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Managed to get out for a couple hours and avoid a skunk..

I did a solo overnighter outside of sunny Yuma. Temps were hitting high 80's. I started at sunup and did a 2 hr loop with no gold, a few trash targets. I was working my way down the flats of desert pavement back to my truck when I decided to drop down into a shallow gully. Immediately I got a good tone and dug a small half gram nugget. 10 ft further on another nice mellow tone. 12 inches down I pull out a nice 1 gram nugget and after I gather my digging tools I wave the coil over the hole. Another target in the hole and one in the pile. I pulled 4 nuggets out of that one hole. 10 more feet further on another nice tone and I dig 3 nuggets out of the same hole all down 12 to 15 inches. My narrow Hodan pick is great for extending hiking and exploration, but really sucks for digging deep holes. I went back to my truck and took out the big boy pick and continued my search. The productive part of this gully was maybe 50 yds long and I took out 17 nuggets in the space of 2 hrs. A lot of digging. As I explored around the margins I saw old and faint shallow dig holes and boot scrapes. Then I noticed several dozen more recent shallow dig holes that had each been covered and marked with small piles of pebbles. I ran the Z through this margin zone and pulled one deep 1.5 gram piece from amid the shallow dig holes. I ran through the whole mess again and got four crumbs bringing the total to 21 nuggets weighed in at 14 grams. I'm pretty sure this spot was discovered by someone swinging a VLF and they apparently did pretty well on the shallow stuff. The ones I found in the gully were all stretched along a slow curved inside bend in the deepest part of the wash. Too deep for the VLF I suspect. I poked around all day and part of the next for no joy. My first respectable patch and it ended too soon. I'll follow up with a photo from my phone, I'm still too dense to sync these things together.

Hello everybody! I spent two days in mountains, yesterday and today, worked with mine detector and received my first results! 5 gold nuggets, small but it is much bigger, than mine first. Yesterday I found patch of 3 nuggets and today I found only 2. Every day I worked 6-7 hours, I think, result not bad. And it wasn't easy.

Hello It was finally a decent day today with some sun. So I made it out to a spot not far from home to field test the new Makro gold racer. This detecting place has pretty hot mineralization. It ground balances between 85-89. I ran the Racer in all metal. I kept the sensitivity at default 65 setting. The ground has quite a few hot rocks and the racer wavered a little. So I increased isat up to 8-9 and the wavering after going over any hot rocks was quickly remedied. It does run quite smooth in all metal for a pretty hot area. With isat it retunes quickly and dont miss a beat. The signals even deeper or small were easy to hear. This detector is very strong on tiny targets. I didnt try audio boost. But I had no problems hearing the signals. It stays ground balanced good and I had no issues with bump sensitivity. I didnt have alot of field time today, but the Racer was very comfortable in that time. I only tried the 10x5 dd coil, but I will have to try other size coils one of these trips out. Gold racer found about 50-60 pieces of lead. But did manage to find some nice gold too. First time out with gold racer found 2.4 dwt for the day. It is definitely a good gold hunter. The gold racer was a nice surprise. Thats it till next time Good luck I have a few videos I will post also

I got away for a few days and went down to the Pot holes on the California side. I have not spent any time there since I got my one true love (detector) the GPZ. This area has every thing a detector needs...four kinds of hot rocks, plenty of bullets and a little gold. Did I mention I love my GPZ? I have been there many times since I found my first nugget nearby. I have found gold with every detector I have used there; gb2, tesorolobo st, gmt, Minelab 2000, 2200, gp extreme, 3500 and 5000...so finding gold was not a surprise. However, finding six nuggets in two days was a surprise. I cannot remember when I have found more in numbers since the early 90's when gold was fairly common. At any rate, I was very happy with 3.7 grams for two full days and a couple hours detecting... fred

Goldbrick some how talked me into joining him at a very secret and remote spot for a detecting outing. A wise man, such as myself, should have known better. I realized how unwise my decision to join him was when, upon my arrival, I saw that he had retained the services of a highly skilled mountain climber to lead the way in. I won't go into the details of the terrifying climb into the detecting area as It would reveal too many clues as to it's whereabouts and I have been sworn to secrecy by threat of death. Upon arrival, the first thing I noticed was how little this place had been detected. Some of the old dig holes were as much as fifteen feet apart which implied that there could be massive areas of virgin ground. I began detecting and immediately found my first nugget - a beautiful solid chunk. By lunch time I had several dozen more. By the end of the day I had dug a total of 107. The size of the nuggets ranged from very tiny #7 bird shot, 22cal, 38 cal, 45cal, numerous rifle slugs and as a bonus there were all of the accompanying shell casings. The only down side to the entire outing was we had to dig an occasional bit of gold out of the way but not enough to really be a problem. THANK YOU Merton, Ken and Ken for a great day of detecting. (A very rare thing for me in January).

