While spending my winter in Southern Arizona I spend lots of time detecting the old placer diggings and mine areas. One day in March 2018, I was working my way down a seasonal desert drainage that been worked many years ago. There were many tailings along the tops of the banks indicating there was gold present in the area. I had picked up a few nice nuggets earlier in the day. Suddenly I caught a low smooth signal and verified by checking from several directions. I scrapped away some overburden and checked again. It was louder. I dug deeper and it got much louder. Eventually I detuned my GPZ 7000 so I could edge detect and pinpoint my target. I was down about 16 inches, hit bedrock, and took out a scoop of dirt. Sure enough, the target was in my scoop. I removed a few stones and checked for signal again in the scoop. Signal still there. I remove another larger stone, checked my scoop and the signal was gone. Looking at the stone in my hand, I brushed some dirt away and Holy Cow, gold. Talk about happy, I could not believe my eyes. I washed the gold with some drinking water and a large beautiful gold nugget was staring at me. The gold weighs in at 31.7 grams. A one ounce. Never thought I would get one.
Ray - USA
