Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries . . .

[Lanny in AB]

Do you love to chase the gold? Please join me--lots of gold hunting tips, stories of finds (successful and not), and prospecting poetry.

Nugget in the bedrock tip:

I had a visit with a mining buddy this past weekend, and he told me of an epic battle to get a nugget out of the bedrock, and of what he learned from the experience. I thought some of you might like to learn from his mistake.

While out detecting one day, he came across a large sheet of bare bedrock. The bedrock was exposed because the area had been blasted off with a water cannon (a monitor), by the old-timers! It was not fractured bedrock, in fact it was totally smooth.

He was not optimistic at all of the prospects of a nugget. But, for some reason (we've all been there) he decided to swing his detector over that bedrock. After a long time, just as he was about to give up on his crazy hunch, he got a signal, right out of that smooth bedrock.

There was no crevice, no sign of a crevice, nada! So, he had to go all the way back to camp to get a small sledge and a chisel. The signal in the rock intrigued him, but he still wasn't overly optimistic. For those of you that have chased signals in a similar situation, sometimes there's a patch of hot mineralization in the bedrock that sounds off, but this spot, according to him, was sharp and clear right in the middle of the signal, not just a general increase of the threshold like you get when you pass over a hot spot in the bedrock.

Anyway, he made it back to the spot and started to chisel his way into the bedrock. If any of you have tried this, it's an awful job, and you usually wind up with cut knuckles--at the least! Regardless, he kept fighting his way down, busting out chunks of bedrock. He kept checking the hole, and the signal remained very strong.

This only puzzled him all the more as he could clearly see that it was solid bedrock with no sign of any crevice. He finally quit at the end of the day, at a depth of about a foot, but still, nothing in the hole.

An experienced nugget shooting friend dropped by the next morning to see him, and asked him how the hunt was going. My buddy related his tale of the mysterious hole in the bedrock, and told the friend to go over and check it out, and see if he could solve the riddle.

Later in the day, the other nugget hunter returned. In his hand was a fine, fat, sassy nugget. It weighed in at about an ounce and a quarter! After my friend returned his eyeballs to their sockets and zapped his heart to start it again, he asked where the nugget had come from.

Imagine his surprise when he heard it came from the mystery hole!! He asked how deep the other guy had gone into the bedrock to get it. "Well, no deeper" was his reply.

So, here's the rest of the story as to what happened. When the successful nugget hunter got to the bedrock, he scanned the surface got the same strong signal as my buddy. He widened out the hole and scanned again. Still a solid tone. He widened the hole some more so he could get his coil in, and here's the key and the lesson in this story, he got a strong signal off the side of the hole, about six inches down, but set back another inch into the side of the bedrock!!

My unlucky friend, the true discoverer of the gorgeous nugget's resting place had gone deep past the signal while digging his hole!!

Now, of course, a good pinpointer would easily solve this problem. The problem was, my buddy didn't have one, so why would he widen the hole, right? Well, the other guy was the one with more experience, and that's why he did. It was a lot more work, but what a payoff!

So, my buddy's butt is still black and blue from where he kicked himself for the next week or so for having lost such an incredible prize.

Some nugget hunting lessons are harder than others to learn. . . .

All the best,

Lanny


P.S. When in gold country--check the bedrock, regardless of whether it looks likely or not! Mother Nature likes to play games sometimes.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny... I was thinking that as you read along in that book, that it might present you with some topics for discussion here on this thread. I have nothing particular to suggest, but thought it was an idea maybe worth consideration as time goes by. Thankyou for your PM today, wanted to let you know I've read and appreciate your remarks.

Jim.

Hi Jim,

I've had a little time to read some of the information in Ray's book. There are some great ideas and tips in his book! As I do most of my detecting for gold, some of the material would be more specific to what I do than you do as a silver hunter Jim, and then again, some of the descriptions of the geology in his area about gold are not applicable in my areas at all, but they are still very informative, especially if I ever take time in the winters to nugget shoot some of the warmer winter areas of the planet, like California and Nevada. The land of the Frozen Chosen isn't very kind to us precious metal hunters in the winter Jim . . .

At other times, the tips Ray shares are ones that will work for any nugget shooter anywhere.

The interesting side effect of reading his book is all of the memories he's triggered in my brain! It's amazing what you forget when you don't write everything down, but the brain is a marvelous storage device that will open files in a snap when it gets the right prompt, and Rays book is proving to be that for me.

