School is back in... Time to work!!!!!

Thanks for sharing your adventures GoldenIrishman. I'm enjoying reading them. Sounds like you found a sweet spot. :laughing7:

As you have found out, just about anywhere in the Greaterville gulches is going to get you gold but with a little extra effort you can find some great paying spots. Sure would love to see a picture of your nugget. Is that your first one? Isn't that Greaterville gold nice and buttery?

I've just gotten back from another road trip. It's been a really busy season for us but I hope to find time soon to post here again. I've got lots more information to share about Greaterville - the geology and the best areas to hunt there as well as some old pictures and history.

Thanks again for sharing.

Heavy Pans


p.s Going to a 4000 gph pump is going to help a lot. Even more would be better. You can always cut back your flow but if you are already running flat out you can't get that extra umph needed when you have a lot of paying gravel. You might want to consider cutting slots in your wash bars on the header box. More flow, better washing and no clogs. If your pump can't keep up you need a bigger pump - not fewer slots.
 

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Hey Clay!

It's been a lot of fun out there and we have to thank you again for turning us onto the area. I love the look of the gold there. It's so chunky and crystalline looking. Really beautiful indeed. It wasn't my first nugget by any means, but it has to be up there with my best looking ones.

We're going to be going back out this coming Friday with some new equipment to test out. A friend of Robi's went out and bought a brand new MineLab Xterra 705 with the gold package. He's loaning it to us (Since he's almost blind but really likes Robi.) so we can do some nugget shooting in the gulch. I told Robi to remind him that any new machine is going to have a learning curve with it and not to expect to see major nuggets on the first weekend. There's a possibility that AzViper will be meeting up with up with us to do some detecting but that's not written in stone yet. It would be nice to have someone with experience on detecting to get us started in the right direction.

Robi and I got a real education on the Kentucky Camp history during our first work party last Saturday. Some really cool stuff went on there as well as some really dumb ideas tried and failed. Met several of the folks that had been with the group for some time as well as the FS liaison Chris S. and a couple of the full time FS rangers. All nice people and Chris is a hoot. He enjoyed that I grew up with the history of the California gold rush and still remembered what I learned in 4th grade.
 

Look at it this way Dan. It's only 4-1/2 times as far for you to drive as it is for us. ;) When I was living in Ramona, I'd go out to Sierra Vista. I could leave Ramona at 9PM and be in S.V. having coffee and doughnuts before sunrise. The hard part is surviving all the bug splats on the windshield going through El Centro at night. They got some BIG BUGS there and a lot of them!!!
 

Ya I've been thru El Centro and Brawley at night... Some are so big you flinch when they hit the windshield!
 

Ok... All the materials we brought back have been run, the used mats cleaned out (twice to be sure) and everything panned down. (insert drum roll here) and the total for the trip is....... Aprox 1-1/2 grams. The only reason we even got that much was that nice nugget I mentioned earlier. I'm thinking we need to abandon my idea of cleaning up the stuff that's washed down the bank and go back to good old digging.

I'm thinking (something that many consider more dangerous than playing Russian Roulette with an automatic) that we need to spend a full day out there just working the detector and seeing what kind of hits we get where. I can pretty much follow the stones of the old river bed by sight for quite a ways so I could shoot the wall of the wash and take some buckets from where we get hits. ( I'm just guessing here because I've never worked with a detector before) I'd also like to go over the bed of the wash as there's some places that just scream "DIG HERE!", but we've been busy digging elsewhere.

Another decision I've come to is that I need to lighten up all the equipment I can. Hauling all this weight is what's killing me in both time and energy. I've got to can that sluice stand for one made from PVC instead if wood and keep the cut down steel 55 gal drum for the re-circ system at home and get some plastic drums for the field. In other words, if it can be made lighter it will be!! (Note to self.... If Keith shows up with his green wagon... HI-JACK IT!)
 

goldenIrishman said:
Ok... All the materials we brought back have been run, the used mats cleaned out (twice to be sure) and everything panned down. (insert drum roll here) and the total for the trip is....... Aprox 1-1/2 grams. The only reason we even got that much was that nice nugget I mentioned earlier. I'm thinking we need to abandon my idea of cleaning up the stuff that's washed down the bank and go back to good old digging.

