MA/VT/NH Panning

D

dvdtharaldson

Full Member
Sep 19, 2012
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Massachusetts
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All Treasure Hunting
Hi ,

This is the first time I have posted on this website. I live in Western MA and am planning a trip during the last few days of September to Vermont to try my luck panning. I was going to try Buffalo Brook and Five Corners in the Bridgewater area. Does anybody know how far down you ordinarily have to dig to hit black sands in those areas? Any comments on whether you have to dig deep or just stay on the surface? I was thinking Irene probably deposited alot of flood gold on the surface. Does anybody know if some of the small brooks high up in the mts. north of Bridgewater contain gold? All I ever hear is Buffalo Brook and Five Corners. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you probably could tell I am new to panning for gold.

Thanks,

David
 

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GrizzlyGremlin said:
Hey goldooza, good time on the river yesterday. I like the bazooka. There is better gold elsewhere but you gota find it. You now know how to get that yellah!! Go get it!
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Thanks man. I learned a lot. You're a heckuva teacher. Hopefully I can tune the flow into the bazooka to trap more fine material. You sure know your stuff. Hope to do it again sometime soon!
 

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New best northeast panning day its out there boys!
 

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Wow GG, really nice! Better than most of what I find in CO!
 

If you need hope then buy yourself a a nice 4' crowbar and go to the plymouth area in VT and beat on every piece of bedrock you see. I cant say where this gold came from as i am selfish as to my honey holes, but technique is the important part, where you prospect matters little in the big picture. Get gooooooooood at panning. There is gold everywhere, making it show up in your pan requites countless hours of practice.
 

I understand not giving away the honey holes. That is an incredible day! You must have found some of those nuggies on your classifier. That is one of my dreams/goals. Find a piece on my classifier. Nice work man!
 

GrizzlyGremlin said:
If you need hope then buy yourself a a nice 4' crowbar and go to the plymouth area in VT and beat on every piece of bedrock you see. I cant say where this gold came from as i am selfish as to my honey holes, but technique is the important part, where you prospect matters little in the big picture. Get gooooooooood at panning. There is gold everywhere, making it show up in your pan requites countless hours of practice.
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Great attitude and solid advice indeed!
 

After reading about GG's success, I feel somewhat ambivalent about posting the results of my latest outing. Well, I always said this thread is about both successes and failures. Sometimes success isn't always measured in the amount of gold found, if any, but about what you have learned while trying.

This past week I spent a day in Black Brook just outside of Charlemont. MA. The only success I can claim is I now know how to set up my AM recon sluice. I sluiced for about an hour and recovered a lot of black sand. In this case at least 4 times the amount I ever got before in a third of the time, What I am excited about is the fact that I recovered black sands that were as small as what I can pan. I am confident that if there were colors in the material I sluiced I would have retained them.

I also learned that the spot I chose in the brook wasn't optimal. I should of spent more time searching for a better gravel repository. It's hard to stop sluicing when so much black sands show up in your sluice. I also realized I should have been much deeper. I have resolved myself to take off 16 inches of over burden before I even start sluicing. I always thought that if you find black sands there should be some gold in it. But if the area catches a lot of heavies its possible that you could have a lot of over burden with black sands that don't contain gold, while the pay dirt is just a little deeper.

So was it a successful trip? By my standards yes. A little color would have been nice though.
 

I was out prospecting this past Sunday around the area that contains the middle branch of the Westfield River. I was hoping to find some streams that contain a good amount of heavies. I was going to use the occurrence of black sands as an indicator for some colors.

After prospecting in about five different places and finding no black sands to speak of, it was time to stop. My question is, do you ever find gold where there is very little or no black sands present? My experience has been that it isn't even worth prospecting unless black sands are relatively plentiful. Anybody care to offer an opinion.

Thanks,
David
 

I got this one and the answer is No and Yes. You will just about always find some black sand around gold. Having said that, it can be very little. The place i just spent 4 days at had just about no black sand. Our total black sand amount for 15 buckets of creviced material was about 4 table spoons. This place was LOADED with garnet tho. Our pans of cons were bright red! Garnet is another good indicator and so is lead. Any heavy materials in your pan will point you in the right direction... I wish prospecting was easier here in the northeast. Im fantasizing about the spring when i move to colorado and see gold in every single pan again. I digress, the real issue is how sparse any decent gold is. Oh well, Deer archery season in 4 days!!!
 

Grizz,
I think you have had the best summer of anyone in the Northeast. Good job! I also hope you will continue to post on this thread after you move to Colorado. Even if it is just to make us jealous!

