Well I have finally got some time to be on here and to finish working the material I got from that outcropping down on the Ouachita River.I did find some black sands and some lead shot!!! ( first time to find "wild" lead!!!)I am seeing what looks to me like fine gold but I need to get together with one of you seasoned veterans and see if i am right.If I am right then I am gonna be in the market for a blue bowl.
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Posted by HBprospector on April 29, 2009 at 1:20pm
Okay, cheerleading season is about to begin and my wife just got hired at our local high school to be the cheer advisor. Congrats to her. She has always really wanted this job since she herself was a cheerleader at that same school. She made a deal with me, that as long as i don't bitch and moan about the hours she puts in i can go dredging as much as want. So now i can really get in the water and get that gold. It's a good thing too cause my partner and i hit a nice little pay streak. We found some nuggets and some platinum. So now it's time get the heavy gear out and really open up that creek.One last thing, is i'm looking to pick up either a six or an eight inch. mostly the pieces so i can make to my needs. I don't need the floats or the engine, but pretty much everything else. I had most of the stuff but times were tough and i had to sell almost all of it. So if anyone has some parts that they would want to sell give me a shout.Thanks for your time and ears,Jeff
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Hi all, yes you can call me newb lol, I now live in California beings that my husband is stationed here on FT Irwin training troops. I have been desperately searching the internet for locations to go and pan gold here in good ole' California. For the thrill of it mainly and to say that I did it. I see lots of blogs for other states but have not found much for the California area. I have already bought my pans and things but was curious to know where I can go here without treading on someones space. Somewhere that camping is allowed etc. Any and all leads would be wonderful. Thank you in advance for your help and happy hunting. Dana
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Posted by TheGerm1117 on April 28, 2009 at 10:02am
How far apart should the riffles be, and at what angle? I am still a lil confused on the angle of them and how far they should be apart. The water will be slow to fast, pending on where i go.Also, I am building it out of parts picked up at Home Depot. The sluice frame is 1/2 pieces of air ducting (10"w x 5"h x 48"l) turned on each other. I have epoxied them already and it seems really sturdy.Any suggestions would be great!
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hi everyone, recently after a fun day of nugget slaying i was taking the shotcut down the wash thru town on my trusty mule pepe [my quad] when he sudenly turned and bolted for the local watering hole. i rode up behind the saloon and went in and got a cold drink,in came an ol timer who i have met in years past but had never really talked with.any way he says you mus be celebrating,found some nugs did ya? i says yea found 3 today and proudly showed them off,he took them in his hand and smiled a knowing smile and said,theres no one here and id like to show you something,can you wait 20 minutes and ill be back. i say sure and leaves and soon comes back and handed me the nugget in the picture,wow what a thrill.he mined in alaska during the 60s and70s and had good fortune and is now retired. http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu232/DIGSGOLD/100_0971.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu232/DIGSGOLD/100_0969.jpg
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Posted by HBprospector on April 26, 2009 at 11:20pm
Ok, here we go. tomorrow we are hitting the creek has hard as we can. we have hit hardpack at four feet deep or so and it's like concrete. so now we are going out there with a new tool to break that stuff up to get at the bedrock and get some gold. i'll post pics of the progress and are findings. last time we did not find a whole lot but it was there and it was a little chucky, it was small.i got the dredge and the power issue all figured out. i spoke to mark keene and he said that the set up is just fine and that i need to run the motor half throttle to three quater throttle. i have a new blaster nozzle and hopefully we can find enough gold to pick up the floats and frame.I started with a pan and found enough to get a sluice. i worked my butt of with a buddy of mine and found enough to buy a two inch dredge. worked with that for a year and sold that and some gold to buy the four inch. it's incomplete for now but who knows we find enough to buy a bigger dredge and run the two side by side. i'm really excited for tomorrow my partners son is going with us for the first time ever. he has never prospected a day in his life so we are going to get him started with a pan and shovel on the banks. i think he will like i hope, (the boulder moving might run him away)! my partner les has been trying to get him out there with us for at least seven months. i think he is super excited to be able to work with him in the great out doors and teach him to find a little gold.Thats all have for tonight, i'll let ya'll know how we do tomorrow and post alot of pics. i got rack out now so wish us luck, and if anyone is in the area stop on by, i drive a grey nissan frontier.Talk to ya'll soon,JeffSo we went out today again to the same spot and got the hole seven feet by at least ten feet in diameter. we did pretty good. got alot of fines, one small nugget, platnium flakes, and one platnium nugget. the ranger came and met us. told us we need a plan of operations to dredge out there. i did not see anything in the gpaa claim guide about that. and i've talked to the gpaa about dredging the place and not a word about. i won't be able to get out there for a few weeks or so. i'll post pics when i don't forget the camera. we did take some underwater pics but i'll have to get them developed and then scanned. oh and the hard pack is four feet thick so far. no bedrock yet,with the god getting bigger as i go down i can't wait to see what goodies are on the bottom for.Talk to ya'll soon,Jeff
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Yesterday (4/22) went out and all I found was a ton of black sand and a quarts crystal, bout the size of a quarter. Also, after being frustrated for 3hrs I pulled out the fly rod and caught some brook trout to ease the pain lol.
