First time ever prospecting SBR-EF

[Sideways Sherry]

First time ever prospecting SGR-EF

Well I loaded up the family and we went to the San Gabriel River-East Fork today on our first ever gold panning adventure! We met a great guy named Ken who hung with us all day and showed us how it's done! Here's a pic of out first finds ever!

 

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[Rschooler]

Good job!

 

[Sideways Sherry]

Went out for a second time today and dug 4 test buckets, ran them through a makeshift sluice box I threw together this morning and here's what I got total....

 

[H&F909ORO]

Finding more than me. Great job on that gold. I would love to see more pics on your first trip. Looks like you got a lot of it.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

Hi H&F, actually what I recovered on the first trip was just slightly more than the second trip. It looks like more in the jar because it needed panning down more. Actually it took me a couple of hours (or more lol) to pan out my one small pan of concentrates just to get that picture of my second trip. LOL!!! And I still don't have the hang of it... Not even close! I'm pretty positive I have a lot of fines as well in my left over cons from both trips! I really want to tackle the cons but I just don't know where to begin, if I should classify down more, how much to put in the pan when panning, etc. I sure wish there was a cheap quick option that I could MacGyver-up to take place of the final panning! Ugh! I thought of trying to re-sluice my cons just to check out if I had my makeshift sluice set up somewhat OK at the river. I was so paranoid about possibly losing gold from that thing that I put a small bucket under the water at the end of the sluice to catch anything that came out and brought it home too. It has everything left that didn't flow out with the turbulence from less than pea sized gravel right down to black sand. I haven tried to pan it yet though.

I don't know... Lots of thoughts running through my head....

 

[H&F909ORO]

Huh maybe you want to think about buying and setting up a sluice for cons. If you are getting that much cons buy a sluice and set it up as a recirculating sluice. I know many people will help you out on Tnet here. Go to the main gold prospecting forum and I am sure you will get some good responses. The recirculating sluice allows you to keep all the cons without really losing anything. Look them up on YouTube you can get some good ideas on what they are and where to start. If you are just starting with panning I suggest a very little amount at a time, do you have a snuffer bottle? Pan very little and you should be able to pull it off like that.

Hope this helped.

 

[Sideways Sherry]

H&F,
I didn't have a snuffer/snifter() bottle until it came in the mail yesterday! Whoot! Whoot! LOL!!! Actually the little kit I got on eBay included a small and large snifter, 2 suction tweezers, magnifying tweezers and a forceps tweezers. That's why it was taking me so long to pan it out from trying to keep it all in the same spot. LOL!!! So last night I MacGyver'ed up some sort of miller table out of a piece of sheet metal and a couple of pet water fountain pumps I had. LOL!!! I went through about a quart of cons that I classified with my kitchen strainer, used the snifter/snuffer () to get all the larger pieces that stuck but I was having trouble telling the difference between the flour gold and fine white sand because of the lighting in my kitchen. (Got any recommendations on lighting?) I was only doing about a teaspoon at a time, started about 11pm and finished putting it all away about 4 am. Ugh! You should have seen me all sprawled out in the middle of my kitchen floor with all my mess around me. LOL!!! My cat was staring at me like what the heck? I might try it again tonight after I buff the surface with some 400 grit. I even have some small ridged floor matting somewhere, it's smaller and more rounded than most V matting I've seen in pics on here, would that kind of work?

Well on an exciting note... I bought a Bazooka Super Mini today!!!!! My husband doesn't know it yet and the crap will hit the fan when he finds out but he will get over it when I start collecting more of the good stuff! Once I get it, I'm gonna take my tent and stay a week (or two) and head far up the East Fork and try to find some some larger gold with it. Hopefully it will pay for it, my trip, gas and have a little left over to boot.

Anyway, I don't want to chat your ears off (eyes out). LOL!!! Have a great evening.

