Bear

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 about 2 1/2 inches left before Bottoming out. Also we only ground up the house about 5". Slathered up both the hose and the bullet with E-6000, slid the hose in and pushed it all the way to the bottom. I let the hose sit over night propped standing up with the bullet on the floor because that E-6000 will run a little bit. Checked it this morning, came out great. Just need to trip a little excess glue off.

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.

To start with I think the Keene over size jets and couplers are great. Over the last few weeks of dredging I can count on one hand how many plugs I had had in the jet. People had told me in the past they have had trouble with them sucking air. What I do is double up the gasket with a cam lock gasket to make a good seal. The problem I am having is getting the coupler on to a new hose. I have put a few of the couplers on the years but it is always so difficult to get it to go all the way on. I was wondering if anyone had a good technique or procedure to make it easier?

Mine is based on my last name Barrera. Through out my time in the Army I have been called the Bear. Sometimes it was the Bipolar Bear when I was a Platoon Sergeant. I was known to flip the switch pretty quick to get this going. Always for for a purpose.

Not a lot of detail in this article. I have never found one but I would like to. I am pretty sure a guy I know found one on some salt flats in Nevada. If you have a questionable rock that meets the criteria get it checked out. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/science/gold-prospectors-mysterious-rock-turned-out-to-be-super-rare-meteorite.amp

I am behind on the forum from being out in the bush and just got to this thread. I posted in the dredging, sluicing page much like Jasong I use the Le Trap at home for final clean up. I have had this pan since the 90's in Wyoming. You can barely read made in Canada. Simon, I would imagine the newer ones are better being plastic. You can see the chips in the edges. My La Trap sluice is also fiber glass and feels brittle.

I use a Le Trap pan for final clean up at home, showed a picture of it in my earlier post in this thread. In the bottom it has circular grooves that hold gold great and it is easy for me to wash of cons. It also has pour spout off the back for water and waste.

This is still one of my favorite posts on the entire site!

I have not seen any that came from Keene drilled and tapped. I drilled and tapped a P180 before. I was a little worried because the petcock didn't have a lot to grab on to. This nub allowed me to cut a lot of threads.

I showed the top of the pump because on Keene's websight there is a picture where a pump is drilled and tapped with a pressure gage in it.

It looks like the HP-500 pumps from Keene are made to drill and tap for drain plugs.

I wrote about this before on this forum. I use my SDC while dredging in an old cut. Because there is very little flow the water becomes like chocolate milk so visibility is an issue. The schist bedrock is completely rotted to clay or broke rock. You can dredge deep into the bedrock for a few feet but takes a lot of time. I usually take about 18" of clay/rock. I always check the bottom or sides of the hole with the SDC completely submerged and have found nuggets either on the sides or where I didn't go deep enough.

Here is a contact zone between what appears from a distance to be basalt and granite in Southern California. As Steve said this one is obvious. I took this picture from the road but I am unable to go out there. I am down at fort Irwin training. There are hard rock mines in the area that have produced gold with a little placer production too.

Thank you, I love to read these

Congrats, I have seen a lot of native gold that would break as Steve pointed out for various reasons. I know a guy that had a half ouncer that was put on a bail for a neckelas. What seemed like a solid nugget through the years of wearing it flaked a lot of gold off of it.

That is some nice rough gold with Quartz attached! Have you dredged up stream of the vein?

Brian, I should have put your last name but I learned this from you on the Akmining forum

I hope you find one. They do recover really fine gold. I like to use the le trap pan for final clean up. The front area where it is scored works great to get all of the black sand out. The first pic is from a couple days. The second pic is from what was in the sluice from the pic I posted earlier.

I use a le trap in my 6" as well. This is a technique that I learned from Brian on the Akmining forum. After all the carpet and removable rifles are out of the sluice I place it up against the flair where the water flows right into the sluice. The le trap that I am using is at least 20 years old. It was made in Canada, later they were made in the states. I don't know where you can find the now. Here is a photo of a small clean up.

I know you can find native copper out there. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time in that area. My Uncle, cousin and I found a little chunk in piece of rock stained by chryscolla with a original gold bug. There are a lot of mines in that area though most of them appeared to be hard rock but I have not been out there for 20 years.

Wow, what an incredible piece. Congratulations. I would have left it dirty!!