Made it to the EFSGR again

[G-bone]

Hello all...

Well Tuesday I had a mold try out in Monrovia CA early in the morning.
And since San Gabriel River is so close, I figured I would consider myself stupid if I didn't take advantage of it.
So I had my backpack loaded and ready with my 30" BGT sniper, pans, classifier, pick, and bucket.
I'm Ready!!!

Got out of my test shots by 10:30am.
Parked and pack on by 11:05.
I was not going to hike in at all. Just hit the river right where I parked.
I have to give a big thank you to the souls that did the initial digging to remove all the overburden.
Yes, I jumped into a previously dug hole (is that considered a No-No?)

Sluice set up by 11:35 and started digging.
I gave myself 1 hour. I wanted to be back on the road heading to work, no later than 1:00 (and that was pushing it)

I watched a video last week, where the gentleman loaded all material (rocks and all) in his bucket and took it to the water. He had a second bucket filled to the brim with water and placed his classifier on top and poured material in, letting the water wash off the big rocks while sifting and then discarding the rocks, this VS classifying at the hole and removing the big rocks while they have dirt and particles of gold potentially still clinging to them.

Yes buckets where heavy for sure, but I feel that it was much more thorough.
So I hammered it hard and pulled 6 FULL buckets from the hole and after classifying I had a solid 3 buckets to the rim of classified material.

Beautiful day too.


When done, I didn't even look, I just poured all the cons into my bucket and headed out.
Panned my cons last night and was happy for the 1 hour of work (funny, I don't feel like it IS work though)
Sure, it's not much. but just seeing a little color, made it all worth while.


Man I love this hobby.
PS - I had a lot of fines that I did not take a picture of so YES the little Sniper catches the small stuff too.

Cheers all

G

 

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[Hamfist]

Nice! There are no claims up there so I don't care if someone digs in a hole I've started. If I dig in a hole I didn't start, I try to work in a way that benefits whoever is going to hit it next.

 

[G-bone]

Thanks Hamfist.
Yeah I know there are no claims, it was more of a question of "principal".
And I did just as you mention as far as leaving it for the next person.
I look at the same way, if it is an open to public area, then its a community hole and I welcome anyone who wants to follow-up after me.

Now if it was a HOT spot, then I'm gonna try and come back ASAP to finish it up.
Or I'm calling the wife and telling her I won't be home for couple days

Cheers

G

 

[Hamfist]

Haha, amen brotha!

 

[Aufisher]

Why the classifying?

 

[HMiller]

That's what I was wondering too.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

The beauty of the BGT is that you don't have to classify. I was also wondering why you did.

 

[G-bone]

This was all older river gravel and more than 50% of it was fist sized or bigger.
And all gravel was covered in moist gold bearing material.
So it was really hard to brush off by hand and thoroughly clean each rock.... and way too big to throw in my little sniper.
So I washed all the rocks while classing .

If it was all no bigger than 1" or even 2" and just a few biggies, then I would go ahead and feed it in, no question.

 

[Aufisher]

I like the wash the rock as it tumbling down the slick plate. A few bowling ball size if I see any clay.

 

[Asmbandits]

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to classify to 1/2" or so if your carrying material a ways to your zooka, you will end up carrying more pay material and less oversize rocks. If shoveling directly into it then classifying would be a waist of time.

 

[HMiller]

Makes more sense now.

 

[wildminer]

I've been classifying to 1/2" sometimes with rocks that have clay or moss has been growing on them. Baseball to cantaloupe sized rocks basically, and feeding that into my little super-mini. Usually having to carry the bucket to the sluice. I don't feel like doing that every day though for sure!

 

[Capt Nemo]

Nice! There are no claims up there so I don't care if someone digs in a hole I've started. If I dig in a hole I didn't start, I try to work in a way that benefits whoever is going to hit it next.

That's the way I work public lands...no claims! Anyone who really wants to work deserves the gold they get! But, I do reserve the right to be secretive about exactly where I do find it.