Digger Bob
New member
Well, after 5 days of Nevada desert hunting, I was ready to go home. My poke was empty and my spirits were too. Our group hunted long and hard at the 2nd Annual Jim Williams Memorial Hunt this last Memorial Day weekend. Between 11 of us, there were only 7 small nuggets found, 4 of those to one guy.
By Wednesday afternoon, there was only 2 of us left. We'd been rained, snowed, blown on and then baked on. The Mormon crikets were in everything and the beer was getting warm. I was going home empty handed the next morning. So, as it started to cool off a bit around 5:30, I decided to go out "one more time" for a few hours. I did this once before at this spot and ended up falling into a 3/4 oz. patch as night was falling.
I rode my quad up the hill with no idea where to try that we hadn't already tried. I picked the area that had gotten the least amount of attention over the last week and stopped in the middle of the road. I disheartedly geared up, turned on the machine, and started walking up this little slope.
I hadn't gone 50 ft when, "BANG!, the detector screamed! It was so totally unexpected that I though I'd broken something on the machine. I passed the loop back over the spot and BANG,BANG it went again. That woke me from my stupor when I realized I'd just gone over a big bullet on the surface. So, I kicked it out of the way. But it was still there banging away at me. A few more scrapes of my boot and it was out of the shallow hole. I didn't even bother to knell down, I just bent over and grabbed a handful of dirt where the target was. Sure enough, a big, flat, curled chunk of lead fell into my hand from only 2 inches deep.
Well, you know what happened next. It wasn't lead, even though it looked like it. You could have heard me hollar all the way back to Reno! Finally, the ice was broken and I could go home. I hunted all around there for another hour and got no more targets. I gave the hill to Slopoke Bob and told him he could hunt it for as long as he wanted to stay. He ended up hunting all around for a mile in every direction over the next 3 days and not one more piece showed up. Man, is this ever a frustrating hobby!
Anyway, this is the ugliest nugget I have ever found. Even at 4.5 dwt. I would be hard pressed to keep it. I looks like a piece of gum or foil that's been slightly folded and thrown away. And it still amazes me that it was between two old dig holes and only 2 inches deep out in the open. If any one had heard it, they must have thought it trash and not bothered to dig it. Another reminder out there... dig everything.
Digger Bob
By Wednesday afternoon, there was only 2 of us left. We'd been rained, snowed, blown on and then baked on. The Mormon crikets were in everything and the beer was getting warm. I was going home empty handed the next morning. So, as it started to cool off a bit around 5:30, I decided to go out "one more time" for a few hours. I did this once before at this spot and ended up falling into a 3/4 oz. patch as night was falling.
I rode my quad up the hill with no idea where to try that we hadn't already tried. I picked the area that had gotten the least amount of attention over the last week and stopped in the middle of the road. I disheartedly geared up, turned on the machine, and started walking up this little slope.
I hadn't gone 50 ft when, "BANG!, the detector screamed! It was so totally unexpected that I though I'd broken something on the machine. I passed the loop back over the spot and BANG,BANG it went again. That woke me from my stupor when I realized I'd just gone over a big bullet on the surface. So, I kicked it out of the way. But it was still there banging away at me. A few more scrapes of my boot and it was out of the shallow hole. I didn't even bother to knell down, I just bent over and grabbed a handful of dirt where the target was. Sure enough, a big, flat, curled chunk of lead fell into my hand from only 2 inches deep.
Well, you know what happened next. It wasn't lead, even though it looked like it. You could have heard me hollar all the way back to Reno! Finally, the ice was broken and I could go home. I hunted all around there for another hour and got no more targets. I gave the hill to Slopoke Bob and told him he could hunt it for as long as he wanted to stay. He ended up hunting all around for a mile in every direction over the next 3 days and not one more piece showed up. Man, is this ever a frustrating hobby!
Anyway, this is the ugliest nugget I have ever found. Even at 4.5 dwt. I would be hard pressed to keep it. I looks like a piece of gum or foil that's been slightly folded and thrown away. And it still amazes me that it was between two old dig holes and only 2 inches deep out in the open. If any one had heard it, they must have thought it trash and not bothered to dig it. Another reminder out there... dig everything.
Digger Bob
