South Carolina gold panning, may 26, 2010

[Astrobouncer]

So I got access to a new property the other day and I couldnt wait to hit it up and see how it looks. This creek borders another section of creek I have access too where I have found at least some fine gold here and there (about one 80 to 60 mesh in every 3 pans or so) , only this section of the creek has better flow so I been wanting to check it out.

I got out for about 2 hours yesterday, long enough to walk the length of the creek and do some sample panning. Found a couple nice bedrock outcrops that seem promising, and some heavies in the pan. And there's definitely decent fine gold there as well.

The landowner was nice enough to cut me a trail to the creek with his tractor (and so he could take the kids there occasionally).



Here's some of those great bedrock outcrops. I did find some fine gold around them, need to get in there and find the bedrock cracks next.

















Here's my take for the day, I did find that fine gold in most pans, but the false bedrock which was some kind of clay saprolite had the majority of that.





I have a couple hours free today so you guys can guess where I am going to poke around some more.

I also have a short video I will upload later.

 

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[Astrobouncer]

Went back to that new property for a couple hours may 27th. I hiked in with just my small wooden drop riffle because I wanted the smallest and lightest sluice possible for backpacking into there, since its a bit of a hike in, even with the trail to the creek. I didn't want to bring the bazooka because the water is not very deep, and also because I thought my small wooden drop riffle sluice would setup good on some of those bedrock outcrops.

Here's a short video:








The rain was really coming down when I was running the sluice, so it was too dark to get any good pics since I have a video camera that doesnt have good light correction.



I moved spots a couple times and ran a little bit of material through the sluice testing a couple spots. This sluice works good for testing because it is a drop riffle but it also has rubber matting so you can see right away if you are in a good spot.



Sampling another spot, I would run a big pan of classified material through the sluice.



Had some nice cleanups, here's two of the better ones.





And perhaps the neatest thing of all to me, last time I was out that way I noticed a trail near the creek that looked like something left by 4 wheeler trucks, only it was very old and deeply rutted and too small for a truck but too big for a golf cart or 4 wheeler. I talked to the land owner and asked him about it and he said its an old wagon trail that runs next to the creek some. He also said there's some big mounds next to that wagon trail that he thinks might be graves.

Here's a pic of one section of it that isn't so overgrown.



And some sections of it above and near the creek that are pretty overgrown, but you can see the old wagon ruts still. Its hard to see from the pics, but in person you can see it much clearer.






I didnt stay long enough like I wanted to, 2 maybe 3 hours I dont really know but I had to head back to the house cause I had other stuff to do. It was a pretty fun time though! And I found some nice fine gold to cap the day off.

 

[blindpig]

Hay Astrobouncer ,. That is some beautiful country !! It must be nice to have such a place to go ,.even for a few hours ,...could take the edge off a bad day . And for that fine gold ,.. well,. it's there just to tease ya along
Like them S.C. pic's .. ....Blindpig

 

[russau]

Hey Astro, on the picture of your sluice i noticed the chevron water pattern. have you thought about placeing a rubber damper to flaten out the water? i heard that this chevron pattern acctually stires up the fines and thats not good for fine gold retention! youve taken your design to production and thats great but i just wonder if the damper would help a little more? just a thought!