Re: [meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs recovery rate
Dear List: I am just an amateur, but went to the Gold Basin strewnfield in November of 2001, not only to search for meteorites but also to photograph the Leonid's meteor storm from dark skies. I met Don O'Keeffe there, and also Bill Fisher, a gold and meteorite hunter from California. Bill Fisher told me at once that I would not find anything with my Whites XLT detector. He was right (highly mineralized ground) and he lent me a Gold Bug detector with which I searched for 2 days. I did not keep records but over those 2 days I found 6 small pieces ranging from 10 to 20 g. So, on average, that's 6 per 48 hours, or 1 for every 8 hours. I feel very fortunate that I found any at all on my first attempt at hunting. BTW, the Leonid's storm was awesome from the strewnfield. Dave -- Original message -- From: Norm Lehrman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sonny list, My stats are not going to be what people want to hear. I have been collecting rocks, fossils, and artifacts since I could walk. I have been a continuously active exploration geologist for 35 years. I have been looking at the ground in front of me with something of a trained eye for something like 50 years. Unusual rocks came home with me without fail. When I joined Homestake Mining Company about 25 years ago, they had to pay to move something like 10 tons of rock. When I sheepishly apologized to my new boss, he said I guess if we hire a geologist who doesn't like rocks, we made a poor choice! This is the long way of saying: none of those were meteorites. When I became interested in the current subject, I spent (as for most of my life) on the order of 150 days in the field per year in my normal work routine. Always looking, but with very limited knowledge (none the less, a well trained eye for the unusual). Nothing. No memories at all of something I wish I could go back and view again. As the obsession grew, I gradually acquired a small collection of meteorites via purchase specifically to train my eye. I started looking where there were few or no rocks (thanks to Nininger's Find a Falling Star that had been given to me). I can't guess how long it took after that--- I'd say weeks of quality time before the big moment for #1 (described on our website and IMCA). Speaking only of dedicated meteorite-search time, I spent another three or four man-days in Nevada, then say 5 man-days in virgin country in the high Andes in Chile, then another 3 days in Nevada before my next tiny find at Majuba (also on the website). Learning from experience, my next effort was where meteorites had been found before, and I found 21 fragments in 2 days. The next page will be written soon, but I suspect no armchair quarterback has any idea what kind of patience and perserverance it takes to beat the odds on one of the longest shot endeavors on earth! I serve as living proof that you can go nuts before it happens. Cheers, Norm http://TektiteSource.com (where you can read the longer versions of #s 1 2) --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, Have you ever wondered how many hours you must spend before your first cold find ? Or how many hours after you find a new area with a new meteorite before your next find? I would like to say that you will find a meteorite every 40- 50 hours of searching for cold finds not counting driving or prep time. The only problem is once you find one you will spend 4-5 days or longer searching the area looking for the rest of the meteorite or the continuation of the strewn field. In my own experience in a know strewnfield ( Gold Basin) I spent 16 hours of hunting plus 6 hours driving time for my first meteorite. I might have recovered one faster if it was not for the 10 pounds of meterwrongs I was carrying in my pockets before I found one. On some of the new areas I have spent as little as 4 hours before a new find in a new location. I have also spent weeks before a new find at 8 to 10 hour days. In a strewnfield that I have been working there are times were you may not find one for a week and then find one or two. In one area a friend I spent 3 days hunting before the frist find. We spent 2 more days looking for the next find paired to the first find. We have done 3 more trips to the location for a few more pieces. Average hunting day 8 hours plus 4-8 hours driving time to get to location one way. I would like to say the average time to find a meteorite in a known is location 2-20 hours. For a new cold find from a area with no finds may take 50 plus hours of hunting not counting driving or prep time. I am interested in hearing input from other hunters especially from the Southwest. I have been asked by some new meteorite hunters what they can expect before they find their first meteorite.
