A claim is recorded at the county recorder first. It reaches BLM's federal system later — sometimes much later. Overtap watches the front end of that gap.
Measured directly, not estimated — 14 claims traced individually from their recorded location date through to their federal record. Small sample, one county, one window; the spread is wide and a few claims reached the federal system before the county caught up. Full method and caveats available on request.
That gap is the whole point. If you're checking only the federal database before you stake, you can't see ground that was claimed weeks ago and hasn't surfaced yet.
The Elko monitoring is built and running against live county records. Automated boundary mapping — reading the metes-and-bounds off recorded location notices and plotting them as real polygons — is in development, not yet available. Additional Nevada counties come after Elko.
Want to see it?
I'll send you a sample of a recent week's Elko filings — actual data, no commitment — and you can judge whether it's useful.