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With the fantastic weather in the Rye Patch region during the month of October, I was chomping at the bit to get down there, but my summer job didn't end until the 30th. It still took me a few days afterward to get everything wrapped up, so I finally hit the road and met up with Gerry and friends at Rye Patch the following Tuesday. The detector training class we were scheduled to give that weekend ended up being cancelled, thanks to a winter storm that was forecast to move into the area on Friday. Needless to say, having only two days of optimal detecting conditions before being snowed out and forced to move on to Arizona was a total bummer.😞 Intent on finding a few bits of gold in-spite of the looming storm system and armed with our trusty Minelab GPZ 7000 gold detectors (and one SDC 2300 - also quite trusty, btw), we hit an old patch in hopes of digging up some previously overlooked yellow metal. Only two small nuggets were found after a couple of hours searching with four coils on the ground - not a very good start. It was then that I remembered another old patch nearby that I had completely forgotten about, it had been so long since I had been there. It wasn't a very good producer back in the day, but perhaps we would be able to find a few nuggets that the VLF and early PI machines may have left behind. Within minutes of hitting the ground, my good friend Chef Rusty and I both popped a shallow sub-gram nugget; not a bad start. Soon, everyone was digging good gold! My second target gave an obvious yet deep sounding signal response from the GPZ's stock 14” coil. I imagined it to be a three or four gram piece at a depth of 12” to 18”. Gerry noticed me digging quite an excavation and came over to capture the action on video. At a measured depth of 20”, the target was finally out of the hole, and as I held it aloft there was an audible gasp from the audience that had gathered to watch, followed by cheers and fist-bumps: After a thorough cleaning, the specimen weighed in at a whopping 40 grams - a totally unexpected and pleasant surprise! The nuggets kept biting sporadically for everyone the rest of the day, and the same was repeated the following day. Just goes to show that sometimes the ZVT tech can really ignite an old burned-out nugget patch. Much fun was had by all, and it really made up for such a short two-day detecting trip. Pictured below are my finds, including the 40 gram chunk, a couple nuggets at over 8 grams, and all the small bits, with a total combined weight of over 66 grams.

I enjoy Rye Patch area in October and sometimes November before the snow accumulates. My 7 performs best this time of year and the day temps in 60-70s is ideal. What I like most about this region is the variety of natural gold nuggets. So far I've been able to score a couple small Chevron pieces and a dozen or so small .1 gram to 1 gram pieces. My total weight so far is just over 10 grams. No, this is nothing to write home about as for gold weight wise, but one of them is $$$. It's a 1.2 gram collector nugget. I've only found 4 or 5 of these beauties in my 25+ yrs of hunting nuggets. I posted this picture on Facebook and have a couple offers, but I have a habit of falling in love with my gold finds. Does anyone know what something like this would sell for to a collector? Yes I realize there are many variables, but just want to get an idea. BTW, if anyone else has found these kind, I'd love to see some pictures. Thanks everyone for input and good luck on your next swing. PS my phone is acting up and not working half the time so it's hard to promise any replies right away. Thanks for being patient.

Last week I was looking at 14" of the white crap and below zero temps. This week snow all gone, sun shinning, and 60+ degrees so I headed out for more cleanup work on some gold. Anyways...had fun, got some sun, and outta the shack!!!! The big 6 had a whopping weight of .270g...!!! Big or small...I love em all.

One of my customers recently found a stunning: near 4 pound quartz boulder with just under 11 ozt of gold with his GPX-5000. Just goes to show you those multi thousand dollar treasures are still out there being dug up. Yes this came from the lower 48 states. Good luck everyone.

Not that I wanted to see if it could be done, it’s only 130 miles! My Wife Robin, needed to dig a nugget...she hasn’t been out since our move to Reno. Now, you always have a mental note of stuff to pack. We loaded her Grand Cherokee, for this adventure off we go! Arrived to a location, I figured she’d have some luck at with her SDC 2300. Gearing up, I’m looking for both of our new Doc’s Scoops...What the Heck! Left them both at home! Well, I know I’ve used my hand as a scoop a few times! But, onetime I forgot my scoop and as I was recovering a nugget I opened my hand to see the target and a Scorpion crawled out of my hand and the nugget went sky high, I later found its landing spot. Since then, I’ve learned that a cut water bottle will get ya by as a scoop and save you from tossing good target to the wind. Well, needless to say Robin got her fix of digging/finding some gold with her detector in and old patch, that both of us and countless others have swung on before! Nuggets are funny, some days they are like fish biting all day and other days not a bite! But, the Hunt and adventure is the most important to balance your inner self, Gold is just the bonus in our hobby! Until the next hunt! LuckyLundy

