Anybody ever gone gold digging/dredging/panning?

Padawanbater2 · Nov 8, 2015

I'm planning a trip to Central California next summer to do this, it looks interesting as hell to me!

Any of you guys ever done anything like this before? Any tips for a beginner?

Bublonichronic · Nov 8, 2015

Are you doing one of those things where you pay like 1k and get all the equipment and given a specific area to do it? I remember hearing someone talking about that I just figured if there was that much gold the company would be panning it themselves instead of renting out the equipment and only makin a fraction of what could be found

Padawanbater2 · Nov 8, 2015

Bublonichronic said:
Are you doing one of those things where you pay like 1k and get all the equipment and given a specific area to do it? I remember hearing someone talking about that I just figured if there was that much gold the company would be panning it themselves instead of renting out the equipment and only makin a fraction of what could be found

No, must have been somebody else. I plan on going with a few friends and camping out for a week on the river

sworth · Nov 8, 2015

I plan on doing the same next spring, when there's a bit more daylight. Camping out for a week in the forest. I live in one of the few places in Europe where there is still viable gold to be panned :hump:

And, since I make silver/gold jewelry....
I don't know about tips, since all my knowledge is research based, but part of my plan is to take a metal detector to quickly scan around for those rare nuggets and to spend the last day sieving paydirt to pan back at home...
And don't forget a gold nugget is worth way much more than it's weight in gold :bigjoint:

Aeroknow · Nov 9, 2015

Padawanbater2 said:
I'm planning a trip to Central California next summer to do this, it looks interesting as hell to me!

Any of you guys ever done anything like this before? Any tips for a beginner?

I'm always prospecting. I've done quite a bit of dredging, before the ban, and I used to own a highbanker/dredge combo.
This little bit is what we got just out of the dry creek bed running through one of my pads this summer, from a little tiny recirculating sluice setup.

It's not much, but that was from farting around and only no more than 10 buckets dirt, and we have the whole rest of the creek to work, which runs the entire length of my 5 acre property. I know there's some nuggets here. I just know it. But my back is all jacked up rite now :-(

Padawanbater2 · Nov 9, 2015

Aeroknow said:
I'm always prospecting. I've done quite a bit of dredging, before the ban, and I used to own a highbanker/dredge combo.
This little bit is what we got just out of the dry creek bed running through one of my pads this summer, from a little tiny recirculating sluice setup.
View attachment 3538794
It's not much, but that was from farting around and only no more than 10 buckets dirt, and we have the whole rest of the creek to work, which runs the entire length of my 5 acre property. I know there's some nuggets here. I just know it. But my back is bad rite now

My back, and the backs of my slave friends are young, healthy and strong! Am I witnessing the beginning of an awesome apprenticeship?

Aeroknow · Nov 9, 2015

Padawanbater2 said:
My back, and the backs of my slave friends are young, healthy and strong! Am I witnessing the beginning of an awesome apprenticeship?

Dredging is so much fun. But its's been banned here in Ca for some time now.
People are getting away with it though in rivers on BLM land. Maybe all federal land.
Do you know what river you planning this?

Padawanbater2 · Nov 9, 2015

Aeroknow said:
Dredging is so much fun. But its's been banned here in Ca for some time now.
People are getting away with it though in rivers on BLM land. Maybe all federal land.
Do you know what river you planning this?

I didn't know it was banned, thanks for that information! I'll have to do more research it seems..

Why is it banned?

I hadn't planned out which river yet, I was actually looking around Central/Northern California and maybe even Oregon, most gold prospecting maps I've looked at tend to center around those areas which are closest to where I'm currently at (southern CA) and one of my friends coming along (central CA) live. I'm not much of a fan of flying

Aeroknow · Nov 9, 2015

Padawanbater2 said:
I didn't know it was banned, thanks for that information! I'll have to do more research it seems..

Why is it banned?

