Prospecting

[blackZZR]

In a national forest you stop by the rangers station and ask for a administration pss telling them where you will be. It is free. I would be more worried about having a cliam holder finding you on his claim. A lot of cliams up in big bear area.

[chris142]

I didn't know this, but Rickashay told me that you have to have some type of documentation with you if you plan to do this kinda thing and can face some nasty fines if a ranger sees you out there without the proper claim rights or whatever it's called.

As long as he's on BLM land and not on an active claim it's ok to do some prospecting. Cant use a water thing and wash a hill away but a pick and shovel is ok.

"Rockhounding and recreational mining are permitted activities on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The usual rockhound materials, including agates and stones, may be collected in reasonable quantities for hobby use. Petrified wood collection on BLM lands is limited to 25 pounds plus one piece per day to a maximum of 250 pounds per year. Panning, sluicing, and suction dredging for gold may be arranged through permit at certain areas"

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/rec...cks.print.html

[blackZZR]

Actually, there is a difference between recreational prospecting and prospecting and needing a permit. And yes it is enforced. If you ave a pan and one bucket etc, yes is rec. You pull outa high banker and suddenly you now have the ability to move some earth,and need a permit. I found out and it is not cheap,plus the line is drawn by the guy writing the ticket. So it is best to get a permit.

[chris142]

http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/index.shtm

Can you make heads or tails out of that site? I've been trying for 2 months. Everything I click on is a dead end or brings me back to where I started at.

I gave up and forgot about it untill you posted the link.

[Schmo]

Yeah I don't know all the details, but Rick bought a metal detector and mentioned that the first time he pulled it out on the trail, a ranger came up and asked him if he had documentation. Luckily he was "in the know" and had the right stuff to keep him out of trouble. I was really surprised and never would have thought that you'd need a permit for something like that.

[NAILER341]

There are some great spots in Kernville for gold.
I once brought back a 12 pack box of filings and had it analyzed chemically. It came back as 4 oz. per ton of dirt. It just wasn't worth it at the time to move so much dirt so far then pay for the extracting.

[Gary]

Got the PM Chris and responded, Thanks.

The Geo Communicator map is a little complicated. I was lost the first time using it also. The next few times using it I figured some things out with the help of the BLM guy on the phone. It'll show you the areas where claims can be filed, where active and closed claims are. Closed claims can be refiled on. On the Geo map there's also a way to search out information on who filed, what the dates where, and other stuff. I'm still figuring it out though. Just like anything, the more you mess with it the more you figure out.

I haven't read about the permit yet, glad you guys mentioned it. I thought you only needed a permit if you were looking for meteorites.
A Metal detector,Bucket, shovel, and a pick is what I've been taking out with me. Will be making a call to BLM about the permit today.

Nailer 4oz's per ton sounds like a lot at todays prices. You should go back and check to see if anyone has claimed the spot? If not maybe you should make the claim?

There's hundreds of guys if not thousands out there prospecting all over the country. Figuring out what you can and can't do just takes a little reading. I'm still in the learning fase of all this. I don't want to go out and get in any trouble because I haven't read about something. My retired neighbor has a few claims filed in Northern California and he works them for a couple of months out of the year. He's found 20 oz's already. He's also giving me some pointers. Just the other day he was saying there's a ban in California on dredging right now. The ban went into effect right after he purchased a expensive dredger. It's being fought in court but from what i got out of it he was saying a Indian Reservation asked a Prospector who had a claim to slow down or stop dredging for a bit and give the water a chance to clear up. The Prospector told the indian no way, he had a legal claim and the right to dredge. The Tribe/Indian/Reservation (whatever) went to court and got an injunction or something to get a temperary ban on dredging. I guess Arnold went over board and banned dredging State wide. This is just some of the stuff we heard from my neighbor.

[Gary]

I use to take the family to the Red Mountain area and fill 5 gal buckets up and bring it home,we always found color in almost every pan. nothing big but color. the devore wash between keewood and cleghorn holds gold and garnets ,lytle creek can work too if you can get thru the diapers and trash.
use to 4 wheel Azusa cyn back in the 70's in my fj40 and did some prospecting on the east fork,can be a real productive area.
Rich:gun:

A few years back while passing thru the area on vacation we pulled off the road to stretch our legs. One person in our group was walking around maybe 20' off the road kicking rocks and some guy came flying up on us in a pickup telling us we couldn't stop there. Real angry dude. I guess it was his property and he thought we were hunting for gold at the time?

