Larger Nuggets

that would have been fantastic to see something like that come up ....steak and bourbon all round for a week

G'day Robert. That is a ripper 110gm slug. Castlemain/Fryerstown have been very kind to me in the last 17 or so odd years. Even though most of the main gullies,flats and creeks have been sluiced or surfaced to death,and just when you think all the golds gone,to this day,its never failed to amaze me. That last nugget(17.2gm) was found up around the Garfield Wheel area.I have one more that id like to show and tell,found in the same vicinity early this year,but being not cluey enough on down loading from Photobucket to this thread,my daughter promised to down load it for me when she gets back from work (around 10pm tonight).
Spiders,march flies,and especially the mosquitoes at the moment,are absolutely atrocious.
Murachu,that would have to be one of the most prettiest large slugs of gold i have ever seen. My congratulations to the finder.

Cheers kon61.

Ok.This recent find was only 4 inches deep and i can understand why people before me didn't find it.It was located about half way down the inside side wall of a 6 to 7 foot deep gully. The nugget weighed in at 6.3oz/195 grams.

Cheers kon61.

Beautiful nugget kon61....they didnt find it because they were in FINE gold setting looking for flysh#t.

The GoldenChild,I had a good chuckle with that last comment of yours.Although i prefer to swing nothing less than a 16 inch round,(purely for ground coverage and of course depth) this nugget could have been found with a Dick Smith Special,not alone a 4500. Im just trying to make a point here that although nuggets of this size are rare, they do exist and can be found in the most unlikely of places.

Cheers kon61.

Oh that is a beauty Kon61 I remember back in 2006 when i was a real newbie i had a GP 3000 and was detecting around the Castlemaine area...Well i was in one of those massive sluiced gullies getting all kinds of junk from the bottom.. I then began to think hey why not the gully walls,so i did just that and got a good signal...Ever hopeful and it is proved a good area to cover..but my reward was a .22 lead bullet that had been fired into the wall...and there were more of them

Great to see it has paid off very well for you....but i did find a 1900 threepence in Irish Gully and then a one cent coin in the bottom of another gully....I think now i have paid some dues,one day Castlemaine may give me some of her gold...Thanks for sharing Kon.

cheers Eureka Dreams

That's an awesome nugget Kon,

Thanks for sharing.

dicko..

Thanks Eureka Dreams and Choppa. Believe me when i say the sound that it gave off was so loud and non uniform in tone,I automatically knew that (after digging many a rusted bolt,crevacing tool,donkey/horse shoe) I was on a real draft horse this time in,but boy was I in for a rude shock.

Cheers kon61.

Nice piece kon61,

Like all prospecting skill and luck play a big roll . You got to have both - I wonder what the skill luck ratio would be

I suppose you just have to wave that coil over that spot that know one has I guess...Like you say that beaut nugget could possibly have been found with any DS special...

As we all know Detector/Coil/Settings combination's are almost endless. You just have go with what you believe will give you the best results on the day. I think a small coil will find large gold as a large coil will find small gold (as I have heard its not the size its what you do with it - hehe) we just have to be there doing it .

Again a nice nugget and a great find (Wish I had it)

A

Hi Kon, Love the last photo, you must have been jumping out of your skin when you sighted it.

I have tried to detect the try of gully wall you mentioned but a get allot of funny noises, can you shed any light on the best way to scan walls??

Again thanks for the photo and thank your daughter for up loading it

Pete

Nice find Kon
How many times do we have our hopes dashed by rubbish.Your feet must not have touched the ground for days.
Cheers Dig

Lovely lump Kon. Just another 4" with the hose and the oldtimers would have got it.

My wife had a lovely low-high signal the other day in the gully she found the slug in.
We dug down 2 feet at the junction of the gully wall and floor for a piece of lead that was
folded like a handkerchief. When I unwrapped it it was 3" wide and 18" long. BUGGER!!!

Cest la Vie

Robert

G'day ARARAT.

