Do you find more gold with a pan or detector?

[TravyLeigh]

Just curious... If you put in 5 hours with a pan, and 5 hours in with a detector... Which do you think you'd find more gold with? Just approximately. I know you can find $20000 in gold one day, and none the next...


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[63bkpkr]

John, since I've never found much gold just how big would a compact 50 lb hunk of gold be? Like a 4" diameter ball or a 4" Cube. Your estimate would be appreciated since you've handled much more of the yellow metal than I have so it will also be a much better approximation than mine, say 18 to 14 carat material.

A VW sized 'nugget' would weigh tons and would not be practical to find as you've indicated though I guess if I found one I would also saw it up into pieces that would weigh about 50 lbs and then hike them out. Of course the 'saw dust' would need to be saved for spare change...............63bkpkr

 

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[Gold_Striker]

I don't dig every target atleast not yet

40 hours with no gold detecting is nothing. Almost normal I'd say. People generally underestimate just how hard it is to find gold nuggets with a metal detector. It is the most difficult type of detecting there is and most people who buy a nugget detector probably never find a gold nugget with it.

When people like me post about gold finds it looks easy if you read the post. This year I made a trip to Alaska and end result was two ounces of some really nice gold. Problem is that I had maybe 250 hours of detecting in to get those two ounces.

I usually do find gold every day I detect but that is not saying much. It may be a small nugget weighing 0.1 gram.

The thing is I just love metal detecting. I have no desire to go panning or sluicing or anything else these days. I may as well sell that last little bits of sluicing gear I have because it just do not see myself trading a day of detecting for a day of running a sluice box ever again.

So I think the answer is all about what best suits your temperament. Most people find detecting to be boring at best and when digging nails downright stupid. Panning can provide the more consistent gold most people prefer. Detecting is more for people willing to accept long dry spells for a shot at some bigger returns. Maybe a long shot, but when detecting pays off it can pay off big.

Seems like takes too long to dig every single junk target because I'm looking for GOLD a 36 signal. Am I wrong?

 

[TravyLeigh]

What if youre WAAAAAY back where there's little or no trash

 

[Gold_Striker]

hunting and camping areas

These are hunting and camping areas so tons of trash whole bullets and shotgun slugs just sun baking. This MD can pick up 8mm size peice of aluminum can out of a pile of black sand it's really good.

I researched the spots I wanted to check so I had to stick to my plan.

 

[Gold_Striker]

I love sniping! As soon as I find clay, I start piling it into my pan. I've had to go quite deep (just using my hands! Not even a shovel hahaa) on the American river. I found a couple small nuggets in the hole I was in... That's what got me interested in the detector side of it. To get to where I was, I don't think anyone would want to take their detector into the water, unless it was waterproof!

I'm thinkin about getting myself a whites GMT to use during the winter... Cause there's no way I'm getting in that freezing water.


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Digging a pit more than 1/2' deep is what I'm used to I just started sampling. Sounds like dig down till clay or bedrock or else bad sample?

 

[TravyLeigh]

You can find gold above the clay of course, but I just love clay cause it's like a gold magnet