After completing this project last summer the creeks remained at very low levels, making it very hard to test it in any of the places I thought would be best suited. The recent rains have made the DD hard to prospect, but made some of the other places I have permission to prospect perfect for using a hand dredge. I had used this a few times to make sure it worked , but had never given it a good workout until last Saturday. I spent several hours at a location that has lots of exposed bedrock and concentrated my efforts in the places that are left high and dry when the water is at lower levels.
It worked very well and improves with practice. I did get carried away 1 time and pulled the entire piston shaft assembly out of the body while using it in nearly a horizontal position. It took a few minutes to reassemble and get working smoothly. Occasionally a larger rock will get caught at the tip on the way out, but can usually be cleared by shaking or rotating the dredge 180 degrees while shaking it. This worked all but a half a dozen or so times when I had to poke the rock with my finger to free it. Overall I was very happy with the way it worked, but noticed it flexes and in your hands and imagine it is much more fragile than others made of schedule 40 material. The clear body makes it very easy to see the type and quantity of material you are getting. I found that there seemed to better gold in material that had muddy looking water with it. I could easily see when a spot had been cleaned out and I needed to move over.
Some of the gold , lead and wire I found in a pan of material. The gold was chunky and I only found a couple of pieces that I would call a speck.
I broke the screen on my camera that day, so I don't have a picture of the final cleanup.
Kevin P
