Best Gold Dredging Forum?

[Steve Herschbach]

I once hoped this forum would recapture some of the magic of the old days at the Alaska Gold Forum. It is obvious now that is not to be, with almost no posts here anymore about gold dredging. It makes sense as I gave that up in favor of metal detecting myself over 25 years ago, and without me driving discussion about dredging here the idea was doomed to failure. By and large the main posting action on these forums is about metal detecting.

I got curious where if anywhere the dredgers ended up at, and a brief search of Google results has me thinking the TreasureNet Dredging & Hi Banking Forum is now the place to be if you have an interest in the subject. Looks like lots of good posters and posts there. Not much has changed in the dredging world from what I can see except the dubious fascination with whiz bang magical mats.

I doubt anything will change here as regards gold dredging so best bet for those interested will be to head where the action is, and as far as I can tell TreasureNet is the only place getting any substantial number of new posts on the subject on a regular basis.

Back when I used to go gold dredging......

[phrunt]

Dredging is still quite popular in NZ with those lucky enough to have claims, they do very well too, far better than us swinging beeping sticks do.

A small community of a couple of hundred of them are on a Facebook private group, and share and discuss their dredging and equipment.

This is one being used in my neck of the woods.

I wouldn't mind taking it up one day, it suits me as I hate heat, so being in water cooling off sounds ideal and they find plenty of gold.

 

[HardPack]

The California Water Control Board locked that subject down in this State. Still a few out there but I don’t expect to see any posts on the subject. 

A couple of Carson City locals pointed out the location of an old stamp mill along the Carson River out of Dayton Valley. May not be much gold but they claimed to of found plenty of mercury flipping stream boulders. The river hasn’t froze over since the last ice age but the wind and snow blowing down the canyon may be close enough. 

[Steve Herschbach]

California is not the only state in the union nor the U.S. the only country in the world. Plenty of posting going on at the TreasureNet Forum or the NZ Facebook page so obviously posts can happen… just not happening here. And that’s fine, I’m a go with the flow guy and was just looking to point people to the TreasureNet site. Or see if anyone knows of any better.

[phrunt]

It does look a whole lot of fun.  It's the claims side of it that make it such a pain, our public areas only allow sluicing and you need a claim to get a dredge into the water.

I'd love to take it up.  That Facebook group is fairly active with lots of good posts for someone interested in Dredging.

[matt]

I wish I could dredge in California! I know the PLP has the reclamation thing going, but I haven't joined to find out the details.

Sold my 6" dredge after the ban in 2008, but my 4" dredge sits near an extremely rich creek outside of Downieville waiting to be put back into the water...I can only dream about that big deep hole on my property for now...

[matt]

These are some pictures of my 2.5" and 6" dredges in the water (I think in 2007) with my best friend Kirk. Many half ounce days of dredging! I would leave the dredges in the water all summer.

[Bob(AK)]

You guys have it sooo easy dredging that calm water. I would like that.

[CoinShooter]

Steve,

All that snow and cold water. I don't see you how you worked the dredge. Didn't your fingers and toes go numb? 🙂

I'm currently in Sterling, AK and looking out the window everyday to see when I'll be able to get outside and put my Manticore to use. 

Will be leaving in a few weeks and driving back to the lower 48 for a while. I am looking forward to a little dirt fishin' in the sun.

P.S. I do run a sluice box in some of the local streams around here. Still looking for those big gold nuggets though.

John

[Valens Legacy]

Here in my neck of the woods, every few years I get to take the old dredge out to a creek that is about 5 feet deep and pull out some nice nuggets. I have an area almost i/2 mile long that i have permission to find as much as I can within a few weeks. I have always done it when they do a draw down of the lake that feeds this creek and I am able to walk the bottom and get some of the good stuff on the walls of the creeks.

I may have to video my next trip on the creek and post it for you Steve.