New to gold prospecting

[Magic Mike]

Hello,

my name is Mike I'm new to gold prospecting and I am going to purchase some equipment. I recently have built a sluice box a need suggestions on stuff like gold pans, classifiers, spots to look for when prospecting , etc. If you have a suggestion or helpful tip, feel free to respond.

[digitup]

I like the larger 14" gold pans in blue or green, made by Klondike or Proline. The cheap little black ones you find at hardware stores will work, but are not good for production due to the smaller size and wimpy riffles. Get a 1/4" classifier screen and a sucker bottle for your gold. It's so much easier to pan classified material. If you are new to panning, use a safety pan. In other words, pan into another pan for awhile and check for losses. You can practice panning with lead shot if you aren't finding any gold.

When you are confident in your panning technique, you can ditch the safety pan and you will naturally start to pan much faster. You can get a nice amount of gold together with just a pan and a sluice box. The key is running good dirt. Ask around your area about prospecting clubs to get a head start on finding areas to work. I have no idea about finding gold in Marlyland. Good luck.

[Joe Z]

I am also new and not sure where to go either.... A country wide club called GPAA (gold prospectors associaton of america) has a chapter in Maryland click on membership then state directors and i see there's a tab for maryland..... I believe it's about $65 yr..... this is going to be one of the first clubs i sign up to and a few others to boot.

Joe

http://www.goldprospectors.org/Home/tabid/63/Default.aspx

[Magic Mike]

Thanks guys, i really appreciate it.