New to Redding/Shasta. No gold here?

[Wilderness medic]

Poking around online it seems like there are/were a lot of mines and gold around Shasta and Redding. I went out prospecting at several different areas of Spring Creek and barely found a trace.

Isn’t spring creek supposed to have a good amount of gold? There’s tons of bedrock. I did a few test pans and found just a couple barely visible pieces of gold all day. I saw signs for “federal mining claim” around the shooting range on iron mountain road and stayed away from that. Is all the gold held hostage in there lol?

Any tips on where to go or why I can’t find any? I thought Colfax was a hard place to get any decent amount of gold but now I miss it...

 

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[vpnavy]

I noticed this was your very first post - so, Welcome Aboard Wilderness Medic! You didn't list your state (or country) in your profile. So, you might consider jumping over to Sub-Forum: Select Your Area.... for information (i.e., clubs, hunts, finds, legends, maps, etc.) directly related to your state (or country).

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi There Wilderness Medic and welcome! Since you are up Redding way, being NorCal, I suspect that you should be able to locate a few prospecting clubs in the area and then you should also receive a reply from Hoser John, an infamous character here on Tnet (just teasing John) and very knowledgeable about the prospecting in the state of California and he happens to live in the Redding area................63bkpkr

moving "gravel"

some gold & Lead (both sound the same to a detector)

River Country a bit south of your location

 

[Wilderness medic]

Hi There Wilderness Medic and welcome! Since you are up Redding way, being NorCal, I suspect that you should be able to locate a few prospecting clubs in the area and then you should also receive a reply from Hoser John, an infamous character here on Tnet (just teasing John) and very knowledgeable about the prospecting in the state of California and he happens to live in the Redding area................63bkpkr

View attachment 1656774 moving "gravel"

View attachment 1656775 some gold & Lead (both sound the same to a detector)

View attachment 1656776 River Country a bit south of your location

Awesome, I’ll check into some clubs. Thanks for the reply!



For less specific help... I need help! Lol.

I have watched countless hours on YouTube about prospecting and I feel like I know way more than enough to be successful, yet I never am.

Am I too late for this hobby? I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever found an uncracked crevice in miles of searching bedrock. Everywhere I go there are signs of heavy mining activity, or no gold. I bought a gold hog sluice to just run a bunch of material, but even with that I think total in a dozen outings I’ve got half a gram. And that’s with sniping.

Now I don’t want to seem picky like I’m trying to strike it rich. I’m not. But this hardly seems worth the back breaking work I’ve put into this.

Most of my prospecting has been done on the American river around colfax or up a few streams I THOUGHT were remote and secret(until I saw all the cracks were already busted).

At this point I don’t even know what am asking. Why do I suck so bad? Haha...

 

[Goldwasher]

Awesome, I’ll check into some clubs. Thanks for the reply!



For less specific help... I need help! Lol.

I have watched countless hours on YouTube about prospecting and I feel like I know way more than enough to be successful, yet I never am.

Am I too late for this hobby? I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever found an uncracked crevice in miles of searching bedrock. Everywhere I go there are signs of heavy mining activity, or no gold. I bought a gold hog sluice to just run a bunch of material, but even with that I think total in a dozen outings I’ve got half a gram. And that’s with sniping.

Now I don’t want to seem picky like I’m trying to strike it rich. I’m not. But this hardly seems worth the back breaking work I’ve put into this.

Most of my prospecting has been done on the American river around colfax or up a few streams I THOUGHT were remote and secret(until I saw all the cracks were already busted).

At this point I don’t even know what am asking. Why do I suck so bad? Haha... View attachment 1656782

There is ample gold to be found. As suggested in the other thread. you need to first learn to research for "open" areas.

Placer claims do not have to have marked corners. You can't decide what's open in the field by seeing signs.

People take down signs.. sometime like mine they get used for target practice.

Learn how the LR2000 data base works learn how to use mylandmatters. Learn how to research at the county.

Believe it or not more gold is still in the ground than was ever taken out.

