wet/dry mixer

when a magnet stops sticking to the heated pick its at its optimum temperature for quenching. to temper a pick put it an oven at 500 degrees for 10 minutes for each inch of thickness. or dip it in oil and burn the oil off and drop it back in the oil. or polish it like homefire suggested above. bob

No it hasn't, its as it was when dug-out. Know of some rocks like the nugget north of Yuma, but they have sharp edges and never been tumbled, they assay copper, gold and silver. bob

here is a top and bottom of the 31# copper nugget. bob

Will try to get a picture up tomorrow, thanks for the interest. bob

Hi all, up in Michigan visiting friends, Val Darby's brother in-law Gordy Kreft gave it to her. He lives in the UP. Does he post on the nugget shooters forum? bob

Found this while hiking in a remote area in the lower southeast Chocolate Mountains in eastern Imperial County, May 22nd 2013. TLS could be Thomas L. Smith, also known as Peg Leg. bob

Here's a good tip: My favorite time for mining here, Southern Mojave, is the summer months, at the hottest time of the day. Wear extra clothing, floppy-hat with a wet towel over your ears and the rest of your body will not sweat, including your feet. Let that towel get dry and your body starts sweating immediately. Use more water keeping the towel wet than I do drinking. What's great is, the BLM Guys will not bother me, they do in the winter months when I camp more than 14 days in one spot, in the summer can spend over two-three months in one spot. bob

Brook Trout, my favorite. From Michigan, they came out with an eight inch size limit on Brookes years ago. Got so tired of killing the smaller ones with small hooks. So came up with a rig to easily un hook the small ones. Use an ultra-lite Zebco with 6-8 lb line, 12-18" floating fly line, with 12-18" of two lb leader with a #4 gold Aberdeen wire hook. Piece of worm, cricket or wax worm for bait. Fishing down-stream in brush or woods, one can maneuver that fly-line to their liking. The under size fish can not swallow that #4 hook, so their easy to unhook and release. The plain steel hooks do not work for some reason. Hope to make it up there this summer. bob

As I recommended before, the mountains east/southeast of Bakersfield. bob

Great!!! Have three children, with twelve grandchildren, ages one to twelve. My three were potty-trained by the age of 14 - 18 months. Simple, made a small foot rest, similar to yours. Made it easy for them. bob

In 1976 was laying on my side with hand air-chisel digging a clay-gravel steak out, 3"-4" rock fell out, exposing a one gram nugget. We ran the four yards of gravel through a cement-mixer, and recovered 8+ oz. The next biggest nugget in that run was only six grains. Recovered a half gram nugget last spring, for the second biggest. So thing's are looking up, bob

The only nuggets that would compare, would be Finding Peg Leg's lost nuggets. Still searching, bob

To Chris Coffee, Spend some time nugget hunting in the mountains, southeast of Bakersfield. both on the southeast and the northwest areas of them mountains. Would love to beep that area, to far to travel for me. Tip given to me from an old miner who was very successful. Enjoy,bob

Patrick, Is the invitation open for anyone? If so, would need directions, thanks, bob

Mitchel, Came across an interesting web-site recently. It showed asteroid impacts, three in the U.S. and several in Australia. All are great gold producers. Listed Sacramento Valley as 70% of gold mined. Listed Bakersfield Valley at less than 2% gold mined. The asteroid came from the north that formed the mountains surrounding Bakersfield. Did you find your nugget in your area? Sure would like to MD that area, but am not familiar with it, besides have plenty of areas here to search. Am sure there are more nuggets like yours to be found, good luck, keep hunting them hills, bob