 

[TheGoldProspector]

H&F, I didn't have a snuffer/snifter() bottle until it came in the mail yesterday! Whoot! Whoot! LOL!!! Actually the little kit I got on eBay included a small and large snifter, 2 suction tweezers, magnifying tweezers and a forceps tweezers. That's why it was taking me so long to pan it out from trying to keep it all in the same spot. LOL!!! So last night I MacGyver'ed up some sort of miller table out of a piece of sheet metal and a couple of pet water fountain pumps I had. LOL!!! I went through about a quart of cons that I classified with my kitchen strainer, used the snifter/snuffer () to get all the larger pieces that stuck but I was having trouble telling the difference between the flour gold and fine white sand because of the lighting in my kitchen. (Got any recommendations on lighting?) I was only doing about a teaspoon at a time, started about 11pm and finished putting it all away about 4 am. Ugh! You should have seen me all sprawled out in the middle of my kitchen floor with all my mess around me. LOL!!! My cat was staring at me like what the heck? I might try it again tonight after I buff the surface with some 400 grit. I even have some small ridged floor matting somewhere, it's smaller and more rounded than most V matting I've seen in pics on here, would that kind of work? Well on an exciting note... I bought a Bazooka Super Mini today!!!!! My husband doesn't know it yet and the crap will hit the fan when he finds out but he will get over it when I start collecting more of the good stuff! Once I get it, I'm gonna take my tent and stay a week (or two) and head far up the East Fork and try to find some some larger gold with it. Hopefully it will pay for it, my trip, gas and have a little left over to boot. Anyway, I don't want to chat your ears off (eyes out). LOL!!! Have a great evening.

You rock!

 

[Duckwalk]

Grats on the miller table. I never seem to have the time to do much anything anymore. Kids, work, house keeping... It's all too much for this prospector!

 

[Sideways Sherry]

Well I must admit that I've been a slacker around the house for the last couple of days.

 

[H&F909ORO]

H&F, I didn't have a snuffer/snifter() bottle until it came in the mail yesterday! Whoot! Whoot! LOL!!! Actually the little kit I got on eBay included a small and large snifter, 2 suction tweezers, magnifying tweezers and a forceps tweezers. That's why it was taking me so long to pan it out from trying to keep it all in the same spot. LOL!!! So last night I MacGyver'ed up some sort of miller table out of a piece of sheet metal and a couple of pet water fountain pumps I had. LOL!!! I went through about a quart of cons that I classified with my kitchen strainer, used the snifter/snuffer () to get all the larger pieces that stuck but I was having trouble telling the difference between the flour gold and fine white sand because of the lighting in my kitchen. (Got any recommendations on lighting?) I was only doing about a teaspoon at a time, started about 11pm and finished putting it all away about 4 am. Ugh! You should have seen me all sprawled out in the middle of my kitchen floor with all my mess around me. LOL!!! My cat was staring at me like what the heck? I might try it again tonight after I buff the surface with some 400 grit. I even have some small ridged floor matting somewhere, it's smaller and more rounded than most V matting I've seen in pics on here, would that kind of work? Well on an exciting note... I bought a Bazooka Super Mini today!!!!! My husband doesn't know it yet and the crap will hit the fan when he finds out but he will get over it when I start collecting more of the good stuff! Once I get it, I'm gonna take my tent and stay a week (or two) and head far up the East Fork and try to find some some larger gold with it. Hopefully it will pay for it, my trip, gas and have a little left over to boot. Anyway, I don't want to chat your ears off (eyes out). LOL!!! Have a great evening.

Impressive innovation. For lighting I would recommend the sun. Easier to see gold in the sun. And it's free! The bazooka won't let you down it is probably the best sluice. Ask a guy named KevininColorado he is the all knowing of the bazookas. He can answer any questions. Look up on YouTube how to run a sluice and set one up. Remember though that the bazooka mini is a lot smaller and is for smaller production. I wouldn't feed it so much or your sluice wouldn't fluidize in time for the gold to settle to the bottom and drop out. Bazookas catch really fine gold which is the best thing we all want to get along with me' nuggets. Have fun on the week trip. Just to say you may be exhausted after a long days work. Because when I dig it's no easy task and I get very tired. One day then rest and I will be back up and running. Hopefully you git all the gold!

 

[Sideways Sherry]

Yea I was pretty tired and sore after 6 hours last Saturday. But I had a hell of a time! Maybe I'll lose 20lbs next week!!! 😜