Headed out early today with my son Timothy for the first day of 2016 and scored a fantastic 11 gram slug with my GPZ 7000 along with a few of its mates for 1/2 ounce of 97% + pure Clermont gold. Timothy found a nice speci really deep along with some smalls with a GPZ as well. JP

last year during my last trip to the Sierra I found a little quartz, gold piece with small crystals. Only a gram or two in weight. I gave it to my daughter in-law because she is crafty and I figured she would appreciate it the most-and keep it as an family heirloom. This is what she did with it. The crystals don't show in the pic...it was my first gold/quartz/crystal piece... I was happy to find it and she is very happy to have it. fred

Crumbing the old nugget patches with the mighty Zed has been a blast here in the Quartzsite regional placer area of Arizona this winter. Small, deep nuggets that the older detector technologies were unable to find abound in the long forgotten raked, detected and drywashed patches of yesteryear. And there are yet reasonable lumps to be discovered lurking in the depths, albeit far less common than the dinks. Case in point, Quartzsite nugget number 124: what initially sounded like another deep boot tack with its typical warbly response, turned out to be a sweet 29 gram lump at 18 inches. It is a porous, prickly beauty, which I assume is the reason why it was missed by the pulse induction detectors. Totally lovin' the new ZVT!

Hello, Finally got outdoors for some detecting after a very busy holiday season filled with ups and downs. Went to a new place down out in the foothills of Butte county to my cousins buddys prop. He has an a old channel surface diggings at his place with ground sluicing and hydroing. Back in the day they found alot of coarse gold and a few bigger nuggets there. Supposedly no one has ever detected there. So decided we will see what happens. So far not alot just 5 pcs. For .7 dwt. But it is a big area so we will see if it produces after more trys. Did find a few artifacts. A couple old shovels, half a gold pan. Rockerbox grizzly screens. And an old 6" knife. The soil is pretty mild so was able to run Fors gold in all metal. Did try boost mode for a few but I swear on the new plus model that boost or fast is more chattery then all metal on any soil. Quite opposite of last years tester model original Fors gold. It does run very nice on all metal ( general) with sens. 55 threshold 70-80 and even a little isat. I messed with isat and even turned it up to 4 out of 1-5. Still found tiny gold and birdshot. Well till next time good luck to all prospectors this year.

Me a couple Yuma boys, decided to conduct a genuine prospecting trip today. I had researched an area and looked for it last year, but gave up after a long and arduous trip through the mountains, beat my poor old truck to death. So this year I shared this info with someone who knows his way around a computer and the mapping software. We got some decent coordinates and decided to give it a try. We left the freeway at sunup and it was 28 degrees. I towed a friend's side by side ATV, not wanting to beat my truck up again. Our map was perfect, though the desert had other ideas about road conditions. Washouts and river bottom silt dust were the norm. We managed, though I had already inhaled my fair share to dust just getting to the spot. We were shooting dark, expecting to see some drywash tailings as a starting point. No luck on the tailings, only hardrock mine workings. We branched out in all directions. 45 minutes into the hunt I get a good signal in a small bedrock gully. A baby nugget comes up and I'm thinking this is the ultimate spot, no dig holes and already found gold. I push on for nearly an hr before I get another nugget, then find 3 in about 15 minutes. I cannot let my friends down, so I hike across the flats back to our parking spot. I find both of them close by and convince them to move down to the spot where there seems to be gold. We again branch off and I find 2 more babies in the process. We had decided that based on the miles of bad road and our distance from home that 3pm would be the cutoff. As 3pm approaches I'm heading for the vehicles just pushing my coil along "desert pavement" with all kinds of broken quartz underfoot. I'm 50 ft from my ATV and I get the ultimate signal. Quite possibly the best I have received with the ZED. A low, broad tone, obviously deep, and in an area where there should be no deep trash. I start digging and the tone keeps getting better and better. I turn my Sensitivity down to 5 to try and narrow down my digging point. Ed Sr is within earshot and I tell him I'm digging a big nugget, so he brings a better digging tool. We dig awhile and expand the hole to try and pinpoint. Ed Sr goes back to the Jeep and gets a military style shovel to dig. By then Ed Jr arrives and pitches in to help dig the hole. As we open up the hole, the "sweet spot" of the signal seems to have moved. Never a good sign here in the desert. That usually means deep nail or wire that has corroded and giving a halo type signal. Nevertheless, we're in seemingly virgin ground, so I remain cautiously optimistic and dig on. I turn the detector Sensitivity down to 1 and its overloading in the hole, frustrating our efforts to pinpoint. Ed Jr is down on his knees pulling all the overburden out from the hole and he gasps, "oh my god". The nugget came right out with the last move to widen the hole. Spectacular, though covered in caliche. So, Ed Jr will have to post the photo of the hole and my smiling face with the nugget from his camera. I'll post the cleaned nugget photos in a second post from my stupid phone. The big one comes in at 10.8 grams. After Gerry's big find I almost feel unworthy, NOT! For those winter shut-ins, by noon we were at 65 degrees and I was sweating in a short sleeved t-shirt.

