Steve Herschbach Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hi,Still have not seen Rich Lampright, but Dave U just stopped by. Sounds like Week 3 had it rough!The weather was great, but the bugs were thick, and the flies came out. So buggiest week so far. I had previously reported Rich's nugget at 3.65 ounce but it was actually 2.75 ounce.That appears to have been the only nugget of substantial size, as the total for the week was under 10 ounces. There were only 8 people in Week 3, as Bob D of Week 2, who was going to stay for Week 3, had to return home early. And out of the 8 left, I think only Keith and Rich have much detecting experience. And it does not sound like either of them was particularly hot.Rich did get his biggest nugget ever, however, and Keith apparently got a pretty spectacular crystalline piece. Despite the drop-off in total ounce apparently everyone still had a great time, with lots of gold still coming from highbankers and dredges insuring everyone got gold. Dave had quite a few 1/4 dwt pieces from his highbanking, and one that must be about a pennyweight.A black bear stopped by and visited... nothing threatening just a visit, so we may see some good bear photos. According to Dave he was pretty good sized and seemed to be tryiong to get up on the old dozer parked up on the hill above camp. I guess he did not know the dozer will not start!Anyway, hopefully we will hear from Rich soon with details. Week 4 is in progress, and there does not appear to be any detectorists in the week so I expect nugget finds to be relatively few in the remaining weeks at Moore Creek this summer. We are drawing more people interested in the dredging and highbanking than the nugget detecting per se, although many will take advantage of our provided detectors to give it a try. But the highbankers and the sure thing gold beckon and so most people gravitate to that unless they are dedicated detectorheads like most of the people on this forum.Steve Herschbachhttp://www.moorecreek.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted June 28, 2006 Admin Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hello Steve, Thanks for the update. Did you happen to hear how much Rich Lampright got other then the 2.75 ouncer? Wish I was retired Steve, I would come up to the mine for about a month and just take it easy. Do a bit of detecting, high-banking, sight seeing and the good old BSing around the campfire! I know if I stayed for a couple of weeks I would spend a few days high banking the virgin ground. I was impressed with the amount of gold that was coming out of there for short amount of time people were shoveling. Heck, a DWT an hour isn't bad and you just might get lucky and dig up a nice nugget to boot. P.S. Curious why no one has tried to high-bank the tailing piles? I think since it's such easy digging, someone could dig a crap load of material and then detect the area they dug out. Dig a bit, toss the material into the high-banker, and then detect the area you dug out. This way you would always get some gold, but never know you might just detect a very nice nugget at the same time! I was tempted to try this method .... Any thoughts .... Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acronn Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 I bet that in a few years, when some consider the easy pickings all looked over with metal detectors, the piles will be worked over more closely. I really have enjoyed all the great pictures, both of the gold and of the vacations ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest keninla Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hello Steve, Thanks for the update. Did you happen to hear how much Rich Lampright got other then the 2.75 ouncer? Wish I was retired Steve, I would come up to the mine for about a month and just take it easy. Do a bit of detecting, high-banking, sight seeing and the good old BSing around the campfire! I know if I stayed for a couple of weeks I would spend a few days high banking the virgin ground. I was impressed with the amount of gold that was coming out of there for short amount of time people were shoveling. Heck, a DWT an hour isn't bad and you just might get lucky and dig up a nice nugget to boot. P.S. Curious why no one has tried to high-bank the tailing piles? I think since it's such easy digging, someone could dig a crap load of material and then detect the area they dug out. Dig a bit, toss the material into the high-banker, and then detect the area you dug out. This way you would always get some gold, but never know you might just detect a very nice nugget at the same time! I was tempted to try this method ....  Any thoughts .... Rob Allison<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Rob,that is pretty much my plan. I will be there for 3 weeks and I am taking my wetsuit and detector. Move some tailing pile into the pond, detect the new surface then dredge out the material I just moved.who knows maybe it will work.Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob(AK) Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Someone is going to feel like crap when they hear the story behind Rich finding his 2 plus ounce nugget, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted June 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hi Bob,Maybe it was that one I found the morning I left. Got a faint target right at the base of a tailing pile. Down in the cobbles at the base of the pile. I puled out cobbles, and the target got better. Finally had to make the hole big enough to get the 11" round coil in. Target got real strong. Then I was through the cobbles, and hit frozen dirt!I considered making the hole even bigger and trying to hack the target out of the frozen ground, but that is pretty much like digging asphalt so I left it, figuring to come back later when it thawed. But when I hiked out, there was the plane, and I loeaded up and left earlier than I was planning, so did not get back to that hole. I've been wondering ever since if someone would come up on it and find a nugget. If that is the case, I'd not mind. I did leave it, after all.There have been several nuggets found in dig holes or dug piles at Moore Creek. I can only figure people are trusting that Minelab iron discriminator, and I know for a fact it will break on many Moore Creek specimens. Right when you get close to the gold, so people may be digging them up and leaving them! Why not just find it since it is already out of the hole and visually discriminate it?Said the guy who has no doubt left a few himself!One would think digging or dredging into a tailing pile would eventually find a large nugget, but they really are few and far between notonly on the surface, but I am sure also inside the piles. So it will take a lot of work and a decent does of luck. And the question of whether the dredges would catch a quartzy piece too large to fit between the riffles arises. At least with the highbanker it would go into the spoil pile, maybe to be seen or detected. A person running a dredge might consider removing the classifier screen to create a nugget trap.Steve Herschbachhttp://www.moorecreek.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob(AK) Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Steve, I don't think it was your frozen hole, but you guessed it, someone dug it and left it by the hole. Rich left last night, he and Keith went looking for you but you were not at your store.I agree that many of those specimens will probably go right through a dredge, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlakMagnet Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 ouchie... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Glad to see Rich get a big nugget, I thought he had passed me again like last year.Moore creek is definely the place to find your personal largest finds. Four of my nuggets this year bested my personal largest find before Moore creek. My previous largest was 1.4 oz, so I was thrilled from the first day on. Steve is so right about the larger specimens blanking as you get the nose close to them in the hole. My last negget which was 2.88 oz completely blanked in the hole, I got up to leave but returned on a whim, thank God, to identify the target. On the larger pieces it seems you can't trust the discriminator. Wish we had seen you this year at the mine Bob, long time no see, hope the dredging is good for you this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted June 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hi,Well, maybe that target will still be there when I go back up to the mine Monday. It was big whatever it was, and I was able to force a bit of a blank by pumping the coil down into the hole, but at this point that really does not mean anything. Got all the makings of a big nugget so I'll have to check back here in a couple weeks and report on what it turns out to be.I really wanted to talk to Rich & Keith. Bummer. I was down at Crow Creek in the morning filming a segment on gold prospecting for the local news channel to put on the air tonight.Steve Herschbach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob(AK) Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hi Glen, hope we can get together again somewhere somehow. I just won't plan on finding any nuggets if you are around Interesting how those biggies vanish, good for you to recheck that one, you don't make many mistakes. Have a nice summer, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Glad to see Rich get a big nugget, I thought he had passed me again like last year.Moore creek is definely the place to find your personal largest finds. Four of my nuggets this year bested my personal largest find before Moore creek. My previous largest was 1.4 oz, so I was thrilled from the first day on. Steve is so right about the larger specimens blanking as you get the nose close to them in the hole. My last negget which was 2.88 oz completely blanked in the hole, I got up to leave but returned on a whim, thank God, to identify the target. On the larger pieces it seems you can't trust the discriminator. Wish we had seen you this year at the mine Bob, long time no see, hope the dredging is good for you this year.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>The problem I have is which is discrimination and which is the machine overloading, and blanking. So I just dig it all.Glad to hear you all have done so well and had such a good time.DOC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Nice hearing from you Doc, One of these days we have to get together in Nevada for a hunt. Right now I am on a Navy ship with my son who is on his way back from th emiddle east, I flew to hawaii to meet him, so having him back safely has truly made this a great summer, course the gold wasn't bad either, but we have to keep things in perspective. Let's try to talk Rob into a Nv hunt, maybe it's a little cooler up there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.