My Detector and Coil never cease to "AMAZE" me !

[LowPoint]

I was out yesterday at one of my favorite-haunts detecting over some scoured-exposed bedrock when I got a very mellow (love it), and very faint signal.  I had to swing over it 2-3 times just to decide if it was indeed a signal or just mineralization-noise.  The bedrock was kind of flakey with small open cracks and crevices throughout (just what I consider ideal for gold to get lodged in).  I used my small angled screwdriver to scrap down an inch or so into the cracks, and then pushed it all into a small pile to the side to check it.  But when I swung my coil over the pile, then over the small hole, the signal (without question) was most definitely louder, and it was still in the hole.  So, (more vigorously) I again scraped down in the area of the hole where the signal was, collected a bigger pile, and again collected it with (atop) the first pile to the side.  I swung my coil over them again, and it's still in the hole, and the signal is a little louder.  By now I have already scraped down about 2 1/2" and figure I had better get a stronger angled screwdriver, as the bedrock has become very hard and resistant to my digging and scraping.  So, I pull out my heavier duty screwdriver and my ice pick-type digger and go to work on the spot.  The bedrock is flakey enough that I can pry up larger pieces of it and then scrape down deeper with the heavier duty screwdriver.  But, I am really having to "work at" this spot to get down to the target, and am wondering if I have to become a hard-rock miner to get it???  So I collect all of my diggings up ( once again) into a different (new) pile, and after looking at the hole (which now is about 4 1/2" deep) I figure that considering how deep this hole is, and how much stronger the signal has gotten, this must be a nugget, and it should be fairly big.  So, "again" I swing my coil over the pile, then over the hole.   WHAT-THE-!@#$!@#, IT'S STILL IN THE HOLE!!!  So I pinpointed  as best that I could with my small coil and reasoned the it wasn't on the sides, nor sidewalls of the hole, it was straight down where I was digging!  And the signal was still strong and definite.  By this time (digging for about 20-minutes or so) I am getting kind of tired (physically) of fighting this bedrock, and the bedrock is not giving-way to gain any more depth with the screwdrivers that I normally use.  So, (reluctantly, --I don't like using this as it could damage a nugget) I grab for my spade-pick combo and commenced-to aggressively scratch and pick the area.  This time I end up with a bigger pile of miscellaneous-sized bedrock pieces, dust, etc., which I collect by itself.  So, here I go again, --swing over the pile, and.........   Wait-a-minute, IT'S FINALLY IN THE PILE, and no signal in the hole!!  So, after scooping, separating, and checking many times I finally got the target in the fine silt at the bottom of the scoop, and then worked it down to next-to-nothing.  Where-in-the-hell is the nugget??  There was no nugget: it turned out to be a very small (maybe a 1/16" in diameter) rusted ball of bird shot.  I mean this thing was just a bit larger (maybe?) than the head of a safety pin !!  ..I was Floored!!  How in the heck did this "dinky"-bird-shot-ball get down so deep in bedrock where "ordinarily" a gold nugget would come to rest?  Well, the answer to that is due to a combination of the overwhelming force of moving water down hill, gravity, and the weight of rocks and boulders.  But the most Amazing thing that I realized in this experience is just how small of a target my Minelab with a small coil will pick up; and just how deep it will punch- down in fractured bedrock.  Although it was not a gold nugget, I have a greater appreciation of it's abilities, and walk away with a much-stronger confidence in that: if there is gold there, it will signal me, without a dought.  Gary     

[LukeJ]

Been there... 

The next nugget is just two steps forward.

Good luck out there, Gary.

Luke

[Mike Furness]

YUP! If we are all honest with each other we have all been there and maybe more than once! YES!!! ... That is a true confession! 

[TomH]

I feel your pain Gary

Been there done that. Mine was chiseling through cliche  cemented bedrock. Down about 4 inches I get the most beautiful piece of tin!  Dont ask me how it got there.

We were even taking a movie of it because we KNEW it was gold.
Tom H.

