New Prospector in San Diego

[Sample Pan Dan]

Hello all from beautiful San Diego. I am fairly new to prospecting. I have panned and sluiced a few times years ago in the mother load country north of Yosemite. I also did a little digging and panning in GA as well in the watershed coming down from Dahlonega. I haven't had a pan in my hand in a few years though I do still have one, and some buckets and some garden tools. I have done a little research looking for something fairly close to the house and have found that there is some public land in the Laguna area of Cleveland nf. Any locals with any suggestions, recommendations? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also what is this "pan and hand" I read about? Can I truly not take a shovel and my bucket/ classifier out onto those creeks?
Thanks

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Get on Google and Bing, and type in San Diego Gold Prospecting Clubs. Best of luck to you!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks Terry,
Ya I've done my web research, planning on going to a SPMA meeting in the coming weeks. They have lots of great reviews and properties, and they're just a few miles from the house. :-)

 

[MrLee]

Drywall, welcome to the forums. Terry has the best advice. There are people at the clubs who can and will answer all your questions. Best of luck down there. Seems the gold gets better as you go north from SD, to LA, to SAC.

BTW, was a taper right out of HS. Good trade to know, especially when you have kids!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Lee,

Thanks, the drywall industry has been good to me for almost 20 years. And yes I get more involved, I already have a trip or two planned for next summer up north. I know I have more drywashing areas around me than creeks and rivers, but I wanna ease myself in with what I know and definately want to get into some desert prospecting. Heck might even find me a cache out there in. :-)
Good luck and good color to all

 

[kiana7]

Welcome Aboard from Riverside,club hunts would be great for you,wishing you many Treasures,,HH

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy drywallman,
Terry has certinally put you on the right track, going to the clubs, some outings to relearn how to use your equipment will be very good for you and the locals will help to guide you in what is available in your area. Then research and more of the same could be a real friend for you to find some areas of your own. Nothing like having you own area of interest especially if it combines scenery with the outdoors, maybe some good fishing and some adventures looking for the elusive yellow metal.

I'm in NorCal and started canyon crawling in 1964 and found the adventure of seeing what was around the next bend of the river or what was up any particular side canyon has NOT slacked one little bit even though it is almost 2013. I started cleaning out crevices along river banks and found little traces of gold. Then I chanced on a couple of old timers that were kind enough to show me a few things about reading rivers but still I continued to find only small amounts of color. In 2009 with the help of a White's GMT, a shovel, a pry bar, my batpan, an A52 sluicebox and a few other oddments of tools I spent several weeks working (and I do mean Working) a hillside and came up with about a 1/4 oz of some lovely gold nuggets. I replaced the hillside and it now looks pretty much like it did when I first got there, I tossed a Lot of rocks into that trench. Anyway, learn, practice, repeat, go out and try with the equipment you have and take the time to enjoy the country you are in while you are prospecting.

Good Success...........63bkpkr

A nearly worn out picture of that ~ 1/4 oz. of gold


A picture of the country I tend to go off into

 

[Lanny in AB]

Welcome to the passion! Have fun and let us know how it works out.

All the best,

Lanny

P.S. Pop over to my thread and you might pick up a few tips on how to find gold. A lot of great people have dropped in and shared some great information. It's a big thread--so cruise through it until you find something you're looking for.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[TerryC]

Drywallman. Welcome to the Net and to gold prospecting in particular. In just over one day you have gotten responses from some of the LEGENDS around here (when it comes to gold propecting). One of the more popular areas northeast of San Diego is the area between Mojave and Randsburg.... the El Paso Mts. Also, uphill from Asuza and Upland. Good luck and take care. TTC

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Thanks for the warm welcome from all. Terry I've been researching the Randsburg area. Lots to learn, and some great folks to learn it from.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Lanny reading some great stuff from that thread link you posted. Thanks again.... Really wanting to get me a good metal detector now and do some nugget shooting

 

[Lanny in AB]

Tons of work to do and fun to have if you do.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Ok I've got another thought/ question.. In talking about classifiers, I've got a friend in Ga who uses about a 5 gallon bucket riddled with 1/4 inch holes as his classifier. Toss in a couple shovels full, spin it shake it, maybe throw some water in it etc. well I have come up with what must be a 4 gallon bucket? Just barely sits atop a 5 gallon bucket and nice and loose. My question is thinking about 1/4 classifiers, they are all square.. 1/4" X 1/4".... I am concerned that if I drill 1/4 round holes, the will be slightly smaller than their square counterparts... He is working super fine Ga gold, I will be working Ca gold. I am thinking I may be better off to riddle that new bucket full of 3/8" holes. My thinking is a gold nugget picker that barely fit thru the 1/4 classifier as screen or plastic squares, might not fit thru a 1/4 round hole, and I might throw it away with the rocks. Any thoughts?

