Irons MD & Prospecting thread

[Bottom Feeder]

<heh> First I thought that last one was some sort of goulash ya was havin for dinner.
Seriously though, what are those chipped rock looking chunks — clay nodules?

Nice setup, Sir Irons, looks a little heavy to be packin up and down a brushy hillside.
You dig up one of those twenty pound nuggets out there and you're gonna havta leave your equipment behind to get out. <heh>

Take care out there, brother Irons
BF

 

[Irons]

<heh> First I thought that last one was some sort of goulash ya was havin for dinner.
Seriously though, what are those chipped rock looking chunks — clay nodules?

Nice setup, Sir Irons, looks a little heavy to be packin up and down a brushy hillside.
You dig up one of those twenty pound nuggets out there and you're gonna havta leave your equipment behind to get out. <heh>

Take care out there, brother Irons
BF

Yep, chunks of clay. Every sharp corner in this stretch of creek has eroding shelves of clay.



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[Irons]

Skip to the 3 minute mark in the video

Once you get past his self promotion he offers really good advice on spotting a Gold trap area in a creek. As he was explaining what is happening with water flow and deposits I can picture 2 such areas I looked at but didn't sample. Next time in I will dig them up.

 

[rte]

Irons I get the two sluce method.
2 is better then one, BUT would it be better to run them inline tandem than separate?
One feed with twice the cleanup area.

 

[Irons]

Irons I get the two sluce method.
2 is better then one, BUT would it be better to run them inline tandem than separate?
One feed with twice the cleanup area.

Now that you mention it that probably would be easier to feed. My dam building and sluice set up skills ain't the greatest yet. Adding the adjustable legs kit to the front of the sluices made a huge difference.
Impatience is a problem, when I finally get to the creek after thinking about it all week at work I try to do everything at once.
Sluice set up is some tricky shit. You have to have both good drop and good water flow and few places have both. Most times I'm
getting the concentrates a ways away and lugging the bucket to the sluice.

Every time I do this I'm learning more though, and that makes me happy.


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[Uglytruth]

What if you used two boards to funnel water where you want it to increase speed?

 

[Irons]

What if you used two boards to funnel water where you want it to increase speed?

Moar shit to carry in and out. Rocks work fine, what I have to do is take a few minutes and build a good dam as soon as I decide on a sluice spot and not put the sluice down first and then try to build a dam around it.


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[rte]

Now that you mention it that probably would be easier to feed. My dam building and sluice set up skills ain't the greatest yet.

Hmmm, I was going to say I was impressed with the
dam building and sluice set up skills.
That and the water feature.

 

[rte]

Moar shit to carry in and out.

Wood is considered biodegradable.
Could probably get away with not packing that out.
A couple heavy gauge plastic 55 gallon drum liner bags would work to go with the natural rocks, probably easier to pack in.

 

[Irons]

What if you used two boards to funnel water where you want it to increase speed?

Wood is considered biodegradable.
Could probably get away with not packing that out.

You two have me thinking about that idea now. Nobody goes to clay bottom creek anymore I never see tracks or fresh fire pits and trash down there. Too much work getting in and out. I could leave boards down there, and it's got the best Gold of any creek I know of so far so I'll be down there as often as I can.

I'm thinking 30 or 36 x 1 x 6 inch cedar with 2 supports to hold it in a V shape with a 6 inch opening at the end for the sluice. Slap that down and brace it with a few rocks and done!

 

[Irons]

I went back to the dam area of a creek I've been sluicing up north because I wanted to check some spots to be sure the area I want to be in is downstream. I checked where the main stream empties into the dam pool and some deep spots and inside bends. It's a nice area but there is definitely more Gold downstream where all the rocks are. Funny, there is way more Gold in clay bottom creek but the specks in this creek are bigger. Too bad there isn't more of them!

 

[newmisty]

 

[Irons]

FINALLY labor day is over and the damn tourists have left. For the next few weeks we'll keep a box of trash bags in the truck to clean up the trash we come across in our travels in the woods.

But now that things are quiet again I went back to the first creek I found Gold in, haven't been there since April. The best place for Gold on this creek is also one of the many staging areas for the north country trail so there is a lot of fucking people here all summer. Most of them are very nice folks for the most part. But there is a lot of them.

Now after finding this spot early in the spring I spent several weekends testing several places upstream. I found Gold at all of them but no where near the speck counts I got here. This area is down in a gorge about 1/4 mile from where the creek dumps into a major river, that's another reason it gets so busy. And it's a long hike down a steep trail.

The black sand and garnet mix is so thick here it's crazy, you literally can't test pan the stuff because it takes too much time. You know you got a good spot to sluice when you can barely drive a spade into the compacted gravel. I got to run about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket through the sluice before a pop up monsoon made me decide the bottom of a gorge may not be the best place to be hanging out when that much water is coming from the sky. Got home and ran the cons through my gutter sluice and I'm very happy with the result! Got around 18 good specks and several fly poops. That's really good for the small amount I got to run. I can't wait to go back and spend the whole day there running several buckets.

