Hunt4gold - First prospecting adventures and beyond

[Hunt4gold]

Well Tnet, the adventure begins... Got geared up a few weeks ago and have been spending time with Google Earth and geologic maps of Greater Denver area. Over the past weeks I've been walking some of the creeks and gulches in this area and identifying sites where bedrock (or potential false bedrock and claybeds) are outcropping along the creeks/gulches. Am enjoying the research almost as much as the prospecting (ok - maybe not quite as much as finding the gold). This past weekend I got out and sampled two spots - one where there was not enough flow for my Bazooka Sniper and the other with a great sluicing spot. Spent about an hour at each site, first sample panning then (at spot #2) running the bazooka. Have about 1/2 cup of cons from the first spot where I just panned - yet to be processed, but in the first small test pan there I had 3 colors.

Second spot with Bazooka running I collected a little over a cup of cons. Ran about 1/2 a cup last night before my battery died on miller table. Here is a photo of running the 1/2 cup. More to come...

 

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[Hunt4gold]

About the miller table...
Super thanks to AzViper for sharing his miller table designs! I enjoy fabricating so I started building a miller table based on AzViper's design. My version is a little different in dimensions - 12" bed width and 26" length. So minor changes to my design -- I ran the intake line in from both sides, modified the bed leveling due to the bed width, and have a second valve along the water feed to release pressure from pump when I am running lower water levels. Not sure if I need the second release valve, but its there. I am really impressed with the people on this site and how willing they are to share designs and help out newbies like myself with prospecting advice and techniques.

 

[Aufisher]

Great job catching that fine gold! Nice set ups you got there!

 

[BagLady]

Wow, for a home built rig, that is nice! Good luck on your prospecting!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Very impressive! (The research, the field work, the gold, the table!)

See you soon I hope

 

[Hunt4gold]

Processed the cons from second sample spot - below is a photo of the gold in it. Not quite what I had hoped for, but OK for my third try at prospecting. The interesting thing about the second sampling spot where I set up the Bazooka - I sampled from two spots at that location, neither of which were along the classic paystreak line. Why did I not dig along the paystreak line? The spots were along a clay shelf right after cut bank side with little pockets of small gravel. Lesson learned --- always sample along the paystreak lines and on the downstream side of obstructions first. Looking forward to hitting this same spot this weekend and completing a proper sampling getting down to the clay bed along the paystreak... More to come.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Thanks Kevin -- having a blast with this new hobby. Let me know the next time you are coming down the mountain, we can hit some of the spots I have identified.

 

[63bkpkr]

H4G, very nice work on the miller table and some and a great post w/superb pictures. We all make some choices that take us away from the more likely spots to find the gold, it is just part of the work of prospecting. I once looked for days at a large boulder just across the river from my camp, one evening I had to almost drag myself over to it and found ~ 1/4 oz. of the yellow metal in flakes and fines. Search the obvious places first then check out the less likely places if we must. About 10' above that spot was a flood plane, I walked up to it brushed some of the surface material into my pan and when I panned it out I had a nice glob of float gold, go figure!
Best of success with your efforts..................63bkpkr

 

[Hunt4gold]

H4G, very nice work on the miller table and some and a great post w/superb pictures. We all make some choices that take us away from the more likely spots to find the gold, it is just part of the work of prospecting. I once looked for days at a large boulder just across the river from my camp, one evening I had to almost drag myself over to it and found ~ 1/4 oz. of the yellow metal in flakes and fines. Search the obvious places first then check out the less likely places if we must. About 10' above that spot was a flood plane, I walked up to it brushed some of the surface material into my pan and when I panned it out I had a nice glob of float gold, go figure!
Best of success with your efforts..................63bkpkr

63bk,
Got back out to sample another section of creek identified from my geological map overlays on Google Earth. This time I worked one of inside bends and started looking for the pay streak. I only had an hour and half, so I sampled two holes and found some color. Got my Bazooka set up and put about 3 gallons of material through it. Got about a 1/2 cup of concentrates and ran it through my miller table. Had about 35 colors from this - with some really small (-100) gold. Will likely work this spot for a few weekends - there are nice bends, some benches a foot or two above current water levels, and some bed rock to explore.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Got out for a couple hours day after our first snow of the season here in Littleton, CO. Luckily, the snow was just starting to melt so the creek levels were only up a few inches. However, over the next two hours the creek came up 3" more inches - which actually help with my Bazooka setup.

The temperature was actually nice, about 40 degrees and no wind. Did have a little fog coming off the water for a bit.


My first test pan to locate (hopefully) a pay streak show great color. There were about 12 colors with the larger being just smaller than -20 screen to a couple of -100 size gold.


Set up my Bazooka about 8' away from where I was digging on a point bar. At first the flow over/into the sluice was a little slower than I wanted, but within an hour the water raised about 2" and then flow for the sluice was great. It was just difficult to see the Bazooka with all the foam in the raising water.


Ran about two 5-gal buckets of material through the sluice and then emptied it out, running it through #8 and #20 classifier to get it down to fines to be processed at home. When I was packing up I did a final rinsing of the bucket into a pan - found three nice colors!
Will post results of this trip in a day or two...

 

[Jeff95531]

A common mistake...too much Jet Dry in the creek. (I'm kidding greenies, ok?)

 

[KevinInColorado]

Looks like a sweet spot! Eager to see the results and your next adventures. You are clearly getting this prospecting thing right

 

[Hunt4gold]

Here's the results of my couple of hours snow day prospecting. This is my best gold so far from an outing. Looking forward to spending more time at this spot to continue tracking the paystreak and hopefully hit a 'honey hole' along it.

 

[Hunt4gold]

A common mistake...too much Jet Dry in the creek. (I'm kidding greenies, ok?)

Jeff - it took a case of Jet Dry to make sure none of the gold floated out of my sluice that day. Good thing I buy it by the palette!

 

[wildminer]

Very nice 2 hour snow day! Where I come from you ARE in the honey hole!

 

[KevinInColorado]

This is what a honey hole looks like where Hunt4Gold is prospecting. Really.

This is two hours of digging a couple weeks ago just a few miles from his home. [emoji2]

 

[wildminer]

Wow! Maybe I should get serious about retiring in Colorado before I get too old!

 

[Jeff95531]

View attachment 1383607
This is what a honey hole looks like where Hunt4Gold is prospecting. Really.

This is two hours of digging a couple weeks ago just a few miles from his home. [emoji2]

 

[63bkpkr]

Any gold is great! From my experience, this was a good honey hole!

this was taken from the down stream/backside of a very large boulder and I had fun!
What helped was that I just kept trying till I found this. Of course what really helped was that after several days of looking at this boulder I got off my tush and investigated this boulder directly across the river from my camp. Sometimes it is just the simple things we do that help so much................63bkpkr

 

[Hunt4gold]

Another trip out over the holiday break to explore another spot on south Denver creek. Did not get any photos running the Bazooka, but this is the results of about 2 5-gals of material into it. Seem to be getting about the same amount/size of gold from this creek on couple different point bars.

Still looking for my first honey hole...