Golden Legends Tales of Buried Treasure

This is a pretty nice forum entry with nice instructions on making a denim holster. Included are 6 Jpegs photos. http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/defensive-carry-holsters-carry-options/80385-home-made-denim-holster.html

Since I live in Arizona and prospect there, an issue comes up of snakes, especially in spring and summer. Since you are digging, you probably have a full length shovel - they can work - but rattlesnakes are intimidating if caught coiled and rattling. I wouldn't think of using a short shovel. I think the best thing to do is invest in a .22 caliber revolver or .38 and use snake shot loads. The.22 works very well. Some people who like to carry have a .22 with snake shot in the first 2 or 3 chambers and regular loads in the rest. It makes sense - chances of meeting more than 3 angry snakes in one day are slim. Most I have encountered is one per adventure. Of course the other loads are for threats from other animals or the occasional crazed person. I like to carry a .22 revolver with snake shot in all my chambers. I also carry a S&W 9mm Sigma. I don't like to feel nervous when out in the field. Do as you see fit, but an investment in .22 revolver for rattlesnakes is a goo...

This is a good video on how to make a sand scoop for metal detecting for less than $1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WHXNO_vjXqw

This is not a plan. I wrote this article trying to describe the steps to basic metal detecting. I  hope it is useful. http://john000.hubpages.com/hub/Metal-Detectors-A-Hobby-with-Bountiful-Treasures

Here's a picture of a fold up sluice - you might be able to replicate it from the photo. http://miningold.com/absslu.html

A do-it-yourself backpack sluice http://miningold.com/bpslu.html                                 

This is a beautifully laid out site with ordered photos and clearly spelled out details. It is put out by the Colorado Prospector. The plans call for cutting a bucket and using the smaller piece with screen to make a top to the other piece. You move the top in a circular fashion back and forth shaking for a fine classifier. See it! http://www.coloradoprospector.com/EquipmentPlans/Classifier.html

http://www.lornet.com/prospector/articles/highbanker.htm Gullgraver 1850 California ,   the New Mexico Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway Alliance

Gravity Dredge - http://goldfever.com/g_dredge.htm

I recommend this site because it has an interactive map showing ghost towns in various counties in various states. It also has info about Terlingua, a lost ghost town in Texas. you can also enjoy treasure hunting stories, ghost town stories, trivia questions, and more. http://www.therockerbox.com/

Found an ingenious website that has instructions for building a plastic dry washer. The site is a forum. The web page concerned has photos of the machine and instructions. It is called GG's $65 Wastebasket Dry Washer. Two plastic kitchen waste cans were used - one for the hopper and one to hold the riffle box. The gentleman who built it estimates it cost about $65 for the hardware to build. I really like this idea! In fact, I'm going to build one myself! You really need to see this. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/drywashing/196055-ggs-65-wastebasket-drywasher-updated.html Clip Art Courtesy of Clkr.com

Once again Nevada Outback Gems has instructions and a diagram showing how to build a dry washer. This dry washer is almost identical to the one I own only mine is made of wood. Note in the diagram where it says "aluminum footing covers" at the bottom. One of the problems I first had was chipping the bottom of my wooden legs when I would be dragging the dry washer and accidently lower it too much and hit rocks or drag it on the hard ground. I chipped up the legs something fierce before I decided to put metal "shoes" on it, kinda like a horse. Make sure you cover the feet; just my tip from experience. http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_drywash/dry_wash.htm

Here is an article I wrote about dry washers. I hope it helps understand how they are operated, why they are built the way they are, things to consider if you want to build one, and how much time they can save you. There is also a video at the end showing a metal operating dry washer. http://john000.hubpages.com/hub/Making-Placer-Gold-Mining-Easier-A-Piece-of-Desert-Equipment-the-Dry-Washer  

Building a sluice from corrugated plastic pipe. http://webspace.webring.com/people/fw/wyogold/build_sluice.html After you look at the photo of the sluice, click the  Go to step One Click Here   button. These are the most comprehensive and clearly written instructions on the web. These are great for "fine" sluicing.

If you want to know just about everything there is to know about sluice boxes (included plans, tests, velocity of water, history, rifle design, force, vortex, etc) you probably would want to get a pdf supplied by  G Weishaupt, C Jacobson - hecklerfabrication.com and entitled "How to Build and Operate Sluice Boxes". Google the red title and you will come to an automatic download. Don't miss this! This is an 83 page document by people who know what they're talking about. I have attempted to find the website but have been unsuccessful but credit to the above gentlemen.

