ur first nuggie/picker from panning,sluicing,dredging or MDing

2cmorau

Bronze Member
Nov 8, 2010
1,608
1,294
Camptonville, CA
Detector(s) used
GMT&GM3 Whites MXT Pro, Shadow X5, Fisher 1280, OMG and the TDI
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
post your picture of the first nugget

i picked this one up sluicing on the confluence of the north and middle American river about 28 years ago, i was using the A52
cleaning out bedrock that had little bore holes almost looked like an English muffin. processed about 3 small buckets when it showed up, the sun was overhead and everytime i got back to the box i kept noticing the yellow flash, it was hanging up right were the flair hooked up to the sluice on the inside corner. i kept thinking it was a yellow rock like all the other times. i would keep filling up buckets and dump in more material, curiosity got the best of me, picked up the sluice soon as the water cleared i was doin the Walter Huston dance inside, put the box back in the river and went back to work, a D-9 would have had trouble keepin up.
2cmorau
 

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Upvote 0
Kinda looks like a recent break off from the mother rock...not tumbled...

In the 28 years did you ever go back and look for the source?
 

I don't have a picture of mine. I still have it, I just don't know which one it was. I was dredging down at my claim with my 4" about 3 years ago. I was under mining the edge of a 2' boulder that had about 6" of hard compacted gravel between it and bedrock. (I know, undermining is a huge no no but it was a small boulder and I was cleaning under the edge of it so I could roll it onto clean bedrock). I moved the nozzle to the side of it, about 3', to move some loose gravel. When I turned back to the boulder to roll it over there it was, shining on the clean bedrock just below the edge of the boulder. It must have been stuck to the bottom of that boulder and fell while I was turned away.

It was only a small picker, probably about 1/8" size, but it was my first.
 

stefen said:
Kinda looks like a recent break off from the mother rock...not tumbled...

In the 28 years did you ever go back and look for the source?

i go up all the time with friends/club members, so everytime i go up to this place its on my mine all the time. bought a whites GM2 not long after this little guy showed up. its a 2 1/2 hour drive from were i live. haven't found anything like it since. There is/was a large mining operation about mile or two up river. Float, tailings don't know

Takoda, Oragon
any peice you can pick is sweet, makes for easy clean up :hello2: waiting for that day i have to call in a crane or hire a mule team :laughing9:

2cmorau
 

I think this one was my first decent sized piece, a nice fat little picker but it dont quite count since that was from running the trommel up at Thermal City:



I did find a couple nice ones out of the 2nd broad river which would be my first big gold I dug up myself.Will find a pic of those later.
 

Astro

for SC thats sweet
 

my first nugget that i found while MDing in Alaska was a about 3 grams and i sold it and 1 OZ. of fines to get back out dredgeing last year.i have a picture of it somewhere in my computor but i dont know how to attach em! so far this year ,with the weather being as it is, has been a bust for me! but ill get out and the weather will get better soon i hope!
 

$ I now wear around my neck $
 

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this just isnt done here in st.louis, mo. heck theyll kill you for wearing the wrong color shirt/coat, or if they like your shoes! good reason for moving out of the city if a person can afford to anymore! i know i cant!
 

Being the non conformist I am I spent my first year and the early part of this summer looking for gold in areas that were geologically correct or that had good mineralization, but that were not known prior producers. After turning up nothing I decided to hit some known producing areas (a guy can only run on hope so long you know :icon_sunny: ) After coming up empty in both those places I decided that maybe my technique was to blame and ordered some pay dirt to experiment with.

As luck would have it it wasn't my technique but total lack of understanding on where to look that was the problem :tongue3:

My first color:

IMG_20110719_195820.jpg

At least now I know what I am looking for and how to spot it in the pan :hello2:

-Lance
 

Hefty nice picker $1600 oz sweet, wanna go hunting this weekend............................................. for the gold :laughing7:

Lance
keep at it

2cmorau
 

Not my FIRST, but my largest, is 1.68 gram nuggy found in the sluice. Recovered on Butte Creek, just downstream from Forks Of Butte, CA ... North of Magalia, CA. Still looking over the computers for the pic.... TTC
 

terry

coffee is gettin cold :tongue3:
 

This was a spot I hit last year and did real good. I think this was two and a half tanks of gas in the 4". I found an open claim not to far from this spot and grabbed it.Close to 100 pickers in this lot.
 

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2cmorau said:
terry

coffee is gettin cold :tongue3:
OOPS! Sorry, 2c, looked through several hundred pics and can't find the pic. I will see if Judy has it. She records EVERY pic I show her. TTC
 

Jog, Congrats on the find and grabbing that claim. Relally nice looking gold. :thumbsup:
 

Hey Terry
its too bad you can't find it, sure it would bring up some great memories but its not a hard and fact base post, how about your second nuggieeeese :hello2: :laughing9:
i found this one yesterday, that i have been wanting to post on klondikes post, close encounters of bears or something like that, its been about a week lookin for it, was on the other old puter
HH
2cmorau
 

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