First pic is where I set up, second and third is the black sand and garnets in one shovel full of gravel. One! 4, 5 and 6 is the mini dream mat sluice chewing through one scoop of classified material. I had to move the sluice to faster water because the material is so dense it wanted to just sit there on the indicator mat. I think I'm going to switch to the blue micro dream mat for this creek. The material here is so heavy it's insane.

Last pic is the little specks of Gold! I wish the pic showed the color better but oh well.

Thanks for looking and commenting, I learn a lot and get great ideas from you guys!

 

[Irons]

Got back to deep gorge creek yesterday and ran a few buckets over the micro dream mat sluice. Did pretty good!
This creek might be as good as clay bottom creek back at home.

 

[Irons]

Got back to clay bottom creek for a little while today between thunderstorms. It's been raining a lot and the water was really high and dirty so plan A went right out the window. I had to find another place to set up the sluice, and the places I wanted to get material to run were out of reach in deep water. On a good note the high water showed me a gravel deposit I hadn't looked at before and it turned out to have excellent, chunky Gold!

I only got to run 2 half buckets before it got dark, it gets dark fast in the bottom of a creek gorge when there's no sun. Half buckets because I had to hump the buckets a ways to bring them to the sluice. Jeff Williams is right, I get soaking wet every time I do this!

But I got Gold! Life is good! I hope it's sunny tomorrow and Wednesday so I can stay down there all day.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Irons]

About the same as Monday, got in there for a couple hours between rains and ran 2 half buckets through the sluice.
Hopefully it'll be nice tomorrow and I can run several.

 

[Uglytruth]

Irons. Hours invested are you ahead with the beep stick or the sluice in a time vs oz?
I guess my point is one small gold ring would outweigh a lot of small flakes.
I can't put a value on your time or enjoyment.

 

[hammerhead]

Irons. Hours invested are you ahead with the beep stick or the sluice in a time vs oz?
I guess my point is one small gold ring would outweigh a lot of small flakes.
I can't put a value on your time or enjoyment.

It's a sickness, Uglytruth. People have been afflicted with worse.

 

[Irons]

Irons. Hours invested are you ahead with the beep stick or the sluice in a time vs oz?
I guess my point is one small gold ring would outweigh a lot of small flakes.
I can't put a value on your time or enjoyment.

It's a sickness, Uglytruth. People have been afflicted with worse.

I find way way more Gold metal detecting, I go prospecting purely for the joy of the experience. I love the challenge of prospecting there is so much to learn and the places I get to do it are just beautiful. Also there is huge satisfaction when it works out, my predictions turn out to be correct and I see Gold in the pan! Those little specks of Gold have been waiting for millions of years for me to find them and show them some sunshine.

I doubt I'll ever get to metal detect on the level I did from 2012 to 2018. That took a huge amount of effort on many levels and not only that I cleaned out so many beaches and lakes I'd have to move to an entirely new part of Michigan and start over.


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[hammerhead]

I find way way more Gold metal detecting, I go prospecting purely for the joy of the experience. I love the challenge of prospecting there is so much to learn and the places I get to do it are just beautiful. Also there is huge satisfaction when it works out, my predictions turn out to be correct and I see Gold in the pan! Those little specks of Gold have been waiting for millions of years for me to find them and show them some sunshine.

I doubt I'll ever get to metal detect on the level I did from 2012 to 2018. That took a huge amount of effort on many levels and not only that I cleaned out so many lakes I'd have to move to an entirely new part of Michigan and start over.


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You're getting more gold than I am.

 

[Tbonz]

I find way way more Gold metal detecting, I go prospecting purely for the joy of the experience. I love the challenge of prospecting there is so much to learn and the places I get to do it are just beautiful. Also there is huge satisfaction when it works out, my predictions turn out to be correct and I see Gold in the pan! Those little specks of Gold have been waiting for millions of years for me to find them and show them some sunshine.

I doubt I'll ever get to metal detect on the level I did from 2012 to 2018. That took a huge amount of effort on many levels and not only that I cleaned out so many beaches and lakes I'd have to move to an entirely new part of Michigan and start over.


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Do we need to start a go fund me for you so we can get you to the other areas of the country to see more recovered gold?

I think that there might be a tv show in the making, staring Finley and his side kick Irons.

 

[Irons]

Beautiful day on the creek today so I brought my camera!

First two are scraping the gravel layer off the clay to classify, and bringing two half buckets to the sluice area to get set up to run. I fill 2 buckets on my way in, the sluice gets set up further upstream. Third pic is the high water sluice dam I used the past two days. Water is down and clear again so I had to move the dam to the normal water level area, that is picture 4. Pic 5 is the high stress activity of sitting on my camp stool feeding the sluice. It's rough, I tell ya. I had cold beer, jerky and cheese curds.

Picture 6 is the climb to get out of there, no wonder my knees hurt after 3 days of this. That section is the easiest to climb. Pic 7 is the Gold!

 

[hammerhead]

Sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon.