The Grizzly Tales- A First Year Dredger Diary

[GrizzlyGremlin]

This journal thread is my ongoing thread encompassing my very first year dredging for GOLD.
My dredge is a 4" keene ultra mini, equipped with a t80 air compressor and hookah system.
This is my 6th year prospecting but only 2nd year of being thoroughly struck with the addiction and an OCD to precious metals, known commonly as gold fever. This is a real psychological condition similar to that of the many compulsive disorders.
My crew includes myself, my brother, and childhood friend Corey.
My brother thinks like gold, i credit him with almost ALL of my gold finds, he is a gold sniffing machine, also 6'3 and 200lbs of muscle doesn't hurt.
Corey is our mechanic and dirt chewing monster. He can dig with spade for 12 hours a day for 7 days in a row. As a professional in his field riding mowers, loaders, excavators, and dump trucks we trust all the tools to him.
I am the brains and billfold i guess you could say. I can research information for hours and hours on stupidly obscure and pointless topics. I also can dig to china and back in a day.
We feel our crew can outwork anyone at anything anywhere. We all REFUSE failure as an option in all aspects of life, and our gold quest is no exception.
Our biggest hurdle is scheduling this summer as to maximize the number of days we can dredge. We worked it out so that I will have either one or both of them for a full day but most weeks 2 full days per week from now until sept 15.
This is a commitment we all made and probably the most exciting commitment I've ever made.
We have Expectations and Goals. We keep them Separate.
Our First Goal for the season is 4 ounces.
1/4lb of gold doest come easy for anyone but we feel that its a good goal.
Our second Goal is to find the Largest nugget ever found in the state of NH.
Both are stretches but aiming high is key when your target is so far away.
My expectation for this season is 1 ounce and a few 1 gram class nuggets.
Most importantly of all, we have FUN! Just being on the river makes it worth it.

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

Our first trip has come and gone! Whew! What a relief to break the engine in and learn the finer points of sloshing the foot valve to prime the pup like trying drown a damn beaver. There is a definite learning curve which we are quickly ascending. We quickly found that dredging isn't that hard of work. Getting 300lbs of gear through the woods is. Trudging through snow up to our hips is. Sitting shoulder deep in a 3' hole is easy... When the water is 34 degrees it sucks!!!
We will be waiting until april 1st to go again. The water isnt so much the problem. The 28" of snow most definitely is.
I spent a total of about 4 hours in the water, we dredges 2 spots for about 2 hours per secession. Our first hole was nill, some small stuff but the material was too loose. Second spot had had loose gravel too, until we got 1/2 way down to bedrock. The material was so tight the walls of my hole were straight vertical. I knew i couldnt
last in that water so i punched straight down and hit bedrock. I cleaned maybe a 1 foot patch then we checked the black mat. Bam nice big flake picker!! Sweet! I needed some fuel after and hour of that water. I got back down and was able to clean about a 3' circle before we really needed to grade out a much larger section. W called it and headed out. Didnt pan any cons or anything. I knew we had one nice piece and the main point of the trip was to break in the motor anyway. Mission accomplished. We classified and panned cons later on the next day.
I was surprised at what we found...
The first pic is after all the cons were panned except one cup.. The second pic shows the 4th picker which was in that last cup of +10s
a great start. Next trip i want 20 of those fatty flakes!!

 

[kazcoro]

This should be entertaining.... Let it roll.

 

[Hoser John]

4 oz of gold is 1/3 lb not 1/4 as only 12 ozs in a troy pound. Think poundage and you will receive-John

 

[timberjack]

Nice gold for n.h. you have some moxie if your diving now..we have 3 feet of snow and the day time temps have been in the low 30's..give me a call if you need a hand and good luck

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Thanks Timber, ya its chunky, well flat but for NH...very coarse glacial stuff. We got very lucky on where the ice let us in the river. Right where we researched. Its some insane looking clay and bedrock. I'm hitting it again this week. If we dont see at least 20 of those fatties we are moving. The river is still going to have 18" of ice on most of it but i ain't waiting. Spring might be waiting to show up but i wont be late.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

6 dredge trips down, many many to go. Its been a while since ive had a bit to post. First off we are not doing good... Finding riches anyway. We have learned much about dredging and are starting to get the hang of things. Is there a way for one person to prime the water pump? It takes 2 of us because the foot valve slowly lets water out so its not a 1 person job. We are not rich yet but we are finding some gold... Some coarse stuff as well but not plentiful. We really only find gold in a 2-10" layer of hard pack gravels sitting on bedrock. I wish there was more of it because the gold is good. Any suggestions you guys have please let em fire.
By the way. How much gold is this? Im going to wait until september to put it on a scale though.