Still using Condors SDC as mine won't be here until Wednesday (I hope) but I cant complain because it's a gold finding machine. Here's the latest found less than a foot apart and the larger one downhill (steep) from the little guy. I found another target that sounded great at first about another foot downhill and I had visions of "big gold" or specimen but it turned out to be a nice round piece of buckshot about 10-12" deep. I was happy to find these 2 but my heart was thumping for a bit. Good start to the year though for sure. Happy hunting and good luck to all of you in 2016!

Literally I was detecting up a wash yesterday not knowing if it was gold bearing when I heard this screaming broken pick tip in an outcropping crack. Wasn't the 3 ouncer I was hoping for but it was encouraging that there "may be gold here", and there was. Can't wait to get back there.

My Wife Robin, learned early in our marriage if she wanted to spend more time with me, she had to get involved in my outdoor adventures! She grew up in rural Iowa on a farm, so it was and easy transition to fishing and hunting, but Gold Prospecting! She, now has over 27 years of experience in all forms of gold prospecting. Excelling in metal detecting with her keen hearing and instinct to find a nuggets hiding spot has led her to countless finds. Robin, has skunked dozens in our detecting group and has often found the days largest nugget...yesterday's hunt was no exception to her ability! I'm glad this Gold Digger is on my side of our poke, until the next hunt. Mr & Mrs LuckyLundy

As one lost in the desert wilds with sanity now just a fading shadow in the growing blaze of gold fever known as dragon sickness in days of old, I set out today wielding my weapon of choice, the mighty Zed, in the quest for my 100th Quartzsite nugget...

This is primarily a gold detecting forum. Most subjects and topics on Steve's forum are about gold and metal detectors that find it. How well is everyone doing with the finding part? (I know some don't want a fellow prospector to know.) Did you have a 'good' year or a 'bad' year? Please let your fellow nugget hunters here know your total weight and number of nuggets found. (I want to motivate myself by knowing what is 'possible' and not being satisfied with what I have found.) Last year I found about 1 oz from 7 nuggets. (I don't have to prove this!) This was better than the year before.

Skunk-2, Yumans-1. As the score suggests the skunk got hold of Steve and Dad today but I managed to get rid of that stink scoring 3 small pieces with Condor's SDC (big thanks!) while mine is away. Drywashing wasn't good after a few buckets so we concentrated on the detecting. As you can see in the pic it's a paltry 0.31 gms and the biggest is only 0.16 gm but a few more for the poke. Next time I take the pic I'll have a paper towel so the gold contrasts more than it does against the scale. Our new guy called in sick so maybe next week. Good luck all and Merry Christmas!

I went back out to the spot my benefactor showed me the other day and gave it a go with the "bad boy" settings. Since I did the Minelab update my ZED has been considerably more stable. As you can see in the photo I found 3 micro nuggets that even combined won't register 1 grain on my scale. The round ones gave solid, unmistakable target tones. I dropped the first one back into the rubble pile and thought uh oh, that's going to be a problem. It never lost a solid tone and I got it in one go. The biggest nugget is 1.2 gram and was down over a ft. Once I got the hole going I had to back the sensitivity down to 5 to pinpoint, then I got the big shovel to finish out the digging. Steve's settings will work here because the ground is relatively mild. Still, I doubt I could do a whole day of that intensity. Sorry for all you cold weather shut ins, it's 65 and sunny here in Yuma by the Sea.

