Hillside Vs Ridge Vs Wash Detecting - When And Why

[tboykin]

There is a topic briefly covered in Chris Ralph's book "Fists Full of Gold" which I've been discussing with my prospecting buddy. When is it better to detect the hillside, ridge, or bottom of a wash for shallow gold nuggets?

I usually go for hillside and ridge, but can see the logic in detecting the very bottom of a wash. It all depends on what kind of gold is present, how it was deposited, and what forces of erosion are present. However, I have dug nuggets on the steepest of slopes, in the very bottom of a gully, and also on the very top of ridge - sometimes all in ONE location! And despite my efforts to use logic to figure out a pattern, sometimes the gold surprises me. Usually my train of though goes as follows:

1. If gold was found here before, was it found on bedrock, or distributed in the overburden?
2. What kind of erosion factors into gold deposition (wind, water, faulting, etc)?
3. What kind of gold is present (slugs or cornflakes)?
4. How much trash is present?

So, how do you decide the specific topography (hillside, gully, or ridge) you are going to target, based on known factors at a likely spot?

[klunker]

1 hour ago, tboykin said:

(hillside, gully, or ridge)

 If it's in the gully it's on the hillside. if it's on the hillside, you better check the ridge. If it's on the ridge you better check the other side. if it's on the other side, you better check the next gully. And now it's time to detect back to the jeep and go back to camp.

[HardPack]

44 minutes ago, tboykin said:

how do you decide the specific topography (hillside, gully, or ridge) you are going to target, based on known factors at a likely spot?

In the foothills the old timers working stream placers would often dry sample upslope once the gold played off in the stream. I believe Chris describes the process. I often follow the same procedure, stopping to examine quartz float found on the slope. As you stated or impied the limitations are the depth of the overburden, the detection depth of a metal detector and the amount brush covering the slope. I have found old sample holes while crawling under the brush cover and a few times found the source. The new collapsible detectors make the process workable. Once on or near the ridge I will follow the quartz stringer, if any, looking for a place to stand up and happy for it. I do not use headphones but the ML pro sonic speaker. I use a VLF if the ground mineralization allows. Like you I am looking for prior activity, the older the trash the better. I consider lead balls a good sign plus it gives me some idea how deep to look. Once close to the source the old timers would dig a trench down to bedrock parallel to the slope. So picks heads and broken shovels factor into the search. I often find myself thinking the old process worked for them, it could work for me. That is usually when I discover the old timers arrived at the source long ago. But it is fun, I keep searching and even get lucky from time to time.

[GotAU?]

Also keep in mind that the hills were most likely not there when the gold deposits were formed, so as for placer gold, it could have come from an area above you that is now just sky…

[Valens Legacy]

I have almost flat land where I am at, and that is why I follow the creeks.

When in the creek or gully i will find an area with some small gold and stay with the area going up stream until there is no more to find. When that happens I know that somewhere between the two places is where the gold has come from. I then start up the sides of the creek to the top area of the bank until there is no more gold to find.

I make sure that I check both sides of the banks and try to locate where the largest pieces of gold is to be had. When I think I have found all there is at the location I move to another area and start over.

There is no set place that the gold will always be in my area, so it is always a constant search for more gold in more areas. We have a lot of small creeks near me that only have water in them during the rainy season, so I am constantly checking more areas.

Hope you find the answers that work for you in your area.

[geof_junk]

Just look for the shallow ground in the area.

[beatup]

Here is why I like hillsides at times when the nuggets are scarce like today we were out hunting in a large wide flat bottom wash ,deep overburden but gold has been found there , lots of old workings in it left by the old timers that being said we have found just working the very edges of the hillsides where it drops into the washes will produce gold but I do like working the area around 10 to 20 feet above the wash  , I like looking for small benches and tiny little water cuts on the hillside. At this area my brother dug up a nice 5 gram nugget a couple days ago and today I managed to dig out a pair of nuggets that came in at 6.6 grams .

[snakejim]

I am working the side of a Gulch that has layers of gravel and large boulders. The gulch was discovered to have gold in it  in 1865. It was worked clean by the old timers all the way to bedrock. However since then, flash floods have brought in more material from the sides. Years ago I was detecting the bottom of the Gulch and found a nice 1/4 ounce nugget  and smaller nuggets laying on a clay layer (a false bedrock) and they were only a couple inches deep. I dry washed everything on the top of the clay layer and recovered a lot of gold. Then, I dug down and dry washed the rest of the gravel under that clay layer and went all the way to bedrock and it didn't have much gold at all.  

The odd thing about the bench gravels I'm working now is that they are on an outside bend of the Gulch. As the flash floods came down from the top of the mountain they hit this bank and deposited those nugget just a few feet from the bank. The old timers had worked all the inside bend benches. However streams meander and at one time the bench I'm working could have been the bottom of the drainage.

So, to answer your question, Gold is where you find it. snakejim

[Drellim]

Everybody is on it above  I  figure the old timers counting color going up the draw  you see we’re they stopped   No more flour not enough to pay we’ll all the light stuff shuts off and some times going above the draws were the old timers stopped   well the heavy’s don’t move much and it can pay well  the old timers were very efficient in most places so if you see a clay layer work it and don’t bother thinking they missed much below that as one said  the only pay in  the draw is working is the sluff that came in in the past 100 years  go above  there workings   most ridges were gulches as it erodes away kind of a high low  high low in the erosion for millions or billions in some places as you work and put in the time you get a  Sence to follow like the old timers had every day working hard for years they get a natural instinct  and if you put in that time so will you   It’s out there and they only thing that pays off is hard work and a lot of research   Best of luck to you as ide rather be luck than smart  

[Gold Catcher]

The most important thing for me is to research the area, learn about the nature of the gold deposits and when it was worked on, the nature of the host rock, what type of gold was found (was if free mill), how coarse was it etc. I am not chasing flood gold with a detector, and am staying away from unpacked gravel bars, even when nicely accumulated at inside bents. It pays off to observe the area a bit before detecting, and to "think like gold". What mass flow can you observe? Where is the bigger gravel and where is the much finer one, etc. The old inside bent theory has never really worked for me that much and I have found gold all over river channels (low pressure zones can occur at many places). If the gravel on the ridges is bigger than in the gullies, then you will find more gold there, at least more likely IMO. My favorite areas however are alluvial fans, where the heavy stuff moves up instead of down during heavy mass movements. I am not talking about seasonal flash floods here and there, but rather about very heavy flow of material, likely when the fan was formed (millions of years ago). The Mojave nugget (156 oz) was found just a few feet deep in a 1000 ft overburden. So, heavy stuff can travel up at times, just not in a river. 😄

GC