nuggethunting

Hey Guys, I think we would all agree, as much as we would all love to know where someone found some gold, most will not post that info. It's not that guys like myself and others don't want to help newbies or seasoned prospectors, but it's very hard to find nuggets anymore. I post nuggets to encourage others that gold is still out there to be found by the people that are willing to spend the effort. I know guys that have hunted for months without a single find, but the longer they hunt without a nugget, the more they appreciate when they do first that first gold nugget(s). When myself and others post gold nuggets, what you dont see or hear about is all the hard work, time spent and wear & tear we go through to get that gold. If I documented all the hours I spent hiking and searching without a gold nuggets, you might just want to quit or not even get started. I have thousands of hours of exploring and ended up with broken equipment, sore muscles, ripped up clothing, lost items, flat tires, vehicle damage and more for a little bit of gold. That all being said, it's not the gold for me anymore, it's the hunt. I have found many gold nuggets from tiny dinks to pieces up to a solid pound, so I'm extremely thankful the Good Lord bless me with what I found. I hope everyone continues to post, as there are handfuls of willing people to help in your search for gold.

Hey Jen and others, Lets just clarify some things, so it's out in the open. (1) I work a day job, normally 50-60 hours per week, then come home and pack customer orders and answer emails for the next 2-3 hours per night. Normally on the weekend, if I'm not working, I'm conducting training with customers. I'm not sure there is another dealer out there that is burning a candle on both ends like me. I sure wish I had more free time to post on the forums, but to be honest, I hardly have enough time to see my family. Most people don't understand how I can even do it. (2) I'm not advertising my business "per say" when I post pictures, but rather protect my pictures. Most of my pictures of larger nuggets end up on other internet sites, even with others claiming them found them. I have seen my nugget pictures, along with others, all over the place if you really search. The ad portion is not to brag or really advertise (you know me or you dont), but to protect my personal pictures from becoming ad on Facebook and other places for other interests. (3) I went back quickly and look at 10-15 other pictures of nuggets and no of them placed the information outside a picture and short story on the find. I don't see many telling others where they found their gold, location and such. I used to do this all the time, then realized I just attracted more attention to my spots and they ended up getting claimed cause those people didn't want help, they wanted a free ticket to a place where they could find nuggets with no effort. I hope you all understand. I personally wish I had more free time to post more info, pictures, videos and such, but I'm just too busy!

Hey Cowkiller, Is the steel canister separate from the shop vac?

Hello All, I have some cracks and crevices I have been blowing a good amount of fine gold out of and a few pickers here and there. I'm curious how much gold is there, so I want to dry vac the cracks and crevices up and run it through a drywasher. I have been using a gas powered Vac-Pac for years, but want to give the electric version a try. Any advice on a good Electric Vac and small Generator to power it? Brands and sizes would be appreciated if you have used this method. Thanks!

Hello All, Here are some recent additions to the poke. The gold from this area is extremely dense and smaller pieces have an unbelievable amount of weight to them. The nugget on the left is 4.14 ounces and the piece on the right is 3.01 ounces. All of them had some pretty good depth to them, found on bedrock in crevices. It's still out there .....

Hey Walker, Great looking specimen, Thanks for sharing. Don't seem like many specimens for that area, so that is an interesting find for sure.

Hey Guys, I have some more pictures, so I will do what I can to post them. My priority right now is getting those damn Equinox 800's shipped out.

Hello All, Here is a nice whopper ....

Hello All, Just a quick update, all the Equinox 800's I received are packed up and ready to ship tomorrow morning. Everyone has been contacted that will be received their new Minelab Equinox 800. I have one 600 left in stock, but I'm sure it will be gone tomorrow. Call ASAP if you're interested.

Hey Chuck, That is correct, they have shipped and mine should be here Monday or Tuesday of next week. Once I get them, I will be shipping them out. I know how many I'm getting, but can't advertise it to the public!

Hello All, This is the most recent information regarding the new Minelab Equinox 600 or 800 metal detectors. Due to worldwide demand of this unit, the shipments to the US and other regions are much smaller than originally expected. This in a nutshell means less units allocated to each dealer on the first couple of shipments. There will be no dealer that is getting a huge shipment, Minelab is using a very fair method to allocate some units to each dealer. All I'm asking is for customer to be patient about them trickling in, as there are shipment after shipment coming in, but the first couple will be slow. Everyone is so excited to get their hands on these new detectors along with the great prices. If you have any questions, comments on the new detectors, please post them here. I have already reached out to a few of my customers that will be getting units on the first shipment. This will be an exciting year with the fairly new Gold Monster selling extremely well and now the Minelab Equinox series. Minelab continues to amaze me with their technology on the gold and now coin/relic/beach side.

Hey Tom, I have a few of those iron stone choked washes. I know there is more gold, but my ears can only take so much of those ..... Congrats on your recent finds. Looks like the NF 17x13 EVO is doing you good.

Hey Jen, Nice video, I know most of the guys in the video. Looks like Chuck Smalley, Tim and Carlotta, Mike Slater and the guys from AMRA. I believe those are the AMRA mineral claims they visited, but I could be wrong. Great little bit of gold they found towards the end of the trip.

Hey Alchemist and Friends, I have to agree, the GPZ 7000 sure does well on a much wider range of gold and orientation. Since the GPZ 7000, I have found that I'm not only finding that sluggy or solid flat gold deeper, but now very crystalline gold and specimen gold that the GPX series and prior struggled with or couldn't hear. As for the nugget and value ..... a vendor from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show that got word of the nugget offer over $25,000 for the nugget unseen. This offer was pretty much double and they never seen or touched the piece. I have no doubt, the value could go 3x to the right Arizona collector that wanted a big gold nugget from the historical gold district we found it in. That being said, the nugget is no longer in our hands!

