Kevins own thread - a journal (but feel free to post random thoughts)

[KevinInColorado]

So I took my car in to get an oil change today (i do the truck myself but the little Honda is a pain so...) and decided to run the Bazooka Sniper in the creek right behind their shop while they worked. The creek there has a recreational path along it and the whole thing is owned by a parks n rec district that is prospector friendly. Nice right? Well, the creek was running high and fast and muddy due to runoff from the big winter storm we just endured here in Colorado. With the Sniper this was a good thing rather than the pain it would have been with a riffle sluice. The water had plenty of force so I could feed the Sniper fairly quickly right off my shovel with only the occasional larger rock to pull out by hand. This meant I moved a decent amount of material, especially considering the short time and challenging conditions (couldn't see the bottom at all). I spent a happy half hour digging along the inside curve of a gentle bend in the creek and did well, picture and weight to follow...

Guess I have a new reason to choose that shop for my oil changes! LOL!

 

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[Sample Pan Dan]

That's awesome Kevin, thanks for sharing. Maybe your oil change will pay for itself....

 

[KevinInColorado]

.,. yeah well not quite! However 0.05 grams in 1/2 hour of entertaining myself ain't bad either! (Thx for the comment DWM! Heavy pans!)

 

[b.jmining530]

Hey Kevin since you seem to be the bazooka master I want your opinion on what I caught today with my bazooka. I got this from 2 five gallon buckets is this a good spot do you think?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hey there! My first reaction is no, that's not so great but...
- is it nearby?
- is there better gold near enough to be an alternative?
- is it a pretty, relaxing spot?
- can you improve your selection of paydirt to dig to focus on the most productive material?

...it's all relative ya know?

 

[b.jmining530]

It's pretty close to home like 7 miles from my house to the spot and way relaxing spot. And it was the first time I have ever checked this spot out

 

[b.jmining530]

And I got that in a short amount of time once I kinda figured out where the gold was

 

[KevinInColorado]

It's pretty close to home like 7 miles from my house to the spot and way relaxing spot. And it was the first time I have ever checked this spot out

And I got that in a short amount of time once I kinda figured out where the gold was

Awesome! Get back there, hit it hard for an hour or two and see how you REALLY do! Enjoy!!

 

[b.jmining530]

Yeah I think I am going to go back out Friday after I get done with this semesters finals

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yeah I think I am going to go back out Friday after I get done with this semesters finals

Good plan, exams gotta come first! Hope you have something like this to show us: From yesterday. Got out for a couple hours of digging and talking and digging with a good friend who just got his Bazooka! Lovely weather for digging and high fast snow-melt water so the Bazooka Prospectors were totally self cleaning

PS coin is a 1/10 oz Eagle, size of a dime but with more bling!

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Good plan, exams gotta come first! Hope you have something like this to show us: View attachment 994913 From yesterday. Got out for a couple hours of digging and talking and digging with a good friend who just got his Bazooka! Lovely weather for digging and high fast snow-melt water so the Bazooka Prospectors were totally self cleaning

PS coin is a 1/10 oz Eagle, size of a dime but with more bling!

That is an amazing day Nonetheless! With great memories come great wisdom; and it shows.

-May your pans be heavy'

 

[b.jmining530]

Man I need to come dog with you lol !!!! Yeah school has to come first but that's part of growing up

 

[KevinInColorado]

Man I need to come dog with you lol !!!! Yeah school has to come first but that's part of growing up

sure if you promise to keep my secret spots totally secret! PM me if you're serious

Btw, yesterday's total was 0.17 grams which puts me at exactly 1.5 grams since the third Thursday of last month (I measure from club meeting to monthly club meeting)...hoping to hit 2 grams if I'm really lucky (fingers crossed!).

 

[b.jmining530]

That would be a long road trip for a gold adventure !!! But maybe one day

 

[KevinInColorado]

I think I mentioned that I'd been prospecting in 4 counties in the last month and set a goal of 5 for the month...well I did it today I ran one pan of classified material in Cherry Creek in the midst of downtown Denver and found 10 little flakes and one decent sized flake in that pan That's enough to draw my attention so I am planning to head back there with my Gold-n-Sand pump. The pump will be key as most of the presumed higher value material is in a very fast moving creek and I want to suck some cracks without having the water strip material out of my shovel.

Counties this past month: Denver, Jefferson, Boulder, Arapahoe, Douglas.. I'm only missing Adams (and broomfield I guess since they split off of Jefferson County) to have the whole metro area. I know there's gold in Adams (got some last month!), wonder about Broomfield...anyone know a spot there?

 

[b.jmining530]

Do you have the gold and sand extreme? My buddy just got one and it is pretty sweet sucking all the good stuff out of the cracks and I to a bucket to run through a sluice

 

[KevinInColorado]

Do you have the gold and sand extreme? My buddy just got one and it is pretty sweet sucking all the good stuff out of the cracks and I to a bucket to run through a sluice

yup I do! I see it as a specialized tool. It is good for cleaning out the bottom of a hole dug down to bedrock or to pull up bottom material in a high current. In more mild conditions it'll never keep up with a shovel of course. Among the hand pump options it is clearly the highest volume device and the longest lasting plunger (leather) and has custom designed valves. In a gesture of support to the do it yourself squad, they even sell the parts individually.

Full disclosure: I am good friends with Red Wilcox the inventor and manufacturer. However I bought my pump (used on Craig's list) earlier.

 

[b.jmining530]

It is like the ultimate sniping sucker . It worked pretty good when we used to suck out a hole against some bedrock

 

[KevinInColorado]

It is like the ultimate sniping sucker . It worked pretty good when we used to suck out a hole against some bedrock

glad to hear it worked well for you.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Got out on a local creek for about three hours today...didn't mean to stay that long but I guess I got sucked in and lost track of time!

We've had a couple of big rainstorms this past week and the hole a friend and I have been digging was totally filled in with loose sand washed downstream in the storms. I called him this morning to see if he wanted to go out digging. He complained about the sand and said he had started scouting out other spots. This spot is so close to his house, I felt bad for him (he is mid 70's with some arthritis and shoulder trouble from being a pitcher in high school and college) so I volunteered to hit that sand hard and get it out of the hole. Of course I ran all that easy to dig sand thru my Bazooka Prospector (nice fast flow made this easy) for a half hour or so. Shovel, shovel, shovel...yeah baby! Ten I pulled the sluice and panned it out. The friend had come down to chat so we were both very curious to see if there was any gold in that recently moved sand...YES! There was indeed gold, small of course but fairly plentiful Good to know right?

I went on to dig some virgin, hard packed gravel mixed with cobbles down to bedrock/clay...the sort of stuff we KNOW has good gold. I stopped once to confirm that and was left smiling at the quick test swirl of the cons from the fluid bed. Celebration was an energy bar and some Powerade. The time flew by and before I knew it, it was much later than I'd planned to stay.

Looking forward to panning it out, news at 11 ;-)