Do you remember finding your first “one ounce” gold nugget?
Hello All,
Since the late 90’s I have been metal detecting the Rich Hill/Stanton Goldfields. I always heard of big nuggets from this area, so figured I would give up on some of the other locations such as the Bradshaw’s, Vulture, San Domingo and other districts where I was finding smaller gold. My goal at the time was just to find a one ounce gold nugget, which was not easy to do. I knew guys that had 20-30 years detecting experience, but never found a solid one ouncer. I was determined, so figured I would concentrate where the potential was the highest for larger gold.
Historically, Rich Hill and the Weaver Mining District was know for large gold nuggets up to Potato size. I seen many pictures in magazines, old reports and such that proved they were there, but not knowing much about the area to start was a challenge. One major advantage I had back then was the price of gold was much lower, so the amount of non-patented mineral claims was minimal. You could practically go most places back then and you wouldn’t see a soul, let alone any mineral claim signs. Places I worked back then that were open to claim are now heavily claimed and off limits. I guess if I knew anything about filing claims and the rising price of gold, I could have locked down a huge portion of that Mountain and probably sold them for a real fortune today.
That all being said, I spent many months tromping around digging a few nuggets here and there along with handfuls of trash. I started to second guess if this really was the spot for large gold, maybe most of it was long gone. I had a lot of faith in the detector I was using, which was a Minelab Pulse Induction detector. I knew it had the ability to punch down deep, still find smaller gold to some degree, but the major factor was it’s ability to work in highly mineralized ground. The Rich Hill placers are laced with iron stone, basalts and very mineralized red soils/clays, making it very difficult for a VLF metal detector to work effectively.
I guess luck at some point fell into my hands, as I met an older gentleman that had a nugget patch map, which was being passed around for $50. The guy was somewhat struggling, so I worked a deal to make him more maps (photocopies) to waive the $50 he was asking. He agreed, so I got a hold of one of the original $50 Nugget Patch maps for free! The map was still pretty vague as I didn’t know the area real well and I wasn’t the one that discovered the patches. It took me some time wondering around in a few of them to say I really found the true patch location.
I did pick up a few pieces of gold in most of the ones I worked. One evening I got a very weak single not far from finding a nugget that was around 2 Dwt’s about 8 inches deep. I dug down a few inches and rechecked the location. The target increased in audio, so I figured it was another nugget around 1-2 Dwt’s. After digging another 6 inches or so, I figured the target was probably out of the hole. I checked the pile of material I removed from the hole, no signal there …. so I rechecked the hole and the signal was booming. After digging down around 14-inches I got the signal out of the hole and it was a beautiful slug of gold! I jumped up in pure excitement, “I DID IT,” my first one ounce gold nugget. I wish someone was there to share the excitement with, but I figured since it was nearly dark I better get the hell out of there. I was trying to guess the weight, but figured it was an easy 1+ ounce gold nugget due to the weight in my hand.
One the way home, I was so excited I called just about everyone I knew. I even called my old-time detecting partner, Chris Gholson. I told him I finally got the one ounce gold nugget from Rich Hill. If I remember correctly, I took the piece over to his house not long after the find. We dropped it on the scale and I seen his look …… I said “What?” I knew something was up, and he finally said, “Dude, it’s 19.8 Dwt’s!” You have to be kidding me, all that hard work, excitement and that damn nugget was 0.2 Dwt’s from a true one ounce gold nugget.
Chris told me later, you can’t claim you found a one ouncer until you really found a “true one ounce gold nugget.” It was kind of like, you were close Rob, but no cigar for you. I think I lost sleep that night knowing I really thought I had a one ouncer, but I was just shy (just my luck).
Well, the moral of the story is to not give up. I set a goal to find a one ouncer, so that was what I was going to do, even if it took me my entire nugget shooting career to do it. Not too much longer, in a spot I found myself, I was finding a bunch of these 1/4, 1/2 and 1 Dwt gold nuggets. I figured it was another “Pennyweight” patch, but finally after digging down about 16-inch I unearthed a nice, solid 1.5 ounce gold nugget.
Enjoy nugget shooting, it’s a great hobby. The gold is just a bonus in my opinion. The thrill of finding something, exercise and to clear the mind from stress is what I like about it. You never know, that next target you dig just might be that one ouncer!
Wishing you all the best of success. My next goal has been to find a solid, one pound (12 troy ounces) gold nugget. Heck, I know it’s a huge goal to achieve, many never make the one ounce mark.
Picture of the first solid, one ounce gold nugget I found.
