Kevin in Colorado...and elsewhere

[GoldpannerDave]

Still not bad since most of us did not get out today. I managed to do some clean up and found a little more gold in some cons. But I can do cons most any time; getting out on the creek is just great.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Indeed. I've been plenty of places where I got 1/10 gram per day so I'm ok with 1/10 gram an hour!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Indeed. I've been plenty of placed where I got 1/10 gram per day so I'm ok with 1/10 gram an hour!

Isn't that the truth!!

 

[OwenT]

So what is your method of moving up that creek? Do you run material from downstream of the bazooka or do you move everything from upstream down into your old hole?

 

[KevinInColorado]

So what is your method of moving up that creek? Do you run material from downstream of the bazooka or do you move everything from upstream down into your old hole?

0. Wander the creeks near home sample panning areas I know I'm allowed to dig (this includes almost all the creeks on my end of town!) until I find encouraging gold
1. Build a dam to create a drop for the sluice
2. Dig the material just upstream of the dam, shoveling directly into the sluice
3. After about 8 feet of stream are dug down to the clay (from shore to shore!), move the dam another 8 feet upstream by just tossing the rocks
4. Finish the dam, set up the sluice and do it again. The tailings from the second dam fill in the hole from the first dam to the extent the stream hasn't already done it for me.

In the last few years I've found a couple real hot spots which I could then settle in and DIG, building multiple dams in sequence over the course of up to a year. This current spot that may now be played out (??) has been my personal secret & favorite for the last year. I have been lots of other spots over the year (read back thru this journal for details) but have kept coming back to that hot spot. I've pulled out about 1/3 ounce from this current hot spot while digging an hour or two at a time over the course of months :-D

If the first dam was sitting on paydirt, I do dig that after the dam is removed and haul it up to the new dam in buckets. This is a little bit guesswork as the creek tends to partially fill my holes quicker than I'd wish via streambed movement in storms. This means it's tough to know which material is virgin and which is just new material freshly migrated downstream without the benefits of hundreds (thousands?) of years of concentration. In a big storm these little suburban creeks go from 6 inches deep to 6 feet or more so the stream bed can get picked right up and moved in many areas. I've seen one storm build a 1-2 foot tall sand/gravel bar and also move boulders bigger than bowling balls! I bet most people living near these creeks have NO idea what these creeks are capable of doing!

 

[utah mason]

No not really. There's a point each winter where I have to break the ice on the creek but the creeks and rivers in town flow all year. Very lucky here!

PS I got out again today and sadly confirmed that I've cleaned out the entire hot spot I've been digging. Time to find another!!

PPS I did still get gold:0.21grams in two hours is OK of course but definitely not honey hole level gold View attachment 1235259 the dime was in my cons as well

Dang you are lucky! One more reason, besides the gold you post for the rest of us to be envious ; ) That would be nice. Tried to get up to a spot I've been sampling to finally set up bazooka. Sadly trail was to slick and angled away from mountainside for my 4x4 truck to get traction : (
I guess I should have put more aggressive tires on truck. But hopefully with a few nice days of sunshine I'll be able to get up there. Unfortunately with the snow I'm sure the f.s. closed the gate. But I guess i could use the extra exercise
Looking forward to your pics throughout winter!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks!
Snowshoes?
Ever sample down in the valley downstream of the big sand and gravel Ops at the mouth of the canyon? Seems like winter access might be found there or just into the lower canyon(?).

 

[KevinInColorado]

EMassAUMan, Brian from New Jersey and I went into the hills of NW MA today. Had a great time with them both. Water was cold but not a problem. I found some nice gold!

hiking in...how about that sunshine!
the intrepid crew: Kevin, Doug, Brian
Doug feeding his favorite Angus Mackirk
Brian running his 1" submersible bedrock cleaning dredge. The bedrock at this little brook was awesome! Thanks for putting us there Doug!
a shot of Brian's submersible...very cool tool!
a couple of nice big flakes that showed up in my pan after the first run of my Bazooka Supermini...the perfect tool for the job today. I felt bad for the other guys as I ran 2-3x as much dirt as they could and, yup, got the gold: big fat New England flakes...bigger than most of what I find in CO for sure!!

PS A big thanks again to Doug for driving and choosing a cool spot! also to Brian for driving 4 hours each way to meet us, that's hard core!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Let's here a little bit more about this 1inch submersible dredge.. I may or may not know someone who is in the market.. Lol

 

[KevinInColorado]

Let's here a little bit more about this 1inch submersible dredge.. I may or may not know someone who is in the market.. Lol

$300. Runs off of a 1100 gph 12 v bilge pump. That back, black cylinder has the capture mat in it and has to be held basically horizontal and under water. Only moves a modest amount of material with modest suction but does a good job of cleaning the bedrock after we shoveled what we could first.