Re: [meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs recovery rate
Hi Dave, BTW, the Leonid's storm was awesome from the strewnfield. How poetic and fitting. Congratulations on your finds! -Walter Branch - - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Norm Lehrman [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 3:17 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs recovery rate Dear List: I am just an amateur, but went to the Gold Basin strewnfield in November of 2001, not only to search for meteorites but also to photograph the Leonid's meteor storm from dark skies. I met Don O'Keeffe there, and also Bill Fisher, a gold and meteorite hunter from California. Bill Fisher told me at once that I would not find anything with my Whites XLT detector. He was right (highly mineralized ground) and he lent me a Gold Bug detector with which I searched for 2 days. I did not keep records but over those 2 days I found 6 small pieces ranging from 10 to 20 g. So, on average, that's 6 per 48 hours, or 1 for every 8 hours. I feel very fortunate that I found any at all on my first attempt at hunting. BTW, the Leonid's storm was awesome from the strewnfield. Dave -- Original message -- From: Norm Lehrman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sonny list, My stats are not going to be what people want to hear. I have been collecting rocks, fossils, and artifacts since I could walk. I have been a continuously active exploration geologist for 35 years. I have been looking at the ground in front of me with something of a trained eye for something like 50 years. Unusual rocks came home with me without fail. When I joined Homestake Mining Company about 25 years ago, they had to pay to move something like 10 tons of rock. When I sheepishly apologized to my new boss, he said I guess if we hire a geologist who doesn't like rocks, we made a poor choice! This is the long way of saying: none of those were meteorites. When I became interested in the current subject, I spent (as for most of my life) on the order of 150 days in the field per year in my normal work routine. Always looking, but with very limited knowledge (none the less, a well trained eye for the unusual). Nothing. No memories at all of something I wish I could go back and view again. As the obsession grew, I gradually acquired a small collection of meteorites via purchase specifically to train my eye. I started looking where there were few or no rocks (thanks to Nininger's Find a Falling Star that had been given to me). I can't guess how long it took after that--- I'd say weeks of quality time before the big moment for #1 (described on our website and IMCA). Speaking only of dedicated meteorite-search time, I spent another three or four man-days in Nevada, then say 5 man-days in virgin country in the high Andes in Chile, then another 3 days in Nevada before my next tiny find at Majuba (also on the website). Learning from experience, my next effort was where meteorites had been found before, and I found 21 fragments in 2 days. The next page will be written soon, but I suspect no armchair quarterback has any idea what kind of patience and perserverance it takes to beat the odds on one of the longest shot endeavors on earth! I serve as living proof that you can go nuts before it happens. Cheers, Norm http://TektiteSource.com (where you can read the longer versions of #s 1 2) --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, Have you ever wondered how many hours you must spend before your first cold find ? Or how many hours after you find a new area with a new meteorite before your next find? I would like to say that you will find a meteorite every 40- 50 hours of searching for cold finds not counting driving or prep time. The only problem is once you find one you will spend 4-5 days or longer searching the area looking for the rest of the meteorite or the continuation of the strewn field. In my own experience in a know strewnfield ( Gold Basin) I spent 16 hours of hunting plus 6 hours driving time for my first meteorite. I might have recovered one faster if it was not for the 10 pounds of meterwrongs I was carrying in my pockets before I found one. On some of the new areas I have spent as little as 4 hours before a new find in a new location. I have also spent weeks before a new find at 8 to 10 hour days. In a strewnfield that I have been working there are times were you may not find one for a week and then find one or two. In one area a friend I spent 3 days hunting before the frist find. We spent 2 more days looking for the next find paired to the first find. We have done 3 more trips to the location for a few more pieces. Average hunting day 8 hours
[meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs recovery rate
Hi All, Have you ever wondered how many hours you must spend before your first cold find ? Or how many hours after you find a new area with a new meteorite before your next find? I would like to say that you will find a meteorite every 40- 50 hours of searching for cold finds not counting driving or prep time. The only problem is once you find one you will spend 4-5 days or longer searching the area looking for the rest of the meteorite or the continuation of the strewn field. In my own experience in a know strewnfield ( Gold Basin) I spent 16 hours of hunting plus 6 hours driving time for my first meteorite. I might have recovered one faster if it was not for the 10 pounds of meterwrongs I was carrying in my pockets before I found one. On some of the new areas I have spent as little as 4 hours before a new find in a new location. I have also spent weeks before a new find at 8 to 10 hour days. In a strewnfield that I have been working there are times were you may not find one for a week and then find one or two. In one area a friend I spent 3 days hunting before the frist find. We spent 2 more days looking for the next find paired to the first find. We have done 3 more trips to the location for a few more pieces. Average hunting day 8 hours plus 4-8 hours driving time to get to location one way. I would like to say the average time to find a meteorite in a known is location 2-20 hours. For a new cold find from a area with no finds may take 50 plus hours of hunting not counting driving or prep time. I am interested in hearing input from other hunters especially from the Southwest. I have been asked by some new meteorite hunters what they can expect before they find their first meteorite. Thanks, Sonny __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs recovery rate
