Out-law-digger, welcome from Salinas, CA ,to the hobby and the forum. I've detected a bit up in the Redding to Red Bluff corridor over the years. You are in a pretty isolated area , population wise (needless to say). So ... not sure if there's hobbyists up that way that are vocal-types. I know there's some nugget guys up that was, but not sure of coin/relic guys.
In researching some stuff, a few years ago, up that way, I met several hunters in the Redding to Red bluff corridor, but got the feeling they were not too hard-core . Eg.: Simple school yard and lake-beach type hunters. And a few others that were strictly nugget prospector types. There is a dealer in the Chico to Oroville area (I forget exactly where), who deals mostly to nugget enthusiasts. But he may know of hunters (via his customer contacts) from the Redding area. If you go to each of the major manufacturers dealer listings (@ their website), you can see what dealer is in your northern CA area. And see if they know of local hunters in your Redding area.
