nuggethunting

Thanks Guys! Rob

Hey Andy, Ya I have found plenty under a ounce, many very close and then many over. However, realistically the big gold is very rare, thousands of smaller nuggets to probably each one ounce piece. I used to keep spreadsheets each year of nuggets found, numbers and weight so at the end of the year I could look and see not only the number of nuggets found, but what was some of the weights. I remember less than 10% of the total nuggets were from a 1/4 ounce and larger. One Pounder + Club .... Hummm ....

Hey Guys, Thanks for the comments. I'm really loving the Nugget Finder 12" Round Searchcoil on my GPZ 7000. I've done very well with it, so it's hard to put down. I'm still detecting with the GPX 6000 also, but mostly with the GPZ 7000 in the area I'm hunting right now (more hotrocks, greater depth to bedrock and high mineralization). Rob

Hello All, I have a lot of video footage and pictures from earlier this season, mostly around the Summer time. I'm just getting some free time to get some of the stuff uploaded and posted. I figured this would be a nice nugget to post and see right before the Thanksgiving weekend. This piece was found under about a foot of hardpack, caliche gravels. This particular gold nuggets, as seen in the video was wedged in a bedrock crack/crevice. Just makes you think how many years (hundreds, thousands?) this piece has been hiding there. The nugget was difficult to remove from hand tools as we didn't want to damage the piece not knowing the actual size or shape. We ended up using a Hammer Drill with a chisel bit to extract the gold nugget. The nugget ended up weighing right at 1/4 ounce solid. We also found another smaller one, about 1/2 Gram in the same crack prior to this piece. I dug the first smaller one out, but knew it was way too loud of a signal on the GPZ 7000 for it to be that small nugget. Low and behold, we scanned over the spot again and the signal was pretty much just as load as originally. Tool used were the Minelab GPZ 7000, Minelab GPX 6000, Garrett AT Pinpointer, hand tools, picks and the Hammer Drill. Here is a short video below of the gold nugget find and extraction. Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks God we are able to enjoy such a wonderful hobby searching for gold. P.S. If you enjoy these video, Subscribe to our Nuggethunting channel to follow us. Thanks for watching. Any comments are appreciated.

Got it, Thanks! Rob

Hello All, Here is a short video of a very nice crack/crevice we found earlier this year during the Summer Monsoons. Prior to this find, we were just weekend warriors placering various areas and metal detecting for nuggets finding a small handful of nuggets per day. We were not finding anything to really write home about, just the common US nuggets from about a quarter gram and up to 3-4 grams. Working one of these dry creeks, we were hitting a few nuggets in the cracks, but found one we decided to chase down deeper. Normally we don't do this, as digging down several feet or more to bedrock can be a lot of work, especially if you don't recover anything. We had a wild hair, so we decided to do so and this spot paid off very well. As you can see in the video below, the crack started off with two amazing gold nuggets, one was 2.2 ounces solid (just a flat lump) and the other was 1.01 ounces. The gold nuggets were almost side by side in the same crevice as shown. We ended up finding 3-4 smaller gram sized nuggets in the same crevice, but the bedrock popped right up and the gold just disappeared. It was a great moral boost for the Summer season, as it's normally pretty hot and nasty during the Summer Monsoons in the Southwestern US. The tools we normally use are shovels, metal rake, crevice tools, metal detector(s) and pinpointer. We were using the Minelab GPZ 7000 with the new Nugget Finder Z Search 12" coil in this video. The pinpointer we typically use is the Garrett AT Pinpointer (Orange one). Hope you all enjoy the video. If you would like to follow us on Youtube, make sure you "Subscribe" to our channel to see all the new videos. Wishing you all a Happy upcoming Thanksgiving and a wonderful prospecting season. Hope you all have some lunkers under your coils this season! Rob G

Hey Tom and Bob, It would be cool, since the weather is now much cooler, to try to meet up for a hunt. I know Dennis would love to join, we could get 4 or 5 of us together for a day hunt somewhere. It would be cool to catch up, shoot the shit and do a bit of detecting. If we find gold cool, if not, the real treasure would be the catch up of old friends on the goldfields. Rob

Hey Guys, Thanks for all the replies. I guess I missed them all. Funny story to add to this. Years ago, back in the early 2000's time frame, I found a piece very similar. I struggled for years to find a 1 ounce gold nuggets, but found many nuggets and some not too far from an ounce. That being said, I just wanted to be part of the 1 ounce club. I found a nice slug, down deep with the SD2100. I was so excited, I was convinced it was an ounce or just over. I thought, man this is the first one ounce gold nugget, it's about time. I got home and placed it on the scale, dirty still. It was toggling between 19.9 Dwt's and 20.0 Dwt.s (20 Dwt being an exact Troy Ounce). I called my Cousin, I was so excited. He said you have to clean it to be official, so I did. It was 19.8 Dwt's ..... Never mad the club at that point in time. Rob

