Moore Creek 2010

[sdf527]

My annual trip to Moore Creek was another success. I arrived at Moore Creek on my birthday, June 17 (56 years young) and was met at the airstrip by Ken P. You all remember Ken P from last year and his big 32 oz nugget, also found on my birthday by the way. After settling in, Ken took me up near the main camp and pointed out the areas that had been freshly pushed. He gave me my choice of locations to start. I knew that he was partial to the area right behind the main camp where he found the monster from last year, so I said he could have that spot and I would take the small island across the pond from the dining tent. It was right before lunch, but I was anxious to get started so I took off. I dug a few trash targets then it started to rain. I was just about to take the lunch break and head back to the main camp when I got a faint signal, more of a threshold disturbance than an obvious target. I had to clear a pretty large area because I was using a big 20" coil,(more on that later), and hot rocks are abundant at Moore Creek. I cleared the area and went down about 4 inches before I heard a faint target signal. Then it started to rain harder and a few hailstones mixed in. I wanted to get out of the rain and put on my rain gear and eat lunch, but I couldn't give up on that faint signal just yet. So I started digging in earnest and went down about 6 inches before I knew it was a target signal. Mind you, with a 20" coil, my initial hole was about 3 feet across so I could swing the coil. I got down about a foot and had a solid target signal, still a rising signal, not the booming low signal you get with big iron trash targets. I couldn't dig a big enough hole for the big coil, so I had my little joey coil on a lower rod in my backpack. I switched out, using the joey as a pin pointing wand. I did a lot of digging and finally had the hole down about 20 to 22 inches, and wide enough to move the joey coil around in the hole. I had to take the Minelab 4000 gain down to 1 so that I could pinpoint the target. I touched the tip of the joey on an area in the back of the hole, way off center from where I started the hole, and it howled. I started digging by hand and saw a nice rim of gold poke out from the back of the hole. I immediately thought, wow, must be a 1 ouncer. I tried to free it, and couldn't. I kept digging by hand and eventually wiggled that nugget out of its hiding place. I stood up in awe. Just about that time, Ken P and some of the others were coming out of the cook shack across the pond from me. I yelled across to them, "hey, I got a pretty nice nugget just now". How big they yelled back, "must be 3 or 4 ounces" I yelled. Well, bring it over and let's have a look. I got back across the pond and handed it to Ken P, "man that's more than 3 or 4 ounces". We took in the cook shack and weighed it out at 7.52 oz. A new personal best, added to my previous years 3.5 ounce nugget and last year's 4.9 ounce nugget.

I had a quick lunch and took that nugget to my bunk, not wanting to risk losing somewhere out there.

I went back to island and found one more tiny nugget, of course everything is tiny when you just scored a monster. The rest of the week was touch and go, I found a 1 ouncer on the other island, and a real nice quarter ouncer, for a one week total of 7 nuggets, at about 10 ounces.

Week 2 was dismal. Ken P had to leave to take his annual commercial salmon fishing trip with the 92 year old father. He took the good luck with him. I found a couple small pieces, then went 4 straight days with nothing but deep trash. I dug some monstrous holes and wore my back completely out. On day 5, I downed some pain medicine and took a power nap. I was downright discouraged, but went back at it in the afternoon. I ended up finding 4 pieces that afternoon totaling about half an oz. Power naps can be your friend. On day 6 I found a .62 ounce nugget that had evidently been broken in half at some time in the distant past. Couldn't find his other half though.

On the last day, I hunted in earnest for a couple hours then just had to surrender. Two weeks, running and gunning for 10 to 12 hours a day had taken a toll and I was wore out.

You Moore Creek veterans out there will be surprised to know that all those tailings at the end of the trail (Dean's Hill, Glenn's Hill etc), that had produced so much big gold in the past, produced little to nothing. The 450 dozer pushed roads around the sides and topped them all, eventually taking off about 2 feet of the tops. I would have bet money on those piles producing some big gold. No joy and I hunted them low and slow almost everyday.

My coil of choice this year was the Nuggetfinder 20" round Mono. I have to thank my good friend DigDeep for selling me his coil, because I had waited too long and the cupboards were bare. Ken P. had been using my Nuggetfinder 16" round Mono and was doing pretty well before I arrived, then it went on the fritz. The big coils take some getting used to. For whatever reason, the big coils are not as hot on the edges like our elliptical coils, but they are super hot down the middle. After 3 or 4 days of practice, I started getting the hang of using the center to identify deep targets. I found dozens of 1 inch rust balls down in the 18" to 20" deep range, all missed by other detectors using the standard big elliptical coils. On the one hand, my back could have benefited from not finding those targets and the accompanying deep holes, but on the other I knew I was getting better depth and it was just a matter of time before I would outscore them. I'm not so sure that actually occurred, but it should have!

