MA/VT/NH Panning

D

dvdtharaldson

Full Member
Sep 19, 2012
246
178
Massachusetts
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi ,

This is the first time I have posted on this website. I live in Western MA and am planning a trip during the last few days of September to Vermont to try my luck panning. I was going to try Buffalo Brook and Five Corners in the Bridgewater area. Does anybody know how far down you ordinarily have to dig to hit black sands in those areas? Any comments on whether you have to dig deep or just stay on the surface? I was thinking Irene probably deposited alot of flood gold on the surface. Does anybody know if some of the small brooks high up in the mts. north of Bridgewater contain gold? All I ever hear is Buffalo Brook and Five Corners. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As you probably could tell I am new to panning for gold.

Thanks,

David
 

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GrizzlyGremlin said:
Hey pack rat, if you get your friend to agree to
let is bring a 4" id love to give you nozzle time and a cleanout in return, and you would most definitely come away with more gold than most wild am panners find in a season.
Click to expand...

For now I think that I will pass on the 4". I want to learn how to pan first. Not too much season left so I hope to get a few pieces of gold to keep me fired up this winter. We will see what next year brings.

VPR
 

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A friend of mine who has a place up by Rangeley Lake invited me up there for the weekend. We had to replace his water heater in his cabin, spent all day Saturday running down to Augusta and back and trying to find a new one that would fit in the old space, no such luck.
Anyhow, didn't get to do any panning but did grab 2 buckets of gravel from Berdeen Stream. He had already gotten a half 5 gallon bucket from a stream near his place. I didn't have much hopes for his bucket as he only had a army foxhole shovel and simply scooped some gravel into it (turns out he took a couple scoops from the bank - I told him that is bad)
Ran my 2 buckets through the sluice, one ultra fine flake.

When he came down here we ran his (actually mine as he gave it to me) bucket through the sluice. It has the Keene Miracle Matt and I can catch down to 100 mesh in it. Any how I didn't have much hopes. When we finished I looked at the sluice and didn't see anything. I then panned it out and low and behold there was maybe .2 of a gram (maybe less I haven't weighed it yet)
I put it in a half ounce bottle and held it over my Canon 70D with a macro lens to get the shot.

IMG_2921resize_zps20933b6e.jpg



Here is my backyard setup

 

That's quite a few pieces of gold for only 1/2 a bucket. It seems your friend might have found a good spot!
 

I wonder if it was the 2 spade fulls from the bank? We will be going back to that spot next year and see what we get, this time I will go and bring the sluice - dredging is banned there.
 

Whats considered the bank anyways? I've always thought it was the high water mark where the washed rocks and gravels meet the forest soil and create a vertical plane at that point. It seems like a grey area to me. I've always taken the don't dig into the bank rule as don't dig the top soils and don't do something that will cause that soil/washed gravel line to change, like digging under it and then it collapses. A lot of these rules seem vague to me, and I've never seen anyone policing them, but I really only pan in NH. I thought I read that you can't use a shovel in the river in NH, but I havn't seen a prospector yet without one, their interpretation must be different than mine. Any insight into these rules would be appreciated.
 

Can't use a shovel in the national forest. But you can the rest of the state. My take if the river has flowed. Thought where your digging even at flood stage. And has washed away the gravels its now considered. Active stream. But to me what you have been doing sounds good to me. Just don"t dig into tree roots or remove moss and plants.Thats holding the bank together.
 

triple d

are you sure that shovels and illegal in the NF? They allow sluices - how do you load them? I thought that up to #2 shovels were ok
 

Unless the law has changed. No shovels allowed in the national forest. Only hand tools or scrape up gravels with a gold pan. But i see many using shovels. I tried to find the rules for the N.F. Changed there web site could not find them.
 

I didn't know shovels had sizes. I've been taking this kit into the WMNF for a few years now hoping the mini-shovel would be considered a small hand tool. I was just going to use it until a ranger approached me and talk to them about the rules, but I hardly see any people and never see a forest ranger checking out prospectors.
It seems odd that I can take a shovel into the forest and dig a cubic yard in one spot to look for crystals but I can't take one into a stream. Thanks for your input Ben and Triple d, I'm not sure I'll ever understand the rules, but I'll keep prospecting and I'll continue to fill my holes.DSCF0117.JPG
 

Yes, when does a hand tool become a shovel and vice versa? Cobbler I would think that shovel, I mean hand tool, wouldn't raise to many eyebrows. But you are right I can take a large #2 shovel the full size shovel up to hunt for crystals and dig a hole 3x3x3 and it is legal but get it wet...
 

Here is the rules for most on NH, but it is funny, I can get a permit to use a dredge but not use a shovel...

PANNING FOR GOLD IN NEW HAMPSHIRE’S STREAMS
Obtaining permission from landowners
is more than simple
courtesy; you ar
e extracting
minerals that are part of their property. Panners
may not use a shovel to dig into the stream
bottom or stream banks. Scooping gravel up with th
e gold pan is allowed.
Mineral seekers in the
White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) n
eed to check out WMNF regulations at:
Region 9 - Home
ite_mountain/recreation/minerals/
. New Hampshire state
lands, such as state parks, ge
ologic and historic sites, etc
., have rules regarding mineral
collecting. See: Administrative Rule Res 7301.19 – Res 7301.21 at
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rul
es/state_agencies/res7300.html
 

When it comes to the rules on prospecting in the streams and rivers of New England I think that common sense rules the day. In most cases, if your not doing damage and nobody complains about you, nobody will care. If you walk in and away from the areas by the road and don't destroy the ecology of the waterway, nobody will care. Stay away from tourist spots and you will be okay. If you need a permit for the type of prospecting your doing, get one. Respect private property.

I honestly think that the astringent rules we have in New England are designed to really put the screws to those people who have a blatant disregard for the welfare of the ecosystem. Rightfully so.

Best of Colors,
David
 

I finally made it to the Wild Am today. This is the first time that I have done any prospecting, EVER. I had a blast!! Maybe three, 5-gallon buckets of 1/2" classified material went through my new KEENE mini sluice. I am very happy with my results!!
The last pic is Jim and his roudy bunch with his 3" dredge. I will ask him on monday how well he did.
Here are some pics.

VPR
 

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DVD last time I looked at the N.H gold prospecting laws. Other then the white mountains and gold dredging. There where no rules for N.H. And the only rules I been able to find now. It states the n.h rules are the same as the White Mtns. And those are on an article printed by D.E.S. Im going to try to find. Where the new laws where passed by the N.H Legislature.
 

man, i would love to prospect a creek or river with that kind of gravel, boulders, and river rock. i can literally pick up every rock i come across at the creek im at and chuck it 25 yards or more.
 

There are rocks there as big as cars. Theres more rocks there then gravel. All the streams in that area are mostly loaded with boulders. And the high water really move the boulders around. Its partly in the white mountains.
 

Hey Duckwalk, how is the dredging down south? I here N. Carolina is good. It is on my bucket list to try sometime.
 

Where Jim was dredging in the last pic, they thought that they were working some bedrock.... Wrong, it turned out to be a flat rock about the size of a pickup. I also talked to Jim this morning. other than one nugget, .4 gram, his cleanout was not much better than mine.

Tony
 

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