WELCOME TO THE BRADSHAW'S - (Hot Ground, Coin Machines and Herkimer Diamonds)

[BMc]

 

Paying It Forward: In 2004, while nugget hunting on a Weaver claim near Stanton, AZ, I met a Polish gentleman from New York who was a Gem dealer/vendor and had been attending the Gem and Mineral show in Tucson. He was using a Garret Ace 250 coin machine to search for gold and was frustrated with his detector. He came up to me and, (in broken English), politely asked what he was doing wrong, since all he could hear was static and popping sounds in his earphones.  I said, "Welcome to the Bradshaw's"  and gave him a brief explanation about mineralization in the soil, ground noise etc. I put away my Minelab, got my GB-2 fired up and while he was eating a sandwich I'd made him, (with the last of my lunch meat), I gave him a crash course in gold detecting and let him use it awhile to show that he could find small pieces of lead, bird shot etc. He was so thrilled, he went into Phoenix, somehow found a GB-2, came back out and after I helped him set it up, he presented me with a large, beautiful  (3 long point), Herkimer Diamond Chrystal, and a can of spam.

I thanked him and went into Prescott Valley to see Kevin Hoagland who, at the time, was running JW's Prospecting Supplies. I gave the Chrystal to Kevin to put in his safe, along with some out dated camera equipment I didn't have room to carry around. Some time later, he casually mentioned that his lady friend, Tracy, had admired it, so I passed it on to him in the same spirit of thankfulness and appreciation that I'd received it in, for his years of tutoring and guidance he had given me since I had first walked into his shop carrying a Fisher CZ6a coin machine, and complained that all I could hear in my earphones was static and popping sounds.

He grinned, and said, "Welcome To The Bradshaw's"!

[Au Seeker]

LOL, when I first read your tilte I was going to repond with...Herkimer Diamonds are only found up in N.Y.!!

I also still own a Fisher CZ6A, it's a great coin machine for it's time and still does well, but I now have better detectors I use so I keep the CZ6A for beginners who may come out with me to use.

[Morlock]

Is JW's Prospecting Supplies still in business? 

There's a website online but it's 17 years old.

I know he was trying to sell the business at one time but don't know if he did as I left Arizona soon after.

[Patrick in Havasu]

Great story. 

[BMc]

5 hours ago, BMc said:

 

Paying It Forward: In 2004, while nugget hunting on a Weaver claim near Stanton, AZ, I met a Polish gentleman from New York who was a Gem dealer/vendor and had been attending the Gem and Mineral show in Tucson. He was using a Garret Ace 250 coin machine to search for gold and was frustrated with his detector. He came up to me and, (in broken English), politely asked what he was doing wrong, since all he could hear was static and popping sounds in his earphones.  I said, "Welcome to the Bradshaw's"  and gave him a brief explanation about mineralization in the soil, ground noise etc. I put away my Minelab, got my GB-2 fired up and while he was eating a sandwich I'd made him, (with the last of my lunch meat), I gave him a crash course in gold detecting and let him use it awhile to show that he could find small pieces of lead, bird shot etc. He was so thrilled, he went into Phoenix, somehow found a GB-2, came back out and after I helped him set it up, he presented me with a large, beautiful  (3 long point), Herkimer Diamond Chrystal, and a can of spam.

I thanked him and went into Prescott Valley to see Kevin Hoagland who, at the time, was running JW's Prospecting Supplies. I gave the Chrystal to Kevin to put in his safe, along with some out dated camera equipment I didn't have room to carry around. Some time later, he casually mentioned that his lady friend, Tracy, had admired it, so I passed it on to him in the same spirit of thankfulness and appreciation that I'd received it in, for his years of tutoring and guidance he had given me since I had first walked into his shop carrying a Fisher CZ6a coin machine, and complained that all I could hear in my earphones was static and popping sounds.

He grinned, and said, "Welcome To The Bradshaw's"!

Thanks Guys! C'mon Au Seeker, you didn't think you were going to catch me that easy and on something that obvious did you . . . ?    I agree, the CZ6a was an excellent machine for it's time, easy to use and seemed to be pretty accurate, good depth, discrimination etc. I particularly liked the build quality that Fisher was/is famous for. It was a good machine for beach hunting in the surf too.

J.W. (Harold/Hal) Hardin passed in 2013. In the '90's, I spent quite a bit of time hanging out in his store being part of the furniture, invisible behind the carousel magazine rack, reading and memorizing Jim Straight's books, just listening and learning. A couple of VLF machines later, J.W. finally took pity on me, and invited me along on a hunt to show me what a Minelab SD could do. A whole new world opened up for me that day, and I'll always be grateful to him for that . . .. R.I.P.

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by BMc
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[TomH]

I like happy stories like that. Thanks for posting
Tom H.

 

[Mike Furness]

That looks like the present day location of A&B Prospecting.