A Nugget Here & A Nugget There

[Steve Herschbach]

It's been a slow go this year as I explore completely new locations off the beaten track (which usually means a skunk) or finding the last few nuggets in well pounded patches. Get them fast or get them slow however - they still add up.

This hunt was almost entirely with the GPZ19 as I had a large area to grid with minimal chances of gold plus I wanted to get more hours in with the large coil. It has gone from a coil I thought I basically would never use to one that I will be using more often going forward. The coil seems to run slightly smoother with my Insanely Hot Settings as it reacts a bit less to near surface mineralization and hot rocks. The coil does have more issues with alkali ground than the stock coil, but the new Patch Mode (Locate Patch) seems just right for the 19" coil at a lot of places I hunt. The GPZ19 is great for covering large open areas where I think nuggets will be few and far between. In other words, I am looking more for ground coverage than depth - extra depth is a bonus.

The Gold Monster 1000 was a great aid in pinpointing. Not so much for when digging a deep nugget (though it is helpful for that) as for making short work of the ever present surface ferrous trash. Nothing like a 19" DOD coil for chasing tiny brown ferrous bits in brown dirt, and that GPZ19 coil will hit little trash far better than one might think!

Anyway, just a few nuggets adding up to almost 3 pennyweight (4.4 grams) this outing. Largest nugget 2 grams. The four on right were found with GPZ 7000 and two on left with Gold Monster 1000 (10" coil). Click photos for larger versions.

The larger Gold Monster nugget has some nice character in closeup....

[Ridge Runner]

Steve

It looks that you  got it all together with the nuggets you have for show and tell. 

Thanks for the picture of part of your team and that's the 7000 with the GM 1000. Next time include you in the picture too so to complete the team.

The best to You the next time out.

Chuck

PS A detector is no better than the guy behind it!

[Norvic]

Top stuff, yeah the 19" is the coil whose use grows on you the more it comes up with the weight, just looking at that ground with its apparent depth and clear surface makes my mouth water. Crikey now I suspect JW will join the 19 club for sure.

[johnedoe]

Good work there Steve.... congrats...

[beatup]

WTG Steve,nice hand full of nuggets

[hawkeye]

Great nuggets Steve.

I note the shovel and the relatively narrow hole compared to the 19" coil.  Looks like the GM very helpful in pinpointing, and shovel better is for digging a deep narrow hole than a pick.  Very interesting, but how do you carry all that paraphernalia?

[Guest Jennifer]

Beautiful...... very chevrony.... cough cough...

[Steve Herschbach]

32 minutes ago, hawkeye said:

Very interesting, but how do you carry all that paraphernalia?

One of the nice things about hunting northern Nevada is that I can drive my truck very close to most locations. That does not help when going on a long wander across country, but I often park my posterior on a place and hunt all day, carefully gridding away. That being the case it is easy to just put the GM1000 and shovel in the middle of my hunt area, and get them as needed.

Normally I just use my pick, but when using the GPZ19 a little extra help does not hurt. I actually don't have a problem locating most gold nuggets - it's the ferrous trash that can have me chasing a target too much. The GM1000 really helps with them - a lot.

[madtuna]

Have to agree about the 19". The more you use it the more it grows on you, plus the lighter it seems to get each day

[DolanDave]

Very Nice Finds with both detectors, good to see the 19 producing good gold..

Dave.