The book so far has been an engaging read, and I love his easy reading style.

So, perhaps I'll get a chance from time to time to write about memories Ray's book triggers or use it to spawn discussions about unique techniques he's come up with on his own.

For example, he does a lot of his hunting in shale deposits which have some of the same characteristics as the slate which predominates many of the areas I hunt and the following memory popped:

I was hunting a "hunted out" spot with my Minelab PI when I got a threshold bump (when the threshold is simply interrupted briefly, not what anyone would classify as a target response). That bump led me to a patch of nuggets trapped in between sheets of the bedrock that both the old-timer's had missed, and that the modern electronic prospectors had missed to boot. In all fairness, they were difficult to hear as they were all standing on end, and they all dropped deeper into the bedrock every time I pried the sheets apart to get to the gold!

Moreover, these nuggets were "on the margins" of the hot spot, or the gut of the channel, running along side it. Ray talks about this a lot, of detecting the narrow areas that run parallel to where the old-timer's worked the main pay line, and he also talks about how to look for thin layers of clay still clinging to the bedrock that was worked by the earlier miners.

I know of several nugget shooters that specialize in detecting these margins, and they've done very well over the years.

All the best,

Lanny

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Lanny in AB]

Really great information, thanks!

Thanks for dropping in. The thread has been contributed to by many generous people over the years, and they've left a lot of golden tips for readers like you to mine.

Take your time and read a bit here and there when you can as the thread is quite extensive now and it takes a bit of patience to surf to what you're looking for.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Jim,

I've had a little time to read some of the information in Ray's book. There are some great ideas and tips in his book! As I do most of my detecting for gold, some of the material would be more specific to what I do than you do as a silver hunter Jim, and then again, some of the descriptions of the geology in his area about gold are not applicable in my areas at all, but they are still very informative, especially if I ever take time in the winters to nugget shoot some of the warmer winter areas of the planet, like California and Nevada. The land of the Frozen Chosen isn't very kind to us precious metal hunters in the winter Jim . . .

At other times, the tips Ray shares are ones that will work for any nugget shooter anywhere.

The interesting side effect of reading his book is all of the memories he's triggered in my brain! It's amazing what you forget when you don't write everything down, but the brain is a marvelous storage device that will open files in a snap when it gets the right prompt, and Rays book is proving to be that for me.

The book so far has been an engaging read, and I love his easy reading style.

So, perhaps I'll get a chance from time to time to write about memories Ray's book triggers or use it to spawn discussions about unique techniques he's come up with on his own.

For example, he does a lot of his hunting in shale deposits which have some of the same characteristics as the slate which predominates many of the areas I hunt and the following memory popped:

I was hunting a "hunted out" spot with my Minelab PI when I got a threshold bump (when the threshold is simply interrupted briefly, not what anyone would classify as a target response). That bump led me to a patch of nuggets trapped in between sheets of the bedrock that both the old-timer's had missed, and that the modern electronic prospectors had missed to boot. In all fairness, they were difficult to hear as they were all standing on end, and they all dropped deeper into the bedrock every time I pried the sheets apart to get to the gold!

Moreover, these nuggets were "on the margins" of the hot spot, or the gut of the channel, running along side it. Ray talks about this a lot, of detecting the narrow areas that run parallel to where the old-timer's worked the main pay line, and he also talks about how to look for thin layers of clay still clinging to the bedrock that was worked by the earlier miners.

I know of several nugget shooters that specialize in detecting these margins, and they've done very well over the years.

All the best,

Lanny

Lanny… glad that you’re enjoying the book and finding some gems of information here and there. I’ve been looking forward to your comments as you work your way through it. We too enjoyed reading his many tales and a good part of that was due to his frank writing style. The other thing that occurred to me when reading Ray’s stories is that what seems like plain common sense to an experienced hunter can translate into great tips to a newcomer.

I’m glad you mentioned it above, because I had wanted to ask you how gold comes to reside in shale. Is it a simple case of gold deposition into bottom sediments eons ago, and those sediments eventually forming beds of shale, but containing gold? Or is there some other explanation you can describe?

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lanny… glad that you’re enjoying the book and finding some gems of information here and there. I’ve been looking forward to your comments as you work your way through it. We too enjoyed reading his many tales and a good part of that was due to his frank writing style. The other thing that occurred to me when reading Ray’s stories is that what seems like plain common sense to an experienced hunter can translate into great tips to a newcomer.

