Prospecting Tales

Lanny in AB

Gold Member
Apr 2, 2003
5,670
6,413
Alberta
Detector(s) used
Various Minelabs(5000, 2100, X-Terra 705, Equinox 800, Gold Monster), Falcon MD20, Tesoro Sand Shark, Gold Bug Pro, Makro Gold Racer.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Prospecting stories, tips, a few poems on gold hunting, and all are about chasing the gold. Just fly past the poems if you'd rather read stories.

The Tale of Sourdough Sue

It’s time for the tale of Sourdough Sue,

A right salty gal she was, through and through.
She’d followed the strikes all over the west,
And chasin’ the gold was what Sue liked best.

As summer was fadin’ there came word to her
A rush was a hapnin’, for certain, for sure
Yes, gold had been found, big nuggets, coarse flakes
“I’m goin’”, said Sue, “Whatever it takes.”



It seems in Montanny they had them a strike
And word of a rush, them gold diggers like.
So Sue grabbed her gear and loaded her mules
With beans, bacon, flour and stout minin’ tools

At last she was ready to head on up north
Sue knew t’would be tough, but still she set forth.
Why, week after week it was lonely and cold,
But Sue couldn’t shake the lure of that gold.

The weather degraded the farther she went
The storms she encountered seemed not heaven sent
The trek was slow, the wind howled in the trees
The snow was so deep Sue wished she’d brung skis.



Them passes was chokin’ with oodles of snow
The air in them mountains was forty below
Now Sue weren’t no Pilgrim, but this here was tough
The sun had skedaddled, and things were plumb rough.



Sue needed a spot to ride out that storm
A shelter and fire to get herself warm
Well, off in the spindrift she spied her a light
To Sue there weren't never a more welcome sight.

A cabin it was, for certain, for sure
The warmth that it offered was likely a cure
For cold toes and fingers with needle-like pains
(Escape from that storm didn’t take many brains.)

The cabin was home to one Hook-Nosed Bob Brown
His spirits was up, for they never was down.
As looks weren’t his strong suit, Bob’d loaded his mind
With right clever sayin’s from book quotes he’d find.



Now Sue came a stumblin’ from out of that storm
And Hook-Nosed old Bobby just turned on the charm
He sat Suzie down, right close to the heat
Then went to his stable—those mules got a treat,

Bob stripped off their harness, their cold heavy packs
He rubbed them right down with dry gunnysacks
He broke out some oats, some sweet meadow hay
Then forked them some bedding where both mules could lay.

Then back to the cabin he flew off to check
How Sue was a doin’, but she’d hit the deck
A buffalo hide, she’d found near the bed
And close to the fire, she lay like the dead

Well Bob had read somewheres to let such things lie
(T’was somethin’ on canines, to wake them you’d die?)
So Bob settled in for the last of that night
While the storm shook the cabin with all of its might.

The mornin’ it came with a hushed quiet chill
The wind had died out, but the cold was there still.
Bob built up the fire, then snuck off outside
To check on those mules, who thanked him bright-eyed.

Then back to his cabin he sped to his guest
For Sue was a stirrin’, so Bob did his best.
He threw on some bacon, them beans got a stir
Whatever Bob did, he did it for her.

For up on the wall, on a peg near the fire,
A stockin' was hung! For what you enquire?
T’was Christmas of course, and Bob had desired
A gift from old Santa, just like he’d enquired.

Right here lay a woman, fresh in from the storm
And on Christmas eve, he’d made his place warm.
He’d trusted in Santa to grant him his wish
This Sourdough Sue was a right purty dish.

Well Sue and Bob bonded. His nose wasn’t right,
But Bob was so witty, it fled from Sue’s sight;
She saw there, instead of what others had seen,
The solid-gold-Bob that'd always there been.


So, this is the tale of Sourdough Sue
Who went in a rush to find gold, it’s true.
But Sue wasn't savvy to Nick’s crafty plan
To scoot her off northward to find there a man.

