First drywashing outing

[KevinInColorado]

Went out today Drywashing in the CO mountains with my Keene 151. Brought a friend along. We dug 4 partial buckets from each of 7 sample sites and ran each sample separately, dumping cons into ziplock bags. Had a great time, worked hard, ran all tailings back thru a second time and are seeing color in each sample. No honey hole yet but we'll keep searching!

Me at the Drywasher Beautiful day! Finish panning (my friend Steve at the pan and beer) Gold from one of the 7 samples

Update: we did find gold in every single sample but a couple were definitely better than the others. We were really happy that we'd set the dry washer up well enough to catch gold since we are both virgins at this.

The area we were in is about 1/2 mile to water and no prospecting is allowed due to it being a recreational area and feeding directly into a drinking water reservoir (lame, I know!) HOWEVER I got permission from the usfs Land Use Ranger to dry wash! Sometimes all ya gotta do is ask!

It hadn't rained in a couple weeks so the ground was nice and dry for the first few inches down (good enough for our sampling) and it started raining while we ate dinner that night so I felt really lucky to go when we did

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[rodoconnor]

Kevin, D/Wing is no way as efficient as working wet, however the amount of material that you can process more than makes up for it. Glad you got some au buddy. G/L

 

[2cmorau]

dirty work, but oooo so much fun, note upright Elec leafblower also used as a CracVac when straped to a Bucket, note extra buckets, note elec cord used also for chippin hammer, and blender for some icy drinks end of day treat, cracvac elec leafblower cost about 120bucks to put together, just for you az

 

[AzViper]

dirty work, but oooo so much fun, note upright Elec leafblower also used as a CracVac when straped to a Bucket, note extra buckets, note elec cord used also for chippin hammer, and blender for some icy drinks end of day treat, cracvac elec leafblower cost about 120bucks to put together, just for you az

WOW 2cmorau. Outstanding construction of your CracVac and blower. Its portable too. WOW you can haul a generator, CracVac, hose, Extension cord, fuel for the generator, buckets, chippin hammer, shovels, and 151 into the back country. Yep that $120.00 CracVac needs a $300.00 generator to supply the power. Sure like to see you strap the generator, bucket, hand tools, and vac on a pack frame and head into the back country... LOL 2C...

As always another thread that your so good at highjacking 2cmorau. Sorry Kevin

 

[KevinInColorado]

LoL, it happens.

 

[AzViper]

So Kevin your first go at Drywashing whats your likes and dislikes?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hey AZV!
Likes: way easier to set up and run successfully than expected; handles a lot of material quickly; makes much less dust than expected; even caught some -50 gold

Dislikes: hauling buckets from hillside gold deposit to dry washer (which has to be setup on flatish ground; not knowing if I'm catching gold (since we had no water to pan in)

Overall: a big thumbs up! Had a great time and was thrilled to find gold in all 7 samples we ran. Looking forward to my next chance to run dry!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Our 7 samples, each the result of running 4 partial buckets...in 1 gallon ziplocs #1, 5, 7 had the best gold so I know exactly where to start next time

 

[kazcoro]

That drywasher will move a lot of material quickly, that's for sure.

 

[AzViper]

Hey AZV!
Likes: way easier to set up and run successfully than expected; handles a lot of material quickly; makes much less dust than expected; even caught some -50 gold

Dislikes: hauling buckets from hillside gold deposit to dry washer (which has to be setup on flatish ground; not knowing if I'm catching gold (since we had no water to pan in)

Overall: a big thumbs up! Had a great time and was thrilled to find gold in all 7 samples we ran. Looking forward to my next chance to run dry!!

The nature of the beast having to haul buckets. You may want to classify prior to hauling the buckets. Get more bang for the bucket if you know the area your working is holding fine gold.

Kevin what angle did you run your lower recovery box at on the drywasher. Looks a little steep but that may be the angle of which the photo was taken. 15 degrees seems to be the norm.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Classification - yes, will do. This time we didn't (as you can see from the rocks at my feet in the pic of me at the dry washer), we just tossed aside some of the larger rocks as we shoveled.

Riffle tray angle- I didn't measure it, it may have been overly steep, I just adjusted it to get the same sort of flow over the riffles as I've seen on YouTube. Next time I'll try 15 degrees and see how that works. Thanks for the tip!

 

[AzViper]

Kevin I believe the third video shows real close the correct angle. If you have a smartphone you can download an angle finder app or buy a digital angle finder at Harbor Freight. I use the phone app.

​

 

[KevinInColorado]

Cool stuff AzV. I have an iPhone which works great as a level. I'll definitely measure and adjust angles next time.