Colorado Prospecting. South Platte, Clear Creek and Denver.

[shofs]

Very nice. Hope mine is as good from today!!

From what I saw I would bet that you brought home more than .71g!

you guys are making it really hard not to load the ute and head off for a couple of days in the hills leaving the wife to deal with the rugrats... the only thing is the main road to my creek has a couple of small trees blocking it, one is 10' - 12' diameter and the second ( about 1/2 mile further up) is about 6' diameter.Crews will be there a couple of days as the armco barrier needs replacing also ��

A few days and I'll be looking for some gold pic's from you!

 

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[Goldfleks]

Get the spare bedrooms ready we're all coming over!

 

[Au dave]

you guys are making it really hard not to load the ute and head off for a couple of days in the hills leaving the wife to deal with the rugrats... the only thing is the main road to my creek has a couple of small trees blocking it, one is 10' - 12' diameter and the second ( about 1/2 mile further up) is about 6' diameter.Crews will be there a couple of days as the armco barrier needs replacing also 😕

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just thought you peeps would be interested ... this was the small one

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[HMiller]

I'm seeing short sleeved shirts in that pic up there. Can spring be around the corner? I sure hope so. Nice looking gold shofs!

 

[KevinInColorado]

just thought you peeps would be interested ... this was the small oneView attachment 1404309

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Yikes!!!

 

[Hunt4gold]

Looks like your in 1st place for the day David - liking the size of some of those flakes! Will have to plan our next venture out.

 

[shofs]

Today was 65 degrees out so I had to head down to the creek to enjoy the weather and get some gold. I decided to set up at the spot of a recent past dig I had with some fellow Tnet'ers and had the bazooka set up in just a minute or two. My strategy for the day was to carefully scrape the rich clay bottom which had been exposed from the previous dig. I wouldn't normally do this but the area had proven to be the richest I had ever dug so I figured would be worth the extra attention. Compared to the last time when all the activity was creating murky water I had a perfectly transparent workspace and was able to use my smaller shovel to really detail the bottom of the creek. I'm super happy with the results! I did two cleanouts of the bazooka at .29g and the other .48g! Woo hoo!

View of the creek downstream.


Here's the light brown/tan clay I was scraping. Notice the bank still has large cobble like what was laying directly on top of this clay, above that is small gravel with little to no gold.


.28g and .48g! Amazing this much was left!

 

[shofs]

I was also having some fun testing the waterproofness of my phone, here's a rare shot of the fluid bed in action on the bazooka.

 

[Hunt4gold]

Nice take David! Like the extra photos of stream bed and Bazooka.

 

[arizau]

I was also having some fun testing the waterproofness of my phone, here's a rare shot of the fluid bed in action on the bazooka.
View attachment 1409449

Neat picture. It would be interesting to see a short video with the material moving around/dancing in the trap. I imagine that the effect would look much like it does in a spring bubbling at the bottom of a pool.

 

[shofs]

Neat picture. It would be interesting to see a short video with the material moving around/dancing in the trap. I imagine that the effect would look much like it does in a spring bubbling at the bottom of a pool.

I took a short video by accident actually (pressed the wrong button). I need to redo it properly it ended up very out of focus and I wasn't holding my phone still. Either way I'll still try and upload it for everyone. Surprisingly there was less movement of the fluid bed than I thought there would be.

 

[shofs]

Ok I got the video posted! I slowed it to half speed. Sorry about the horzontal video and poor quality I promise to remake it some day soon.

 

[mytimetoshine]

That's pretty cool Shofs!

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[brianc053]

What a great idea! That video's cool.
I do wonder about something: should that material be moving around more?
I don't own a Bazooka; I had a super mini for a brief time, but passed it along to another prospector. I'm more of a drop-riffle guy, so I'm used to the "exchange" that goes on behind the riffles. When I have my water flow right there's a lot of "bouncing" in those low pressure areas.
I'm not questioning Bazookas; I've stood side by side with KevinInColorado in Massachusetts (say that out loud and it sounds weird) and watched him get more gold than my drop riffle. I'm more just curious about how the mechanics work because I'm not used to the Bazooka.

