Bear

Last night I tried to get the last of some crushed quartz out of my le trap. I gave a good smack on the bottom with my palm and cracked it. It was a good run. That pan was about 25 years old. Even worse no gold in the quartz. I will defiantly get another one, I just need to figure out where.

Here is the link to the article in the ICMJ. https://www.icmj.com/resources/news-and-events/miners-news/man-finds-9-carat-diamond-at-arkansas-crater-of-diamonds-445/?fbclid=IwAR37Lty5iQRGc7xl9Q4ECJSKwpc3v7K8IRIi-5NMbZz6xr7leHpYQzI4js0

I have always wanted to visit this park. Large diamond was found this month. When I was younger I prospected for diamonds in SW Wyoming. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-finds-9-07-carat-diamond-arkansas-state-park/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6i&linkId=100453663

Snowing in Fairbanks too

Yes the frame is removable. If you take the frame off it makes it more like an assault pack. I liked that medium ruck when I had one in the Army. There have been issues with the full sized polymer MOLLE frame but I never heard of any with that one.

Hopefully all the snow insulates the creeks from freezing to deep. As Mineit said Fairbanks has been cold. Not the extreme temperatures but constantly cold.

Thank you for the info. Really I am just feeling it out if I need additional flotation. I bought the dredge with the bigger motors and pumps to either place the dredge farther away while in the cut because tailings become a problem or work in deeper water. The plan this summer is to go to a spot along a river where I know the bedrock is deep. I another thread about anchoring I explained how I use cable and a haven grip tied up high. This does keep the front of the dredge up.

I purchased a newer Keene 6” mini dredge last year with GX270 motors and PHP 500 pumps. I used it quite a bit last summer but it was all in the old mine cuts that we dredge in. Not once in a river. The suction is unbelievable. My question does anyone have experience with the bigger motors needing more floats because of the weight? The motors themselves are 20 lbs more a piece and not to mention all of the weight from the water volume and hoses being bigger. Keene makes the outriggers with floats for them. I was going to make something similar uses two 30 gallon poly drums.

I know I am coming to the thread late but here are my two biggest nuggets. The nugget on the right I found with a GP Extreme when I first moved to Alaska in 2003. It was the second nugget I ever found with a metal detector because I found my first one earlier that day. It was 8 grams. I posted about the one the left on here a few years ago. I dredged it in 2016 when I was moving out of AK. It weighs 16.8 grams. My plan is to detect a little more next summer but I always say that.

What a cool post. A lot of dredgers I have talked to do not like the newer Keene foot valves like the ones that you have. They are not as robust and do not hold a prime very well. Keene uses them because they are less restrictive allowing more water in the intake hose. I have them on my dredge and have notice they do not hold a primes like the older punch plate ones do. Anyway I have often wondered about motor upgrades to get more horse power for more water. With limited research most of the parts even inexpensive. My concern would be the life of the motor.

That's a nice rig. It has inspired me to turn my old molle belt into my detecting kit. I noticed you lanyard everything off too. I learned that lesson climbing and crawling around Crow Creek AK. Never again.

Thank I have been waiting for a post from you as well. Always informative and well written. I think it would be cool to find a large placer silver nugget. When I was a kid I found a little bit of native silver in quartz in Utah. I have a piece of the rock but the rest of it is at my parents house in the piles of rock that I still have there.

Congratulations. That is a nice nugget for a "1st" This is my favorite part of the forum. I metal detect but not a whole lot so I don't comment to much over there. Dredging is my real passion.

Thank you gentlemen. I was able to get the bullet onto the hose by using a little of all of the techniques and the help of a friend. We first cut down along the ribs of the old hose and pulled most of it out like a Accordion. We heated the remaining glue with a torch which came right out with a wire brush on a drill. I started to use a rasp on the hose but switched to a side grinder which preped it pretty fast. We checked the fitting as we went. We wanted to keep it tight for a little friction. We got it to the point where when we slid the bullet on the hose it got tight with abo

Thank you for the info. It is a 6" inch. I will remove a little of the hose prior to inserting it. SJM did you heat the hose or the coupler? I bet if you heated the coupler too that it would expand it out like a fly wheel like older ring gears for fly wheels on general motor truck. In the past I have glued them in with E 6000.