As most of you know, Moore Creek has new owners. They put in a game effort of pleasing the guests while simultaneously trying to get their own placer mining operation going. Andy, the dozer driver and cook, really made the effort to keep us in freshly pushed ground. He pushed everything I thought should be pushed and always went the extra mile for us. We just hit some unproductive areas. There are still a lot of old tailings covered in spruce and alder, we just didn't pick the right ones.

The pictures show the gold I brought home. I did some horse trading at the camp, so I came home with about 11 ounces.

Note to El Dorado: What do you suggest with the big nugget? I photographed both sides, one side is butt ugly, the other has promise. My understanding is the matrix is quartz and monzenite(sp)?

[kamikaze]

Way to go Steve! What a chunk!!! Might be a good candidate for the acid dip/tumbling treatment that Ken did to some of his...or a "Mr. T" sized neck pendant. Good going and great story!

ps sounds like they got the new bearing installed on the dozer...

[sdf527]

Way to go Steve! What a chunk!!! Might be a good candidate for the acid dip/tumbling treatment that Ken did to some of his...or a "Mr. T" sized neck pendant. Good going and great story!

ps sounds like they got the new bearing installed on the dozer...

Yes, the dozer was fine and we had some pretty good ground pre-dozed before we got there. I understand you had a slow start, then pulled it out at the end. We had only 3 detectorists, so big advantage for detector cross-talk. I don't know if anyone here in Reno has the HF acid to do the job like Ken's. Maybe El Dorado has some.

[El Dorado]

Wow... all the hard work and fun getting 11oz..... dayam good!

I see that nugget as a belt buckle! Attached to the base with prongs so no solder would touch the piece! I can get it HF treated if you want or leave it natural........

[sdf527]

Wow... all the hard work and fun getting 11oz..... dayam good!

I see that nugget as a belt buckle! Attached to the base with prongs so no solder would touch the piece! I can get it HF treated if you want or leave it natural........

Steve,

Let's talk on Monday. I don't really care to keep the piece, just sell it for whatever I can get. Ken and I are talking Australia next year.

Stephen

sdf527@yahoo.com

[nuggethunting]

Hey Steve,

Great hit for Moore Creek! Most of the bigger nuggets seem to be like "cookies." The gold is a thick layer between two pieces of quartz. Glenn had several pieces that were about half that size and hit them with HF and they turned out to be very nice solid nuggets. Most of the bigger specimens have that ugly, brownish quartz, but once burned off they are very nice looking.

Looks like you paid for your trip and has a blast doing it.

Congrats.

Rob Allison

[sdf527]

Hey Steve,

Great hit for Moore Creek! Most of the bigger nuggets seem to be like "cookies." The gold is a thick layer between two pieces of quartz. Glenn had several pieces that were about half that size and hit them with HF and they turned out to be very nice solid nuggets. Most of the bigger specimens have that ugly, brownish quartz, but once burned off they are very nice looking.

Looks like you paid for your trip and has a blast doing it.

Congrats.

Rob Allison

Wish you guys were there, that was some tough competition when all you AZ boys descended on that place. The little 450 dozer really can't keep up with 14 guys at one time. It was fine for only 3 of us. The big D9 is still sitting idle. I'm a little too cautious in my old age to play with the HF. Hopefully El Dorado can come up something, I'm about 80 miles away.

[kamikaze]

Yes, the dozer was fine and we had some pretty good ground pre-dozed before we got there. I understand you had a slow start, then pulled it out at the end. We had only 3 detectorists, so big advantage for detector cross-talk. I don't know if anyone here in Reno has the HF acid to do the job like Ken's. Maybe El Dorado has some.

You got that right, very slow start...that's the hard part with doing 99.9% of my yearly detecting time at Moore Creek. I'm lucky if I get one day detecting for nuggets the rest of the year. Same thing every year, got to learn the ropes all over again... I'm envious of all that have detecting ground nearby and hope I can change that situation someday... Once again, good going on those nuggets.

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Steve,

Wow, good on you! I had a good time hanging out with the week 1 group. Sounds like week 2 was a bust with the dozer down, so I am glad they had it running again by the time you got there.

I'll be down in Reno very soon. PM me your contact info and I'll give you a yell when I get down there.

Steve Herschbach