I’m glad you mentioned it above, because I had wanted to ask you how gold comes to reside in shale. Is it a simple case of gold deposition into bottom sediments eons ago, and those sediments eventually forming beds of shale, but containing gold? Or is there some other explanation you can describe?

Jim.

Hi Jim,

I can only comment on my observations and on the limited knowledge I've picked up from talking to other miners and geologists, but the nuggets I've detected in shale and slate deposits were deposited by stream action long ago (when I've been working upper benches), or they were deposited eons ago during the tertiary period by former channels running at that time.

As for gold in place, I've rarely found gold with slate attached, and I've never found any with shale attached. The nuggets are for the most part smooth where I'm working now, but I did retrieve many nice knobby nuggets from slate beds when I worked farther north.

One of the main wild cards in the areas I work are the titanic forces unleashed by the direct action of glaciers or by the indirect action of the ice age when glacial dams burst. When these dams burst, the water carried away everything in its path, house sized-boulders, gigantic pieces of bedrock from the corners of mountains or canyon walls, and these events trended for many, many miles. It's hard to imagine the scale of their effect or the scope of their reach, but I've seen the results, and I've been lucky enough to capture some of the gold as well.

However, due to the fickle nature of the action of the glaciers, it turns into a detective's game to figure out where the gold was transported.

So, some of the nuggets were deposited by direct stream action in a normal manner, and others were deposited by the actions of immense blow-outs. The slate and shale bedrock simply acting as traps.

If I think of anything to add, I'll post it later, but for now, that's what comes to mind.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Lanny... geez it's late again, I've been working in the backyard 'till just a half-hour ago, now its 12.25 and wolfing down dinner while I read your reply. Thankyou very much for a really descriptive overview, certainly that question is answered. Well, who knows... maybe a few other topics related to Ray's book may surface as time goes by.

An unusual circumstance over here is that when the glaciers tore through and retreated, surface silver veins were scoured resulting in float deposition trending in a southerly direction. Incredibly large floats have been recovered, that is a matter of mining history over here. But the interesting thing is that silver float is mostly at or very near the surface and not on bedrock. Documented thousands of pounds have been found sitting right on the surface by oldtimers working the area. The implication is evident, electronic prospectors don't need slow-scanning, deepseeking PI units, the VLF units get the job done and cover ground much more quickly.

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hi Lanny... geez it's late again, I've been working in the backyard 'till just a half-hour ago, now its 12.25 and wolfing down dinner while I read your reply. Thankyou very much for a really descriptive overview, certainly that question is answered. Well, who knows... maybe a few other topics related to Ray's book may surface as time goes by.

An unusual circumstance over here is that when the glaciers tore through and retreated, surface silver veins were scoured resulting in float deposition trending in a southerly direction. Incredibly large floats have been recovered, that is a matter of mining history over here. But the interesting thing is that silver float is mostly at or very near the surface and not on bedrock. Documented thousands of pounds have been found sitting right on the surface by oldtimers working the area. The implication is evident, electronic prospectors don't need slow-scanning, deepseeking PI units, the VLF units get the job done and cover ground much more quickly.

Jim.

Thanks for your response Jim.

There are gold runs here that we call surface runs, and there can be nuggets right on or near the surface as well. That's the completely unpredictable thing about the glaciers; it's like they made up their own rules of deposition while they broke the standard ones.

In fact, I'm heading out this weekend to try to retrace a surface deposit that had .5 to 1.0 gram nuggets right on the surface. I'm taking a couple of different coils with me, smaller coils in case I hit any trash (which I often do when chasing surface deposits), and a larger coil that will allow me to cover more ground while I try to discover which way the surface deposit was trending.

I'm also doing some sluicing this weekend, and I may get a chance to detect some exposed bedrock as well. So, it should be an interesting outing.

In Ray's book, he talks about finding the edges of deposits, the bits left where the miners either quit working or ran out of water, etc. I've spent most of my time detecting bedrock, but now thanks to Ray's tips, I'll be trying to locate nuggets in areas on the margins to see how that works out.

I'll also spend more time detecting where there's no visible bedrock, as the area I'm working has a very solid gold producing history gold in nugget form.

