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Hey everyone, Me and Chris got out last weekend to do some prospecting on the outskirts of Goldfield, Nevada. We have been doing pretty well in this area, but there is also a lot of trash. We had to stick mostly to the sidebanks of the washes to get away from the trash. After digging a few huge holes for square nails, we got pretty tired fast...🥵 but pulled some nice gold out of the ground. Well until the next time, Dave

I decided to build a new critter with some materials I gathered last fall. A highly poisonous spider. His abdomen is a datura ferox pod. His body a datura inoxia pod. His head is two mescal beans. His legs are eight devil claws. His fangs are barrel cactus thorns. His eyes are clusters of goatheads. The mescal beans (New Mexico Mountain Laurel) contain cystine, a lethal alkaloid similar to nicotine. The datura ferox (Armored Datura) is loaded with scopolamine and the datura inoxia (Jimson Weed) has atropine. Just a little of any of these alkaloids will give a guy a dirt nap. So this rascal is truly venomous. There is only one of these spiders in existence. But there are spider eggs all over the work bench and I think a new swarm is going to hatch.

Do not get lured into the idea you have to go and spend 800.00 on new coils to find gold. Your 11" & 14" mono will find gold if you get over the gold. You have to be over gold before you have any chance at finding it. As for your vlf`s .... The Fisher Gold Bug II and the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 are likely going to be your top choices for specimen gold ( i have not used the Whites 24K so I do not have an opinion on it, regarding specimens) The edge on specimen gold will go to the Fisher gold bug II .

This is a custom .54 caliber built by forum member wet/dry washer. It was gifted to me a few months ago when he left for socal. He said he built it for cross stick shooting...and it is hefty with a capital H. He told me that it shot extremely well with just a patched .53 ball. I have not shot it and probably won't till the weather cools. ol' bob was an excellent machinist and made the majority of it himself, including the barrel. The silver needs a good polish...but this boomstick is a work of art.

News Flash! You are not allowed to say Black Powder anymore

Scorpion hunting with my toddler... He caught a fly and was going for another. Video.mov

Parabolic Lunar Collector One of the greatest kept secrets from modern society, which has been known for centuries, is that the light shining down from the Moon is actually cold. That is why on cold winter nights it is colder when the Moon is shining on the snow than when it is cloudy or when the Moon is not shining. The Moon’s higher path in the sky is one of several reasons as to why the polar regions are colder than the tropics. The advantage of cold Moonlight is that it is a tremendous source of useful cold energy. I have actually figured out a way to practically use this cold moonlight to air condition my home. The Parabolic Lunar Collectors that I constructed and carefully configured to always be shining on my home when the Moon is above the horizon have tremendously cooled my living space and greatly reduced my electric bills. I discovered that you can use the Parabolic Lunar Collector to directly counter the heat coming from when the Sun is shining. I started by purchasing sets of six parabolic mirror panels from a reputable dealer for each lunar collector. I repurposed two computer guided telescope stands to hold the mirrors. Then I carefully placed the mirror panels in a lunar flower blossom arrangement on the stands. I used a set of six parabolic triangular shaped mirrors in a flower petal array. Each mirror is 30 inches on a side and light weight. The entire Parabolic Lunar mirror assembly is seven and a half feet across. Using a light source I was able to precisely focus each of the mirrors working together onto a wall target for calibration. I use a store bought computerized tracking program that guides the motor on the Parabolic Lunar Collector main drive to follows the Moon through the sky and shine it directly into my home. The Moon is actually above the horizon as much in the daytime as it is at night. It took a lot of practice to figure out how to best shine the cold Moonlight onto my home in such a way that it provided the optimal chilling effect into my living quarters. The benefits have been immediate and significant. The inside of my home is actually chilling. The cold lasts for hours before it dissipates, even after the Moon has set. Parabolic Lunar Collector Parabolic Lunar Collector cooling the front of the house It took a bit of tweaking to determine the best placement of the Lunar light. I have found shining directly into the bay windows had by far the greatest air conditioning effect. I have since build several more and set them up to strike both floors and different portions of the house. Parabolic Lunar Collector 2 Parabolic Lunar Collector cooling the back of the house I live in Gilbert, Arizona a suburb of Phoenix where the temperature is above 100 degrees on average over 130 days a year. This April we had 15 days above 100 degrees and in May we had 21 days above 100 with several days reaching 110 to 112 degrees. Now the endless 110 degree days are here, yet my electric bills in my two story 3,500 square foot home are practically nothing. I have actually met the meter man on two occasions. He told me that of all the occupied homes in Gilbert mine is by far the lowest in a town of 300,000 residents. As proof I have included my real last two bills to show you that these are really my average bills and are not a fluke. My neighbor who has the precise floor plan and square footage of my home had a bill of over $900 last July. Admittedly he has 12 kids, but my family’s bill last July was only $107. $52.58 April electric bill and $58.14 May electric bill What I really love about the Parabolic Lunar Collector is that it is totally non polluting green energy and practically free to produce. I'm thinking about installing an ice skating rink for the back yard next. Cheers! billpeters

