New Member From Northern California

[glacialgold]

Welcome from Indiana. I'm jealous of all you guys living by the Motherlode  -- must be fun! 

[Earl]

8 hours ago, glacialgold said:

Welcome from Indiana. I'm jealous of all you guys living by the Motherlode  -- must be fun! 

Well, yes glacialgold, yes, I have found stuff that I never thought existed. Really back in the time and very interesting.

I lucked out by coming to Holland and got the chance to search, and it really caught on.

So got the good finds before the others...Lucky

[Wild Bill]

Hi Matt, 

I’m new here as well!  I decided to join in when I saw Steve was looking for the 1990-1992 Compass Metal Detector Catalog.  There’s a large quartz nugget in that Catalog that I found in 1986 on the North Yuba.  You can see pictures of it over there as someone provided that catalog for Steve.  Probably not the best place to post that, as it’s a limited hang out.  I found it dredging but I have advice for you and anyone detecting placer gold.  This 20 Troy ounce with 9 ounces of gold was found ON TOP of the gravel just covered with sand.  It was on the edge of a gravel bar under about one foot of water.  Minor flood gold in gravel with the rest of the gold on bedrock.  My point is that it’s where everyone says “there’s little to no gold on top and especially with just sand” and generally that’s true.  But a high grade quartz specimen can be anywhere in a placer and even right on top of all the gravel.  The quartz gives the rock some buoyancy even with a lot of heavy gold in the matrix.  So just like any rock it might not work itself to bedrock like gold freed from rock.  So search the gravel deposits as well!  You might find your largest gold still incased in quartz.  

[samgreen]

On 1/29/2025 at 9:32 AM, Mountaineer Matt said:

I hope you are enjoying the videos. I'm actually in El Dorado county but a lot of folks think I'm from Chico because I used to live there for a while and I always wear a Chico sweatshirt. I prospect all along the motherlode from Calavares to Plumas county and prefer the American and yuba for river prospecting. 

Hey Matt, Also in El Dorado County.  If you ever need someone to explore with, let me know.  Lots places to go, just not always a good idea to go alone.

[Desert Dawg]

Matt, good to see another fellow Northern Californian on the forums, I got my start with gold by dredging back in the late 1980'S did ok up above Foresthill on Shirttail Creek, then I started nugget detecting with a GB2 on the North Yuba River about 2012 and got my first two small nuggets there and was hooked on detectors for gold. Since about 2014 I been mostly detecting in Northern Nevada, camping a week at a time mostly in spring. Its a fun hobby for sure. And can be productive at times. 

[Goldfinger]

On 10/31/2024 at 9:17 PM, Mountaineer Matt said:

Hey folks,

Gold detectorist here. Been lurking here for quite a while but finally created an account and wanted to say hello from Northern California. I've learned a lot from the reading through the forums and hopefully will be able to contribute and share some good conversations with the detecting veterans here. Have been using the GM1000, Equinox 800, SDC2300, Axiom, and recently the GPX 6000. Ended up selling my gm1000 and kept the equinox 800 since, for me, it can find gold just as well as the gm1000, if not better, especially with the 6" coil. Plus it covers my relic detecting needs. Cheers.

Alzo new...to the site anyway; rest of me's pretty well broken in being 77.  3rd gen. prospector

I was literally ptospecting before I could walk. At the moment I'm getting set up for a 2nd season

on a rich flour deposit. The thing with fine flour is that, mixed in soil, flour does not reflect a 

detector signal.  I'm old & lazy, flour is often near the surface, & nature has thoroughly milledit for you.

the downside is that, as a powder, the fine stuff blows right thru a pan or sluice. It will float on surface tension,

& disappear in a wispy cloud if you breathe on it.  It requires delicate handling. Ask me laater.