I've finished reading his book, and it's loaded with secrets and tips that any nugget shooter can benefit from, and if that nugget hunter is in California or Nevada, Ray has really given some specific secrets and tips that will enrich and enhance their detecting experience and may lead to a bonanza or two! He's revealed some secrets he learned from some very successful old-timers, and that kind of information is usually hard won and very rarely if ever shared.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

That's terrific Lanny, thankyou for all your feedback. It serves as a reliable and comfortable guide to me. Good luck with your weekend outing, hope you run smack dab into a fat sassy nugget. I think I'm going skedaddle from your thread for awhile and give others a chance to move on to other topics of interest. But many thanks, I appreciate all your patient help.

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

That's terrific Lanny, thankyou for all your feedback. It serves as a reliable and comfortable guide to me. Good luck with your weekend outing, hope you run smack dab into a fat sassy nugget. I think I'm going skedaddle from your thread for awhile and give others a chance to move on to other topics of interest. But many thanks, I appreciate all your patient help.

Jim.

Jim,

You're always welcome on this thread as an honored guest, always remember that . . .

I hit some gold this weekend; got some with the detector and got some with a Keene high-banker (the dredge/high-banker combo unit).

I took some pictures, so if I get a chance this week or next, I'll post some and maybe get a chance for a write-up as well.

All the best, and happy silver hunting Jim,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

'Tis the season . . .

I've got another story or two in the works of nugget finds recovered this spring, some pictures to post, and then I'll only get a hit and miss presence here on the thread as I'll be out in the field chasin' the gold!

I've been having a bit of fun with the little Gold Bug Pro. I figured if a nugget hunter of the caliber of Ray Mills recommended the machine, I should get one and test it out. Well, it sure does find gold, and I love the various graphs/bars that feed information to you while you're hunting.

If you haven't had a chance to read Ray's book (TrinityAU) yet, borrow one, find a way to look at one while you wait to get one of your own. Lots of good information in his book, and he gives up some secrets to boot. Moreover, it's written in a nice easy style that's very understandable. It's very much worth having in your gold hunting library . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Featherdfishead]

Eagerly awaiting your wonderful tales and good luck on the coming adventure Lanny. I've had my GB Pro about a yr and a half and love it. Get yourself a Nel's Coil - The Sharp Shooter's what i got and its a Hot very solidly built coil. Much better than the Fisher coils in my mind, yr longer warranty,and cheaper too.

May the Gold Goddess Bless You!
AjR

 

[Lanny in AB]

Eagerly awaiting your wonderful tales and good luck on the coming adventure Lanny. I've had my GB Pro about a yr and a half and love it. Get yourself a Nel's Coil - The Sharp Shooter's what i got and its a Hot very solidly built coil. Much better than the Fisher coils in my mind, yr longer warranty,and cheaper too.

May the Gold Goddess Bless You!
AjR

Thanks for the tip on the coil, and thanks for the support and encouragement!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

The Nuggets That Almost Got Away:

Little Miss Spring was using her charms on Old Man Winter, and her warm ways were winning the day. The sun was bright, the sky blue, the clouds a fluffy cotton fleet sailing through an azure sea of alpine air. The smell of fresh tree sap and new growth was pungent. Pine and fir scented the gentle breeze. Snow still capped the taller, remote peaks, but the lower elevations had given up their winter quilts for living blankets of fresh green. Among the green, the first butterflies of the season explored the riot of colors produced by mountain blossoms that speckled the lower slopes. The warming air was filled with the music of songbirds, only recently returned. The change of seasons worked a potent magic, a healing spell for any nugget shooter out chasing the gold after a long winter wait.

I unpacked my Minelab, took a few minutes to set everything up, did a system check, grabbed my scoop, pick, the super-magnet on an extendable wand, and I was off. I walked toward an excavated area where about fifty feet of overburden had been removed to expose the bedrock. The area of focus is known for coarse and fine gold; it’s consistency depends on which glacial run gets exposed by the workings.

I walked down a ramp lined on both sides where patient piles of boulders and overburden waited to play their part in the reclamation process. I had the opportunity to detect the workings, as the miners had moved all equipment to another cut farther up the river, and I’d been invited to check the worked bedrock for any residual placer, a way for the placer miners to monitor their recovery efforts.

I used the Minelab X-Terra 705, a little VLF machine that packs a big attitude for finding gold. First, I scanned a large section of bedrock, where they’d cut down from a foot to two feet, depending on the mother rock’s consistency.

However, all I got from my scanning was a super-magnet that looked like a porcupine having a bad hair day, lots of bits of blade, bucket, rollers, and track protruded from it.

