The Honker Patch...


Guest goldstudmuffin

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Guest goldstudmuffin

Hi Rob and All,

Lil Bro Scotty is working today so I headed out by myself to the newly discovered "honker patch"... I had enough by noon and was satisfied finding these 2 nuggets that weight 2.4 dwt. I know there are more nuggets it just needs more digging. I'll be adding pictures of the nearly 11-1/2 ounces found so far... Rob, I'm not sure whether to add them to this post or start a new post for the other nuggets? If you haven't seen it yet stay tuned to see some big honking nuggets.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

I've now added clen pictures.

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Stud:

Man...all I can say is WOW!!

So glad your on a good patch.

Hope you dig up many more...and keep posting.

Keeps us hungry :)

I hear ya about burning out by noon...its getting HOT!

Tom H.

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Guest goldstudmuffin

This is the first nugget that lead to the honker patch , the tributary had washed out into a V shape just before it dumped into the main wash so I stuck my coil on a angle down into the V and got a faint whisper of a target. The main wash had givin us around 6 ounces of big nuggets many years ago and there is no trash in the area so my hopes were high that it was a nugget. After diging down 16" or 17" I found a 4.2 dwt nugget. I detected the entire trib and that was it no more targets.

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This is the first nugget that lead to the honker patch , the tributary had washed out into a V shape just before it dumped into the main wash so I stuck my coil on a angle down into the V and got a faint whisper of a target. The main wash had givin us around 6 ounces of big nuggets many years ago and there is no trash in the area so my hopes were high that it was a nugget. After diging down 16" or 17" I found a 4.2 dwt nugget. I detected the entire trib and that was it no more targets.

Now im glad to hear that.....

I dont know how many times ive found nuggets and figured there will be more above it only to

have it play out...

Dont you love those low trash washes were a target is usually gold. :)

Tom H.

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Guest goldstudmuffin

Well a week went by and I had a feeling there were more nuggets there so I went back and very carefully grided off the entire length of the tributary, I finally found a whisper of a target and when I tried to criss-cross it the other direction it was gone. I scraped off a few inches and it got a little louder and I could hear it in both directions. After digging down around 20" I had found the first honker nugget, it weighted 1.75 ounces. But there were no more targets using my 16" round coil on my Minelab 3500. So I thought I've got to break out a bigger coil.

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Guest goldstudmuffin

A few days went by and I decidied to go back with my big 24" round mono Coiltec coil. When I got there I suited up and within 5 minutes I had a target that sounded just like a deep can. :o What, what the heck is that? Remember there is no trash in the area so I got a little excited but didn't want to get my hopes up too high because I've dig lots of cans in the past that sounded just like this one sounded. Well I started digging and after 30 or 40 minutes had to stop because I had hit soild caliche and my little pick would'nt go any deeper. So I went home and Got a big full size pick and round nose shovel and headed back the next day. Trying to pin point it was useless even with my smallest coil, when I put any coil in the hole it just screamed. I continued to dig slowing making progress through the hard cemented caliche, and soon I was laying on my stomach cleaning out dirt by hand after about 30 minutes I had another hadful and suddenly felt something very heavy in my hand :huh: what was this I thought... it to big to be a nugget :P I took a look and saw somthing long and white covered in caliche... my heart skipped a beat and I new I had found the mother honker... :wub:

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Wow, Those are nice finds. Thanks for the continuing story. (Hopefully this is'nt the end). I, believe most just dream of finding nuggets like these.

and sadly I fall in that category for the moment. But Im sure it will change when I get out of Tx.

Bill

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Hey Goldstudmuffins,

Wow ..... What an awesome patch you discovered. I remember the stories about the 18 ounce patch, but believe that patched turned many more ounces prior to that amount. Now we have this patch, looks like a good pound of gold so far and you're not done working it. The gold has an interesting character to it, like most of the desert gold out in Arizona.

Have you tried any other detectors beyond your GP series with mods on the patch? I know you have tried numerous coils, but what about the one we talked about during our phone converstation? Would be interested to hear about that coil and if it had any luck on your new patch.

I'm not speechless, very impressed and glad you guys discovered it. Just shows there are many patches to still be discovered for the person that wants to spend the time and effort looking for them.

I'm currently out of town, so that is the reason I have been off the forums for a few days.

Keep us updated on the patch and what else turns up.

Hoping to see another big one soon from you guys!

Rob Allison

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Guest goldstudmuffin

Thanks for the atta boys!

Wow, Those are nice finds. Thanks for the continuing story. (Hopefully this is'nt the end). I, believe most just dream of finding nuggets like these.

and sadly I fall in that category for the moment. But Im sure it will change when I get out of Tx.

Bill

Hey Bill,

Thanks! There's more to the story, I've been busy and I'll finish the story in a day or two.

Hey Goldstudmuffins,

Wow ..... What an awesome patch you discovered. I remember the stories about the 18 ounce patch, but believe that patched turned many more ounces prior to that amount. Now we have this patch, looks like a good pound of gold so far and you're not done working it. The gold has an interesting character to it, like most of the desert gold out in Arizona.

Have you tried any other detectors beyond your GP series with mods on the patch? I know you have tried numerous coils, but what about the one we talked about during our phone converstation? Would be interested to hear about that coil and if it had any luck on your new patch.

I'm not speechless, very impressed and glad you guys discovered it. Just shows there are many patches to still be discovered for the person that wants to spend the time and effort looking for them.

I'm currently out of town, so that is the reason I have been off the forums for a few days.

Keep us updated on the patch and what else turns up.

Hoping to see another big one soon from you guys!

Rob Allison

Thanks Rob,

The 18 ounce patch at last count was around 23 or 24 ounces! I've used the modded 2100 after the modded 3500 and didn't find any gold with do you think a 5000 will go any deeper? :spank: As far as the big coil we talked about I can use it if I want to but because it's a DD I'm not too sure if it's worth the effort. Now it's time to dig!

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Guest goldstudmuffin

Yep, Russ...Maybe time for a backhoe??? D9G Cat? :) Cheers, Unc

Ron, not sure if we will claim it or not so the backhoe is out for now and it's pickin and grinnin.

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Guest goldstudmuffin

The next time I went back to the honker patch I put on the big 24" round Coiltec coil and maxed out all my setting on the modded 3500 including the gain which is also a mod. I never run it this way because the detector is very noisey set up like this but in about 10 minutes I had a good target that had a very soft faint repeatable signal. It never got any louder until I had dug about 6" off the top, then I knew for sure that I had a nugget. When I got down about 20" deep I hit the nice 12 dwt'er and rechecked the hole and it had 3 more nuggets in it, so there were 4 nuggets all in the same hole, I think it was 16 dwt total. :)

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Guest goldstudmuffin

A few days went by and I could'nt wait any longer to go back to the patch. So I used the same stragtegy of cranking up the 3500 ang using the 24" round mono and some how hear a very small wabble in the threshold, again it never got any louder until I took about 4" of dirt off the top... I don't remember the depth of these nuggets but all of them were in cemented caliche. The total weight this day was 10 dwt after cleaning off the rock in acid.

Hope yor enjoying the pictures...

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