Patch finding...whats you technique?

[Relichunter2]

So I found several diggings on a hillside...it appears some of them are shallow workings of surface quartz veins. There are some tailing piles..would your search above the diggings or below the diggings or everywhere? The terrain is steep...poison oak all over...and a Pain in the rear to detect. Where would you start? So above , below, or on the sides of all the diggings. My plan is to work one area at a time, clear it, and move on to another area until i find the first nugget. I am going to work the lower end hoping to find some float. any advice is welcome..

[Grubstake1]

Fred, I'd Start at upper end, and work in a circle, working your way down, I've done that most of my patches, and it gives me a great starting place, . Grubstake

Work the outer most edges, and maybe a bit more,

[AZNuggetBob]

Relichunter2

A few questions.

Tailings piles. hard rock or placer or both? drywashed piles below etc. or throw out from the prospects.

AzNuggetBob

[Grubstake1]

I think its sluff from prospect holes. We have lots of that here. But they pay to work or detect. Grubstake

[Relichunter2]

Bob, yes it's basically a bunch of old coyote holes going up the hill side....some holes are above the one I orginally found, some are larger off to the sides, but are all generally in very close proximity to one another...as if they found some gold below and went looking for the source. When they found some veins..they dug into them and left a few tailings. On a few they dug right straight in but also dug a channel left and right of the vein...like a T shape, where it intersects you will find a thin quartz vein approx. 2-3 inches wide all iron stained. I am just imagining those veins releasing float over the years before the miners came in....so i am trying to figure out which way is the best way to tackle this area....Grubstake, you said start above the workings and work my way in a large circle....I will give that method a try too....Bob, no placer....I am in hard rock area...small veins. I will give it a go and see what happens...hopefully i will find a piece that may lead me to a few more...

[AZNuggetBob]

Bob, yes it's basically a bunch of old coyote holes going up the hill side....some holes are above the one I orginally found, some are larger off to the sides, but are all generally in very close proximity to one another...as if they found some gold below and went looking for the source. When they found some veins..they dug into them and left a few tailings. On a few they dug right straight in but also dug a channel left and right of the vein...like a T shape, where it intersects you will find a thin quartz vein approx. 2-3 inches wide all iron stained. I am just imagining those veins releasing float over the years before the miners came in....so i am trying to figure out which way is the best way to tackle this area....Grubstake, you said start above the workings and work my way in a large circle....I will give that method a try too....Bob, no placer....I am in hard rock area...small veins. I will give it a go and see what happens...hopefully i will find a piece that may lead me to a few more...

Relichunter2

This is an update I typed because I needed more info before reading this reply.

let me just put it this way,If your posing this question as how to hunt for patches? thats a huge question. If you want to know about your particular situation, that can be answered fairly easily.

After reading this post above as I was typing this,

It sounds like the old timers were very interested in that area based on the amount of work they did. It could be an area that doesn't have a lot of detectable size or even drywashable gold, but possibly plenty of micron size gold? Id hunt the piles for species. maybe even crush some and pan it. The only other option I can think of right off hand is do the zig zag back and forth hunting under the prospect holes and concentrate on the drainage's. . AzNuggetBob

[Relichunter2]

Bob... that's the plan. My partner and I are gona head there today and just hunt a section at a time. I usually do the zig - zag pattern on flat stretches with little obstacles. This site is pretty extreme, so plenty of work crawling and just scanning and digging all targets until hopefully it pays off with a find. At this point I am just trying to get out of Skunksville and this new site may be my ticket...

[Roo]

Here's a thing I showed a guy ages ago. Get a piece of paper, say A4, then put about 6 dots on it in various places.

Then with eyes closed, draw a zig zag from bottom to top, repeat this a couple of times and see if you ping the dots.

He never zig zagged again.

[AZNuggetBob]

Here's a thing I showed a guy ages ago. Get a piece of paper, say A4, then put about 6 dots on it in various places.

Then with eyes closed, draw a zig zag from bottom to top, repeat this a couple of times and see if you ping the dots.

He never zig zagged again.

Roo I dont recamend anyone hunt with their eyes closed. AzNuggetBob

[AZNuggetBob]

What I do in a situation like this is go up to the prospect holes and take samples, hunt the piles and the prospect holes. then I zig-zag back and forth down the ridge looking for a possibility of a patch below it. The reason I do it this way is I have a sample to test later (and that tells me a lot about the lode) and I figure if I don't happen into a nugget zig zag hunting there probably isn't much detectable gold and for me its easier to swing going down hill than up. AzNuggetBob

[Roo]

So that's why I kept falling over.

[Relichunter2]

I do that also Bob...Actually in the terrain over here...that's all your able to do.....when I find the first piece..I SLOW it down and remove the obstacles if I can....small bushes and things. Than I visually grid it and use multi coils to make sure I covered the ground very well. But when I am on a new site, I basically wander and do everything I can to locate that very first nugget.We have tons of poison oak...sooooo pretty I avoid those if I can..but be assured...they are toast after I find that one piece.