Finally found it!

[Sample Pan Dan]

Well as most of you know, I am still just a greenhorn as far as prospecting goes. I have been covering lots of ground and taking lots o sample for the last 4 months in my little piece of paradise. Well today I decided to hike in along the creek and test pan some areas I had never seen. I dug and panned for a couple hours this morning, moving upstream every few pan fulls. All o a sudden I realize I am walking along on a gravel bar from when these couple small creeks were a raging force. Then I find a nice big hole someone left behind and the remains of a wooden framed sluice box, maybe 12"x40". So I decided to dig. I had no buckets with me, just a couple pans, a 1/4 classifier and a short handled #2 shovel. So I dug 2 pans at a time and panned them out 30 feet away. I probably panned 30 big full pans from this hole. Yes it's only one little piece, but it a nice little piece, and I found it by covering ground, reading maps, and studying the history of the area. I'll be back, hopeful next weekend with a couple buckets. Time to buy that sluice box I've been looking at. :-)

 

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[Sample Pan Dan]

Here's the hole and the sluice box

 

[Gene Slater]

Color! Grats!!

 

[Peyton Manning]

sounds like dredge time to me

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks Gene! Jeff, I'm in Ca, so no dredges, and this is BLM land so I'm limited to panning and sluicing.

 

[Fullpan]

That gravel looks dry enough to set up a cheap grizzly, a piece of 1/2 or 1/4 inch expanded metal propped up to throw shovels of dirt at. Then classify down
to an 1/8th, either wet or dry. Then get sluicing! Good luck.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks Fullpan, yes nice and dry, was easy classifying with my home made 3/8 classifier. Good looking gravel.

 

[Goldwasher]

why can't you run a drywasher? And Congrats on your first color

 

[goldog]

Congrts on your first color. Where in CA are you?

 

[B H Prospector]

First color is always exciting no matter the size or amount.A hoard starts one piece at a time.

B H Prospector

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks everyone. Pville, this is BLM land, no mechanized equipment the way I understand.

 

[TerryC]

Congrts on your first color. Where in CA are you?

(Bostonia is near El Cajon) TTC

 

[DesertNuggets]

Congrats! I still have my very first flake in a little bottle.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Congrts on your first color. Where in CA are you?

Oh yes, sorry this is San Diego county

 

[Aurabbit79er]

First color is always exciting no matter the size or amount.A hoard starts one piece at a time.

B H Prospector

Drywasher are Allowed on BLM

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Drywasher are Allowed on BLM

Thanks Aurabbit

 

[Lanny in AB]

Hey--here's a great big congratulations! Your first color in the pan!!

The bigger stuff will be easier to find now that you've proven your skill at finding the smaller stuff.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Hey--here's a great big congratulations! Your first color in the pan!!

The bigger stuff will be easier to find now that you've proven your skill at finding the smaller stuff.

All the best,

Lanny

Thanks Lanny, I've learned a lot from you on here. :-)

 

[improvmechanic]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm definitely jealous! Mostly cause I just wasted a day trekking though the snow for black sand. Good luck bud! Here's hopin you've got some nice big stuff waiting for you in there!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm definitely jealous! Mostly cause I just wasted a day trekking though the snow for black sand. Good luck bud! Here's hopin you've got some nice big stuff waiting for you in there!

Thanks Improvmechanic. Ya it was beautiful weather here today, at 4000' elevation it was 60 and partly cloudy, waters pretty chilly though :-)