I moved on to the area where they’d stacked the pay before running it to the wash-plant, but the results were the same, lots of tiny, magnetic trash.

So, with a bit of a heavy heart, I started to make my way out of the area when I noticed a bedrock drain along one side of the excavation. Since I hadn’t found any gold, I thought it might be worth a shot.

I used the elliptical DD Minelab coil that comes with the 705 Gold Pack to scan the bedrock. Once again, the super-magnet started to resemble the back of a porcupine, but one armed with jagged quills of sharp steel slivers. Then, I got a break in the threshold. It’s important that rookie nugget shooters understand that this was not a traditional positive signal. The one thing that I hope to pass on to any rookies that read my stories about detecting is to form the habit of further checking when the threshold breaks, bumps, or is momentarily disturbed. After all, the detector is telling you that something out of the ordinary is happening, that you need to pay attention; you need to investigate.

Now, this does not mean that it will turn out to be a positive target; it may be a small concentration of ground minerals, a weak response from a hot-rock, etc. But, you need to investigate just to make sure. (Ground mineralization breaks up quickly when it’s disturbed while you repeat your coil sweep at your original height of swing, and hot-rock signals will either get sharper or go dead in the middle of the signal as you remove overburden, and then it’s a fairly simple matter through visual ID [if you’re familiar with the usual suspects of your area] to rule out the hot-rocks. However, if you remove some ground, and the signal gets more defined instead of breaking up, then you need to scan, repeat [by removing some soil], then scan again.)

Well, this is exactly what I did, and the signal got stronger, but it was soft, not rackety, harsh, or overly loud like most of the iron signals had been that day. I kept removing material and noticed that it was tightly compacted clay, little stones, and bits of broken bedrock that were capping the underlying bedrock. I worked into it some more and the signal got louder, but not harsh. It was well defined in the middle, falling off to either side, and it repeated the same type of signal when I approached it on a perpendicular target path. It wasn’t long until I had the signal in the plastic scoop.

I started the “sift, shake, drop” technique to get small portions of the scoop’s contents onto the coil, and as is so often the case, the target dropped into the lowest portion of the scoop as I kept scanning the scoop across the coil, and the target remained in the last bit of material.

When I finally dropped it on the coil, I heard the thump and heard the growl. There was a positive target on the coil for sure. I started to move the bits with my finger (this tells me if there’s a positive target moving or not) until I isolated the clay- covered lump that was giving off the signal. I picked it up, and it was far heavier than a normal stone, and as I’d already ruled out anything magnetic, I knew it had to be something conductive that wasn’t iron. Moreover, it was heavy, so it was either gold or lead (no chance of platinum nuggets where I am).

As there was water in the bedrock drain, I used a bit to clean the target, and very quickly a nice golden shine broke through. I had my first nugget of the day, and it produced a nice rumble in the nugget bottle as I shook it near my ear.

I repeated the process twice more in that bedrock drain to capture two more nuggets, both smaller than the first, yet they were almost twins in size.

All in all, a nice day. As well, it was a great way to start off this May 2015 of the new nugget season. (I’ve already written about my April finds.)

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Congratulations on a fun day in the field Lanny... it sounds like you worked for those nuggets to turn the day into a success. I like that you emphasize the importance of checking irregular threshold changes, it is a good reminder should the wife and me manage some goldhunting this season.

I do listen for such changes with my PI units because it is possible to do so from a practical standpoint here. These units dramatically reduce "VLF ground noise"... and this is one good reason why we can find stuff deeper than would normally be possible with our VLF units. Such noise is produced by a mixture of detectable minerals associated with epithermal silver deposits and both tiny and large iron debris scattered everywhere. But I normally don't practice this method with my VLF units in most areas unless the ground is reasonably quiet. So that is a great tip for all of us to keep in mind when goldhunting.

Incidentally, my friends from Minnesota didn't fare too well in the silverfields this past week but nonetheless they seem to have really enjoyed themselves. They met some of my friends in the area and those guys are very helpful and considerate. Rusty did manage a 10 lb arsenide ore that apparently has some visible silver. He was saying by PM that he intends to slab it and it is possible that he just may get a nice surprise. Sometimes such ores contain "lightning" silver... not even what we would describe as fully dendritic... and these sell at good prices even to dealers. It seems to be something that buyers admire and want to have in their collections. I have plenty of such material but no photo available, so maybe I'll put up something else just to spice up this post.

