Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 2, 2020 9:15:29 GMT -5
Brecciated agate most likely from Burro Creek, AZ region. Could be China Siding or Chapenite too but colors seem too bright. Those are usually more pastels.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 2, 2020 9:06:48 GMT -5
First one is Flint Ridge flint. Second one looks like material from either South Dakota Prairie agate area or Thompson/ Green River region in eastern Utah. Third one, the breccia could come from any number of western areas in California, Nevada or Arizona.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 1, 2020 12:44:48 GMT -5
Good grief! When I used to deer hunt there there were only a few small pits.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Mar 2, 2020 6:50:30 GMT -5
Top example is psilomelane plume from Mexico. Metallic stuff polishes out to a nice silver color. Rare stuff and a nice find. Other plume looks to be Sonora Plume but that stuff is so variable could be something else too......Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 26, 2020 12:20:34 GMT -5
Yep, I agree with Tommy n this one. Looks like one of those N. California interior coast range poppies like Stony Creek, Snow Mtn etc.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 8, 2020 7:06:17 GMT -5
Tried the location one time many years ago. Road in was awful, definitely heavy duty four wheel drive at the time and took off from the worst neighborhood in Clifton. We would have had to hike in and no way was I leaving my car in that neck of the woods. Would have returned to find it stripped to the frame. Maybe better now as that was at least 40 years ago.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 12, 2019 13:32:24 GMT -5
Holy moly!!!! Just google sat mapped the Hornitos Jasper area and after the fire and all Trumbull's dozer work, it's not even recognizable from the air. Man he has moved a lot of brush. Tom and I actually had to burrow beneath the manzanita brush and all the brush is no longer even there. Can't even make out a one of the old pits. We had found a lot of tiny pits in that brush. I can now see why some great jasper is coming out again. Awesome!!!! Mel
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 12, 2019 13:13:09 GMT -5
Wow, nice finds. Someone must have opened up some of the old pits up there or found new areas as that is nice quality jasper. I thought my buddy and I had cleaned out the Sierra Jasper pit, Makes me miss prospecting from our old ranch up there. Gonna have to Google the area and see how much new work has been done just to satisfy my curiosity. Road looks vastly improved too. Used to get so bad I had to hike in sometimes......Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 14, 2019 5:27:36 GMT -5
Definitely Forestfire/ Tabu Tabu jasper from Africa.....Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on Sept 6, 2019 6:48:32 GMT -5
Stillwell Rch is basically a Rio Grande gravel deposit with the typical wood, jasper and agate you find from there to Falcon Dam. Still a lot of places to hunt Rio Grande gravel in south Texas. We recently took a short wildflower drive to the area and found a good amount of cutting material in bar ditches along some of the gravel roads. Also opportunities in some of the commercial gravel pits in the region....Mel
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 16, 2019 14:12:45 GMT -5
Man, you know, I was just down that way a month or so ago and it was already hotter than Hades, humid and extremely wet this year. With lots of vegetation covering the ground. Gravel ditches were mostly full of mud and water. Texas is scalding right now and I can only imagine how bad it is down in the thornbrush country. My buddy Clayton also says there are not too many problems withe Zetas, even though their specialty is kidnapping and holding "Pollos". However Claytons phone was also full of dead body and skeleton pics from the ranch he worked on so I found that a bit discouraging. That being said, from now on trips down that way are winter or early spring trips for me. Winter is dry season too. I like heat but man that is just too much. And dude, I'd never sneak across any fence in Texas. They take trespass real serious here and trespass in Texas takes "written permission" you have to carry on you. Good way to get accidentally shot. I've always thought a lake hunt by boat would be the cool way to go but I'd go well heeled.....Mel
Archery deer begins Sept 29
Youth only Oct 27
General south zone Nov.3
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on May 17, 2019 7:46:31 GMT -5
Wow! Tumbled bots are hard to beat. Take a long time to grind but well worth the wait...Mel
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 17, 2019 7:44:51 GMT -5
Nice! Batches of tunmbled slabbettes and cabs are neat. Great shine on those!!!....Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 16, 2019 7:37:17 GMT -5
Got to admit, I've never really been able to tell Ochoco and Keegan tube apart. To me they seem to overlap and just be examples of similar material from slightly different locations. Kind of like you can find similar examples of poppy jasper from several locations around Morgan Hill.....Mel
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 14, 2019 22:11:26 GMT -5
Wow, great flower pics!!!!!....Mel
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Sabre52
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Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 14, 2019 21:58:22 GMT -5
