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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[GrizzlyGremlin]

Best trip this year! Pic of the take is attached. So after searching the entire river i decided on a spot that looked a little too fast but was almost entirely bedrock. We broke a vein of decomposing bedrock with deep cracks sandwiched between 2 hard slabs of grey granitic smooth bedrock. The river was so high we couldn't get a sluice in the water so panning was the order. My brother and i would shovel and classify then pan the bucket down to just a cup or so. Very good results for just 5 buckets. If we could have goten the sluice going we could have tripled production. The largest piece is not flat. Its chunky and goes Plink when picked up and dropped. I was fairly surprised we didn't get a real picker at this spot. But the gold isnt going anywhere and the water level will drop. Im also looking to do a group outing the first week of september and really move dirt!

 

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[dvdtharaldson]

Grizz,

Good Haul! Looks like you found a sweet spot. Sometimes I think I should be prospecting in the faster areas of rivers. It makes sense that that's where the bigger colors would be. Did you see any pegmatites, greenstone, or quartz where you were panning?

I started going thru my half bucket of cons I brought back from Vermont, looks like there is some real fine flour gold, but it is hard to tell because it is so small. I have to use my 10x loupe just to see it. I am in the process of panning it down to black sands, after that I will peruse it for any colors. I am still at the top section of the cons and hope that the bottom section will be chunkier than the top. After driving 125 miles I hope that all pickers settled out.

How have you been doing with the brookies so far? I still haven't been out once yet. I am hoping to get out this weekend, and try all those flies I tied while waiting for spring to get here. Well its here.

Good Luck,

David

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Green stone was very prevalent where we were all the material rock on top of the bedrock was well washed round river gravels. There is very good gold in the river even with the water so high. When it goes down im sure i will sniff out some larger pieces. Im headed back tuesday next week. Hopefully its low enough for a sluice. I think this stream gets overlooked by most headed for the wild am.

 

[LostinBolton]

Grizz,

I went up to Twin River last weekend for the snow but got a little time in the very high river without much luck. I was outside of Keene for a several hours and found a nice place for Garnetts and a few pickers. I think my small recon sluice might have been missing the gold I was looking for. Have you ever tried up at otter brook? I moved several rocks and got deep with the wolf trap scoop. Gold n sands might be a good tool to pick up to get better in the crevices.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Ok new best day of my life. One less nugget to be found on planet earth cuz its mine!!
Had to post em again here sorry!

 

[LostinBolton]

Real nice Grizz.... I hope to make it back up that way in 2-3 weeks, my GF has me booked until then.

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I don't know Grizz, the largest one looks like a piece of rice you painted yellow.

Congrats,

David

 

[dvdtharaldson]

I was out this last weekend practicing using my recon sluice. I have been having an on-going problem with setting up the sluice, but wasn't experienced enough to realize that a problem even existed. I began to notice that the heavies that my sluice was capturing weren't as small as the heavies I was panning out.

After corresponding with a couple of people (thanks Grizz) I found out I was running my sluice to far down in the water column. I would typically have a couple inches of water running through it at all times. I noticed that if I cut down the water depth to an inch or less, depending on cons size, I was able to trap much smaller heavies.

So if there is anybody else out there who is having problems trapping small sized heavies, try raising up your sluice in the water column. You may have to increase water flow or the angle to help the sluice clear itself.

David

 

[LostinBolton]

Thanks DVD and Grizz. I will try this out next time. Last time out I only got garnets. It was fun but the other color would be nice...

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Not the best trip but not the worst. Pic shows an "almost picker". It does clink in the pan but is a little flat. Also found my first round piece of gold? Just to the left of the almost picker. It has merc on it too. Water was high and it poured all day. Tmw were heading off the beaten path a bit farther. Cmon fat nugget!!

