hope. But out pops a little smooshed nugget! PERSISTENCE!!! Excitement, energy, and conversely, fatigue all culminating in this moment, I must still stick to SOP. Recheck the hole. STILL another steady signal. No way... YUP! Another gold find, same hole! I ask myself, "Can this hole go for three?" The hole responds with... well it doesn't respond... But if I wouldn't have moved those hot rocks, I would have never heard those little nuggets hanging out beneath them! And if I wouldn't have rechecked my hole, I would have left one behind. Could you imagine how it would have made that nugget feel, being unearthed for the first time in it's life and being left behind all alone! Stripped away from it's partner that got taken... Coulda been a shame. BUT IT WASN'T! Anyways! I'm looking at ~50 fun hours on my 14x9 Evo and I'm very happy with it! So here's a little Evo motto pic with about 3dwt of gold for everyone to enjoy!

I got out to give my new Evo a run and it was a great couple days! Here's a video I live streamed to my friends, but I've shortened it in a more watchable and engaging way (hopefully)! Enjoy!!!

To see this: And this: https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/01-29-21-australian-gold-dragons-lair-ausrox-nugget-perot-museum/#slide=0

Just a few photos of some of the small but normal size pieces of gold we have been finding here in Condor's back yard , it has mostly been Steve ,my brother Eric and myself going out and pounding away at the washes and hillsides here from sunrise to sunset . All were found with the GPZ7000s.

Te dejo algunas imágenes del fin de semana de detección en la cordillera de los Andes, salieron unas pepitas de oro ”I leave you some images of the weekend of detection in the Andes mountain range, some gold nuggets came out”

Hello All, Here in this video a partner and I have been working (placer mining) a dry creek bed for gold nuggets. This process including digging down, raking and metal detecting the paylayer and bedrock for detectable gold nuggets. We were using the Minelab Gold Monster 1000, Minelab GPZ 7000 & Garrett AT Pinpointer along with various hand tools for digging. We dug a lot of old rubbish, not shown in the videos to preserve time and boredom This is part 1 of the entire video, the second part will be up soon. If you like our video, please Subscribe, Like and follow us on Youtube.

Pretty happy with this little nug, it registered like an old button (13-15) and came out in the first shovel. Using gold mode 1, sens 22, 6" coil, tracking. We were originally looking for goldfield relics, just sat down for a break and decided to try for some little bits of gold and got this as my second ever piece.

Gold is one of natures most interesting and inspiring metals on this earth. I've been fortunate to see, handle and or even find my share of unique pieces but this one takes tops honors. I know there are some legends of gold hunters on here and would ask your help. If anyone has ever found one similar, please let us see. As it stands now, this is a 1 of a kind and I was the lucky one who realized to grab a cell phone and put it on video mode....just in case we found a nice nugget. But what was actually dug up just blew us away. Oh my gosh is all I could manage to stutter from my lips. Now we need to name this beauty and we'll all ears. Please give some suggestions for a name.

Just some eye candy to ponder on the nugget was found by my brother in December with the GPZ 7000 (7 grams +) and i made the Elko style point the same month.