New Member from Northern California

[shooter1192]

Hey all,
New to the forum and new to the hobby.
Looking for a new hobby this summer. I figure I've grown up in the area where the gold rush happened, and my dad owns land with a couple nice creeks that drains a mountain (successful mines in the mountain), one of them even has "GOLD" in the name, The other has these really deep crevices in bedrock/hardpan. As far as I know, none of these creeks have been prospected at all in the past 100 years, and get some serious water going through them every year.

I'm completely new to this whole prospecting thing, and hope I can get the help I need (and hope I have enough luck) to find some of that yellow stuff.

Looking forward to some good times, Derek

 

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[vpnavy]

Welcome aboard Derek! Take a look at Sub-Forums: California for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.

 

[usher21]

Welcome, Derek. It's kinda nice when you have a creek or two that, at worst, you learn your way to pan. Best of luck. Mark from Modesto

 

[sleepyjim]

Welcome from Arizona!

HH

Jim

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard Derek and good luck!

 

[relicmeister]

Hey Derek! Go for it!

 

[River Rat]

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

Welcome, Derek!

Wayne

Metal Detector Sales and Rentals | Fisher, Garrett, Minelab, Lesche and DetectorPro

 

[hamiddetecting]

Welcome!!

 

[voodoo]

Good luck with prospecting! sounds like a great place! post some pics! Cheers and happy hunting

 

[shooter1192]

Good luck with prospecting! sounds like a great place! post some pics! Cheers and happy hunting

Well, only if you insist....

Got out for the first time Friday, gold pan didn't come in the mail (ordered a cheap $6 one on ebay) but I decided I was going to go anyways so I ran into town and grabbed a good one (Garrett Gravity trap) and headed out.

Everything I know about gold has been self taught at this point (internet reading and watching videos) There's a guy on YouTube called howtodrillawell, who has a series of gold videos that seem very good and provide a lot of useful information without much BS, I like that (his speech is a little annoying but very good info nonetheless).

So I went out, armed with my gold pan, scoop and snuffer. To a creek with a couple of really nice kinda deep fingers where I would think that gold would drop out of. Very first pan I was rewarded with a nice little flake. That made me pretty happy because to me that means that I'm panning at least somewhat correctly.

I stayed out there for about 3 hours and I didn't really seem to get much more which kinda was a little disheartening but I saved all my black sand just in case there's gold in there too fine for me to recover at this point. (I also was going slow and trying out different locations, probably only did like 10 pans.

This afternoon I want out to a culvert that drains a pond behind my house (this culvert has been in for probably only 10 years) which makes a little stream that cuts through the brambles and has sorta begun to cut through the hardpan in that area (when it rains, a pretty decent amount of water goes through there). First pan there, I got a little flake, then 2 pans later I came up with 4 flakes. After that I went in and panned out my black sand (which my flakes were in) and isolated my gold.


At this point I'm pretty happy. I know that my panning technique is working and I know I need to start focusing more on where to find the gold in the creek. I know most of what has been put on the internet, but advice is always welcome and I'm sure ill also begin to sort of work it out on my own a little more. I'm not going to spend money on anymore equipment just yet unless I begin to be able to locate gold much better than I can now (which I'm sure will happen soon enough).

I also have a family member who would likely let me do whatever I want who owns an old hydraulic mine that was shut down for environmental reasons but has still been eroding and washing out for the better part of 70-100 years, so there might be some potential there. As far as I know, nobody has touched that place since it closed down so any advice where to look for gold in that sort of environment would be appreciated as well.

So, that's where I'm at at this point, thank you for the warm welcomes and words of encouragement thus far,

Derek

 

[Rookster]

Welcome to the forum