Sorry for the picture quality If I could do it over again I certainly would be this was about 1983 0r 4 and I didn't have a digital camera for sure. This picture is the results of a 1 month clean up of a trammel operation working on my friends ranch in El Alamo in Baja. It was working ground in a river area that the owners at the time 1872 or so did not let anyone even the Chinese work. It was forgotten over the years and much hard rock mining went on with tailing piles covering a lot of it. I was not part of this operation so was asked by both party's to be a whatever you call it , referee was the term used at the time The picture was taken on the land owner's kitchen table where they were graded by size. The owner's wife wanted the nuggets but had to grant the other s a premium for taking them. I got nothing and wanted nothing for any help I might have been to either of them. As a matter of interest the wife was a well educated business owner as well as a large ranch owner. They had let my wife and I camp , dredge, metal detect, dig quartz crystals on their lands which consisted of 1000,s of acres. The husband was a wild riding cowboy who loved the brush busting ranch life while his wife managed their hotel and other stuff in Ensenada. To follow upon this gold the wife went to a christmas party in Ensenada , she had the gold in her purse and put it in a bedroom at the party ! Sure ,it disappeared ! They later divorced and I lost track of them.I moved my rig to the west coast to run a pay to dig operation which is a story in itself and was there was GOLD. Pictures are the tromel operation and the gold.

Hello, I’m new to the forum. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that contributes to the discussion here. I can already tell that the resources and information on here will prove priceless as I prepare to journey into the gold districts of Arizona. Best of luck to us all!

I always thought the moon was made of lunar meteorites in cheese sauce or is that just on the dark side?

Here is a glamor shot of his pretty face.

Dave I think I know what the problem is...this topic is "Friday Night Tunes"....you posted the first video by The Dead South on a Thursday and this one on a Monday, you're getting everyone Soooo confused they don't know what they're listening too!!

I guess Skip and I are the only ones that like The Dead South. Since the last video went over like a fart in church, I am going to subject you to another one...just to be vindictive for your lack of taste. So enjoy it, you ungrateful scallywags.

Thats what Ive been told all my life Dang it life just aint fair Mike C...

Bob, Great Video! Neat the way he stashed the fly ! It brings back memories. A lot of people don't know you can hunt scorpion's with a black light. A number of years back my wife and I got really into fluorescent minerals and had bought a cheap black light at the Tucson gem show. Soon found a professional model that would really do the job with dual modes. Someone told me about a place that had forsecents west of Gila Bend . We found it and found some good stuff including some of the biggest scorpions I had found until then. I haven't been there in years so I don,t know if its still open but if anyone likes fluorescents it is about 3 or 4 miles west of the junction of HWY 84 and I-8 . There is a exit there, take the old road to the south, there's an old concrete slab that is the remains of the old I-8 construction camp. Follow that road to the south a ways and start hunting. This road appears on the map now heading toward the Table Top Wilderness area. If anyone checks this out let us know if it is still available. I sold lots of them at the Yuma rock shows in those days.You will see lots of UFOS at night also. PS: I made paperweights out of the scorpions with resin, good flea market item.

IMHO examining what you think might be an impact on the concrete is not a worthwhile effort. The rock is the only thing that really matters. I'm not sure how the concrete or the fence is relative to the discussion. The rock is odd. An expert needs to take a look and render an opinion. There is not much more that anyone could do to prove or disprove it is a meteorite. Neither the sidewalk nor the fence lends any clues to the origin of the stone. If anything it indicates that the stone is not a meteorite if the damage was indeed caused by your stone. I am not sure what information an assay might offer. Can you tell us why you think an assay might provide information on the origin?

Wow, just got news of this. He was such a fun guy. Had fun with him when he camped next to us at Rich Hill. Still have his Chili Verde recipe. Rest in Peace my friend -Johnno and Kat

"Cheesy Lunar" That has a nice ring to it. Like a flavor of tortilla chips. Cheesy Lunar Doritos. Actually it was exploding Martian sandstone. Not lunar. Wrong differentiated body. So my bad. It is an interesting concept to add taste into the ID process. Maybe we should tell people to rub it under the toilet tank lid and then taste the streak? If it leaves a tan streak and tastes like cheese it is likely a lunar.

Since the moon reflects sunlight I've often wondered why vampires don't get killed by moonlight.

I've been working my pocket for a few years now and have had 5000's scan my gold in quartz with less than spectacular results. GB2 sniffs out the smallest of specs and gives off slight tones where the gold is like a thin layer of spray paint on the quartz.

