nuggethunting

Hey Guys, This is one reason I stick to prospecting and not to politics or religion. Too many opinions that leads to endless debates like we are seeing here. On another note, I think we are in Iraq and some of these other third world Countries for a reason. If you would do more than read book, but actually talk with some of the Soldiers that are over there fighting, you will hear what they have to say from the front lines. One young Soldier told me the people are glad we are there and they can now wear their hair differently, walk the streets differently, don't have to hide and be afraid now .... Majority of them want FREEDOM like we have here in the US. The Soldiers are proud of what they are doing and doing a great job from the resources they are given. P.S. If you don't like this country (USA) or what we are doing (war against Terrorism), get the FUCK OUT!~ Oh I forgot, it's easy to voice your opinion (from Home) while having one of the best US Militarys protecting your ass! (Not directed at any one person) Just my opinion, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Kid Saxon - I see that highgrader now! Thanks for the picture. Shadow - I actually do have claims, just not in my name. Too many people trying to look for other people's claims, so I just keep my name out of the mix, but still have ownership. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Offroaddriver, Patches can come in all shapes and sizes, some with all small gold, some with all big gold, or some with all kinds of sizes of gold. The patches I have found ranged from a few nuggets (many of them) to hundreds of gold nuggets in an area. Most of my best patches have been pretty small in size, maybe a couple hundred feet square. Other places I have found nuggets scattered over miles of country, so I'm not sure if you call that one huge patch or not. Depth of the nuggets pretty much depends on the depth of the material or gravel. I've found patches that are mostly exposed bedrock, so all the nuggets were pretty close to the surface (a few inches). Other patches I've found the gold as deep as a detector will detect. Just in general, patches can be pretty much any sizes depending on the source of where they can from and the terrain of the area. I've found them on top of hills, in saddles, side hills, benches and many in the washes or small tributaries. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hey Tony, Shot you over another email confirming your order. It will ship tomorrow. I also placed some metal detecting catalogs/brochures along with the order. Hope to see you back in the goldfields soon. Rob Allison

Hey Kid Saxon, Man, great looking specimens. I know several pocket type mines dumps here in Arizona that are way off the beaten path and have dumps similar to the ones in your picture. I'm sure if someone wanted to spend enough time they would dig up some nice specimens. I would probably take a GBII into those locations if I was going to dig and rake down the dumps. Thanks for sharing your pictures and stories, sure gets us all pumped up! Speaking of claims jumpers, I just heard a story about someone trying to jump one of my spots when I was gone for the weekend. Go figure ..... However, I know who the person is and he stated he would never do such a think. Just goes to show what gold can do to a person. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Mike, It was a great contests and I'm honored to be part of the Coiltek team. These new coils are pretty amazing, just wish I had more free time to swing them. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Many .... many Moons ago I purchased Dawn a colorless diamond. However, before this Wedding and the long time we have been together, I surprised her with an upgraded version that cost me a pretty penny. I might need to sell a pound of gold or so. She is worth every ounce of metal and every carat of precious gems to me. Thanks for all the comments. Rob Allison

Hello T-Bone, Congrats on the new finds! Nothing like tracking down those ellusive gold nuggets from some old tailings. Speaking of that book, "Jim Straight's Follow the Drywasher, 7th Edition, I'm one of only a few that has them available. Jim Straight is not only a great friend, but mentor to many including myself. His books really got me on the right track in the early days, some of the best information written even today about gold prospecting/mining/metal detecting. Hope you find many more. Rob Allison

Hello All, Here are a few nuggets I turned up in some old spots within the last couple of weeks. Using the Minelab GPX-4500 Metal Detector and new Lightweight Coiltek Goldstalker series searchcoils over some old patches and placers. I've found a few more since, so will get them posted up soon also. Biggest gold nugget is 12.55 Dwt's found at approx. 16-inches deep. Smallest one shown is 0.9 Dwts. Total was right at 17 Dwt's worth of gold nuggets. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Doc, It was a great day for both of us. I guess it was about time to tie that knot. The turnout was great for a Las Vegas Wedding. Many didn't show, but for the most part all my best friends and family were able to make it (around 80 guests). I have so many stories to tell from Friday and Saturday night, but I will save them for another time. Dawn and I want to personally Thank everyone for their gifts and being able to make the Wedding. Thanks! Rob Allison

Hey Kid, Great quartz/gold specimen. Sounds you have a great place for finding those type of specimens. I know you have found some real beauties! Thanks for always sharing, sure gets us all fired up. Rob Allison

Hey Uncle Ron, Great finds. I've found a few keys like that over the years, but never more than one at a shot. Puzzling to know where they came from. Probably a big iron box out there somewhere filled with gold! Thanks for sharing. P.S. Kept an eye out for you and Dodie this weekend, but Dawn and I didn't see you. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey DigDeep, Well it's all done here in Vegas. When I get back home I'm hoping to hit the goldfields hard with the new lightweight Coiltek coils. Last month I did pretty good nuggethunting old patches for the time I was out there. I hit a bunch of Dwt pieces and smaller, but a couple of 5-6 grammers and even a nice 19 grammer at depth. Three short trips hitting old patches and I scored over an ounce of coarse gold nuggets. Wishing you continued luck as the months go by. Rob Allison