I totally agree Ararat. Although having the best machines on the market,such as that of the GPX series,few are the ones willing to put the time in,not only experimenting and understanding what their machines are truly capable of,but actual time on "different" ground/soil conditions.
Also,Iv seen so many prospectors out there who once hitting a particular gold field area,switch on,and off they go at the speed of a whirly whirly,with no particular plan of attack/execution.People have to slow down a little,spend a few minutes in trying to read the so called ground signs and be a little more thorough or methodical in their search pattern technique. Iv got to make one thing dead clear to all (which at times includes even me) "THIS IS NOT A RACE" People that find gold constantly,in many different an area, tells me that not only are they "one" with their machine,but they've certainly done their home work in terms of understanding what the grounds telling them. Luck plays a role only in determining the size of your nugget or the quantity of your patch.
Thanks Rob. How and as to why they'd leave a sheet of lead that size behind an not take it with them,beats the hell out of me.
Thanks Dig24. Thanks Mariner.Out of my skin was an understatement. I felt like i was in 3D for a while.
Cheers kon61.

the fever is rising

dont know why i do it to myself

cant go detecting for a few months yet

computors is wet from drool ... kev

Don't worry. Its still out there Kev,just yelling to be found.

Cheers kon61.

Thanks to all who replied and offered their thoughts. It looks like there is plenty still out there, it seems like we just don't like to advertise it to much?? Each to their own.

Again thanks for the in-put and the people that have PM me with further advise

Pete

Pete its far from over yet. Wait till I post tomorrow what Vasilis found this morning,sitting just underneath a flat slate boulder,20mtres in,from the mouth of a little feeder which shed straight into the main creek.

Cheers kon61.

Well guys,my previous post just about summed it all up.Now for the picture.

Cheers kon61.

thats an amazing looking nugget kon61...definitely a keeper.
Thats nice looking plush land in background...not digging up any footy ovals are you?

Most certainly not GoldenChild.

Cheers kon61.

Hi Kon

Congratulations to Vasilis,he`s got to be real happy with that beauty...the pics do it justice too...talk about eye candy

Cheers Bill

Thanks Eureka Dreams.Hes still walking around like a stunned mullet.I can assure you,hes over the moon about it.

Cheers kon61.

Hi Kon1, do you know how deep that nugget was?
Thanks, uncle bob.

G'day Uncle Bob.I most certainly do.The nugget was sitting loose and exposed on the surface of the wash,covered by a 6 to 7 inch thick chunk of slate.
Its as if the old timers dug it out of the center of the narrow feeder,missed seeing it,(cause it was covered in clay),and then threw a boulder on top of it. This has been the second large nugget,we've found so far this year,that didn't need working for. Put it this way,my Gold bug2 would have found it with a six inch coil.

Cheers kon61.

It's been a great joy finding this nugget but an absolute surprise to find it sitting under a rock as Kon has stated. One thing I can say is when your prospecting with 2 experienced and hungry prospectors its important to run as fast as you can ahead of them and search the good ground first!!! LOL
My view on how it got there is similar - the old timers found it (bless their hard work) then they threw it out with rocks and dirt. Over the years it probably got hidden under a few branches or logs until it eventually rolled back into its original spot.
Thanks to the comments coming through and hope all of you have some good luck. Its not only the great equipment and advice, its also the time spent swinging your coil around.
cheers Bill

Hi new to the forum. Thought I would join as there are a lot of good posts on here. I have posted these on another forum and think the pics will fit in OK on this thread.

Hi there horse shoe good to see some new people with pics. Looks like some of my Kimberley gold.
well done!!
You will find some very very talented people on this forum but Im sure you know what you doing going by your finds.

Thanks vasilis. Yea there are good people on here.

vasilis, kon61...great finds! Wonderful stuff.

Horseshoe, welcome and thanks for showing those pics. You have certainly had a good run

keep it up guys

Thanks here is a couple more.