Do they have Yak in Arizona??? Lol. Im with Bob on that. I am sure after he built that muzzleloader he tested every possible combination of balls, bullets, patch thickness etc etc. Im betting the numbers he gave you are what he found to shoot best. But like Bob mentioned, play around and test things out for yourself. You might find a bullet/powder combo that you like better. I do know loose powder and balls do shoot a lot better out of the traditional muzzleloaders than anything i have tried. But, each gun is different and like Bob said, more powder isn't always better. Beautiful gun by the way.

You are correct about the twist. You should stick with balls. Conical bullets might shoot o.k. but you will have to experiment. Different diameter balls and varying thickness of patch material to get the right fit to the bore. That is the secret. I would stick to Pyrodex RS. That is the best alternative to black powder. Some guys use a few grains of finer pistol powder (FFFG) first and then rifle powder over it. But start with straight Pyrodex RS and you will probably never want for more. Most guys pour too much powder. They think they have to shoot 100 grs or they are not shooting enough gun. This is backwards. Most rifles shoot best between 60 and 90 grs. Each gun is different and barrel length plays a big role. But keep it down under 100 grains and shoot plenty of paper until you know where the sweet spot is. Unless you are hunting Yak at 500 yards about 70 grains is all you need. That is my spin on it. I don't shoot that type of rifle anymore. But that is my impressions based on my limited experience. Hope that helps.

Dang Dave! You knocked it out of the ball park on that one. REALLY NICE score!!! I was thinking more like 1.25 oz like my flat one ..Heck either way SWEET find. Still at 29, you hit an OZ? yes? Pretty nice dig hole also....not too much digging to get to the target. Miy dig hole would have been twice as big. Tom H.

Hi Au, Just correlated you to your youtube name MeGoldSeeker... Thanks for the input... I have seen these cicada nymphs before digging, but never knew what they were... Thank you for the info... Dave.

Bob, You have outdone yourself this time ! That thing would scare the devil out of the devil ! Besides that It would hurt you bad it you stepped on it.!

The shadow on your hand looks scarier then the bug.

That's really groovy Bob. I'd hate to find one those in my boot!

Those little boogers sure do make enough noise when it gets hot. The kids around here tie cotton thread on them under their wings and fly them around on a long line. After they are done playing and they are exhausted they let them go. The trees are full of their exoskeletons hanging onto the bark. That piece of gold looks a lot like one that my son found a few years ago. We call it the pizza nugget because it is flat and round and on top it looks like a pizza. A really good find for you in this day and age, congrats. Old Tom

Great gold and miniature dinos! The creature you found at the beginning of your video is a cicada nymph, an adult female cicada lays eggs in the crevices of the bark of trees/bushes, the eggs hatch and the larva crawls down and burrows in the soil where they grow into nymphs, after the nymph being in the soil eating roots for 1 to 17 years depending on which species of cicada it is, it crawls out of the soil, up a tree or bush and attaches itself to the bark or leaves and then molts, it breaks out of it's exoskeleton to become an adult with wings, spends a short time mating, then the females lays eggs and both sexes die. Some people refer to these adult cicadas as locusts, but they aren't and don't eat after exiting the soil to molt nor as adults. Here's an adult photo of the biggest ones in North America, this is also one of the species from my neck of the wood/country, the photo shows the adult after molting and it's wings and new exoskeleton hardening and ready to fly away to find a mate, it also show the exoskeleton which you will notice looks likes the creature you dug up, the exoskeleton would of been attached to the bark before being removed for the photo. Another photo of a nymph attached to bark shortly before molting. Another photo of a guy hold a couple of the big guys....the nymphs nor adults bite even though they look like they could!! There legs however can grab a hold of your skin but they still don't hurt you.

If you think the SAGA™ is just a Swing Arm, it's not. It's a steering wheel for your detector. Start at the 3-minute mark on the video, and watch what the unique design of the SAGA can make your detector do. If you know of any device on the market that gives you this kind of control please let me know, because I know of nothing that even comes close. If what you see intrigues you then watch the entire video. You're going to find that the SAGA will make detecting much easier and less stressful on your body and give you control over your detector you have never had before. Call Bill, he has them in stock -Doc

And your nose!!

Mike is telling it like it is. He is giving you excellent advice. He is trying to tell you that the deformation happened as a result of detonation. And not because of an impact. He is 100% correct. I think everyone commenting here has made it clear they agree. You should seek knowledge rather than pondering the cracks in the sidewalk. You have a good rock worthy of further investigation. You came here for our "expert advice" and our expert advice is to forget about the crack in the sidewalk, paint the fence and seek someone who can evaluate your specimen. If you are not that interested in pursuing it and just want to daydream or ponder possibilities then that is just fine too. You don't need our advice for that. But don't get frustrated because you are getting our advice. Because that is what you asked for

i loved the dead south just threw crazy frog in for chuckles & to confuse frank lol

Bob is 100% correct. Just because it happens to be the same size as a chip in the ground is a coincidence, there is no experiment there, no way to test your theory, like that crazy actor that said a banana is proof of god because it fits in our hand... It is just speculation and will not help you determine what your find is.

