alright, nobody laugh!

[gold doc]

Guys, maybe lots of you started like this but I doubt it. I was in Dahlonega, Ga. last weekend. Bought a pan of dirt, for the 100th time, throughout the years. Well, took home almost 1/4 troy ounce of flakes, (a first) BTW, cost was $10. Got the fever! Actually have been talking about starting to pan in the streams I fish for a couple years. Now here I am, ignoring football on Sat. afternoon and reading this forum. My question- Is there a site or a post that would outline the steps of panning in a small creek. I know most of the terms used on the forums and I know you dig and sift and pan, and, hopefully pick out the flakes, but that does it. Where do you collect your dirt from if you've exposed bedrock, under it, on top of it, only in the cracks in the rock? If you dig down to clay, do you just take dirt from on top of it? Should a beginner take his wife's colander or sifter? Sift the dirt dry or wet? Do you just sort thru the larger material or pan it?
If you can help this dumb beginner I would appreciate it!

[Hoser John]

No laughs here run don't walk to your local yokel gem/gold/detecting club as join up asap. Cheap,claims to use,great ol'farts like me ******ed-oops-retired with equipment to use for free,demos,lectures,outing and righteous out a doors folks to party down with . Some will even start the fire every morning,make ya great coffe and tend it till all fall asleep with golden visions dancing through their heads--THATS RUSSAU---John

[ohiochris]

Spend a day watching youtube videos on gold panning....everything from how to read a river to find where the gold is to how to pan for the gold to how to make your own prospecting equiptment. Reading through all of the informative stuff on this and many other prospecting forums helps a lot as well. You probably want to get or make yourself atleast 2 sizes of classifier , and skip the wifes collander ( directions on youtube on how to make them out of a bucket and hardware cloth ). Classify your material down as small as you can but keep the larger stuff to go through later. Join the GPAA or similar club if possible , you may need to anyway just to have access to some property to prospect on. I am somewhat new this as well but after doing it all summer , everything is falling into place and I can understand it better , and I am finding gold.

[manorman]

i would go back and buy more of those 10.00 bags.
Try to get to bedrock or al least hard packed clay and work those cracks and natural gold traps like large rocks boulders and tree roots.
Good luck.
Mike

[hurthawk]

There are 100 videos on this site which may help you
HurtHawkdotcom

[Axgar]

all very good questions .. so no laughing here.

if you have a spot you can see bed rock .. work the cracks to start .. if you have decent panning skills sift down with a dollar store spaghetti strainer and pan into a safety pan. take as much of the sifted material home for easier panning.

use water to sift .. it helps break down the clays and separate the material from the gold.

enjoy and good luck

[gold doc]

guys, I can't believe the outporring of advice, willingness to help, and kind replies I have had from all of you. Thank you so much. I have followed up on the suggestions received here and am heading up to Dahlonega area tomorrow morning. Will let you know what I come up with if anything.
Thanks again,
Gold doc

[2cmorau]

No laughs here run don't walk to your local yokel gem/gold/detecting club as join up asap. Cheap,claims to use,great ol'farts like me ******ed-oops-retired with equipment to use for free,demos,lectures,outing and righteous out a doors folks to party down with . Some will even start the fire every morning,make ya great coffe and tend it till all fall asleep with golden visions dancing through their heads--THATS RUSSAU---John

thanks for the howl, i agree there is nothing more great then sharing

[Seamuss]

WHAT? Where do we line up for a bag?