Brian would know the brand but I don't

 

[mytimetoshine]

$300. Runs off of a 1100 gph 12 v bilge pump. That back, black cylinder has the capture mat in it and has to be held basically horizontal and under water. Only moves a modest amount of material with modest suction but does a good job of cleaning the bedrock after we shoveled what we could first.

Brian would know the brand but I don't

Looks like the gold snare. Man I would like to get my hands on one of those. From what I've seen it's not the answer but it's getting very very close. Can not wait till we have a small portable electric dredge that really works.

 

[brianc053]

EMassAUMan, thank you for setting up the trip today! It was great to meet you.
Kevin, great seeing you again in Mass; I look forward to someday prospecting with you in your home state!
The device is the Goldsnare SGS-1. I love it for its portability, it's great that it runs for a long time on a pretty small 12v battery, and the results can be good in the right conditions. Like Kevin said it doesn't move a lot of material but because it's compact it can get into some bedrock cracks that would be tough to clean otherwise. I've caught gold with it, though today was more of a demonstration. With the 33 degree air it wasn't much fun submerging my hands - even in the rubber gloves - for too long. We ran it for maybe 10 min and I don't think we caught anything with it.

On another subject, to date I've used a "traditional" sluice (Buckabilly brand) but wow was I impressed with Kevin's Bazooka. I might know what I'm adding to my Christmas list!
- Brian

Here's a pic of the beautiful setting for today's adventure.

 

[KevinInColorado]

It really was beautiful there! Here's my golden bounty from the day, also beautiful:
every one of those looked huge in the pan! Pickers! In MA! (Well, the one closest to the dime at least)

 

[nh.nugget]

Kevin you get to NH. let me know. I'll show you some NH. gold got a spot to take you.

 

[brianc053]

Here's my rather meager findings from yesterday; Kevin's the clear winner (again) if you consider it a contest - I don't, we were all winners.
Kevin picked one spot and dug deep; I admit I wasted time jumping around a little, which cost me gold - no question.
However, adding a little fuel to the "do Bazookas catch fine gold" argument I did notice that I caught a decent amount (7 pieces) of 50-mesh or so sized stuff along with my one flake; Kevin's Bazooka results were more flakes... Hmmm...
- Brian

 

[KevinInColorado]

Kevin you get to NH. let me know. I'll show you some NH. gold got a spot to take you.

Sounds awesome! I'll be up that way again to prospect and tour with my wife in a couple years and will definitely look you up! Drop me a PM with contact info :-)

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hey Brian, I agree this isn't a competitive sport, we can all win

I actually did catch several pieces of -50 gold too but I didn't see as much smaller stuff as the other time we were together and I WAS running the sluice a bit hot. The fluid bed in the Supermini is so small that I do think you can start losing the really small stuff if there's too fast a flow or more than just a little slope on the sluice.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Got out again today. Worked from 3am to noon, then dentist and physical therapist then DIG time! I cleaned out the center of the creek next to my honey hole. I knew the gold would be less than amazing but still decent. Hey, it's gold I'm allowed to dig, a few miles from home, what's not to like?!
this is all clean and purty.
and this is just before final cleaning but sorted by size the way Goldpanner Dave likes to see it

Weight 0.14 grams...as I said, fine but the honey hole is used up!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Got out again today. Worked from 3am to noon, then dentist and physical therapist then DIG time! I cleaned out the center of the creek next to my honey hole. I knew the gold would be less than amazing but still decent. Hey, it's gold I'm allowed to dig, a few miles from home, what's not to like?!
View attachment 1239259 this is all clean and purty.
View attachment 1239260 and this is just before final cleaning but sorted by size the way Goldpanner Dave likes to see it

Weight 0.14 grams...as I said, fine but the honey hole is used up!

Started work at 3am...ouch. Looks like much more then .14 nice shine Kevin

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Got out again today. Worked from 3am to noon, then dentist and physical therapist then DIG time! I cleaned out the center of the creek next to my honey hole. I knew the gold would be less than amazing but still decent. Hey, it's gold I'm allowed to dig, a few miles from home, what's not to like?!
View attachment 1239259 this is all clean and purty.
View attachment 1239260 and this is just before final cleaning but sorted by size the way Goldpanner Dave likes to see it

Weight 0.14 grams...as I said, fine but the honey hole is used up!

Used but nice. You are now well educated where to dig after the next catastrophic precipitation event. If the future you need only dig in the collection zones. This is like a global warming money pit!