Jim Straight’s Books
“Jim Straight’s Books
Some of the best books you will find on gold prospecting/metal detecting
~ Jim Straight ~
Successful Author, Prospector, Retired Geologist & Long-time Friend
Jim states that he can still fondly remember his first hands-on day at mining. Jim was only four years old at his grandfather’s manganese mine, when a miner named Jimmy Tognetti took him into his first hard rock mine. Jimmy, also known as “Jackhammer Jimmy,” picked little Jim up and tossed him onto his shoulder, stepped into a descending ore bucket, and gave the signal to lower them down into the mine shaft. Jim states today, a little over sixty years later, he can specifically remember that one day because he can still smell the carbide from the miners’ lamps.
Jim’s life only grew in the mining/prospecting field. In 1954 he graduated from the McKay School of Mines with a B.S. degree in Geological Engineering. Jim completed post graduate classes in mining and spent many years as a mining consultant. Jim ended up working with several large mining corporations such as, Kennecott Copper Corporation, Eagle Picher and Kaiser Steel.
Not only was Jim mining all his life, his family roots were also deep in the field of mining. His great Grandfather was one of the discoverers of the famous DeLamar Mining Camp in Nevada. His Grandfather was a partner in the mine near Ely, where Jim first saw the mine from the inside. His father, was also an underground miner in the hay days of Kimberly and Ruth, Nevada.
Jim has been associated with some form of mining/prospecting for more than fifty years. He found his first gold nugget about twenty years ago on a hard rock dump pile near Tonopah, Nevada. For the last 22 years he has metal detected both alluvial desert placers and hard rock gold mines throughout the Southwestern U.S.
Jim has been writing mostly freelance material for the last twenty years. Many technical prospecting/mining magazines find Jim to a major contributor. Over the years Jim has written and published many books that have contributed much success to some well known International nugget hunters. Without some of Jim’s books I would have been lost during the early stages of mining/prospecting. If you haven’t read his material, you are missing out on some premier writings.
Listed below are some of Jim’s books that I carry now through “Rob’s Detector Sales:” Books always in stock, order today!
First Gold Nugget with the Minelab SDC 2300 Metal Detector
Checkout my video of the first gold nugget I found with the brand new Minelab SDC gold nugget detector!
Video Transcript:
Yeah, this is Rob with Rob’s Detector Sales, and this is my first day out with the new Minelab SDC 2300, and like I said I had a couple of places in mind, where I wanted to specifically take this new pulse induction gold detector, and within not even 15 or 20 minutes of the initial hunt I was able to score this little tiny nugget. Now the nugget was laying right there down in that particular area on the bedrock (motioning), and I ended up pushing the thing around for quite some time before I was able to pinpoint it…but you can actually see the nugget, it’s right there (zooming in on gold nugget), it’s really small, I’d say it’s probably one grain – one and a half grain, it’s really small, and I’ve got the external speaker on right now, I’m just going to give you an idea…I’m just in the factory setting (screaming tones as waved over nugget)…extremely sensitive to that little tiny nugget, I mean, I’m really impressed by the sensitivity. Now let me take that back, I’m actually on “3”, which is just one setting over factory, which is “2” (showing SDC control dial), so…I’m in “3”, and I’m running just the external speaker right now, but it gives you an idea (more loud tones), that little nugget just screams. And like I said, I pushed it around a while. I thought it was a little piece of trash.
Minelab seemed to do it again with this new machine. I’ve got a lot of places I want to pack into, and do a lot of prospecting, so I’m going to be real impressed to see what happens with this new detector. I’ll keep you updated, like I said, this is Rob with Rob’s Detectors, we’re out of Surprise, Arizona, you can catch us online at www.robsdetectors.com. Thank you!
Video date: June 27, 2014
Metal Detecting with the new Minelab SDC 2300 Metal Detector for Gold Nuggets
I recently published a video of a great day in the field with the new Minelab SDC 2300 gold nugget detector.
Video Transcript:
Yeah, this is Rob, with Rob’s Detector Sales, and I’m testing the new SDC 2300…and I just found a little nugget, probably about 10 minutes ago. And I just scanned this bedrock here, and cleaned it out… (huge audible tones!) Got a really good target…thought for sure it was just going to be a big piece of iron rubbish, but if you look right down here (zooming in), I cleaned it out, right down on the bedrock right there, is a nice chunky nugget…see if I can get it out of there. Yeah, that’s one’s a good pennyweighter, and I thought with that screaming response, it was going to be trash…but a pretty nice nugget, found right here on bedrock, using the new Minelab SDC 2300: waterproof, collapsible, pulse induction gold-finding detector. Pretty impressed! The second nugget within a half-hour. Looking forward to picking some more nuggets out of this gulch… will keep you updated. This is Rob with Rob’s Detectors, out here in Surprise, Arizona, you can see us online at www.robsdetectors.com, have a good one!
