As we got closer I noticed he leaned his head out the window. A few moments later he turned to me and said, “Are you serious? You can’t be…Are we really going to detect here?” I couldn’t help but laugh; he said the words almost as if my bringing him to the patch had insulted him. He promptly informed me that this was the worst looking ground he’d ever seen in his life, and furthermore had he been driving he would have been pressing the accelerator instead of the break. Of course this made me laugh even harder. Silently I admitted to myself that he had a point. This was horrible looking ground. If someone hadn’t told me it held gold I probably would have kept driving too.

As we worked our way across the rocky hillside my mind drifted back to my friend’s expression and I started to chuckle again. Until finding that first nugget, I had also been disgusted with the appearance of this country. I took a closer look at the ground underfoot and instantly knew why. The color of the soil was extremely pale. The composition of the material was lacking quartz and was nearly void of iron-bearing minerals. Not to mention there wasn’t a single placer working in sight; the old-timers hadn’t been interested. No, the obvious indicators were missing.

Over the years I had trained myself to be selective in the areas I would or would not prospect. I had learned there were certain “gold” clues, both geological and manmade, that could help me limit my search area. For instance, one of the first clues I look at when exploring new ground is the color of the dirt. Soils that are stained red or orange usually result from the weathering of iron oxides, and where we get iron oxides we often get gold. Other important clues are the presence of quartz float on the hillsides and black sand (or magnetite) down in the creeks and washes. Before getting my metal detector out of the truck I also always carefully examine the bedrock. The underlying rock of a region can offer powerful clues as to whether geological conditions are favorable for the production of gold.

I thought of all these things, but as I looked around I saw none of them. By all rights this ground shouldn’t have had nuggets, yet here they were, only a few inches beneath the surface. At that moment an unsettling thought crossed my mind. Was there such a thing as too much experience? I wondered how many times I had driven right by a big nugget because “things” didn’t look quite right. Could my preconceptions of where the gold ought to be prevent me from making a new discovery? The longer I thought about it the more I became convinced that the answer was –YES!

Humans are creatures of habit. Once we find a way that works efficiently we tend to stick to it; whether it’s mowing the lawn, driving home from work, or even balancing a checkbook. This type of learned behavior is as important to us today as it was to our earliest ancestors. Whether we like it or not, our past experiences govern the way we approach a task; and this includes metal detecting. Before even turning the machine on, most of us can “eyeball” an area and get a sense as to whether or not it will hold the objects we desire. If it looks like a place where we’ve had luck before then it will feel right, if not, we’ll probably keep searching for greener pastures.

Most of the time this mental elimination is a good thing, as it helps provide us with a starting point. After all, there’s a lot of ground out there. Take my home state of Arizona for example. It encompasses an area of approximately 113,998 square miles – can you imagine how long it would take for a single person to cover that with a metal detector? It would be impossible to accomplish even with several lifetimes. Experience is a good thing, providing it doesn’t prevent us from thinking outside the box.

In fact, some of the best modern day gold discoveries have come from folks with little or no prior prospecting/detecting experience. I remember one such discovery made in Arizona a few years back when a gentleman pulled off the side of a main road and began poking around with his detector. He paid no attention to the fact that the overburden was close to 30 feet deep, nor that the booming signal coming through his headphones was likely to be one of the hundreds of tin cans that lie scattered on the ground. The detector made a beep, so he dug it. That tin can turned out to be a spectacular 2 lb. nugget!

This nugget was so large, and so close to the surface any detector would have found it. There was a maintained road and a handful of campsites a mere stones throw away, so why had this beauty remained undisturbed? This gets back to the experience thing. As I mentioned there was trash everywhere, rusted cans of every shape and size, nails, wire and bullets – oh, the bullets! No seasoned detectorist would have dreamed of swinging a coil through there.

This is just one of many, many stories of newcomers making a huge strike. So what is it, beginners luck? Perhaps. However, I am inclined to think it is what we DON’T know as a beginner that gives us an advantage. Our mind is a clean slate. We haven’t learned the supposed rules about where gold should or shouldn’t be, so the possibilities are endless. One piece of ground is as good as the next, so instead of trying to analyze the situation we simply go to work.

The nugget patch I spoke of at the beginning of this article was a real wake up call. Now every time I head for the hills I remind myself how foolish it is to dismiss a place because it doesn’t fit my idealized mold of what a gold-bearing area should look like. I am convinced that the more successful we get, the higher our risk of becoming closed minded. We cannot forget what has worked in the past, but at the same time, we must be willing to embrace new ideas that could work in the future. I think all detectorists, whether they happen to be gold, coin or relic hunters can benefit from taking a gamble on the unknown every now and then. True, most of these wildcards will produce nothing; then again, one of them could eventually lead to pay dirt. If while exploring new country you find yourself doubting, take heart in a phrase that was coined nearly 140 years ago on the slopes of Rich Hill, Arizona. It says nothing more than, “Gold is where you find it...” Simple words, but incredibly true. I wish all of you the best of luck.

For more information on nugget hunting, please visit the author’s website at: www.ArizonaOutback.com.