Hey Trev, The site looks really great. I'm really honored to sell and promote Coiltek searchcoils and products. Doc and his wife were here at the Wedding last night and I couldn't seem to get the words out, but wanted to really "Thank" him for picking me as one of the first Coiltek dealers here in the US. You both have been great to me! I will have some more Coiltek gold finds posted on my forum when I return home. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey All, I think I'm starting to get "Cold Feet!" LOL Dawn won't let me out of her sight. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, The old Chinese Dam might be a good spot for panning if there is water available. There is plenty of fine gold in that area. However, the access is not very easy and might require a 4x4 vehicle if you don't want to walk a ways downhill. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello Hobby, Keep in mind all metal detectors can find gold if it's larger enough and maybe even right at the surface. However, they all have some pro/cons from other other detectors when you compare them. Typically, the VLF metal detectors were always known for their great sensitivity to very small gold. This for the most part is still true, but the latest Minelab PI's are finding gold almost as small, but get much more depth and much more immune to mineralization. If you really wanted to make sure you were finding as much gold as possible, you would probably need 2-3 metal detectors to cover this. The character of gold is different in many locations, so some of this gold could be harder for a VLF or PI to find, so using several detectors to search the same are might get you a few more gold nuggets. For the most part, I feel the GPX-4500 is getting the majority of the gold I pass over. The trick is getting your coil over the nugget(s). You could have the most expensive or least expensive metal detector and still never get your coil over a gold nugget. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello All, Dawn and I are now in Vegas having a great time. I've had some decent luck at the Roulette table this evening and Dawn didn't do too shabby at the slots. Tomorrow most of the Family and Friends will be arriving. I guess I have to get ready for a late night tomorrow. Thanks for all the comments. Rob Allison

Hello Hobby, Funny you mentioned the White's TDI. This fellow actually had one of those and was pretty discouraged with it. He stated he couldn't find very small gold nuggets. After we played around with it for a big, without a doubt it wouldn't find very small gold like the Minelab's. On 1/2 Dwt and larger gold nuggets the TDI worked well. We also done a few depth tests and the GPX-4500 really got a lot more depth. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Hobby, I did a pretty good demonstration with the GPX-4500 this weekend on the 24K claims. A guy was struggling with hotrocks with his VLF and wanted to know the same thing you asked about hotrocks. I was able to show him how I could cancel out the hotrock with several different timing settings and still hear a nugget that was about 2 grains in size. I was using the GPX-4500 with the new Coiltek 14-inch Goldstalker Elliptical Mono Searchcoil. To answer your question in general, Yes the Minelab can cancel out most hotrocks. Hope I was able to help, Rob Allison

Hey Guido, I would say use a coil cover unless you're hunting in sand. Coil covers are very cheap compared to replacing a warn through searchcoil. Most of all the major metal detector manufactures have searchcoil covers on their searchcoils when you purchase them. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Mike C. - Great to hear you joined the club. Elly possibly said the next pushes will be done with the larger dozer. I'm hoping this is the case, as the larger dozer always seems to get down deeper and the end results is more gold nuggets for the members. Dutchman - I think Dennis might have liked those Cartoon's! He loves his Crusty the Clown T-Shirt. Take care guys, Rob Allison

Hello All, Been pretty busy around here, but wanted to get some information up about last weekend. The 24K Gold Hunters pushes started up again last weekend. There was probably at least 50 members that showed up for the pushes on both sides of Rich Hill. The first pushes started at 9am, which were on the West side of Rich Hill (Desert Special Claims). From what I seen, only one gold nugget was found on these pushes within the first couple of hours by a new member using a Minelab GPX. The gold nugget was around a Dwt in size. At 2pm the pushes opened on the Devil's Nest claims. Within no time several gold nuggets were found on the pushes. After the first hour or so, there was probably a dozen gold nuggets found, most of them being around a Dwt or smaller in size. I spent the majority of Saturday helping others out with tips/tricks and advice on the Minelab PI's. I did get to hunt a bit on the pushes, but only ended up finding small bits of metal and dozer fragments. Sunday a good friend and I decided to detect outside the pushes and we ended up finding a couple of gold nuggets. The biggest was a 3.1 Dwter, which is pictured below. We were both using the new Lightweight Coiltek Goldstalker searchcoils on the GPX-4500's. Many members were impressed with the weight of these new coils and were eager to get their hands on one ASAP! Sunday evening I asked around and heard of another 7-8 gold nuggets being found on the pushes. Giving an educated guess, I would say about 20 gold nuggets were found on the pushes during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). I know many members has plans to return during the week to use larger coils hoping to punch down deeper for some potential bigger gold nuggets. Overall the moral was good and many new members found their first gold nuggets. Here are a few pictures of the pushes and nuggets we found. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, It's great to know there are people out there (like us here on the forums) that are willing to help someone in need when we can. I'm also very glad to hear Alec got the help he needed and Stella has been helped out from the guys that sent whatever they could to help. Speaking of the whole helping out others, this is my thoughts, tell me if I'm crazy or not. Over the years I've always tried to help out others when I could. Whether this meant dropping some change into a container to help a child or someone in need, or even helping someone that needed a buck or so walking the streets. Helping others don't always have to mean giving someone money, but even spending time or talking with someone in need. I really believe no deeds go unrecorded from the good Lord upstairs. Remember the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Just think if you were the person really needing help, wouldn't you hope someone would be willing to help you, like you would them? I would think so. Just my thoughts, Rob Allison

Hello Colorado Bob, Didn't you rejoin the club? When I left late Sunday evening there was about 20 nuggets found from the weekend that I know about. The biggest was probably my gold nugget at 3.1 Dwt's from what I heard. However, I didn't find it on the push, done some hunting around the pushes and found it. Crown King Steve had about 7-8 when I left and would guess he has probably found at least a couple more small ones. Steve is pretty methodical, so I would almost bet he comes out of there with about 15 nuggets or so. There was a lot of new faces/members this time, but some of them found their first gold nuggets. Some bigger pieces might have been found today when larger coils could be used and less metal detectorists on the pushes. Talk with you later, Rob Allison