Dredge Today |
Colorado Prospector - Gem and mineral prospecting and mining forums > Prospecting and Rockhounding Gatherings or Events > Prospector's Outings and Adventures  |
Dredge Today |
  Jul 27 2010, 06:55 PM
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#1
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 Moderator  Group: Members Posts: 4,459 Joined: 25-August 09 From: way on up thar Member No.: 6,983  |
Managed to get out and punch a nice hole today. Went to a relatively unfamiliar creek which I know has some small gold, as I had sampled it last fall with shovel and pan. I had to do a bit of work to make the rig work here since the water was so shallow but got her goin' good... despite the fact that I didn't bring a shovel.
 The top layer was about 1ft of sand, gravel, and medium cobbles. Once I got through that it was about 1.5ft of DENSE gray clay with no stones or cobbles, then a softer clay containing large cobbles down deep... I didn't find the bottom of this layer (yet). The deep layer is where the largest cobbles laying outside the hole came from. The firm 1.5' of dense clay (secondary layer) made for excellent walls which thwarted the usual underwater cave-ins but that clay was difficult to extract. I had to continuously use a scraping action with the suction nozzle to get through it. You can see the transition of the hole's sand/clay color from the pic. Weather was more than kind for once, great day! Not sure when I'll have time to run these cons but I'll update if there are some worthy fines.  
-------------------- /l ,[____], l---L-OlllllllO- ()_) ()_)--o-)_) BLACK SANDS MATTER! Very Happy CP Lifetime Member CP CORE TEAM Referral Code CE213 |
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Jul 28 2010, 04:33 AM
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#2
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 Master Mucker Group: Members Posts: 1,439 Joined: 22-February 04 Member No.: 98 |
Any luck?
-------------------- Today's socio-political climate is rock solid proof that Adam and Eve weren't prospectors.
If they were they'd have eaten the snake instead of the apple and we'd still be in heaven.... |
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Jul 28 2010, 05:41 AM
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#3
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russau Group: Members Posts: 2,841 Joined: 4-December 03 From: st.louis missouri Member No.: 43 |
Swizz we had a very similar situation here in Missouri. we were in a common country farm creek and saw the same clay layers as you are. we saw three clay layers and finnaly found fine gold. not much but we did find gold. we had to put a hooka on his dredge after so deep.he got down to over head deep. so i just goes to show a person,gold is where you find it!sounds like your doing it correctly by scrapping the clay to get your material. maybe if you had another pump you could make a water blaster to do your "scrapping" for you??
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Jul 28 2010, 06:35 AM
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#4
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Moderator Group: Members Posts: 4,459 Joined: 25-August 09 From: way on up thar Member No.: 6,983 |
QUOTE (Coalbunny @ Jul 28 2010, 05:33 AM)  Any luck? I sucked up a .22 cal hollow point round un-fired which didn't go off in my dredge. Does that count? -------------------- /l ,[____], l---L-OlllllllO- ()_) ()_)--o-)_) BLACK SANDS MATTER! Very Happy CP Lifetime Member CP CORE TEAM Referral Code CE213 |
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Jul 28 2010, 04:39 PM
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#5
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 Master Mucker! Group: Admin Posts: 7,187 Joined: 7-October 03 From: Colorado Member No.: 4 |
Looks like a great spot to me Swizz!
 Fantastic pic!!QUOTE (Coalbunny @ Jul 28 2010, 04:33 AM) Any luck? QUOTE (swizz @ Jul 28 2010, 06:35 AM) I sucked up a .22 cal hollow point round un-fired which didn't go off in my dredge. Does that count?  Good answer good answer! 
-------------------- Education is the key to the future,
and participation opens the door to opportunity. Discover your prospecting independence & success! ColoradoProspector.com Owner/Webmaster Core team member ♥  |
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Aug 3 2010, 11:34 PM
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#6
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Master Mucker Group: Members Posts: 1,439 Joined: 22-February 04 Member No.: 98 |
QUOTE (swizz @ Jul 28 2010, 06:35 AM) I sucked up a .22 cal hollow point round un-fired which didn't go off in my dredge. Does that count? At least you pulled the lead from the water. Odds are the powder was wet. I found that most brands of .22LR ammo are not waterproof. Some merely last longer underwater. -------------------- Today's socio-political climate is rock solid proof that Adam and Eve weren't prospectors.
If they were they'd have eaten the snake instead of the apple and we'd still be in heaven.... |
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| Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 27th April 2024 - 04:17 PM |