This is very interesting. If you are like me, you may have some shovel heads laying around after breaking the handles. I came across this site that shows how to make a digging tool that would be useful for digging out stream banks or digging for metal detector targets. I never thought of this. It might even take the place of a maddox. It looks quite sturdy. http://www.easytreasure.co.uk/dig.htm too.

Here's an article on the basics of finding placer gold. Locate gold, locate flake, where gold flake is found, etc. http://john000.hubpages.com/hub/Where-to-Find-Gold-if-You-are-a-Newbie-Gold-Prospecting-the-Best-Places-Using-Gold-Panning

This site has somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 very good tips on prospecting including how to build various pieces of equipment. I highly recommend going there. http://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/mayoowngopre.html

One of the reasons people join gold prospecting clubs is probably because of the greatest problem all modern day prospectors have.  That's finding a place to go! Let's face it, in order to be sure land isn't claimed, owned by the state, at least in Arizona, private property, etc, it's difficult find. Sure, you can go to the Bureau of Land Management and search through maps, confirm with personnel there and record GPS coordinates, but for many of us, the club is the answer. Even if you do find a place owned and allowing prospecting it can cost a lot of money. There is nothing wrong with paying for a day's freedom gold prospecting, but the question is, what if you don't want to. Most clubs charge yearly fees. My club is very reasonable and charges $75. We have a number of claims that produce placer gold. Most clubs charge in excess of $100, usually directly correlated with the number of claims they own and must pay on yearly. Still, you can prospect 365 days a ye...

In this post I am going to refer you to a great site for do-it-yourselfers. More than one URL is listed and you can tell from the addresses what equipment the site has plans for. http://miningold.com/fineslu.html\ http://miningold.com/mega.html   (a black sand magnet is very useful. After you have, let's say, drywashed some material concentrate, you can run the magnet through it and pick up ferrous stuff and eliminate panning that. http://miningold.com/minibnk.html  (high banker)

Here's a site with plans for a gravity scale. Now there is something I never thought of to build. But, I can see its usefulness. http://miningold.com/scale.html

This is a forum for gold prospectors in Oregon. I found the comments about the advantages and disadvantages of a rocker box interesting. There are a number of other topics discussed of high interest. You already know of at least one. I've told you about my rocker box, but made of lumber it is hard to carry long distances and awkwardly shaped. I have been known to tie it down and drag to a spot with my wheeled baggage tote. Weight and shape are always important factors to consider when planning to build your own gold isolating devices. http://www.oregongoldhunters.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=1364

I recommend this site because it has an interactive map showing ghost towns in various counties in various states. Gold information resides here, also. It also has info about Terlingua, a lost ghost town in Texas. Oh, there is a rocker box plan. http://www.therockerbox.com/

Just a note for those of you like me and don't relish talking to people via the Internet. I have found that those folks advertising free plans for rocker boxes and who have "crusher" or "milling" in their URL frequently require chatting with a representative. There is nothing wrong with that - just mentioning a pattern I have discovered.

For anyone visiting who has limited experience trying to find the elusive yellow metal, I have written an article about what I have learned over the last 4 years. There are many folks out there who are far better "experts" than I, but this article covers pretty much all the basic concepts for finding a good prospect. I'll be including more articles on the subject of gold now and then. I hope you find this informative. http://john000.hubpages.com/hub/Where-to-Find-Gold-if-You-are-a-Newbie-Gold-Prospecting-the-Best-Places-Using-Gold-Panning

8 tidbits of high interest related to prospecting called Did You Know? This site is teaming with 5 sets of plans including one for a water drip pan station. The site also has 6 informational pages including tips and instructions on prospecting for gold. One of the things that caught my eye was what I thought would be a Mining Claim Lease form. When I went to the website it appeared something was amiss. Either I didn't have the right files to view, or something was missing from their site. But I am glad they had that on their site because now I am going to search for such a thing - a form like that could be useful. http://www.coloradoprospector.com/EquipmentPlans/PlansAndTips.html

This next site is a fine Canadian site. It is a prospecting forum. It includes a number of plans for various equipment including :fine recovery sluice, rocker box (a model I have already included above), high banker, rock saw, trommel, gold catcher, leaf blower powered dry washer, and a leaf blower vacuum for sucking out that crevice material so often containing gold. http://www.gpex.ca/homemade-gold-prospecting-tools.html