Hey Guys/Gals, It's been a bit since I posted anything. The forums are very slow, at least mine here. I have to get all you guys/gals more fired up to post more stuff so we all can learn from each other and share experiences. That being said, the COVID-19 really changed how we do stuff, let alone set out mass FEAR to the World. There is no doubt it's real, but I will just leave it there and talk about gold nuggets! I managed to get out recently and had a nice run of luck with the Minelab GPZ 7000. I rounded up over an ounce in one day working any old channel. All the gold was down on bedrock and it was difficult to get some out of the cracks as they were covered and full of hard pack Caliche (notice the color or caliche on the gold). Just over 31 Dwt's (20 Dwt's = 1 Troy Ounce). Not a bad days work getting 1.5 ounces of the good stuff. God is Great. Rob

Almost done this season but may get in a few more hunts. My 3rd and best season detecting for gold. Gold is from Montana and Idaho from 5 different locations. Total count was 436 pieces, 119 with the SDC and 317 with the Monster. SDC got the 3 big ones and also the bulk of the total weight. Big nugget weighed 3.55ozt, then 25+gram, and 12 gram (3 nugget pic). SDC also found me my 1st "pocket" where I'd had a 20 piece day with 14 coming out of a 6" wide x 8" deep hole...THAT was FUN!!! Total weight (so far) is 7.66ozt. Nuggets came from public, private and permission ground. The Monster still amazes me and the addition of the SDC really helped make this season by far my best. Thanks to everybody on the forum for all the info/stories etc. and to Steve for hosting and maintaining the site!!!!

SHORT and sweet video, prospecting for gold!

Yesterday morning about 1 AM I took a break from the exciting 'Dumping SDC 2300 Detectors' thread to go find a nugget. I had big gold in mind so I didn't take my 2300. I was headed to Arizona. It is a 4 hour drive but pretty simple. Leave Los Angeles (I live at the #1 Exit on I-10) in the middle of the night with no traffic and get off on Exit 5 from the I-10 freeway in Arizona. I've never done this as a one day trip but I had to try it. When going to Arizona this time of year there is a 1 hour time difference so when I arrived it was still dark but 6:30 AM. I had left the $3.00 per gallon gas for a price of $2.12! I went to the dark gold fields and got under some power lines with the 7000 and the 15x10 Xcoil. I took an extra amount of time to adjust my harness to fit like a glove. It was no longer 'hanging' on my body. It was like a well tailored suit without unnecessary wrinkles. I was thinking of Simon as I made myself ready for battle. It was supposed to be a cool day (95/63) but I was already wet with sweat in the early morning. I'm a beach guy now. I wear shorts and sandals ALL the time but with my brush pants on (ala Chet) it was hot with only a t-shirt. My first stop was an undetected area to me. There were no targets for the first 30 minutes on any of the gullies. Then I found a couple of pieces of lead as the sun came up over the mountains. This was an area where I had found a 1949 California license plate 7-8 years ago. It was now time to hit the target zone where I had been given a pointy finger. This was the reason why I made this long/short trip. I detected it as I have many other Arizona gullies in the past. Often times it is unproductive in the bottom so you hunt the sides. Norm knows this area well and spends many days with his wife camped near. Lots of gold has been found here but not this time for me. After 2 hours of working this 1/4 mile stretch of gully it was time to go where I had found a 5 gram nugget it the past. Once again after an hour there I didn't add to my polk and it was now 1 PM/2 PM. No gold after 7 hours and the temp was near 100. How much longer did I want to do this? Lunk had shown my wife and I a spot many years ago that had been raked and worked. That day he found one piece and we found none. That place came to mind. I had hit it once with the 15x10 but I was willing to try it again. This is an area that often times has many campers in the middle of winter but there was not a single camper today. I could hunt it at a slower pace and that is what I did. This area also had a bit of a breeze. Some of you may recognize it. That's Dome Rock in the picture. Finally I got a target and it was a little gold. I was so hot I forgot to take a picture. It was down about 3 inches. (The little tiny wire was found and doesn't register but it screamed so I knew I was hearing things!) The stink was off. No more skunk but it wasn't getting any cooler. I spent another 30 minutes trying to get a second nugget but it was time for me to go. The trip back was going nicely until I got past the 62 exit to 29 Palms (another gold field) and then it backed up for miles. It took me one hour longer going back but I was back in Santa Monica at 7:30. The things I do for gold. We have about 24 million people in Southern California. I don't know how many are prospectors and how many have gold machines but we've hit everything within 4 hours of town pretty hard. I'd say there are very few virgin patches within that area so you have to work already worked ground to find a nugget or two.

