Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally

[bluethermal]

Rolling out of bed at 6.30 in a sleep drug state i head to my daughter bed room,she awake and letting her lazy parents know this loud and long.

As i take her up stairs,dawn is knocking on night times door. making her bottle i know today is going to be good day,how do i know?well some things you just do. One of the reasons is get half aday to go beeping,ive been a good boy all week.

Loading up my truck i go through all the local hot spots,were to go? it a tough decision,do i go to the tryed and true or prospect new ground? Its a gamble but make the call to hit a new area with little gold history.

An hour later im geared up,having removed my 14"elip nf and fitted my new coiltek 9 by 5 mono,the area im hunting is mostly shist bedrock with little or no over burden.Three hours of solid beeping and ive dug a few bullets,boot tacks and other junk,not heaps but enough to slightly dampen my earlier enthusaium.I start heading back,thinking man i hate returning with no yella,should have hit the old faithful patch.I,m half heartedly swing my detector when i get a nice sounding one in a narrow crevice.With a couple of deft swings the target is in my cup ,then in my hand - rats a rusted boot tack.Giving the crevice a quick once over and there is still a target in there,other boot tack i bet ,turning to walk away i stop and have a short auguement with myself,'could be gold' , 'don,t be stupid,lets go'.Could be gold wins out ,turning back i give the crevice a couple a forceful swings with my battered pick.Still in there and getting louder,10 minutes later nearly a foot down the GPX is screaming ,going in to overload.The estwing rockpick is doing the business,the crevice is filled with rotten slate and getting hard to get any deeper,so smash out the hard shist sides.20 minute later the target is in the bottom of the hole,im thinking this can,t be junk down here but this signal is crazy.I am being careful with the rockpick now just in case and with a gently scrap out pops this lump of yellow right in the bottom,of the crevice.Slowly i put down my pick,staring at unmistakable yellow stone with a look religous awe,mouth open like the village idiot.reaching in i pick up my treasure,closing my hand around it,making a tight fist,i throw back my head and let loose the most insane laugh,its a moment burnt in to my memory forever.

[Reno Chris]

A 4.8 ounce nugget is a fantastic find - I'd let out a crazy laugh myself if I found it.

Congratulations!

Chris

[Digger Bob]

Wow! Beautiful nugget and great story too. I didn't know they grew them that big in New Zealand. Congratulations!

Digger

[bluethermal]

Hi guys,

in the early days of the gold rushes some nice nuggets were pulled out of the local rivers,a 16oz nugget was found in the Arrow river,and many double digit nuggets found around the place, the trick is to find them in the present day,but they must be still out there hiding waiting for a coil the be waved over them,my mission is to wave that coil,

happy hunting

[nuggethunting]

Hello bluethermal,

Thanks for sharing the story and nice nugget with us! The advantage you have is the fact there is probably less prospectors over there than here in the US. I would rather prospect in an area that might be smaller, but has never seen a metal detector. Most of the major placers here in the US have been prospected and probably detected a time or two with at least older metal detector technology.

Hope you continue to post here. Congrats on your awesome nugget find!!!

Rob Allison