1870's Pattern Rocker Box, or sometimes referred to as a cradle, for prospecting fine gold. To the right you will also see another video entitled, Using the Falcon MD 20. This is a pin pointer medal detector. It's notoriety is that it is light and water proof. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u5fF0Po_q4

The Department of Mines of the province of British Columbia drew up both the plans and the directions in Bulletin No. 21, issued by the Department in 1959. These are detailed plans in downloadable PDF format. The Plans are entitled, "A Detailed Plan of a More Elaborate Gold Rocker" http://www.gpex.ca/pdfs/Rocker%20Box%203.pdf

This is an interesting video, and while this particular post does not refer you to free plans, the man in the video made his own sluice box and is selling them. The video focuses on how to use the sluice . The stream he is working is beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU3LbVB0ImI

By far, this site is extremely comprehensive and shows built sluices, dredges - all sorts of things. I am including this site because it gives pictures of the equipment and some people may not be aware of what these contraptions look like. It describes how to build a sluice but does not, as far as I can tell, show plans. The verbal descriptions of how to build these things are good. There are also many links to places where you can purchase prospecting equipment. There is a set of plans and a drawing of an old time rocker box. This is the type I modeled mine after. http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_rocker/Rocker_box.htm A number of these projects would run into some money. The PVC, pumps, hose, etc would have to be purchased at a home improvement or mining store. Nevertheless, these pieces of personally fabricated equipment could be made for less than retail. There are a number of links at the bottom of the page where you can get other information from Nevada Gems...

When I see a mining club that is offering free plans - this involves time - I can tell the club is serious about prospecting and enjoys helping people. I belong to the Superstition Mountain Treasure Hunters of Apache Junction, Arizona. I've met prospectors from Minnesota and they are very serious about the whole thing. One of my friends who hailed from there has a lot of equipment and is a great source of info for the club members. This is a downloadable PDF that has 11 pages with a photo of the finished product, hardware lists, and detailed instructions. This looks to me to be a good weight and design for packing in to your claim. http://www.minnesotagoldprospectors.org/RiverRockerBox.pdf

rocker box Here's another set of free rocker box plans. My goal is to allow folks to easily look through a number of ideas and pick the plans they like the best. This particular plan comes as a pdf. Bill Westcott has the rights to this so don't try to sell the plans. As he points out, a rocker with a classifying screen on top of a rectangular box and carpeting between riffles is a favorite in the west. I prospect in Arizona and this is the type I have actually seen up close in use. My homemade box made of scrap too has that same shape. It is one of the smaller photos on the right. This site explains why the rocker box was used and how it functioned. There is some commentary on retail rocker boxes. This commentary is interesting and about 1000 words. You can clearly see the rocker handle. The actual plans for the rocker box are vertical; that makes things a little difficult since you have to turn your head sideways to understand dimensioning - however, that is a tiny issue. P...

The next set of rocker box plans I found is on a site titled "Bill's Rocker Box." He has a great old photo showing two pioneer ladies with a rocker box. They're somewhere in pine country. Yes, the ladies prospect, too. If I were going to build a new rocker box, these are the plans I personally would prefer. It is simple and he has what amounts to two sets of plans. He has photos arranged step by step so a visual person could probably make one from that. But he also has wonderfully drawn plans below that. I give it an A+. The one I built is just too heavy, but works well. At the bottom of the page is a link to his prospecting site. http://www.billandlindaprospecting.com/rockerbox.html

FREE RIVER ROCKER BOX PLANS The reason I like this set of plans is because it is professionally laid out. There are 9 images with specific directions as far as dimensions and hardware required. This particular rocker is by Jack Swick and can be built by the plans. There is also an advertised DVD of him using the rocker in Alaska. The Plans are really FREE. The link below is to a page on the website of the Gold Prospectors Association of America, and, of course, GPAA is the premier gold club in the United States. I like the plans because the rocker is relatively simple, sturdy, and something you can hike in with. Looking at the picture in the upper left corner of the page helps a bit too. I'm here to advertise what is available free. I have no connection to GPAA. If you are not very handy, you might want to look at what the DVD offers? http://www.goldprospectors.org/Communication/ArticlesandInformation/tabid/153/EntryId/110/Jack-Swicks-River-Rocker-Box-Plans-For-Free.aspx