hawkeye

Check this one out for a light weight packable backcountry puffer drywasher. Modern technology, modern price.

http://www.whippetengineering.com

Greg,

A of people like the "puffer" type drywashers like the Keene. You can either hand crank or buy the model with a 12 volt motor and power with a small 12 volt battery.  I had one and it worked good for one old man shoveling.  But, it is heavy and awkward to move in one piece.  It can be taken apart and reassembled, but that is a p.i.t.a..  I sold mine and bought a Royal "blower" type.  If I were to get a puffer again I would try one of the hand made small wooden ones--lighter and more portable. 

The Royal is similar to a number of the brands and is operated with a small 2 cycle engine leaf blower.  They are very easy to take down, transport, and set up in a new location. The Royal does not require any tools to take down or setup.  I personally found it handier than the Keene puffer, plus I had the blower/vacuum I could use to vacuum bedrock if desired.

Keene has a new drywasher, the 160, that is advertised to be relatively dust free and can be converted to a wet system with an accessory kit.  I saw one at a Gold Show last February.  It is small and very portable.  Has anyone tried one of these?  They look pretty neat. 

http://www.keeneeng.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=KES&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=160

I eventually wore out a couple of shoulders shoveling dirt into drywashers and have decided to concentrate on detecting, but will occasionally drywash an area that seems promising.  It is fun to pan out the concentrates and see that gold in the pan.  

As stated above, pick a size and type that meets your needs.  They all work about the same and your recovery depends more on how you operate it than brand of the machine.  

Nugget65,

A little off topic, but have you caught anything yet with your Hillbilly Dream Catcher. What settings do you use on it?

Chris is referring to the gain settings knob on the side of the control box.  I believe Bado is referring to the number of bars as they advance on the led read out on the handle when the threshold button is pushed.   

I also prefer running my threshold at 3 or 4 bars to get a more stable threshold.  I, too, have found some pretty small pieces at those levels that initially were indicated only by a small break in the threshold.  I think I may not have heard them if the threshold was set lower.

Ah yes, read the entire white paper.

Can any dust iron toroid be used, or does it have to be a specific size? Toroids of various sizes are readily available from Amazon for a few dollars.

Hey, I found some of that window screen wire with my 2300 in N Nevada too.   Must have been after Steve cleaned out the patch.     Thanks for nice write up Chris. 

Thanks guys for the feedback. Last time in NV I was so spooked by the flat tire stories I had plugs, slime bombs, and a little 12v air compressor ;-). Of course, nothing happened with all that stuff onboard.

New tires. If you don't mind, what are the specs on those new tires you folks are using. I spent a little time in N. NV last year and lucked out with no flats on my 6 plys, but thinking about an upgrade.

Looks like 10 ply on the sticker of Lucky's tires.

Caveat emptor.

As I was looking at the nice collection I wondered why the GPZ picked these up when other detectors didn't. For the most part the nuggets are all very oddly shaped. Could that be why? Maybe I need more things to think about.

Nice work russ.

Thanks Steve. 

Infavorable locations #5 isn't necessarily applicable to placer gold as there are numberous areas where gold laden deposits have eroded over time leaving bajada and other type placers and the resulting stream placers in washes.  Of course originally these areas where in favorable structures before eroding

Check out Part IV, "Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Mining", Bulletin 137, Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch.  It is an overview of geological features where gold may be found.

PM me if you would like me to e-mail you a copy of Part IV.  Bulletin 137 was originally compiled in 1934, but Part IV is still applicable today.  Please send me your personnel e-mail address so I can send it to you direct.  I am not sure I can attach a file to a return PM.

Ken

 Looks like that prospect is a no-go.  I guess the owners are afraid someone will destroy the "natural" setting of the tailings piles.  Or, they just flat don't like people on their land.  Thanks for info guys, and the lesson Barry.

Looking for information on detecting the tailings piles along Prichard Creek near Murray, Idaho.  I have to do some more research to see if the area is public land or private property, but curious if anyone has any experience with the area.  Looks like an interesting place to check out.

Hey, I quit my day job 20 years ago.  I didn't add any gold income in my financial plan.  So far that was a good assumption.

Russ,

Signaling on tree roots? Some months ago a forum member had an issue with his 2300 falsing when touching Palo Verde branches. Not sure if this is even related, but when he checked with Minelab they asked him to return it and they sent him a new one. Is anyone else having this issue?

Hey Herb,

Fellow Albertan here. Do you winter in nugget country? I'm sure you know this, but Alberta is flour gold country. I have thought about detecting in the Wildhorse area near Fort Steele, BC, but it is pretty much all claimed. The nearby Fisherville public panning area would be a great place to detect, but no detecting allowed. Like me, you are going to have to make some long road trips to get on the gold. Good luck.

That`s it D-TEX, yeah they had a little edge on the A2B when the A2B was king. In some ways I miss those pre-PI days, less of us about. Lot of surface gold in places sometimes multi signals on each sweep for many meters, the beginning of the electronic gold rush.

"Multi signals on each sweep for many meters".  Metal detecting heaven.

tvanwho,

To prevent or minimize black and blue toenails trim your toenails very short.  Good fitting boots also to minimize your foot sliding forward in the boots.  The toenail thing works.

That is a good question.  Didn't think about that since as far as I got was Civil Air Patrol.  Don't think that counts.

I realize the discussion on pricing is beyond old, but since I reside in Canada in the summer I thought I'd check out pricing there.  $9999.00 Canadian.  Current exchange rate now is about $1.00US=$1.25CAN after fees.  So if you bought in Alberta where the only sales tax is 5% federal GST and threw in the exchange rate you'd be paying about $8400 US out the door.  

Of course, if you only have $Can you still are paying $9999.00. ;-)

Paul,

Check out the Professor's post in Classified.  Not sure he knows about your offer yet.

Hey Norm,

Check your message box.  I sent you a PM.   

A good friend of mine said "you know what is good about get old---NOTHING".  Now you got all the time in the world to go detecting, but can't hear the dang detector.  Much less leap buildings at a single bound.