 

[timberjack]

Take the blaster plug out of the pump and put a t on it, on one side of the t put a 90 deg pointing up then a valve then get a funnel that fits into the valve, when you want to prime the pump insert funnell, open valve, fill with water, close valve, start engine, you can have a valve on the other side of the t for the blaster hose,looks good for n.h! Keep at it! How many hours of hose time?

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

I knew that the blaster port could be rigged with something! Im at about 35 hours. The water is just getting warm enough to stay down for more than 30 min so I'm going log a lot of hours in the hot water in aug. A full day in 40 degree water will wipe anyone out. Soon we can do the 2 day overnight trip.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Is there a way for one person to prime the water pump? It takes 2 of us because the foot valve slowly lets water out so its not a 1 person job.

Put a camlock on the pressure hose down by the powerjet intake. Just remove the hose from the jet, fill it with water and lift it up to prime the hoses and pump. You can raise the pressure hose up higher when you go to start it and as long as there is water in that higher hose above the pump, it is completely primed. Also if you have a metal foot valve, sometimes it is hard to seal it by itself to the intake hose so wrap 1 layer of duct tape around the footvalve and then use 2 clamps on the hose to hold it in place. You may also want to duct tape the pump infeed if it is aluminum because of the same problem. This might be the only problem that you actually have. Also, when putting camlocks on add a tee at the jet to run a high pressure blaster hose from.
You can see in this pic how we would raise the pressure hose up and then reconnect it to have total prime in this leaking old foot valve. When it was totally full we had no problem catching the prime every time.

 

[MinerFortyNiner1952]

Our First Goal for the season is 4 ounces.
Our second Goal is to find the Largest nugget ever found in the state of NH.
Both are stretches but aiming high is key when your target is so far away.
.

With a work ethic and drive like that, you can't fail.

 

[Fullpan]

...like drowning a damn beaver...LMAO - perfect description - been there, lol.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

So yesterday we had our first trip without a hitch.

Our best black mat sample, and the last 2 trips.

 

[omnicron]

I would give my left testie to find chucky stuff like that! Where I'm dredging the big bucket line dredge came through and took all the big stuff and left "crumbs" but they do add up and add up fast. Hope you hit your goal, I hit 5 ounces last year (first year with a 4") I'm running a 6" now and have a 20-30oz goal that is getting further and further away thanks to the EPA shutting down major area's I was wanting to dredge so what's left open is crapola water ways.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

9th trip down. The gold is steady but not prevalent. Small compacted pockets under bedrock ledges. The good material is like concrete. Had a brook trout and 2 sculpins in my hole today. Beautiful weather and plenty of exercise. This is what its all about in the end cuz guess what... Whether your looking down from a cloud or looking up from hell this stuff stays here.

 

[omnicron]

Are you using a blaster? They kick arse and blast right through hardpack. I just started using the keene blaster port adapter and it works much better then the pump port.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

No blaster yet. Im going to be honest when we find a nice patch of hard pack we like breaking it it up with our hands. Theres not a whole lot of it left and its in dangerous spots between large leaning glacial potatoes. The bedrock is mostly smooth. Very smooth. Small decomposed veins and pockets here and there. In the flatter areas there are clay banks that encompass the entire river bottom and is sometimes 2ft thick and sits on bedrock. No idea if its workable but id be willing to bet that under the clay on bedrock could pay. The clay has gravels in it but noooo gold or BS at all. If we are finding some chunkies then the river must have some better pockets you would think. Maine opens later this month. 2 day trips are coming. Trying to nail down a location. East branch maybe but im not sure.

 

[omnicron]

In all honesty, you should be using a blaster for everything. It will actually help your recovery IMO. It blast everything in to a pre-slurry (don't know what else to call it) thus allowing MUCH MORE material to be moved faster and will allow the gold to drop out faster in your hose. Breaking up with your hands is slow and inefficient. What I do is sit my nozzle down by what I want to suck up, I use one hand to move the larger rocks, the other hand is pointing the blaster at the overburden and or hardpack. With the suction I have I can clear a 24" area in 30 seconds or less.
All you need is a garden hose, and some kind of nozzle, I built this one for 10bucks and love it. I can use it to scrap, tap, pry or blast which equals less tools to keep track of.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Yup thats going on my dredge stat. What kind of hose? Now that im thinking about it. I need it now.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Duh garden hose!...