nuggethunting

Hello Doc and All, You have that right, Glenn is one hell of a friend! Funny, I met Glenn several years ago at Rich Hill. He was with another guy working around the Rich Hill area. A friend and I was talking with his other friend, but Glenn wasn't around. For some reason something kept telling me to stick around and meet this other fellow. Well luckily I did, Glenn has been a great friend. Talk about a hard hunting SOB. The guy has found 10 or more 1+ ounce nuggets within the last couple of years. Many might call it luck, and I'm sure luck does come into play, but he hunts harder and longer than anyone I ever known in this hobby. If you want to be successful, you research, spend the hours and hunt your butt off. Glenn has done all of this and more and deserves every single nugget he has found. Speaking of Moore Creek, the trip is a blast. Regardless if you ever found a nugget there, the trip is second to none! The Alaskan Moore Creek Trip is worth every penny in my opinion. You get to see the Alaskan outback, all the wildlife, experience the funny weather including the 24 hours of sunlight, meet great people, eat great food and even get some some gold! I'm honored to know Steve H., owner of Alaska Mining and Diving & owner of Moore Creek. P.S. Doc, sure wish you could have joined us. Glenn ran the pool table in McGrath again, while C.J. ran off with some Alaskan girl the same night. We don't know the whole story behind that yet .... I told him the "Poke it you own it Law" still counts in Alaska. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Dan, Thanks for joining the forums. I received your email and will reply back. You asked if Hardrock Bob is still around. I seen him about a year ago down in Southern Arizona. He's a great guy to talk to. I'm sure he browses the forums still. Hardrock, you still out there? I never seen the device you're talking about, but would assume it's some type of jig system. However, a jig shakes the heavier material to the bottom, not to the top. I'm trying to figure out what device you're talking about. If you have a picture of the unit I would love to see it. Thanks for joining and hope to see you contributing more in the near future. Rob Allison

Hello Lamar, You are correct on the abilities of the GP series to find much smaller gold over the SD's. The GP's will find smaller gold than the SD series, but will also find smaller gold at depth over the SD's. However, both of these machines in combination you won't miss much of anything! The SD2100 has some great mineral immunity and in very iron rich environments this might give the edge to the SD over the GP. You can also run the bad boy in Channel 1 position. Keep us updated on your success. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Lamar and all, It's nice to have good friends that more knowledge than myself about these PHP forums. Rod has always been a great help in the past if I needed assistance. Nice that we can now view 74 pages worth of information if you're brave enough to read all the old posts! Hope everything is well on your end Lamar. You now have to deadly Minelab detectors. Rob Allison

Hello All, I designed a Moore Creek page from my main website page. However, here is the direct link to the page if you would like to view it. --> MOORE CREEK GALLERY More pictures will be added within the next day or so. There is also a directly link to the Moore Creek Website if anyone wants to learn more about the trips to Moore Creek, Alaska. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello All, Thanks to Rod's help @ Arizona Gold Prospectors Forum I was able to change the forums configuration so users can now go back 70+ pages and look through all the old posts. The old way new users could only scan back 3 pages (maybe a month worth of posts), but now you can really dig through the forums. Just thought some might want to look through some old stuff. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Steve H., Thanks for the brief update on week 2 @ Moore Creek. Sounds like several of the guys are off to great starts. I'm glad to hear Keith got a nice one ounce piece. Keith worked really hard last year. Congrats to all the guys hitting nuggets up there so far. Hope everyone at least gets one nugget to take home. Anxiously waiting more updates from Moore Creek. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Everyone, Just curious if anyone has heard any reports from the 2nd week group that is now at Moore Creek? Their trip is half way over and haven't seen any news on the Alaska Forum. Steve H., Dudley, Bob (AK), Reno Chris .... Any word? Wishing them the best of luck, Rob Allison

Hello Mr. Magoo, Thanks for the link. I never knew they made a 340 grain bullet for the .44 Mag's. I think its too hot of a load for a S&W Titanium Frame though ... Up at Moore Creek I carried the Corbon 305 grain jacketed round. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Digger Bob, I think it's a unique looking nugget in my opinion. You don't find many "folded" nuggets. I think I only found about 2-3 of them over all the years searching for gold. Congrats on the new finds! Rob Allison

Hello Big Ed, Glad to hear you Neice is doing well now. I purchased several canisters of 100% DEET Spray for protection along with wearing long sleeved shirts and a bug suit for Alaska. Some even purchased some type of clothes wash (Perm ...) that also helps repel insects. I noticed the guys that used the clothes wash didn't have any problems with Mosquitoes vs. guys that didn't use it. Keep us updated if there are any changes with your Niece. Wishing her a speedy recovery! Rob Allison