Look for places that it has already been mined. There will still be some left.

 

[OwenT]

Awesome, I’ll check into some clubs. Thanks for the reply!



For less specific help... I need help! Lol.

I have watched countless hours on YouTube about prospecting and I feel like I know way more than enough to be successful, yet I never am.

Am I too late for this hobby? I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever found an uncracked crevice in miles of searching bedrock. Everywhere I go there are signs of heavy mining activity, or no gold. I bought a gold hog sluice to just run a bunch of material, but even with that I think total in a dozen outings I’ve got half a gram. And that’s with sniping.

Now I don’t want to seem picky like I’m trying to strike it rich. I’m not. But this hardly seems worth the back breaking work I’ve put into this.

Most of my prospecting has been done on the American river around colfax or up a few streams I THOUGHT were remote and secret(until I saw all the cracks were already busted).

At this point I don’t even know what am asking. Why do I suck so bad? Haha... View attachment 1656782

Wow, that does not suck. Maybe by CA standards you're not doing that well but those are nice big pieces of gold. Bigger than I've ever found. I've prospected a little over 3 and a little seasons and if I remeber right I've barely broken 2 grams.

Keep at it. Read all you can, go all you can, explore, ask questions, read the forum, keep watching videos. I don't expect tobe findng gold that's "worth it" for a long time, or ever maybe, but you've gotta keep the dream alive.

If you're in gold country you're already in gold country you've got so much opportunity I wish I had.

 

[bug]

You are in one of the best areas in CA for nuggetshooting with a detector. Get a good detector and hit those old small hydraulics and dry diggings. Thousands up there hidden in the manzanita and oak hills. Read Ray Mills icmj articles for good tips in that area

 

[OwenT]

You are in one of the best areas in CA for nuggetshooting with a detector. Get a good detector and hit those old small hydraulics and dry diggings. Thousands up there hidden in the manzanita and oak hills. Read Ray Mills icmj articles for good tips in that area

Yea Ray Mills also has a big book on metal detecting around there. TRINITYAU.com

 

[Wilderness medic]

Thanks. I’m going to get his book. Nugget hunting sounded waaaay more productive so I ordered a minelab yesterday. Can’t wait for it to get here.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Don't just think crevicing. Check the Gravels, check the sand and moss. Check the brown dirt, check the tree roots. check low check way up high where u think its not possible for gold, check the ugly stuff as well as the good.Some of my best finds are from material everyone walks past. Don't dismiss small gold. The overall deposits can be many many ounces. Its just a matter of processing it. Goldwasher mentioned more gold is supposed to be left then was ever taken out. 90% of all the gold on earth is flour gold and smaller. The old timers got most of the easy stuff. Walking around a creek and spotting a nugget is going to be tuff. Think out side the box, when you do get some color, no matter how small, fully explore the possibilities. It all melts down the same! Unless you are find large nuggets or specimens there really isn't that big a premium over fines. I've never found anything with a metal detector. If you think finding gold with a pan is difficult, just wait.. There is a huge learning curve and takes hrs and hrs to learn. Some people that figure it out do very well but they are far and few between. I've been going hard weekend warrior for 4 years and I don't even have a respectable picker yet, let alone a nugget. But I do have 2 ounces of gold. I don't have claim, just public land, there is actually much more out there then u think. But you do need to make sure you are not on someone's else's so check Landmatters as suggested. Good luck, don't get discouraged. You will find it!

 

[Wilderness medic]

THanks for the reply! I guess I’m just new, and didn’t realize how good the spot I started at was before moving. I could literally take a test pan anywhere on the river and get color. I was getting disappointed at only finding those two pickers in a day of sluicing...but now that sounds great to me haha!


I haven’t really found any color here. But when I do I’ll be sure to check everywhere around it very wel.


Disappointing to hear it’s not easy. I didn’t expect to go find a nugget the first day but I didn’t think it would be that hard to just cover ground holding it there until I got a bing

 

[mytimetoshine]

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.