At it again..

This is the ground I worked today, after de-rocking I sluiced all material down to
a shovels depth below water line. The fines aren't hard packed so this spot might
be worth waiting for dryer times and dig down to bedrock(approx. 0.5m)...

Decreased sluice angle a fair bit and dropped flow rate right back. After a solid 4
hour run i panned each section of sluice again and results were awesome.
No colour until the 3rd section up, increased from there up with over 50%
of recovery in the top boiler. Tiny iron stones in all sections to, thumbs up!
Includes the couple of bits from yesterdys sampling..

I gave this little banker a decent flogging and it handled it very well.
A pile of its punishment..

Another good day

A good day indeed 20x,a few nice chunks there mate.

Top score 20 !
:Y: O :Y:

who's digging where on sundy? wouldn't mind a social sluice ey? who i am...

Hey nice spot there 20x! Good gold. :Y:
Hope you pull some nuggets out of there!

That's a great start 20X, excellent work.
Mackka

I think your onto a good thing fella.....20x Is definitely at it again!

OldGT said:

I think your onto a good thing fella.....20x Is definitely at it again!

Click to expand...

good to hear from ya again mate, this forum needs a couple of nice pickers from that gully
posted in show n tell like old times, what say you..

Went back to tuena today with a plan to dig big and deep towards the inside
just to see what was there. Pretty disappointing when ya get down that far
and pull a pepsi can out of a deep crevice. Sluiced everything from half way
down, then dunny pumped and panned and got jack 5hit lol. Didn't even
bother doing a clean out, Packed up just after lunch..

Then I started to have a bit of a look around, another bloke rocked up and
says he gets good bits under these massive tree roots on bedrock, so I did
that but only got a few tiny fly 5hits. He left and I decided to focus on the
low water main channel of the creek, was getting a couple of these little
coarse bits each pan, lots of that iron stone shot to. Ran out of light to determine
the actual line..

Rest day today so decided to clean out what came from that hole. Process of
elimination can cost a bit of energy but it must be done. To think, the guy
that rocked up 'after' I did that told me that none of that material was there
2 years ago and it was bare bedrock..

20xwater said:

OldGT said:

I think your onto a good thing fella.....20x Is definitely at it again!

Click to expand...

good to hear from ya again mate, this forum needs a couple of nice pickers from that gully
posted in show n tell like old times, what say you..

Click to expand...

Mate I wish I had the time and equipment. Went back with the nephew after some rain and we sluiced for an hour or two with a McKirk got maybe a gram and couple nice specie pieces... It's still showing some drift colours caught up in the clays.

If your ever down this way shoot a pm. There's a spot in Bendigo we could go dig I've been itching to get back to, should be restocked after a couple years not seeing my shovel.

Must be a thick ribbon of it snaking down there somewhere's then 20 ,.... looking good if your you mate, hey !
:Y: :Y:
O

OldGT said:

20xwater said:

OldGT said:

I think your onto a good thing fella.....20x Is definitely at it again!

Click to expand...

good to hear from ya again mate, this forum needs a couple of nice pickers from that gully
posted in show n tell like old times, what say you..

Click to expand...

Mate I wish I had the time and equipment. Went back with the nephew after some rain and we sluiced for an hour or two with a McKirk got maybe a gram and couple nice specie pieces... It's still showing some drift colours caught up in the clays.

If your ever down this way shoot a pm. There's a spot in Bendigo we could go dig I've been itching to get back to, should be restocked after a couple years not seeing my shovel.

Click to expand...

sound good mate,from back of town driving out to growlers there is heaps of wash in that gully, ever tested it?

silver said:

Must be a thick ribbon of it snaking down there somewhere's then 20 ,.... looking good if your you mate, hey !
:Y: :Y:
O

Click to expand...

Went back this morning and worked main channel where I sampled, got as deep as I could
shovel and colour didn't get any better so stopped sluicing. spot is at the end of a big bend
that has a fair bit of fall and has a choke point then goes flat and widens for 200m's.
I even went down the end of the straight and un-choked the bedrock that was dam the
straight, that dropped the water level where I was sluicing only 50-60mm but it kept water
out of my gumboots.
beautiful ground..


lost interest by lunch time and went sampling another creek.

Funny you should mention it. I was visiting a local who was having some luck with a detector up there and he happened to mentioned a couple of people had shacked up down that area running a trommel for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately they seem for the most part to be unwelcoming to the campsite and surrounding areas the story goes....

I've got my eye on some ground I've never been to after talking to a beekeeper used to detect and pan when bees were allowed in areas they aren't now allowed. Seemed to think there's plenty left to dig and the landowners not far from there have historically been known to have a bit of the shiny stuff tucked away. Just need some time in the general area and a bit of water around I guess.

He was looking to relocate the bees and contacted me out of the blue after finding out one of my blocks has a certain flowering tree in good numbers that makes great honey. I had to laugh about that I was going to clear them a few years back when I had the Digger and an excavator on site! He's kept me in honey toast for the winter lol.

OldGT said:

Funny you should mention it. I was visiting a local who was having some luck with a detector up there and he happened to mentioned a couple of people had shacked up down that area running a trommel for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately they seem for the most part to be unwelcoming to the campsite and surrounding areas the story goes....

I've got my eye on some ground I've never been to after talking to a beekeeper used to detect and pan when bees were allowed in areas they aren't now allowed. Seemed to think there's plenty left to dig and the landowners not far from there have historically been known to have a bit of the shiny stuff tucked away. Just need some time in the general area and a bit of water around I guess.

He was looking to relocate the bees and contacted me out of the blue after finding out one of my blocks has a certain flowering tree in good numbers that makes great honey. I had to laugh about that I was going to clear them a few years back when I had the Digger and an excavator on site! He's kept me in honey toast for the winter lol.

Click to expand...

plan ahead long term, put in effort, dig water catchments, shallow races to feed them, what ever it takes mate :Y:

Today I took 2 blokes I live with out to sunny corner for their first go at panning. I asked them
if they wanted to come a couple of days before, 1 had nothing but the other had been to the
local camp/disposal shop and had a new pan, sniffer bottle and a tiny glass 1 ounce jar to fill.
I loved it, reminded me of my beginning.
Down the creek I showed them and explained step by step from shovel to
classify to pan. one bloke was happy just to watch but the other totally different story lol.
his first pan i just told him what to do again as he did it(un-co as) but he still ended up with
one flake. i put it in his tiny jar full of water to maginify it, how happy he was and how long
he spent looking at it made me laugh, what he didn't realise is the gold bug had just infected
his system lol.
He ended up with about 10 colours in his jar for the hour. he had to be somewhere but has
already booked a FULL day next sundy lol.
Panning was killing his back so i have suggested the river sluice, thinking i might do the same
actualy.

what came out of that last hole at tuena(deeper=less)..

was just thinking...about 1 shovels depth down in that hole was a layer of decomposing leaf litter.
I'm guessing all the material on top of that was the deposit after the latest flood...makes sence.
learning...plotting the ribbon isn't just a left/middle or right, height and depth to..
so much to concider..

I think yesterday will be my last sampling day until after winter unless I buy some wetsuit gloves.
I have adjusted my technique back to 1 handed but classifying is a no go and clay mashing
is out of the question to lol..

Thanks for the journey 20Xwater.
Mackka