You hunt one side of a draw and only find trash. Your mind keeps telling you to cross the drainage below and go back up the other side (grass is always greener theory) so you start hiking away and eventually turn off the 7000 just to cover ground quickly. Eventually getting to the other side, you fire up the machine and start your search. Not 10 minutes into it and that sweet soft sound comes thru the sweaty headphones and I can tell it is not surface trash. I get a little gigglie as I reach over my shoulder to grab my pick and ....holy shit...I reach over my shoulder again to grab my pick...., Now the holy has left and it's just shit... as I realize there is no pick? This is the hard part for guys 50+ as I try to think of where my pick be? Well the sound of that target was too good to leave, so for the next 15/20 minutes I used my plastic scoop as it was not designed and or intended...and scooped/picked away removing bits of dirt, pebbles and clods 1/4" at a time. Eventually 6" later it is removed from the divot in the soil I've so feverishly been working. Now most of us at this point would use the big super magnet at the end of our picks and run it through the freshly removed dirt trying to suck up any iron trash targets. Well as you recall, I did the "holy shit" thing and lost my $100 pick. So going old school (for those of us who's been doing this a while and we had no magnet on our picks), I used the hand/scoop over coil method and eventually found my little treasure. Yes, there it was a nice .2 maybe .3 gram, 100+ yr old beauty of a boot tack. Now I'm not only upset at the old prospector who lost his tack, I'm still pissed at myself for losing that fancy APEX with the magnet. Where could it be?? as I'm thinking and can only guess to hike back down the ravine, across the wash, up the other side (holy shit - this is going to take a while) and then walk around trying to find my last dig spot. I'm just about to the point of calling it a loss and not giving a holy shit anymore and realizing $100 is gone, when I then realize something even more shittier, is the fact that I did not bring a spare pick. Well this would not normally be an issue if I was close to home, but the reality of it...I was in the 2nd of a 4 day prospecting hunt (new area and ground to me) and was almost 500 miles from home. So the reality of things is I better get my holy shit together, hike back up that ridge and walk the side of a mountain trying to find my last dig. Well I have to admit, I didn't think I'd find it, as the sagebrush was 10 to 14" tall and all the terrain looked the same. Luck would be on my side and I eventually did find the pick. You know, I'm usually pretty good at not losing my own pick and in fact have found 2 picks and many scoops in my many yrs of detecting. But I did learn a lesson for future trips. As I get older and these hills get steeper, I better start packing a spare. What is the longest hike back or time you have had to go to find your pick. BTW. The gold in the area is not known to be nuggets (according to the old research records), I guess they missed a few.

This year has been a lot of ups and downs in getting some detecting in for coins, relics and gold nuggets. With the pandemic, restrictions placed by the pandemic, fires, detector coils issues and finally my father passing at the end of July made it hard to get some serious detecting outings in. Luckily the local parks are still giving up a few old coins. We made a trip to the mountains before my father passed and did some relic hunting at an old mining camp and found a few tokens and relics. At least it rain a little bit every day to make the smoke from the fires more bearable. Finally we were able to get a trip in to do some nugget hunting. I and my wife arrived at our camping spot on a late Monday afternoon. We decided to have an early dinner and then do some scouting around the area that we hunt deciding on which areas we wanted to hunt first the following day. Finishing up dinner, I went out to get the UTV ready and a young woman drives up on a ATV to our camping area requesting help with her father-in-law who just rolled an ATV. It was about a five minute ride from where we were camped where the accident occurred. Her father-in-law had been unconscious for couple of minutes but was now sitting up in the middle of the road asking the same questions over and over every thirty seconds. He had some cuts to his forehead and road rash on his back and legs. I looked over to where the ATV was parked and it looked like it faired pretty well. Then I looked down beside the ATV and there was his helmet in three different pieces. He was in a lot of pain and didn’t want to get up or move around. I suggested that we not to try and move him and contact search and rescue to help. Unfortunately there is no cell service for miles in that area, so the daughter-in-law and I take off to try to find some help. There is a sand and gravel operation near where we were camped and thought there might be someone around that could help. It was early evening and several vehicles and equipment were scattered around, but no one working out in the equipment yard. We drove up to one of the cabins and luckily someone was home and had a landline to make a call. The whole ordeal took search and rescue about two and half hours to get in and get him out, but they felt he was going to be ok. The strangest thing to come out of this accident was he was driving the ATV at a high rate of speed over washouts across the road and catching air for thrills and they video it on their camera for all to see and remember. Well 2020 mark thirty years of metal detecting for gold specimens in this area, adding a few years more before that using sluices, high-bankers and gold pans. Every year we have come away with some gold. On this trip our first day both I and my wife got skunked. Second day my wife decided to stay back at camp and recoup from hiking and detecting at 11,000 ft. I was lucky and found one within forty-five minutes and glad as I didn’t want to go home skunked. That was the only nugget I found that day. Third day I hunted three hours before the smoke from the fires was expected to roll in and I ended up not find any. It’s a small one and happy to have found it as the odds were stacking up against me of getting any gold this year. Here are pictures of the gold before cleaning with a little limonite on the front and back side of the specimen and then I used a little acid to remove the limonite.

