New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Thats a bloody nice haul alright! But as you say, there would have been a few days in between not so good. I cant wait to get the not so good days out the way! Looking forward to my next excursion.

I have been sitting here for the last half hour wondering wtf (my daughter said that these are the right three letters to put here as it expresses surprise - someone will have to enlighten me as to what they mean) - who the hell is Sam bucca - I thought it might have been a vague reference to a Negro lascar from a Belfast coaling ship...finally after much demurring I decided that it might refer to the drink mentioned in my post above so out I went out to the Iron Horse (Your fault I got wet) to have an ogle at the bottle - its better in the truck - one on the road is better than one for the road - and read the label - it is indeed Sambuca flavoured liqueur - in other words its Liquid Lightening with a bit of horse shit added for flavour rather than the real deal - the lady who gave it to me obviously wasnt all that keen on horse shit but I drink anything...if its free.

You got the spelling wrong - write out fifty times s-a-m-b-u-c-a - one 'c' - so you dont get it wrong and possibly confuse me next time - although confusion isnt really a bad state - I got an aunty and she said she is in Laa Laa land and thinks its wonderful but I am not so sure its the case as I once remember being somewhere once and after a while every person in the room was wearing a police uniform and holding handcuffs and truncheon in front of me - it got worse going home, total paranoia and when I got home I kept forgetting what I was talking about two words into the sentence...so dont think I would like Laa Laa land. Hmmm my aunty is such a decent sort - I didnt think she would be all that keen on uniforms, truncheons and handcuffs - the funny thing I cant understand is how she went to the doctor - he diagnosed Alzheimers - she has never forgotten the word and yet keeps forgetting where the shithouse is.

Edited by user Tuesday, 14 August 2012 10:34:09 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Points given Matt - to tell you the truth I didn tknow what I was drinking - I just drank it - I actually had to go out to my truck to look at the bottle to see what is was - hence the reason I sat looking at the single word you had written and pondering over it before finally working out what it was all about!

I am very wary how much I drink nowdays - has something to do with excessive guzzling when I was younger! As for what is good and what is not so good - anythings good if someone else is shouting but if I have to buy it myself then it is beer or whisky or gin or brandy or more beer or more...and so on...depending on my mood. I quite like Glenfiddich whisky and Chivas Regal whisky...come to think of it I actually like it a bit more than 'quite' liking it.

Another firearm with historic connections.

This type of rifle was used on the Goldfiields during the early days of the Otago discoveries - this particular one was made between 1959 and 1865 as it is Marked 'Robert Adams 76 King William Street London' and these dates were the dates during which he was at that address.

It is an Enfield Pattern Volunteer rifle in .577 caliber - in other words it was a shoulder howitzer!

The early Gold escorts could have been armed with these rifles as well as the police as they are the standard British military pattern rifle of the day except this one is better finished and has been chequered for private sale to officers and top of the line commercial markets.

This particular rifle is a colonial rifle and was not imported into new Zealand to satisfy the collector market - it first came to the eye of the chap I got it from in 1921 and two years before he died he passed it on to me. It has historic connections with the South Island having been here since the 1860s

This particular example is in amazing condition as is evident in the photograph...complete with original ramrod, barrel bung, nipple protector and leather sling.

Edited by user Thursday, 16 August 2012 8:29:47 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Damn sight more realistic than Christ on a sandwich or whatever someone was trying to flick off on ebay or trademe some time ago.
Unless you had something to do with that as well??

Another Goldfields firearm was the Snider - these were used by the Gold Escorts in various places in the 1870s - They were interesting firearms as the British seemed to have an interesting philosophy relating to Colonial expansion - basically where ever they went there were already peoples living and of course the British wanted to take over - the best way to do this was to sus out the lie of the land then when you know which tribe was fighting who, befriend one faction, arm them with guns and let them decimate the other faction then when the numbers are halved turn on your allies...thats the theory anyway...By doing this the native peoples decimated each other with minimal losses to the Europeans! You did not need the most modern firearms to achieve this so the British didnt really catch up with the rest of the world until they suddenly realised that other potential European enemies were better armed than they were!

