Uncle Ron Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Yo All...I've been prospecting hard in an area near Wickenburg and have been turning up quite few small nuggets in gulches that appear to be virgin as far as nuggetshooters are concerned... Friday, I decided to side hill all the way around a small mountain that seems to shed gold all around it's base...I was getting zero targets after a very long hike and decided just to go straight up hill where i could see a contact between quartz seams and sulfides (arsenopyrites)...As I neared the top of a ridge, I got a screaming signal...I figured it must be an old .50 calibur ball or such...I was too far back in the mountains for it to be trash, since there was no evidence of workings, although a few weeks ago I found a nice 1/4 ozt. nugget at the bottom of the mountain, maybe 500 feet downhill...The dirt was a rich red, but I still figured I was digging a chunk of lead...But, after going down about 10" the target was out of the hole...Really screaming...I got the target into my scoop and when I finally got it into my hand it was just a heavy glop of red dirt....I poured some water from my canteen into the scoop and quickly saw a glint of gold...It turned out to be a small slab of gold & quartz with a bunch of other rock attached...When I got it home, I put it in my sonic cleaner, hit it with soda and a tooth brush and then put it in a soak of hydrochloric acid for about an hour...The result was this nice 3/4 ozt. collector's piece...A little fragile around the edges, but an unusual beauty...The quartz on it is identical to the quartz nugget I found at the bottom of the hill...After my first find,I did my usual photo frenzy, I wrapped the nugget in some toilet paper (it wouldn't fit in my nugget jar) and started beeping again...Six inches up hill, I got another screaming signal, but it had two beeps, the typical signal for a nail or tack...Well, it turned out to be a machined screw, typical of what you find on airplanes, according to my Bro in Law, a machinest... Not only did I beep up a nice specimen--over an ounce before I cleaned it up, but 3/4 ounce final weight after I put it in an acid bath--I also found a machined screw just a few inches away...How did the screw get there? It was only down a couple inches, while the gold was down about 10 inches...Did it fall out of an airplane? ... The gold and the screw were the only targets up on the hillside...Did I find some sort of vortex that sucks metal onto a certain hillside spot???? ...So, I hiked back in again on Saturday, confident that I was going to be in a major patch...However, after about four hours of gridding and crisscrossing the hillside, all I found were a couple of old .22 slugs...Then I decided to go back down the hill in a path between the 3/4 ounce piece and the quarter ouncer I found previously...I found a small quartz stringer that was identical to the quartz on the nugget, but, alas, no more gold...As I got down to the bottom of the hill, there was an outcrop of some sort of light colored rock, and lying right on the outcrop was a meteorite...I specked it first, then swung my coil over it and it screamed!!!...Another piece of the Wickenburg Meteorite, my third this year and several miles from where I found my first two...It is somewhat oriented with good areas of crust on it...37.7 grams... ... I just be havin' too much fun!!!...Cheers, Yer Unc in the Dubyah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montana Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Ron. Nice stuff!!!! Keep it up!----Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota Slim Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Way to go Ron. Keep 'em coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ron Posted February 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Thanks, Chris & Bob...Went back out today and gridded the whole north face of the little mountain...one boot tack and one cow aluminum bit...That's it...The ground is really shallow, not much more that 12 - 15 inches at the deepest...I'm just baffled...How can ground that produces a very coarse 3/4 ozt., 1/4 ozt, and a nice half grammer PLUS a meteorite in an area with no signs of workings just have no more nuggets??????????? ...Oh well, I'll give'r a break and come back in 6 months....Still lots o' AZ dirt to check out....Here's a shot o' the patch....Cheers, Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montana Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Ron. As you know , I have prospected that general area myself. It truely is a baffling place to detect which is probably why it doesn't see much detector activity. It doesn't play by the rules.----Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim P. Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Great looking nugget Ron! Congrats on the meteorite too. I hit a spot out near the Vulture, back in my VLF days, with multiple exotic metal fragments; nuts, bolts and washers etc. Later, while touring the Vulture mine, I spotted a canopy from a military jet. John Osborn, the caretaker/owner at the time said that a military jet had a mechanical failure and went down somewhere in the area, I think it was in the sixties. Nice finds! Later...Jim P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Nice nugget and space rock The rest of the gold is probably deeper and just above or below where the speci. came from. The quartz probably helped it float a little better than the free pieces of gold. Try digging down just above and below where your specimen was, if bedrock is shallow try finding a spot (in line with gravity) that is a little deeper to dig in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Congrats Unc.....Those are some excellent finds ,and you definately deserve them.Just go`s to show that it is still out there , but you just need to get off your keester, and make it happen...nice job dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ron Posted February 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Earl, actually the bedrock is only down about 10" and this piece, which is pretty solid except for the crumbly edges, was on the bedrock as were the other two pieces I found...There could be some very small bits, though...I'll try raking it down...Interesting you bring it up, 'cause when I made the comment to Dodacious she said the same thing...Raker down! .... I went back out again today because I've kinda become obsessed with this little basin...Found a couple of small square nails on bedrock in a narrow gully over the ridge from where I found the largest nugget, which suggests the old timers might have drywashed a bit in the area even though there are no decernable header or tailings piles...I still have the feeling there's more gold there somewhere ...Cheers, Unc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchman Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 You have the right idea, don't throw the towel in until you rake and scrape down. Every inch helps, you will find more gold there, it will just take more work. It is worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 That's a nice chunk of gold Uncle Ron, but it sure does look delicate.Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZNuggetBob Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Hey Ron looks like your doing very well out there. that is a great specie piece you found. nice virgin gold and you dont find them like that very often. On your space orb I'd say its a H4-5 or H6 chondrite with medium weathering but thats just a guess without puttin a window on it. but I also have to say it looks like there is more Olivine than normal? anyway take care and hope ya find more. AzNuggetBob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Ron Posted February 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Bob, I am 99% certain it is another piece of the Wickenburg Meteorite which is an L6...I found two others that are the Wickenburg for sure, and this one looks just like the other whole oriented & crusty one I found...Only baffling thing is that this was several miles from the other two--which themselves were 1/4 mile apart..here's a shot of each of the whole ones....The lighting & backgrounds make them appear different, but in hand they are almost identical, save a little more desert varnish on the more recent find...Cheers, Unc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZNuggetBob Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Ron You could be right, I was also thinking an L class. its very hard to tell from the outside between the two especially with med. weathering. I agree the one on the left looks more like an L class but the one on the right looks identical to a verified H4 I found, and a mile apart is not very far for a strewn field they can be scattered for miles or just a single fall. Hilltops are a good place to find them. I used to hunt the tops of mesas for them. the dry lakes are getting hit pretty hard these days. I should also say many people prefer not cut a window on their meteorite finds but it really is the only way to classify them with any certainty. AzNuggetBob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZNuggetBob Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Hey Ron Im not sure how much your into meteorite hunting and you probably have already tried this, and for those out there that dont know what we mean by H's and L's I was thinking about how you could get a better idea about matching the two meteorites without cutting a face on them. If your sure the first one is an L or If both are of similar size they should get a similar response on your metal detector. L's are low metal and H's are high metal content stonies (chondrites) so if the signal responses are similar they both are probably L's As far as weathering Ive found them on hill tops that looked fresh and Ive found them in a nearby wash embedded in caliche that may have been the same age. but the ones in the wash were so rotted to the point that you could crush them in the palm of your hand. the only way to tell they were meteorites was the nickel grains were still present. It seems that the more constant exposure to water rots them quicker and changes the way they look on the outside a lot. anyway, You may also want to try this with a mono and a DD coil, this will also give you clues about their metal content. The H's are almost like speci gold pieces in that you can toss them up and down in your hand and you just know by the weight that there is a lot more metal inside than the L's. Hope this helps. AzNuggetBobBTW that H-4 chondrite I that I was referring to was found on the west end of Willcox Playa dry lake southeast of Tucson A.K.A. Willcox playa #003 and the reason Im telling you this is a friend found a L-6 less than a mile from were I found my H-4. not kidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan WA Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Might be worth doing a bit of panning there Ron.Might be a leader nearby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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