Take From Last Trip To California (detecting & Sniping)

[blackjack]

On 11/24/2022 at 2:54 PM, Deep Beeps said:

Thanks Redz.... 10.85 grams was sniping and 9.53 grams was detecting.

Interesting break down Deep Beeps, more found sniping than detecting, I'm in Tasmania, a great place to snipe a lousy place to detect. As successful as sniping has been for me, I do miss detecting on the mainland, the desert, the big skies, endless sunshine, the heat, the flies, the..............  

[Deep Beeps]

8 hours ago, blackjack said:

Interesting break down Deep Beeps, more found sniping than detecting, I'm in Tasmania, a great place to snipe a lousy place to detect. As successful as sniping has been for me, I do miss detecting on the mainland, the desert, the big skies, endless sunshine, the heat, the flies, the..............  

I went to OZ for the first time in 2019 and was hoping to get down to Tasmania but ended up being life flighted in WA. Ugh!.... I was in Sydney for Anzac Day which was amazing. Spent a few weeks up near Karijini NP..... Cant say I'm with you on the flies though... That's just maddening! Never seen anything like it and I was raised around livestock.

The gold sniping is from a very good river in the California Motherlode, but also has very good access, so it's been hammered. Just got to find the cracks others have missed or passed up. The detector finds are from a different area in the California desert that is also pretty known & hammered.... But both places still do have the possibility of big gold. 

Anyway, I watch the Tassy Boys all the time and WISH I was able to get there and try my luck. Thats some chunky gold you got down there.

What's the best months for sniping there?

[blackjack]

1 hour ago, Deep Beeps said:

I went to OZ for the first time in 2019 and was hoping to get down to Tasmania but ended up being life flighted in WA. Ugh!.... I was in Sydney for Anzac Day which was amazing. Spent a few weeks up near Karijini NP..... Cant say I'm with you on the flies though... That's just maddening! Never seen anything like it and I was raised around livestock.

The gold sniping is from a very good river in the California Motherlode, but also has very good access, so it's been hammered. Just got to find the cracks others have missed or passed up. The detector finds are from a different area in the California desert that is also pretty known & hammered.... But both places still do have the possibility of big gold. 

Anyway, I watch the Tassy Boys all the time and WISH I was able to get there and try my luck. Thats some chunky gold you got down there.

What's the best months for sniping there?

Hey Deep Beeps, Yes I was joking about the flies and heat, definitely something I don't miss about the mainland, I grew up in W.A moved to Tasmania when I was in my mid forties, 20 odd years ago, so I know it pretty well, I started detecting over there in the mid seventies. Small world, you mentioned Karijini NP my first big trip metal detecting was to a place just S/W of there called Top Camp on Fords creek a tributary of the Ashburton River in the mid seventies with my dad, we were the first in there with state of the art Garrett Groundhogs  We started sniping late summer before the last, last summer was our first full season, so summer is the best time. Winter is too cold and the rivers have too much flow so you are limited to smaller creeks if you can brave the cold the water in winter can get down to 2 degrees centigrade [ 36 fahrenheit] Summer is about 12-14 c. We work the same river as Levi and have bumped into him on the river a couple of times much to his surprise, it's all pretty low key and secretive over here, everyone's staying tight lipped, about locations. As a sniper you would know how easy it is to work out an area. At the moment are waiting for the river levels and flow to come down. We had some big floods last winter and are curious to see if there's been any replenishment to the areas we cleaned out last summer. See my post in Tasmania's Largest Nuggets on this forum for some pics, if you are interested. Keep your crevice hook sharp and stay safe.