Hey Bud, Can you send me that $150 .... LOL Here is the way I looked at it, I have so many detectors sitting here, can only use a few of them. I figured they are out of business, I probably won't use it much, so figured it's worth more in your hands than mine. I figured you could get good use out of it and already heard you scored gold with it! The forums here have been super slow, we need to get more great information posted so we can jump start them again. Thanks for your longtime friendship and business. Wishing you a bunch of success with the White's 24K and the GPZ 7000 you will be getting soon. Rob

Hey Bob, Great to hear from you. I just ran into a friend that has been living at your old location. He never knew you lived their prior until I told him. I told him you might have left a treasure behind 😀

Hey Guys, Well its that time of year where most of the US Prospectors are searching for gold, in the Southwest at least. I managed to get out this weekend with some friends, just roaming around some old stomping grounds in hopes to turn up a few bits missed years prior. I was toggling between my GPZ 7000 with the NF 12" coil and my GPX 6000 with the 11" coil. My other two friends were using the GPZ 7000's with the stock 14x13" coils. Later in the day I can across some old piles left from prior mining and got a softer sounding signal and decided to investigate. My friends both had a few dinks now, so I was behind on the gold count. There's a lot of left behind rubbish in this area due to prior mining, hardrock and placering. I figured it was just another deep nail or something, but as I got down deeper, the target was actually on bedrock below the pile. I ended up scratching everything away from the bedrock and pinpointed the target in a crevice or depression (seen in picture below). Low and behold, it was a nice gold nugget, 4.6 Dwt's, just shy of 1/4 Troy Ounce. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least, didn't expect it. I thought this would be good time to see if my Minelab GPX 6000 would hear this target with the stock 11" coil on it. I walked back to my truck, got the GPX 6000 and hiked back to the target location. I figured this would be a crude, but interesting test as there is so much debate on depth and how now many believe the GPX 6000 is better. I fired the GPX 6000, balanced and make sure the EMI was good, then scanned over the target area with the nugget back in it's original location. I couldn't hear a peep of a signal, which honestly is what I figured. I didn't expect to find it, or hear it with the GPX 6000. I played around with a few settings and even had my buddies come over to check it out. They both scanned their stock coils (GPZ 7000 with 14x13") over it, both heard the target, but it was still faint (not a super obvious signal). This is one reason it's hard for me to put down the GPZ 7000, I have found many nuggets at depth, but deal with the heavy, bulky unit. I thought about going back and trying the 14" DD to see what it would have done, but for the most part, I never use the 14" DD, so it wouldn't have really proved anything to me, as I don't use it. It would have been interesting to see what the 17" coil would have done, but I didn't have it with me. I would think the 17" would have heard it. I'm swinging the GPZ 7000 with the NF 12" Round coil 90% of the time, the GPX 6000 about 10% of the time. There are some bedrock gullies I have revisited in years, so I'm looking forward to spending more time there with the 6000 and 11" Mono coil. I think I also might be able to pack the GPX 6000 into a few canyons as I wasn't easily able to do that with the GPZ 7000. Here are a few pictures below. I didn't have a tape measure, but Doc's pick is 22" handle length. I'm thinking between 18-20 inches was the true detection depth, but faint signal for sure.

I'll have to check, not sure if I got much surface pictures. In this gulch, there is a lot of exposed bedrock sections, shallow gravel sections and then places where it drops, not sure how deep. You can only dig so deep by hand to make it worth it, so the deeper sections would require a backhoe or something. In this gulch, some of the deeper pockets have not always been the best, we would pockets on high bedrock, which just puzzles you! Rob

Agree.

