The Lengths That Some People Go To Hide Their Gold Spots

[grubstake]

I'm glad my story has brought so interest to the forum but it's more than obvious that quite a few of the members have never been out with a tour group. I believe that the circumstances may be different if they had. Having been there and done that I have seen how gold changes prospectors.

Been there, seen that. It certainly brings the turkeys out from cover. :lol:

On a tour I went on in the early 90's, we pulled up one afternoon at a spot not far from Leonora, piled out of our vehicles, got kitted up and started wandering off, detecting as we went. Within only about 5 metres of the cars, I dug a specimen from 10 inches deep, with an ounce or so showing and announced my find, which brought everybody running and exclaiming. That night, one of the blokes slipped away from the campfire and drove off into the darkness - according to his disgusted girlfriend, his intent was to clean up the presumed patch before the rest of us got back there in the morning.

Next day dawned fine, clear and as chilly as usual for winter in the WA eastern goldfields. We caught up with the Lone Ranger soon after we reached yesterday's area. Seems he got lost in the dark amongst the multitude of unmarked tracks and spent half the night driving around getting even more bamboozled and the other half sitting freezing in his car without food, water or blankets. I must admit to smiling a little.

 

[nucopia]

Lol grubstake karma's a bitch !

 

[deepblue]

Glad too hear of your account grubstake I think I may have been out with a few like that too.
cheers db

 

[Goldtarget]

Dunno about a 100 ouncer.....seems legit.

To quote an older movie, Cool Runnings, John Candys character talking about gold medals.
"A gold medal is a wonderful thing."
"But if you're not enough without one, you'll never be enough with one"

Just replace the word medal with nugget. True character can't be bought sold or changed. Any of my prospecting buddies can have it.

 

[Heatho]

Now gents, let me put a scenario to you.

You stumble across a 'screamer' and start uncovering the target, which gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger and there it is.
a HUGE piece of gold. 100 ounces plus.

Now are you really going to share your spot?

If I found a 100oz nug out with my detecting buddies I'd probably split it with them and detect the spot properly and split the rest too.

 

[Keen Ken]

They all say that until they see the gold Heatho, it's called gold fever!
I've seen it on the opal fields too (opal fever), partners are best of friends until the big patch of opal comes. seen many friendships/ partnerships destroyed when the $$$$$ start flashing round in their heads.
There are some crazy people around.
Showed some guys how to pan when they came across me in my favorite panning spot "said they had no idea", hadn't found much but as change would have it there in the bottom on the pan was the biggest flake I'd found there. Next time I went back (after a few weeks) I could have eaten my dinner off the bed rock for about 10 meters up and down from that spot.
When word gets around some people are just greedy.
Reminds me of Yosemite Sam "It's mine I tell ya, all mine!"; yep! it's the "fever" alright.

 

[Guest]

Having a chat with a bloke in vic yrs ago,when he first started he went on a tour in wa,the tour operator issued everyone with a whistle,if ya find gold you blow the whistle.
Anyway he wanders off,within half hour he walks over his 1st nugget ever on a hill and it was 3ozs! He goes to blow the whistle then thinks again,walks to another hill digs a hole then blows the whistle,a stampede was on,he said it was crazy stuff when they seen the 3oz bit,as he's standing there two blokes nearly end up brawling over who's gonna detect this area,he throws a fake tantrum and walks off back to his hill
One of them stories i'll never forget and straight from the horses mouth.......

 

[SCROUNGER]

Yeah, agree with that Heatho as far as working as a team and sharing good finds, but would you 'tell the rest of the world' where it was found exactly?
I know i wouldn't.
I've seen what can happen to pristine fishing spots by people 'spreading the word'. The 'cormorants' and hangers who rely on others finding the spots come in, trash the joint and then move on and trash the next place that some generous type has spread the word about.
It's the same with gold hunting to a certain extent from what i'm seeing, people trolling the forums like this waiting to get a hint of an area that's worth exploiting without doing their own research or exploring, and then not respecting a spot when they do hit it.