I'm used to seeing Keegan be more snow white but the pattern sure looks like Keegan tube agate....Mel
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 14, 2019 13:08:51 GMT -5
Rockpicker: Way back in ancient times, the wife and I met on a Desert Biology field trip to the Colorado Desert and we were there during a good desert bloom. You are right, you could hardly see the ground and it was friggin awesome. The best area that trip was around Desert Center which is usually pretty barren. It looked like a fairyland of blooms. Saw my first Red Diamondback rattler out on that trip too....Mel
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on May 14, 2019 10:29:45 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Well I got some of my my trip pics loaded to flickr so I guess I'll try a trip report. Took a drive from our Gillespie County ranch down to Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande River. Mainly a wildflower trip and that did not disappoint. Flowers this year are incredible but therein lied the rub for rock collecting. Down near Eagle Pass, all the bar ditches that should have been full of Rio Grande gravel were instead, full of mud and three foot high wildflowers due to all the heavy rain this year. Very little ground exposed at all. Wildlife abounded too. Dodging various deer and exotics because quite a challenge. Strangest thing we encountered was on a flooded out bridge on the Nueces River just south of Camp Wood Texas. While crossing a narrow one lane temp bridge we saw a flock of weird creatures ahead First we thought they were coatis but it turned out it was a whole mob of Ring Tailed Lemurs. Could not get a pic because of the bridge but dang you just never know what will walk out in front of you in Texas. Those critters go for about $3000 each. Some exotic breeder is gonna be very unhappy he left a pen open and lost 30 grand in pets. Anyway on with the trip. First some flowers aong the road to give you and idea what kind of ground cover we were dealing with. DSCN1335 by lonerider652000, on Flickr DSCN1338 by lonerider652000, on Flickr First rockhounding stop was at the Nueces River. As you can see, a million tons of gravel and cobble, all coated in nice white caliche. Most the quartz stuff here was banded chert in earth tones but I did find one blah pet wood cast in plain old clear chalcedony with a little brown streaking and I collected a real nice hunk of chert for knapping. DSCN1282 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Next we headed down towards Eagle Pass in real Rio grande gravel country Just across the fences of course were tone of neat gravel but on private property. Ditches were full of flowers and mud but we did find one spot where grading had been done. DSCN1312 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Me collecting. Found several just OK Rios here and some good jasper. DSCN1296 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Note the gravel across the fence Lots of vegetation but it looked real good over there. DSCN1306 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Next we went north from Eagle Pass on another back road. Zero traffic. Found an area with big road cuts full of Rio gravel but this horizon was a dead zone for agate, just some flint and rhyolite. DSCN1321 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Finally a bit further north we hit a good bar ditch. Picked up some interesting jasper including a tiny poppy jasper pebble and a big ole hunk of what looks very much like a George West type wood cast in gold and black Definitely somewhat botryoidal and agate. DSCN1327 by lonerider652000, on Flickr And a critter pic as we drove along the famous YO Ranch. These are Scimitar Horned Oryx, a horse sized endangered antelope that is quite common in Texas. Both our neighbors have herds of these. DSCN1340 by lonerider652000, on Flickr And finally some of the rocks: First up colorful jasper pebbles and small Rios from that last ditch: DSCN9349 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Weird flint or wood and the big black and gold agate cast: DSCN9352 by lonerider652000, on Flickr Finally, some Rios and some cool jasper/agate. Found several cobbles of the stuff on the right, a brecciated pink agate of some kind. I've cabbed this stuff in the past and it cabs great if you can get a real solid slab. Both these jaspers washed out in the pic Real gold and pink. DSCN9351 by lonerider652000, on Flickr DSCN9350 by lonerider652000, on Flickr
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on May 10, 2019 17:54:16 GMT -5
Pat, no fancy story on the drill. Just found it sticking out from under a cowpie in the cattle pen. Rare to find whole artifacts here anymore as when they become exposed on the surface some big ole critter usually steps on them and breaks them up. Only reason the big lance point was not broken (it is very thin in section) is the cattle are not in that pasture anymore and it was just dug out by the ground squirrel.
aDave: Texas artifacts sites have lots of pics of drills and I've found many types over the years. Have found at least four types here on the ranch so far but most have their tips broken off.....Mel
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
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Post by Sabre52 on May 10, 2019 10:40:16 GMT -5
Thanks Tommy but I think I'll just set up a flickr photo collection....Mel
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