My Rye Patch Experience

[Condor]

As you know from Lucky Lundy's post, I made it from Sunny Yuma to Sunny Rye Patch last week.  First and foremost I want to extend my profound thanks and gratitude to Lundy for not only sharing his Rye Patch knowledge but allowing me to detect a couple of his secret spots.  If you've ever hunted the Rye Patch you know there are miles and miles of unproductive ground and it has been hunted by thousands of detectors.  There is no particular rhyme or reason to where the gold is found, it's a matter of putting in the hours to find a small patch.  Lundy and friends have put in hundreds if not thousands of hours to find a few good spots.  I think he'd sooner share his wife than his secret patches.  Nevertheless, he was in a generous mood and I certainly appreciate the fellowship and opportunity to detect with a master.  His friend Rudy rounded out the threesome and he is a bull of a detectorist.  He doesn't know the word quit, detecting in the heat of the day with a wet t-shirt wrapped around his head, detecting after dark with a headlamp.  He makes the most of his detecting time and makes me look like a first rate slacker.

Detecting Rye Patch is a lot different than the desert at home in Yuma.  Yuma is all about covering a lot of ground.  The nuggets for the most part a few and far between, so I normally cover 3 or 4 miles a day.  Rye Patch is all about finding a patch that's throwing small half gram minus nuggets, then slowing down and working the section to death from every angle.  The one patch that was most productive was maybe 150 yds long and 75 yds wide.  The were already bunches of dig holes but small nuggets were scattered next to old holes, in the sage brush and in one case on top of a chipmunk mound.  The first 2 days I was only finding the bigger sitting duck nuggets and missing the small, deep and very faint targets.  Lundy put me on a couple faint signals just to make sure I had the audio and settings correct to start finding them.  The answer for me was slowing way way down, overlapping each swing by at least half if not a third of the coil length.  Any threshold disturbance needed a scrape and in some cases 3 or 4 inches of scrape to bring the target up to a recognizable tone.  Tricky business especially when I already thought I knew how to detect low and slow.,  The best settings were Sens at 15, HY, Normal.  The insanely hot settings were not so good because it was producing too much noise to hear these faint threshold disturbances. 

I stuck it out a couple more days after Lundy left and did some exploring.  Sawtooth sucked.  I met one other detectorist from Idaho out there.  Then Rabbit Hole where I found 2 nuggets in the old dozer pushes high up the hills.  Way too much trash in there for me.  I then explored another spot near Lundy's patch and found 4 more nuggets in a dozer push down in a long ravine.  6 days of temps in the high 80's and low 90's wore me down.  I was only detecting 3 or 4 hrs a day and hating life trying to find shade.  I Spent 1 whole afternoon in the shade trees at Rabbit Hole and thought it was heaven. 

I forgot my scale, but as of Lundy's photo I had 8 DWT and found another estimated 4 grams.  So, I'm mid point between 1/4 oz and 1/2 oz of gold for 6 tough days.  Not bad and I would certainly do it again, especially in better weather. 

I've got to send my Z in for replacement.  Battery clip broke off and my screen is practically unreadable.  Back to Sunny Yuma next week.  Sitting it out in Sacto for a few days.

 

[gambler]

nice 

[fi4451]

Nice gold, you did well!

[Nevada Brian]

Awesome Gold, Congratulations!  I have hunted the Sawtooth area as well and came away with the same thought.  Bummer about the Z, hope ML can get it fixed fast.  I will be up there hunting the Rye Patch area in two weeks, really looking forward to it. 

Brian.

[Randy Lunn]

Well done Condor, nice collection! You must have been exhausted in the heat from doing your Happy Dance.

Lucky Lundy is a generous pro. 

 

[hawkeye]

3 hours ago, Condor said:

 If you've ever hunted the Rye Patch you know there are miles and miles of unproductive ground and it has been hunted by thousands of detectors. 

Condor,

Last October I put in 40 hrs of detector time on that area you mention above.  Found one very small nugget.   I am impressed with your results, and beyond impressed with Lucky's.  I know it is more than luck. 

[Roughwater]

Great Job Condor.  You persevered and came home with some gold.  I hit a couple of the same places (generally speaking) and came up empty.  Any you are right about the Rabbit hole.  Lots of Junk there for sure. I'm sure there is still some gold but one has to dig lots of trash to find it.  It did live up to it's name though, lots of rabbits!

[Au4Gold2]

sweet nuggs, congrats !!

...

[normmcq]

 Steve

 You are right about Lucky, If he gives you the pointy finger, you had better go slow and low, there's gold to be found there!

[mn90403]

Steve,

A man with details that can make us all better if we read your stories more than once.

I'll be up there at the end of the month but I am another Sawtooth virgin.  Can't figure it out.

Mitchel