I've always enjoyed prospecting for gold on the weekends when I could get away which wasn't often once I had my son. But I still managed to make some time at least once a month to get out with my prospecting buddies to hunt out some gold nuggets at our favorite spot. Most of the time I would get lucky and find at least a couple small nuggets around half a gram, but on occasion there was just none to be found where I happened to be searching.
But there are occasions you find something really special. I remember finding this particular nugget for a couple of reasons. Firstly it weighed just under two grams and still has quartz crystals in it from the gold vein it washed out of thousands of years ago. The second reason I remember this so clearly is that right before I found it with my metal detector I got a very nasty surprise.
During winter in Arizona rattlesnakes are usually hibernating, but on occasion on a warmer day one will venture just outside it's hibernation spot to soak up some sun. I was detecting along a dry wash (dry riverbed that only has water during thunderstorms in late summer/fall.) As I came up on a turn in the wash I was busy metal detecting when from just around the bend a rattlesnake bites my detector. No rattle first or anything, just the strike. It scared me half to death so I moved away to the other side of the wash, by then of course it decided to rattle. It slithered away once I far enough away.
Once my heart slowed down I started up again and almost right away I got a strong hit. After a little searching I found this beauty:
I took pictures from a couple angles because it was such a cool little nugget. It was the first I ever found with quartz crystals in it. I guess I have the snake to thank for it because I was searching on the wrong side of the wash, had it not scared me half to death I might have missed it!
Although at the time I did have a camera on me I didn't want to get close enough to take a picture of the snake. It was a Mojave rattlesnake that looked a lot like this one. They are particularly dangerous because they tend to inject a large amount of venom when they bite. I was lucky I had the detector out in front of me! Here's a picture of one, they blend in really well with the desert background.
rattlesnakesolutions.com
In Arizona there are 14 different types on rattlesnakes, so if you're a snake lover it's a great place to search them out. I've only ever run across a few and they were all the Mojave variety. I'm not much of a snake fan, but you have to respect creatures that have survived and evolved for thousands of years in the hot, dry desert.
That's the story of my finding this particular nugget. There were a couple small ones nearby as well, so It was a great day in the desert! If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions feel free to leave them below. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your support!
And my disclaimer:
Gold and silver stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.
References:
https://wildlifeinformer.com/rattlesnakes-in-arizona/
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Post manually reviewed. 😊
Thank you! I'm glad you took the time to look over my post!
I am glad to learn about the gold nugget story!
Some day soon I'll find my own nugget !BBH
All it takes is looking and some good luck! Once your little ones are old enough to help they'll like the adventure of being out in the outdoors. You may want to bring along some games systems and a generator when they get bored though!
I hear that's maybe we give that a go when they older, I wonder if anyone does any sort of prospecting tours , i just want a gram or 2 would be more than enough for me !BBH
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I know there are in California, but I would be surprised if there weren't any in Canada. There's a lot of gold up there! Getting into a prospector community is always the best way to start finding good places to hunt, and they typically know the best methods to recover it. Most places don't have sizable nuggets like where I used to hunt, panning and sluicing are often the best way to go when there's plenty of water to use.
Thank gawd for that snake :) lol
I'd be jumping aside too if I'd encounter one of these. The scariest creatures I encountered in the wild were crazy flying red (DANGER screaming lol) HUGE things looking like wasps but they were not those, it was in Turkey.. And second scariest was the first Workaway place we stayed at in Spain years ago where the other volunteer put on her towel after a shower and got stung (is that how it's called?) by a scorpion hiding in her towel.
For a couple of Dutchies, seeing a scorpion in the wild was crazy enough :)
How have you been? It's been chilly here due to the wind but getting stuff done every day feels great. We have our car back, almost looks new lol, had to return the borrowed Audi which I surprisingly didn't love as much as I expected. Trying to write a post every day, never happens, lol.
!PIMP
Worn out! How have you been? Glad the car is fixed, makes life much easier! You didn't like the loaner Audi? I've always kind of liked them but never owned one.
Scorpions are nasty little things. I've never been stung but found a lot of them in the desert southwest of the US. I even found one inside my drawer once! Fortunately their stings hurt more than anything, most aren't really dangerous. You won't see those up North for sure!
I ended up taking yesterday off from writing , I was just too tired... I got a fun one today though!
