As they say, you get what you pay for.

I chose the monthly membership as well to save money. Once you get out there just look for corner posts. Once you find one, you can guage your location (Nw, Sw, Ne, Se corner) and go from there. Look at your phone, compass, Gps and look for the next corner. Also, if you prospect near center of claim, you shouldn't have a problem jumping the line.

I had planned on going to the center of the claim, most of which are 40+ acres near me, so I probably wouldn't have an issue. Last night I ended up finding the BLM's Mineral & Land Records System at https://mlrs.blm.gov/s/ which is an amazing tool. You can seemingly find any active claim with the BLM on their map. Then you can pull up all sorts of information related to the claim. I am guessing this site has the coordinates, but I have yet to find them. It at least gives you an idea of the shape and general location of the boundaries.

Ok well I am not seeing coordinates on the site I mentioned, but you can see the claim location on the PLSS grid with that BLM map. I downloaded Google Earth and installed a PLSS overlay plugin which I can now use to determine the approximate coordinates of the corner markers and boundaries of the claim. Maybe someone knows of a less complicated way to do all of this, but this works fine. Just a lot of steps.

Thanks for the helpful information
Michael C

If you have the claim name and the county it's in, you can get the exact location from that county recorder, by checking the location notice.

Most claims are filed using TRS, or portion thereof, and plot it out on a USGS map.

Not all states require corner markers if the boundaries follow portions of a section, ie-NW1/4 of the SE1/4, section 7. Don't know the state requirements everywhere, but Oregon doesn't require corners be marked if the claim follows recognized survey lines.

You might have to pay a fee for copies from the recorder, but they are public records.

What state are you in?