Hello Eagle, I wanted to add a few other things. Now I only used the White's MXT for a limited time, but it did struggle in several areas in Central Arizona. I read on another forum where someone mentioned it was the "best" VLF detector for gold hunting. I'm not sure I would agree it's the "best," but would agree it will find gold easy enough. In areas with heavy volcanics and even heavy iron mineralization the White's MXT really struggled and I experienced tons of ground noise. I really had to back the settings down and lost a good amount of depth and sensitivity by doing so. You can still run high settings, but it's recommended that you keep your searchcoil a bit higher off the ground than normal. If you try to run the machine maxed out on heavy mineralized ground your going to drive yourself nuts. You will experience this with all conventional VLF detectors, not just the White's MXT. As many have agreed, the stock elliptical coil is great. I spent most of my time with that coil. However, if you're wanting to find smaller gold the DD shooter coil will work great. For more depth and overall coverage, the larger 14-inch elliptical will work great. You will loose a bit of sensitivity on the larger coil, but you will gain in depth and overall ground covered when prospecting. Just my opinions, Rob Allison

Hello Jared and All, Most of the Moore Creek gold is specimen gold. However, George (Seeker) found that beautiful crystalline nugget several years ago that weight almost 4 solid ounces. There seems to be two types of veins, the very thin vein and the very thick vein. There seems to be one particular zone where you find all the big thick veined gold vs. the smaller stuff. Whether it's the same vein and just pinched down smaller in different locations is another questions .... or are there multiple vein systems in the area? P.S. Are you the person that discovered the 25 ouncer last year at Moore Creek? Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello All, Well there is no explanation of why, just the fact he holds the most gold! Glenn just plain out killed everyone at Moore Creek this year finding over "One Troy Pound" (12+ ounces) of gold. Besides the 25 ounce nugget found last year, no one has found over a pound of gold in one week at Moore Creek. Anyone can find that single lucky find, but to find a handful of nuggets over the course of a weeks period is just good. From day one Glenn had a game plan and it worked out just like he planned it. Many very good detectorists seem to struggle this year at Moore Creek, but Glenn didn't look back. The first few hours he nailed a 2.66 ouncer right out of a spot that has been absolutely hammered by 20-30 detectorists. Five of the nuggets are over 1+ ounce. Biggest being 3.03 ounces! All I can say is when you believe in yourself & detector, have a plan and maybe a bit of luck .... Well the picture below says it all. Congrats Glenn, you the Man! For everyone that was asking about the equipment he was using. Glenn was using the following detector and accessories - Minelab GP3000 (3/4's of week and then burned out) Minelab GP3500 (couple of days) Coiltek Pocket Rocket Li-Ion Battery System (ran in 6.7v) Coiltek Wallaby DD Pro Elliptical Searchcoil (everyone was using one!) Coiltek Short Power Cord Coiltek External Speaker w/ built in amp Doc's Heavy Duty Bungee and Swingy Thing The Minelab & Coiltek Combination really kicked ass this year at Moore Creek. More pictures coming soon .... Rob Allison

Hello Eagle, At Moore Creek the best detector is the Minelab PI's (preferably the GP series). Moore Creek's mineralization is minimal and there's very little trash. The big Minelab's get the best punch there. Now in places like Ganes Creek, the big Minelab's can be nightmares in the sluice piles (black piles). Tons of iron rubbish .... The VLF's with good discriminators seem to work best. Wishing you the best of luck, Rob Allison

Hello Wes, No problem buddy. Glad you were able to find something quickly. If you never need any, I always have rolls of it in stock. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Eagle, Sorry no one could give you some advice. I just seen the post and thought I should reply. I only used the White's MXT for a short time, but I did use the "DFX/MXT/M6 DD (6x10) Eclipse Search Coil" and "Eclipse DFX 9.5" Search Coil." I didn't care much for the round coil, but did find several ounces of gold with the 10x6 elliptical. I think the "DFX/MXT/M6 Eclipse Deepscan DD 1400 coil" would be a good choice for outright gold hunting in mineralized areas. Never used this coil, but if I was going to purchase it would probably be this coil. I know I heard a lot of good things about the "DFX/MXT/M6 Eclipse Shooter DD (4x6) coil." Heard it really hot on small gold near the surface. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello Wes, I have the Coiltek coil tape in stock. As Doc stated its $8 + per roll + Shipping, but will last a long time. Let me know if you need some. Glad to hear you got a good deal on a coil. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, When I first read the caption about a person digging 60 foot, I assumed he might have lived on some placer ground and was drifting down in the gravels. However, after reading the entire writeup, I can't believe someone would dig that from just a detector signal! Digging to China and back .... Rob Allison

