Meadview Az Back To Montana

[Goldseeker5000]

Well, my first wintering in Arizona hunting gold has come to an end and this past Monday I headed back to Montana to hunt gold in the next goldfield- Radersburg, Montana. Gold Basin was very tough finding gold consistently and the decision to move twenty something miles to Meadview was good and productive. Will I go back next winter? Perhaps, if the money from gold I find up to this September or October is productive enough. Living out of my small Tacoma and a bell tent in Arizona deserts next to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon was challenging and difficult at times thanks to high winds on a regular basis. The gold under my coil happened alot more frequently at Meadview. New strategies I thought up and employed proved very effective and it is now proving effective the very first day detecting at Radersburg with one beauty of a nugget at 10"-11" deep resting on bedrock. My first day at Radersburg was spent getting camp set up and my stove put in place in my bell tent, then going into town to get a months worth of supplies to hunker down and start detecting. After an incident in Meadview at one of the GSSN claims, a nervous looking guy trying to intemidate me with a pistol at a patch of nuggets I had just found, I decided to get a pistol. My choice was a Taurus Judge 45 Long Colt/410. Finding ammo for it is proving difficult. My gold finds at Meadview came on strong and stayed that way till my last day of detecting the evening before I left for Montana. My gold tally was 50 nuggets and a total weight of 16.47 grams. Not too bad for first hunt in Arizona in an area absolutely pounded to death for decades. Detecting at Radersburg is going to be a little slower recovering targets as you cannot conduct a boot scrape due to prairie grass and lichen root systems covering the ground everywhere. Bedrock is shallow and I will most definitely seek out areas where the bedrock is between 1 foot to 2 feet deep as I now know the Gpx 6000 has no problem hitting on gold at these depths. The second from the last day in Arizona I swung the 17" coil over the top of a gravel bar behind a bush in the middle of a wash and I got a faint low elongated growl that was totally different from all other signals I have gotten with the wild six. It was constantly repeatable so I dug and pulled up a .63 of a gram nugget at 15" deep. I measured the hole with a tape measure and this knowledge amazed me. The next day I completely removed a foot of overburden on the gravel bar and hit another nugget weighing .4 of a gram a foot to two feet away directly behind the bush. The last nugget, number 50 was a bitter sweet way to hit my goal of 50 nuggets with a 1.1 gram nugget at a foot deep. Yesterday being my first day detecting at Radersburg ever, started out slow with nothing but bits of iron and bullets. I took a few hours off to eat lunch and cut a tree down to feed my cylinder wood stove in my tent for the coming chilly weather still lingering. I then went out for a late afternoon hunt and hit on a .67 of a gram beauty of a nugget. Nice way to start the next month and a half off at hunting for gold full time. Every day my mind is saying you gotta produce, you gotta produce, and you would think that would take the fun out of detecting for gold but that is not the case. Every day as it comes and goes is just as exciting swinging for gold for a living, and living every day without the stress of having to run the mouse wheel to stay afloat in today's society, with rent/ mortgage and other bills. My Jackery 1000 and my Iceco 60 Ltr fridge/freezer is running flawlessly and I can run my fridge, charge my phone, my detector batteries and headphones as well as power my computer all at the same time and not run out of free power. It was well worth the initial investment. I will keep you posted of nugget finds to come and I will get a good photo today of the Arizona gold tally.

[beatup]

Double good on you

[matt]

You are living a life I could only dream about. Thanks for sharing the details of the experience. I don' think I could drop everything and live out of a tent full time. What a shame about being confronted with a guy pointing a gun at you. Good choice going with the Taurus.

[Gold Catcher]

Great report, thanks Reese, and beautiful gold. 0.6 g in 15 inch depth with the 17 inch coil is impressive. It is such a great coil in the open field, also because it remains almost as sensitive as the 11 inch coil to fast surface targets. I admire your endurance. I don't know of many detectorists here in the US who live from what they find under their coil. Looking forward to catch up again soon, and good luck!

GC

PS: I always have a little body cam with me when I am out there. You want to make sure you have video evidence in case of a self defense encounter. This can make a big difference in where you will be spending the next decades of your life. Hope this will never happen to you though, nor to anyone for that matter. 

[GotAU?]

42 minutes ago, Gold Catcher said:

Great report, thanks Reese, and beautiful gold. 0.6 g in 15 inch depth with the 17 inch coil is impressive. It is such a great coil in the open field, also because it remains almost as sensitive as the 11 inch coil to fast surface targets. I admire your endurance. I don't know of many detectorists here in the US who live from what they find under their coil. Looking forward to catch up again soon, and good luck!

GC

PS: I always have a little body cam with me when I am out there. You want to make sure you have video evidence in case of a self defense encounter. This can make a big difference in where you will be spending the next decades of your life. Hope this will never happen to you though, nor to anyone for that matter. 

Thought of the same, besides a record of evidence, a body cam can also be a convenient documentary maker- Reese, your writing style and adventures would make another great book and perhaps a documentary.  Good luck to you, enjoying the updates!

[Bishop]

very cool.
sounds like you are living the dream.
it seems like you left Meadview just as the weather is getting nice and going
off to the cold of Montana. was it the wind that had you pack up and move
or just wanting to get a early start in Montana.
i am thinking of doing something similar in a few years, but with a small toy hauler
as i know that camping in a tent with high winds can be rough.

[MSC]

Nice going Reese, continued good luck, please keep up with your reports

PS. I have a toy hauler but still tent camp a lot. 

[Goldseeker5000]

Bishop, I headed back to Montana early because of the gas prices. In some gas stations there gas prices range from $4.59 - $5.89 I think. At Chevron regular unleaded is $5.25. also I really don't like snakes. Ironically I am in an area in Montana with a worse problem with rattlesnakes.

[mn90403]

Thanks for the report.  I'd like to know more about the GSSN incident as I've been a current and past member.

What are gas prices in Montana?

[Valens Legacy]

Glad you had some luck for all your troubles and that is a nice tent. I see that you have tie downs below that bottom half of the tent, is there a way to set some anchor places on the top so that it can be tied off better.

Thanks for sharing the trip and glad to see the pictures of the area.

Good luck on your next trip.