 

[azdigger]

I was out and found a nice red rock formation so I used my GMT and got  real nice but quiet ZIP ZIP so I dug, had to go get a small pry bar and inserted it into the crack where the zip was at, after about 15 min I got the crack opened up , now the ZIP was loud. After another 5 min I got my target , the broken tip of a screw driver.....wow , how and why it was there is a mystery.

[Hoser John]

BEEN there done that...many 100s a times. Kudos on the tenacity as could have been  a righteous picker too. I love it when true detecting stories show up. Great details-better luck next time as the skunk stays home-John

[Sonoran Dave]

Yep...happens to me a lot! 

I found an AN bolt in a crack that had to have fallen off an airplane! A solder dot can I found once was under a good 2-3" of caliche. That 2300 has had me digging small fragments of bullets out of bedrock several times and once I dug darn near a 3' hole to recover a silver pocket watch in the middle of a wash. 

I am constantly amazed at some of the crap I find. 

[middleforkminer2]

1 hour ago, Hoser John said:

BEEN there done that...many 100s a times. Kudos on the tenacity as could have been  a righteous picker too. I love it when true detecting stories show up. Great details-better luck next time as the skunk stays home-John

Yep....he had me hooked...I thought sure as heck he had a good one.

[Tortuga]

Ferrous targets are gonna sound off louder than gold, mighta been hard to find a nugget that small and deep if one was there. 

[boulder dash]

Good story,loved it.

[Swampstomper Al]

Fortunately that's never happened to me, yet, today..

Swamp

[Nugget Shooter]

Yep....... and great post, Merry Christmas

[Micro Nugget]

Gary: Thanks for the great read.  It reminded me of a time on the Salmon River not too far from Forks of Salmon during August low water.  I had just dug a little platinum nugget of around a quarter gram from a tiny crack in bedrock similar to your situation.  Just before moving on I gave the bedrock another scan.  A faint zip, zip sounded from the GB2.  Oh boy oh boy!  I mentally rubbed my hands in anticipation.  I went to work deepening my dig which actually was horizontal into a place where the river turned sharply.  The solid bedrock did not yield easily but scrape by scrape the zips got zippier.  Six or eight inches into mostly solid bedrock that had microscopic fractures and maybe 20 minutes later I had opened a somewhat widened fissure.  I used a homemade crack tool (a longish, thin bladed old junk knife that I notched at the tip to form a pulling hook specially fashioned for just such a situation).  I fantasized a dime size platinum big brother to the little one earlier recovered.  But reality slapped me awake as a rusty remnant of a fish hook had the last laugh on me.  It never ceases to amaze me what the enormous hydraulic forces of nature are capable of.

[LipCa]

That could have been one of my old fishhooks..... Grew up there and lost many in my years of fishing. Which fork were you on? Or were you Downstream? I suspect maybe the South fork? That's where I find the platinum.

[Micro Nugget]

Lip:  I was around halfway downstream between Forks of Salmon and the Klamath.  Near where the Corps of Engineers blew up a monster landslide blockage during the flood of 1964 (or 68?).  Ever since then nuggets can be found scattered high up along the side banks willy nilly for several miles due to being thrown up as the humongous wall of water surged and boiled toward the ocean immediately after the blockage was blown up.  I heard that the wall of water was 50 to a 100 feet or so in the pinch places of the canyon, taking out numerous bridges along the way.

[LipCa]

They blew that after the river had eaten the landside out all the way to bedrock..  There was a large waterfall that the fish had trouble getting over.  They blew that.

The water was at least 50 feet high when it was flooding. That uncovered the nuggets.

I wanted to detect some of that but it is all either claimed or private. :-(

[Andyy]

great stories.

I was at Rich Hill trying to find another hunk of gold for the record books when I got a good hit along the road.  I dug down about 8 inches to a screaming signal and got all excited when I hit what I thought was false bedrock.   I chipped and chiseled through another 8 inches or so wondering how the Aussies do it all the time.  45 minutes or so later, I broke through the rock to my precious soda can.  Apparently, the area had been bulldozed and a nice large piece of caliche covered up my wonder find.   I've never cursed so much over a dig.  Think I even made up a few curses on that occasion.