Hello All, I haven't had time to post much on the forums since I'm playing catch-up right now. However, I'm still watching the forums, just haven't had time to post much. Once I get caught up within the next day or so I will post more information and pictures about Moore Creek. It was an absolute blast, better than last year! I'm trying to get pending orders out ASAP and still have tons of backorders that should be going out early next week since the big Coiltek order has arrived. People also have contacted me and asked if I do have a new Minelab GP3500 Special for the month of June. Yes I do, but haven't had time to update the special on the website or forum. Contact me through email - auplacers@yahoo.com for more information on the latest Minelab GP3500 and other Minelab detector special for the month of June. Talk with you all soon, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Sorry to disappoint all of you, but your guesses were a bit high for me! I only managed to score 1.4 ounces of gold, which would be approx. 45 grams of gold. There was a bunch of very good hunters at Moore Creek this year and many of them struggled big time. Glenn seemed to be on fire and everyone else was pretty cold. Hunting tailing piles really doesn't take a lot of skill, you just have to hunt hard and all day and hope you're on the right pile or get your coil over the right spot. There are miles of tailings and most of the piles look the same. It's just getting over the right spot and hearing the nugget. Most of the finds were shallow, so you don't have to focus on whisper type targets. I spent way too much time listening and digging them. I should have run and gunned the piles leaving the faint ones and digging the louder targets. Regardless of the gold found, I love Alaska and Steve H. is the best host you can ask for. He is very helpful and tries to get people over gold. Moore Creek will produce a lot of gold in the future, but sometimes a week just isn't enough time for someone to settle in and figure it out (unless your Glenn). P.S. Be interesting to hear how the second weekers do at Moore Creek. Does this mean I won the detector and prizes? Rob Allison

Hello All, Well I first must say the trip was great!! The food was outstanding and the friendships shared will be remembered forever. If you never have been to Alaska, you're really missing out. Well I'm sure you have heard bits and pieces of the trip, but I will just give you a brief update on what was found. My partner Glenn kicked ass and took names! He ended up with over a pound of specimen gold (12+ ounces). Trust me, he was on fire hitting multi-ouncers just about every day. The first day on a worked out tailing pile Glenn scored a nice 2.66 ounce nugget. The next morning he hit a half-ounce nugget before anyone even got up to eat breakfast. That day he hit a nice 1.4 ouncer down creek and several smaller ones. The next day a 3.03 ouncer!! Well it just kept getting better for Glenn, while others including myself were struggling just to find one. Glenn seemed to walk out within 15 minutes and nail a nice piece. I'm not sure how to explain it, but for someone to hit a multi-ouncer each day, your either very lucky for plain freaking good! I think it was a bit of both, since Glenn hunted much harder than most. Congrats to Glenn, he deserved every ounce of gold he found. The next runner up was Leaverite (Dennis). Dennis seemed to struggle a bit at first like the rest, but during the end of the week really stuck it too us! I believe the first part of the week Dennis found a few 1/2 ounce pieces. Towards the end of the week he scored a nice 1872 (I believe that was the date) Morgan Silver Dollar at depth. The last few hours of the trip, Dennis pulled a nice 2+ ouncer from near the runway. Man, it was a freaking beautiful piece of gold and was his biggest nugget to date. I believe Jim P. and I were right around the same weights. I found (5) nuggets, biggest being .62 ounces. I ended up with around 1.4 ounces of gold and I believe Jim P. was right there (a bit over or under can't remember). Gaine from Hawaii found a couple of nice smaller nuggets during the trip. Lazslo scored a nice smaller chunk of gold during the week. C.J and Reno Chris didn't have any luck at nuggets, but did do well working the high-banker on some virgin ground not far from camp. Everyone had a great trip to my knowledge. I will post more pictures and information soon. Trying to play catch up now. had 116 voice messages and over 300 emails .... Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, I will do my best to find that pounder, but I'm going to start by finding a one-ouncer hopefully! I will try to get a lot of video if it's not raining too much. I been watching the weather up there and it has been very wet and raining a lot. It's expected to rain Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday .... Talk with you all when I return, Rob Allison

Hello Bob, There's no doubt knowing when to use a certain coil will give you better success. I also agree that on flat ground a DD would give you better coverage and probably better results if all the gold was somewhat shallow. The DD really work well on the GP series, unlike some of the results I had with them on the SD's series over the years. It's a must to have a regulated battery system on the SD's if you choose to use DD coils in my opinion. If I can get away with a mono, I'm going to use a mono! Congrats on the new nuggets you and Betsy scored. There's no doubt you're probably the best nuggethunter in Arizona, if not the Southwest. Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, I'm going to take my digital camera and a small video camcorder. I'm hoping to get some good footage with the camcorder and someday figure out how to post them here on the forum. I will take a lot of pictures with the digital of gold and scenery. I'm going to also take notes during the end of the evening so we know what was found and the weights each night. Thanks for all the wishes, I might need them! Talk with you all soon, Rob Allison