UAV on 29 Palms CA prospecting trip

nugget7 · Mar 21, 2016

Using my drone prospecting at 29 Palms California.
UAV gold prospecting

motohed · Mar 22, 2016

Cool But i'm to cheap too spend alot on something like a drone . I live in New England and there is'nt much Gold to find just sitting on the ground . I guess it would be good for looking for the right structure . Just not worth it too me .

nugget7 · Mar 23, 2016

Thanks for your comment. I sure understand that these drones are not useful for prospecting in all situations. But out here in the West with lots of open BLM land it can be a real timesaver and definitely does help locate areas to then investigate on foot.

Alex Burke · Mar 23, 2016

If the drone was bigger, could dig and could bring me dirt from far away places I think you could be onto something here. I can picture a predator drone with a huge bucket and drill on the front bringing me a few tons of dirt to pan

Hard Prospector · Mar 23, 2016

I was prospecting up a desert wash in the Mojave last year when I noticed one of those things following me up the arroyo and getting real close. I pulled my super redhawk and took aim. It spun a 180 and was outta there and lucky for it I didn't have my Mossburg slung or I would have been very tempted ta let loose! There's only so much exposed pay and spying is spying, don't care how you go about it.

cpomike13 · Mar 25, 2016

It was just being "neighborly"

Hard Prospector · Mar 25, 2016

cpomike13 said:
It was just being "neighborly"

It was almost being "shot"

Hard Prospector · Mar 25, 2016

Its not just the prospecting, I'm seeing people using those things in other ways too numerous for this venue. The one that really burns my @$$ are those knuckle heads that are starting to use them before and during hunting season. I've been deer hunting for a very long time and most every fall tag out. Now hunting in the west(especially Ca) for deer is getting tough I attribute my success to the hundreds of hours of constant year-round scouting as in "boots on the ground" with a plan. These lazy fools are driving out to the national forest a week before the season opens, parking on fire roads, and flying those things all over low, through meadows and up over ridge lines. Scarring the dear out of their beds, away from water sources and out of patternable travel routs. You know, these are the same type of door knobs who won't fill in their holes after drywashing all day on a club claim.
Rant complete

nugget7 · Mar 27, 2016

Already a couple of cases where people have done just that. My understanding is so far in the one case that was settled the owner of the drone received full compensation for its destruction.

So far I've seen the Google video car twice. They use this the video of streets/homes and locations to incorporate it into their mapping program. So what would happen if you saw the Google car with the camera equipment on the roof going by your private property or let's say going over your claim on BLM land? I think we all know if you took a shot at the car or the camera equipment on top, you'd be behind bars pretty quick.

This is not to say that there are not a lot of knuckleheads out there that shouldn't be using a drone. But, I know we can all say the same thing about people driving their own cars. That doesn't mean a somebody cuts me off on the highway I to take a shot at them.

Many major cities especially in Europe and England have cameras on almost every street corner and every subway station! So if you don't want somebody filming what you're doing out in the public, do it in private!

Alex Burke said:
If the drone was bigger, could dig and could bring me dirt from far away places I think you could be onto something here. I can picture a predator drone with a huge bucket and drill on the front bringing me a few tons of dirt to pan

Alex Burke · Mar 27, 2016

nugget7 said:
Already a couple of cases where people have done just that. My understanding is so far in the one case that was settled the owner of the drone received full compensation for its destruction.

So far I've seen the Google video car twice. They use this the video of streets/homes and locations to incorporate it into their mapping program. So what would happen if you saw the Google car with the camera equipment on the roof going by your private property or let's say going over your claim on BLM land? I think we all know if you took a shot at the car or the camera equipment on top, you'd be behind bars pretty quick.

This is not to say that there are not a lot of knuckleheads out there that shouldn't be using a drone. But, I know we can all say the same thing about people driving their own cars. That doesn't mean a somebody cuts me off on the highway I to take a shot at them.

Many major cities especially in Europe and England have cameras on almost every street corner and every subway station! So if you don't want somebody filming what you're doing out in the public, do it in private!

I was just kidding in my post but I will add that I'm into photography and cinematography a little and could see using one for a cool shot in a documentary etc but in general think they are misused, and when people invade people's perceived privacy or fly over their property I think people should be able to shoot them down haha.

Hard Prospector · Mar 27, 2016

Its just the way it is these days, lazy people wanting instant gratification with the least amount of effort. I'm sure most people fly these things without ill intent but there are plenty of schemers out there too. A fella posted in the drywashing forum not to long ago that he was going to "camo-up" his machine. When you spend a week in the desert sampling 3 dozen spots and only one shows decent color, it would sure hurt to have it poached by some interloping propeller head. Suppose I should go buy some paint or switch to night ops.

Reed Lukens · Mar 28, 2016

Hard Prospector said:
I was prospecting up a desert wash in the Mojave last year when I noticed one of those things following me up the arroyo and getting real close. I pulled my super redhawk and took aim. It spun a 180 and was outta there and lucky for it I didn't have my Mossburg slung or I would have been very tempted ta let loose! There's only so much exposed pay and spying is spying, don't care how you go about it.

For those of you that aren't familiar with UAV, watch nugget7's video towards the end where he explains that he is only 150' up... Look at the size of the cars, they are so small that they are almost indistinguishable, So... what that means is even though you pulled your gun, the operator couldn't see either you or your pistol, and that's the BIG CLUE here for all of the anti-UAV people who think they are spying on you. Unless it's 20 feet from you or closer, your face can't be clearly seen. You guys need to understand that the Anti-UAV campaign being put on by the media greenies is full of the same lies that keep us Gold Dredgers out of the water here in California. It's a bunch of bs being put out by the media to try and keep UAV's out of the publics hands and only available to the elite media for their news footage. The fact here is, no matter what you are saying or maybe blowing totally out of proportion HP, you need to understand that the UAV operator seeing you draw your pistol is impossible :evil6:

If you would have been lucky enough to hit it, you would have been shooting into the air and still using your pistol in an unsafe manner. "I shot a bullet into the air... And where it lands I care not where..." lol. Shooting someones personal property out of the air simply costs you money and jail time. I realize that this wasn't your intention but I'm just trying to help educate people on the media's anti-UAV campaign, just like with their anti-mining campaign, it's all a bunch of lies and bs. Maybe 1 out of 1000 operators make the news. There were 3000 lost California dredgers when Brandon got arrested.