AKDSLDOG

The nasty little bug has bitten again. I've come down with GOLD FEVER ! Drives my wife crazy . I use to dredge for a living in Chicken, Alaska, I was a diver/nozzleman, some of the best fun you can stand, if you like the water. Found a little of the yellow stuff allready this summer and heading uot for a 3 day hunt this coming weekend. Anyone else here on the site that catches this nasty little bug?

got...DIESEL?

you bet......my brother and dad more than me. Brother's got a keene dredge, and I think a high banker. I haven't been for a while, but when the fever hits, it definitely consumes you. I'm sure Northslope will chime in here sometime soon. My Dad's a member, but i don't even know his handle. I think he's more of a reader than a poster. Anyway, good luck on the hunt.

PistolWhipt

I've done it off and on for quite a while... mostly panning and running sluice box. I have seen the larger scale dredging operations and watched the type that you do on the Gold Fever tv show.

My old man was a mining engineer so I was diggin the dirt for one thing or another for most of my formative years.

He spent some time in Ketchican, Ak. when I was born. I assume that was for gold as well.

Good luck with it ... even if you don't find much and very often, it is still a great way to get outdoors and have fun.

PISTOL

coargonaut

I'm another one of those dirt grubbers.
This is prime time for the hobby, and I'm at it three out of four weekends. My primary tool is a 4 inch Keene dredge.
I leave Friday for a nice little vacation. Be back after the 4th of July.
My new 05 sure beats the heck out of a donkey!

Ed

AKDSLDOG

AHHHHH, yes the 4" Keene dredge W/ 6.5hp honda and a T-80 air set up, the new 3 stadge of course. I have been battling the wife for one over a year now. I keep telling her the more matirial I can move the more gold I can find and since the places I go treat me very well for a hand sluice (keene A52) and pan, a nice shiny new 4" would work just fine. ..... She is quit impressed with what I have brought home for what I am doing and she's acting like I might be wining the battle, shhhhhhhh don't let her know I know. ....... My set up allows me to run 15, 5gal bucket's in 1hr. by the end of a 8hr day for 3 days straight my back and shoulder's are toasted! A dredge would be a god sent for the back. I broke my back T12 vertabre a few years back and those 2 13" long steel rods don't allow for lots of flex , but, see'n that yellow in the pan at the end brings nothing but .

P.S. She's even started hitting me up to get a ring made for her, that may be a ace in my favor.

northslope

GOLD GOLD GOLD COLD COLD COLD BONES BONES BONES I love it, my other horrible addiction!!!!

MOPE540

that would be my kind of addiction. I'd like to get involved in gold prospecting, but with the use of a detector..a Minelab SD 2200v2 is a dream machine...but I'd have to travel since i live in the midwest where gold is scarce.
I still have the Minelab Sovereign and often comb through the long abandoned 1800s era home sites to find the silver coins, jewelry, and hopefully a gold coin now and then...just found my first 3 cent piece btw.. an 1851

Patrick Campbell

when i drove up to alaska I was pulling a trailer up for a guy who was an engineer building a road up to a mine. This was somewhere near delta junction... didn't know there was that much out there still.

Hemi Cat

That is something I have to try to do in the near future. I live between two mountains that still produce that yellow stuff. I don't know much about it, but I think it would be fun to try.

northslope

Just remember guys the figure is that only roughly 10% of the earth's gold has been recovered

converteddzlr

We can still get it out of downtown Edmonton in the North Saskatchewan River. Not gobs of it but it sure makes for a fun day out with the kids and friends!

Ken

timb

Weve got a creek 100 yards from the house that we go panning and sluicing in. The better half was'nt much into it till last summer when she found a couple of nice pickers. now she has a differnt outlook all together.

marksmith

Never heard the end of it either.


I have a guy wanting to sell me a Keene 4" with air and accessories for 1K.


I need a tranny though.

Garnet Kid

You are right on there Converteddzlr, years ago people used to work the gravel bars and an ounce a day was normal. It is very fine (flour gold). There used to be a fellow out of Lacombe that was really into the gold panning and he would also set up sluice boxes on gravel washer operations and do quite well at it. Whenever we get the chance we play around in the creeks and rivers of the southern interior of BC.

converteddzlr

Garnet Kid, every year I still see one or two guys upstream from Edmonton around the Devon area set up sluices. Me, I just like to get out with the old pan and give my back a hard time! Good rest for the brain that is!