advice needed

[just looking]

Greetings all.
I am new to the world of prospecting and have a few questions for getting started. Here are some particulars about my circumstances.
First and foremost I am not delusional. I look for gold as much to spend time in the woods as to find anything. It's just for fun.
I am currently looking on family land in the creeks near my area the border of NC/SC. Historically a well documented area for gold. Old mines are everywhere. Tailing piles right off the side of the road. Piles of quartz rocks everywhere in the woods. All of the creeks have tons of bedrock( or what I believe to be bedrock) there with lots of cracks and crevices. Almost to many places that look promising. My research shows this plot of land to be untouched for at least 50 years.
I have spent some time panning just to see if I could get any color at all but no luck. Could very possible be due to my inexperience panning. What concerned me more is the lack of black sand. I've looked for a mile in each direction with out finding any. After I pan down all I see is small quartz crystals everywhere I dig a hole. Even have scraped many of the cracks with no luck. Other guys near me at least find something when they spend a day out looking.
Anyway, my point is I know there should be some specks in at least one out of 50 pans or so I am thinking of buying a detector. Most likely Gold Bug 2 from what I have read. But before I drop the money I would like to know if that will be of any use to me? The gold I have seen around here is small, like a grain of sand. Will it pick that up so I can at least narrow down where to dig? Am I just crazy for even looking on the East coast? Any advice would be helpful.

 

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[enamel7]

Don't buy the detector yet. I've been in many a stream with little black sands and there was gold. Are those other guys in the same stream as you? If not, there just may be no gold there. Just because gold is in the area means there's gold in that creek. Don't know how far away you are from Statesville, NC, but we meet there once a month. If you're interested in someone coming down to test and show you the ropes send me a pm.

 

[huntsman53]

It is possible that you are not digging down deep enough to get to the settled Gold. If you are only digging down a few inches in each test spot, then change gears and dig down up to a foot or more. Gold and especially bigger Gold such as Pickers and Nuggets can sink pretty fast in the stream bed material and especially so, depending on what the makeup is of the stream bed material. Besides, in the area you are talking about, much of the Gold eroded out long, long ago and will definitely be deep in most of the streams. I usually find a decent spot one to two feet out from the bank of an inside curve of a stream and try to dig down to bedrock. In many cases, I do not get to the bedrock but find quite a bit of Gold on the travels trying to get to bedrock. If you hit somewhat white to orange/brown and even blue/grey clay layers, you should get Gold. Most of the layers of clay are alluvial and will sit above the bedrock and some lay above old ancient streams. If you ever get down into one the ancient stream beds, you will likely find big Gold. However, since the mountains to your West, Northwest and even some North are what is left of 5 to 6 mile high Volcanoes, a lot of the material eroded from them, now sits on top of where you live and prospect and even washed further downstream or down river, so dig deep.

 

[Buckshotnc]

What huntsman said and are you testing on the inside of bends and near gravel bars also try to find a place where there may be an obstacle to slow down the flow, maybe a downed log etc. and test there. Make sure you're getting deep enough. Don't know that a metal detector would pick up anything that small. I have a gold bug 2 and wouldn't try to use it in your stream, however if you have tailing piles that would be a good possibility.

 

[huntsman53]

What huntsman said and are you testing on the inside of bends and near gravel bars also try to find a place where there may be an obstacle to slow down the flow, maybe a downed log etc. and test there. Make sure you're getting deep enough. Don't know that a metal detector would pick up anything that small. I have a gold bug 2 and wouldn't try to use it in your stream, however if you have tailing piles that would be a good possibility.

I forgot to mention the tailing piles, so thanks! Like you stated, they would be a good place to metal detect but I would also scoop a lot of the rocks up, crush them and then pan the material.

 

[arizau]

Greetings all.
I am new to the world of prospecting and have a few questions for getting started. Here are some particulars about my circumstances.
First and foremost I am not delusional. I look for gold as much to spend time in the woods as to find anything. It's just for fun.
I am currently looking on family land in the creeks near my area the border of NC/SC. Historically a well documented area for gold. Old mines are everywhere. Tailing piles right off the side of the road. Piles of quartz rocks everywhere in the woods. All of the creeks have tons of bedrock( or what I believe to be bedrock) there with lots of cracks and crevices. Almost to many places that look promising. My research shows this plot of land to be untouched for at least 50 years.
I have spent some time panning just to see if I could get any color at all but no luck. Could very possible be due to my inexperience panning. What concerned me more is the lack of black sand. I've looked for a mile in each direction with out finding any. After I pan down all I see is small quartz crystals everywhere I dig a hole. Even have scraped many of the cracks with no luck. Other guys near me at least find something when they spend a day out looking.
Anyway, my point is I know there should be some specks in at least one out of 50 pans or so I am thinking of buying a detector. Most likely Gold Bug 2 from what I have read. But before I drop the money I would like to know if that will be of any use to me? The gold I have seen around here is small, like a grain of sand. Will it pick that up so I can at least narrow down where to dig? Am I just crazy for even looking on the East coast? Any advice would be helpful.