I'm thinking (something that many consider more dangerous than playing Russian Roulette with an automatic) that we need to spend a full day out there just working the detector and seeing what kind of hits we get where. I can pretty much follow the stones of the old river bed by sight for quite a ways so I could shoot the wall of the wash and take some buckets from where we get hits. ( I'm just guessing here because I've never worked with a detector before) I'd also like to go over the bed of the wash as there's some places that just scream "DIG HERE!", but we've been busy digging elsewhere.

Another decision I've come to is that I need to lighten up all the equipment I can. Hauling all this weight is what's killing me in both time and energy. I've got to can that sluice stand for one made from PVC instead if wood and keep the cut down steel 55 gal drum for the re-circ system at home and get some plastic drums for the field. In other words, if it can be made lighter it will be!! (Note to self.... If Keith shows up with his green wagon... HI-JACK IT!)
Click to expand...

If you would like more barrels just ask Jeff.
 

Thanks Keith. I'm thinking of those horse watering type barrels for the re-circ system as it's easier to fit a catch bucket into them. Now if you can point me to a way to keep the tailings out of the system that would be sweet. I have an idea for a way to do it but need to scrounge up the parts to make it. What I'm thinking of is a kind of conveyor belt that would allow the water to pass through but carry the tailings past the bucket and dump them into a pile. I know some silt would still get through but keeping the gravel and sand out would be a big plus.

However I could use about a 1/2 dozen (or more) buckets. Mine are getting brittle after so much use and have just about reached their limit. Besides... I REALLY like those handles on those ones you get! I can still feel my fingers after hauling them. ;) We're currently up in the air about this weekend. I'll let you know as soon as we get it figured out.
 

Takin a weekend off...

Well all of the materials we've brought back from the gulch so far have been run and all I have left is a couple of pans worth of black sands to do the second go through on. Robi and I decided to take today off from driving and digging and spend a little time with her highness (aka the Munchkin).

Robis' friend came through with the detector for us to use so now I need to learn how to operate a MineLab X-Terra 705. It came with the 18.75 Khz DD coil in their so called "Gold" configuration. Not having work with metal detectors before, I 'm thinking it would be a good idea to spend some time at the local park getting to know and understand the machine before we take it out to the field. I've got little 6.7 grain nugget in a plastic container that I plan to use as a "Training Target". Considering that I've found larger nuggets out at the gulch I figure that if I can pick it up I should be able to find some gold out there as well.

My main goal for today is to learn how to Ground Balance the machine, set the threshold level, set the sensitivity level and get the vol & tones adjusted in prospecting mode to something I can work with.
 

goldenIrishman said:
Well all of the materials we've brought back from the gulch so far have been run and all I have left is a couple of pans worth of black sands to do the second go through on. Robi and I decided to take today off from driving and digging and spend a little time with her highness (aka the Munchkin).

Robis' friend came through with the detector for us to use so now I need to learn how to operate a MineLab X-Terra 705. It came with the 18.75 Khz DD coil in their so called "Gold" configuration. Not having work with metal detectors before, I 'm thinking it would be a good idea to spend some time at the local park getting to know and understand the machine before we take it out to the field. I've got little 6.7 grain nugget in a plastic container that I plan to use as a "Training Target". Considering that I've found larger nuggets out at the gulch I figure that if I can pick it up I should be able to find some gold out there as well.

My main goal for today is to learn how to Ground Balance the machine, set the threshold level, set the sensitivity level and get the vol & tones adjusted in prospecting mode to something I can work with.
Click to expand...

Things you will want to take with you in the field, small pick, plastic scoop, gaitors (rattlers), knee pads, and headphones if you got them, make picking up the really faint sounds easier. The scoop is to basicly to classify your diggings to pass the scoop over the coil. Remember to dig everything your coil sounds on until you get use to the MD. Out at the Gluch area be prepared for alot of brass and led shot.

Three of us are heading down south to our old spot I think but will decide once we're in the area. All that digging last week netted us a few nice pickers and about 1 gram total. I really need to get the trommel finished so the work load is easier.
 