 

[Lanny in AB]

Sure--give it a try. Anything too big that you classify will determine if you want to keep using it or not. I've seen people use classifiers with round holes, and ones with square holes--they both have rocks get jammed in them from time to time. So, try it out and let us know how it works.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Will do. Hoping to get out for a few hours tomorrow

 

[63bkpkr]

Hi Again drywallman,
Classifying is WORK and it will take out your back quicker than one would ever think so do not overload your classifier. But, classifying does work as an initial sorting device but then what do you do with all the big stuff left behind? If you expect ONLY fine gold then one could give the larger stuff a casual look and then toss it. But that is what the old timers did and they threw away a lot of gold. This is one of the specialized uses for a metal detector and that is to detect piles of raw samples before putting in too much extra work sorting them out as well as to check out large material that is to be dumped as waste.

A few years back I purchased a standard 5 gallon bucket and a standard mesh wastebasket. The wastebasket was a little taller than the 5 gallon bucket but it fit right down inside the bucket so all I had to do was to add some holes to the solid thin sheetmetal bottom and tack in some wire mesh. The wire mesh of the MWB allowed minus 1/8" material to pass through it while retaining everything else. The method was to fill the bucket with water, put less than one gallon of raw sample into the basket, insert basket into water in bucket, pump basket up and down, spin basket around and the wash job was pretty well done. Remove basket and place large material where it could be looked at later. Classifying also takes time oh and wear heavy gloves while working with the basket!

Pictures here of the modified wastebasket and MWB with large material dumped onto gravel bar w/GMT detector ready to do its testing of the pile. Best of success with your experiments.....63bkpkr

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

63

Thanks, that is basically what my buddy in ga has used and what I've got in mind, other than the mess sides. Something I had not considered is MDing the "scrap" piles. Ya I know it's a lot I work, but very rewarding. What's anybody's take on sluices? Meaning regular ripple or new rubber riffles/ vs the gold trap type? I know all modern sluices work wonders, it comes down to how easy to set up/ clean etc, but my consideration with the "trap" type is no classifying. Just throwing shovels of dirt at your sluice. What's y'all's take? Also I know with a "regular" sluice box I can easily make it a highbanker or recirculator. Can the same be done with the trap type? Anyone tried? Have yet to see one on YT. Thanks again.

 

[63bkpkr]

Me Again,
I started with a pan and then the bucket classifier then added the GMT. As the panning was taking a long time I purchased a Keene sluice and that helped improve my yields but cleanups take some time though when the sluice is setup properly cleanups do not need to be done often. I like the Bazooka Gold Trap idea as no classifying is required, cleanups are very simple and the videos show why the BGT's work well namely the trap stays liquefied all the time. I Do Not own a BGT but I am seriously looking at them. I've spoken with Todd at BGT and he is thinking about bringing out a new model, the A-1, which will be a little smaller than the prospector. The A-1 will be a bit narrower, about 30" in length and will be very nice as a back-packable unit that will still handle lots of raw material. The super mini is also a nice size though I would think it would be more for sampling or working small creeks. Again I do not own one of these but I am giving them serious consideration.

My Keene has the ribbed rubber mat just before the riffles start and the mat sure catches fine gold. The riffles are required to hold larger gold. In 2010 I was working a small pay streak of flat nuggets about 1/8" in diameter and noticed one sitting at the mouth of the flare, it was just rocking in the water flow. Before I could decide what to do about getting it a slight shift in the water flow caused it to Zip right over the ribbing and it may not have stopped in the riffles. It was dissapointing to think I may have lossed that nugget. Another reason I like the BGT, anything heavy hitting the grizzly bars should go into the trap and stay there. The keene is aluminum and will not break if dropped or if a heavy rock is dropped on it. Plastic sluices, in my opinion, will not take as much abuse but I'm still thinking about purchasing one. Once you've found some gold you will want to find more, that's just how it works. I've actually added a highbanker attachment to my Keene and was supposed to use it this year but then a full time job came along with a steady paycheck and the highbanker has never seen water. In my mind a highbanker allows one to work dry spots away from a creek or river but close enough to a water source to be able to pump water to the highbanker. Now one carries in the sluice, the highbanker attachment, the gasoline engine, the hoses, the gasoline, the rest of the prospecting supplies and that is a heck of a lot of stuff versus plunking a BGT into the water and bringing the raw materials to it as after all, that long section of the BGT before the grizzly is basically a highbanker its just that the creek or river supplies the washing action.......63bkpkr

Here is a picture of "all" the gold I found in that 2010 adventure, a bit less than a quarter ounce. I moved a huge amount of boulders, rocks, gravel, dirt and general stuff to get this and I did it for the adventure. The first year I used the mesh wastebasket as a classifier I had this nice pile of washed rocks sitting on the gravel bar I looked at it and thought if I found any larger gold it is in that pile. I decided to do a quick pan of the pile which took awhile but it was worth it as I found a nice little nugget in it. That is why I use the detector on the scrap piles, anything large is in there and the detector makes quick work of finding it!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

For now just gonna try sampling some areas, and if I find something productive it'll be time to consider what type of sluice to buy. What I am thinking now is that I may be better off with a small dry washer based on my area limited running water.