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The Family and I went to Lynx Creek Ruins for some panning very nice lake and creek and we did find the yellow stuff in almost every pan. Wife found some nice flakes in her first pan,my son also found some in (his spot) along with a few crawfish. We had a great trip. Then we went to a GPAA claim close by and to my surpise found gold after a few pans (very chunky little pieces).Bought back some cons from there I'm going through at home in my Blue Bowl and mini sluice I'll up date with pics later."Leave it like you found it and find it like you left it."RobertPoint Blank,TX
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We are going to our claim this weekend to do some playing. There is an old township recorded on our claim and one building is still kinda standing. I want to get one of my metal detectors out there and see what might be there.There is also 3 old bottle dumps on the claim that we have found so far. There is supposed to be 10 very old miners cabins on the claim that I want to search out this week.Got my dredge all checked out and ready to go, just a little 3", but just right for Cow Creek.Anyway had to let everyone know, what was happening. Also we had a major slide this winter on the Cow Creek claim and it opened up a fantastic out cropping of quartz, shale and green/red dirt. It's going to be a great summer.
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Hello all, Just a quick note I was called to check out an old mine shaft. It turned out full of good color about 300 feet back in. I went more than 650 ft. but the air started getting a little stale. So I went back out I had forgotten my spare air. It is in a very nice area, and no claim or private property anywhere around it. My friend is getting a assay done on the material I brought out. I told him to go ahead and file the lode claim, it looked like a great place.After doing some research, the mine was opened in 1878 by Chinese Railroad workers, then in 1898 was taken over by a group out of San Francisco. They worked the mine commercially until the gold market dropped out in 1913. No one has had claim to it sense.Old rail tracks are still in the tunnel, no cart did I find but I think the adit I went down went another 1/2 mile, spiraling down. I found more the 12 adits on my first survey. I will be going back with all my gear with in the next two weeks.I will update all on what I find.
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Hey all, does anybody know of anything around Harrison Arkansas area or in the northern part of Arkansas for gold or any precious stones??? thanks, Jt
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Hello,to all.Had the pleasure of meeting a few of you today.Hopefully we can all get together and dig some time.Well,another bad day.Again,the brand new blower quit after one tank of gas.40 minutes ,then done.Bill,went and mooched some allen wrenches.We dis-assembled the blower.Found that one of the carb bolt holes(one of two)was stripped.Re tightned it up.It survived another five minutes.Said,"the hell with it".Well,I now have another new blower.Bill,is planning to go get another one this week.Thats twice this year .That is to say,two out of two times we have had blower failure.we dont plan on heading out ,without at least two functional blowers again.I heard a few of you out at todays outing near Randsburg did good.Now,I am jealous-------LOLWell,if it was easy,I suppose everyone would do it.-------------------
THE PICTURE IS OF CRAIG AND ROCKY--LAUGHING AT BILL AND I WORKING ON tHE BLOWER--YA FUNNY--LOL
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After two days of cold rain (the gauge has 2.5 inches) it was great to see the sun today. I decided to work on the homemade sluice since it needed to be refinished and waterproofed for the upcoming season. (see http://www.goldprospectorsspace.com/profiles/blogs/saga-of-the-homemade-sluice)I removed the rubber mat and noticed that some dirt had accumulated in the gaps left when the mat was glued down.Knowing how sneaky bits of gold can be, I carefully scraped the material in to a pan. There was only about 1 tablespoonof material, but I panned it out anyway.Here is the result..
