Anyone With Gold Fever? Panning that is?

I wanted to see if there were any gold hounds out there? I want to get started up in our mountains and wanted to see if anyone has stories, pictures or anything from their experience.

I know I won't go out there with a pan and come back with gold BUT it could happen and hell imagine the great exercize and another reason to be able to go somewhere where I can still actually carry a gun lol.

I want to do this along with some 4x4 rock crawlin since my buddy just got a rubicon that we have been having a blast in. After the winter I want to get up to some creeks and see what the snow and rain brought down the mountains.

sounds like fun

a perfect world for me

400 acres
completely off grid
yearlong creek or river
highest mountain peaks in the area

anything in addition to that would be amazing.

I am interested, Bought my son a metal detector and I plan on using it. What state are you in a rocker working the creek would be the way to go too.

I am investigating the clubs around Seattle and plan on going soon. Not a good idea to do this alone.

Yes a metal detector is gunna be one of the first things I buy. I see that being the fastest way to at least "detecting" something to dig up. I wanted to do the detector and then sluice box from there.

Pretty excited to get started

I am in fresno, our mountains have plenty of lakes and only are an hour a way or so. We also have beaches in the other directions that I think a detector would be fun to try out as well.

I am more stoked about getting out and getting active and if I ever find anything that is just icing on the cake.

Here in wa state, they closed most natural hot springs to the public after scientist released info that gold in mass quantities can usually be found in or near hot springs. I envy you being Cali for gold mining.

My favorite movie is "Paint Your wagon", and it tells the tale of the gold fields in northern cali and southern oregon. Just watched it again and caught gold fever all over again.

I think cali is of course great but just like fishing, you just never know what you might come back with or anything at all. Either way, can't wait to start showing pics of some nuggets (wishful thinking)

I have a friend that does this in NC. Even has a dredger. NC was a gold rush at one time.

I think they banned suction dredging in California, and they're wanting to do the same in Oregon.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/in...ifornia_i.html

If you do go prospecting I hope you find one of these bad boys.

YouTube - 23 ounce Gold Nugget

This guy found all this with his metal dector.

YouTube - 1100 oz of gold nuggets.AVI

A friend of mine and I talked about going on a gold panning camping trip, but it never 'panned' out! o the horror of puns!

Check to see that your metal detector is senesitive to gold (not all of them are). Panning for gold will probably just find small flakes like grains of sand and the detector may not be able to tell you that they are there. In gold mining they get about one ounce out of two tons of rock.

I have done some gold panning. It does take some patience though.

So I started panning about a month ago. Believe it or not I have found an ounce so far. Most of it has came in the past two weeks. Beginners luck a bit but I have done a lot of research.

I'm going to start panning in a month or so up around Tellico Plains, TN. Any advice?

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Originally Posted by Zippyjuan

In gold mining they get about one ounce out of two tons of rock.

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More like 4-6 grams per ton. Large open pit mines usually average only about 1-2 grams per ton of rock.

In my county there is a club that goes together.

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Originally Posted by oyarde

In my county there is a club that goes together.

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Some of the clubs in the United States have really picked up with the crash of the economy. The fee's don't seem too expensive as you can get access to a lot of different places around the country. Not only do you have a little chance of scratching out some cash they also give you a place to put your pillow.

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Originally Posted by oyarde

In my county there is a club that goes together.

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Since my drinkin' days ended, I'm not the social creature I once was. My main reason for taking up panning is to spend a sunny day here and there in a mountain stream away from the world. Any gold I get just makes it that much sweeter.

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Originally Posted by FunkBuddha

Since my drinkin' days ended, I'm not the social creature I once was. My main reason for taking up panning is to spend a sunny day here and there in a mountain stream away from the world. Any gold I get just makes it that much sweeter.

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Yeah gold panning , to me is like fishing.If I do not do well , still better than a day at work.

I got all kinds of stuff to do it. Where I am at the gold is flower. If you want to do it right you need to read up on your location and find out the best methods. It can get really complicated, like crazy chemical baths and shit. Good luck

Grew up gold mining. Ran everything from a 1.5" to 8" suction dredges. I done metal detecting, drift mining, ground sluicing, hydraulic mining, River sniping, snorkeliing, etc. Suction dredging is now a thing of the past in California. Hard hard work but very fun. I don't do mining that much anymore but I miss it.

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Originally Posted by andrew1229649

So I started panning about a month ago. Believe it or not I have found an ounce so far. Most of it has came in the past two weeks. Beginners luck a bit but I have done a lot of research.

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Wow! And your in South Carolina?

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Originally Posted by klamath

Grew up gold mining. Ran everything from a 1.5" to 8" suction dredges. I done metal detecting, drift mining, ground sluicing, hydraulic mining, River sniping, snorkeliing, etc. Suction dredging is now a thing of the past in California. Hard hard work but very fun. I don't do mining that much anymore but I miss it.

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I used to see people set up on the Trinity River from one end to the other a long time ago. At least it seemed like that.

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Originally Posted by Carson

I used to see people set up on the Trinity River from one end to the other a long time ago. At least it seemed like that.

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We are all gone now.

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Originally Posted by klamath

We are all gone now.

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That's a bummer. It looked like everyone was having a good time.

Through my brief adventures and reading I have learned a good bit. If you can find where the ancient creeks ran, they are loaded with gold around here. I moved around a ton of dirt and collected a whole ounce from it. Like I said the ancient creeks are full of the stuff just got to find out where they ran in gold bearing areas. Always remember "Gold is where it is found".

When I would visit my dad in NM we would often go up to federal land and pan for gold. All we ever found was a few flakes but I did it more for the relaxation than for actually finding gold. It was kind of like fishing to me. I would chill out with a pan while chatting with my dad about life.