Beginner weekend prospector gets first bit of shine

Hangtowndiggins

Sr. Member
Oct 1, 2013
327
1,088
placerville ca
Detector(s) used
GBpro. BGT 48" miner, 36" prospector and super mini
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Was able to get out last weekend to take my next shot at improving finds from the last trip out. Been prospecting for a year now when I can, moved to ca gold country a couple of years back was always interested in gold but never had the opportunity to even try my hand at panning before. Soon after the move I became real eager to try to find some for myself. Was new to the area not knowing anyone around to ask were to go or teach me any thing about it, but didn't let that stop me, did some research online went out bought a pan and went exploring by myself lucked out found a lil creek on what looked to be on blm to me and I could tell someone else had been digging there so dug up my first bucket brought it home panned it down and sure enough my first lil flat piece sense then I have been hooked and can't put it down love the feeling of being the first to set eyes on each little piece can't get enough! So sense then have been doing some research, working on acquiring tools, gear, detector, sluices, finding new places to prospect and have been learning a lot by getting out there trial and error and everything else has from here on tnet so thanks a lot to everyone one here sharing all this valuable information that only come from experience. Well time to get on with the story of the trip, went out Saturday to this lil creek that i had found last spring jus my ol lab n me. Was about my fourth time trying to read and work bedrock found a lil crack to clean to the left of the rock face so broke a chunk off and realized a bigger crack was below it ended up going in and under the face about a foot each way and bottoming out on more bedrock both ways, the water was running just enough so I couldn't see what was going on under there but could at least wet classify and use my sucker. So I dug and dug scraped and sucked went home with 5 gallon bucket full panned it down today and finally got my first lil pickers! Went back Sunday for a few hours with my brother worked this crazy little cave crack were the creek bed dropped off to bedrock, but ended up being a bust only got a few lil pieces out of it. Well just wanted to share my little trip, many more to come and hh to all image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 

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Sweet post! Congratulations on your haul - great looking gold! :occasion14:
 

Good stuff dude. Told you crack is where its at:headbang: With all that lead looks like your on the heavy line for sure. You should be getting good fines in that area too. Start looking for more breakable cracks very close to that one. Hope the guy who said pvc hand suckers don't work see's this.
 

What a great day and way to set the bar for better ones to come. Still looking for my first picker and looky what you found in one outting! Well done sir!
BTW, I got my own little secret creek too. Only tested the mouth once and it was my best day ever. Too many people were around during the summer, so I hiked up and found near perfect conditions 1/8 mi upstream. Can only get better:icon_thumleft:

Ps Pic 4 is a good example of what not to do. Is that your brother in that cave under that boulder???????
 

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Hey thank you guys for the kind comments and encouragement great appreciated! Yes going to be focusing on other cracks around the same spot so many to pick from but will take my best educated guess and go with my gut plan on goin back for more this Saturday ill be happy if I can improve finds from the last trip but never know what the trip holds until it's over. Maybe the individual who said suckers don't work had a defective pump:icon_scratch: if it sucks gravels and sand it's going to suck up gold as well.. If it weren't for mine my lil pieces would still be sitting on bedrock under water and I would never know it. Jeff my best advice is to stay positive persistent and you'll find what your looking for, hope to here you get your first pickers soon! Your exactly right it can only get better from here live by those words and it will pay off. As for the sketchy cave crack that's me in there in the pic, sure not one of my better ideas wouldn't advise it but looked safe as could be for what it was I was just scraping material out not playing with the natural structure of it, but as a prospector I believe risk can bring even greater rewards and dig were my heart tell me sure it's an example of what not to do but if I had come out of there with a pan full of pickers would it then be the thing to do? Definitely would not have gone in if I was alone would be a bad way to go out but at least I would have been doing what I love:icon_thumleft:
 

You boys be careful of hypothermia. I'm sure yo're fine, but mind the symptoms. Quincy isn't far and I'm freezin by toes off.
 

Very good post and pics, Hangtown - before you know it, you will be giving good advise to others here - HH
 

This is so darn cool.

I have heard that here where I'm located in TX that little flakes can be found panning in the creeks and rivers.

I'd love to get a little vial of flakes that I panned myself, just to have that memory and story.

Great work!
 