Again, cool video and the results speak for themselves!
- Brian

 

[shofs]

What a great idea! That video's cool.
I do wonder about something: should that material be moving around more?
I don't own a Bazooka; I had a super mini for a brief time, but passed it along to another prospector. I'm more of a drop-riffle guy, so I'm used to the "exchange" that goes on behind the riffles. When I have my water flow right there's a lot of "bouncing" in those low pressure areas.
I'm not questioning Bazookas; I've stood side by side with KevinInColorado in Massachusetts (say that out loud and it sounds weird) and watched him get more gold than my drop riffle. I'm more just curious about how the mechanics work because I'm not used to the Bazooka.

Again, cool video and the results speak for themselves!
- Brian

I agree I've been surprised at how little turbulence is shown in the fluid bed, it was something I noticed when I first got my bazooka and was playing around with it. From what I've gathered the fluid bed is functioning properly as long as there is water coming up through it letting the material gently stratify. It is noticeable when sticking a finger in, there is little resistance. I think what I was expecting is to see is the blond sand being almost blown upwards letting the heavies freely fall to the bottom. However if you imagine the material in a gold pan under casual motions the material does seem to remain somewhat in place with the heavies sifting their way down rather than falling to the bottom with no resistance.

That said I do wonder what the results of more pressure in the box would be. This Colorado gold is super flat and fine it might be washed out but its hard to say without testing it firsthand. Another something I want to test is adding vibration to the box, I feel like that would do some good.

 

[Hunt4gold]

I was actually quite impressed with the fluidization of material in the capture chamber. the video shows stratification of materials - light (blonde) grains lifting over numerous areas across the chamber, which signifies that the material is sorting. Next time we get out David, I will bring my GoPro setup and we will run several above and underwater videos - should be pretty cool.

 

[Au dave]

Ok I got the video posted! I slowed it to half speed. Sorry about the horzontal video and poor quality I promise to remake it some day soon.

Thanks shofs .. watching the video makes me more sure of the operation of my homemade unit.. I have a little more agititation in my trap but as it catches the fine gold I'm happy and also I got to see the "diverter" plate others are talking about behind the grizzlies. [emoji4] [emoji4]

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[shofs]

Thanks shofs .. watching the video makes me more sure of the operation of my homemade unit.. I have a little more agititation in my trap but as it catches the fine gold I'm happy and also I got to see the "diverter" plate others are talking about behind the grizzlies. [emoji4] [emoji4]

Happy to help!

I was actually quite impressed with the fluidization of material in the capture chamber. the video shows stratification of materials - light (blonde) grains lifting over numerous areas across the chamber, which signifies that the material is sorting. Next time we get out David, I will bring my GoPro setup and we will run several above and underwater videos - should be pretty cool.

Sounds good! I want to record video of material going in the fluid bed among other things, looking forward to it!

 

[shofs]

I wanted to check out the South Platte River in a new spot close to my house. I've dug upstream before but this area is only 5 minutes away and more in the city part of Littleton (South of Denver) rather than the nature reserve scenery I'm used to. Looking on maps I found a nice looking gravel bar on an aggressive curve that historical maps also have shown to have been there since at least the 30's. With that in mind I brought my wife along for a nice lunch time walk along the paths by the river. I didn't bring any gear I mainly just wanted to scope it out and enjoy the walk. It looked good so I went back with the sluice later in the day. Unfortunately there was only about an hour of sunlight left but I figured a small test dig wouldn't hurt!

I got the bazooka set up in some descent moving water and dug on the edge of the bar. The cobble was quite large and digging was slow but eventually on one of my scoops I happened to see a nice little picker crawl down the bazooka! I was crossing my fingers that it got caught in the trap and it absolutely did! By FAR the biggest piece I've ever pulled out of the Platte, I couldn't believe it. Compared to the small creeks I've been digging the quantity is very small but for this river it's not bad. I didn't get to dig very much before it got dark so I'll be back for sure for a real dig.

This sign is close to the spot. Always good to see when prospecting!


Gray but nice and rounded large cobble


Can you spot the bazooka? I didn't have time to build a dam so I had to set it in fast enough flow.


Certainly not my largest dig. I wonder what lies deeper or if the gold is just on the top.


If you are not from Colorado know this is pretty big for our rivers and HUGE for the one I was digging

 

[mytimetoshine]

Have you tried using a rake? Saw a post by Grizzly Gremlin last year and I tried it out. If your on a nice flat spot with smaller cobble. The rake does an amazing job of getting you to the skim layer.

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