can anyone tell me what state have the most probabale find of gold nuggets

if you are a metal tecting kind of guy, and do prospecting too, please share info with me, on where and what state would I have the most luck in finding gold nuggets. Thxs

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Hello mtldtctng4evr,

I have limited use of metal detectors.. only use them to scan the bed rock after cleaning all the river gravel off since a lot of gold and especially small to medium nuggets will hide in the bedrock cracks down to 2 or 3 feet in some cases.... As well as I use a detector to scan our tailings to insure we are not loosing gold going out of the processing plant and not into our pans... Other than that I do not usually detect for nuggets.... but from practical experience of 30 plus years of mining, with several years as a commercial miner... certain parts of most of the western states have areas known for big gold.... I have personally found one at 2 1/2 pounds many years ago and a couple at a pound and many 2 to 5 ouncer's over the years... but all in the western states and in Alaska.... Montana also has some big gold there too...there is a small bank in western Montana had a 27 ounce nugget on display from a mine near by...

Good luck in your prospecting and detecting....


Klondike Ike

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Please go to my website....

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   You'll see we do more than just prospector and metal detect ...

We are commercial miners and use the detectors just for making sure we are not leaving any gold behind....

Best states are...All the states West of the Rocky Mountains.... In California, very large nuggets found in the Downieville mining district of the Tahoe National Forest... especially in old hanging river channels..the ones that run north and south.... south of the Feather river.... in the high country..and both sides of the north fork of the Yuba... again in the high country..over 6,000 feet.... These old channels were once valley floors...before there were any volcanoes in the area...these are called PRIMARY rivers.....and usually have very large nuggets....Once the lava from the volcanoes came in...it forced the water into a different route...and these rivers are the 1ST SECONDARY river...(which has a lot of volcanic ash in them as well..this ash is not present in the Primaries)...and if lava stops that one up as well, then you'll have a 2ND SECONDARY..or a 3RD SECONDARY and so on...  I have mined on as many as 1 primary and 7 secondaries of the same river system.... HOWEVER..USUALLY ONLY THE PRIMARY AND 1ST SECONDARY HAVE THE LARGER GOLD... these old channels were protected by the hard lava...and the softer surrounding host rocks eroded away and the uplifts came...and so once was a river in a valley floor ..is now a river channel capped by a lava flow high on a mountain top ridge... my best mining in California was done on the Craycroft channel....at an elevation of about 7,000 ft...just north of Downieville...the next ridge over was the Feather River drainage...I was on the North fork of the Yuba River drainage side...

What made many of the present day rivers of California so rich..is that they now run east to west..cutting through all these north to south rich rivers.... In the Sierra County area...highway 49 from Indian camp ground to Sierra city a distance of 24 miles...there are 38 river channels of various sizes cut by the present day North fork of the Yuba river and present highway...(The Downie river..once called the North fork of the north fork of the Yuba is a remnant of the old north south river channels) Old Major Downie on his THIRD trip up the Yuba (in 1855 or maybe 1887..and Downieville is his name sake) was saddened because the area was already worked out...and he determined this because he could no longer spread the sand and cobbles around with his boot on the larger sand bars and NOT see gold any more........

You'll have to do some research as to property ownership...claim boundaries and national forest....very little state land in the mountains of California...

In Alaska, many of the rivers between McGrath and None have large nuggets...as well as many areas north of the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range...much of that land is set aside.... On our property north of the circle... our neighbors found a 13.7 ounce nugget 2 years ago...and many in the 1 to 5 ounce area...

Again do your research for property ownership and boundaries....

Good Luck in your quest for prospecting areas with large gold......

Please remember, you are not the only one seeking these types of areas..they are hard to find with out paper of some sort on them...

Klondike Ike

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11620.msg75089.html#msg75089

Do some research into hydraulic mining in northern california along oregon border vicinity. Lot' of Gold found there and bound to e some left in the channels and sandbars....

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11620.msg75224.html#msg75224

Only problem with Nevada, is you might have that nasty silver clogging up your pan and sluice....just like they did in the Comstock days 

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