Those of you with a flare on your sluice may want to check the space between th flange and sluice body.I have found gold stuck there on a couple of occasions.Rick
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Posted by HBprospector on April 10, 2009 at 11:08pm
Ok, so i built a four inch dredge and don't have the money nor the gold to buy the floats. I built a wooden stand,that work just fine i think? I have the sluice at a four inch drop from the header. I had a nine horse on it and the sluice still loaded up i tried different angles with it and no matter what it loaded up.So i put a eleven horse on it and at the four inch drop the sluice stay text book perfect. My problem is i think i that the riffles are packing up and i'm losing gold. I get some small gold and a ton of lead, ( bullets, split shot, buckshot, ect....). Oh also it is the keene three stage sluice.Keene sells the four inch dredge with a six and half horse, my question for any that can answer it is.1. Do i have to much power?2. Is that sluice only meant to be floated?3. What is a good test to see where if found would the bigger nuggets rest in the sluice?So that is where i'm at right now. The spot in my pic's we found some small but chunky gold.Some of it was still on the host rock.We hit hardpack at around four feet or so.Found no gold on the hardpack but in the over burden.Next weds we are going out to sample some more. I'm new to dredging as far as in the river/creeks, normally i just suck the banks.But now that i have air i have been going for the big gold if it's there.If there is little gold above the hardpack does that mean that the older bigger gold is between the hardpack and the bedrock?Also what is the best tool to break the hardpack?I know i have alot of questions and i apologize for that.Any who thanks for reading this in advance.Any advice would be very appreciated.Thanks for your help,Jeff; AKA...HBprospector
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Hello to all. three days or so ago.Bill and I went out east and north of Randsburg.On the way out,we were talking about how,since its getting warmer,we should be looking for snakes.Well,as we were putting along,I spotted some old mine shafts.Bill and I decieded to go up and metal detect the tailings piles.As I was walking in the lead,I paused a moment,heard a light rattle.what do ya know,a rattle snake about 18 inches from my tennis shoe.of course,being the he-man that I am,I simply..........screamed and yelled,jumped back and generally wussed out.--LOL But,I learnt a lesson.If it had been ten degrees warmer,I would have been bit. So,now,before I go out again,I
at least want a snake bite kit.I prefer to have that and a set of snake proof leggings. So,my message to all of you is,at least have a snake bite kit with you.who knows,the life you save may be yours---Grant
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Hey all,I just wanted to check in and tell about an area that I found down on the Ouachita River near my home. There is a large quartz outcropping not far from Interstate 30 on the Ouachita that has held my interest ever since I got interested in gold prospecting. One day while I was off I decided to go on down there and see it up close. After getting down there I found several deep cracks and holes, so I get my bucket and trowel and dig some material out of the best looking spot. I got it home and and started running some of the material through my mini sluice and have gotten alot of black sand out of it. No specks of gold yet but I did not get to the bottom of that particular hole yet!! I'll be back!!!!
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Well,Bill and I went to the river today.The water is about 10 inches higher than last week.So,no,jumping rock to rock to cross to the other side.But,being stubborn as we are,we went and bought a raft.so,tomorrow at sunrise,we will be back out at the river.Bill has elected to ford the river with a rope.Then we will use the raft to float the equipment across,then me.GOD help us---LOL
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Last week,Bill,Harold and I,did some digging on the Kern.Got a decent amount of color.Tomorrow,Bill and I will return,and see if we cant get are 70 buckets,instead of our normal 15-20 buckets of classified material.With any luck,in a few hundred years or so,I will finally fill this vial up---lol
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Around Christmas, a big buck that hangs around my backyard showed up with a string of Christmas lights tangled in his antlers.(I considered trying to find a long extension cord)I knew that they posed no danger to him, but he was constantly irritated by their presence. A few days later he came by again so I decided to try to help him. Armed with a set of wire clippers and more guts than brains, I set out to relieve him of his decorations.I put out a pile of horse feed to coax him in close but every time I got near the antlers he would jump back and give me a "just what do you think you are doing" stare. This was not working so (working on the assumption that I am craftier than a deer) I filled a scoop with feed,held it in my left hand, and clipped a wire with my right every time he dipped his head to the scoop. This was not an easy process but, after10 anxious minutes, I prevailed.Here are the before and after pics.
