Santa came early this year

[Gravelwasher]

Got out this last Saturday for a lil half day detect while the weather was nice and the wife was busy shopping.
Had planned to meet up and go to a certain spot with somebody but they fell through. So off to a closer spot and off to a new area I went.
I liked the angle of slope the exposed bedrock and the spot just screamed out at me since last time I walked over it and my group was well ahead so I had to pass it up and catch up with friends.
So I set my pack down and start setting up and tuning the GPZ and by the 3rd re tune it was ok at best, the ground was hot!! Start off as usual dig a few nails and bullets, then a nice 2 gram nugget pops up about 4-6" deep with a nice mellow but full sound. Really hoping this is a new patch to hunt and not the typical one nugget wonder spot..lol So it develops nicely into 5 nuggets and my power on the detector goes into low power alert. I was only intending for a short hunt so I did not recharge after my last full day of detecting. Now faced with a fresh patch and a dying detector.
I shut the wireless module off and jam in the headphones and continue to detect, only 1/3rd of the potential patch being swung over one time. I dig 1 more nugget and a couple pcs of trash, get a loud crisp target sounds shallow like a 22 cal bullet, dig it up and ohhh my bleep bleeping GOD of all things a giant gold blob encrusted in dirt clay reveals itself in my 1st scoop of excavated material from 8-10" down a 35 gram nugget appears.
My hands literally shaking I snap a few photos and text my beautiful wife my prized find!! After years of digging 4 detectors and much faith patience and persistence I finally dug my 1st Ounce plus nugget!!!!

May your gold piles always out weight your trash piles!!! Credit to golden memories weight a ton..lol

[Mudflap]

Wow! That is fantastic.

[oneguy]

well ain't that a hell of a nice sight……!!!!!!!

[arizau]

I see you are proud enough about that nugget to show us but....why did you just tease us about the baby brothers and sisters? We would like to see them too!

Future good luck too.

[Joe-Dirt]

WOW, amazing

[Oddjob]

Banner story and find if you ask me, not enough post like this on here.

Plus it is a great excuse to skip Christmas.

[Gravelwasher]

Alright you asked for more nugget pic's, all I ask is please nominate for banner, Thanks
Here's a couple more pics with the rest of the gang of nugget cousins.

After years of detecting for gold, I could feel a big nugget coming, just wasn't sure if it would be golden...haha But seriously last 2 trips I dug over 60 pieces of non keepers and no gold, so this trip was extra redemption special as all could be for me.

Thanks and I hope you all have a truly Merry Christmas

[Oddjob]

That Zed is no joke.

You gonna go back and hit it again, maybe with another coil.

[Gravelwasher]

Definitely will be re-swinging the whole spot for a few more times.
As coils go I don't have but 1 choice and that coil is not in my arsenal. A friend is swinging the 19" coil over it as we speak for a 80-20 split.
Honestly the 19" is just too big for me for the added 1-2" of penetration it gets on most gold.

[lairmo]

Have a Merry Golden Christmas!!! What new detector are you buying with that nugget?...lol

[Oddjob]

Definitely will be re-swinging the whole spot for a few more times.
As coils go I don't have but 1 choice and that coil is not in my arsenal. A friend is swinging the 19" coil over it as we speak for a 80-20 split.
Honestly the 19" is just too big for me for the added 1-2" of penetration it gets on most gold.

Just figured if you had exposed bedrock and slopes then you have fractured bedrock in areas as well; places for it to fall further down, maybe get mixed up with other items that fell in providing very faint signals with even the 19 or a halo.

But with two zeds assaulting the area, with both coils then you should be able to really clean that area out well, and heck your getting cut of your mates diggings too, now you just need an old timer out there with a GPX 5000 under the same split deal you have with your mate.

Hope you have one heck of a great time and get plenty more.

[Oddjob]

Have a Merry Golden Christmas!!! What new detector are you buying with that nugget?...lol

He has a Zed, so unless the mythical X-Coil or mythical GPZ 10000 comes to life that machine is more than good enough. But sometimes a down grade in price tags can be an upgrade in effectiveness. I have an old 4500 as well as the Zed with both coils, and I have not yet perfected the Zed they way I can run that 4500, in certain ground I beat the Zed with my 4500, but that is about 80% operator error lack of hours on my Zed.

My wife, she does not look back, and will not touch anything shooter other than her Zed now. But she is far better than I and has a great deal more hours than I do.

[Gravelwasher]

The GPX series really does shine as a great versatile detector with many coil options and configuring different settings. I loved my Gpx 5000.
Following Z's around different gold fields, I began not to be able to find targets. I would swing over a Z target in differing settings with an Elite 14" coil and Gpx5000, I could not here or detect the signal change. But on the Z it was enough signal change to stop you to dig.
I dread the next series of GpZ as the price tag is always a shocker. If I was going to get a new machine it will be a minelab when the next generation of deeper more sensitive machines come out with a target ID and ferus detection features. Just a short list for the engineers to work on.

[oneguy]

You guys get done hitting it with the Zeds maybe a couple more rounds with a hot vlf and get the little guys that might be left over....??

[IMAUDIGGER]

Congratulations and nice score. You may get to the point that you have to move some dirt with a tractor or something.