Hi petr209,
And welcome to TNet! You are off to a good start with the pan and shovel though you might want to purchase a classifier/sifter to help sort out all the rocks
from the fines, 1/4" to 1/2" would be helpful. If you have a Bed Bath & Beyond store near by take a look at some of their MESH metal drawer organizers, they
are finer mesh than I've mentioned (1/16") which is fine but the one I like is about 5" x 5" which makes it easy to carry/shake and if all you are seeing is fine gold then
it will go right through into your sample bucket.
What brand & model sluice box did you purchase? These need to be set up correctly with just enough water flow going through it so the water just goes over
the riffles. But, even setup incorrectly they will still catch gold while loosing some very nice pickers! You don't want to loose nice pickers.
Metal detecting might be a pretty far reach at this time IF you have never done it before. Metal Detecting is like a whole other world from prospecting and
digging buckets of sample. MDing takes a lot of practice! MDing takes a lot of time to find the first piece of gold! Once a person Really Learns their machine
then it can become a very useful tool to add to other the prospecting gear. Learning takes hours and hours of practice setting up the machine, reading about
your specific machine and then more practice. They can be a really helpful tool but without learning the machine they will bring nothing but disappointment!
Once learned, they can add to the joy of finding gold. With the purchase of a metal detector one finds that accessories make a big difference: Headphones,
different coils give you a different machine (at times better), pinpointer, specialized digging tools and 'such'. Go to a metal detecting/prospecting shop and
look around.
There is a huge amount of information available to the learning prospector/metal detectors right here
at Tnet as well as at other sites. Become familiar with all of the specialty sections of Tnet. It will take time to go through it but it will pay off.
Any river will have rocks of various sizes that will need to be moved. Moving the rocks is work that is made easier with a pry bar, I recommend the
Eastwing Gad Pry Bar (geologists pry bar). It's about 18" in length with a right angle foot on it and it is amazing what can be moved with this unit!
Lift the rock a little, put a small rock in the opening to prop the rock up then reset the pry bar for a slightly higher lift, add a larger small rock into
the opening and repeat. Longer pry bars provide more leverage making moving rocks even easier but use the lift, stick in a small rock into the
opening method over and over even with a 5' long pry bar. ANY Pry Bar can cause Injury to the user if they are not careful. The back is one of the
typical items to injure. Shoulder Ligaments can be readily Torn due to the exertion of moving large boulders, trust me on this I know!!
See if there is a club in your area, either prospecting or metal detecting or both, ask more questions.
Learn how to Read a water flow channel to locate the Typical Places where heavier materials will generally be found.
Oh, the pile of rocks you sorted out with the Classifier, if there is a nice nugget to be found it will be in the pile of those water washed and sorted larger
rocks. This is where a metal detector can be very helpful, check the pile of rocks with the detector, if it beeps locate what makes it beep. Remember
even the 49ers threw out rocks with gold in them as if they could not see it then the rock was dumped into the tailings pile. A metal detector can
"see" the gold.
Be careful to not overwork yourself, be careful to have really good Sun light protection (nice wide brimmed hat - try Costco's summer sun hats).
Most of all have fun while you are out there otherwise it becomes nothing but more work and no play.
Good Luck..................63bkpkr
Oh, and of course Really go Through Lanny's lengthy post (
Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries ) for finding the Yellow Metal, it will be worth the effort!
It was for me!!
And of course, everybody needs some way to get "Out There" -
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