I hadn't planned out which river yet, I was actually looking around Central/Northern California and maybe even Oregon, most gold prospecting maps I've looked at tend to center around those areas which are closest to where I'm currently at (southern CA) and one of my friends coming along (central CA) live. I'm not much of a fan of flying

Environmental reasons :-(

Suction dredging supposedly was ruining rivers, and messing up fish habitat.
I'm all for protecting our fisheries, but it's bullshit.
One good rain, and you can't even tell where you were dreding the time before.

oldtimer54 · Nov 9, 2015

Gold panning and metal detecting for gold has always been something that I'd like to try. As a young kid I was into collecting rocks and arrowheads and crystals. During that time I managed to find two nice white quartz fist sized rocks with visible gold . I still go back to that creek but as the years passed the construction in the area has made the creek almost impossible to access and only a shell of what it once was. I do find the occasional crystal but no gold !

Trousers · Nov 9, 2015

Aeroknow said:
Environmental reasons
Suction dredging supposedly was ruining rivers, and messing up fish habitat.
I'm all for protecting our fisheries, but it's bullshit.
One good rain, and you can't even tell where you were dreding the time before.

One good rain and the fish eggs are still gone and the bottom habitat is still very fucked up.

sunni · Nov 9, 2015

i know nothing about gold panning, i cant remember who but someone insisted to me that i know about it because i live in alaska, and they insisted ive mustve met gold panners and i had just moved here still jet lagged hahaha

Grandpapy · Nov 9, 2015

This year could be better then 93, it's raining now!

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-25/news/mn-27263_1_gold-rush

My tool crib only consists of a shovel, pan and glass bottle. :oops:

Aeroknow · Nov 9, 2015

Trousers said:
One good rain and the fish eggs are still gone and the bottom habitat is still very fucked up.

I fish, so i care about our fisheries ;-)

One could actually make an arguement that when dredged, it actually allows spawning redds.
All of the rivers around here are damned. Not only are the fish runs blocked, but the silt in the rivers never get washed down stream.
Our rivers are mostly a put and take river system(salmon)because of the dams, and the lack of spawning redds.
It's nice to see people from out of state caring about Californias rivers actually, thanks :clap:

Aeroknow · Nov 9, 2015

We actually end up cleaning up the rivers we dredge. Lead and mercury.

april · Nov 9, 2015

Apparently my guys friend invited us to pan on his property next yr...they find a few ounces every yr...more for fun...but I'm so in!!! Didn't some guy recently find a huge number worth like half a million? ? Saw it on Facebook lol

doublejj · Nov 9, 2015

Aeroknow said:
I'm always prospecting. I've done quite a bit of dredging, before the ban, and I used to own a highbanker/dredge combo.
This little bit is what we got just out of the dry creek bed running through one of my pads this summer, from a little tiny recirculating sluice setup.
View attachment 3538794
It's not much, but that was from farting around and only no more than 10 buckets dirt, and we have the whole rest of the creek to work, which runs the entire length of my 5 acre property. I know there's some nuggets here. I just know it. But my back is all jacked up rite now

don't you dare show this to PC....we are right in the middle of harvest!

mnbvcxza · Nov 9, 2015

"Anybody ever gone gold digging/dredging/panning?"

yea she's was good, dredged her good an proper, panning? you mean planning lol ..... yes, the gold digging was planned thank you.

torontoke · Nov 9, 2015

I'm hoping to be doing a little mining and panning myself next summer.
We found a massive Quartz vein running through our property.
How's this for a fist sized Quartz

mnbvcxza · Nov 9, 2015

Aeroknow said:
I'm always prospecting. I've done quite a bit of dredging, before the ban, and I used to own a highbanker/dredge combo.
This little bit is what we got just out of the dry creek bed running through one of my pads this summer, from a little tiny recirculating sluice setup.
View attachment 3538794
It's not much, but that was from farting around and only no more than 10 buckets dirt, and we have the whole rest of the creek to work, which runs the entire length of my 5 acre property. I know there's some nuggets here. I just know it. But my back is all jacked up rite now

wow !!

Anybody ever gone gold digging/dredging/panning?

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Administrator

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Pickle Queen

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member