I may go back and look around in the area on a weekend. I'll check the geo communicator map first to make sure I'm not going to be on someones active claim.

[spearheadbill]

Nailer... I can move some dirt

[blackZZR]

you know
joining the golds prospectors assc.
http://www.goldprospectors.org/zenca...products_id=30
and you get a book of all claims and the ones you are allowed to prospect on no charge.
Plus a lot of gold information
just a 1 year membership and if you read the mag, watch the show, read watch the dvd, and the difference between doing it for fun, and actually making a small profit is made. if I had to pay out of pocket for the hobby I would give up, but now my partner and I actually pay off cost and equipment from dust, and save nuggets for ourselves.

[Gary]

you know
joining the golds prospectors assc.
http://www.goldprospectors.org/zenca...products_id=30
and you get a book of all claims and the ones you are allowed to prospect on no charge.
Plus a lot of gold information
just a 1 year membership and if you read the mag, watch the show, read watch the dvd, and the difference between doing it for fun, and actually making a small profit is made. if I had to pay out of pocket for the hobby I would give up, but now my partner and I actually pay off cost and equipment from dust, and save nuggets for ourselves.

Thats sounds cool, I was actually considering doing this already. My neighbor joined a club and said he learned a lot from them.

We called BLM today and asked if we needed any type of permit for metal detecting for gold/silver and such. They said no permit is needed for minerals but if I found coins or other artifacts it's not legal to take that and they would appreciate a call with GPS coordinates so they could send someone right out. They also said metal detecting is ok but I shouldn't be tunneling or digging giant holes while metal detecting. Small holes are ok though.

I should have asked them if it was ok to dig more small holes inside of the small holes I already dug.

Seriously though, whenever I dig a hole I push the dirt back in it before leaving. I try to leave an area just as I found it. Wish more people would do the same. Nothing worse than cruising through a scenic area and seeing grafetti or trash everywhere.

[rickashay]

you know
joining the golds prospectors assc.
http://www.goldprospectors.org/zenca...products_id=30
and you get a book of all claims and the ones you are allowed to prospect on no charge.
Plus a lot of gold information
just a 1 year membership and if you read the mag, watch the show, read watch the dvd, and the difference between doing it for fun, and actually making a small profit is made. if I had to pay out of pocket for the hobby I would give up, but now my partner and I actually pay off cost and equipment from dust, and save nuggets for ourselves.

Thats who I'm signed up with, and as Schmo said I was asked for credentials first time out. They have lots of claims to work Big Bear,Kern,Last Chance, etc. If your anywhere near Vegas this weekend there is a big show at South Point.

[Gary]

Must be something seperate the forestry dept/National Forest Service wants you to have? I haven't talked to them yet. Will do though.

Thanks for the heads up on the Show in Vegas, doubt I'll be able to make it to this one though.

[chris142]

I'm building a rock smasher upper at work. I ordered a tool from one of the tool trucks but he didn't get it yet. Bummer cause I have a bunch of rocks I want to smash up.

[Gary]

Yeah I was thinking about that last night, gonna need one myself. What kinda of tool are you needing? Might have one?

Did you catch California's Gold (Huell Howser show) last night on channel 26 / KCET? They were Deep in the Sixteen-to-one Mine up north blasting quartz. They were showing us the gold in the quartz, it was pretty cool. Lots of gold in that mine. They melted some of it down into bars on the program. That mine has been producing rich ore since the 1800's.

Here's a link to the Sixteen-To-One mine website http://www.origsix.com/index.asp

Howzer was holding a piece of quartz with nothing on it and asked the Miner what they do to a piece like he had in his hand. The Miner said we crush it because there's usually more gold inside of it. Kinda changes the way I look at a piece of quartz. I always figured if I had a chunk of qaurtz in my hand and couldn't see the gold, that was that. I'd just look it over and toss it. Gonna have to start crushing it up now. LOL