Advice on dredge

Dain8404

Dain8404

Jr. Member
Jan 31, 2013
88
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Colby, KS
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Have sluiced and panned streams and rivers off and on for many years. My grandfather taught me but he has a hardcore dredger. He never once bought a dredge, he fabricated his own. Huge, crazy, complex machines and dredges that i know costed him more to make and test and tweak then just buying a good name brand.

So my question is, what is the opinions on a keene high-banker dredge combo 3 inch? I was looking at getting a Dahlke 2.5 micro mid jet dredge (i will still, just at a later time) but the wife has taken a huge interest in my prospecting adventures. So im lookin at a high-banker dredge combo for me to have a decent dredging experience when by myself and able to high-bank with the wife from time to time. I live in an area where gold is very fine. Usually -50 to -100 mesh with the occasional picker. Are they as good for fine gold recovery? I dont expect 100% recovery. Anyone expecting that is a lil out there. But my concern is blowing out a majority of the fine gold due to water flows and pressure. This is a problem with some stream sluices and i know this company i mentioned is tried and true.

But any input is appreciated. Is it worth the purchase of a 3 inch combo for fine gold recovery or should i look for a smaller one like a 2 or 2.5 for lower flows? Thanks in advance.
 

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Anything from major manufacture will need changes. Buy lightly used not abused. 50- is going to take some decent classification for better result.

Honestly that size classification is probably going to require active moving parts. Trommel, shaker something besides gravity and water.

Make your active cut in the #12-16 range maybe 20-?

It's strange to me when you to say most gold is -50 to -100 with the occasional picker. Not impossible though my experience has been fairly linear, meaning for every size smaller there is at least that much more to be had. To a point, say #80-100. It has never skipped sizes like that, IME.
 

Maybe i shouldnt have said from "-50 to -100" then. I will say i would like to catch -100 and bigger. If i can get the smaller gold, i dont have to worry as much about the bigger gold.

And if this is the case i may just forego the combo units. Small changes to my way of prospecting but not a re-fabrication of the machine. Maybe thats why my grand dad made his own.
 

I am sorry but i should have said i mainly prospect east coast ( sc, nc, al). Dont get to the side wherw there is chunky gold.... Yet
 

the ability to capture fine gold is mostly due to the knowledge of the person operating the dredge. knowing exactly what your dredge can / will do is very important to the dredger. the best made dredge can / will blow out gold of all sizes if the operator don't know his machine! you have to check your tailings periodically to know how your dredge is set up correctly or not!
 

Bob Dahlke passed,biz for sale,parts availability sketchy so err on the side a caution. Just get a proline/keene mini as your jus' a mutzn' and a putzn' anyhow so just have a great time with it. Involve kids,friends,family and then you have found the real gold in gold mining. 7 days with Russ and the CCC in DC was worth poundage and never even brought home a grain from a 4,000 mile trip and it was good-John
 

russau said:
the ability to capture fine gold is mostly due to the knowledge of the person operating the dredge. knowing exactly what your dredge can / will do is very important to the dredger. the best made dredge can / will blow out gold of all sizes if the operator don't know his machine! you have to check your tailings periodically to know how your dredge is set up correctly or not!
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Very true. That is understandable. But i guess an even more simple way to ask the question is simply, will using a 3" combo have more tendency to blow out fine gold vs a 2.5 or 2" because of the increased flow and pressure needed to lift the material.

I understand adjusting pitch vs waterflow vs how it is clearing vs type of material. It will be a neverending battle. Just wondering. I am going to purchase one, just kinda wanting to know if getting a 3" is a bad idea going for fine gold. I expect losses, but ideal for me is 75% recovery at min. In my mind. I know people may laugh at this but hr for hr, getting only 50% recovery running the amount of material i could at that time matched with what i can move with my bazooka gold trap, i should come out ahead of where i was when i was sluicing. Please correct me if i am wrong.
 

Hoser John said:
Bob Dahlke passed,biz for sale,parts availability sketchy so err on the side a caution. Just get a proline/keene mini as your jus' a mutzn' and a putzn' anyhow so just have a great time with it. Involve kids,friends,family and then you have found the real gold in gold mining. 7 days with Russ and the CCC in DC was worth poundage and never even brought home a grain from a 4,000 mile trip and it was good-John
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Sadly, i experienced this with the new owner. I did place an order with him at start of this year. I did feel like it was always one issue after another. After being told 3 times "it will be sent in 2 weeks" i was a little worried. The new owner explained to me each time what the issue was. To me it sounded just the "start up, growing and learning pains". This i can understand but was still leery.