The other thing I'll mention to you is that Rusty had tried to use a PI unit with a very large coil and it just didn't perform in that environment with the proliferation of iron waste. I've previously mentioned in several articles that if you want to use a PI unit successfully in the silverfields of Ontario, take advantage of either the TDI series or the Garrett Infinium's automated tones. And while I haven't even seen one, I suspect the ATX unit will perform similarly. These units can be readily adapted to a search strategy that can achieve a good measure of iron identification if used properly.

Anyway Lanny... that's about it for now... so much for staying clear of this thread for awhile hmm?? it just isn't possible when you see so much good material and advice emanating from Alberta. Thankyou for a very interesting write-up about your recent nugget hunting experience, I especially enjoyed that highly descriptive, introductory paragraph.

Jim.

​

 

[Lanny in AB]

Congratulations on a fun day in the field Lanny... it sounds like you worked for those nuggets to turn the day into a success. I like that you emphasize the importance of checking irregular threshold changes, it is a good reminder should the wife and me manage some goldhunting this season.

I do listen for such changes with my PI units because it is possible to do so from a practical standpoint here. These units dramatically reduce "VLF ground noise"... and this is one good reason why we can find stuff deeper than would normally be possible with our VLF units. Such noise is produced by a mixture of detectable minerals associated with epithermal silver deposits and both tiny and large iron debris scattered everywhere. But I normally don't practice this method with my VLF units in most areas unless the ground is reasonably quiet. So that is a great tip for all of us to keep in mind when goldhunting.

Incidentally, my friends from Minnesota didn't fare too well in the silverfields this past week but nonetheless they seem to have really enjoyed themselves. They met some of my friends in the area and those guys are very helpful and considerate. Rusty did manage a 10 lb arsenide ore that apparently has some visible silver. He was saying by PM that he intends to slab it and it is possible that he just may get a nice surprise. Sometimes such ores contain "lightning" silver... not even what we would describe as fully dendritic... and these sell at good prices even to dealers. It seems to be something that buyers admire and want to have in their collections. I have plenty of such material but no photo available, so maybe I'll put up something else just to spice up this post.

The other thing I'll mention to you is that Rusty had tried to use a PI unit with a very large coil and it just didn't perform in that environment with the proliferation of iron waste. I've previously mentioned in several articles that if you want to use a PI unit successfully in the silverfields of Ontario, take advantage of either the TDI series or the Garrett Infinium's automated tones. And while I haven't even seen one, I suspect the ATX unit will perform similarly. These units can be readily adapted to a search strategy that can achieve a good measure of iron identification if used properly.

Anyway Lanny... that's about it for now... so much for staying clear of this thread for awhile hmm?? it just isn't possible when you see so much good material and advice emanating from Alberta. Thankyou for a very interesting write-up about your recent nugget hunting experience, I especially enjoyed that highly descriptive, introductory paragraph.

Jim.

​

Thanks for your valuable additions to this thread Jim.

I like your friendly style of dropping in to comment, and then adding something that will help others by elaborating on an item that popped up in a previous post.

You certainly have a profound understanding of how the technology works, and that range of your finds is impressive indeed.

I always learn something when I read your posts; you are a valuable and a welcome contributor.

All the best, and I hope if you get the chance to chase some gold with your wife that you'll find some nice, sassy gold!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hello to all.

Been out hunting more nuggets, and I'm even getting a few.

As I was reading Ray Mill's book Detecting For Gold, I realized that I haven't been doing one of the things he recommends, to hunt the margins, the edges, or the fringes of worked areas, the places where others quit working (ran out of water, out of funds, the price of gold was too low, etc.).

I've been focusing on this lately, and it's been working!

Ray has a lot of great tips in his book, and it's an easy read to understand, but powerful all the same. There's always something more to learn . . .

Plus, the little Gold Bug Pro (light and easy to swing; displays all kinds of valuable information) is turning out to be a gold finding machine to boot! (I even found an old coin [in great shape] while out chasing nuggets with it.)

All the best,

Lanny

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hunting the margins...a great strategy in CO where the big dredges and hydrauliking were done. One of the only situations where detectable gold is "likely" in CO

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hunting the margins...a great strategy in CO where the big dredges and hydrauliking were done. One of the only situations where detectable gold is "likely" in CO

Who knows, maybe one day I'll get to Colorado to swing a coil, and if I ever do, I sure hope I get the privilege of meeting you Kevin. You sure do help a lot of people out on the forums by giving great advice.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Lanny in AB]

Something a little different last week.