How's your back holding up? I hope you're enjoying your new view of the ocean!
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Oh that sucks! Have you been busy or is it because of the health only?
Don't get me wrong, that car looked fabulous, I will drop it in a post later so you can see. Perfect red, and sporty looks. I was already happy they didn't give us one of these totally worn cars lol. I never drove an Audi before and always loved the A3 but just by the looks outside. The inside of this one (A1) was nice and sporty but less comfy than our own (less luxury) car and therefore I longed for our own, lol. Today I had to pick up the kid in our own car again and I noticed how used I already was to the Audi because suddenly driving the Diesel was weird and a bit flaky, lol.
I can only imagine how badly these stings hurt, but it's good they're usually not dangerous.
When you're too tired just let it be, I learned to just accept to take a breather and honestly, it's been great on my health since I started letting go a bit more. I had double the steps every day on average of October in the past month since we moved and I even ran a bit the past days, to see how I'd hold up during a little sprint, lol. I have to be careful with the knees and back though so you will not find me running longer than a little sprint haha. It could be costly if I do :)
My back is on and off but I recover quickly now because I walk so much, it surely helps me to get better quickly when I overdo it. I just either relax for the rest of the day/evening when it happens, or when it's really bad, I take pain med and rest, the next day I'm as good as new since we have the new mattrasses. Life is actually quit good and so much improved since the past month.
Views are great, again and again every time! Any plans for the weekend, or are you just resting up?
!PIMP
You must be killin' it out here!
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You must be killin' it out here!
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And that snake scared me but I found a treasure thanks to it!
!PGM
This is absolutely gorgeous.
Really love this post!
Thanks man! It's one of my favs, risked my life getting it but it was worth it!
!lol
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He was resisting a rest.
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And that's why I'm a firm believer in firearms while you're prospecting. Seriously I would have let that nope rope up like a candle.
Although the last time I did that it was an extremely scary experience when I wasn't aware that I had initially used a BB gun to shoot through the roof of its mouth and out the top of its skull. The next full auto sprays of bullets completely obscured my target and I mag dumped both mags... Didn't hit it once with 100 rounds....
Pretty crazy day! And those snakes are certainly crazy!
I always carry weapon, usually a 40 cal side arm. I wouldn't have killed it because it wasn't an immediate threat, it just scared the hell out of me. Now if it was a foot away and rattling that's a different story... I actually worry more about humans out there than animals, there are a lot of crazy people out there!
The explosion 40? Kaboom 40? Hopefully that ain't no Glock! Hahaha! Glock bulge!
I've got a g23. I'll rarely if ever use the 40 barrel. I'd rather the 9mm conversion barrel. However I built it so that I can shoot 9,40 and also 22....
But... You should get a 357 sig barrel. 357 magnum performance and same compacity as your 40. That's next on my list.
I have to get another Glock 19 slide if I ever want to shoot 22 TCM. That's a long shot because I still have to get a Glock 21 and Glock 20 slide for my large frame project. Hehe.
Awesome work.
A Sig. 357 is a little overkill unless I'm up against a bear! Nice thing about the 22 is the ammunition is much less expensive!
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Nice one dude, how much would a nugget like that be worth?
Minimum $200, but probably $300 plus from the right collector.
What a beautiful nugget with an interesting backstory!
I've always wanted to get into metal detecting. Seems like a fun and rewarding hobby, even if you don't find anything I'm sure it's nice to just go out, walk around, and explore.
I recently bought a small handheld detector. I've been dying to test it out!
It's a l lot of fun. Good detectors tend to be expensive, and what you buy should be suited for what you are looking for. Beaches are always fun because people lose all sorts of stuff there, but you'll find bottle caps way too often! I bought a Garret ATX specifically for nugget hunting because it could find nuggets down to close to 0.1 grams.
That's a nice size nugget...
Man, that is a scary encounter. I am so glad that the snake only bites the metal detector and could not reach you, otherwise, the result would have been fatal, isn't it?
But you get a very nice looking nugget there, yum yum. !LOLZ
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It scared the hell out of me! Not fatal but would have been several days in the ICU, but if you don't get treated in time it can be fatal. This species injects a lot of venom, my coil had a lot of venom on it so I'm glad it bit the detector and not my leg!