Hey Mike, I agree, I love to talk gold, hunt for gold and help others. Any suggestions on getting the forums hopping again, I'm all hears. There are some great guys, like yourself out there, willing to help and share your own experiences. I appreciate all you guys/gals, so I'm all ears on how we can get some good attention back. I agree with some of the other forums, I think they are more concerned about traffic and more members rather than the true content. The smaller forums seem to have the more experienced guys and less BS and non-related topics. I have one major forum, the Gold Prospecting/Metal Detecting one. I don't need 20 others forums to explain how to build a drywasher and such .... LOL

This is a customer that called and asked to sell his detector. Contact him direct - Minelab GPX 4500 gold finder. All accessories included. Lithium battery, harness, manual. New Black widow headphones, 2 chargers- 1 for home, 1 for auto. 2 curly cords for batter to detector. 11” coiltek elite mono coil. External speaker on harness. Darrell Berg @ 530-518-8397 Asking $1800.00

Thanks Bud. Rob

Hey Guys, Been getting a lot of questions on this method of digging, raking and metal detecting. Some have asked if you can do it anywhere and the answer would be Yes, but you might not find anything. I normally only use this method when we have found some nuggets concentrated in a small area, normally in a dry wash bottom. We have dug out nugget patches on the sides of the hills and benches also, but normally when mother nature does the work for you in the washes, you could have better luck in the right spots. We normally use two metal detectors, one for depth due to pockets and deeper crevices and a very sensitive detector like a VLF or now the GPX 6000. In our case we normally use the following tools - Minelab GPZ 7000 with the Nugget Finder Z Search coil 12" Minelab GPX 6000 Metal Detector with the 11" Mono coil Garrett AT Pinpointer (find this one to be the most sensitive to small gold) A couple of good digging picks, we use Apex and Doc's pick with super magnets Large metal rake with metal handle, any other rake is junk and will break quickly Plastic Scoops for recovery Small crevices tools like screwdrivers Plastic straw or narrow hose to blow out cracks/crevices Battery Powered Hammer Drill with Chisel Bit Also, whatever PPE, but we recommend eye glasses, good gloves and even hearing protection if you are using the hammer drill a bunch Hope you all enjoy. Keep in mind, this method has been using since the beginning of placer mining. It's not something we came up with, we just customized it with more modern day tools and technology to make it profitable in some areas to recover more gold. You can also add a good Drywasher and Vac-Pac to the mix if you want to work the gravels for smaller gold. In some areas you might be tossing out ounces of small gold you can't even see.

Hey Guys, This method of digging, shoveling, raking and metal detecting is used by many to find more gold nuggets deeper in gold bearing dry washes. Here is a short video of another small pocket on bedrock we found. Hope you enjoy. We would love for you to LIKE and Subscribe to our Youtube Channel to follow us along on our adventures in the Southwest. God Bless, Rob

Hey Chuck, We have them back in stock now, plus all the accessories like the extra battery, lower shafts, both skidplates and even Doc's new Blue Camo 5 piece cover kit. All can be seen and purchased from this page below - https://www.robsdetectors.com/?s=gpx+6000&post_type=product We would love to do business with you. Rob

Hello All, We now have Doc's new Minelab GPX 6000 5 piece Cover Kits in stock. They are great and fit the GPX 6000 very nicely. Great way to protect your new investment. If you haven't found one yet, we have them here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/?s=gpx+6000&post_type=product Wishing you all great success with the new GPX 6000 metal detector. Rob

Hello All, We now have Doc's new Minelab GPX 6000 5 piece Cover Kits in stock. They are great and fit the GPX 6000 very nicely. Great way to protect your new investment. If you haven't found one yet, we have them here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/?s=gpx+6000&post_type=product Wishing you all great success with the new GPX 6000 metal detector. Rob

Hello All, We now have Doc's new Minelab GPX 6000 5 piece Cover Kits in stock. They are great and fit the GPX 6000 very nicely. Great way to protect your new investment. If you haven't found one yet, we have them here - https://www.robsdetectors.com/?s=gpx+6000&post_type=product Wishing you all great success with the new GPX 6000 metal detector. Rob

Hey Guys, We still have a few left. They are selling super well. Rob

Hey Guys, I still have a handful of guys that have pre-orders, but I have a good sized shipment, so I will have units available if anyone is still searching for a new Minelab GPX 6000 metal detector. We offer free shipping (UPS Ground with full insurance), AZ Field Training and Lifetime support beyond the sale. We also are only one of a few dealers that are offering the 15% Military discount to active/retired US veterans. You must submit proof of service before purchase. Minelab GPX 6000 Metal Detector with 2 Searchcoils - $6000 shipped, or $5100 Military Price You can purchase today online at - https://www.robsdetectors.com/minelab-gpx-6000-metal-detector-pre-order-now/ Rob

Hey Guys, Here is a short video of some nuggets we dug up on the first trip out with the Minelab GPX 6000. The detector is super lightweight, extremely sensitive to small targets and probably the easiest detector to set up and get detecting! Like always, we are here to help anyone with learning how to search for gold. We encourage all questions and comments, as we have a great passion for metal detecting for gold nuggets. Wishing you all the best of success out there! Rob