Our first kiss with panning.

[G-bone]

Well, took the boys out today for the very first time.

Our equipment:
A "Gold Nugget Bucket" ...family X-mas present.
Royal Manf. Packable folding 50" Sluice....my x-mas present.

We had the 2 - 10" pans that came with the kit, not "seasoned".
And 1 - 13" plastic pan from Sport Chalet, with a small 6" bottom.
I did "season" that one.

Trowels, small crow bars, mini shovels, Crevasse tools, 2 extra 5 gal buckets. etc.

We found a nice location with nice water flow.
Dug older exposed banks and showed the boys to dig at the layer of rubble lying on top of bed rock or hard clay surface.
Dug at the head of the stream bends, and nice areas that HAD to be trapping something!
We've been watchin videos....so I think we were sampling in the right areas..I think.

Using the Nugget Bucket to Classify, then concentrate went to the Sluice box.

The Sluice was difficult without a stand.
A fairly even flow at about an 1" deep (video to come I hope).
Material going down evenly and not building up any one side, and ultimately had the 50% material trapped and showed 50% of the secondary riffles. Even across each main ripple.

Location:
Now I tried to research as much as I could into the location. I don't want to mess with anyone else' claim (not that we would have done any harm today).
Check Forest maps and boundaries, used "California Gold Maps" on line which overlays Claim info over google earth, which said "closed placer claims.
So this place was clean as far as I can tell.

We went to Big Tujunga Canyon in Angeles Forest Boundaries.
Right at the first bridge, dropped into the canyon and found where Gold Canyon Feeds Big T.
We sampled at the Intersection.
We sampled down from the intersection.
We sampled up Gold Canyon a few bends and found this exposed bank with a layer of rubble intermixed with old tree roots settled on this Cement like layer.
I thought we were hitting some good areas!!

GOOSE EGG BABY!!
Not a darn flake!!
But MAN we had serious iron...black, black, black and heavy.
Big chucks and particulars abound.

The Nugget Bucket was classifying nicely.
I felt we cleaned the Sluice correctly and nicely.
And I felt I was going threw the proper motions during Panning .
So, I'm going to say that it was operator error on my part at some point.


NOTE ON LOCATION - there are Private homes on the road right at that bridge.
I assume (I know what that means) that the land is under a lease from the Forest.
So they don't own the property and I'm sure the property line does not cross into the wash basin itself and or up into Gold Canyon.
So of-course as me and boys are doing our thing, some person starts shouting at us from up at one of the houses. They are way up on the hill and with the stream in our ears, all we could hear was, blah, blah, blah.

Not wanting any confrontation, we packed up and moved it up into Gold canyon itself.
Kinda sucks but I wasn't in the mood to argue or worse with my kids around. it just added to the frustration of it all a little bit.


So to anyone who read all the way through this little story, I'm all ears.
Lay it on me!! I can take it!! What did I do wrong?

I told the boy's, it's like fishing...you're going to get skunked some times.
But I really wanted to get at least a flake or two in their bottles for the effort they went (I put them) thru.

Cheers

G

 

[russau]

Hey G , from what I can tell you cant get there from here! BUT you did the right (smart) thing and not had any confirtation with anyone while your kids were present! I wish I had that kind of will power! of course my youngest son is 37 now and he would (hopefully) jump in! But there again you did the right thing! SALUTE!

 

[roadrunner]

You did right.
I have been sampling down from a known gold lode mine that is closed down in the wash and still got skunked 6 times now from different areas.
All great areas from watching videos and talking to people on here.
Some times there just aint no gold there.

 

[rodoconnor]

G-bone You more than likely did everything correctly. There are a lot of places that gold ought to be but isn't. Hang in there. You'll get into some before long . Good Luck

 

[Prospector70]

Take your concentrates from the sluice home with you every time, don't try to reduce it to gold on the creek. Pan them into a large tub or plastic storage bin, that way if you miss anything you can always find it later when you are bored

IDK anything about the nugget bucket, if you are classifying go with a 2 or 4 mesh screen type that fits on top of the bucket.
Classify four 5 gallon buckets (Don't carry full buckets if you don't have to, take them 1/2 full at a time and stockpile it).

Feed four 5 gallon buckets slowly down the sluice. Clean it out (Careful! Wash it into a bucket, a tip is to barely pick the downstream end of the sluice up a tiny bit and slide a 5 gallon bucket under it with the sluice end in the bucket, then stand it up into the bucket and carefully use your pan to rinse it out good before disassembling and rinsing the individual components in the cons bucket) and then repeat.

The thing about gold is it's all about the amount of material you can run in one outing. Do the stuff at home that you can do at home, you want to be mostly making the cons.
Great new adventures await you and the boys, great to see the family interest! Keep going, you will fill their vials with some gold!

Edit: When I had mass help, we had someone running the sluice constantly. Take a tennis ball or something and put it in the 4th bucket so you don't lose track of when the cleanout is supposed to occur.

 

[Reed Lukens]

You should go to the County Assessor and find out if it is private property because that area has all been subdivided from what I could see on the maps. Being that people were yelling, it would be worth checking out. Then if you find that it's open for prospecting, get the paperwork from the county and show the people after they get tired of yelling and come down to see you, that you have every right to be there.

 

[Clay Diggins]

The land at Gold Canyon and Big Tujunga is private. The private land covers Big Tujunga from above the gauging station downstream about a mile. It does cover the canyon and the hill at the Delta Flats overlook. It looks like Gold Canyon is not private. I suppose the people that own that land get a little tired of folks assuming that everything is forest.

You could have learned all this and a lot more just by looking at the Land Status Maps on Land Matters. We work hard to give users the information they need to complete the legal requirement to determine land status before entering the land.

Closed claims don't tell you where you can prospect. I mentioned that on your other thread. Maybe those folks up at the house were yelling "CLOSED CLAIMS DON'T TELL YOU WHERE YOU CAN PROSPECT". No I don't live up there but I can sympathize.

Give Land Matters a try. Lots more than closed claims there. Try a local prospecting club, you will be much more likely to come home with gold and you won't be stressing out the folks on private land. Teach your kids to prospect and teach them the importance of knowing where you are before you assume you can start looking for treasure.

Heavy Pans

 

[Hoser John]

Randy Seden is the man in your area as he knows who,what and where from many MANY years of experience EVERYWHERE in your area. He has also bought,tested and used every goldfarb about ever made so a great source,on this forum also,look his name up in membership and PM and you might have a find of a lifetime as a real miner. I've been proud to have known him for at least 20 years or so and honest miner for sure-John

 

[delnorter]

G-bone, it doesn't get any better than what John just gave you. This is the opening to prospecting and mining it can take so long to find.

Good times to you and the boys,
Mike

 

[goldog]

Wow!, You were right in my neck of the woods. I'm not exactly clear how you got there but you were close to some pretty easy to find color. You shouldn't expect a lot, but "better than specks". It is a good idea to stay clear of the residences.

I don't believe there are active claims in that area but the forest service leases go out to the stream edge. Some of the properties have horses/ corrals etc... down near the stream.

 

[G-bone]

Thank you all for your input and encouragement.

Prospector70, thank you for the great tips.

Goldog got your PM and responded. Thank you too!

A happy and healthy new year to all!!