I was visiting a claim some guys are working, and they found an old cabin back in the trees while they were clearing ground getting ready to excavate a placer pit. They wanted me to check around the cabin with the detector. So, I did. Nonetheless, all I found were old cans, but then I saw some old boards, older than the cabin, boards resting back under the trees. Those boards were very weathered and worn, likely from the 1800's; the ends and sides were all rounded and soft. So, it appeared the area was home to a double cabin site, the current one all tumbled down left over from the '30's, and the weathered remnants from another cabin's build (you could see where they'd leveled the ground) that was much older. But, that wasn't the most interesting thing.

Looking around back in the trees where the boards were, I noticed two collapsed shafts, and then I found their hoisting bucket! That's a first for me. I mean, I've seen lots of those buckets at historical mining sites, and lots of pictures in museums, but it's the first time I've stumbled upon one in the brush.

There had also been some trenching done at the site, and working in those rocks is never easy work, let alone by hand. So, the miners decided to walk the excavator down to do a little testing. I mean, worked in the 1800's, then again in the '30's, and all by hand? There must have been something there worth the effort.

All along that ancient channel run that parallels the river, there's old drifts and shafts for at least several miles, and the current miners are always uncovering old workings with their big equipment. Sometimes there's old tools, mine cart wheels, squared timbers, etc.

They hit a spot where there was an old drift that was only a couple of feet high (under about twenty feet of overburden), but you should have seen the gold that came out of the bedrock, talk about coarse, beautiful gold! That's what those Oldtimers were chasing I imagine, and that's why they ran that drift through that awful old channel material. Insane digging conditions, but the small stuff weighed in as 4 gram pieces, so I guess that's what kept those old boys going. Who knows what they hit for sure, but one ounce nuggets were common in the area, and with the new equipment that can easily rip down much deeper into the bedrock, the gold just can't hide like it could back then.

I've tried to imagine what it would have been like, digging along on your belly like that, and likely lying in the water to boot while you worked. Those Cheechakos were tough! But there was no government safety net back then; you worked hard or you went without, end of story.

Something different for sure, but very interesting to me.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

It pays to be alert to old shafts that may or not have been covered or partially filled by oldtimers. Aside from indicating good potential for modern miners, we have to be aware of such hazards. Back nearly 30 years ago I came within a few feet of losing my life by backing into an unfenced, deep bedrock cut that was shrouded in brush and not visible until right on the sharp precipice... a fall of fifty to sixty feet into jagged rocks.

Since that time Lanny, I've always kept my eyes open for such, and located an additional eleven uncovered shafts and deep pits within the next few years. One very deep shaft was right at the side of an old, but much frequented mining road by hunters, tourists, and mineral collectors. It wasn't visible until you were right on top of it too... and that is exactly what happened to me. I couldn't hear a dropped stone hit bottom... black as Hades. I promptly informed the mining authority at the time and it was sealed the very next day.

That must have been quite a day in the brush for you, we just never know what may come our way through mere happenstance. Did you have any luck that day finding any gold, relics or coins?

Jim.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Well, still working the margins, the areas around the outside edges of spots worked by others, at the edges of where they ran out of water to work the dirt, etc., etc., and the nuggets are still coming right along.

Interesting this past week in that I found four nuggets with the Gold Bug Pro all in a line, spaced about four feet apart, but running in a very nice line. (I couldn't chase the gold under the overburden the line ran under or I would probably have been able to snag some more.)

This hunting for nuggets in a line, or knowing that nuggets run in lines, is another tip I got from Ray Mill's book, in addition to his tip to carefully check the margins. (He explains it in much more detail than I'll go into here.)

For those of you that are interested, Ray has done a fine job on his book and the things he's shared in his book are putting more gold in the poke for me. I'm sure glad to have his book in my gold hunting library. Compared to Ray, I'm a babe in the woods, and I sure appreciate what he's shared in his book to make me a better nugget shooter with my new Bug Pro.

Oh, and right at the end of the day, I checked high up on the edge of a pit where I normally seldom, if ever would check (learning from Ray), and about three sweeps in, another nugget! Nothing big this time out, but sassy gold all the same.

The season is shaping up great so far, but that means I'll have to write more stories, and that extra time I just don't have right now, too busy chasing the gold on the weekends and working during the week!! (Probably the same problem the rest of you are having too.)

All the best,

Lanny