Golden_Republic

My oldest son is wanting to try panning, and my wife saw that Downieville is holding this event and thinks he and I and my younger son should try it out. I'm thinking very hard about heading up there on Friday (11th) and giving it a try. Would be a first time for us all.

So I just ordered a Minelab X-Terra Pro and am waiting for it to come in. One thing that bothers me about my current MD (Quest X10 Pro) is the fact that even collapsed it is still long and the handgrip (as I see many a MD have) is stationary and protrudes out from the shaft quite a bit. I know the cheaper MD's like the Minelab Go-Find series and some of the other Chinese brands from Amazon have fully collapsible designs, which includes the handgrip. I am wondering if there is a way to modify the handgrip on the X-Terra Pro (or any other MD) so it folds against the shaft for even more compactness, then locks in place when deployed? I want to take my MD with me when we go hiking or prospecting, but I want the MD to fit into a standard size hiking pack, so collapsed down the X-Terra Pro is about 24-25", which is perfect, but that handgrip will cause storage issues. Same with the Quest MD, although that is a bit longer when the shaft is closed. Anyone have ideas? Any DIY fabrication I could look into trying?

Appreciate the replies. For those asking about cleaning, it was a multi-part process. The metal is slightly blued, and appears to have some sort of clear varnish on it, more on that later... Initial post dig clean up was with water hose and spray. That cleaned the peripheral junk off. Second was a toothbrush with some Dawn soap to cleanse the scrollwork a bit more. This was followed by more water hose spraying. Third was some additional scrubbing with the toothbrush, followed by some light brushing with some 0000 steel wool. That took care of the outer portions of the gun. I then brought it inside, and boiled some distilled water, placed the gun into a ultrasonic cleaner and ran it with the water and some cleaning solution. I did part this about three times, washing off the gun under the faucet between cycles. Lastly, I used a pair of hobby/craft tweezers (ultra fine tip type) to fish out all the root pieces and dislodge the dirt from inside the hammer shroud and trigger guard and barrel. Then there was a final run through the ultrasonic cleaner (to give a final cleanse of any interior mess) with plain distilled water and finally dried off with a micro-fiber towel. During the exterior cleaning I noticed that there was some flaking of what appeared to be clear varnish from the barrel and cylinder of the gun, so I backed off cleaning with the steel wool. In looking at the product pictures I could find of this model, it appears that the gun was naturally a variation of this blue sort of color. Item 3 from the following webpage shows this gun's original packaging. https://talmadge.org/2017/07/29/buried-treasure/ Additional photos: http://www.nicholscapguns.com/hubley4.htm (shown about halfway down page)

Sorta. My house was built in the late 40's (1947-48). We are the third owners of the property. The original family was here probably from the late 40's to early 70's, then another family lived here in the 70's and 80's and then another two families lived here together in the 90's and early 2000's. My wife bought the home in 2004. Our neighbor tells us stories of when she moved in to her home (1975) and that the family living in our home was a rambunctious crowd, the boys especially... fights in the front yard, always working on cars in the back yard, parties, etc. She also says that when the family left, they threw a whole heap of trash into a below ground pool and covered it with dirt. I've been randomly scanning the yard for the past few weeks, getting to know my MD (Quest X10 Pro) and all the varying target ID's and sounds. I've found tons of nails, some small car parts, Zincolns and pull tabs. I even dug up a crushed beer can from about 9" down. My brother in law once told me story, which kind of confirms the neighbor's tale, as my brother in law says that shortly after my wife purchased the home, he had to help her trench a line for a replacement sewage pipe, and while he was doing that, he was pulling out whole car doors and crowbars from 6 inches down all the way to 6 feet plus. Fast forward to this week, I go out back to meddle around with my MD. I go to check a new area of the yard and my MD pinged with what I figured was another Zincoln. I wasn't going to dig it, but decided what the heck... Ended up digging up a 1950's era metal cap pistol. In researching, this is a knock-off of the Old Smoky cap pistol made by Hubley. This particular model was made by a company called Greencraft Products Inc. out of Jersey City, New Jersey. It was nice finding a piece of history here - something that belonged to one of the original children of the home, long ago forgotten.

Wishing you well and a speedy recovery.

As an update, travelled up this weekend and drove the road I wanted to drive and checked out the rocks. After thinking it over I opted not to take a sample. I'll do some more investigation and may travel up again soon to a different location and check. I appreciate all who chimed in. Some definite education for me on what is what. Appreciated.

Hello all. Hoping someone more knowledgeable will be able to educate me a bit, as I am geologically dumb. I'll be heading up from Sacramento out toward the Mendocino Forest to visit my grandfather soon - and along the route, in Colusa County, there are numerous turnouts and shoulder areas that contain hills of rock like in the picture. From what I can tell these are shale based formations and possibly formed from prehistoric ocean bed. From what I have researched, the range they are in fall into the California Coast Range. I know the area has been known as a producer of copper and chromium and some gold and other minerals in the past, but I was wondering if the gravel or larger rocks on these roadsides is worth taking a look at. I was planning on taking my MD and seeing what sounds off at ground level (probably trash upon trash), but wasn't sure about possibly collecting some of the gravel to try and pan it later. If I do decide to collect, I won't be digging into the mountainside at all, just sampling what has eroded away and is at the base of the mountains. Based on the composition seen in these pictures is it even worth sampling? Thanks!

Hello all. First off I'd like to thank you all for the addition to the site. I'm joining you all from Sacramento, California. Beyond some family camping trips to various camp sites when I was very young, I have been entirely city raised. I have recently been mulling over the idea of starting to head out with my brother in-laws and teenage sons and do some gold panning and some metal detecting - partially to break the monotony of being trapped in the city, but also as a bonding experience for us all. For the majority of us, it has been many years since any of us have been out of the city, either camping or just out in nature. So acclimating from being in the concrete world to open spaces will be interesting for us all, but is something we are all willing to do. I've read different forums and watched loads of YouTube videos and think I have a general idea of what to look for, where to go, what to buy and how to use it when it comes to beginner prospecting - but I do realize that being in the wilderness and the reality of what occurs while prospecting is much different from written text and edited video, so I am not jumping in blind. My main concerns - beyond rattlesnakes and other potentially hostile wildlife - is us unintentionally infringing on someone's claim during our outings...well, that and the potential of stumbling on someone's illicit pharmaceutical business in the woods. So if anyone is from the same area, I would very much appreciate some localized feedback on where to go, and what to expect. I'm trying to steer clear of the "commercialized" panning experiences and hit places that really kind of jump into panning (and possibly detecting) head first. Until we all head out on our maiden venture, here I am, reading through the miscellaneous stories, adventures and lessons you all have been through and enjoying it very much. For now, I'm saving up the remainder of my pennies to grab a decent metal detector and enough prospecting equipment for us all. Thanks again for having me.

Greatly enjoying this thread and the story. The way you have weaved this - it's easy to imagine the emotion and the labor that was done and become invested in each of the characters. Always have been a quick reader. Still took me about 3-4 days to completely go through though. Looking forward to more, and whatever future adventures you may find yourself writing about.

New member here. Stumbled on this site while looking through Google at advice and forums about getting into gold panning/prospecting. Saw this story and have read through its entirety over the past few days. Ghost Miner has a definitive way with words and the story of Jed, Will, John, Jacob and Co. is fascinating to say the least. Thanks Ghost Miner for sharing.