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I said oh god not that as well!
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You must be killin' it out here!
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I woke every two hours and cried.
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I once pooped something like this
!DHEDGE
Pooping gold! You don't need to work anymore!
How good about the nugget and what a scare for the snake. Could the snake be the owner of the nugget and was it defending its heritage? Haa. Congratulations
It's mine now! No, rattlesnakes just want to be left alone, they only bite because they're afraid. What was odd is that it was January, the middle of winter but it had come out to sun itself which they sometimes do on warm days. Normally from October through March they usually are hibernating. Thanks!
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Wow….. what a way to cement that Gold nugget find in your memory!😳
I was happy to find out that there are no rattlesnakes in the high country of Colorado or western Washington!😇
Having it bite your metal detector… that would spook me bad!🙄
There was venom on the coil, so glad it was it and not my leg because it would have been a bad bite. I must have scared it otherwise it would have rattled first.
No venomous snakes there is nice, only have to contend with bears and cougars (and not the good cougars...)
It was pretty freaky, closest call I ever had with a rattler.
How far out away from medical attention would you have been? How much time do you have with the bite like that? Sounds like could’ve been very serious!😳
I learned very quickly over in eastern Washington, to be careful stepping over logs, step around them !🙄
About an hour, but if you put on a tourniquet you come out OK, but it does buy you a week in the ICU. I heard about a story about a guy who stopped to take a rattlesnake off the road so it wouldn't be killed but got bitten twice in the process and died before paramedics could arrive.
Never mess with poisonous snakes!
Wow…..😳
You wouldn’t need to tell me twice!😬
I would definitely stay as far away from a poisonous snake as possible!😇
Yeah, I'm not a snake lover either!
I hate snakes, the old Indiana Jones phobia...
Are you saying you can relate to him or you actually fell into a circus train car full of snakes? :)
Hell no, now that would really suck!
!lol
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Wow! That's gorgeous! You should put that on a necklace! 😁
It would look nice in one! This one goes to my kid along with all the other stuff I've picked up over the years. Some smaller nuggets I sold when gold was really high, but I kept all the really nice ones. Up there in ID there is lots of gold, have you ever gone out panning?
Nice! That'll be a great heirloom!
I'm hoping to once my kids are a little older. I have a friend who owns some mining claims, so I may buy one from her here in a few years.
Maybe she'll let you work at one of claims!
You never know. That would be cool!
!PIMP
Nice rock!
Thanks, I wish I had a backyard full of those kind of rocks!
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Indeed!
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You must be killin' it out here!
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This is really a good one. I have never seen an Arizona gold nugget before but thanks for sharing it here
Thanks! There's gold everywhere, all you have to do is look in the right place. For that matter there are also diamonds, copper, and all sorts of minerals just laying around waiting to be found!
!luv
Reblogged!
What is such a nugget worth? Just wondering out of curiosity :)
Gold value at 22 karat is around $120 US. But since it's a unique nugget probably around $300 US. Most gold found in nature is around 22 karats.
Oof, that's worth more than I thought!
Seems like a great activity to do with friends / kids every now and than! :D
Gold nuggets always carry a premium price, it's best never to sell them to collectors who will appreciate them!
The nugget looks really beautiful, gold is beautiful after all hehe.
And the snake...oooh, I can't get the courage enough to photograph a snake 🙃
Always stay away from snakes! That one surprised me, but I think I scared it more than it scared me! I didn't go back to take it's picture, it scared me half to death!
!lol
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He was kind of a big dill.
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I don't know what I like more: the nugget or the "Cascabel" are two authentic beauties.
!HUG
I like the nugget more, the old Cascabel scared me half to death! But it was more scared than I was I'm sure. I don't mind seeing snakes from a distance, especially poisonous ones, but up close and personal not so much
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He was kind of a big dill.
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That was some nugget you found!!! You should get together with @derekrichardson and @brian.rrr, both from California!!! They are gold prospectors, @thebighigg !
That's a great idea! If we get another winter with a lot of snow there's going to be a lot more fresh gold in the streams!
Thanks alot!!! 😍
Anytime man! It's always fun to win HSBI, it gets you some nice upvotes!
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Thanks!
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No one, it happens Autumnatically.
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Subterfudge.
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I said mayybeee...
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