HUGE! Gemstone found on Private Gem Claim.

[Music] [Music] [Music] well hello everyone dan here with dinner prospecting here welcome back to my channel and if you're new welcome i hope to earn your subscription today i am back here on my paxton valley agate claim last time i was here i said i would not do another video unless i found a big egg nodule for you to see so what i did today is i got a couple friends here who are gonna help me dig and we're gonna dig until we find one of those massive agates we've had some come out of here the size of watermelon if i get a grapefruit today i'll be happy so wish us luck and i hope you enjoy [Music] now if you are familiar with my channel you will know bryson right here helping out again and sarah has made the odd occurrence on the on some of my videos as well they've come up because they love agate hunting and this is a great spot to find some green skin against and as i said some of them are big sarah is very competitive so not not competitive now last time i was here i dug in that pillow up there and i dug a little bit down here and i got lots of mid-sized stuff a buddy of mine told me that this pit here has produced some doozies so it's a little bit tough today because it's full of water but i think i can work around that and see if i can get one of those honkers so i should have brought okay so i just washed down the hill here a bit this is all bedrock dug off the overburden and just washing it down you can see the little agates they're pretty much everywhere we get little ones all over the place here uh there's one right there we won't collect all of these we can today these go into my egg at bags i do sell eggets from this site but i'm looking for the big guy i'm looking for when i wash things off a big knob to come out and show itself if i see the big knob then i know to dig around that area and get the big agate i found the big knob oh there he is and today i will be using my honda 2000 generator with the milwaukee uh rotary hammer people don't like me calling it a jackhammer its technical term is a rotary hammer i will be using that to do some of the digging the hard rock because you know i have to really worry about my chest still i have to be careful with it and swinging a big hammer all day long is definitely hard on my chest if you don't know i had heart surgery a year ago and here in bc the rules state for hand mining you don't need a permit to use hand tools and small power tools with a generator you can move by hand and tools that you can move my hand are allowed within the rules for hand mining and sarah's found the biggest one of the day so far so far it's absolutely beautiful we've only been here like five minutes let's hope for a bigger one [Music] come on baby what do i find nothing i'm looking for great big hollows when i pull these pieces off hopefully the socket of a big one that's still left behind there there's lots of little ones in here but no big one yet slightly bigger egg now it's not a watermelon yet but i do see the surface of a bigger one right there just a little bit of a round the rock that is not egg it always comes out jagged and sharp agates always have well in this situation agates have these rounded surfaces and there's a nice big round right there let's see what it comes out as okay not big not huge we'll still find it i was reaching ground to grab this one when i realized oh there's a bigger one right there okay let's get the camera on this one just in case it is a bigger one oh it's not so i just was digging this down here pulled it out and on the back side i see a socket of you know it's not huge it's a midsize one but there's obviously just down below the water here a good-sized agate now if you're wondering why these agates are all sort of round and shaped like this this material here is a old cooled lava the lava is full of air bubbles like lava is the air bubbles is what filled in with egg filled in with the gemstone agate and that's what we're finding is these agates that are just fillings of bubbles in lava and there's the one that made that uh socket on the other side of that rock it's one of the bigger ones i found so far today but we're still looking for bigger [Music] well i just got that at the bottom of the hole i was just digging in obviously i drove the chisel right through a nice one beautiful piece of egg and the other half of that one but you know digging down into water is not working for me i can't see what i'm doing so i'm gonna have to move around change my spots a bit and see if i can maybe dig up in the dry because even though there might be a really good one under there i'd have to you know de-water this hole a couple days ago this pit was completely dry but yeah it rained hard last night a good knob right here but unfortunately it's underwater i can't quite tell how big it is [Music] so it's now loose it must be a long skinny one there we go oh yeah there's the best one of the day so far that would make some really nice pendants cut that go with the uh the fortifications and a lot of these show iris patterns inside there's a nice one and typically at this site the agates are shaped like this big and bulby on one end and then they have this tail that goes off the other and they're called amigos i'm a good uh maybe i'll put that in the screen here i'm a goydial agates basically means almond shaped almond shaped agates and that's because the bubbles in the lava the lava was still flowing somewhat and the bubbles got sort of elongated and squished when they were just air pockets and then they filled in afterwards with that again and another good one well i found a silver dollar a silver dollar of agate nice round thing ground disk about the size of a silver dollar maybe