Bear

Today I went to an area that I recently gained access to.  I looked at imagery to see where the old workings are.  I picked a spot where a drag line and wash plant had been though.  As I was driving in I noticed a lot of the ground had all of the rocks racked off.  I figured who ever did it had to have found something.  So the tailings will have to wait.

I decided to run the SDC 2300 over that ground.  After digging the 10th piece of shot I got another signal about a foot away from one I just dug.  It was real hard to pinpoint and find but the sun hit it right on the coil and I knew it was a little piece.  Finally I found a nugget in New Mexico.  Nothing like others recently on the forum but I was pretty jazzed.  My first desert piece. 

Great video.  I had been to most of the dredges around Fairbanks.  At Dredge #8 they talk about the process but it's pretty cool to see it on the video.

I am moving back to Fairbanks this summer.  I love it there, can't wait. 

I have been wearing the same reebok boots in the southwest metal detecting since the original post.  I like them so much I bought another pair in brown for my duty boots.  Unfortunately the brown ones do have metal eyelets.

In Alaska I wear lacross muck boots for almost everything from metal detecting to hunting.  In the cold water they are great but hot when out of it. 

Steve or others, 

Did any of you find copper nuggets in crow creek?  I found a very small piece there a few years ago.  It was completely oxidized blue on the outside.

The jet looks great.  

I have been thinking about creating a thread with other dredge mods and useful tips.  I am in school right now but when I get some time I will.  

I should do that.  I just leave the hoses on it which causes problems as they like to flail around.

I glued an extra gasket in the over size coupler for the suction hose because I seen where they don't seal well.  I used a 6" cam lock gasket available at Alaska Rubber.  Even if you don't put the extra gasket in there it is nice to have one anyway.  

I need to do this to my other pumps.  A few years ago during some cold water dredging I had a pump freeze but luckily it didn't freeze solid.  It only broke the seal.

I wished I would posted earlier on this thread.  I put a pitcock on a 4" a few years ago.  I don't know how much it would really mattered but I didn't want to affect the pressure so drilled and tapped it so that it would not protrude into the housing to much.  

I will post some pictures when I finish the water system.

Make sure you pull that tray out a little to allow fines the drop into the undercurrent box.  Here is a pic of how far I pull mine out for my creek that I usually work.  I also added some additional moss.

What I am going to use is a tankless hot water heater because I want it on demand, not constant.

A few years ago north of Fairbanks during some dredging in May I saw a lady who would keep a pot of water heated on the side of the creek with a one burner stove. When she got cold she would make sure it wasn't to hot and then pour it right into her suit.  She was pretty tough.  

Chris, multiple cans of bug spray lol.  That's AK 

This thread made me think of a place I need to go back to from last summer! 

I have seen this go both ways.  I one particular creek I found a 2.5 pennyweight nugget in a crack in bedrock with a lot of flake and fine gold around it.  A few hundred yards down stream later I found two pennyweight nuggets with hardly any flake.  After I found the two nuggets a guy told me his brother had dredged in the same spot and found over an ounce of nuggets all about the same size with very little fine gold.

I always like reading about your crow creek adventures.  I have used some of your mods for cold weather dredging such as the pet cocks to drain the pumps. In cold water I always wear a dry suit but I have been working on a hot water on demand system for comfort in a wet suit during summer months.  I will post pics when I am done.  

I have enjoyed reading this thread.

Can you use a hand operated pump like Allen Trees uses on his rockers? 

I have a developing idea for a recirculating grease table with a heater element to keep the water the right tempature.  I am only going to put it into action if I move back to an area with known diamonds.  I think if I was going to do something like that I would screen off larger rocks and have a smaller screen get rid of the finer material to just run sand to about marble size across it.  

Almost every area, but not all, that I dredged in Alaska required a habitat permit.  The permit is basically a registration and covers a geographic area.  It is because of fish spawning, mostly salmon.  A few years ago offices only had permits for their area but in the last couple of years Anchorage had all of the permits I needed.  That is the link that Steve posted.

Sorry for the injury but those are great videos.

Can bedrock blasters be used in Arizona?  They work great taking off the rotten bedrock surface and working cracks.  Also one of the best tools that I have found for breaking into cracks is a crack jack.  

I have not heard of anyone finding a diamond in the lucite hills but I have found peridot out there.   The whole area is interesting with all of the old lava flows.  Diamonds have definitely been found on Cedar Mountain.

I grew up in South Western Wyoming.  A lot of fascinating rocks in the greater area.  Blue forest petrified wood is pretty.  I used to go diamond prospecting all across the Green River Basin.  Never found any diamonds but always found a lot of indicator minerals. 

Thank for the comments.  

As the trip went on I worked out a pretty big hole.  The bedrock is rotted to a clay for a couple feet.  After that it will get chunky but it will go right up the hose.  I was mining in an old cut and there is not a lot of water flow so you can't see when diving either.  Generally I just dredge about 18" of the rotten stuff.  On one side of the hole I figure I didn't go deep enough so I put the SDC in there and confirmed my suspicion.   I had two signals so I cut another swath of the clay.  The two nuggets in the lower right were in box after I finished.  The pic is all of the nuggets from the trip.

Send offs, my first summer in AK I found a 1/4 ounce nugget with GP extreme.  Since then I had never found one bigger.  This year I had to move out of AK.  I went back to one of the places that I used to dredge a lot.  I had found a few nice nuggets in there and last year I found a 2 penny weight nugget.   So I went back this year and started where I had to quit last year and found these nuggets in my first day.  The big nugget is almost 11 penny weight.  I have been meaning to write this post for a while but didn't get to it.

I always look at change but it's been about 5 years since I found a dime.  

When I was kid my grandma worked in a chashiers cage.  She always paid attention when older people brought change in, some of the time there would be a little silver.  

I dredge as much as I possibly can.  I just returned from a two week dredging trip, story to follow when I get a little time.  

Recently As far as purchasing needed dredge relate items I had a great experience with Armadillo Mining out of Oregon. I do not know if they sell used equipment but they had everything I was looking for which was kind of some odd parts.  

I have found some small nuggets on Bertha.  It is worth visiting but there could also be a lot of people there in the summer.  We usually go in the spring and fall.  

Congrats. The first day I found a nugget with a detector I found two. The first one was a half penny weight and the second one was a quarter ounce. It took me a long time to find another one detecting. I still have not found a bigger nugget yet using any form of prospecting.