Starting the new year! Options

[Caveman]

If the weather holds, I will be out running a 2" suction dredge on Friday. I have had problems with clogs just past the bend of the nozzle every time I have tried it, and I am asking for advice to try and reduce the incidense of this, and to reduce the time it takes to clear the problem. Thin, flatter rocks (great skippers!) are the ones that get me most, and get jammed in there pretty good. I usually have to remove the hose to get them cleared. The area I'm working has tons of sandy materal, and the largest rocks are about half the size of cinder blocks, so there are lots 2" and smaller rocks to deal with, but it's a great place to learn how to run things with good, clean fines. I was there scouting on Monday and found what looks to be a decent pocket. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Caveman

[Caveman]

Well, disapointing total - approx 1.1 grains, plus appox .6 grains from the buckets I cubed to total 1.8 grains on Andrew's scale. The gold is much finer than I thought, so it kind of looks like more.... I will post pics as soon as the home computer is fixed.

It sure looked like a lot more than that in the inspection mat alone (deep V, 11 1/2" wide x 1' long, EVERY row filled end-to-end, not solid, but still...)- I should have done a clean-out right then; instead, I refueled and kept going. Lessend the angle from about 3 to 1 down to 2 to 1 also, as the UR mats looked clear. Live and learn.

I'm still doing something wrong, It should have been more based on the test pans and 2 buckets..... I'm going to get the Cube down there and do 1 or 2 buckets on site to check myself. I think I was going to fast when I started back up, and I should not have changed the angle. Darn. If I had done a clean out, it would have ended the day there, and I wasn't ready/got greedy. Oh well, another rookie mistake. Like I said before, this is a great area to test oneself and equipment as it's close in (15 minutes from home) and has has reliable gold, even though it's very fine.

That's about it for now - not discouraged, just frustrated and need to work out the kinks. I got kind of used to getting it right the first time out when I was a kid - 30 to 40 years ago! Drat again.

Ah, well - at least I got out and found some things that need to be fixed before I got to a Really good area!
Still had fun too!

Caveman