I Got A Picker Tonite

[tvanwho]

Dunno why the forum went off line at about midnite Sat, Jan 17, just as I was trying to post? Anyway, seems to be ok now.

I was bored so finished panning off a bucket of paydirt from Indiana from September. Did the job indoors in a plastic tub in my bathtub with a stopper on the drain.

Found my biggest picker in 2 years in the bottom of the 1/4 inch screened gravels. Makes me even prouder considering it was in gravels and clay I scraped off bedrock slabs I removed from a creek bed secret spot I had found with my copper dowsing rods. The picker measures 1/4 inch x 1/8 inch , thick as maybe 3 sheets of paper and klinks in my bottle. Does that make it a flake or a nugget?

A happy ending to a week of misery with broken furnace, winter, and more repair bills than I cared for....

I just now tested out my new GB2 I got from Steve with the 6 inch coil, on my new picker. Never realized how hot that GB2 can be and stable, indoors airtest, anyway. Got about 3 - 4 inches airtest that I could hear without headphones. Almost 2 - 3 inches with Tesoro Lobo ST and 3 x 7 coil, minus phones. Nothing on my MXT with 6 x 9 coil.

-Tom V.

[Gold Seeker]

Congratulations Tom, it's very nice to find a big piece of gold where usually only fines are found!

[Reno Chris]

For Indiana, that's a danged impressive nugget! I have a friend who prospects there and I've seen his gold - its dust and tiny flakes. You'll probably start an Indiana gold rush. Got a scale capable of weighing it?

[tvanwho]

So, Chris ,when does a flake become a nugget is the big question?

 

T

[Steve Herschbach]

Actually I would say you called it right. A lot of people would call that a picker. Bigger than a flake for sure - you can pick it out of a sluice box. Where something gets called a nugget is purely personal opinion. You could call that a gold nugget and many people would agree. Many others would say it is too small. There is no exact rule.

Nice no matter what you call it!

[Reno Chris]

Long ago I read a nugget weighs more than a grain. It is however as Steve says, a matter of opinion.

[tvanwho]

The only scale I have is for ounces and pennyweights so I guess its back to the coin dealer for a gram weight. Thanks for the nugget opinions guys.

[tvanwho]

Ps, a friend of mine got a picker 3 x the size of this one in Indiana in a state forest where they do allow panning by free permit. He let me hold it altho I don't have a photo.It measured 5/8 inch long x almost 1/2 inch wide and maybe 1/32 nd inch thick.He said he was just digging in a pile of rocks by one of the creeks and just happened to get lucky. This was at Morgan Monroe SF near Martinsville,Indiana.I won't say which creek tho and there are a bunch of them. I hope to be there in early May if anybody wants to come along? Need to get down a 150 foot ,really steep hill, where I wanna go check a new creek I map dowsed. Just 1/4 mile  farther up that road from this creek,  we found 15 pickers at a friends secret spot creek and where my  dowsing rods liked. The pickers were all in a line about 10 feet long x 2 foot wide  where the creek bottom and the bank met. on 1 side.That was one of my better gold finding days.

 

  Chris, have your Indiana buddy contact me  if he wants half a chance to get a nice picker. There are several State Owned Forest properties near Martinsville, where a person has a fairly good chance at bigger Indiana gold. Permits are required and panning only and no shovels but the permits are free and can usually be got by calling the forest office on weekdays and they will send by email sometimes. The free permits are usually good for a year. We usually go to these forests in springtime, rather than summer, cause there is water flowing in spring. The hillsides down to the creeks are EXTREMELY steep and not for everybody and rattlesnakes and briars can be issues too. They do have primitive campgrounds for like $8 bucks a nite but the backroads are POORLY maintained,huge potholes every year. The gold is spotty but pickers can be found on occasion and sometimes color can be seen on bare bedrock in the creeks. This would be Owen-Putnam SF, Morgan Monroe SF, and Yellowwood SF about 30 miles sw of Indianapolis. The GPAA chapters in Indiana and Illinois go here too a few times a year.

 

-T

[tvanwho]

For you Indiana gold seekers of pickers vs dust, no guarantees of course :Good Luck...

 

Owen Putnam State Forest

Spencer,Indiana  ( 50 miles sw of Indianapolis)

 

Park Office , call to get free gold panning permit, no shovels, or sluices allowed,pan and trowel ok

 

Phone:812-829-2462,email OWENSF@DNR.IN.GOV

 

Yellowwood/Morgan Monroe SF

Martinsville, IN   (30 miles sw of indy )

Park office

 

Phone: 765-342-4026

 

Call at least 2 weeks before you need  the permit, primitive camping under $10 nite, poorly maintained backroads so drive slow,ask the office person what creeks to pan in, watch out for heavy rains as some park roads may get flooded out

 

-Tom V.

[fredmason]

Tvanwho; nice little picker. Have you given a goldbug or gmt a try on those sites? 

 

Question? How do you pan with out digging/shovelling?

 

Also, some sniping might bein order if there is bedrock and the water is clear...

 

perhaps you could make a different post regarding your dowsing and your success rate with this method...........?

 

fred