Pyledriver
Active member
I’m about to board a plane to Az where I will spend the next several days detecting in the Bradshaw mountains! Hopefully I’ll have some results to post…
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Nuggetshooting in the Big Az!
- Thread starter Pyledriver
- Start date
IdahoGoldGettR
Active member
Picketwire
Well-known member
Here's wishing you success. It sounds like a wonderful getaway.
Missouri -- Ma Betty
Well-known member
WOW!!! That Rattler shivers me bones! I detest snakes! Ma
Picketwire
Well-known member
That will put a spring in your step for sure.
Minelab Pirate
Well-known member
Love the Bradshaw Mountains! dad used to take us up the old Swilling trail from north of Lake Pleasant, up through Humbug and Cow Creek. Beautiful, rugged area!
Pyledriver
Active member
So far two days of brutal terrain, beautiful scenery, beautiful weather…but no gold yet! 3 more days…
Missouri -- Ma Betty
Well-known member
Keep a Stompin' (to warn the Rattlers) & keep a Hopin' ye find the GOLD! Have a good & fun time while in those HILLS & take care of yourself! Ma
#1Leatherneck
Well-known member
That area would be a beautiful area to visit. Some serious miners are looking to strike it rich there. The mountain named after two brothers after their death.
C/P The gold districts within the Bradshaw range are among the most productive placers in the state. Gold districts in this area include Lynx Creek, Big Bug Creek, upper Hassayampa River, Groom Creek, Black Canyon and others.
The black mountains appear to be self-explanatory why there would be gold there in that area.
There are educated (rock hounds) geologists doing mining there and around that area.
I had researched that area when I was watching metal detecting for gold in Arizona.
With the technology today I expect some miner to strike it rich right in that area.
Pyledriver you might strike it rich!
If you do don't forget us here on the forum post back! lol
Leatherneck
C/P The gold districts within the Bradshaw range are among the most productive placers in the state. Gold districts in this area include Lynx Creek, Big Bug Creek, upper Hassayampa River, Groom Creek, Black Canyon and others.
The black mountains appear to be self-explanatory why there would be gold there in that area.
There are educated (rock hounds) geologists doing mining there and around that area.
I had researched that area when I was watching metal detecting for gold in Arizona.
With the technology today I expect some miner to strike it rich right in that area.
Pyledriver you might strike it rich!
If you do don't forget us here on the forum post back! lol
Leatherneck
Pyledriver
Active member
Well one of our claims has produced about 11-12 ounces so far, but our detectors have been silent for quite awhile out there. We’re just waiting for our plan of operation to be approved to bring in a small excavator-MIGHT hit the mother lode, we’ll just see!
Today was a blank except for some fine gold I found in an old snuffer bottle laying in the wash.. High hopes for tomorrow!
Today was a blank except for some fine gold I found in an old snuffer bottle laying in the wash.. High hopes for tomorrow!
Minelab Pirate
Well-known member
BIG Nuggets under your coil!
Picketwire
Well-known member
You can do it, Pyledriver! But I've had a very successful archery deer hunts when I didn't even get a deer. Just being out there soothes the soul.
Pyledriver
Active member
Well as of today all I have are pictures and memories! One more day but admittedly, we’re all whooped from the terrain! I’ve been taking video so I’ll load that to YouTube in a week or so. Pending tomorrow’s results!
Odanscoils
Well-known member
Those are some Sweeeetttttttt nuggets.
Arizona ???
Odanscoils
Well-known member
Sorry it didn't pan out.
Would of loved to see another hand size nuggets.
What a wonderful dream trip though.
Pyledriver
Active member
About to jump on the plane home…with NO gold! My buddy did find 3 small ones today though-together they were just over 3 grams. It was a fun time! Got to use my equinox for relic hunting a miners camp, my 2300 backpacking into a couple areas, and my buddy’s GPZ to scour an old hillside patch that is apparently quite worked over! Next trip will be in the fall.
Odanscoils
Well-known member
Still an awesome time.
How's the 800 handle the soils ?
I've read the 800 actually does well on small gold ?
Be anxious to see how you do after scraping down your claim 6" or so. Hopefully be like new ground.
Pyledriver
Active member
I was surprised that the 800 worked as well as it did. Now I didn’t find any gold but I did find small bits of iron and even some bird shot, and if you can find bird shot you can find gold! I ran it in both of the gold programs and experimented with sensitivity. Now it does like hot rocks but the best way to eliminate those is just to learn that they sound a little different than a target would. I have used a test nugget with my SDC2300 since I first got it, and I just used that same one, every so often throwing it down on the ground to try to get my ear more trained. Since I’ve never really prospected with the 800 I’m sure there was a whole lot I could have missed! But for up there at the miners camp I knew that all the targets would be larger than nuggets and should sound off pretty well, which they did! One thing I will say for sure is that swinging the 800 with the small coil is much more comfortable than any of the Minelab PI machines. Even though I love my 2300, the ergonomics aren’t really great with it being front heavy, and I use a harness with it to help for those longer days of detecting.
As to soil removal, we’re talking feet, not inches! We’ve already worked that wash pretty heavily in the past using rock bars, hammer drills, and using a device pulled behind an ATV to spread out the dirt so that we could detect it. Back at that time it was crazy how many nuggets we were finding! But now we need something like the excavator to be able to go further into the banks and especially in the steeper sides where it just wouldn’t be safe to be digging with hand tools. We have had a couple geologists at that claim who both felt that the source of our gold was within the boundaries of our claim. The gold can be very rough, with quartz still stuck in it, and that supposedly means it has not traveled far.
As of this trip we have all come to the conclusion that the days of easily detecting nuggets are past on these five or six areas! Several of them we have been hitting really hard for five or six years or so. One of the areas that still holds gold is an extremely brutal hike in with hillsides so steep you might worry about an avalanche in some areas. The frustrating thing about that place is we know there should be some gold up on those hillsides but it’s extremely treacherous to access some of those places. The best we’ve been able to do in that particular area is to follow animal trails, But in reality those are essentially terraces that may only be a foot wide and you can’t go up or down without losing footing and sliding down the hill and hopefully getting caught by something that does not have thorns on it, lol! I will try to get some of my pictures sized correctly for posting to help show what I’m talking about. For some reason I cannot directly post pictures from my phone I guess because they’re too big.
As to soil removal, we’re talking feet, not inches! We’ve already worked that wash pretty heavily in the past using rock bars, hammer drills, and using a device pulled behind an ATV to spread out the dirt so that we could detect it. Back at that time it was crazy how many nuggets we were finding! But now we need something like the excavator to be able to go further into the banks and especially in the steeper sides where it just wouldn’t be safe to be digging with hand tools. We have had a couple geologists at that claim who both felt that the source of our gold was within the boundaries of our claim. The gold can be very rough, with quartz still stuck in it, and that supposedly means it has not traveled far.
As of this trip we have all come to the conclusion that the days of easily detecting nuggets are past on these five or six areas! Several of them we have been hitting really hard for five or six years or so. One of the areas that still holds gold is an extremely brutal hike in with hillsides so steep you might worry about an avalanche in some areas. The frustrating thing about that place is we know there should be some gold up on those hillsides but it’s extremely treacherous to access some of those places. The best we’ve been able to do in that particular area is to follow animal trails, But in reality those are essentially terraces that may only be a foot wide and you can’t go up or down without losing footing and sliding down the hill and hopefully getting caught by something that does not have thorns on it, lol! I will try to get some of my pictures sized correctly for posting to help show what I’m talking about. For some reason I cannot directly post pictures from my phone I guess because they’re too big.