I have been prospecting for about 8 years now. I as many before me started out panning for gold, found a little and was hooked. From that point I started to up my game buying some equipment. About 5 years ago I was in a local prospecting shop in central Arizona contemplating which new piece of equipment I was willing to invest in to find more gold. During this visit I met a man who would end up being a great friend and future claim partner. While speaking to my friend he told me to hold out my and he dropped a slug of gold into my paw. I was amazed and speechless. This nugget I was holding was 3/4 of an ounce. He then proceeded to hand over a large glass vile filled full of an array of smaller nuggets. My friend then said "You need to get a detector."
I knew at this moment that I needed to get a detector. I saved my money and bought my first detector a few months later. I spent countless hours out in the desert with no luck. However, I was not willing to give up. I studied geology, maps, videos and spoke to every old timer that had ever swung a machine across the ground.
Then Minelab came out with the SDC 2300 and I had to have one. The 2300 was just what I needed, it's was light weight, durable and folded up making it possible to get through the brush covered terrain in Arizona.
After I was able to purchase my SDC 2300 I immediately took it out to a little brush covered desert wash that I had been planning on working for some time.
My son and I had not been there for more than 30 minutes and boom! While detecting a patch of exposed bedrock the SDC 2300 sounded off.... Wing....Wing! I knew it was a nugget. I scratched at the bedrock then blowing off the dirt I could see it, beautiful 3.5 gram nugget. Then about 1 foot up the wash the SDC 2300 sounded off again. In this hole I pulled out a 5.5 gram nugget along with a second one weighing in at 1.7 grams. Two nuggets in the same hole. Then we found a sub gram nugget a bit further up the wash. I could not believe the sensitivity of my new machine and the luck we were having.
Over the last month I have now pulled a total of 66 nuggets from Arizona hills. We have been truly blessed. The moral of the story is....You will be rewarded for your hard work....It's still out there waiting to be found if you are willing to work for it!
Brandon - Arizona, USA
