# Dredge



## JustinNH (Mar 26, 2008)

So, my friends and I do gold panning here in NH using mostly pans and sometimes a sluice. We do pretty well (although its mostly fines here so it takes a bit to add up) but people with dredges and highbankers of course do a lot better. So I plan on getting a suction dredge for the spring to use. NH has a 4" limit on them.. I was wondering if anyone here has a dredge or knows about them and which ones work well? From what I see they are generally the same- just different sizes and colors, but I just want to be sure and possibly get some extra imput.
Ah, I cant wait till I can go again!

Thanks!


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## Froggy (Mar 26, 2008)

Ebay? I wish I had something to prospect for here in Texas... copper,silver, gold,,,, heck i would even take a big ol' mouintain of aluminum if i could find any? all the old pools of oil are long gone, takes a half million to reach it now..... Be careful with a dredge down here it will get choked up on illegal immigrants crossing the waters...


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## ChucknC (Mar 28, 2008)

There are worlds of diffrences between dredges. More than I care to even think about.

To start with, if it were me, I'd look at a Proline dredge. They are designed to move more material than Keene(another large manufactuerer) and can be easily modified for fine gold. Simply add 1/2in raised expanded metal under the riffles.

Don't get me wrong, Keene is an excellent dredge, but for my money, their tripple sluice is an over engineered money pit. The single or over-under type dredge sluices, to me, are superior. Just my 2cents.

Dahlke is another manf. but I'm not that familiar with them. I have heard a lot of good things, but I haven't seen one in action.

A highbanker is not that hard to build. I made a mini for testing and cleanup. It works well, but I have a diffrent setup I will be trying this summer.

Do you have a lot of clay or mostly sand and gravel? If you have a lot of clay, you might want to try a trommel. They are murder on clays, and have an excellent fines retention.

Basicly it all depends on what you want, when you want it, and how much you want to spend.

Chuck


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## Anonymous (Mar 28, 2008)

Build a rocker box they work great on fine gold because you control the feed, water, and action. That is what I use. I basically screen to 1/4- load a couple of buckets full of this and sit with my dip can and beer can and rock away.

easily built with some 1 * 6 lumber and a scrap piece of plywood.


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## blueduck (Mar 30, 2008)

If NH has a limit on the size does the state have a permitting process that you have to jump through to stick a dredge in the water? I ask because in Idaho, we have several jurisdictions all claiming they have superior jurisdiction and once you start you can figure a couple of years of submitting paperwork into those places...... however the IDWR hasa recreational permit that trumps the IDL bond process, but once you submit to that it is only good for a set length of time to dredge in certain watercourses, the bulk being 45 days of July to mid august although there are a few watersheds open year round. This is after you either register a claim, or purchase the rights to dredge on one or have a friend who will let you sink a sucker in the water....

but if you choose to set a highbanker up in Idaho you have to go through the IDWR and record a water right for use in the county where you are gonna set it up..... then wait 30 days for anyone to object..... submit a notice of intent to the forestry service, BLM, IDL, IDWR, and any other department claiming to have authority to govern the mining process in Idaho like the DEQ, and the IDEQ, any city or county that falls within that watershed, and of course if they have a zoning regualtion reaching that far out.... and folks wonder why there is a gold rush in places like Mongolia or south america right now...... cause here the regualtions of seeking permission far outweigh the fun involved in seeking treasure from the mountain or stream. [soap boxes can be slippery when wet]

All that said and done, a person needs to know about how deep the berock is they are trying to seek out with the dredge, how much overburden has to be moved, the size of the overburden like if its only gravel for the most part, then a 2-3 inch dredge from what i understand of them will do fine, but if you have a majority of 4 inch and bigger rock, then moving it all by hand becomes tiresome and hard to deal with...... regaurdless of the size of the fines you are gonna get, you still have to reach them to get them to the sluice.

The above ida of a rockerbox is not a bad one, my dads uncle made $20 per day in the 1930's one winter not far from here with a couple other fellas using a rockerbox, and at at $35 gold that was pretty good, and for the time was outstanding as wages of the day around these parts were about $1.25 to 1.75 per hour if you could find the work that paid.... carpentry, logging, sometimes farming and ranching, but not always year round in any of those fields...... mining was about the only thing that folks could do year long, though no promise of payout was ever made.... A good rocker box operation takes 4 people,... a digger, a water bearer, a gravel bearer and stick man [the fella who rock the cradle] this is why folks like the engineers at Keene and a few others started making equipment to cut down on needing so many folks to move the same amount of material.... 

Equipment is not hard to make, many folks do it on their own, some just figure out how to mine the pockets of would be miners and build equipment for them, some works, some works better than others and some just wont do what it says it will and miners lose a little cash..... though "pocket gophers" abound in about every profession i spose.

William
North Central Idaho


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## Irons (Mar 30, 2008)

One of the biggest problems in the East is getting permission to dredge. Private property rights have to be respected and the state requires written permission from the land owner, a 4 inch maximum suction hose and no dredging until June to protect juvenile trout.

I thought about getting one but after watching others and their results, I find I can do as well or better by sniping the pay streaks now that I know what to look for.

