Anyone here do any Gold Panning?

[professionalcoyotehunter]

Point me in the direction I need to go and I will hike as far as I have to. I have lots of pans and equipment. Is there a claim up there I need to worry about or is it open to the public?

[TheCilician]

Yo..

If you want some flatter land, try this campsite, it's in Sequoia:

http://www.hikercentral.com/campgrounds/114984.html

It's a beautiful place to camp and fish as well....but you can hike down to Bukeye (the campsite across from it) to get a broader river opening, and more potential mining territory.

If you want to stick to King's canyon, (which is farther into Sequoia National Park, PM me and I'll gather more info....Kings Canyon is the more rockier and hard to reach place.

[professionalcoyotehunter]

DO you know if gredging is permitted on the King's River?

[TheCilician]

This is off of the CA F&G website:

"Portions of the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests, designated as the Kings River Special
Management Area, are closed to suction dredging. Contact the appropriate U.S. Forest
Service office for details."

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/pdffiles/SuctionDredgeRegs.pdf

But to my knowledge, I've only seen panners out there. There is a ranger station on the way up there you can ask, or just go to that website and give em' a call for details.

[professionalcoyotehunter]

Thanks for the update. I will just stick to my sluice and pan then.

[domokun]

See thread here?

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=84300

[professionalcoyotehunter]

Thanks I will check out that thread.

That one looks pretty dead but informative.

[TheCilician]

Thanks for the update. I will just stick to my sluice and pan then.

Sounds good. Let me know if you ever go up to King's or Seqeioa. Good Luck

[professionalcoyotehunter]

I am going this weekend to Camp at Sandy Flats and pan down the road at the GPAA claim and take some dirt home before we leave.

you are more than welcome to meet us there.

I'm thinking of getting one of these for the heck of it.

http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/for/1137894015.html

[professionalcoyotehunter]

Has anyone here tried a miller's table.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDW9NkaNvv0

[rolo]

Re: miller's table. It looks like a poorly set up sluice box. You should never have to touch the setup in order to make it work. Using your fingers or a brush will lose you gold. Look up "poop tube sluice" on google for a really cheap no hands way to clean up concentrates. I have one set up semi-permanently in my backyard that has about thirty feet of run to it. All the parts you need to build it can be found at any hardware/home store, usually for less than thirty bucks.

You can find the materials to make a proper rocker box there too. $150 is too much to pay for something as inefficient as a rocker box. If you are doing it for nostaligia, re-enactment or archaeology's sake, making one in wood would serve your purposes better. There are better uses of sheet metal for making prospecting equipment, like a trammel.

[professionalcoyotehunter]

How about $150 for a Spiral Pan setup. I just found one today for that price. I know these are $300+ new since I just bought one in LAs Vegas but I might buy the other one just for a back up.

[rolo]

A spiral pan is such a specialized piece of equipment that trying to cheap out isn't going to be an option. If you like them and they work for you, the price you pay is only relevant if you are prospecting for income.

I want my hobbies to at least try to pay for themselves, that's part of the fun for me. I get in with as little cash outlay as possible, learning as much as I can by building as much of the equipment needed to participate as my resources and knowledge allow.

All gold prospecting equipment is designed to do one thing only, separate the gold from everything else. HOW you do it is irrelevant. I get by with a sluicebox and a pan, but I'm very good with both and they're both paid for several times over.

The most important thing is to learn what to look for, which can only be discovered by getting out there are getting wet. Bring a prospecting book or two with you so you have something to do out there when you are wiped out from shoveling gravel.

[professionalcoyotehunter]

I am not cheaping out on it. It is practically new. I bought mine brand new 2 weeks ago but have only used it a little. But it did it's job and separated the gold from the black sand. I just figured I would buy another to have one for home that goes to my garden hose and power outlet and one for the field with the pump and battery.

[Dark&Good]

What about metal detectors?