Is it wise to even buy a dredge these days?

[Eric Willoughby]

I have been seeing a lot of postings on various prospecting forums and it seems like there is a lot of anti-dredging legislation being passed around the country these days. Is it wise to even invest in a dredge now, I would hate to shell out big money for one, only to have the whole thing banned in a year or so. What do you all think?

 

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[patches63]

while we are all smarter than the average bear,just how smart is the average bear?! i would buy another right now,if i had a streak that needed one.got three perfectly adequate ones, and trucks to scoot em outta cali as necessry.coming soon to a creek near you.dont shoot.

 

[Hoser John]

fOR THE 1ST TIME IN MY WHOLE GOLD GRUBBN' LIFE I MUST SAY NO--NOT ONLY NO BUT LL NO the radical environutz have been judisiously filling their coffers and now the industry has been brought to it's knees by the cancer on the klamath--When 1 state falls--so we all go with a legal precedent for all to hang their kill dredging hats on--sorry-John

 

[cosmic]

Out west no!! Back east, some states don't allow dredging, some state no problem up to a certain size nozzle, and watch the private property as some runs to the middle of the river.. Dredging for recreation and maybe some profit back east is OK but making a living is another story.. I know where your prospecting at and the laws there haven't changed in years..GO FOR IT!!!!
Ray

 

[jog]

fOR THE 1ST TIME IN MY WHOLE GOLD GRUBBN' LIFE I MUST SAY NO--NOT ONLY NO BUT LL NO the radical environutz have been judisiously filling their coffers and now the industry has been brought to it's knees by the cancer on the klamath--When 1 state falls--so we all go with a legal precedent for all to hang their kill dredging hats on--sorry-John

With this kinda attitude no wonder they win!!!!
I think we all should have a dredge and fight like HELL!!!!!

 

[Hoser John]

o ye of little knowledge--I've been on damn near evrey council/ad hoc commitee/co-founded Miners Alliance/worked 94 EIR and spent many $10,000's on lousy motel rooms,lousy food and gave away pounds of gold for over 37 years-- I have a room full of industry awards and hundreds of letters of thanks from 1,000's a charities/schools/miners associations over the years-DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW SQUAT!!!

 

[jog]

So what your saying is that we should just lie down and take it.SORRY but I'm not that type of person,the west was built on mining and hard working people,NOT people who are willing to take it in the a#$ from some peace of cr#$ environmental group.

 

[beaks]

gravity dredges work great when you dont want anyone to hear ya lmao

 

[Eric Willoughby]

Heck with it, I went ahead and got the dredge..... damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

 

[Hoser John]

I've got in another 3 days now--catch me ifn'ya can MoFo-John but my lawyer has instructed me to NOT POST PIX OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES as all info on the net can and WILL be used against you in a court of law--John

 

[strickman]

hey john,

 

[Goldwasher]

its not environmentalists its politicians using something they know people will latch on to.salmon are gone due to overfishing period......... dont come back with any of your hose me down comments john you are not the ony prospector with life experience you spent all that money and time feeding into a game wich you are not part of the first string team..... ive watched the indians blow away seals to keep them away from they're nets and its legal for them if i approach a seal or get caught throwing a piece of kelp at one its fines and court for me b.s.when you open it up no matter what package they give it to you in. keep dredgin get a muffler and go remote wardens are only allowed to go so far from their trucks alone. or go 50 feet from the bank dig a hole and dredge that its totally legal year round as its not a body of water there nothin better than seeing the look on the wardens face when you explain that one to them its worked twice for me in the winter. look up the regs if you have a claim and put in a notice your finr even in the golden state just give your highbanker some suction and dont give up.

 

[jog]

its not environmentalists its politicians using something they know people will latch on to.salmon are gone due to overfishing period......... dont come back with any of your hose me down comments john you are not the ony prospector with life experience you spent all that money and time feeding into a game wich you are not part of the first string team..... ive watched the indians blow away seals to keep them away from they're nets and its legal for them if i approach a seal or get caught throwing a piece of kelp at one its fines and court for me b.s.when you open it up no matter what package they give it to you in. keep dredgin get a muffler and go remote wardens are only allowed to go so far from their trucks alone. or go 50 feet from the bank dig a hole and dredge that its totally legal year round as its not a body of water there nothin better than seeing the look on the wardens face when you explain that one to them its worked twice for me in the winter. look up the regs if you have a claim and put in a notice your finr even in the golden state just give your highbanker some suction and dont give up.

It may not be the environmentalist but i think it all comes down to which group can bribe the politicians the most.And who has whose hand in whose pocket.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

A big part of the problem is organizations like Sierra Club = they literally have thousands upon thousands of people who are members, and will vote and support anything they come up with.

These folks have been brainwashed by the organizations, and these people truly believe all the hype they are given. The whole enchilada - not just about treasure hunters, or dredgers - but about guns, hunting, "saving the forests" and truly think that the only way to save America from all the villans is to take away all the public land, put it in a bubble, and only let people "see" it (of course, they get to map it, picnic on it, hike on it, cross-country ski on it - ad nauseum. And the common member thinks they are "saving the whales", so to speak.

