MA/VT/NH Panning

[dvdtharaldson]

Hi ,

This is the first time I have posted on this website. I live in Western MA and am planning a trip during the last few days of September to Vermont to try my luck panning. I was going to try Buffalo Brook and Five Corners in the Bridgewater area. Does anybody know how far down you ordinarily have to dig to hit black sands in those areas? Any comments on whether you have to dig deep or just stay on the surface? I was thinking Irene probably deposited alot of flood gold on the surface. Does anybody know if some of the small brooks high up in the mts. north of Bridgewater contain gold? All I ever hear is Buffalo Brook and Five Corners. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you probably could tell I am new to panning for gold.

Thanks,

David

 

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[E.MassAuMan]

A late January Day in Massachusetts with temps in the Hi 40's what's a man to do?
Go Prospecting! BrianC contacted me as he was going to be "in the neighborhood" so we met up at a Favorite Couch Brook area waterway today. Another prospector Bob who has worked the area showed up about a half an hour after our arrival and joined us
I got two small pickers which was a pleasant way to start 2016
Some pics
Brian working the stream



One of my pickers


The "Honey Hole" where both pieces came from

A good day to get out and meet up with friends

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Jealous, miss our good times last season!

 

[brianc053]

E.MassAuMan, it was great seeing you again up in Mass, and it was great randomly running into Bob - what a great community we are a part of!

Kevin, you were missed. I always enjoy learning from you. I hope to visit you in your home state in 2016.

Here's proof that I found something, though those two little specks aren't pickers. Once I saw that I had some gold I just spent the rest of the limited time moving material (Kevin's voice in my head: "you need to move more material!"). I'll go through the concentrates at home.


I also took a pretty cool time lapse with my iPhone (or at least I thought it was cool when I watched it back) - here's the YouTube:


Here's to hoping for a mild rest of the Winter!

- Brian

 

[vaquero44]

man you guys got a great start in mass up here in maine I went to look at some spots I usually do and totally thick iced over still it was a bummer for me but hoping the warmer temps will get rid of some of it

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I had a few hours to kill on Monday, so I decided to visit a "Couch Brook Waterway" and try out my sluice for the second time. I had six pieces the first cleanout. For the next cleanout I tried another spot forty feet up the stream and only got two pieces. I decided to go back to the original hole and dig a little deeper, I struck out on that cleanout. For the last cleanout I scraped the surface next to the first cleanout and found six more pieces. Most of the colors were rather small except for 3 or 4 that were plus 80, one of which was plus 60.

Good job EMassAuMan and crew, that spot has produced some nice colors for you guys.

Best Colors to All,
dvdt

 

[brianc053]

Since our trip on 1/31 up to Mass., I've used the blue bowl down in the basement to process the concentrates I brought home, but I haven't had a chance to pan them and get a picture of the results - until today.

With the temperature above 50, my panning tub finally de-iced enough for me to do my finish panning, and I'm pretty satisfied with the results.
Using "pieces" as the unit of measure I count about 25, which is OK - for gathering them in January! No big ones, but I'll find a few next time.

By the way, I also spent time outside today boiling maple sap for syrup; there isn't any better way to spend a Sunday: stoke the fire, pan some gold. Stoke the fire, pan more gold. Love it!

- Brian

 

[Dustedyou]

👍👍 sweet

 

[E.MassAuMan]

Can't wait to get back out to 'The Spot' and see what it and some of its nearby 'little brothers' are going to give up. I take it you caught those fines in your sluice?

Hope to see you up there soon, Think Spring!

 

[dvdtharaldson]

WMG and I decided to take some time off from our daily responsibilities and check out the Couch brook area again. We got an early start and were on the water by 8:30. It was evident that a lot of water had coursed down the brook. We saw another person prospecting the area, who claimed to know the area quite well. He stated that a lot of his pockets had been washed out. He only stayed for an hour or so and left. He told WMG that he came up empty.

