Going out today!

[taternut]

So the weather here has been pretty poor for the last few days, but I think I'm going to get out for a bit and sluice a little. I've gotten a lot of helpful hints from a lot of you and hopefully an answer to what I've been doing wrong. Ill post some pics when I get back, with hopefully some good results

 

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[khpony]

Hope you do well and have a great day!

 

[taternut]

Well we went out and dug behind a big rock. We dug probably 3ft down. I haven't panned any of our cons yet but I'm going to start up the blue bowl, and ill post the results after!

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

Nice set up... How did it work out for you? Looks like you are below the gorge?

 

[taternut]

Yeah I was below the gorge. I was only out for like 2-3hours and I classified about 3, 5g buckets down to 20 and ran it and I have about 1/3 cons I need to pan down. I ran a little through my blue bowl and I have a lot of black sand but I'm not seeing too much color :/

 

[taternut]

So I decided to buy a black magic fine gold recovery table and it looks like I was skunked again

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

So I decided to buy a black magic fine gold recovery table and it looks like I was skunked again

The creek your talking about is where I learned to pan & prospect...... I didnt get jack my first year! It was all trial and error. I wasn't even using the internet for advice. I learned a lot after that first year, mostly out of books and just getting out an doing it. I have to say though, the one thing that increased my success rate the most was learning how to properly pan! It obviously helps you when cleaning out but it also is very helpful when testing. Test Test Test then dig then Test some more if you have to. If you cant pan you can sure waste a lot of time. There are a ton of great gadgets out there but the greatest of all is a simple pan. Go to pretty much any inside bend on that creek and dig down no more than 2 ft and you should be able to find some color in your pan. I am not saying you will always find big flakes but you should be getting some color.

 

[taternut]

Maybe I'm panning wrong :/ I was taught by a guys his whole family has mined for generations but maybe I didn't understand totally :/ I can get to the black sand pretty quick but maybe I'm going too fast. It's hard going out and trying to learn with a bunch of rookies lol

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

There's no one right way to pan. Everyone has there own little ways. If you're keeping black sand in the pan, you should be able to keep gold in the pan. Have you found any lead in your pan? Bird shot etc, if you have found lead in your pan, you should really be able to catch the gold if its there. And just like everything else it take trial and error to learn. Stick with it!

 

[taternut]

No I've never found any lead, that I know of. Maybe I should try that. But I always end up with a decent amount of black sand most of my pans do I'm semi confident that I'm close to doing it right lol. I think I just have to understand the concept of where gold likes to rest

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

When done right, the gold will be at 12 o'clock in your pan, right in the corner or crease.. If you have a couple of bbs laying around throw them in a pan with a hand full of dirt or grave/ sand.... Pan it down, if you can keep bbs/ bird shot in a pan you WILL keep the gold in the pan, even if its just specks of float gold. It took me 4-6 months of looking and digging in all the wrong places before I started finding gold. And that's down here in San Diego, I am much more limited than you are up north. Do your research, drive a little if needed, and get your snuffer bottle ready :-)

 

[taternut]

Thank you for the advice man! Ill practice panning with some bb's this week then I'm pretty sure I'm going to go out again Monday or Tuesday hopefully. I've been reading the prospectors handbook by jack black and I've been learning a lot more than I have from the Dave McCracken books. Hopefully it'll help

 

[Vance in AK]

Sampling with the pan is the KEY!!!

Some guys don't like Dave Maccracken, but I will say his DVD Modern Gold Mining Techniques taught me more about where to look for gold & how to sample 20ish yrs ago (and NOTHING has changed in those 20 yrs) than any other single source before or since. It's not cheap but if it saves you 10 gal of wasted gas on unsuccessful trips it paid for itself. I personally liked his books on dredging, but I am a visual learner & this DVD really helped me. When I got it in the "old days" it was VHS. I like it so well that a few yrs ago I bought a DVD copy to use when working with new folks that are wanting to know how it's done. He harps on good sampling, but he uses some good tools & video footage to show you how to read a stream & where in the stream to find gold.

Prospecting Videos|Modern Gold Mining Techniques

 

[taternut]

Would it basically be the same as the books? Cause I have the dredging techniques and advanced dredging techniques by McCracken

 

[Vance in AK]

Would it basically be the same as the books? Cause I have the dredging techniques and advanced dredging techniques by McCracken

Much better for me. I have the dredging videos & they give good dredging technique, but this is good schooling on how & where placer deposits occur, & where they will lay in the river with some REALLY good demo videos showing where paystreaks lie in normal flows, & flood flows, as well as a cool "demo" river made of wood that they pour gold into so you can see where it stops.
Also lays out good sampling techniques and talks about the importance of prospecting before "mining" (setting using ANY equipment other than a pan). Beyond that it shows how to use most equipment (short demos) as well as a fair bit of time teaching panning.

In my mind for where you are now this video is 10x better than any of his books or other videos. It's an investment I would recommend to any friend in your spot!!!

(By the way, I have both the books & the videos on dredging & for me the videos are much better than the books. I'm a good reader & as a pastor I spend a ton of time reading for content so I comprehend books well, but I'm a visual learner. In my opinion this DVD is far & away the best thing Mccracken made).

 

[taternut]

Oh well from what you just said it sounds better, plus I don't really like his book, that's why I bought some from different authors lol. But maybe ill check out his videos and see

 

[Vance in AK]

By the way taternut, I am an equipment JUNKY!!! I love equipment! I love building it, buying it, using it, & looking at it!
BUT, what you need right now isn't more equipment (Like the Black Magic), it's experience & practice sampling & prospecting with the pan & maybe a sluice.
If you find gold you need to be able to pan it down to gold & a LITTLE black sand & get it out with a sucker bottle.. Then throw it in a bucket & save those concentrates until you have enough to make it worth while & use that Black Magic or the blue bowl. If you want to spend some money on "stuff" buy a few bags of concentrates to pan while you watch the McCracken dvd :-) After you pan a bag mix it back in with the sand & maybe some of the stuff you brought home to run through the black magic & pan it again. And again. And again... You get the idea.
Then buy the equipment that will make you most effective in the areas your prospecting has shown you that you should mine.

Just my opinion!

 

[taternut]

That's a good idea as well! I'm kind of the same way with equipment. I've only been interested in prospecting for like 6months and have spent close to $1500 just to try out new stuff, but it's pointless cause I'm not finding anything haha. But I'm determined to find something! I just need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Vance in AK]

You will get it!!! Don't get discouraged.
Right place
Right methods
THEN... right equipment!

 

[taternut]

So my buddy just called me up and his step dads family all mines and they just offered to take me and my buddy out and teach us the ropes and how to really get started