Video date: June 28, 2014
Gold Nugget Metal Detecting Moore Creek, Alaska Part 3
This is part III of a video series on gold nugget hunting in Moore Creek, Alaska. The tailing piles there have been very productive gold nugget hunters, as the historical dragline mining operations in the area didn’t have nugget collectors. Consequently, many many coarse nuggets have been found in these tailings in recent years, as talked about in the video.
Video Transcript:
Rob Allison: “Here at Moore Creek, at one of the push sites, and you can see the old tailing piles–they took a bulldozer and dozed this area down. This area used to be called “Five Ounce Flat”…obviously there was a five ounze nugget found here. I would probably guess there’s been well over a pound of gold found here originally. The second week, which is our week, I picked up a one-ouncer, straight out there in the flat…it was a 1.1 ouncer. There was probably another half a dozen other nuggets found just in this area, and it’s already been worked by the prior week. [Panning camera] …kinda see the dozed area…quads, up here at Moore Creek, they do have quads you can drive around in rather than walking all the way down to the tailing piles, you can actually drive right to them, which is really nice. [Panning camera to Dennis] Dennis…how much gold did you find this year, Dennis?”
Dennis: “Little over three.”
Rob: “Three ounces?”
Dennis: “Yeah.”
Rob: “You got, what, two…two pieces over an ounce this year?”
Dennis: “One just under an ounce, and one just over an ounce.”
Rob: [Panning to distance] “See out in the distance, another guy, believe his name is Misha, he’s from a different country…come all the way to Alaska to do some gold detecting up here at Moore Creek.”
Rob: “Anybody interested in Moore Creek or information on Moore Creek can visit the website, it’s http://www.moorecreek.com/. Great area to find some good gold. Lot of one-ounce plus nuggets have been found this year. This week…over twenty-plus ounces have been found this week, and like I said this is the third year, so there’s definitely still a lot of gold being found. And you can see in the distance there, some of the tailings piles back in the trees…those are the spots a lot of guys don’t like getting back into, there’s still a lot of virgin piles that probably have some good potential. Talk to you later!”
Minelab Signal Enhancers and Speakers
Video Transcript:
How’re you doing? This is Rob Allison with Rob’s Detector Sales. I’ve recently had a lot of questions about signal amplifiers and external speakers and various combinations to use on the Minelab. I figured this would be the easiest way to demonstrate and show you the different types of amplifiers and external speakers that are available.
The first amplifier, or signal enhancer is actually what it’s called, is the one made by Super Sound or DETacc. Now there’s different versions of the DETacc signal enhancer that’s out there. This particular version has basically just a volume control. The older version actually had a bypass switch, which had a tendency to go bad after a certain amount of time of being used. So this is actually the newest version, built by Doc, and specifically to Doc’s specs…without that bypass switch, to eliminate any kind of warranty issues.
This Super Sound is specific for the 4000 or 4500, but they make it for any of the SD Gp Series and up, also the GPX series (Minelab GPX 5000 metal detector and 4800). You just have to be specific when you order the actual Super Sound.
The newest signal enhancer is actually the one that just recently came out, is actually the Gold Screamer, it’s made by Doc, it’s the newest version, it basically in my opinion has a little bit better quality parts. The DETacc by any means is a great signal enhancer, the Gold Screamer is just the lastest and newest version that’s out.
Now with either of these signal amps, there’s an external speaker that’s available. And that would be this little guy right here, and actually it has a quarter-inch jack that you can actually plug-in to any battery system, or if you’re using the Pocket Rocket system, you’d plug it right into the regulator. But basically this is the high-quality regular speaker. It has two different options as far as mounting, it has this little bracket right here that you can use if you want to hang it from something, or you can actually remove these two Philips-head screws, and it has this clip right here that actually attaches to that, so you can actually hang it at the different angle…or you know, just different specifics on this one. So there’s actually two options as far as mounting on that one. But this little guy right here can be used with either of the (Doc’s) Gold Screamer or the DETacc signal enhancers.
The next system that’s available, getting out another one, is thos guy right here. And what this is…is basically an amplified speaker, and you don’t actually have to use any kind of signal enhancer, this actually has a built-in amplifier in the speaker, so it’s basically an amplified speaker. It has an on/off switch on the top. These are really good for any kind of field instructions, it’s what I actually use for most of my field instructions, for new detector purchases…makes it real easy to demonstrate different things in the field. All of these accessories that I just showed you all have a 1-year factory warranty on them, so you don’t have to worry about that.