 

[GypsyGoldAu]

My detecting with "others" experience is a little different to those in here, though i have seen the "fever" take hold of some. I used to detect with a buddy of mine and we would go out to a spot to work over, and we both agreed on and operated under the notion of "finders keepers".

In other words, to each his own...he kept what he found, as did i. Our reasoning was based on the continuation of when we detected alone....if ya walk over it it is yours to keep. If it is meant to be it will come to you. Why should i have any claim on what he found? He did the work, research and chose to walk that particular bit of ground. He felt the same way when i had success.

Admittedly, we weren't mining partners as such, and didn't set off on a 2000km journey to find the stuff. In that situation we agreed it would be split the costs/split the finds, but most of our detecting was in our back yard so to speak, and some days he was up, on others i was up. Some days one of us might find nothing while the other did the happy dance. Then other days we'd both get skunked.

This worked just fine for us both, and after about 3 yrs of this agreement, we did a tally of our finds in that time and guess what....

Yup, we had found just about the same amount each to within a few grams difference....

So even tho we started out under a different sort of system than proposed here, in the end we both brought home the goods....

Gypsy

 

[scottlucky]

Along these lines have you ever seen the British TV series the dectorists
it is very funny and by the sounds of it very very true.

good luck

 

[Heatho]

Yeah, agree with that Heatho as far as working as a team and sharing good finds, but would you 'tell the rest of the world' where it was found exactly?
I know i wouldn't.
I've seen what can happen to pristine fishing spots by people 'spreading the word'. The 'cormorants' and hangers who rely on others finding the spots come in, trash the joint and then move on and trash the next place that some generous type has spread the word about.
It's the same with gold hunting to a certain extent from what i'm seeing, people trolling the forums like this waiting to get a hint of an area that's worth exploiting without doing their own research or exploring, and then not respecting a spot when they do hit it.

I wouldn't tell the world, not a chance.

I've seen Sapphire fever, a group of 3 adults and 10 kids digging at Billabong Blue Sapphire mine, they decimated the tourist pile everyday they were there before lunch time leaving nothing for any of the other fossicking tourists, had to laugh when they weren't allowed back one day. The father was telling his 10 kids to hurry up and dig more, whispering about where the stones were, just plain greed and treating his kids like slaves.

I just went and dug in the creek at a nice spot and got some nice stones. Some people just don't care, they just want it all, they were almost shoving people out of the way. I know exactly how people can be.

 

[Heatho]

They all say that until they see the gold Heatho, it's called gold fever!
I've seen it on the opal fields too (opal fever), partners are best of friends until the big patch of opal comes. seen many friendships/ partnerships destroyed when the $$$$$ start flashing round in their heads.
There are some crazy people around.
Showed some guys how to pan when they came across me in my favorite panning spot "said they had no idea", hadn't found much but as change would have it there in the bottom on the pan was the biggest flake I'd found there. Next time I went back (after a few weeks) I could have eaten my dinner off the bed rock for about 10 meters up and down from that spot.
When word gets around some people are just greedy.
Reminds me of Yosemite Sam "It's mine I tell ya, all mine!"; yep! it's the "fever" alright.

I've heard plenty of similar stories, just saying what I'd do not what others would do.

 

[rocketaroo]

greed is ugly

 

[user 5415]

I've seen the same thing in business, I've been ripped off in business, made others plenty with lots of promises of reward for effort or shares in the spoils for nothing and they still wrap their arms around you and call you mate!
Only problem is they have the beast inside saying "I've got to have more than you, I want it all".

As rocketaroo says it's ugly and it all boils down to greed, and sometimes the green eyed monster sticks it's head up too.

I have no such interest in money or riches and consider myself not to be greedy, but and I say but, the monster can still come a knocking and whisper in your shell like, just have to say no is all.