As to Garnet being a good indicator for gold, I have mixed feelings. My experience has been that streams with a high concentration of Garnet have a low concentration of black sands. What little gold I have found is usually in streams with a low concentration of Garnet and a high concentration of black sands. Although I have to admit I have found gold in streams that contain small amounts of orange and/or yellow Garnet.

Maybe its just a psychological thing but its always exciting to see your sluice or pan turn black with heavy sands. Of course metallic yellow is a nice color too.

I do have a question for you though, and your answer might blow my whole hypothesis out of the water. Is the place you camped for four days the same place you found all the chunky gold used in the "golden smile" ?
 

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Yes same spot! Only 3 pickers in 4 days this time! Stinks from going from 10 pickers in 2 hours. I feel the same way. Every stream except this stupid one always has plentiful black sand where the gold lies. This place which was in maine by the way! Has almost zilch for black sand but chunky gold is there. Makes me wonder is this spot is salted by the local prospecting store to keep people buying stuff. Oh well Vermont here i come!!!
 

Its been awhile since I updated my own thread. I have made it up to the Black Brook area (Rte. 2 Savoy) a couple more times this fall but found no colors in that particular waterway. I did find something interesting in a little rivulet just past Black Brook. It looked like it was gold on one side and some type of black stone on the other. My next outings will be concentrated on the Charlemont area around Rte. 2. I know the area has a history of producing gold albeit ultra fine particles.

Recently I was introduced to panning commercially prepared cons. I was quite surprised at the amount of gold that I found. In a half hour of panning I found more than I found in three years of panning my own cons! The real kicker is it works out to be less expensive all things considered. Does anybody have any info on any brands of commercially prepared cons that they like?

Best Luck

David
 

David, the half gold, half black could just be gold partially coated with manganese. You can try getting the black coating off if you want with vinegar or other acidic things like drain cleaner, brick cleaner, etc.

As to commercial cons, a lot of them are playground sand salted with gold. The more legit ones are real cons salted with gold. For that try Gold Hog or C0017A or Kuger on this forum. One thought, the more they spend on flashy advertising, the less gold they can afford to give you in each bag.

A buddy of mine used to sell but it was too much hassle so he quit doing it. Wish I could refer you to him but no more.

A reputable seller will include gold equal to about half the price you are paying. The rest of your money goes to their operating costs, packaging etc but if you are getting much less than 50% gold values! then switch sellers!
 

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I was out panning this weekend with mixed results. In the spots I so carefully chose I found no colors but lots of different minerals. In a last ditch effort to find some color I was panning "just any spot" in "just any river" and found one small flake. I was panning in the North River drainage north of Rte. 2.

I told myself that this was to be the last foray for colors this year. But a new day has dawned and maybe I might have to reconsider.

Just a note for rookies like myself. The last three times I have been out prospecting I spent all of my time in headwaters of rivers, in streams that are less than 10 feet wide at normal flow. I had no success at all. This last time I was in a river that was carrying 3 or 4 times the volume of water as the streams. The other observation was the terrain was much flatter. I was in the middle of the river behind a large rock. I had on very leaky waders, but I don't know if that matters.
 

Been over a month! Deer hunting sucks up too much time. Hit the usual spot. Not bad but not great.
First time out in over a month. Bowhunting is a tough commitment sometimes.
 

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GoldDoozah said:
You might be on to something. I haven't been skunked since my waders started to leak. It's only weird if it doesn't work.
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Oh no! I just tossed out my leaky boots, is that the end of my lucky streak? LOL
 

Hey Kevin, have you did any panning in the Colorado river? I'm thinking bout going an trying my panning in Colorado and have a couple questions.
1. In Colorado do they allow you to use sluice boxes and hand dredges without a permit?

2. If u have panned in the Colorado river did u have any luck?
 

utah_ty said:
Hey Kevin, have you did any panning in the Colorado river? I'm thinking bout going an trying my panning in Colorado and have a couple questions. 1. In Colorado do they allow you to use sluice boxes and hand dredges without a permit? 2. If u have panned in the Colorado river did u have any luck?
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1. No permit needed anywhere in CO for hand tools.

2. No I haven't prospected the Colorado but I hear there is a little in spots in the western part of the state. Try the bridge across the River at the Cameo power plant. If there is still a gravel bar right under the bridge, it is likely to hold gold. You can also try to find the book "Where's the gold on the Colorado River?" By professor Dell Foutz. Apparently it's for sale at the Colorado Mesa University bookstore.
 

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