a bit bigger american american another good one a show on his head right there oh that's the biggest one so far it's foot broke off we're not watermelon size yet we're not grapefruit size yet but that would make a good apricot little bit of druzy inside this one this would be known as a geode because it's hollow and druzy is those little tiny quartz crystals [Music] now this might be what i'm talking about i don't know what it is i just got a glimpse a very small glimpse of it there might be something right there time to start digging around that and seeing if it is something big or if it's just some of the basalt fooling me there it is broke on the back side way in there but there is your grapefruit size agate and it was a geode it's hollow in the center with what i see is a little bit of drizzy in there there it is turn off the generator for a few moments so i can admire this honker of an agate ah and enjoy the peace and quiet for a little bit too nice then i call bryce and sarah over so they can see this hey guys got something to show is it bigger ya an apricot yes much bigger than an apricot bigger than an apple bigger than a peach is it uh but not a watermelon i've seen watermelons that size kind of cool with that little hollow in the center anything that's hollow is technically a geode so this is a geode this is a an agate geode i tried to wash it off in the mud puddle a bit but you know that's pretty muddy water definitely has some banding some big banding definitely has drizzy in the middle definitely big it's definitely heavy i'm definitely happy so the size makes it rare right yeah you know we we pull the this size out of here fairly frequently we go all the way up to watermelon size here so frequently you don't know this size should probably pull 20 or 30 of these out of here in the year not myself the club still a lot more rare than the thousands of little ones oh yeah and you can see where it came out of the rock that piece is still stuck in there i'll just take the chisel behind that and pop it out there we go [Music] okay i pulled out the other part of that oh that was the toe toe went way back in there even the toe is big broke one with a chisel here but i think that might be one on top of it and it's slightly loose let's see if i can get that out it was nice jersey inside it wasn't well formed but kind of neat all the same well i got into a little group of them down here there's one two three and they intrigue me because of how solid they are can't move them this one i obviously hit with chisel that's what the white powder is that's powdered egg it went right through it with a chisel but still very very solid that one's not budging this one's not budging sometimes they do attach to each other in behind or maybe they're just big enough that they're not loose yet let's see i was too aggressive and i broke it that's the bottom one this the one over here didn't seem to be much this i broke i went underneath it but it shattered and this one's still solid up top here so still some nice agate still some nice again well i got the three out that's a nice looking one i can actually see let's look at i can see not only the banding going on in there that if i cut a thin slice out of this i might see an iris pattern that's that sort of rainbow pattern you get when you pass light through it here i can see the thin thin bands and i have a feeling that would show me that nice iris pattern you having fun yeah then i found a spot where there was some seam down there so you might have heard me chisel yep yep i was working this pet pit last year and actually found some pretty nice stuff in there yeah cool stuff yeah well it's nice to go through the piles like um nodules well last time i was here last video which was you know six eight months ago i said i won't do another video from this site unless i could find a nice big one to show you and i found that big one and now i'm out for number two let's see if we find two big ones the next one watermelon it's too bad there's water in the bottom because i'd like to go down more but it's a bit of a pain right now to go down so i've got the back wall i'm working on bryson said he's gonna come over and shovel off some of the overburden so i can get into that lump right there so i may have found another bigger one by driving the chisel straight into it see this white powder here you know you've gone into a agate when you see white powder coming out and now i see on top what might be a nice big one but i hit it that's not good and it is another nice one i hit the bottom but look at that it's coming out as another grapefruit by the looks of it that's again down there as well and i just hit that hard i hit another big chunk of agate right there i doubt they're the same one it's big way down over here so i've been going a while now on this and it is a big knob on top but there's also another big knob down here they don't quite look like they're attached but sometimes you get the snowman effect where you get one bubble that touched another and they connect up so it could be one massive one but i don't think it is i think it's two big ones one two i'm being very careful to go around it as much as i can not get too close to it because if they are attached i'd love them to stay together so oh no i broke it well here we go okay when i hit this one originally i definitely broke it it shattered and as i was just digging around it the top edge came free let's see what we've got pure pure egg it just pure gray wagon wake it wig it you're a great wagon the whole thing it still might be attached to that i don't know it kind of goes up i think it is i think it is let's keep digging okay she is free i got in behind it and i know they're separated i saw them