We hit a couple of our favorite spots and did OK. The first spot was an inside bend with steep walls. That spot produced the best for us. Most of the colors were found in the first 18 inches of sediment. The second spot was where the brook widened out considerably and deposited a bench on the weak side. The pay streak there was very localized. What ever colors we found there were right on top.

Most colors were relatively small, probably around the 80-100 mesh size, with some much smaller than that. A couple were in the 50 mesh size. The zook caught quite a few that were very small, probably in the -180 size. We split things as evenly as possible. I ended up with 46 colors, half of which were very small.

The only down side to the whole trip was I lost WMG's favorite scoop. I dropped it in the fast water while trying to scrape some bedrock at the end of the day. It was gone before I knew I dropped it. Lesson learned, stop when your exhausted. Lesson number 2 learned, don't let anybody use your tools, especially your mining partner. I hope to be able to find one where the handle won't break off from the scoop to replace the one I lost.

Best Colors,
Dvdt

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I had a couple of hours to kill yesterday so I went north to the Couch brook area. It wasn't really the best day to be prospecting with temps in the 30's and later in the low 40's and with 30 mph sustained winds, but the fever kept me warm.

I tried the same hole that I had been digging in for the last 3 times. It had been producing a little color each time I dug there. The colors definitely seemed to be petering out during this trip though. Another pay streak that had vanished just as mysteriously as it appeared.

I decided to make my way upstream to a spot where WMG had enjoyed some success. I ended up with 43 pieces, most around the 50 mesh size. All in all, pretty good size for a Massachusetts waterway.

Best Colors,
DVDT

 

[WesternMassGold]

Finally made it back out to 1 of my favorite Massachusetts Brooks with David yesterday.
I decided to continue digging behind a rock we started exposing about 2 weeks ago . After my 3rd pan it finally happened.
After 2 years of digging and moving thousands of pounds of dirt i finally found my first picker.wohooo.

 

[brianc053]

WMG, I'm very happy for you! That's a cool picker too - it's got character!
Great work, Congrats!

- Brian

 

[dvdtharaldson]

WMG,
Happy I could be there in real time to celebrate your find. The last 5 times you yelled "picker" you were just putting me on. This time I really didn't believe it until I saw it in your pan. Seems real convenient that you recently found a picker in your Alaskan pay dirt and one just happened to end up in your pan. HHmmm?

 

[WesternMassGold]

WMG,
Happy I could be there in real time to celebrate your find. The last 5 times you yelled "picker" you were just putting me on. This time I really didn't believe it until I saw it in your pan. Seems real convenient that you recently found a picker in your Alaskan pay dirt and one just happened to end up in your pan. HHmmm?

Wow. really? I ,ve had pickers in my pay dirt for years so yeah i really found it that day. Hope you're joking.Really didn't see that coming.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Congrats WMG, looks great and I know how hard you've worked for it!

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Wow. really? I ,ve had pickers in my pay dirt for years so yeah i really found it that day. Hope you're joking.Really didn't see that coming.

Of course I am joking! Nobody is happier for you than me.

 

[WesternMassGold]

Beautiful day, 75 degrees, had a day off and decided to go back to the spot i found my picker last week.
Not enuff water for sluicing so i ended up panning all day for 8 hrs. Man my hands hurt .
But, my previous high at this brook was 77 pieces and i wanted to beat that . had my first 100 plus day of the season.found a few nice pieces too.103 to be exact.

 

[brianc053]

Good stuff WMG. Wish I could have been there!
- Brian

 

[KevinInColorado]

Pickers!
Nice work WMG!

 

[WesternMassGold]

Ok, so after screwing around in the bedrock on Monday , i realized i needed a sucking device. Needless to say i'm to cheap to spend $75 bucks on one thats sold online .
So i looked at some YouTube videos and and looked at some solutions on how to build your own.
After some thinking i came up with this.
Spent about $ 12 bucks on the parts and around 1 hr of labor.
The plunger i made out of an old Sponge camping matress wedged between to large washers.also made exchangable parts for the nozzle.



Tried it out and works great.Body length is 24 inches with a 1 foot nozzle.