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Designing A Bullet Sucker. Need Some Ideas........


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Yeah, that is what I did with the nozzle and bilge pump, and was just going to put a short hose and easy dump wire mesh basket/sieve on the end. Holes just smaller than a dime. Big enough to hold rocks for a while without plugging up too fast. The basket could be suspended underwater from a float. You want the hose/pipe as short as possible. You should get a decent running time off a sealed 12V motorcycle type battery. There are new Lithium ones out now that only weigh a couple pounds.

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Some of the lead I find are a lot smaller than a dime.  Was thinking 1/4 mesh to catch 32 cals.  I would like to catch ALL the lead so I'm not just re-finding the same piece.  Maybe just run to to a floating basket?  At a slight angle I figure the total length to be 7 feet?

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It just depends on how big the bilge pump is - I tried a big Volvo Penta model and it seemed to work ok with six feet of hose. A basket like a Keene sieve inside a truck tube would be good, but you want the hose feed to stay underwater. Even an inch of lift above the surface of the water will rob power like crazy. Remember, water underwater weighs nothing. The minute you break the surface power requirements add up fast. And the bigger the pump, the shorter the run time on a battery.

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For what you are after I would put the jet at the back end so I could have a 4 foot long ridged wand/nozzle at the other. 

On my Sub Surface dredge I have a pressure feed nozzle on it to give the gold time to fall out of suspension but for sucking up lead slugs I don't see it being important. And you said you want the business end not to interfere with you detector.

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Just remember your wand has to stay submerged as well, as soon as that wand breaks the water surface you change the dynamics of a sub surface recovery system.

Really looking forward to seeing a battery powered sub surface dredge.

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