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.


.

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.


.

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.

 

[rte]

we finally got around to going through the buckets of panned material before throwing it back in the wild.
Interestingly enough found more gold.
Hmmm, wouldn't have thought there was anything left.
Our season is starting soon (under 100 degrees in the desert) so we cleaned up the buckets of clutter around the house.

 

[dacrunch]

we finally got around to going through the buckets of panned material before throwing it back in the wild.
Interestingly enough found more gold.
Hmmm, wouldn't have thought there was anything left.
Our season is starting soon (under 100 degrees in the desert) so we cleaned up the buckets of clutter around the house.
View attachment 227193

Wish I'd found that much in ALL the "panning" I've done... My total so far is ZERO... but nice to be "playing by the river like a little kid making sand castles" though...

cropped the pic for you...

 

[engineear]

we finally got around to going through the buckets of panned material before throwing it back in the wild.
Interestingly enough found more gold.
Hmmm, wouldn't have thought there was anything left.
Our season is starting soon (under 100 degrees in the desert) so we cleaned up the buckets of clutter around the house.
View attachment 227193

My son goes to Prescott a lot and has found a few chunks like that which I call "to big to snort!". Nice

 

[Irons]

Got back to deep gorge creek for a couple hours today and got some nice Gold. I have worked all the good gravels at this island spot but it's easy to get to and I knew I could find some Gold here. I am going to have to prospect up a couple new spots but so far I haven't had time to do it.

I am getting another minor repair done Oct 25 and I'll get a couple weeks off then, so hopefully I'll heal up fast and get out and find a couple new sluicing areas on my favorite creeks. Having to work really messes with the important things in life!

 

[newmisty]

Got back to deep gorge creek for a couple hours today and got some nice Gold. I have worked all the good gravels at this island spot but it's easy to get to and I knew I could find some Gold here. I am going to have to prospect up a couple new spots but so far I haven't had time to do it.

I am getting another minor repair done Oct 25 and I'll get a couple weeks off then, so hopefully I'll heal up fast and get out and find a couple new sluicing areas on my favorite creeks. Having to work really messes with the important things in life!



View attachment 228161View attachment 228162View attachment 228163

That's sure some visible gold! Attaboy Arrh-ns.

 

[rte]

We were out this morning updating paperwork on the R-TELL claim and hanging tags on the new FOREVER MINE claim.
Water is only 1/2 mile away from the new claim and in a good sized canal (here's the kicker) legally we CAN'T pull water from it.

 

[coopersmith]

how the heck did you dig a posthole for that post?

 

[rte]

how the heck did you dig a posthole for that post?

Hard labor with a pick and shovel, Is there any other way?
That's before I got a hammer chisel.
With age come wisdom...

 

[rte]

The things you have to do just to get your buckets back.

We came back to this dig site and the boulder was split (lighting strike making little rocks out of big rocks?) Trapped the bucket.

 

[Unca Walt]

That might have been a "Lucky Strike". After digging out the bucket, that split part might be able to be moved -- uncovering whatever it was on, and giving you a "face" under the remaining boulder.

 

[rte]

That might have been a "Lucky Strike". After digging out the bucket, that split part might be able to be moved -- uncovering whatever it was on, and giving you a "face" under the remaining boulder.

I dug halfway or better under the big rock and found nothing.
The rock hung over the exposed hole for a month and a half before we found it split.
The broken part still weighs in at around 700 pounds.
It's still guarding the bucket.

 

[Unca Walt]

I dug halfway or better under the big rock and found nothing.
The rock hung over the exposed hole for a month and a half before we found it split.
The broken part still weighs in at around 700 pounds.
It's still guarding the bucket.

Aww... rat's ass. Monday chicken, Tuesday feathers.

 

[rte]

Did a little digging around some rocks in caliche type (cemented gray type) material this morning for about 5 hours.
Got 5 drywasher clean outs that will be processed during the week to see it it's worth more earth moving.
85 degrees at 1pm when we quit.
Drywasher 12 buckets then vacuumed up the area for another 3 buckets.

Gold porn

0.063 gram worth at time of filming (LOL) Gross Melt Value $ 3.33

 

[Irons]

Did a little digging around some rocks in caliche type (cemented gray type) material this morning for about 5 hours.
Got 5 drywasher clean outs that will be processed during the week to see it it's worth more earth moving.
85 degrees at 1pm when we quit.
Drywasher 12 buckets then vacuumed up the area for another 3 buckets.
View attachment 229459
View attachment 229460

That is so cool you can register a claim and really work an area, I would love to do that. I hope you guys hit a seam of Gold that just blows your minds! Watching the progress is great too we're all hoping you nail it!

 

[Irons]

Got back to clay bottom creek for a few hours Monday, exactly a week after getting a hernia repaired so I had to take it easy. There's an area I found earlier with several small pockets that has great color so I decided today was the day. It's a long ways from where I set up my sluice or I would have cleaned it out earlier. Gravel fills small and large pockets in the clay bottom and that's where the Gold concentrates.

I took my time doing some test panning and ended up running 2 1/3 buckets through the sluice. I love it down here in this old creek bottom, it's peaceful and nobody comes there anymore. My little sluice dam was right where I left it. Got a decent speck count for such a small run, and it was nice being there!

Thanks for looking!

 

[TAEZZAR]

Got back to clay bottom creek for a few hours Monday, exactly a week after getting a hernia repaired so I had to take it easy. There's an area I found earlier with several small pockets that has great color so I decided today was the day. It's a long ways from where I set up my sluice or I would have cleaned it out earlier. Gravel fills small and large pockets in the clay bottom and that's where the Gold concentrates.

I took my time doing some test panning and ended up running 2 1/3 buckets through the sluice. I love it down here in this old creek bottom, it's peaceful and nobody comes there anymore. My little sluice dam was right where I left it. Got a decent speck count for such a small run, and it was nice being there!

Thanks for looking!

View attachment 230943View attachment 230944View attachment 230945View attachment 230946View attachment 230947View attachment 230948

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for sharing !

 

[rte]

Some of our group moved down the road to the Slim Pickins claim another mile from the claim we are working now.
Said the gold is better than what they have been getting out of the current spot by 3x.
Were going out Saturday morning with them to see if it's all that and a bag of chips...
Last clean up was 0.014 from 5/6 inches of the caliche layer and 0.072 from the top 18 inches of top soil.