And just so you’re certain, so there's not a doubt
(I’m sure in your mind you’ve figured it out)
In Bob’s Christmas stocking, hung there on his wall
Was a note from old Santa explaining it all.


All the best,

Lanny

 

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Upvote 2
Hanging on the wall.

I had an unforgettable day last season. It provided a unique experience. Moreover, the sun was brilliant. The smell of diesel drifted to where I worked, opposite a group of miners gearing up to test for a large placer operation. I don't know about you, but having been around mining as long as I have, the unmistakable smell of diesel powered equipment is hardwired to placer mining in my brain, whether from a power plant (a screamin' Jimmy or any of its counterparts), rock trucks, excavators, cats or wash-plants.



So, that unmistakable smell drifted to where I was working. Moreover, it was the kind of day any nugget shooter dreams of. It was late in the season so the blood-sucking bugs had been knocked out by early frosts, the sun was still cranking out enough warmth that I shucked my coat to work in my shirt sleeves. There was rim-ice bordering the pools of standing water, drowning portions of the exposed bedrock. The hills were gowned in the deep greens of fir and pine, but the greens were offset by the vibrant fall fashion of yellows and oranges sported by the numerous tamaracks, the slopes yet further accented by the sharper oranges and reds of the alpine bushes dotting the mountainsides.



My workplace was bordered by near vertical canyon walls, where the river, dim eons ago, had swirled around a massive bedrock protrusion that narrowed the canyon, only to allow the ancient river to suddenly widen before narrowing again close to a mile downstream. It was the perfect gold trap design of nature's to let her lazy gold drop from the faster water's velocity.

The term lazy gold was one I embraced years ago; it truly describes gold's attitude for gold truly is lazy in its movements. It always takes the easy way, the shortest path from A to B, the quickest route to the bedrock or boulders when flowing water pressure drops off. Gold being lazy has helped me find many a sassy nugget whether dredging, panning, sluicing, or nugget shooting.

On this day, I was using a combination of the Gold Bug Pro and the Minelab 5000. I would work a spot of bedrock thoroughly with the Bug Pro, then check it with the Minelab, and yes, the Minelab saw gold the Gold Bug couldn't. Nevertheless, I'd far rather swing the Bug Pro or my little X-Terra 705 than the beast Minelab calls their GPX 5000, however I have to acknowledge the 5000's programs that ignore patches of extreme mineralization within the bedrock, patches the Bug Pro isn't programmed to ignore. So, there's give and take with both types of machines, the lighter VLF's are easy to swing all day, the 5000 hinders you with either bungees or poles to redistribute the weight, but thanks goes to my friend Doc in Las Vegas for his light side-mounted battery pack that eliminates the cumbersome curly cord wired to Minelab's backpack power system. Nonetheless, lighter VLF's combined with Minelab's superbly engineered pulse machines really are a potent one-two punch when going the rounds against the extreme bedrock or patches of super-hot ground mineralization.

I broke some of the rim-ice just for the fun of it knowing that soon enough ice would stop being a fun novelty but only a grim reminder of short, cold days accompanied by long, dark nights, all part of Old Man Winter's unforgiving personality. He really is a harsh tyrant I hate greeting! I'd rather find ways to avoid him than embrace him, I retreat to warmer locations when I can. However, his counterpart, the warm Lady of Summer gives long hours of daylight (I can easily detect until around ten p.m. in the summers) that keep me balanced and sane as I look forward to her return. As I worked last fall, that brief moment when summer battles winter for the inevitable, I ate up every minute of detecting, knowing it would have to keep me going through the winter.



I noticed a sort of short cliff of bedrock that dropped into an ice covered pool. Moreover, there were three short bedrock cliffs that cascaded into the pool. I'd already scanned the upper two portions, retrieving several sub-gram chunks of gold. I'd also tested those areas with my gold pan to check for pay good enough to set up a high-banker, but no go. So, I focused on the cliff that ringed one side of the pool. It was a sketchy spot for sure as the ice wasn't strong enough to support my weight. If I slipped, I'd take an icy plunge into about six feet of water. I didn't want that because it's a huge zero on the fun scale! Plus, the ice was melting fast as the sun's rays poured into the excavation.

I worked along the top of the cliff but got no signals except for rackety bits of blade and track, with the occasional chunk of square nail thrown in for variety. The meters on the Bug Pro said no to those targets, the meters only proving what my ears were telling me. For those of you that detect for gold, you're familiar with what I'm saying, for those of you new to the hunt, once you've learned the sounds your detector makes as it hits on various targets, you learn to tell what a signal is (or come very close to telling) by the sound the target makes. Point in case, larger pieces of steel or iron give a loud blast that's easy to hear, but, there's always exceptions. I have a story somewhere on my main thread when I worked an entire day detecting an old placer pit and found nothing but iron and steel. Moreover, chunks of cast iron on the bedrock made a terrific racket! Nevertheless, the day almost over, I got a real screamer of a shallow target that sounded exactly like a fat piece of cast. I was tired, hot, thirsty, so I almost walked away in disgust from digging trash all day long. However, somewhere in the back of my brain a little warning bell rang, a memory that anyone serious nugget shooter should always check each target, so I went to work digging the target. What popped out still haunts me. It was a beautiful rounded, fat gold nugget. I couldn't believe it. It rang up just like the cast I'd dug before. So, even with knowing the sounds my detector makes, I still verify the target.



Well, I slid the coil down the sides of that little cliff. Nothing, not even bits of track and blade. I was getting discouraged, but there was one spot on the wall's drop off where the rock was split. It was tough to get to, but by balancing on a bit of that face, I got a sketchy foothold, just enough to swing the coil over the spot. Bam! A screamer!! What the heck? It sounded just like a fat piece of steel or iron. The day before I'd found the tip of a pick, broken off and imbedded in the bedrock, that sounded exactly the same. Now my problems began. The ice now floated in little white plates across the surface of the pool. I'd get no chance of it stopping a target popped from the side of a cliff, and the pool was far too deep to retrieve any target it swallowed.

Looking carefully at the area, now that the ice was gone, I saw the submerged edge of a small bedrock ledge running around the cliff's bottom. I had a choice to make. Was it worth it to test that shelf with my weight? There would be no second chance. If I put all of my weight on that narrow shelf (about half to three-quarters the width of my boot at most), there was no turning back as the next thing would be an icy dunk.

I walked back around the rim, reached down and gingerly passed the coil over the spot again to hear the same loud signal, but this time I scrubbed the coil as close to the vertical face as I could. On certain passes, the meter now jumped up around the 60 range! What the heck was this? I'd found lots of nuggets the previous day with none of them hitting above 50 on the scale. I scanned and scrubbed again. The meter stayed rock-steady at 60. Was this a chunk of some other conductive metal? I knew it wasn't aluminum as that metal hits far higher on the scale. Well, those latest scans cemented my resolve. I would test that submerged shelf and hope the water wouldn't fill my boots.

Stretching out about a yard, I put light weight on my front boot. It held, so I stepped down. Nothing slid off. No rock shifted. It was commitment time as once I left the side of the pool, the only choice was to go forward. I balanced one side of my body against the cliff edge and stepped forward. The shelf held. I edged out to the spot where the signal was. (I don't think I'd have made it out there with the Minelab, too much of my weight off balance.) I finally arrived. This was tricky work, not for the faint of heart, or for those crazed by gold fever as I so obviously was. It was quite the balancing act to slip the plastic scoop from my back pocket as I leaned into the wall, and then try to find a way to swing the coil over the target.

The signal screamed again. I poked the scoop (I always use a plastic scoop with a pointed end for this purpose.) into the crack and very carefully wiggled it around. Some material slid out, and I scanned again. This time the signal was louder, and it still rang true on the meter at 60. I won't bore you anymore with how I got the target in the scoop, but I did get one foot soaking wet during my contortions to capture the target. And I'll spare you how I finally got the scoop's contents to reveal what it held. However, I will tell you that it was a nugget very close to six grams (I have yet to host its picture on my photo site, but I will. I must be getting lazy like the gold!). The nugget looked as if someone had scooped or punched a hollow into its face! Perhaps that was why it rang in at 60 on the scale? I have no idea really; nevertheless, I made it safely to the other side of the pool with a wet, icy foot but with a warm, sassy nugget in the poke as well.

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. I just realized that both the nugget and I wound up hanging on that wall!
 

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Another great tale Lanny! :occasion14:
 

I really enjoy your stories and pictures Lanny. It sure keeps the fever nice and hot during the cold winter months here . I'm just wondering what size of coils do you use on your gold bug pro?
 

I really enjoy your stories and pictures Lanny. It sure keeps the fever nice and hot during the cold winter months here . I'm just wondering what size of coils do you use on your gold bug pro?

Hi there, and thanks for your kind comments.

The 5" Double-D round and the 5X10 Double-D elliptical. I did get so that I was using the 5X10 more than the 5", but I had a lot of area to cover. The little 5" will get into tighter spots than the elliptical, but the longer nose of the elliptical will slide down deeper into crevices, so there's pros and cons. The tip of the 5X10 is very sensitive I've found.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Hi there, and thanks for your kind comments.

The 5" Double-D round and the 5X10 Double-D elliptical. I did get so that I was using the 5X10 more than the 5", but I had a lot of area to cover. The little 5" will get into tighter spots than the elliptical, but the longer nose of the elliptical will slide down deeper into crevices, so there's pros and cons. The tip of the 5X10 is very sensitive I've found.

All the best,

Lanny

I run both of those coils for my GB pro as well and you are right the tip on the 5 x 10 is very sensitive. I use it to pin point my targets sometimes. I recently added th 13" ultimate DD coil meant for the omega and I have been very impressed with it. It does a pretty good job with small targets at depth.
 

I run both of those coils for my GB pro as well and you are right the tip on the 5 x 10 is very sensitive. I use it to pin point my targets sometimes. I recently added th 13" ultimate DD coil meant for the omega and I have been very impressed with it. It does a pretty good job with small targets at depth.

Thanks for the response and the feedback as there's always more I can learn. I'm not familiar with the 13'' coil you're referring to. Who makes it, and tell me a bit more please.

All the best, and thanks,

Lanny
 

I got a 13x14 Nel for my GB, through eBay and mailed from Eastern Europe. The transaction worked out pretty good, where I got the coil fairly quickly and was not charged anything from Canada customs. I am pretty sure it is a real NEL (LOL). I don't really notice any loss of sensitivity on small targets and think I get better depth than with the smaller stock coil. The downside is getting the monster close to targets where there are big rocks, trees or I have dug a narrow hole. However, it could be that my definition of "small" target is different than someone else's - some folks are finding some pretty tiny pieces and I have not yet found that size with either coil.
 

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I got a 13x14 Nel for my GB, through eBay and mailed from Eastern Europe. The transaction worked out pretty good, where I got the coil fairly quickly and was not charged anything from Canada customs. I am pretty sure it is a real NEL (LOL). I don't really notice any loss of sensitivity on small targets and think I get better depth than with the smaller stock coil. The downside is getting the monster close to targets where there are big rocks, trees or I have dug a narrow hole. However, it could be that my definition of "small" target is different than someone else's - some folks are finding some pretty tiny pieces and I have not yet found that size with either coil.

Many thanks for the information!

All the best,

Lanny
 

Thanks for the response and the feedback as there's always more I can learn. I'm not familiar with the 13'' coil you're referring to. Who makes it, and tell me a bit more please.

All the best, and thanks,

Lanny

Here's some info on the coil Lanny. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. It was recommended to me by someone on another forum. It's worked really well for me in the parks but I haven't had a chance to try it out in the bush. Hopefully this spring.


Detech 13 Ultimate DD Search Coil (Teknetics Omega/Gamma/Delta/G2) for Sale- Kellyco
 

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Some thoughts on detecting:

I had the chance to detect an abandoned placer pit this past summer. There was a lot of exposed bedrock, and everything sure looked good, but the gold just wouldn't come out to play as I worked my way down-slope.

I worked right up to the standing water in the bottom of the excavation, and all of my work only turned the magnet on the end of my telescoping wand into a porcupine on steroids from finding all the little bits of track and blade left by the excavators and dozers.

The pit sloped down at about a thirty degree angle as that's how the bedrock sloped away from the mountain. Originally there was a heavy covering of glacial clay, gray stuff mostly, with a top covering of yellow wide-channel-run with some heavily oxidized pockets of cobbles. But what that top channel held is a story for another day.

So, I was down in the bottom of the excavation, and I took a breather. It was a warm afternoon, not hot, but pleasant. There were just a few tiny white clouds, little cotton puffs sailing high in the cobalt sky far above the tallest peaks. The song birds were singing a wondrous, alpine symphony. The noise of the rushing river floated down to me the never-ending sound of its liquid current of life. On the slopes above, the pines and firs formed a comforting backdrop for the brighter, fresher greens of the Tamaracks. How was I so lucky to be in such a beautiful place.

After my little break, and after a cool drink of water, I looked back upslope in the excavation and noticed a slight rise in the bedrock, a mini-ridge if you like, about a third of the way from the top edge. I'd collected so much metal there on the way down that rather disgusted, I'd moved on quickly just to get away from the mess. But now that I looked back at it, it got me thinking. "If I was a piece of gold, that would sure slow me down, if not outright stop me." So, back upslope I went.

I had the Minelab 5000 with the little 5 inch sniper coil, a great match for the bedrock I was working. There were hot and cold zones that fluctuated quite rapidly in the bedrock, and the chunks of magnetite were prolific in their pea-sized plenty. That little coil ignored everything except metal, and soon I was building a fresh beard on the super-magnet.

After I'd cleared the ridge of the loud, obvious targets, it was time to slow down, to start scrubbing the ground and to investigate every little break in the threshold. There was a spot that still had some clay trapped in a little pocket and the threshold broke. I scraped off about an inch of the clay and scanned the spot again. This time the threshold break was a weak, repeatable tone, one there when I scanned from a 90 degree crossover as well. I couldn't imagine it would be iron or steel as the capping of clay seemed virgin.

I scraped as much clay and as many small stones out of the pocket with my pick as I could, then scanned again. This time the signal was solid, but still very soft. As I was now at bedrock, with no more covering of clay, my brain was telling me it was likely a small target, whatever it was. I chipped at the bedrock and worried the magnet in the pocket, but no clinging iron or steel this time. Scanning again produced the same soft tone.

I took out a chisel I always pack along when working bedrock and gently chipped away at the edges of protruding bedrock. The signal was marginally stronger this time, but still soft. So, I went to work on the pocket with the chisel and popped out a bunch of broken bedrock from the bottom. There was nothing in the hole but a clear signal in the pile. Sifting and dropping bits of the pile onto the coil, I soon heard the target hit. As I moved the material around on the coil with my finger, I heard the target slide. A bit more maneuvering produced the nugget. It was a round little beauty, about the size of a BB-gun BB, thus the soft sound I'd heard in the bedrock.

I wish I could say I'd liberated more nuggets that day, but that was all there was, and the only reason I found it was because it got hung up by that slight change in the slope of the bedrock. Another lesson learned that payed off in a big way later that same season, but that's a tale for another day.

All the best,

Lanny
 

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Thanks for getting me through Michigan winter luv it
 

Thanks for getting me through Michigan winter luv it

You're very welcome, and I completely understand your winter blues.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Lanny , you should write a book about your experiances , that was a great read . Thanks
 

Lanny , you should write a book about your experiances , that was a great read . Thanks

Many thanks for taking the time to drop in to leave a kind comment. I really appreciate it as a recognition for the time it takes to write the stories.

All the best,

Lanny
 

Black Bedrock Gold

This past season, I had the opportunity to work what I can only describe as an old placer cut. It wasn’t anywhere near the size of a regular placer pit, and the cut itself was only about fifteen feet deep, but however they’d figured it, they’d hit bedrock at that depth, yet the other excavations in the area had to go much deeper, 30-45 feet, to find that black bedrock.

I’d walked and driven past that cut numerous times on my way to a couple of larger workings upriver. So, one day when the clouds were keeping the summer day cooler, I decided to drop into the cut and have a sniff around with the GPX 5000 and the Gold Bug Pro.

In reference to the two detectors, and as I’ve been asked about this before, I’ll explain why I pack two very different machines when I’m nugget shooting. I don’t think anyone would argue that the GPX 5000 is a fantastic gold machine, and I have a tiny coil for it that’s a true sniper on small stuff, so why get outfitted with two different detectors when one will do the job? Well, the Bug Pro is a VLF machine, so it’s ability to ID iron is a real asset (vs. a pulse machine like the Minelab GPX which has quite limited ability to deal with iron vs. a top-of-the-line VLF, and as well, the Minelab has no meter system to give visual feedback). As I do a lot of detecting where big equipment has shed all kinds of metallic slivers and chunks, the iron ID muscle of the Bug Pro is a huge plus. That ability to ID certainly comes in handy in spots like I was detecting that day, and in severe cases where there are heavy concentrations of bits of steel on the bedrock, I can sometimes find gold (if I know there’s a good chance that it’s shallow) by using the onboard discrimination circuitry of the Gold Bug. (The little Minelab X-Terra 705 is great for this as well, and has done the same job.) In reference to discrimination mode, I believe everyone knows that depth is lost by using it in gold-bearing locations, but sometimes if there’s overwhelming trash, a loss of depth is secondary, especially when working bedrock. I mean, I know I can punch much deeper in all metal mode, but all metal means exactly that, and when bucket and track have continually worked a spot to grab dirt from the surface of the bedrock, the resulting signals can drive anyone crazy, especially me when I’m tired and getting cranky (It’s not just the bears that get cranky in the mountains!). Yes, a magnet helps clear an area, but if there’s clay present, which there always is where I’m currently working, the steel signals that are trapped and covered by it become a recipe for detecting insanity.

The day was pleasant. The damp, earthy smell of clay permeated the cut. A small seep was trickling water over the bedrock as it wound its way to a pool at the lowest part of the excavation. With the water wetting the bedrock in summer, a small squadron of tiny brown and orange butterflies were taking advantage of the free drinks. Every once in a while, a massive bluish-green dragon fly buzzed me getting a closer look at my face for some reason, its opalescent eyes and wings testament to Nature’s artistic genius; its flight capabilities testament to the insect’s unhindered mobility of flight or direction, an ability that significantly outperforms any of man’s weak attempts. The sky that day was partly cloudy with very little breeze, and the green timbered twin valleys I could see above the lip of the cut veed gently and beautifully into the main valley evidence of yet another marvel of Nature’s design genius.

The sides of the cut were littered with boulders of varying sizes. The bedrock itself sloped upward both directions from the pool, with the northern portion hosting a comb-like rise of friable rock, standing plates oriented perpendicularly to the bedrock base, sheets that varied from about a half inch to an inch and a half in width. There were pockets of clay either resting intact on the bedrock throughout the pit or ones whose motion was frozen in time when they’d oozed down the sides of the cut like tan, smooth, miniature glaciers.

I took the Bug Pro from the carrying bag and assembled it. It’s an nugget-shooting outfit that goes together in a hurry. It’s only time consuming feature, which is minimal, are the twin screws that attach the control box to the shaft handle. I turned the machine on and checked to ensure the batteries were good, then I started for the southern end of the cut. After I’d used the ground grab to balance, I started scrubbing the bedrock withTHE STOCK elliptical coil (I always buy coil covers for this reason).

The bedrock was quite smoothed off at that end of the cut, but I noticed there were pockets of clay deeper than the ones located at the pit’s center, or indeed at the northern end. I slowed down and scanned carefully. Not long after, I got a nice signal where a pocket of clay was trapped between two large plates of bedrock whose sides protruded just enough to stop the machines from getting it. By way of explanation, when a large placer operation is running, they are always concerned about volume; as well, they usually have excavators and dozers preparing a new cut, so time to chase small pockets is a luxury they don’t have, especially this far north where it’s always a race to get the gold before Old Man Winter ruins the party.

But, I’d better get back to my story. I took out my pick and scraped off about an inch of clay from the pocket’s surface, scanned it again, and the signal was much louder, but still displayed no ID on the signal meter. I scraped off more clay, scanned again, and this time the meter jumped into the sweet spot and held steady. At this point I knew it was either gold or one of the few hot rocks clever enough to act like gold. I removed more of the clay, scanned again, but the signal was gone. It was in the pile resting on the bedrock. I scooped the pile and ran it over the coil—a nice yelp! It didn’t take long to sort the target out, and a sassy 2.2gram nugget was soon in my hand. I pulled out the little plastic bottle from my pocket and gave that nugget a new home.

Continuing on the same line I hit another pocket of clay, smaller than the first. This time the signal was very sharp, sweet, and it boosted the meter into the sweet zone right away, so I knew the target had to be close to the surface. I liked my chances. Out popped a round nugget that hit the scales at just under two grams. It joined its brother in the bottle, and as I swirled the bottle those twins produced a nice golden growl. I kept at that end of the cut for a while; I even moved some of the boulders to see if anything was hiding under them, but I got blanked. So, I headed back the opposite way and came upon a little pool of water off to the side of the cut. There was a lot of clay in the area, so I took my time. Soon, I’d captured pewee; he weighed in at .6 of a gram, but he had a buddy too that had been on a workout program of some kind for he hit the scales at just over a gram.

I slowly kept working the bedrock until I hit the edges of the main pool. At this point I’d like to elaborate on another nice feature of the Gold Bug Pro; as the coils are waterproof, I slid the coil into the water. Moreover, because I had my mining boots on, I followed the coil to detect the bottom of that water. I was rewarded with two small pieces that totaled just under a gram. No matter where I went after that, there were no more signals, that is, until I swapped my Gold Bug Pro for the Minelab.

I went back over the bedrock with the GPX trying to see if I’d missed anything, and the Minelab did not disappoint. It sniffed out some deeper pieces that were down between plates that the Bug Pro didn’t have the punch to find. By the time I was done detecting, I had just over 8.5grams in the bottle, and what a growl those pieces made when I swirled the nuggets in the bottle by my ear. (In case you’re wondering why ISPIN the nuggets in the bottle, that tradition started many years ago way up north with my prospecting buddy that’s in his 80’s now. It was a thing we used to do and laugh about while we listened to the rumble of those nuggets in the bottle [our immediate area only has flour gold, nothing that would rumble or growl in a bottle in any way]. I love to keep that tradition alive.)

So, I crawled out of the cut, headed to my quad and pulled a couple of pans out of the rack, grabbed a shovel, then climbed back down. That comb of bedrock had me intrigued. Even though it hadn’t sounded off with any nuggets, the orientation of those plates made me wonder at how they couldn’t work as a gold trap for finer gold. Well, after prying those sheets apart, then scraping them off and washing any clay and sand into the pans from them, I panned out a couple of grams of fine gold. It took quite a while, but with the pool of water handy, it saved time hauling it to the river. The gold stopped however where the plates died as they splintered off the hard, solid bedrock underneath, for there were no more spaces between sheets to trap any gold. I’ve run into this lots of times when working friable rock. It’s weathered and loose where it’s been exposed or hammered by stream action, but then it turns solid and un-fractured as you go deeper. Regardless, it had been a while since I’d crawled out of a hole with about a quarter of an ounce of gold, and it felt right good, yet the summer only got better from there.

More to follow as I find the time, and all the best,

Lanny
 

Great story Lanny! Those growlers are music to a miners ears!
 

Great story Lanny! Those growlers are music to a miners ears!

As I explained the history of that tradition in my story, it most certainly is for me for sentimental and nostalgic reasons.

All the best, and thanks for the compliment,

Lanny
 

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