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Well I have the Small pick, Scoop, knee pads and headphones all covered. I don't have any snake guards though. For now I'm planning on shooting the walls and floor of the wash by where we've been working and the area is pretty clear of brush, tall grass etc. Not many places for ol Mr. Buzztail to hide but I still keep an eye peeled for them. I guess if I'm going to be doing some serious nugget shooting I'd better invest in some guards soon as possible.

For scoops I've got both the solid bottom and the sieve type that came with the detector. Small pick is covered by the Estwing rock hammer. Knee pads I've got the hard armored type and the headphones are the ones that came with the detector. They're not the worlds best but they'll do for now I guess. I also have a couple of Army issue canteens that I'll carry. It's cooler than it has been but last weekend was still pretty hot and I refuse to let myself get dehydrated.

So far I think I've been pretty lucky in that I've only found two small pieces of lead in all the dirt we've moved so far and those were in the last batch we brought home to process. I haven't seen any brass yet but then again it would be hard to shoot at much of anything where we are digging. I'm sure that will change when we explore more areas out there.
 

Now we're cooking!

Well seeing as that I had run out of materials to run through the sluice I decided to go through the black sands from the gulch. I spent the better part of yesterday going through them one tablespoon at a time and getting every little piece of gold I could find out of them. I'd estimate that I managed to pull at least a couple of grains worth out of them.

BUT WAIT.... THERE'S MORE!!!!

After I had cleaned every bit of VISIBLE gold out of the sands I got out the camp stove, an old cast iron skillet and a coffee can filled with ice water. Yup!!! It's "Shake and Bake" time!!! I fired up the stove and superheated the sands a couple of tablespoons at a time. I then dumped them into the ice water. You want to talk about "Snap, Crackle and Pop" when they hit that water? It reminded me of those shows on Nature where they show the lava hitting the water in Hawaii! I did up about half of the sands I had saved up and started panning them yet again. Sure enough I was finding more gold in them! The size of some of the pieces surprised me though. They were large enough to pick up with the tweezers! I had expected some small "suck them up with a pipette" pieces but nothing THAT big! All in all I"d say I pulled out almost as much gold as I had gotten out right before I cooked them to "Well Done"

The cool thing about all this is that I can still see quite a bit of flour gold in the sands. Actually, even more than before the "Shake and Bake" treatment. I'll hang onto the sands until I've built up enough to run them through the amalgamation process with full safety gear and a proper retort to do the recovery. It will also be done well away from the house while the Munchkin is at school just to be sure.

So the moral to this story is... Hang onto those black sands boys and girls! Take your time and you can get even more gold out of them that you can see before cooking them up. Just remember to work safely! The life you save may be your own!

WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED THREAD.......
 

Yeah... We're ready! Going to go out tomorrow and give it a try in the area between where we've been working and where we found the nice nugget in that test hole. I'm going to work my way up the wash shooting the floor and then work my way back shooting the bank. I'll be going "low and slow" so I'm sure to overlap my swings.

Dan: It was good talking to you as well. It's always a pleasure to talk with someone from the old stomping grounds! With luck you'll be getting as call again tomorrow night so I can brag about the big nuggets we found! ;)
 

goldenIrishman said:
Well seeing as that I had run out of materials to run through the sluice I decided to go through the black sands from the gulch. I spent the better part of yesterday going through them one tablespoon at a time and getting every little piece of gold I could find out of them. I'd estimate that I managed to pull at least a couple of grains worth out of them. BUT WAIT.... THERE'S MORE!!!! After I had cleaned every bit of VISIBLE gold out of the sands I got out the camp stove, an old cast iron skillet and a coffee can filled with ice water. Yup!!! It's "Shake and Bake" time!!! I fired up the stove and superheated the sands a couple of tablespoons at a time. I then dumped them into the ice water. You want to talk about "Snap, Crackle and Pop" when they hit that water? It reminded me of those shows on Nature where they show the lava hitting the water in Hawaii! I did up about half of the sands I had saved up and started panning them yet again. Sure enough I was finding more gold in them! The size of some of the pieces surprised me though. They were large enough to pick up with the tweezers! I had expected some small "suck them up with a pipette" pieces but nothing THAT big! All in all I"d say I pulled out almost as much gold as I had gotten out right before I cooked them to "Well Done" The cool thing about all this is that I can still see quite a bit of flour gold in the sands. Actually, even more than before the "Shake and Bake" treatment. I'll hang onto the sands until I've built up enough to run them through the amalgamation process with full safety gear and a proper retort to do the recovery. It will also be done well away from the house while the Munchkin is at school just to be sure. So the moral to this story is... Hang onto those black sands boys and girls! Take your time and you can get even more gold out of them that you can see before cooking them up. Just remember to work safely! The life you save may be your own! WE NOW RETURN YOU TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED THREAD.......
Click to expand...

