Last Post 14 May 2015 04:51 PM by  Jim Locke
Newbie Finds First Nugget With Dry Washer in AZ!
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Wayne Brault
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03 Nov 2014 02:36 PM

    Hi guys!

     

    I love that I joined GPAA a month or so ago and have really been hitting it hard! I have learned a ton in a short time! I have been breaking my back and moving lots of dirt, only to find out many things I have been doing was wrong and losing lots of gold most likely. This time, thanks to the good folks at A&B Prospecting (No affiliation) in Mesa and Prescott AZ, I have it all correct. And found my first nugget in my Gold Duster Dry Washer today! Not to mention, good clean outs of my recirculating sluice (best yet). This is fun hobby, great exercise, great to explore the outdoors, and my dog loves the adventures as much as I do! Hope everyone is having fun just like I am!

     Cheers and to finding lots of shiny stuff!

     Wayne

     

    Here's my first real find! (Lots of small stuff so far)

     photo GoldNugget

    WALTER EASON
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    03 Nov 2014 04:56 PM

    congratulations looks like a good one.

    Walter Eason

    Roger Schulze
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    03 Nov 2014 07:21 PM
    Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing😊.
    Wayne Brault
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    03 Nov 2014 08:02 PM
    Thanks for your posts! Thought I'd share to let all newbies out there know it can be found! I know some days can be tough out there
    kevin nicholes
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    04 Nov 2014 01:43 PM
    AWESOME. I'm packed up and about to head out to Quartzsite today..... Waiting on something from FedEx to get delivered then I'm off. Good 3 1/2 to 4 hr drive from San Diego. Gonna be camping out for about a week while doing some metal detecting and dry washing. 1st time w/the detector and have had some luck (not as good as you yet) with the washer. Finger's crossed.
    kevin nicholes
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    11 Nov 2014 02:21 PM
    Well after being in

    Quartzsite and finding both claims I found zero gold. I mostly metal detected since it was still close to 90 out and just plain hot. All I got was bee's, flies, and hot rocks. Tried dry washing a creek bed in the flats and after about 3 hrs of shoveling and panning, I got literally not a flake. I detected in creek beds and even went up the side of a steep ancient hill side FULL of hot rocks.. Nothing. Disappointed, I headed home after 3 days. Not sure how I wanna play southwest AZ again. It's a PITA driving the jeep that far from San Diego and my car which drives great and gets wonderful mpg wont cut it on the drive into the gold fields esp with all the cacti needles on the ground. 

    Went to Coronado beach early this morning and tested the Garrett AT GOLD detector on the sand. It works wonderfully on the dry to very mildly wet sand. Anywhere near the water and it goes hay-wire. That's a job for the AT PRO and I knew that. Surprised how well it works in sand though. Picked up a very small piece of foil about 2 1/2 ft down. I found a few bucks in change but nothing else. I may go up to Ramona tomorrow and detect again. Cant dry wash since it's supposed to have a light rain tonight. 

    Joseph Loyd
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    11 Nov 2014 07:39 PM
    That is why they call it prospecting .You never know what will happen.I've had those types of times .
    Matt Mortensen
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    09 Jan 2015 03:19 AM
    That's awesome! Congratulations. Always remember the feeling you had that day. Best of luck in the future.
    Tim Leibel
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    09 Jan 2015 04:57 PM
    Wow, great job. Hope the new year brings you more of those.
    JOHN DORVAL
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    12 Jan 2015 03:52 PM
    That looks like a real nice nugget there you found Wayne. You know what they say? You look for gold and you will find it. So keep on looking and you will find more, the more you go out and do it the better you will get at finding it. Gold prospecting, it's not just a hobby it's an adventure, have fun.
    KEVIN HOAGLAND
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    13 Jan 2015 10:06 AM
    Way to go Wayne!!!
    Wayne Brault
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    15 Jan 2015 07:20 PM
    Just checking back here after posting awhile back! Thanks for all the cool replies and encouragement everyone! Hey Kevin, sorry to hear your trip didn't produce any of the good stuff. I'm happy to share the tips and tricks people have been so kind to teach me. I haven't been back up there in awhile. I have purposely been trying a variety of areas in Morristown. I think Ive honed in on the better spots and they are were I'd least expect. Seems to go against the rules of heavy, sinking gold!?

    Jim Locke
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    12 May 2015 05:29 PM
    Nice nugget Wayne!
    The last trip the wife and I made to Quartzsite (Feb. of this year) , we brought back several buckets of some pretty nice looking wash gravel. Brought it back home to work through at our leisure.....Sure would be nice to run into a nice NUGG like that as we work through!
    Anyway, I am new to the GPAA and this forum - I just did a "Quartzsite" search and found your thread and pic. I know it's pretty late to post, but.........CONGRATS!
    Benjamin Crain
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    12 May 2015 07:18 PM
    Nice find, but make sure you take your concentrates and run them on a Miller Table or carefully pan them, you might find more gold in weight from what you can't see than that nugget. There are many of us that have dumped good gold just because we weren't using the right equipment, and we all have to learn from the bottom up. I myself have squirted a snuffer bottle with gold filled into the tube into the river by mistake. I think most of us have done that once and will never do it again, it's a beginners error.

    Nice find and congrats.

    BTW, I re-panned a bag of concentrates from different areas and found a lot of fine gold I had missed, and make sure you use the "Special D" in your panning water, that would be the environmentally friendly Dawn Dish soap you can buy anywhere. Just a few drops will cut the surface tension on your flake gold and allow it to sink instead of float like Fools Gold will do. You don't want it foamy, you just need a couple of drops for gallons of water.
    Jim Locke
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    14 May 2015 04:51 PM
    Good tip on the Dawn, thanks Benjamin!
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