The layout of all claims are in the 2014 book in combination with the Pick and Shovels in the learn section of this guide. Unpatented Federal Placer mining claims in the lower 48 are all laid out or suppose to be laid out by aliquot manner using the U. S. Public Land Survey System by aliquot manner with Meridian, Township, Range, Section or Protracted Blocks ([PB] is accepted) and aliquot divisions to show location (division of equal portions of the whole) 43§3832.12. Also the map in terms of location is only to enable a reasonable person (in case law0 or BLM in code to find the corner monuments on the claim(43§3832.12 (2)(ii)You must show on a map or sketch the boundaries and position of the individual claim or site by aliquot part within the quarter section accurately enough for BLM to identify the mining claims or sites on the ground.) .
The corner set on the ground are the controlling interment which is contributed to the fact that no unpatented mining claim has to be or is required to be surveyed. For claims in un-surveyed areas which is very uncommon the requirements are different. These are usually laded out from the closest surveyed point or other monument or permanent object by feet and bearing.
If you want a map of a claim layout it is public information and is available at the BLM state office, most state offices will also email the information to you for a fee usually in PDF form an alternative is the county recorders office although the map is not included.  

Walter — Thank you so much for the info/help it is appreciated. The BLM website is a lil confusing and I will keep plugging away and learning.

Walter — Thank you so much for the info/help it is appreciated. The BLM website is a lil confusing and I will keep plugging away and learning.

Welcome Gary,

One thing to know, not all calims are square, they come in rectangles, stair steps, all in straight lines.
All can be plotted on a BLM topo map of the area of interest. Got to have good topo maps, as well as good local road maps. AAA maps wont show back road/dirt roads.
Be good practice to have Forest Circus maps of those areas. also recommend some sort of hand held GPS to verify or locations
Claims guide usually gives at least one corner post (that may or may not exist), knowing the acreage, and as Walter points out, know the meridian, township, range, section, plot it out
Transfer that to google earth. Google earth is a good tool but dont gather all intel from it, google view and boots on the ground way different.
Its easy after about two years working on it.

Bill

Also, LR2000 only breaks down to 1/4 section, any further have to contact them to drill deeper, to see where exactly in that 1/4 section it is.  ie., a 20 acre claim in the 160 acre 1/4 section.  The bright side is most folks at the claims division in the BLM state offices are very helpful with the information.

 

Also, here in Oregon, (your state and mileage may vary), corner posts are not required if the claim is located by "legal subdivision", meaning that if it follows section line breakdowns, even down to 5 acre plots, no corner markers are required.  The claim my partner and I have is 40 acres, and follws legal subdivision lines, so we didn't have to put up corner markers on it, even though is stair steps on the map.  Just had to sign the claim with the MC # & name and post our location/point of discovery.

Thanks guys for all the help and suggestions. I had my handheld with me so I could overlay my trials when I get back to my computer desktop. The topo stuff is very addictive — use it quit a bit with all my hunting and when I am flagging and mapping out relic sites back east. My goal is to eventually understand the BLM stuff — with All the help I am getting shouldn’t be a problem. Like all lots of late nights doing research but that is part of fun. Thanks

Gary,

If you think research is addictive / fun, wait until you find your first nugget, once that happens it's all over, your in

My definition of a nugget may be different than others,
A nugget can be easily picked up outa the pan and should make a noticeable sound when you drop it back in
If it doesnt meet that criteria, possibly a picker

In your first post, you mentioned posted coordinates being wrong, which is very highly possible
That is percisley the reason a person needs to do the research to know exactly where you are in relation to the claim, it is your responsibility to know you are
I would not suggest that someone would intentionally enter "fake" information but....
I have been lied to in regards to claim boundaries in the past to the benefit of the liar, dont trust any one but my own research

Today, Jan 6, 2019 I have attempted to access the BLM LR2000 MC Geo Report totally without any luck. Hope this changes in the future, as I have been using this particular option to access BLM mining claims list for Idaho.

Possibly due to the Federal Government shutdown?

Of course the shutdown; try using "The Diggings" for now perhaps. Good prospecting!

Post on Treasurenet says it is back up as of the 5th, didn't chech.

Just checked via saved links for some claims and via the Pub MC Geo Index Report and each worked. The database was still down when I checked a few days ago.