Funny how things happen sometimes

[leroym]

My prospecting partner's then manager/wife bought my White's VSat for him when I bought the ML 18K. He used it a few

times and I believe he only found one or two nuggets with it. He always went back to his drywasher or sluice. He is just a

dedicated 'pick and shovel' guy.

To me it seemed like a strange arrangement but it worked alright. He came over with his gear and put it in the back of my

pickup and I would drive. He did not care much for driving.

Then I would detect and he would drywash. He was content to shovel and he was always covered with dust. (Inside as well as out I'm sure)

He's just a real nice easy going guy and you can harass him all day long and he just laughs.

He happened to be the last person born in Rochester Basin, Montana some 76 years ago. I told him I was sure he was

raised in a badger den the way he likes to dig. Realistically I think he is about 50% badger and 50% beer.

Anyway he called me one evening and said he had been up a gulch drywashing that day and he's sitting there on a pile of

dirt and thinking "I'm too old to be doing all this diggin", and proceeds to tell me that he wants me to find him the best

detector there is. I'm thinking "boy, now this is strange after all the comments he has made about me and my "magic stick".

It turns out he is serious even after I tell him it will set him back in the vicinity of 4 grand.

So I line up a GP 3500 with a dealer and we go pick it up.

(I had been in Peru in 2002 and spent a few days in a remote mining camp operated by some folks from Las Vegas. They

had a brand new in the box Minelab Extreme and nobody knew what to do with it. I assembled it and showed them how to

run it but that was the extent of my experience with the bigger Minelabs.)

The dealer told him what to do to get started...... " get a bigger shovel, you will be digging deeper holes" and what to do with

the settings. He gave me a Minelab cup. I think that was my 'commission' for bringing him a customer.

He was Minelab 'gung ho' for a while and found 2 or 3 small nuggets but the drywash fairy was under his pillow the whole

time. She had cast a spell over him and he could not escape. He kept going back to the drywasher and while he took the GP

along most times it stayed in the back seat of the truck.

One day he said to me "you know, you have the patience to run a detector and I don't. I've watched you run that one of

yours for hours and I can't do it. I get bored too easy".

Hmmm.. I never thought of detecting as something that required patience. I look at it with anticipation and excitement.

One day he suggested I give him my ML 18K and XXX to boot. I told him "I'll give you 20 bucks cash" and so it went for a

while, back and forth. Then he decided he did not want my detector because he would not use it either.

So, one day not long ago he finally came up with the "magic number for the magic stick" and the deal was done.

As the late Paul Harvey would say "Now you know the rest of the story"

(Followup to 11/9/09 post)

[El Dorado]

What an enjoyable story..........thanks

[nuggethunting]

Hey Leroy,

Great story! Wish more forum members would share such stories with the forum.

The GP3500 is a great metal detector. I found many ... many ounces with that detector. I would consider a Coiltek Pocket Rocket System for that unit to elliminate the heavy battery.

Wishing you the best of success out there!

Rob Allison

[leroym]

Hey Leroy,

Great story! Wish more forum members would share such stories with the forum.

The GP3500 is a great metal detector. I found many ... many ounces with that detector. I would consider a Coiltek Pocket Rocket System for that unit to elliminate the heavy battery.

Wishing you the best of success out there!

Rob Allison

Hi Rob,

I did try to buy that Coiltek Pocket Rocket system from you but missed connections. You were out

of the office with a sick youngster as I recall. I was in a hurry to get it ordered and get out of town.

You called me back but I had already got it done. It was just a matter of minutes.

I appreciated your return call. You are treating people the way they want to be treated.

That's really what counts!

LeRoy (In Montana)

P.S. That article was a followup to a post from 11-9-09 (ML on SD2200)