Sonny list, My stats are not going to be what people want to hear. I have been collecting rocks, fossils, and artifacts since I could walk. I have been a continuously active exploration geologist for 35 years. I have been looking at the ground in front of me with something of a trained eye for something like 50 years. Unusual rocks came home with me without fail. When I joined Homestake Mining Company about 25 years ago, they had to pay to move something like 10 tons of rock. When I sheepishly apologized to my new boss, he said I guess if we hire a geologist who doesn't like rocks, we made a poor choice! This is the long way of saying: none of those were meteorites. When I became interested in the current subject, I spent (as for most of my life) on the order of 150 days in the field per year in my normal work routine. Always looking, but with very limited knowledge (none the less, a well trained eye for the unusual). Nothing. No memories at all of something I wish I could go back and view again. As the obsession grew, I gradually acquired a small collection of meteorites via purchase specifically to train my eye. I started looking where there were few or no rocks (thanks to Nininger's Find a Falling Star that had been given to me). I can't guess how long it took after that--- I'd say weeks of quality time before the big moment for #1 (described on our website and IMCA). Speaking only of dedicated meteorite-search time, I spent another three or four man-days in Nevada, then say 5 man-days in virgin country in the high Andes in Chile, then another 3 days in Nevada before my next tiny find at Majuba (also on the website). Learning from experience, my next effort was where meteorites had been found before, and I found 21 fragments in 2 days. The next page will be written soon, but I suspect no armchair quarterback has any idea what kind of patience and perserverance it takes to beat the odds on one of the longest shot endeavors on earth! I serve as living proof that you can go nuts before it happens. Cheers, Norm http://TektiteSource.com (where you can read the longer versions of #s 1 2) --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi All, Have you ever wondered how many hours you must spend before your first cold find ? Or how many hours after you find a new area with a new meteorite before your next find? I would like to say that you will find a meteorite every 40- 50 hours of searching for cold finds not counting driving or prep time. The only problem is once you find one you will spend 4-5 days or longer searching the area looking for the rest of the meteorite or the continuation of the strewn field. In my own experience in a know strewnfield ( Gold Basin) I spent 16 hours of hunting plus 6 hours driving time for my first meteorite. I might have recovered one faster if it was not for the 10 pounds of meterwrongs I was carrying in my pockets before I found one. On some of the new areas I have spent as little as 4 hours before a new find in a new location. I have also spent weeks before a new find at 8 to 10 hour days. In a strewnfield that I have been working there are times were you may not find one for a week and then find one or two. In one area a friend I spent 3 days hunting before the frist find. We spent 2 more days looking for the next find paired to the first find. We have done 3 more trips to the location for a few more pieces. Average hunting day 8 hours plus 4-8 hours driving time to get to location one way. I would like to say the average time to find a meteorite in a known is location 2-20 hours. For a new cold find from a area with no finds may take 50 plus hours of hunting not counting driving or prep time. I am interested in hearing input from other hunters especially from the Southwest. I have been asked by some new meteorite hunters what they can expect before they find their first meteorite. Thanks, Sonny __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Hunting hours vs. recovery rate
Hi Sonny and List, Have you ever wondered how many hours you must spend before your first cold find ? Or how many hours after you find a new area with a new meteorite before your next find? Great subject! When I first started cold meteorite hunting in September 1999, there was very little information available as to how long one could expect to search before finding a meteorite. The first hard number I remember reading was an estimate by Ron Hartman of (I believe) ~100 hours. I decided that was acceptable, and thought it would be worthwhile to keep a detailed log of my hours for statistical purposes. Well, 10 desert trips and nearly 40 hours of active searching later, I finally made a cold find in May 2000. I felt I had perhaps beaten the odds, and that it might take me 160 hours or more to find my second meteorite! But no, the second and third meteorites came (different location) after only an additional 30 hours. As the hours continued to rack up, the average time between finds steadily decreased. In retrospect, I can say that there is a huge learning curve with meteorite hunting, and that your first 15 hours of hunting are extremely unlikely to produce a find unless you are already a rockhound and know a terrestrial rock when you see one. Knowing what a meteorite looks like is not as much help as you might think -- weathered meteorites, at least initially, do not stand out in a desert environment as much as you might think. Here are some stats extracted from the Excel spreadsheed I've maintained for the last 6 1/2 years: Time to first find: 39.5 hours First 5 finds: 75.5 hours First 10 finds:128.8 hours First 20 finds:220.3 hours First 50 finds:340.8 hours First 100 finds: 482.7 hours I should point out that many of these finds are paired to one another and were found close together, so the statistics are a bit misleading (overly optimistic). My first 100 finds represent perhaps 45 different meteorites. If I consider my first 5 finds to be part of the learning curve, that means ~40 unpaired finds in 407 hours, or about one every 10 hours. How long this recovery rate can be maintained, I don't know, but I see no evidence of diminishing returns ... yet. These days I would prefer to make new finds at new locations; however, it's nice to know that if I get discouraged by a run of unproductive trips, there are still places I can choose to go and be nearly guaranteed to make a find on a 2-day trip. Cheers, Rob __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