 

[E.MassAuMan]

I was out this last weekend practicing using my recon sluice. I have been having an on-going problem with setting up the sluice, but wasn't experienced enough to realize that a problem even existed. I began to notice that the heavies that my sluice was capturing weren't as small as the heavies I was panning out.

After corresponding with a couple of people (thanks Grizz) I found out I was running my sluice to far down in the water column. I would typically have a couple inches of water running through it at all times. I noticed that if I cut down the water depth to an inch or less, depending on cons size, I was able to trap much smaller heavies.

So if there is anybody else out there who is having problems trapping small sized heavies, try raising up your sluice in the water column. You may have to increase water flow or the angle to help the sluice clear itself.

David

HI David
I recently got an Angus MacKirk Recon and Adventurer Sluices, took them out locally to practice over Memorial Day Weekend, as well, the Recon either clogged up or was pretty empty,
the Adventurer' Riffles turned red with Garnets ( no Gold at this spot unfortunately) and I had similar results at Keets Brook 2 days later. Was working a rock on an inside bend that had vertical fracturing and dug out alot of rotten quartz and got down to bedrock, so far some Very Small specks of gold after I had just put them thru a 1/8 inch classifier and worked them at home.
As for the Sluice', nothing that I could see on site. But I will keep your findings in mind when my friendand I go out west this upcoming weekend, hopefully the water has come down after all this rain.
If you really want to do proper inspection, I would recommend an inexpensive Microscope, I dry some panned material and then classify to 1/30 of an inch, I am thinking of getting a 1/50 or 1/100 with the
sizes I am seeing, but I have access to one at work, and when it is in a black container, the gold literally 'jumps out at you' under magnification. I just would like to find a spot that had larger gold, like you can see in the pan.

See you sometime in the Leyden area

 

[doc-d]

Thank for the great discussion..............hope to give it a try when my wife and I travel out East in a few weeks time.

 

[dvdtharaldson]

doc-d,

Welcome to the thread and thanks for responding. Please post any future successes and/or failures. Good luck in a couple of weeks.



E.MassAuMan,

Definitely try raising up your recon in the water column. It wont clog and you will retain the fine heavies. Don't be afraid to increase water speed. I was surprised how well my recon worked when I got the depth and speed right. It seemed to work best with a little bit of water(less than an inch) rushing through it at a relatively flat angle. When the water level goes down and I cant get the speed I am sure I will have to increase the angle. Good Luck.

David

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Recently I was watching some videos on cleaning fine gold out of black sands. After perusing them over and over I realized that my panning technique needed to be taken to the next level. If anybody (newbies like me) wants to learn some useful tactics I highly recommend watching the videos on the gold hog website starring "Doc". Of course you have to have gold in your black sands for the techniques to work! Maybe that's been my problem all along. Massachusetts, Ugh!

 

[E.MassAuMan]

David
Great Video, thanks.

If you want a lot of Black Sand, go to the Cold River along Rt 2 in Charlemont/Savoy. That is if it is not a raging torrent with all this rain that we have been getting recently.
Hopefully there will be some gold in there as well. Have you been out that way?

Will be heading out west next Friday, hopefully.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

This is not mine but i saw it found 15 feet from me... I almost had to change my drawers. Theres bigger out there! Come on low water! Stop raining!!!

 

[LostinBolton]

Wow Grizzly, is it raining still up there. I going up Friday.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

There have been bad storms up near bath. The river is going crazy and surging like 4". Sluicing impossible. I havnt gone up for a week and half because i need to save up cash for my colorado trip in 2 weeks but i know a guy who said its very strange conditions.

 

[steven332]

Hey guys i"m a little new to this. i"m heading up to NW mass today and going to give panning a shot. i"ve read through most of whats been posted here and have an idea where i might find some gold but am not too sure. if anyone here is heading up that way during the week and wants to meet up let me know i could use some help learning the ropes.

 

[dvdtharaldson]

Grizz,

That is one amazing nugget. I didn't even think that they got that large anywhere in New England. I think you are already in Colorado.