Hey Rod, Great looking nugget, that for sharing. Sure seems like some good nuggets have been popping out for the guys that are searching hard out there. I'm loving the GPZ, but without the use of a bungee or anything, I normally pay for it the next day with a lower back issue and now my neck is tweaked. It's always something when you start getting older .....

Hey Guys, Sorry I have been so busy to post this, but yes, they will be shipping soon. Just a FYI, no shipments have left as of yet, they are being allocated to the dealers over the weekend, then will probably start shipping next week. This is the most updated info, so as of today no shipments have left Minelab Americas yet.

Hey Rod, Congrats! How's the GPZ doing for you?

Hey Guys, Ya, being found here in Arizona, I'm sure it would sell quickly for a decent price at the upcoming Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

Hello All, I'm not going to get into why didn't one detector hear it, must of been something wrong .... but the GPZ did. We all know, at least anyone with a GPZ, there is a major depth advantage. That being said, why would there be any doubt a GPZ could detect a nugget of this size deeper, regardless if that extra depth was an inch or 12 inches. Afriscot and I have talked about it, the GPX just missed it with the NF EVO coil. If the GPX 5000 had a bigger NF EVO could it of found it, maybe, maybe not. As for nuggets, larger nuggets are much harder to sell and I agree with GPX Power on this. There are less people willing to spend several thousand on a gold nugget vs. someone willing to spend a couple hundred. Selling small gold nuggets from about .25 - 3 Grams sell very well and I can normally get about 5-10% on the smaller gold.

Hey Guys, Thanks for all the questions and comments. I don't own the video, I should have taken one myself, but was more focused on digging the target which ended up being a large gold nugget. As for price for the nugget, I guess it always comes down to what someone will give you regardless what you think the value should be. That being said, I doubt this nugget will ever leave our hands. A nugget like this is rare, probably a couple thousand small ones for every large gold nugget found. As the nuggets increase from an ounce, to several ounces, to half a pound and better, the price also increases due to the "rarety factor." There are only so many nuggets this size, then the ones for sale. You can buy 1/2 to 1 gram nuggets all day on Ebay and all over the Internet, but I doubt you will find many 1 pound + nugget, and if so, they are not selling for spot. Realistically, I doubt we would have any issues selling this nugget to a Arizona gold nugget collector for double the spot value. As for settings and would the GPX of found it. I highly doubt it, it was just a faint signal on the GPZ and the bedrock was actually really mineralized and caused the GPX fits in some spots. I actually found the piece in High Yield and General, so I'm sure if I wanted to play around with settings I might have gotten a better response in Very Deep or a higher sensitivity. What I can tell you - I have been blessed by the Good Lord with great partners/friends in the gold business. This has opened many doors of locations I would only wish to hunt with a detector. I have accomplished a long time goal of finding a nugget that weighed a pound or greater in my lifetime. I had a lot of doubts over the years that I would never have this opportunity, let along doing it with a great partner and friend. This meant more than finding the gold, the fact someone else witnessed it and we shared the experienced and thought about nuggets like this being found over 100 years ago in the area. There is no doubt, large gold nuggets are out there, many much larger than this. If you set goals, work hard, never give up and grind away, one day you will surprise yourself just like I did. A lot of pressure is now off me, but do I set a new goal of 2 Pounds?

Hey All, Thanks for the comments. The find was found due to "Teamwork," between a great friend and myself. Yes, I found the gold nugget and it is fact over a Troy Pound in weight, solid. The dirty weight was 13.1 ounces, the clean weight toggles between 12.8-12.9 troy ounces. Without giving too much info, since this is a private area, it was located in Arizona. This is truly a blessing from God, as we both have worked extremely hard prospecting and exploring in this area for many years. A find like this is a lifetime find and very unexpected. As for all the details, I didn't get exact depth and such. We both were so excited, so we spent more time on talking about how the heck it got there and such rather than all the details on depth, settings and such. Thanks for all the comments. I have searched for gold nuggets for over 20 years now and can finally say I joined the "1 Pound Club."

Hello Guys, Here is that same nugget, after digging for about 15 minutes to expose the bedrock. It's wedged in a bedrock crack and required some effort to get the darn thing out.

Hey Afriscot, Congrats on the recent nugget finds. You sure are hitting it good out there, wish I could join you sometime soon. Hope the great looking gold continues in your spot, those spots are very difficult to find with the type of gold you're finding. On another note, Thanks for the comments on the customer service. I have always believed that if you want to run a successful small business, you have to treat others like you would want to be treated. There will always be the customer you can't seem to satisfy, trust me I have had them, but 99% of the customer really appreciate the dealer going the extra mile to take care of them. Hope your streak continues and keep us updated here on the forums.

Hey Afriscot, Yes, one of the best day ever out detecting with a great long time friend. It's great over the years we have been able to share locations with each other and always seems to come out with some nice gold. I would have never thought it was going to be a "One Pound" Gold nuggets, but when I heard the faint, wobble sounds, I had a good idea it was a good, deep nugget. Congrats to both of us on another successful hunt in the Goldfield.

Hey Guys, Ya I was just kidding with Dave. He's a great guy and really enjoys prospecting for gold. I'm hoping for him to post a nice nugget someday on this forum. It's just a matter of time Dave, keep searching and don't give up!