Yo. 50 cal T/C Encore. Leupold 1.5X4 scope. Some rifles will drive tacks. This one drives railroad spikes.

Too bad lead and brass vs gold doesn’t react to UV! That would’ve made the ultimate discrimination tool. You and your kid’s observations of scorpions are great way to share, good job!

We saw lots of minerals react to the light. Fungus too. And the root bark of nopal glows red. I think it is fungus on the root. One type of moth attracted to the light is brilliant blue. Some rocks absorb the light and are coal black. But in regular light are light colored volcanic. It is strange how some things glow brilliantly and other things absorb the light. It is a lot like metal detecting. You get a positive or a negative response. Only instead of sound it is light.

There were flies and moths all over. It was one of those nights after a 104 degree day that everything came out to play. The black light attracts a certain type of moth for sure. But not every bug like a regular light. It is strange and I have not quite figured it out yet. Some things see that light and some do not. The scorpions light up like a neon sign but they don't seem to be bothered with it. If you shine a regular light on them they get nervous and hide. We went out last night and saw a dozen or so. Here in the Chihuahuan desert they are pretty small. You hardly ever see one in the desert. Only around footings, under rocks and boards. But the black light shows they are all over the place and you just don't know it. We saw one big one and she had several tiny ones around her. Obviously a mama. And I saw a couple that were tiny like a mustard seed. Little neon specks crawling around. Im hunting them in several different places. In Arroyo, on ridges, in sand and in gravel. Around the footings of the house and wood piles. So far the ridges on gravel in the open desert have had the most. You would think they would be down under the bushes in the arroyos and in thicker cover. But so far that theory has not been correct. They seem to be up on the barren open ridges with only sparse creosote growing. We flipped over a lot of rocks and found one. Most were on rocks at the base of little creosote. And several were just walking around on bare desert pavement in the open. All were on gravel areas where they could dive down between rocks for cover. We have not seen one in fine sand or gravel. Only in gravel big enough to have some voids in and around it for cover. I am going to hunt around my house tonight. At the edges of slabs and footings. Around rock walls and wood piles. I see lizards hunting them in those spots so im going to see if I can find a few on the property.

Very cool Bob! We will have to try doing that as I have not seen a scorpion with our light yet. They sure are fun to use, though. We always take ours camping whenever possible. I picked up some chalcedony and calcite on a meteorite searching trip at Franconia, AZ and tried them out on my mineral light with some pretty nice results. The red ones are calcite and the green ones are chalcedony.

Mike, you need bigger pockets my friend.lol

Bill on his You Tube channel, Nugget Shooter Journals has demonstrated how the new "G Spot™" Scoop works. Not sure why he hasn't posted the link yet. Hope he wasn't keeping it secret. Here it is: The section on the "G Spot™" starts at 6:10. Bill has already sold out of the first load I sent to him and I sent another box full of scoops off to him today. Doc

This has nothing to do with gold prospecting or Meteorites , you guys must really be BORED ??? One month trommel clean up.

The swipe on the fence is horizontal, someone hit it with their bike, not from a falling object. The chip out of the concrete looks to be just that - a chip out of the concrete, and the chip appears to be much older than 2017 from how the concrete has worn.

Beeper, It's as simple as aiming a telescope at two different objects in different parts of the sky. The Moon is only near the Sun one day a month. The Sun's light only glances off the reflectors and doesn't hit the house. I have my system program set to turn off when the Moon is within 15 degrees of the Sun just in case. Be cool! billpeters

I build fires in the summer and freeze them with moonlight. Then thaw them in the winter to heat my home. You have to wear thick gloves when handling the frozen flames because they are very sharp on the edges and will cut you if you are not careful.

Very cool. I love sciencey things. What do you do with the moon(s) you catch? Seems like they might have a commercial value - being rare and all. Also with the laws of conservation of energy doesn't the energy exchange wind up with lunar heating? Is the moon going to catch fire if everyone does this? (also cool)

Can you tell us why you think an assay might provide information on origin? Can you tell us why the damage to the sidewalk might provide information on origin? I just don't understand how either of these get you any closer to figuring out if this rock is meteoritic. Can you explain the rationale? I like the rock and I think it deserves further investigation. I am just not sure why the path is leading in the direction it is. It does not seem to be the way to go about investigating a suspect meteorite and I wonder why you have chosen this path.

Thanks for sharing, cool video it's awesome to see how fast the scorpion is, i had no idea they caught flys.