Nice gold! I'm still waiting to see a pan with all that chunky gold in it,
and I've been at it off and on for a bunch of years. The Gold Schwartz
must run strong in your family....
MasterJoda.jpg
 

Sounds like the beginning of a lifelong journey and decent gold too. Definately a addiction I've cherished almost all my life... Kudos-John:icon_thumright:
 

Hangtowndiggins, not that you need me to tell you this but, you did good son!! In my early years I never came across anything more than flakes, of gold that is. That pseudo cave picture sure does look iffy to me, were it me I would have moved that rock that is near your waistline and then propped up the ledge with a hunk of tree. Please do be careful out there as we've recently lost a couple of us out there. It is fun to find the gold but more fun to live to tell about it. Great pictures, nice read and a Great Share, thanks for all!...........................63bkpkr


Umm, DizzyDigger, I do not recall a "Gold" Schwartz in that movie and I am not certain I would want it in my family but it is in the merchandizing! The force is more my thing!
 

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Thanks to all for the pleasant replies and advise, means a lot coming from you guys, addiction like John said is the word to best describe the condition I'm under, definitely have the fever now I'm ok with it getting worse as long as the gold stays the same or better! Glad you all enjoyed the post many more to come and happy to share. It took a lot of hard and not so good days to lead up to this one just happy I stuck with it and now I'm finally getting somewhere I'm only 29 so it's only just beginning! Now that I know I'm on some good ground I'm be hitting it twice as hard, last Saturdays trip was only my second trip to this spot so plenty of time and room to improve from here. 63bkpkr thank you for showing concern for the safety and well being of a fellow prospector I appreciate that and thank you for sharing what and how you would have done things, not to deny it was not a wise idea but I didn't have the time and resources to move rocks, I was in the moment and seen what looked to be good and easy scraping so went for it, in person the cave does not look as dangerous as in the pic, anyway I do apologize for my action that could ultimately give us a bad name didn't think about that at the time but I will play it safe and ill leave it at that. Well time start taking tool and gear inventory and organize the backpack for the next go round this weekend will gladly report back about how it went and what was found. :icon_thumleft: hh to all!
 

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Ah Jeffie, don't be stressing yourself out as there are uses for all sorts of equipment for all sorts of conditions. However I must admit seeing his really nice gold is impressive and that he took it with that little light weight rig is something to consider. Hefty has a spot that really needs some suck to get to the bottom of a 4' deep crack that starts out as 4" wide and drops to 1", not uniformly of course but as a rough estimate those are the dimensions. All of us have our "Needs"!!............................63bkpkr

Needs vs Wants makes it hard to figure out!
 

Hey thanks HD, I had to smile at your "I was in the moment" as it so reminded me of a couple of things I've done in the moment and so far I'm still here to think how silly I was. We all pull those things from time to time, I need to try and hold myself back more often. Have a great trip and best of success to ya.............................63bkpkr
 

Hey thanks 63bkpkr for wishing me luck on the next trip out can't wait to see what it may hold or may not lol. Hey Jeff awesome you got your recirc sluice going but we both know that wont really help you find those pickers your waiting on, yes you definitely need a hand powered sucker especially if your diggin gravels down to bedrock, yes you may find some flakes but your leaving the best stuff on the bottom of bedrock and in the cracks, chances are you have touched that first picker with your shovel or post hole digger but it's near impossible to pick up little pieces off the rock with those 75 percent of the gold I have found has been recovered through the sucker if I didn't have mine I wouldn't bother, if I were you I would build one before next trip to dig, a good idea would be to build one and go suck up the bottom of the holes you have dug you may be surprised what is waiting there for you. Even tho you were quick to make an example of my post "hey everyone this is what not to do" I'm willing to help you with a build. The pumps I built are just my take on how I thought I should build one and what I thought would work, and so far they have proven to work every time, I went with a 3" and suction chamber quick change nozzles I just use 3/4 and 1/2" in different lengths with the 3" chamber reduced to small nozzles the suction is amazing! I built them to later add check valves but haven't got around to that yet. As for the plunger I'm just using good old rubber baseballs some may say they don't work but they have proven to work great for me so far if you want to save money then build one yourself it will be your number 1 gold getting tool and you can be proud you built it yourself well ill post a couple pics let me know if you have any questions, happy to help image.jpgimage.jpg
 

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Nice work Hangtown! Awesome character on those pickers!
 

Nice gold and spot you found, if I had a spot where I could find gold like that around here I'd be hitting it up for some more soon.
 

Ain't them some purty little pickers? That is sweet! Congratulations!!
 

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