It is perhaps fortuitous that it is the Christmas Season when I am compelled to remind us of the nature of friendship and fellowship in the field. As it happens, today I was just starting my morning prospecting in a new area here in Yuma by the Sea. I could see another truck perhaps 1/4 mile across the canyon, but given the nature of topography in the desert mountains, you can't get there from here. Nevertheless, they drive down a steep 4x4 canyon and come over to say hello. We get to talking, fellow Zed travelers as it were, and the seasoned prospector invites me over to a spot he has found many ounces of gold in the past. I follow them and am acquainted with an area the size of a basketball court with dig holes everywhere. This fellow prospector suggests, that despite all the dig holes, the Zed will still find gold on this little plateau. We start detecting and to cut a long day short we find gold. It is only at lunchtime that I learn that his camping/prospecting partner is a total newby and is only along for the experience. As it turns out, he is a neighbor of my prospecting guide, who is fresh out of treatment for Stage 4 liver cancer. He is merely out for 3 days of camping and fresh air. So, a fellow prospector takes me in and shows me where to find gold, and is simultaneously showing a neighbor whose time on this earth is well nigh near, the wonders of desert sunsets and starlit nights. There is a lesson here my friends and you needn't be driven by bronze age fairy tales or supernatural surveillance to act honorably and ethically in this world. I spent a professional lifetime selling prison sentences to society's misfits who desperately needed them. It is catharic to find these beacons of moral and ethical courage on a little desolate ridge in the far reaches of the desert southwest. Pay it forward my friends, it costs very little in the end. Oh, and the gold.

I found this on top of a desert pavement mesa, down about 8 inches. A very low broad tone so I suspect there may be some more gold inside the rock. The visible piece is less than a gram. I detected the hell out of the whole area and not another target to be found. Where is that darn patch I hear so much about?

I was out for a hunt this morning before the next storm blows in. Our ground is pretty wet from the previous rain and is fairly noisy with plenty false signals to check. I was just about to shift gears on my GPZ, to rid the hot spots when I received a good solid signal that raised my right eyebrow! I busted some soil out and slid my skid in for a listen, a square nail or a nugget I tell myself from the nice tone. I plow out some more and check the hole for the booming target, it was out of the hole! So, I check the pile of dirt with no luck of the booming target. I look at my magnet, nothing stuck to it so I set it down to the side. I recheck the two piles of dirt, kicking and cussing for the missing target. I told myself check your pick one last time for a nail, I pick it up and again look at the magnet, except this time I spot the nugget stock in some dirt that was stuck to my pick! Mystery solved, can you see it...don't give up on a good target, lol. 1.60 dwts. Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

Sight, Smell, Taste, Hearing, Vestibular (balance) and Proprioception (strength and movement of body) or your basic 7 senses. There are really more senses our bodies have such as sense of Temperature (hot/cold) or even Extrasensory Perception (ESP, detect here) the list goes on. We use what we where given to enhance our ability to fill our pokes. The other day out prospecting, I heard this tiny whisper of a signal. I cut down a couple inches and slid my coil in for another listen, a much better signal and one that told me was gold. My guess, was another couple inches down so busting up the dirt just a couple more inches, I noticed a glint as I was about to pull my pick and more dirt loose (left photo). I took a closer look (right Photo) and it was a dink nugget for sure...lol. I didn't smell or taste this nugget, but it's in the poke for some tasty steaks on a future shopping list. It's going to be cold and wet here in NorCal for a couple days, time for me to think where my pointy finger will lead me next! Bottom line is use your sense(s)...lol. Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

What do you get with 4 GPZ's and 4 experienced operators and one old patch? More nuggets! A good patch is never totally dead if you have a few tricks up your sleeves to coax an elusive nugget to take the bait. Taking full advantage of the GPZ in an old patch is time consuming. And extra slow movement of the coil and a good after market set of headphones are a must to hear the sounds of a nugget that has escaped every detector that swung in an old patch. Patience of a successful Fisherman or Hunter is a must in our Hobby/Sport. Don't judge the cost of these 4 detectors, nor the size of the nuggets found during this hunt...just all the fun we had! Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

Finally got my detector over some Gold. I Have to give a big shout out to TrinityAu Aka Ray Mills. Without his instruction and direction I'm sure it would have taken me much longer. Also met some real nice folks while finding these.. Just more to be thankful for on this weekend.

After clearing a patch with the Minelabs, it's a good idea to detect that area very slowly with the Gold Bug 2, as evidenced by the nuggets found this November in totally worked out patches. The larger specimen could have up to 6 grams in it and the bigger solid weighs in at 1.7 grams. I assume, of course, that the 7000 will find even more down deep, but I don't have one.