Words to the wise for sure!

To separate the fines without merc, use the shake and tap method ....just the thing ,
 

Shake and Bake.... Shake and tap.... We got more shaking going on here than California had all last year!
 

Well I made a small dent in the materials we brought back on Sunday. We went out to give the loaner ML X-Terra 705 a try and took the Munchkin with us. While I didn't find any ounce + nuggets, I did find plenty of trash iron which we removed. We were shooting the bed of the wash as well as the bank. I can tell I'm going to need some help in getting to know how to use this machine.

What I found surprising was that we were getting hits from trash iron in areas where we had dug well into the bank of the wash. What we thought was a really nice hit on a target turned out to be a 2 inch piece of heavy wire instead of gold. I'm wondering how long ago that was dropped in the area as it was in an area that we had already removed over a foot worth of materials from.

Anyway... Our plan was to shoot the side of the wash and take buckets of materials from locations where we got good hits. The first place we checked I found the trash right off and after stowing it in my pouch, I went over the area again and was still getting hits. When I sluiced and panned that material down I found still more trash iron and only about 1 to 1-1/2 grains worth of gold for 10 gallons of materials. I even did the shake and bake on the black sands! I was NOT impressed.

I went ahead and sluiced down the second batch which came from the first place we had been digging out there, but I'm still working on panning down the cons. They're showing more promise than the first batch already. I'll finish them up first thing in the morning and start on the remaining two batches which came from near where we found the 1 gram nugget last week. The ground there looked great and we were getting some super strong hits with the detector so I'm remaining hopeful.
 

I remain hopeful too then!

Thanks for sharing the story as always!
 

Well the second and third test sites have been finished up and each was an improvement over the first test site. So far I'd have to estimate that out of the 30 gallons worth of materials I've run so far, that I've pulled about 7-8 grains of gold out of it. I still have another 10 gallons for the last test site to pan down so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it's going to make up for the poor showing on the other sites.

I can tell that I'm going to need to do a LOT of practicing with the MineLab unit so I can understand all of it's functions and settings and how best to adjust them for a given area.. I hesitate to jump into it whole hog before I have someone to give me some instruction on/with it. I don't want to develop bad habits and have to un-learn everything. I'm going to give our club president a call and see if he knows someone in the club that would be willing to give me a hand learning the ins and outs of using this thing.

In the meantime, I think Robi and I are going to take a short break from digging in the gulch as we promised the munchkin that we'd take her to the fair next weekend. I haven't been to a country fair in ages so this should be a lot of fun.
 

Well I'm not too happy with SOME target shooters from days gone by! When I ran that last sample the gold content was about the same as the other sites we checked. However if the old lead fragments I pulled out of the sample had been gold, that test site would have been rockin! I pulled several frags out that were in the 10-12 grain size range. We were still getting hits on the area we checked with the X-Terra even after taking the sample so either it's more lead or some nice nuggets. Only one way to tell and that's to get back out there and keep on digging.

I've been getting some more practice in with the X-Terra so the next trip should be at least a little better on the results. This weekend is Robis' B-day and she wants to go detecting. We're going to head over to the local park and I'm going to let her run the machine all day (or until her arm falls off... Which ever comes first). She hasn't had much of a chance to use it and I think I've got enough practice with it now to be able to walk her through it. I'm going to keep her in coin/relic mode for now and will let her get swinging it, using the pinpoint function etc down before I have her start trying to shoot nuggets. Then the next weekend we'll be back out at the gulch going for more gold. I can't wait as I'm starting to go through withdrawals from lack of mining!
 

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