Do You Remember Finding Your First Nugget?

[beatup]

sure do wish i still had it

[Libertas]

I remember my first. I was with Bob Dansie for a day of training in March of 2003 in a secret spot of his above Stanton. I was swinging a brand new GP Extreme with a 14" Coiltek mono. I found 10 nuggets on that trip. I was hooked for life!

Bob:

[okara gold]

I camped at Stanton a few times. Lots of prospectors during the winter months and a fair amount of gold would show up. Good place as a base camp to hunt the area. You did real good for your first. 

[snakejim]

Yep, 1985 La Paz, Arizona using a Garrett Deep Seeker. It was in a Dry washer's Headings pile. 1 gram

[Gold Dozer]

Hard to forget the first.   I had been detecting many times and found nothing but trash.  I was actually out on a dry washing trip.  Ground was to wet to sluice so I grabbed my only detector I had at the time.  It was a Gold Monster 1000.  Had only been detecting for about 10 minutes and dug up a target.  Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a very small picker less than a 10th of a gram.  I was all alone and verbally said "This actually works!"  It was a huge rush for such a small piece of gold.

Moved on and found a 1/2 gram nugget about 10 feet away.  At this point I thought I really was onto something special.  Spent three more days of detecting and found nothing but trash.  Funny how that works.  I've had that happen more than once.

 

I've found about 40 little nuggets with a detector at this point.  Still haven't broke the one gram mark yet.

[geof_junk]

No. I know it was in Maryborough Vic. Aust. back in 1980 but I can't remember it size but it was smaller than the first nugget Carol found (4.6gm) that she had found well before I found mine. I was more into dredging at the time and had found more than 4 oz of gold specks between 0.1 to 0.3 gm bits and a ounce or so of fines. Detecting was Carol's idea so we gave it a go. Well over 10 weeks of 10+ hours a day with no gold at Wedderburn Vic. in 1979-80 we tired Maryborough and luck was on our side. I do remember my first nugget over an ounce (4 oz) (well after Carol's 1 oz bit) and my best day and patch there of 26+ oz. Most of my gold was found when I went to West Australia 2002 onwards (love the desert detecting) but only remember my major patches but relieve on saved GPS these days. I posted a bit of information of some W.A. gold patches in

 "Nugget Spread"

[MSC]

Found my first around Sawtooth area, my first trip with my brand new GPX5000, didn't really know what I was doing. Everything I read in the manual went over my head, but my detector had a hit, I dug out a hard object covered in clay wiped the clay off to see a yellow flat gold nugget. It ended up at 1.2 grams, cool as could be. My second nugget the same week in the same area was 11.2 grams, really cool. 

[Drellim]

I remember  my first one with a gold hawk in the El Paso’s  right after I found a blasting cap that my pick just scraped   Lot of people said it was dead because of time we’ll I shot that cap and boy did I make a big boom felt lucky it did not go off on me but next target was gold funny I found a hole bin of caps after that  went back and shot it it destroys the 4 ft boulder I had it sitting on it was 2 weeks after I found it went back out with a buddy he was amazed  the forums back then were saying it was to old to be volitale  well wrong info funny after a few months of nothing once that first one was found they just kept rolling in after that working the faint signals really paid off next month I purchased a 3000 and it was great to find so much paid for it fast then the 3500 paid for it in 6 months then the 4000 paid for it in 2 months then the 4500 and the 5000 I belive the 5000   Paid for its self 10 times over in 4 months  after that I got poached and was really pissed quite for 5 yrs and now back at the original 5000 I sold got it back put a evo coil on it and sure I ain’t missing much   I say paid for it but if you look a feel food travel and all maybe I broke even but had a great time  I do but a lot of gold at 200 and oz  and with what I found sold 5 lbs of it at 850 and oz  but wish I had it now to sell but that’s the life of a prospector still have the first one tho out in the hills looking forward to getting at it again this winter way harder to find a good spot now days  

[MD4V.org]

I was back in Arizona, in 1976, after three-years in the Army. I had really bad PTSD, and was drinking pretty heavily. My brother came by the house one morning and threw me in his truck. As we headed toward Wickenburg, he talked to me about how I was scaring him and my family, I how I needed to get my stuff together.

As we passed through Wickenburg, headed toward Congress, I started to sober up and I asked where the hell we were going. He simply said, "To the end of the rainbow." We drove out past Stanton to Decision Corner and hooked a right. Thirty minutes later I was tripping over rocks swinging a new Fisher Goldbug II.

At first I was thinking to myself I'll just humor my brother and do this for a while. Suddenly I got a strong signal that seemed to be coming from a rock. I called my brother over and he determined it was a "hot rock," and threw it aside. Disappointed I went back to swinging. Thirty-minutes later I was tired and ready to head back to the truck. As I walked the 200-yards back, I kept swinging half-heartedly.

ZIP-ZIP! Whoa, that sounded different than my hot rock. I bent down and dug around a little grabbing dirt and running it over the coil as my brother had showed me. Zip-Zip! I had found my first nugget! With renewed energy and vigor, I went on to find three more that day! Even though he got skunked, I have never seen my brother happier. He knew I was hooked, and he was relieved.

That day changed my life in so many ways I can't start to list them. I asked Steve Wandt, a longtime detectorist and jeweler, to create a Claddagh ring for me that included the first nuggets I had found. Now I will have them until I pass, and they will live on through my Son and his family.