By The Light Of The Full Moon

[mn90403]

I had a Jones again for a nugget hunt.  Mind you the places I go that are 3 hours away don't have many nuggets left but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.  I did it.

My Barstow location was the choice.  I've been stumped there many times in the past but it is a very beautiful place on a Full Moon night.  Last night was simply THE BEST.  It didn't matter if I found a nugget.  When I got out of the car there was no wind.  The temperature is in the mid 80s and there were no bugs chasing the lights.  This was what I was after.

I used Chet settings for the most part with my 7000/X 15x10  and just got to it.  The first target was so small I just had to save it in the bottle.  We've all had them.  This one is iron.  I was ready to go.  My brain was working and my hearing was on.  This was my close to parking target.  I was hoping I had stopped on a nugget.

My first location and walk around for 2 hours produced no gold.  It consisted of new areas to me and an area where I had previously found a nugget.  I could see it on my 7000 GPS!

The next location less than a mile away took me to familiar nugget territory but by a different route.  I ended up in an area next to a Joshua Tree where I had found my second nugget with the EQ 800/11 about a month after they came out.  You have to really work things slowly as Lucky said in order to get a signal but that I did.  Then like Simon said it took me a long time to finally get the target in the scoop.  It was sounding off and I should have had my glasses but I finally knew I wasn't going to get skunked this trip.  This is only my second nugget with the X.  

Staying in the same general area after that find it was just time to work the ground.  I was in manual ground balance and the hot rocks were everywhere and a few wires.  Eventually I came upon one of those signals that you just know sounds different.  It was only about 3 inches deep.

I made it back to my car at 3 AM for a snack and time to use the 800.  I had been at it for 5 hours but I had two nuggets.

This was my first use of the 800 since the 3.0 update.  I like it.  I didn't notch anything out in Gold 1 and just read the numbers.  I could run sensitivity with the 6" coil at 20 and it would ignore many hot rocks.  It was fun swinging the little thing but no gold with it this trip.

Daylight was coming (5:30 AM) and I still had 3 hours to get back.  It's expensive gold but worth it to the soul.

Mitchel

 

[Joe D.]

Love the story mn,

    I'll tell you the same thing that i told Simon! Keep at it, and find that "Chicken" Nugget!!??

[Hardtimehermit]

Way to charge, and gold to satisfy the soul that's what's it about. Sounds like the moonlight was a delight as well as no wind. Thanks for sharing your predawn exercise plan.  ht

[beatup]

well done on your moonlight hunt

[Jim McCulloch]

Way to go, Mitchel, thanks for sharing your Midnight Madnes with us. HH Jim

[mn90403]

Does anyone know what the 't' weight is?

[PeterInSa]

Good Trip mn, well done, don't know about detecting in the moonlight in mid 80's though, in Oz I would be wary of not seeing a Joe Blake ( snake) and standing on it.

[Lanny]

Enjoyed the story, and liked the gold you gathered as well.

Thanks for taking the time to write about your adventure, and congratulations on getting some gold with your machine.

All the best,

Lanny

[GB_Amateur]

11 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Does anyone know what the 't' weight is?

I assumed Troy ounces (ozt).

Thanks for the chronicle.  You're getting pretty good at these!  And I'm glad to read that the nighttime moon is good for something.  When out looking for astronomical objects it's sure an experience killer.