Bedrock Bob

Here is a link back to the thread where I originally discussed the idea. There may be some info there to consider. If you have a guess please post the coordinates and a reason you think the loot wound up there. Only guesses posted on this thread count.

Bill, I decided that an actual geocache would be difficult for a lot of forum members. If they are going to travel somewhere it is going to be for gold and meteorites. That is why we decided to do a virtual hunt. Anyone that wants to read a couple of historical accounts and a couple Nuggetshooter threads has the info they need to solve the riddle. Guesses and discussion about the treasure should be posted here. The challenge for this group will be working together. In order to find the location guys are going to have to discuss it and take some guesses to narrow it down. Otherwise it is shooting in the dark. And unless there is discussion about it I won't give many more clues. So if guys are willing to work together toward a common goal someone is bound to get it right. Otherwise I am afraid it will be very difficult to guess the location of the loot... You would just have to get lucky with a wild guess. We will see how it goes. I would love to do a real hunt for a prize or another virtual hunt if this is something that members enjoy. And I think once the personalities calm down a bit that members will be more willing to participate. It certainly could be a fun thing for a lot of guys if they felt more comfortable posting and kicking around ideas. Besides, the gold is not too shabby. It is the best shot at finding a nugget for a lot of guys that post on here. And for a whole lot less time and effort than they would have spent finding one in the field.

Awesome! A travelling fossil salesman! Welcome!

..Now why didn't I think of that...

I would never give anyone coordinates that hurt. But then I would never give anyone coordinates. I left a trail of bread crumbs that saved him a couple hours research on the internet. I gave him the pointy finger. He figured it out all by himself and then he went and did it. He started with a whole lot less than 99% of the guys that have hunted Holbrook and came back with more than 99% of them. So that right there is how that story goes...

I don't see myself ever taking up arms against my fellow countryman. A civil war is about the last thing I'm preparing for. I have enough on my plate just keeping ahead of tomorrow. But that is just me again. I'm sure you will be able to ward off evil with your new rifle Grubby!

Those mesquite hummocks in that area are constantly shifting and blowing out. An excellent place for deflation to reveal new finds with every wind. You can find nice rocks every year that are freshly exposed. Once you see that sheen they jump out at you. It takes a bit to tune your eyeballs to that wavelength. Once you zoom in on it they start jumping out of the sand and into your pocket. I used to know a guy that was so good at hunting Holbrook he could just stomp his foot really hard to get them loosened up and then wave his magnet around. Every met in a six foot circle would pop up out of the dirt like a melon sprout!

Yeah DT13, Holbrook and Burque are both pretty temperate spots. The Chihuahuan Desert just south of you is a whole bunch hotter as well. Maybe one of these days you will make a trip to Las Cruces/El Paso. It Is not nearly as hot as the Mojave or the Sonoran deserts because it is really high altitude. But it is a couple full steps hotter than Holbrook or Albucrazy. Hit it in the winter months. Tee shirt weather every day at 3:00. Jacket weather by 5:00. Frost on the ground in the morning and tee shirt weather by 3:00 again. It is like that about 8 months out of the year and never a cloud passes over the sky. South of Soccorro the sun shines about 355 days a year and a rainy day is cause for celebration.

I agree it is a burner. And there may be a flame shield piece missing from it. It is big. About 18" long and weighs almost 20 lbs. It certainly could have been one of a series on a boiler or a big hot water heater. There is the site of an old village there and they had a brothel/hostel and a blacksmith too. I was thinking it was something the blacksmith had going because I found a tong and some old melted metal in the immediate area. But it certainly could have been a burner on a boiler at the hostel. I would not have imagined they had any sort of natural gas or propane in that canyon. But I suppose anything is possible. I know they often used wood gas and kerosene gas to fire boilers. That may be the story here. Anyhoo I think you are right that it was a burner of some sort. Exactly what type of fuel it burned I am not sure.

It looks like you have visualized a hypothetical niche! I suppose the 9mm rifle fits it perfectly. I don't hunt people. I don't think I could stand the taste. I don't spend much time thinking about hunting people or talking about it either. I've spent most of my life trying really hard to stay out of gunfights and have had fairly good success. I pack my "go bag" to go in the opposite direction. Hope you have lots of targets, or not. Whatever is good for you Grubby.

I think sooner or later people will start taking guesses. There was so much pessimism before I even started the contest I am not surprised that people don't know what to expect. The only comments have been to try and derail it. But there is a nice piece of gold for anyone who can guess correctly. And I will leave it up there for another couple months in case anyone decides to participate. Heck, it could be fun pondering what may have become of that loot. Here is a link for anyone who may want to take a stab at it.

oops

I found this in an old mining camp from the late 1800's. I have decided to call it some sort of a portable forge. I have no idea what it really is, but I can visualize air being pumped through the housing and a lump of coal sitting there in the "bullseye". What do you think it is?

I was under the impression that California already banned magazines over three rounds for semi auto rifles? Is that just for the AR platform or what? My son had a Ruger 9mm semi auto rifle. It looked like the Mini 14 ranch rifle but had a completely different action... Kinda like a Ruger 10-22. It was not a "takedown" rifle but I believe it would accept a Glock magazine. The magazine sure looked like a Glock mag. It was a fun gun for plinking. I am not sure what else you would do with a gun like that. The down side was nearly impossible to take apart and the action fouled badly. After a few hundred rounds you had to disassemble it and clean out all the glick from that smoky pistol ammo. I don't know how this new weapon strips but make sure you can remove the bolt and get it back in without yoga lessons. Pistol ammo, especially the junk 9mm you get these days, is as dirty as heck and will stuff up an action fairly rapidly. It was accurate out to the point it went subsonic (65-70 yards) and had zero recoil so we used it to bust bottles. The sound wave interrupted the flight of that little fat bullet a lot more than a .22 so it lost a lot of accuracy past that point. If you were shooting off a hill the bullet would drop rapidly along the curve of the ground and if you were shooting into a hill it would rise. So it was not a very good long range gun at all. But as long as the bullet had the proper velocity it would hit a soda can consistently out to about 75 yards or so. That is a function of the round and not the rifle though. I would expect ANY 9mm rifle to behave in exactly the same way at ranges where the bullet slowed to under the speed of sound. Some handgun cartridges lend themselves to rifle rounds well. The .44 and the .357 immediately come to mind. The 9mm coupled with the semi auto action is kinda alien engineering for a rifle but that is just one fool's opinion. I really know nothing about guns at all. It might make a good defense rifle for a guy who shot a Glock 9mm. I am not sure how much sense a "defense rifle" makes but it would fit the hypothetical niche if a guy could visualize one in his mind. It was mostly a fun plinker for my son before he became proficient with a handgun. Nowdays he shoots a .308 and the 30-06 at game and plinks with the .223. I think he still has a 9mm handgun laying around somewhere but we don't load 9mm and we have not shot 9mm in many moons.

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