[blackjack]

California looks pretty cool sniping rivers and desert and some nice looking gold

[Calarms]

    I always look for Cinnabar. There's a probability gold could be nearby

[Deep Beeps]

On 12/6/2022 at 3:15 AM, blackjack said:

Hey Deep Beeps, Yes I was joking about the flies and heat, definitely something I don't miss about the mainland, I grew up in W.A moved to Tasmania when I was in my mid forties, 20 odd years ago, so I know it pretty well, I started detecting over there in the mid seventies. Small world, you mentioned Karijini NP my first big trip metal detecting was to a place just S/W of there called Top Camp on Fords creek a tributary of the Ashburton River in the mid seventies with my dad, we were the first in there with state of the art Garrett Groundhogs  We started sniping late summer before the last, last summer was our first full season, so summer is the best time. Winter is too cold and the rivers have too much flow so you are limited to smaller creeks if you can brave the cold the water in winter can get down to 2 degrees centigrade [ 36 fahrenheit] Summer is about 12-14 c. We work the same river as Levi and have bumped into him on the river a couple of times much to his surprise, it's all pretty low key and secretive over here, everyone's staying tight lipped, about locations. As a sniper you would know how easy it is to work out an area. At the moment are waiting for the river levels and flow to come down. We had some big floods last winter and are curious to see if there's been any replenishment to the areas we cleaned out last summer. See my post in Tasmania's Largest Nuggets on this forum for some pics, if you are interested. Keep your crevice hook sharp and stay safe.

Congrats on the first sniping season... I'll take a 4 gram average anytime. It use to be kind of unheard of here back in the 90's but once they stopped allowing dredging in California all those guys started sniping. 

I'll bet you and your dad did well up there.... Those Groundhogs, Compasses and you guys started it all back in the day. I didn't take the detector over as I was doing photography on that trip. I went up the 1 and wanted to come back on the 95 but ran out of time so had to backtrack on the 1. This was in May and had the whole place to myself.

You too!.... Watch out for those Platypus ? 

 

 

[blackjack]

On 12/7/2022 at 10:29 PM, Deep Beeps said:

Congrats on the first sniping season... I'll take a 4 gram average anytime. It use to be kind of unheard of here back in the 90's but once they stopped allowing dredging in California all those guys started sniping. 

I'll bet you and your dad did well up there.... Those Groundhogs, Compasses and you guys started it all back in the day. I didn't take the detector over as I was doing photography on that trip. I went up the 1 and wanted to come back on the 95 but ran out of time so had to backtrack on the 1. This was in May and had the whole place to myself.

You too!.... Watch out for those Platypus ? 

 

 

Hey mate, interesting to here the history behind sniping I figured that may of been the case, same thing happened in Tasmania with dredging, only thing, when they stopped, it didn't lead to sniping. It's a pretty new thing here. May is a great time to do the trip you did, shame you couldn't come back through Meekatharra.  Platypus, we had a visitor to our camp I'll send the video, but I'm tech dumb, hopefully you will get it.

 

[Deep Beeps]

Couple more trash and relic finds from this trip. Only the pulley was from the water and Im sure it moved many a rocks back in it's day. It was found right in front of some 20' tall rock piles on an inside bend of the river. That day, the rock won, broke the cable and the miners lost their pulley. Even more sad, there wasn't any gold with it in that crack!... Always amazes me.... Found 2 memorable cracks... both littered with square nails and fishing sinkers and not a single speck of gold. Go figure.

I'm sure you have all found a Prince Albert can before but those 2 little stars are also from tobacco... Star Tobacco. It was sold in hand cut lengths at the general store and had these tin stars every 2 inches fixed to it. 

Oldest is most likely the pick.... It was found in one of the hydraulic pits. Most likely made in the 1850's and has that "old iron" weight to it.

 

[Deep Beeps]

21 minutes ago, blackjack said:

Hey mate, interesting to here the history behind sniping I figured that may of been the case, same thing happened in Tasmania with dredging, only thing, when they stopped, it didn't lead to sniping. It's a pretty new thing here. May is a great time to do the trip you did, shame you couldn't come back through Meekatharra.  Platypus, we had a visitor to our camp I'll send the video, but I'm tech dumb, hopefully you will get it 20210416_215407 (1).zip

20210416_215407 (1).zip 23.24 MB · 1 download

That's nuts!.... He came right to you.

Yeah, that whole trip didn't go as planned. Good reason to get back there I guess. Maybe I should pack a few Axioms in a bag and head back over.