anyone else in NW Montana?

I am new to the forum, but not detecting or prospecting and have several places to do either. I was just wondering if there was anyone from the area? I live in Trego and my shop is in Eureka. just north if Whitefish and Kalispell. This spring I am going out to a spot that I have done extensive research on and currently there are not any claims there but I have found gold. Chunky and angular, so I know it hasn't traveled far back in the early years of the area there were claims, but the old timers didn't have the technology I have in my office right now. this summer is going to be fun!

There are a couple they will see your post in time and reply i'm sure. I might be moving that way too. Goal is Billings.

In Livingston myself....

I am from the central part of the state, neat Great Falls. There is a mining club in the Libby area, they have a claim on Libby creek and hold common digs there. I know someone in the Polson area that may be interested. What kind of shop do you have, and what kind of equipment are you talking about?

  RAD

I live in Helena.

I am from the central part of the state, neat Great Falls. There is a mining club in the Libby area, they have a claim on Libby creek and hold common digs there. I know someone in the Polson area that may be interested. What kind of shop do you have, and what kind of equipment are you talking about?

? RAD

I have a wholesale outlet for overstocks and returns. What I have now is a minelab xt-18000 for nugget shooting, and hopefully by spring a GP 3500. I also have a dredge. the area that I want to hunt is between libby and trego. very course gold.

 Hope you had a Merry Christmas. Sounds like you have some serious equipment. I have a Gold Bug, Tesoro Lobo, sluice, McCann Micro Sluice and an assortment of classifiers, pans and picks and shovels. Do you get the Minelab detectors through your business? I would like to try out one of the GP 3500's but I think they may be a little out of my range now.There is a lot of terrain between Libby and Trego but I would be interested in helping you check it out next spring. I like that area for spring bear hunting. I have an area between Lincoln and Ovando that I want to do some work in next summer also. It was worked in the past but there should be some good pockets that they didn't find.

  RAD

I did have a relaxing christmas, test panned in the jim cr. area and got a couple of deep hits, but even with all the rain we have had, the ground is only thawed an inch or so. The minelabs might be in my shop within the next couple of months, I have the contract and other info, but I need to get my next shipment before I order the machines. I would like to meet up this spring, the source is still there somewhere, and there is only one active claim, and a lot of inactive ones, bedrock protrusions everywhere. should be fun.  Brian

When you get the Minelab detectors in and I will see what I can do then. I would think that you would have too much snow and ice in the creeks to do anything now. It has been warm here, near 60, and we have lost all of our snow here on the prairie. It will be late April before it thaws out up in the mountains where I prospect near Lincon. There are some places in the Helena area that I can get into before then. I have a lot of work to get caught up on before I can go play though. I will try to contact you and give you an email address for my business. I hardly ever check the one on my profile.

 RAD

I sent a PM to you last night, but thought I post incase you missed it.
I live in Eureka, but have never been in the Nuggetshooting forum before.
Last year I bought a Minelab Explorer to check some of the old sites around here, but didn't have chance to get out too much before the freeze.  Since then I have got the gold bug, so will have to look for another MD.
I'll walk over and see you at the store. Prob before you read this.
MAX

Now I'm in Billings Montana. Hope to get to nugget hunt someday.

Hi brz
I live in Colorado and have done my share of looking. For VLF gold hunting I have an X-5 and a GMT. My PI is a Goldscan 5. PIs have an advantage over VLFs in mineralized ground also in hot rocks. The GP3500 is the deepest PI out there currently but it does have some drawbacks as it lacks iron discrimination. In virgin desert areas with little iron such as AZ or Nevada it can't be beat. However in old mining areas such as we have here in Colorado the amount of old iron makes a PI without iron discrimination ineffective. That is why  I let my SD2200D go and I now use a GS5(with a mag) which has iron ID.

The Minelab folks concentrated in AZ simply don't understand the amount of iron we have up north and assume a GP3500 is going to be effective anywhere. I recommend you scout the area with a VLF to see how much old iron is there. Remember you will be digging all signals. It is possible a VLF with iron ID (eg MXT) may be better.

Also there is going to be a PI introduced this year which will make all current Minelab PIs obsolete. It of course is Dave Emery's Pulse Devil. It is a PI with full range discrimination similar to a VLF. His detector will be revolutionary for a PI. The last I heard was it was supposed to be introduced in May, however I won't place any bets on that exact date. The new detector will be posted on his website below. You might want to check on this site from time to time to see if he has posted his detectors yet.
http://www.hellfiredetectors.com/

George

Now I'm in Billings Montana. Hope to get to nugget hunt someday.

What kind of machine do you have for nugget shooting? I'm getting new ones in all the time. I've got two of my detector dealerships in, Garrett and Tesoro, soon will be Fisher and then Minelab. Something that I found out about Tesoro, is that every one that I have will pick up fine gold in a vial. And with Garrett, the Ace 250 and the GTA's will pick it up. Its almost the season to go hunting. Let me know how you did when you go out. Talk to you later.   Brian

I have a MXT. Never ran it in proscpecting mode yet.