Just got back from 8+ days in the high desert....the weather was perfect and the quiet, wide open spaces were soul rejuvenating. Met up with Chet and Brian....we were working on a skunk our first day when Lucky Lundy texted Brian, so we went and joined him on a hunt. And true to his name, his luck rubbed off on all of us...by late afternoon we all had some gold. By the next day, Rick and I both had Lucky 7s lol.... Unfortunately, his favorite beverage was gone and all I had to offer Lucky Lundy was my homemade lentil soup or organic tofu/veggie stir fry, so he left us for “meatier” digs 😄 Detected new and old spots and I found gold each day....no skunks for me this trip and that’s unusual for sure! Some pieces I swore were going to be bigger by the hole I was digging...I can’t believe what small targets the 7000 can get at some depth! Here’s my largest and smallest nuggets found this trip...a 3 grammer and .06 gram; I only use the 7000 in Nevada and really don’t plan on finding Gold Monster sized gold there, but hey, gold is gold! After being in the dry desert sun and wind all week, I was wishing I could shed my wrinkled outer skin and grow anew like this guy did😆 Saw lots of wild horses, different lizards, and cute horny toads which all add to the experience out there! Had a great time with some great people, and ended up with over 12 grams of Northern Nevada Nuggies!

Just back from our first prospecting trip after taking early retirement and moving to Kambalda in Western Australia . Did really well for a 5 week trip with 216 pieces for 376 grams. Biggest pieces 10, 11.5, 27 and 155 grams. No more working for the man ! Cheers, Rick https://youtu.be/jvZ3RyTN0Mo https://youtu.be/hvygdhqU_uQ https://youtu.be/yWINJjZdhp4 https://youtu.be/MODRP3GihW8

With Landscaping the new backyard at a stand still (needing a break 😂). I packed up for a trip to Rye Patch to met up with some friends for a hunt! We had a great time chasing nuggets down and enjoying the nice but windy weather! Another hunting party text me and enticed me with Whiskey and Steaks for a pointy finger hunt. Well, it was a great dinner, but the next morning hunt wasn’t what was expected! Feeling the steam leaving my body, I knew it was time to head home to recharge myself for the next hunt! The nuggets are out there just have to get your coil over them. I found some old Levi Strauss Buttons and wondered about the fellow of yesterday wondering around without is jeans 👖 on 😳. Until the next hunt! Rick

Research, time, and lots of boot miles. Get away from the known areas and roads.

Some of Northern Nevada placers hold some true works of art! Most are covered by a tough coating of caliche, I always have a bottle of CLR in the back of my truck and at the end of the day's hunt they get their baths to show their special features. Most of these special chevron or other crystal type nuggets never make it home and end up with another prospectors poke/collection. My favorite are the nuggets that have crystalline features on both sides of the nugget. Here are a couple that I've found in the last month that didn't make it home with me. Until the next hunt. Feel free to show your favorite nugget(s) on this thread! LuckyLundy

Decided to hit the thick scrub again.

