radarrandy
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monitor wash tunnelsI guess they may be called drain tunnels, Im wondering if alot of gold could be hung up in these? I lived in n. cal. most of my life and found a few of these tunnels while hunting and just being out n about. Didnt think to much about em till ive gotten into detecting.Seems like bedrock in these monitor washes would be agood place for some BIG gold.??!
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wes
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Generally those areas are super trashy since all the junk concentrates there. Also the soils could be deep so it's not an ideal place to detect. But it might make a good place to run a sluice if there's water available.
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radarrandy
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To much trash for discriminaton? I think if you could find a patch of ground the monitor missed,granted it would be small but possibly rich patch. I am going to give it a try in the near future.I know of some places that should produce gold.Ill let ya know what i find.
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Goldfinger
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Some of those drain tunnels have the metal washboard - riffle type construction and I've actually heard of people finding gold in these after a good rain or thunderstorm. Would act like the riffles on a sluicebox. Of course you can't always believe everything you read or hear. I have checked them myself in the past but this could just be a gold prospectors version of an urban myth.
Steve
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radarrandy
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Goldfinger it would seem to me that just the bedrock would hold gold. the few I`ve seen didn`t have any riffle type metal,just a set of ore tracks. I used to dredge in a creek below one of these tunnels and found nice gold.So when the time comes I`m goin with electronics!!
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Goldfinger
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It depends which area you're talking about. In some areas the gold is deep down IN the bedrock where it's almost impossible to move under any circumstance. Other areas have gold on the bedrock where it COULD be moved by a monsoon or heavy thunderstorm - depending how deep the overburden is.
Randsberg placers are a great example of shallow overburden with nuggets on bedrock which travel each time a heavy thunderstorm hits that area. That's where I found my first nugget with a metal detector- right on bedrock after a heavy thunderstorm.
Had their been any riffle type drainage tunnels in that area- I would have checked them out after each rain. Just never know.....
Steve
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radarrandy
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It`s like they say, they didn`t get it all! Thats a fact. Now I just have to get a minelab to go deep. I`ll be shopping for one,hopefully by years end or sooner.
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Goldfinger
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You don't neccessarily need an expensive Minelab to find gold. I'm convinced there's a lot of virgin patches yet to be found where the nuggets are just laying on the ground, esp in a state like Nevada with a lot of remote areas yet to be checked. You just have to do a little research and "go where no man has gone before".
Steve
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radarrandy
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True, you don`t need a minelab to find gold,but to many big ones have been found with them,and when in rome! Yup Nevada,for sure is a big bunch of empty. I am remembering places I`ve been to deer hunting,Nevada and california,that darn well need a detector run around a while.I did get a tag this year and whatever detector I have is going.
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rehab
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the reason for the hydraulicking shafts and tunnels were to precisely direct the flow of muck, also the placer gold, into a chute and byway where the waste could be monitored and the loss of gold minimized. these tunnels made better traps, as a number of boulders and natural riffles formed part of the bed over which the muck flowed.
Periodically, the water was shut off and the concentrates removed, and the gold taken out of that. Theoretically, these would be excellent places to search with a detector, albeit excellent places to locate your own deathtrap.
fresh air and rock exposures underground cause rock deterioration, and what was once a solid mass, could easily be fractured and disintegrated; a cavein triggered by knocking a key rock, and so on. You may want to check both the inlet and outlet of such drains, and based on what you recover, may justify additional work to make an open cut or secure the drifts, so as to be able to extract additional values.
Hydraulicking with Giants or Monitors, was a common and there were over a thousand such mines of this type in California, and numerous ones in other western states and Canada. The monitor drain tunnels bacame vastly more popular after legislation forced the hydraulick mine operators to control outwash and muck, and the drifts turned out to be a much better way of capturing the values on a given claim
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radarrandy
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Thanks for the reply rehab, I just thought anything that cut through a hydraulic wash would most certainly carry gold. I wouldn`t go into a tunnel at all if I can`t feel air coming through.I have worked underground years ago at a mine in california. Got to experience some bad air one day,scarry as hell.No I`m more interested in topside detecting,got to be some taters that were missed. 
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rehab
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amen brother! a lot of people don't get it and don't use common sense. dead air, no air flow leads one to pockets of CO2, or radon. can't smell it, it's heavy, and displaces oxygenated air. About the time one starts feeling dizzy or sort of out of it, is the time they may not make it out alive, depending on how far away the portal may be.
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radarrandy
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Yea I learned quick, I was with an experienced miner and he was showing me some of the old workings ,we stepped just a few feet in a short drift and I had no idea what we had walked into, but he latched on to me and yanked me out of the drift entrence. I was totally unaware of what I was feeling or lack thereof until I was back in the good air,just that fast !! Anybody reading this please BE EXTREMELY careful in any tunnel. By the way Rehab I`ve been reading about your health, I do hope for you to continue to progress as fast as you say you have.
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rehab
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 , no major pains, just some muscle aches in the neck and upper torso. went for a bike ride last night with my son, about 4 miles.
I sure didn't expect this. my last surgery took me over 3 weeks just to get out of bed otherthan short trips to the bathroom. I had leaks where the cut was, and the pain was a tough nut for over 5 months. I can see myself right now not even to have to finish one bottle of lortabs. appetite is up, I go to the grocery store or other stuff, though I am not taking any chances by lifting anything or banging the chest area.
Even the scar is dang near healed up, only have the holes where the chest tubes were. This whole operation has been light years ahead of what the one 5 years ago was.
I had thought that I was going to have to get rid of my mining stuff, trailer, and camping gear. guess not.
Several members here and on Nuggethunting have sent their support and it's something I truly appreciate. Random people at a random time...we musthave been friends before we all came here to the mortal life. what a linkup. thanks, I will never be able to show my whole appreciation for the support and encouragement...
Charlie in Las Vegas
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radarrandy
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Medacine has come so far and will go to God knows where, just as long as they and the big guy upstairs can give a little extra time here to folks that understand more than just me,me,me I guess I`m good with that. I don`t know you personally but I do know your type, just by reading your posts and by the way these fellas talk about you here,thats my type as well. Alot of respect I`d say!! So you heal up Rehab there`s lots more gold for you to dig yet 
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