About the crevices, clean them out clear to the bottom maybe even with a small brush. If you can, pry or break them open to get to the very bottom.....that is where the gold will likely be if there is any at all.
Learning how to pan properly is essential. There are many youtube videos so watch, or continue to watch them and practice.
Finding no black sand is puzzling. It sounds to me like you are just panning dirt and silt. Virtually any gravel/sand bar in your creek should be loaded with it.


Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[beekbuster]

throw in a few bird shot or bb's. if you lose them, youll know to work on your skills....a situation that works well for me is where the bedrock lifts slightly uphill and becomes exposed with overburden upstream from the exposed slight incline of bedrock. clean out the cracks. seasonal streams are the best as you can get to the bottom and visualize the path the gold is taking.

 

[Rookster]

Welcome to Tnet.

 

[1637]

buy some fine and a couple little nuggets to practice with so you know what you are looking for.you can get alot of gold for
$25.00
good luck brad

 

[oneguy]

Highly recommend you meet with enamal17 and 'rub elbows" with those in the know! Find out if there are nuggets in your area (even the tiniest of nuggets todays HOT VLF tectors can find). If so and you have tailing piles....you should be able to find gold!!!!

All I hunt are tailings.....gold in hand pic are mid season results (57)as of July 31.....pic with dime is yesterdays nuggs and I got only one today. So 68 so far half way thru season and all from tailings. You are also not tethered to water, don't have to worry about stream flows, FS bullshit, no packing a bunch of crap like buckets & shovels, easier on the back....and the list goes on. Doubt I'll ever dig and sluice again....jmo

 

[RichieRich]

Greetings all.
I am new to the world of prospecting and have a few questions for getting started. Here are some particulars about my circumstances.
First and foremost I am not delusional. I look for gold as much to spend time in the woods as to find anything. It's just for fun.
I am currently looking on family land in the creeks near my area the border of NC/SC. Historically a well documented area for gold. Old mines are everywhere. Tailing piles right off the side of the road. Piles of quartz rocks everywhere in the woods. All of the creeks have tons of bedrock( or what I believe to be bedrock) there with lots of cracks and crevices. Almost to many places that look promising. My research shows this plot of land to be untouched for at least 50 years.
I have spent some time panning just to see if I could get any color at all but no luck. Could very possible be due to my inexperience panning. What concerned me more is the lack of black sand. I've looked for a mile in each direction with out finding any. After I pan down all I see is small quartz crystals everywhere I dig a hole. Even have scraped many of the cracks with no luck. Other guys near me at least find something when they spend a day out looking.
Anyway, my point is I know there should be some specks in at least one out of 50 pans or so I am thinking of buying a detector. Most likely Gold Bug 2 from what I have read. But before I drop the money I would like to know if that will be of any use to me? The gold I have seen around here is small, like a grain of sand. Will it pick that up so I can at least narrow down where to dig? Am I just crazy for even looking on the East coast? Any advice would be helpful.

Hold off on the detector. Meet some locals who can help guide you. I would buy some dirt that has gold in it and practice panning with that to see how you skills are.

 

[AllenJ]

I'm new to this also but agree with most are saying above, hold off on getting a detector. If it were me I'd research the area and try to find out what type gold they were getting, if it was mostly fine stuff the detector is not going to help you much. I would also check with local prospectors (look for a club or even a prospecting store) to see if they are using detectors and if so, what type. If your ground is very mineralized something that runs as hot as a GBII might not be the best choice.


When it comes to learning how to pan for gold I've found the lead shot trick really helps. I use two or three round pieces and two or three flattened pieces, it does not take long to learn how not to loose anything. There are some great videos on YouTube about the subject, my favorite is by Two Toe's.

 

[beekbuster]

Highly recommend you meet with enamal17 and 'rub elbows" with those in the know! Find out if there are nuggets in your area (even the tiniest of nuggets todays HOT VLF tectors can find). If so and you have tailing piles....you should be able to find gold!!!!

All I hunt are tailings.....gold in hand pic are mid season results (57)as of July 31.....pic with dime is yesterdays nuggs and I got only one today. So 68 so far half way thru season and all from tailings. You are also not tethered to water, don't have to worry about stream flows, FS bullshit, no packing a bunch of crap like buckets & shovels, easier on the back....and the list goes on. Doubt I'll ever dig and sluice again....jmo

View attachment 1618284

not to take away from the thread....but one guy is not experiencing the average beginners luck...obviously he is detecting areas that have had little to no detecting pressure. holy crap man, i envy you. the stomping grounds in and around redding are closed til further notice. it is a mess over here