If you like to fish, try dropping a worm behind a working dredge. The trout will hang around the outlet waiting for the little critters that get sucked up. They don't seem to be spooked by the activity.


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## Anonymous (Mar 30, 2008)

Irons, the best steelhead fishing in CA was a little down stream of the dredgers. Although when I was in the Marines I had no idea what they were doing, just new the fishing was good.

Wish I would have known about prospecting when I was stationed in CA.
Man I missed a lot of opportunities.

Jim


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## skyline27 (Mar 30, 2008)

Anybody ever do any prospecting in Newfoundland?


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## JustinNH (Mar 30, 2008)

ChucknC said:


> Simply add 1/2in raised expanded metal under the riffles.
> ....Do you have a lot of clay or mostly sand and gravel? If you have a lot of clay, you might want to try a trommel. They are murder on clays, and have an excellent fines retention.
> 
> Chuck



Yeah, I made a sluice out of HVAC stuff and when I added the expansed metal above the carpet and below the riffles, it made a good difference in fines. So I would make sure the dredge has it. 

We have mostly rocks and gravel but below it all is the clay. The gold is in all layers but the most concentracted area is within a few inches of the clay as the gold cant pass through that layer.

Thanks for the reply!


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## JustinNH (Mar 30, 2008)

james122964 said:


> Build a rocker box they work great on fine gold because you control the feed, water, and action. That is what I use. I basically screen to 1/4- load a couple of buckets full of this and sit with my dip can and beer can and rock away.
> 
> easily built with some 1 * 6 lumber and a scrap piece of plywood.



Yeah, I had a friend make one and it worked alright. I made a sluice (which actually turned out pretty damn good, if i do say so myself haha). I think the box is a step up fromt he sluice as it doesnt take all day finding a spot the sluice will run properly :wink: I thought about makign one but after seeing how much more effective the dredges were doing, I cant get away from them!


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## JustinNH (Mar 30, 2008)

blueduck said:


> If NH has a limit on the size does the state have a permitting process that you have to jump through to stick a dredge in the water? ...
> William
> North Central Idaho



It used to be tougher than it is now (and more expensive).
Currently it is 10 dollars, good anywhere in the state and is pretty easy to get. It used to be 75 (i think), only good for once exact location.
They do not really check if you have a license though. I went every weekend last sumemr to the most popular place int he state and didnt see one person checked... Still, 10 dollars isnt a bad price.

I was thinking of a highbanker, or maybe a combo they sell. Since in the sumemr some of the waters are really low the normal highbanker could be used until you break the water level then the suction feature could be used. There was one group that worked one every weekend and ended the year with a massive crater in the ground, as well as a few good pieces of gold...


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## JustinNH (Mar 30, 2008)

Irons said:


> One of the biggest problems in the East is getting permission to dredge. Private property rights have to be respected and the state requires written permission from the land owner, a 4 inch maximum suction hose and no dredging until June to protect juvenile trout.
> 
> I thought about getting one but after watching others and their results, I find I can do as well or better by sniping the pay streaks now that I know what to look for.
> 
> If you like to fish, try dropping a worm behind a working dredge. The trout will hang around the outlet waiting for the little critters that get sucked up. They don't seem to be spooked by the activity.



I didnt know about the June rule... good to know haha
Yeah, there are dace ( I think) as well as an occasional juv brookie that tend to go right up to the bottom of the sluice and sometimes even right below the pan when I use that, to grab all the goodies out of the dirt. 

Actually, flyfishign is what got me into gold panning. Some good sports to fly fish for trout are near the good gold producing streams and rivers... so I always get both in durring the day.

Yeah, much of the wild ammonusac is private prop where the gold is. The spot I go is ok for public use, but tends to be well known at the same time haha. Ive tried spots further up stream and came up empty handed... though I was using the same concepts (and gettign the same black sands/garnets/pyrite/lead shot as where I was finding the gold)... Guess thats why no one was there any of those times. Then again, gold is said to be found in any river in the area as well as the saying, Gold is where you find it.

There was one person who was talking to be about sniping the cracks in the bedrock in the regular ammonusac river... had really good luck too. I may look more into that as well this year. Another thing I like about the dredge is that no dirt.sand stays- everything gets sucked up, then the big rock is moved and repeated. No more shoveling, rincing off the big rock and thenmore shoveling. 

**Also, sorry to everyone for the several posts. Just wanted to reply to everyone!  

Thanks all!


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## Scrapman (Apr 1, 2008)

LOL


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## EVO-AU (Mar 7, 2009)

Chuck: Have you ever seen or used the Roberts dredge with a gas driver and a battery driver ? Picked a complete outfit up at a garage sale in Black Mountain for $75.00. Sometimes you get lucky. She said it was cluttering up her garden shed. I didn't ask. Really great on fines. Used it mostly on the Little Hungry over in Polk County. Lot of rattlers over there. And stills - and pot fields. I gave it to another fellow for $200.00 last year. He needed it more lthan I did. It was a great piece of equipment.

Anybody else out there ever have one ? Phill


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