The thing that set the "leery" part at ease was when i called and he once again said "2 weeks". I explained i would feel more comfortable just getting a refund. There was no argument or bickering. He agreed and my card was refunded 2 days later. This in fact showed me that he was just having some bad luck at the time with parts and availability measuring up to his standards (his words) i can respect that. So because of all of this, his updates and his quickness in the refund, i believe him to be a good person in a new situation. I will order from him. I will order maybe around the start of the new year. He was a good guy and very easy to deal with.
 

I have a Jobe High banker/dredge combo with a 2" Hydro-force nozzle and my brother has the Keene Highbanker/dredge combo and just ordered the 2.5 inch Hydro-force nozzle. We will see how his setup does with the bigger nozzle in 2 weeks when we spend a week at the Alabama Gold Camp.
So far the setup with my Jobe and 2" nozzle has been nothing short of amazing ! I'm getting every thing from pickers ( nuggets are a very rare find here in Alabama ) down to fly speck less than 120 mesh in size.
Also, I have a Martin water table that although slower than panning, is everything as advertised. I have collected alot of gols that I normally wouldn't see in a pan.
I am interested to see how my brothers 2.5" Hydro-Force nozzle works out. My 2 inch pushes A LOT of water, the first time I used it I thought my flows were way to much for my set-up but it turned out it handled it just fine. I failed to mention earlier that I have a second Jobe 45" sluice married on to the end of my Highbanker, all of the gold found has been in the first section so far, but it's nice to have the piece of mind that the second section is there.
 

BTW the Martin Highbanker/dredge combo is a good looking set with an even better looking price. They are made In Inman, SC.
 

Id like to know how your results come out there. I was just there last week. Found a little bit but only stayed the night, was passing through and didnt have all of my stuff with me.
 

SHoward said:
BTW the Martin Highbanker/dredge combo is a good looking set with an even better looking price. They are made In Inman, SC.
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My father uses the a 2.5 inch Martin dredge and it works great. We picked it up at a gold show and the price was great. Still had to do sonme modifications to it. Also make sure to get a good pump not a trash pump as if your are going to dredge with it you will need the suction.
 

If I can get this pic to load, this is what we got last time we were out. This is after about 45 minutes of dredgeing high up on the creek bank. gold 026.jpggold 025.jpggold 024.jpggold 023.jpg
 

I didn't know about Martin prospecting when I got my equipment, I sure would have given them a lot of consideration had I known about them. I believe they use a heavier gauge aluminum than just about everyone else.

As far as pumps go, I use a 7 H.P. 2" trash pump I got on ebay ($169 with free shipping). It has more than enough pressure (50 psi ) and way more flow (9600 gph) than we need for the 2 & 2.5" nozzles.
I don't for a minute believe this pump would work on a jet log type dredge, I think it would probably come up short on both pressure and flow.
 

I have a South Yuba Mining Company 3" here in Ohio ,it holds the very fine gold ,here is gold from my last trip to the Lewis Claim on the Scioto river,took me about 3 to 4 hours ,this is good for Ohiogold 2.JPGgold.JPG
 

This could possibly be the dumbest question you have seen but how much more material will a 3 inch dredge move versus a 2.5 inch dredge? Is it marginal or is it quite a bit of a difference?
 

I could answer your question mathematically but conditions will very. Moving rocks is the name of the game. If you are working fine sand gravel the 3" will do more. If most all of your rocks are bigger cobbles and the like most of your time is going to be spent moving stuff by hand and either will work. I would be considered by hoser as a mutzer and or a putzer and I have a 3" it is fun and I do ok. Remember with the best conditions you should be running a ratio of around 1/4 material 3/4 water as to not overload your sluice.
 

Understood. I plan on using a combo unit for the time being. Leaning towards the 3" keene to be honest. Was just wondering if it made that much difference. I understand moving rocks to dredge. But im thinking in terms of both dredging and high-banking, if you were to put a 2.5 and 3" head to head. The 3 would be able to handle more material at a time due to flows and just the way it is built, correct? I am also looking at when im feeding it as a HB. A 3" would be able to process more gravel faster would it not? Im just trying to figure what set up will meet these 2 goals:

1) process more materiel (if restricted to the exact same materiel and situations) than what i could ever shovel in a day in my Bazooka gold trap sluice.

And 2) retain as much fine gold as possible. Like i said, not much experience with my own dredge but my grandfather let me run the nozzle on his when i was younger while he took breaks. He has passed or i would ask him his opinion on an ideal set up. Again, thanks for the input. It is appreciated.
 

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