B Street Blacksmith
Full Member
- #1
Thread Owner
First off, I am new to prospecting.
A little Background:
I am in my mid 30's, have a wife and two kids, and am physically disabled (I have MAJOR back problems).
I spent my working lifetime doing a LARGE variety of jobs, including, car sales, tree trimming, running a shift at a graphite mine, working in a machine shop, and also running several successful computer and tech businesses, including a website design and hosting firm.
My father has been a member of the GPAA for years.
I recently got stung by the bug, and I want to make prospecting a lifelong hobby.
My issue is, I live in Central Texas, and by most reports, the pickins are slim.
I spent the weekend two weeks ago out at the Llano river, panning. Found a lot of black sand, and a lot of bird and rat shot. But no gold. Now, I didn't really expect to find any gold with just a pan, so was not really disappointed by my failure. BUT, I do want to do better.
This weekend, I started to build a "gold trap" out of plexiglass, and some supports that I designed and printed using my 3d printers (incase you haven't figured it out, I'm a technogeek). I actually run my 3d printers for a LOT of customers, building all sorts of plastic things, so designing the supports was no issue for me.
I should be finishing the trap sometime this week, and will post some pictures of it once it is complete.
I will also make sure to post pictures of anything I find, and keep a running journal of anything I build, learn, or am curious about while I embark on this adventure of (hopeful) gold discovery in my area!
(2/10/15)
Well, My home made box idea didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I used too light of material to make it, and it wasn't strong enough.
On the other hand, I am working on a website design for a Treasure Hunting shop, that we are hoping to barter for a new sluice box, and sniper. I should know by the end of the week if the gentleman and I can come to an agreement.
When the box idea failed, I still went out to the river and panned for about 5hrs digging out some cracks.
Here is what happened:
When I showed up, and picked my spot, there was a group of 4 guys upstream about 100yds from me. I walked on over and introduced myself. These guys has the most interesting MICRO Highbanker I've ever seen. The thing was SMALL!
They also had a nice little sniper tool, and had been there for about an hour.
They ran steady the whole time I was there, and at the end of my 5 hour run, I went back to talk to them.
Now I had found 100+ pieces of lead shot, 2x lead pellets, 2x bullet fragmnts, a pound of black sand, and a crusted old penny(unfortunately, it was a modern penny, not something nice)
When I went over to talk to them, I jokingly asked if they had found their 100 pieces of birdshot yet. THEY SAID NO! They had found almost no black sand, NO lead, and no gold.....
I had not expected to find gold, with just a pan, in the Llano, but to run a sniper and highbanker, and find no black sand OR lead
??
Atleast with the concentrates I pulled out, I know that I wasn't panning wrong (because of the lead and such) but I felt for these poor guys.
(2/14/2015)
Just traded a website design for a brand new sluice!
Spent a long time talking to a gentleman named Rocky, who owns the "Treasure Hunters Supply and Rock Shop" in Kingsland(right down the road from the Llano Slabs".
After the trade, and the chat, I didn't have a lot of time to run my new piece of hardware, but still got about 5 buckets worth of material through it. Heres some pics of the day.
Heres the new Sluice. Its a Jobe Yellow jacket 45" Stream Sluice:
Here's some pics of my two daughters, my service dog, and I running the sluice in the Llano river today (Sorry about the quality. My wife's phone takes pretty crappy pics):
And here's a pic of the cleanout I did after running my puny 5 buckets of sand:
A little Background:
I am in my mid 30's, have a wife and two kids, and am physically disabled (I have MAJOR back problems).
I spent my working lifetime doing a LARGE variety of jobs, including, car sales, tree trimming, running a shift at a graphite mine, working in a machine shop, and also running several successful computer and tech businesses, including a website design and hosting firm.
My father has been a member of the GPAA for years.
I recently got stung by the bug, and I want to make prospecting a lifelong hobby.
My issue is, I live in Central Texas, and by most reports, the pickins are slim.
I spent the weekend two weeks ago out at the Llano river, panning. Found a lot of black sand, and a lot of bird and rat shot. But no gold. Now, I didn't really expect to find any gold with just a pan, so was not really disappointed by my failure. BUT, I do want to do better.
This weekend, I started to build a "gold trap" out of plexiglass, and some supports that I designed and printed using my 3d printers (incase you haven't figured it out, I'm a technogeek). I actually run my 3d printers for a LOT of customers, building all sorts of plastic things, so designing the supports was no issue for me.
I should be finishing the trap sometime this week, and will post some pictures of it once it is complete.
I will also make sure to post pictures of anything I find, and keep a running journal of anything I build, learn, or am curious about while I embark on this adventure of (hopeful) gold discovery in my area!
(2/10/15)
Well, My home made box idea didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I used too light of material to make it, and it wasn't strong enough.
On the other hand, I am working on a website design for a Treasure Hunting shop, that we are hoping to barter for a new sluice box, and sniper. I should know by the end of the week if the gentleman and I can come to an agreement.
When the box idea failed, I still went out to the river and panned for about 5hrs digging out some cracks.
Here is what happened:
When I showed up, and picked my spot, there was a group of 4 guys upstream about 100yds from me. I walked on over and introduced myself. These guys has the most interesting MICRO Highbanker I've ever seen. The thing was SMALL!
They also had a nice little sniper tool, and had been there for about an hour.
They ran steady the whole time I was there, and at the end of my 5 hour run, I went back to talk to them.
Now I had found 100+ pieces of lead shot, 2x lead pellets, 2x bullet fragmnts, a pound of black sand, and a crusted old penny(unfortunately, it was a modern penny, not something nice)
When I went over to talk to them, I jokingly asked if they had found their 100 pieces of birdshot yet. THEY SAID NO! They had found almost no black sand, NO lead, and no gold.....
I had not expected to find gold, with just a pan, in the Llano, but to run a sniper and highbanker, and find no black sand OR lead
??Atleast with the concentrates I pulled out, I know that I wasn't panning wrong (because of the lead and such) but I felt for these poor guys.
(2/14/2015)
Just traded a website design for a brand new sluice!
Spent a long time talking to a gentleman named Rocky, who owns the "Treasure Hunters Supply and Rock Shop" in Kingsland(right down the road from the Llano Slabs".
After the trade, and the chat, I didn't have a lot of time to run my new piece of hardware, but still got about 5 buckets worth of material through it. Heres some pics of the day.
Heres the new Sluice. Its a Jobe Yellow jacket 45" Stream Sluice:
Here's some pics of my two daughters, my service dog, and I running the sluice in the Llano river today (Sorry about the quality. My wife's phone takes pretty crappy pics):
And here's a pic of the cleanout I did after running my puny 5 buckets of sand:
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