Admin nuggethunting Posted January 6, 2019 Admin Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Hello All, Done some exploring recently on some old ground where we found a lot of gold around 10 years ago. I just happened to turn around a bend in a small wash and see small digs, old footprints and then some rocks tossed out of the wash. I continued to work up the wash a bit, then hit a spot where someone really placered, maybe even drywashed a bit. I focused on this location for a bit, ended up hitting 4 gold nuggets with the GPZ that were either missed or maybe never even detected. Hard to believe someone would have left them behind, but they pretty much did 99% of the work to allow these nuggets to be sitting within detector range. I really hate to cherry pick gold, but if you're going to do all the work and not detect, or detect well, someone will find them ..... I have now dubbed this place the "Footprint Patch." 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubstake1 Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Good going Rob nice finds. you need to have tose footprints made into decals to put on your truck or sell them in your store. Grubstak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredm Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 You just don't ever know if someone detected, or if they detected did it correctly...you got it and that is what mattered. nice gold fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
way2cool Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 (edited) 18 hours ago, nuggethunting said: to allow these nuggets to be sitting within detector range. Not sure how to take this. VLF Depth? GPX Depth? Gpz Depth? Very nice gold regardless. Edited January 6, 2019 by way2cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted January 6, 2019 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Hey Guys, Ya, I'm thinking since I seen some detector digs down lower, that they were using at least a VLF, but maybe not a good detectorist. The spots where I found gold, they placered and drywashed nearly down to bedrock. All of the nuggets were in cracks that were never scrapped out, just the overburden removed and looks like maybe they swept or vac-packed the bedrock. However, they didn't dig out the crevices. I just happen to be exploring with my GPZ, so I think a good VLF might have gotten all of them, for sure a good PI or GPZ. Many years ago I had a claim in the Bradshaw's that had decent gold and nuggets on bedrock. A guy showed up one day, asked if he could drywash. I told him, I had no problem, just show me what you find. If you happen to find something really big and nice we would have to split it. He agreed, he just wanted to drywash somewhere. He worked all day with his younger son, probably 5-6 hours. They cleaned up and got about a Gram of gold. He was excited about it, said he might come back again if he was welcome. I didn't know the guy really at all, just showed up one day. Later before I left, I thought I better detect his drywash tailing piles and the bottom. Low and behold, I found a nice 5 Gram piece in the tailing pile that he screened off and several smaller 1/8 Gram pieces in the schist bedrock cracks. They didn't detect at all. I felt a bit bad, as I had around 6 Grams of gold they left behind, 6 times the gold lost. I'm sure if he knew what he left behind, he might of never left the site ..... LOL 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPDLN Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Hey Rob, I paid for my Gold Bug that way a few years ago. Fresh foot prints, even scraped the ground over the target, but that person left behind a 1/4 ounce piece for me. I figured that person assumed it was just another bullet fragment. Oh well, my gain. I dig it all, as everybody should. Found a nice 3gram piece along the edge of somebodies hole up on Soldier Boy a few years back as well. I don't mind cleaning up what others miss. Somebodies got to get the gold and it might as well be the person that follows through and digs everything. Dennis 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatup Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 nice job picking those up Rob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 All I can say is, man I hope that wasn’t me!🤣 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted January 8, 2019 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 Hey Guys, Thanks for the comments. Walker - Not you ..... LOL I'm not that good. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrownNugget Posted January 8, 2019 Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) These stories are so cool. The only tailings pile nugget I have ever detected was a 1.2 gram specimen. We returned 2 weeks later to this out of the way canyon to find a Drywasher and tools laying around. We detected for an hour on the slopes and the Drywasher’s owner showed up with a quad. I was a bit spooked but he turned out very friendly. He told us he was killing it in this spot. I don’t know how much he was getting but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what I found in his tailings pile from 2 weeks before. I also pulled a 40cal slug out of that pile that could easily have been gold. “Follow those Drywashers!” Edited January 8, 2019 by BrownNugget 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted January 9, 2019 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 Hey Guys, Ya, "Follow the Drywashers" is right. I have found a lot of gold, especially back when I was younger and did a lot of exploration. I can remember one day there was so much gold, mostly small gold 1/4 to 1/2 Gram stuff, that I was so tired of digging nuggets. They were all in very large screen piles and most of the gold was 6-8 inches deep, mostly faint targets missed by VLF users back in the day. No telling what the VLF's originally took out of this area. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 Oh man!!I did the same thing Rob! It was the 2300 that gave me the most gold out of drywash piles. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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