 

[k man]

I have described prospecting as "land fishing" to my cynical friends.
I love fishing but how many times do you go out on a boat for 5 hours and not get a bite?
Or the tide is wrong, or the wind is up.
That's what I like about this hobby. You always get a bite to keep you interested, but rarely a keeper.

Fisherman have always shared their spots, but never exactly, unless you are on the boat. lol

Going by this senerio my bites always seem to be rock cod

 

[Keen Ken]

Here is an amusing incident;
My family and I were fossicking near Grawin near Lightning Ridge years ago (when you could) and there were a few other people around.

I found a pile of recently dumped opal dirt and began digging through it. One of the other guys walks over and starts with" I bloke found a nice piece worth a few hundred over on that pile over there the other day" pointing in another direction, and he went on with the same story with ever increasing dollar amounts about finds on every other pile around except the one I was digging on, It appeared no one had touched or laid claim to this pile so it was fair play.
I just kept digging and let him waffle on...
After a while I came across a chunk of clay, smacked it with a hammer and out fell a beautiful seam opal. "Awww, red on black!" I exclaimed, this fellow went all quiet and walked away.
Had he spotted something in the lump before I broke it up?
He did his best to try and convince me I should be digging anywhere but where I was. The fact that he went all quite said it all!
I cut and sold the opal some years later for $300 (that's equal to a nugget of about 6 grams, I haven't found one of those yet).

We have gotten a bit off topic, so the sensible thing to do I think would be to keep a thing quiet and only share it with trusted friends you already know, not with the ones you just met.
Look after the ones that have looked after you in tough times. You should remain friends for life.

 

[deepblue]

I'm rather happy that the story has given interest to this topic as it does create a different set of principles to that which we normally live by. Gold does some strange things to people not so much to the finders but to the prospector who would like to get in on the action.
I have plenty more to tell.
cheers db

 

[walshie1000]

Gold does funny things to people. For the most part none of us are finding amounts that would change our life. The reason I prospect is because I enjoy the chase and love the feeling of when yellow turns up in the scoop.
Don't get me wrong, a 60kg nugget would be great but im just as happy finding a .1 of a gram.
Ive shared my specific locations with very few people however I have taken a few people to some of my spots so we could enjoy it together.
I'm lucky enough to have a mate/prospecting buddy aka keano that is trustworthy and enjoys this hobby for the same reasons as me. We openly share our spots and take each other to them. If either one of us was to strike it big whilst out together we would be sharing the glory and cleaning the spot out together. Its very rare to come across blokes this genuine and you take a risk sharing your spots with a new person.
I'm glad I have a mate into the same hobby that I trust. When either of us finds gold we are genuinely happy for each other and its great to share that joy. Not to mention, its a much more enjoyable day out when you have someone to talk **** to on the long drive there and back.
Keano the lucky bugger got out for a swing today, he might have some pics for you all later on today. When either of us go out solo and find yellow the first person we msg is each other with exact locations haha. There's very few people in this world I would do that with.

 

[Hunting the yellow]

yep I can't trust no one now with spots I find and I put the time research into and then pretty much claim jumped twice and I don't mean panning spots im talking about reef deposits 1000s worth of gold in the ground that's why I can't share how much or where I find my gold because someone will always want your spot because you have done the hard research for it and tested it I can tell everyone that I've found at least 6 gold baring reefs and they are payable but people wont believe me unless I tell the location and show all the gold I've found but..... if I do that I may have tailgaters like in the past following me out to the gold fields but I know what ive found and I know of some creeks where you can find from 1 to 4 gram nuggets in just with panning in the crevices but im keeping my mouth shut for now on any thing I find I don't care if half or even all of you don't believe me I know what I find is true and its there

 

[GypsyGoldAu]

In the end HTY... that's all that matters. You have nothing to prove to us, and good luck with your good fortune.

I've finally managed to start getting back out there again, but the last couple of outings resulted in getting skunked. Not to worry, there's plenty of ground and always tomorrow....