Mainland Europe was developing breech loaders and the Americans had developed warfare to a fine art having developed the Spencer repeating rifle which took a rimfire metallic cartridge - Te Kooti the Maori chief managed to get one of these firearms and for every shot a British soldier or his Kaupapa Allies could fire Te Kooti could blast off seven shots!

Oops - think the British we had better catch up with the rest of the world - unfortunately for Britain they had a vaste number of muzzle loading Enfields the same as the rifle shown above - a call was put out to inventors to come up with a method ov converting the existing Muzzle loaders to Breech loaders which could fire metallic cartridges - Two successful conversions were 'Storms Patent' which looked suspiciously like an American Springfield conversion and 'Cornish Patent' which worked on the same principle as the American Civil War Warners Patent. It is of interest to note that the odd Cornish Patent has turned up in New Zealand and four Storms Patent were imported - at least one of each of these guns have historical connections with Otago.

Neither of these guns were however officially accepted - the successful invention to be Accepted was the 'Snider patent' by Jacob Snider.

The first Sniders were merely converted Enfields and these were first issued in New Zealand around 1872 - this is an early one which has been converted - the Breech Block was known as the Suicide breech as it had no definitive sort of catch to hold it closed! This firearm is like the 'Cornish Patent' in some respects and I am quite certain the inventor had seen a Warners Civil War carbine to get his inspiration.

They fired what is by todays standards almost an artillery shell! It was of .577 of an inch caliber and took about 70 grains of powder and fired a lead ball of about 450 grains

Edited by user Tuesday, 28 August 2012 11:28:14 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I would just like to add my thanks to those posted on your other thread-I always look forward to your postings and your photos- so please dont stop.Your historical pieces are great and as others have said before you really should publish them along with those photos. I really like your weapons and other historical artifacts which provide another context to gold.

Matt - two of these fellows wanted access to our claim when we had it and we let them - why shouldnt others ask them - I have other reasons which are just as valid for giving the locations of where gold can be found on it but maybe I will merely tell individuals who are interested and approach me personally. I have no intention of chatting to the main claim holder and instigator of the move to request permission to tell everyone where I found my big nugget and where on the claim there is gold to this day - why should I? I am free Matt to tell whoever I wish where I have found gold in the past and to share those places so that they can make up their own minds to either go there or approach the claim holders to seek permission to go there as they approached us. As for dozens going there I highly doubt it. They will only get the odd request as we did and many people knew we were getting gold and successful - it aint going to cause a gold rush!

It is absolutely no different from two separate groups approaching me last weekend to have a fossick on my place is it not - I understand both groups comprising four families had a great day out, one lot on Saturday and the other on Sunday.

I actually feel so sorry for people who wish to get out and about in this country as the restrictions are frightful and the rights of the ordinary citizen have been gradually eroded so that a comparison of even 1970 with today shows how glaringly obvious it is that New Zealanders are heading down a path that is leading almost to total subservience with such draconian restrictions imposed on them that they have absolutely no rights at all. Tell me Matt - where can you LEGALLY go goldmining? There are only a handful of places - in 1970 you could go anywhere you wanted on State owned land with only your miners right as your authorisation and it cost five bob or fifty cents I think or maybe ten bob or a dollar. Today that has all gone and most claim holders dont mind a little fossicking. Today there is really no where by comparison with even 1970.

Edited by user Monday, 17 September 2012 10:57:07 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I've read this from woe to go, amazing stuff Lammerlaw!

Being new to all this fossicking stuff it does seem a bit unfair to only have a few public spaces available that will have been picked over plenty before, especially after some folk have dredged them.

Still, half the funs getting out and about I reckon.

Don't stop with the updates mate, they're really interesting - you've amassed quite the arsenal, at least you've got a big bit of land to let off some steam with them!