Hi all. Been out there for a few years now picking up the bits that your lucky enough to walk over. The other day I was up early and on an area that I have been over before. Thought I will give it another go. Nothing found by me in the immediate area before. Tuned up the 7000, adjusted the harness for comfort and proceeded to swing the coil. 7.16 am exactly. Walked I think 11 steps and the machine went of its dial. Bloody piece of junk I thought but stopped and scraped the surface looking for a piece of steel, then I saw it. I take it that everyone has found their dream piece and remembers the thrill of the moment. The blood rushes, the veins expand, the hands shake, bad language starts and you hope your heart can take it. To me it was a monster, and now that urge to get back out in the scrub swinging the detector again is even worse. I then spent two days searching the area in a well planned 200 meter radius and found nothing. Not even a boot nail. How can this be possible? The saying that gold is where you find it seems true. Planning another trip as soon as possible, cheers sturt

OK...I'm bored as the snow keeps piling up!!! I remember reading a thread on one of these forums, which I can't remember which one, but somebody posted some very small bits he'd gotten with I believe a Gold Monster(?). Anyways....one of the replies posted was from a person who couldn't and wouldn't believe a detector could find gold that tiny. Soooo.... just for fun lets see some pics of your smallest bits and what detector you got them with??? Mine below were got with the Monster.....

A couple of days ago I returned to a late 18th century homestead that has been disappointing in the past. I've always felt like there was something good to be found around the house, but the best I could do were a few wheaties and a ton of iron and aluminum. I had about an hour and decided to hit it again. Same old thing right before I left I found a 41 wheat 6 inches under a 2 inch piece of flagstone walkway (thought that was great). A day went by and while building a pergola in my back yard and nearly cutting part of my thumb in half, I had enough of construction and decided to go back one more time before leaving that place on my do not return list. I found the usual iron, aluminum and trash. Then I dug an old Larkins cold cream lid and some other cool stuff and felt like things were getting better. About 40 minutes later I decided to hunt the old front yard very close to the road, I never hit this section before. Lots and lots of aluminum so I moved to the old rotten front entry with more flagstone. It seemed amazingly quite until I got a 28-32, hit odd numbers for me but it was very strong. I started digging on another crappy target, so I thought and at about 6 inches I found a 1908 Indian head 2 1/2 dollar gold coin!!!!!!! I'm a pretty strong fellow but I almost teared up from joy. I doubt that I will ever top this find and would be happy with just that. Needless to say I might have to hit the old site just a few more times. I hope all of you enjoy seeing the coin as much as I do.

Out Bush with Jane and GH. Pulled up at spot. Turned on detector, tuned it in, walked 4 metres. Got a quiet iffy signal dug down out pops 5.7 gram nugget. Not 12 metres from the car. Couldn't believe it, didn't even video it. What a start to the day. By the end of the day still only the one bit.

Dredge tailing piles are full of crap, can, barbed wire, nails, hot rocks etc. Was hunting in Idaho, After digging countless targets you think another iron chunk, but I dig everything regardless of sound. This one come in rather loud and was setting a flat rock about 5" deep. Biggest nugget I have found. Weighed 5.56 ounce. Found a few years back and traded for a S&S 91/2' pickup camper, Now that nugget is worth a whole lot more and the camper has ;lost 3/4 of it's value. Oh well life goes on.

Long story short, I don't even know what machine I was using when I pulled it out from the bottom, but maybe months after, half an hour ago I was checking my Ctx for tomorrow hunt and testing some targets from my garbage/crusty/horrible coins can....When I passed it over the coil the numbers were all but obvious to be silver...So a 12.24 was lightning under my eyes and decided to give it a go for a steel wool run... I still need to clean well the Inside part of this oldie to the point I can barely see some engraving like a date or something... For now, I'm smiling like a child with a surprise...Gold has a terrible effect in my veins💀 It is the second time that I find something interesting but neglected...My daughter found a charm in the same bin😵....

My gold detecting streak is now history but as I was looking over some old silver finds this morning I came across this dental work. As I looked at it I thought it strange that this kind of dental work wasn't gold but then I thought, "wait a minute, I assumed it was silver but could it be white gold?" When I have found gold dental crowns in the past they have been made of yellow gold and I never considered that white gold might be used. Well, the 14K acid held but the 18K acid did not and I think that a lot of dental gold is 16K so it looks like I have 2.7 grams of the good stuff. It looks bad in the picture but I believe that it may have been scorched in a cremation furnace. Some people don't believe that gold crowns can survive cremation but I have found several that have been partially melted and can think of no other possibility. I know that Skullgolddiver just made a couple of recent posts about finding gold among his old finds and it has happened to me numerous times as well. I'll bet that anyone who has detected for a while probably has a surprise or two among their past finds.

Hi everyone. Been having some fun with the Zed on the gold lately. Here's some Video's hope you enjoy.