Test panning

Hi folks,

New member, nice to meet you all!

I'm a new gold prospector and have a little placer claim, nothing serious - just something to mess around with and keep me in shape.

There is shallow bedrock in many spots but it seems most of the crevices I've found have been cleaned out previously (sand in the bottom of them). I haven't really spent much time panning gravel bars but I'll probably have to start taking them more seriously. How do you guys test pan these areas? I've heard you can take test pans from the river edge to the high water line and beyond, in basically a straight line, and then when you find the gold, start digging more seriously. This allows you to intercept the flow of heavies and then follow it down. Is this reasonable? How deep do you usually go for test pans? Any other information will be helpful.

I'll be there for 3 days starting this weekend and was thinking about starting at the big bends. The first one is at the far right in the map below, right after the 2 creeks dump in (sat pic directly below). The other one is the sharp bend at the far left, also pictured. Figured I'd get some advice here since I don't know any gold planners, just random info I get from youtube. Thanks in advance.

Test pans, well do a lot of them. More than you want to. The gravel bars will have flood gold in the top layer. See if you can find something big enough that it hasn't moved in a couple years. Try there. It might be a good spot to check. And for digging deeper, that really depends on the area. Some places there ain't much going down and then if you find a spot where the flood gold has been settling for years and not getting moved along the gravel bar, well then you maybe could dig down and have you best hole ever. But hey I'm usually out in the woods by myself so I only know as much as I have seen.

Main message tho is the more work you do beforehand the better it will be later, so more and more test pans

Replies

John Brock July 27, 2017 at 9:42pm

I'd take a look for gravels up high on the benchs on the inside of the large bends. If this area has been a well known gold produceing area, there won't be much in the stream course it self, everyone and their brother have already worked the area,! I'd look for old high benches that have never been worked! Look for cobbles and or rounded gravels the bigger the better!
Tim J July 20, 2017 at 10:52pm

Test pans, well do a lot of them. More than you want to. The gravel bars will have flood gold in the top layer. See if you can find something big enough that it hasn't moved in a couple years. Try there. It might be a good spot to check. And for digging deeper, that really depends on the area. Some places there ain't much going down and then if you find a spot where the flood gold has been settling for years and not getting moved along the gravel bar, well then you maybe could dig down and have you best hole ever. But hey I'm usually out in the woods by myself so I only know as much as I have seen.

Main message tho is the more work you do beforehand the better it will be later, so more and more test pans
- Matt Erickson > Tim J July 20, 2017 at 11:55pm
  
  Thanks, Tim - appreciate it!

This reply was deleted.