Some Nevada Gold Nuggets

[Steve Herschbach]

I have been doing a lot of what I call “blue sky prospecting” where I get out and hunt areas not known currently as “nugget hunting areas”. There are a number of well known areas in the western U.S. that people converge on and hunt repeatedly year after year. The attraction is that although these areas are well hunted, detectable gold is known to exist and proficient nugget hunters have a high chance of finding at least a little gold by visiting these locations. Going to areas that have no real history of producing gold nuggets with a metal detector has however a much greater likelihood of producing no finds at all. It is just the nature of exploring off the beaten path and for people with limited time it is very hard to choose to hunt an area where nobody has ever detected gold before and where you will probably find no gold as opposed to hunting known productive areas.

The problem with well known areas is that they are well detected, so the best one can usually expect is to eke a few missed nuggets here and there from these places. I do have more time however to apply to the search, and so have made looking for new “patches” an integral part of my prospecting program. I seek out and hunt outlying unclaimed areas peripheral to known gold bearing areas for at least half my time in the field, falling back to known locations now and then to find at least a little gold to boost morale and help pay for beans and gasoline. Going many days at a time without finding gold takes a lot of patience but the hope is that eventually I will make an exceptional find in the form of a virgin patch that makes up for all the hours of non-productive hunting. I say non-productive, but I never come away feeling like that is the case. I always learn something, even if it is to the negative, about my detectors and the gold itself – where it is and is not found.

On to the hunt. I was exploring an area in northern Nevada where quite a lot of past prospecting is apparent in the form of pits, trenches, and small prospects. Lots of quartz veins exposed and surface quartz. Nearly all the prospects looked to be "busts" where the initial trenching or pit digging was abandoned with no further work done. Some showed a little more work that indicated that there was possibly at least a little positive results - or just an overly optimistic prospector. I have pretty much abandoned day trips and "hit and run" type detecting in favor of parking my posterior in one camp location for days (at least) and methodically exploring the surrounding area. That being the case I decided to spend a minimum of three days hunting this area to see if I could scare up any sign of gold.

I of course relied heavily on my GPZ 7000 for a lot of the detecting but also got in lots of hours with the Gold Monster 1000 and Garrett ATX. A lot of the ground featured shallow exposed bedrock and so depth was not the issue, and the GM1000 was great for these areas and for checking quartz around the old prospects. I did get a couple pieces of quartz that gave non-ferrous beeps. I broke one and it appears to be a copper mineral of some sort that signaled in that one. Might be the same for the other but I have to check it out still. It sounded better so I decided not to just break it but wait until I could scan it with my Falcon Gold Probe and examine it better before taking action.

I was up early to beat the heat and so getting in lots of hours. Great looking ground but other than a bullet now and then nothing much to report.

Sometime into the second day my GPZ started acting up. It seemed like extreme EMI and nothing I could do would make it quit. Even my last resort of a full reboot did not eliminate the noise. So I broke out my Garrett ATX that I have along for backup, which really needed doing anyway as I wanted to get more hours on the new coils. The new 11" x 13" DD coil is enclosed to shed debris, center mounted rod for better balance, and most importantly, resistance to knocks and false signals that is at least as good as my GPZ if not better. A side bonus is salt ground and hot rocks the GPZ sees I can tune out completely with the ATX. I also found the ATX with slightly smaller coil to be a better option in thick grass and weeds than the GPZ due to the 13" x 14" GPZ14 coil wanting to float on top of the grass to a slightly higher degree than the ATX 11" x 13" coil. Not a huge difference but just enough to help.

Still, a day of hunting with the ATX also got no gold. The next morning the mystery interference was gone - either the GPZ healed itself or it was a temporary but strong EMI issue. On the third morning I therefore went back to the GPZ 7000. This was going to be the last day although I was really liking the look of the ground. Finally, in early afternoon I got a lone signal in  a clay layer in a shale zone, and down near a foot out popped a 2.39 gram nugget!

I have to admit I was real pleased with this nugget, found I have no idea how far from where anyone has found a nugget before with a detector. I proceeded to grid the area for a couple more hours and my initial excitement slowly dropped into "here we go, yet another lone nugget" all by itself. Heat and lack of water caught up to me so back to the truck for refreshments. Then when time came for another go - the weird EMI issue was back. I have not run into this in the couple years I have used the GPZ in northern Nevada, so it was concerning me that perhaps the GPZ had some sort of intermittant issue. I broke out the ATX again to finish out the day with no more nuggets.

