The show just aired here in Sweden and here's my take on it -
By now, Ive mined all kinds of alluvial deposits in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, France, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, California, Idaho, Utah. I've been in deserts, in glacial deposits, non-glacial, matured rivers, short-lifespanned waterways etc. I've dug old river bends on land, just like those in the show.
1. I've never found coarse gold high in the ground where material has been moved and sorted. Yes, I've Heard of a picker or two being thrown shallow after an immense spring flood, but they are almost always Deep down. Very deep down. I have not seen nor heard of nuggets being found in large quantities on top of gravel bars next to big, slow flowing, mature rivers. Larger gold can to a lesser extent be found shallow in short-moved glacial deposits, but rarely in a river that has been sorting the material for 10 000-200 000 years.
2. All my efforts of finding good gold in old riverbeds have failed. Yes, there's a Little of it here and there, but not just sitting around in huge amounts as shown in the show.
3. I've never seen big amounts of flour gold mixed with big amounts of pickers/nuggets in the very same place. They just dont sit around together. Flour gold gets washed away much further than the larger pieces.
3. Narrative etc is off. While prospecting, one would take test pans as soon as possible everywhere and set up the camp where gold is found. This shown went for episodes without the participants prospecting much at all. Just when it looked like the old dude was gonna take a few test pan....he instead "marked the samples and took them back to camp" rather than panning them out in that same creek.
4. Theres no need to dig down through unknown amounts of sand in old river bends - you can always dig in where the new waterway already cut through the old channel, and testing it for gold at depth. Also, you would have water closer than in the middle of the forest.
5. As usual, just when the prospectors actually start prospecting after three weeks of complaining about danger, their are fatigued and winter came in. Too bad, just when they are all finding a pennyweight in every test pan. Would add up to Pounds of gold quickly just by running those small highbankers a while...
6. As someone mentioned, the snow we are seeing in the last episode is a spring meltdown, without a doubt - not fresh autumn snow. First of all, the sun is only that Bright in the spring in these northern grounds. Secondly, the waterways show broken ice after being thickly frozen. But most importantly, shadowed parts of the wood are still Deep in snow that is slowly melting, while parts of the ground that's exposed to the sun, is completely clear, dry and unfrozen. Only warm spring sun can cause this.
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Sorry, I hate to be the party pooper but I've been tricked to places Before that has been marketed for immense gold etc, while putting too high expectations on what can be achieved from recreational gold mining. I dont doubt for a while that there's still good gold in places far off the beaten path, but nuggets dont sit around everywhere like that.
I dont want to ruin the efforts of making prospecting shows or take the fun out of prospecting, I just Think its wise to be sober about this whole thing and fair to less experienced miners trying to understand this hobby, and not just walk away from a potentially good stream because the first test pan didnt have a few nuggets in it.
?? A buck shot with horns (if I remember right?) and big barren river bars in the springtime runoff.......hmmmmmm