move separate from each other so it's good they're broken from each other oh yeah oh yeah there's another big big grapefruit size even bigger than grapefruit size put that up there with the rest of the fragments and let's see this guy's free too not quite as big especially since i broke it oh it's broken again that one you know lived a hard life i was rough on that one hey sarah come check this out what do you got we got the big one out no way right there wow yep oh my goodness that's the biggest one i've seen ever wow and it's nice and solid too that's amazing yeah no fractures that'll cut up nicely is this the biggest one from here no this one's about the same size exactly yeah yeah we found them 10 times that size here yeah that's awesome and it has that uh that almond shape you're talking about actually it does it does and i'll take that home and cut it and cut a slab out of there and see if we can get the iris effect going on it might even be hollow inside it could be a geode we won't know until we cut it there's a little baby one little baby growing off it i love it for you got a little conjoined twin you cleared off a bunch of spots for us yeah it's a bit deep um so this is this is clear but we can switch spots and uh yeah we'll i'll dig that out and see if there's anything hiding over there [Music] [Music] hey a nice good sized one broken looks like the chisel went through it ah nick rocks yeah not bad we're getting a bucket full we probably have about a bucket full with all the other small ones there's where the chisel went through that one and yeah the rest of it down there we got another one coming out back here too [Music] yeah excellent maybe right here oh yeah right right here and we'll knock off that little knob and i would say right in about there and you're probably gonna free this thing up you got her i'll pull it out you did all the hard work that's awesome [Music] and that's huge that's yours oh man wow how do you know what to do with this oh man we'll make we're gonna make some nice cuts at home yep oh man thank you dan that's wicked you're welcome and it looks like there's another one for us to get right there it sounds like it's all you because that was hard work okay the second one that uh was exposed when sarah's getting hers right here might be our watermelon it is huge i don't know if this is all agate though but i see you know we shattered something over there we shattered something there that looks like it i think this is our this is our watermelon [Music] [Applause] [Music] well here we go we got it free and it totally is [Laughter] good one dan there it is there's the watermelon size egg of the day oh that's big now that's what i promised you a watermelon size agate this is really heavy i don't know phil fitted my saw and there's the socket it was sitting in what do you think that's i can't even talk that's pretty exciting isn't sarah that's the biggest egg i've ever seen i can't wait to see it cut i don't know if i can cut it it's too big for my saw yeah fair enough oh there it goes back in the hole i'll find someone that can cut that for me what's your thoughts sarah i i don't even know what to think about it wow just wow because sarah's found a lot of pretty big aggies i like fist size maybe watermelon bryson pick that up make your best get a guess of weight on that okay oh no i'm not i'm no good with weight on big things 25 pounds 25 pounds yeah cool a 25 pound egg 20 to 25 pounds yeah because mine was about 10 pounds wow dan now there's a chance that is the biggest egg i've seen come out of here i have seen others that size i can't remember off top of my head if they were that big or not though rob if you're watching i think the biggest one i saw come out of here was from you you tell me does that compare to your biggest one i don't know [Music] okay we have the two bigger agates not the colossal one but the two bigger ones in the two saws here and we're gonna cut them in half and maybe a slab out of each [Music] and now for slab well there it is fresh off the saw no void in the center just one solid solid piece of egg great fortification going on got some calcite inclusions which we can actually dissolve out making some neat pockets that is a honker of an egg well there we go two amazing halves two amazing slabs one freaking amazing egg at nodule [Music] now here are the bigger pieces cut up showing the paxton valley egg that one was a little bit broken up inside so it came out in pieces but beautiful stuff and then there was the huge huge nodule great slabs great halves beautiful chunks now too many people are getting mad at me for not offering up some of my materials from these videos so some of these chunks will be in my auctions on my website www.danherdprospecting.com well everyone we had a blast here digging egg it's uh found a lot of great agates and then that one that unbelievably huge thing i really hope you enjoyed watching our adventures here if you did please leave us that thumbs up if i haven't earned your subscription already i hope i've earned your subscription now and a big thanks to everyone for watching especially my patrons because the support of my patrons i get to make these weekly episodes of damn heard prospecting hope y'all having an amazing day and until the next one bye bye [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Dan Hurd

Views: 817,248

Keywords: gold panning, prospecting, panning for gold, mining, gold, rock hunting, rock hound, rock collecting, british columbia, bc, video, canada, finding gold, gemstones, gem stone, gems, treasure hunting, agate, opal, gem hunting, crystal hunting, gem collecting

Id: Vu_Lh-JVmco

Length: 25min 18sec (1518 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 05 2022