Dear members,
As stated in my introduction I am now in the middle of my 10 day solo trip in Clermont, and it started with a bang! (well, at least for me...)
On my first day, and on a new place, I walked about 100 metres from my car in a straight line heading towards the centre of the prospecting area, after that I turned my detector on, walked another 10 - 15 metres following the same straight line, got my first signal - which was a screamer! -, thought of walking over it but because it was a new ground decided to dig it out... and at only 150 mm deep I found this 2.5 gr nugget:
So... there I am, very happy and excited, what a way to start the trip, and it was a new place for me so it was really promising!
I then spent the next three days on that spot going "low and slow", remembering the wise words by the late and greatly missed Wal not to "walk too quickly away from gold", clearing a 5 metre radius all around the spot where I found the nugget, lifting heavy logs, eliminating thick bushes, even "surfacing" the area by removing a 50 mm ground layer but, apart from another small .35 sub grammer, I couldn't find anything else.
Now, I am perplexed... Was that nugget alone (with the exception of the sub grammer)? Have I missed something (which is always possible, of course)? Or is it perhaps more probable that the area has been previously flogged (I saw some signs of other detectorists' passage, with a few foot scrapes and holes here and there, but nothing too extensive), but incredibly so they missed that nugget? (Which by the way wasn't difficult to stumble upon because it was a screamer and also because it was right in the centre of a sort of "perimeter" delimited by fallen trees?
In conclusion: here I am, not sure of what I should do... if you could be so kind, please let me have your thoughts on this.
Shall I insist or move on? Is it possible that nuggets like that can be alone in a specific area?
What does your experience say? Insist because "there must be" something else there? Or thank your incredible luck for stumbling upon it in such a manner and move on?
I'll be in Clermont until this Sunday, so any advice or suggestion is greatly appreciated, thank you!
As stated in my introduction I am now in the middle of my 10 day solo trip in Clermont, and it started with a bang! (well, at least for me...)
On my first day, and on a new place, I walked about 100 metres from my car in a straight line heading towards the centre of the prospecting area, after that I turned my detector on, walked another 10 - 15 metres following the same straight line, got my first signal - which was a screamer! -, thought of walking over it but because it was a new ground decided to dig it out... and at only 150 mm deep I found this 2.5 gr nugget:
So... there I am, very happy and excited, what a way to start the trip, and it was a new place for me so it was really promising!
I then spent the next three days on that spot going "low and slow", remembering the wise words by the late and greatly missed Wal not to "walk too quickly away from gold", clearing a 5 metre radius all around the spot where I found the nugget, lifting heavy logs, eliminating thick bushes, even "surfacing" the area by removing a 50 mm ground layer but, apart from another small .35 sub grammer, I couldn't find anything else.
Now, I am perplexed... Was that nugget alone (with the exception of the sub grammer)? Have I missed something (which is always possible, of course)? Or is it perhaps more probable that the area has been previously flogged (I saw some signs of other detectorists' passage, with a few foot scrapes and holes here and there, but nothing too extensive), but incredibly so they missed that nugget? (Which by the way wasn't difficult to stumble upon because it was a screamer and also because it was right in the centre of a sort of "perimeter" delimited by fallen trees?
In conclusion: here I am, not sure of what I should do... if you could be so kind, please let me have your thoughts on this.
Shall I insist or move on? Is it possible that nuggets like that can be alone in a specific area?
What does your experience say? Insist because "there must be" something else there? Or thank your incredible luck for stumbling upon it in such a manner and move on?
I'll be in Clermont until this Sunday, so any advice or suggestion is greatly appreciated, thank you!