Still, that made another couple days mandatory. The EMI thing went away again, and has not returned since (fingers crossed). A couple more days detecting however did prove that one nugget was a lone ranger. I decided to make the move to an old patch to see if I could add at least a little gold to the vial before returning home.

I got spoiled the first couple seasons here as drought conditions made for lots of bare desert. Now, with all the rain last winter, some areas are now thick with grass and weeds that make detecting very difficult if not impossible. The ATX does do a bit better in this stuff than the GPZ and so I hunted the weeds with it for a couple days. Still lots of targets but they kept turning out to be trash, until I finally found a 1.5 gram nugget in a drywasher tailing pile. I decided to leave the next day, but had time for a morning hunt. I was just ready to quit when a nice 2.19 gram nugget popped out of the ground.

A week of detecting and only three nuggets, but that is to be expected when out trying new ground. What was odd was only three nuggets but all three were at or over a pennyweight in size, with no small stuff, just over 6 grams total. Go figure, but it left me actually satisfied with the trip as far as gold found and lots of new country experienced.

[Rob Allison]

Hey Steve,

   Congrats on the recent success hunting new ground.  This is something that is difficult for many, they want to continue to pound old, known fields.  Trust me, it's difficult for me also, as I know I can almost always pull a few small ones from old patches if I'm willing to spent the time hunting slowly.  

What I tell many of my customers about finding new patches is this.  It's very hard to re-program yourself to explore new ground as the chance of getting skunked (recovering no gold) is very high.  However, if you would happen to find a new location, there is no telling what the potential could be (grams, ounces or pounds).  

I recommend if possible this 50/50 method.  We all like to bring home a nugget or two if possible, so I will hunt either some gold ground in the morning and hopefully eliminate the skunked by getting a dink or so.  I then concentrate the second part of the day searching new ground.  

This method sometimes allows you to get a piece of gold, eliminate the skunk and explore new ground all on the same day.  Each time in the field, you are at least making an attempt to find new locations.  It's all a process of elimination in my book, you hunt the best you can on that ground and then you don't have to hunt it again.  

I recommend having a "Plan of Attack" prior to the hunt.  Know where you're going to hunt some old patches or ground, then have a plan to attack some new country on the outskirts of known gold locations.  If you do this enough, I would almost guarantee some new gold and hopefully some decent patches to your poke!  

Just some suggestions that have worked for me in the past.  

[GeoJack]

The wife and I did the same a couple of weeks ago, tired of the skunk that was following us out at Rye Patch we headed North to return to the Eugenes. We like the view and it's a new area to explore. We arrived early in the morning and in just under two hours the wife has her first Nevada nugget. 3.3g with nice chevrons. Waiting for a break in the heat to head back over.

[beatup]

Congrats all on your finds from new ground

[goldwright]

Nice write up Steve, I love hiking with the GPZ looking for virgin patches.  1 piece patches seem to occur everywhere.

[~LARGO~]

Hi Steve,

I have been asked "why don't you hunt where everyone else hunts, Gary?"

Well, because like you, I like take some time to find new places that haven't been hit, or less hit by the gold hunters.  I did find a place in Nevada that was close to a popular, but rough unimproved "pioneered" track.   In my wanderings I found a place that you don't come upon very often.  Signs of an old time gold camp, lots of old rusty cans that weren't smashed flat or shot full of bullet holes.   BOTTLES!  Complete bottles, not broken or shot up as well.  THAT is a rare instance, and add to that, drag marks in the dirt that told me this was a place where an old fresno, or horse drawn scraper was used a long time ago by miners in their search for gold.  I didn't have time to use my metal detector that day, but I mentally catalogued my newly found places and left, as my truck was just a dot in the distance, and I had a long hike back to it.  Sometime when my new knee gets to working better, I'll take my new Gold Monster 1000 there, and give it a go!

~LARGO~           

[IdahoPeg]

Great story and nice chunky nuggets! I usually get a big 'ol skunk when looking for new areas! :-)

[tvanwho]

So,just wondering how did the poor skunk get such a bad reputation among us gold seekers?

 

[GB_Amateur]

Steve, why are you burdened with that ship's anchor ATX when you have the version you modified with weight almost cut in half?  (And thanks for your always informative+educational writings.)

 

[bado1]

Excellent write up, Steve!

I love cruising for new patches in less explored areas. Good looking gold,too! I like Robs suggestion...50/50. Can't wait until it cools down. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

Dean