There’s also these little guys right here, a lot of people have been asking about these, these are basically little gender adaptors. You can actually adapt a 4-pin to a 5-pin, so you can actually adapt signal enhancers, battery systems, and stuff like that. So you have an old SD system with a 4-pin, you can actually adapt some of those accessories to the GPX. These guys right here, they come as a set, about $22. A lot of people don’t know about them, so that’s why I’m just trying to let you guys know that they are available. A lot of times rather than buying another amplifier to go on your new system, you can actually use these little guys to adapt your older or GP versions to that of the new GPX.
And that should conclude this…like I said, there’s different options…a couple of different signal enhancers, an external speaker that can be mounted on either of these two right here, or the amplified speaker which don’t need a signal enhancer, the speaker’s actually amplified itself, and these little gender adapters.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call anytime! This is Rob Allison, with Rob’s Detector Sales. Thank you!
I posted this video originally to my YouTube channel, on June 1, 2008.
Minelab Signal Enhancers and Speakers
Video Transcript:
How’re you doing? This is Rob Allison with Rob’s Detector Sales. I’ve recently had a lot of questions about signal amplifiers and external speakers and various combinations to use on the Minelab. I figured this would be the easiest way to demonstrate and show you the different types of amplifiers and external speakers that are available.
The first amplifier, or signal enhancer is actually what it’s called, is the one made by Super Sound or DETacc. Now there’s different versions of the DETacc signal enhancer that’s out there. This particular version has basically just a volume control. The older version actually had a bypass switch, which had a tendency to go bad after a certain amount of time of being used. So this is actually the newest version, built by Doc, and specifically to Doc’s specs…without that bypass switch, to eliminate any kind of warranty issues.
This Super Sound is specific for the 4000 or 4500, but they make it for any of the SD Gp Series and up, also the GPX series (Minelab GPX 5000 metal detector and 4800). You just have to be specific when you order the actual Super Sound.
The newest signal enhancer is actually the one that just recently came out, is actually the Gold Screamer, it’s made by Doc, it’s the newest version, it basically in my opinion has a little bit better quality parts. The DETacc by any means is a great signal enhancer, the Gold Screamer is just the lastest and newest version that’s out.
Now with either of these signal amps, there’s an external speaker that’s available. And that would be this little guy right here, and actually it has a quarter-inch jack that you can actually plug-in to any battery system, or if you’re using the Pocket Rocket system, you’d plug it right into the regulator. But basically this is the high-quality regular speaker. It has two different options as far as mounting, it has this little bracket right here that you can use if you want to hang it from something, or you can actually remove these two Philips-head screws, and it has this clip right here that actually attaches to that, so you can actually hang it at the different angle…or you know, just different specifics on this one. So there’s actually two options as far as mounting on that one. But this little guy right here can be used with either of the (Doc’s) Gold Screamer or the DETacc signal enhancers.
The next system that’s available, getting out another one, is thos guy right here. And what this is…is basically an amplified speaker, and you don’t actually have to use any kind of signal enhancer, this actually has a built-in amplifier in the speaker, so it’s basically an amplified speaker. It has an on/off switch on the top. These are really good for any kind of field instructions, it’s what I actually use for most of my field instructions, for new detector purchases…makes it real easy to demonstrate different things in the field. All of these accessories that I just showed you all have a 1-year factory warranty on them, so you don’t have to worry about that.
There’s also these little guys right here, a lot of people have been asking about these, these are basically little gender adaptors. You can actually adapt a 4-pin to a 5-pin, so you can actually adapt signal enhancers, battery systems, and stuff like that. So you have an old SD system with a 4-pin, you can actually adapt some of those accessories to the GPX. These guys right here, they come as a set, about $22. A lot of people don’t know about them, so that’s why I’m just trying to let you guys know that they are available. A lot of times rather than buying another amplifier to go on your new system, you can actually use these little guys to adapt your older or GP versions to that of the new GPX.
And that should conclude this…like I said, there’s different options…a couple of different signal enhancers, an external speaker that can be mounted on either of these two right here, or the amplified speaker which don’t need a signal enhancer, the speaker’s actually amplified itself, and these little gender adapters.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call anytime! This is Rob Allison, with Rob’s Detector Sales. Thank you!
I posted this video originally to my YouTube channel, on June 1, 2008.
Are you going to have the next big find?
Are you going to have the next big find?
With the technology of Minelab’s Pulse Induction metal detectors it’s very possible to find nuggets that have missed for years. What would you do with a 11 Pound gold nugget?
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