We, as dredgers, prospertors, miners and treasure hunters are neither funded as well, nor have the organizational abilities, that these big organizations have. (we do have PLP and the GPAA who DO fight some of our battles).

But, by gosh - that is no reason to throw our hands up and say "oh well".

I, as well, have done the writing, and telephoning, and the 'letters to the editor', and talked to politicians - to the point that they wanted me to register as a lobbyist. It sucks for a small entity fighting a big corporation or two or three, along with the organizations that go with it.

But, we cannot sit back - never just sit back - I still find myself writing letters to big and small newspapers on a regular basis, and send hundreds of email and snail mails to our representatives.

Many of our representatives straight out lie. We have several letters, from presidents to congress people, who say things like "I will not vote for anything that takes away use of our public lands" and other crap like that, but then when the bills come up - I see how they REALLY voted.

Personally, that's one of my next steps - to make some of these 'promises' public and let people see just who is honest and who isn't.

Some of these things are the reason I don't - and never will - vote for some politicians.

One of my biggest disapointments was Bruce Babbit - you would have thought, considering his background, that he would be a person who
would side with people like us - but he was one of the worst - not just for people like us, either ---

Either way - don't ever stop fighting, for the things we want - The Sierra Club won't, nor the Nature's Conservancy - and other big name organizations - who happen to have a combined membership of over half of our adult population.

Because these are the same people who use the minerals, just like everyone else - who hold events in places you and I cannot go, and, frankly, have deforested thousands of acres for 'parks, golf courses and ski vacations.


B

 

[jog]

I feel sorry for any one who has Arnold S, for your Gov,If you have ever seen the movie kinder garden cop,it was filmed in my home town.Arnold rented a section of a friends building for his weight lifting.(Brings his gym with him)At the time i was working there and was in charge of setting up the area.Trust me this guy is one SOB!!!!!

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Sad to say, but poor California has been sliding down the hill long before Arnold. (not that he has helped, of course).

California used to be a pretty cool place - we own property there, but, with the laws of California - our property will remain a vacation spot, and nothing else.

There used to be a time when the education system in California was unmatched by any other state.

Now California has turned into a place where everyone wants to control everyone else's lives, they make garbage, but ship it to other states (they don't want any more dumps), they use an inordinate amount of electricity, but cannot be marred by power plants, so they must buy it from other states, cries about the cost of land, but has millions of acres off limits or so restricted you have to be a millionaire 4 times over to afford to buy or build, has problems with immigrants and criminals but doesn't want to make any more prisons, nor do they want to do anything for the citizens who have lost their jobs to illegals and so on and so on.

Arnold is but one more step downhill to the pits for its future.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, many Californians are sick of it and are moving out - and they are moving to Colorado and South Dakota and Wyoming, to "get away from all the crap", when, what they are really doing is bringing their crap HERE.

It's called "Californiating another state" - because the mindset is the same, they just need some different people to dump on.

There are some great people in California - but they are the silent majority. They are the ones who go to work every day, pay their taxes and just try to get along day by day.

B

 

[kuger]

its not environmentalists its politicians using something they know people will latch on to.salmon are gone due to overfishing period......... dont come back with any of your hose me down comments john you are not the ony prospector with life experience you spent all that money and time feeding into a game wich you are not part of the first string team..... ive watched the indians blow away seals to keep them away from they're nets and its legal for them if i approach a seal or get caught throwing a piece of kelp at one its fines and court for me b.s.when you open it up no matter what package they give it to you in. keep dredgin get a muffler and go remote wardens are only allowed to go so far from their trucks alone. or go 50 feet from the bank dig a hole and dredge that its totally legal year round as its not a body of water there nothin better than seeing the look on the wardens face when you explain that one to them its worked twice for me in the winter. look up the regs if you have a claim and put in a notice your finr even in the golden state just give your highbanker some suction and dont give up.

You might want to read the "NEW",law....I beleive it states "no dredge may be be withinn 100 yrds of any water way?Legally you are supposed to have an engineered settling pond as well to operate a highbanker.The highbanking does not have a leg to stand on when they come after that either,CLEAN WATER ACT,its coming!!!!

 

[Astrobouncer]

All this stuff makes you wonder, if sluices wont be the next thing the decide to outlaw? Well, they gotta find me first!!!

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

You're right - we have to have people who can look at these things every single day - for every single state.

Even though there are some great folks on our side (like PLP), it seems like every single county in every state has their own view of what should happen with metal detecting, prospecting and treasure hunting, and make their own little laws here and there -

The government's favorite tactic is to pass these laws while the general population is looking at other, "more important" things. Bottom line is, while we are all worrying about the economy, our next paycheck, global warming, health benefits, and all the other "major" news stories - there are people behind the scenes that are working on taking away all the 'little' pleasures of life. I do not believe there is a town council that doesn't have at least one person who has an agenda for being on the council - whether it is the length of your grass, the color of your house, how many dogs you own, if your car runs or if you are 'stealing' their treasures.

That comes from an attitude of "If I don't do it, you shouldn't either" or "If I don't believe in it, you shouldn't either" - and we see it everywhere in the country, on all different types of things.

B

 

[kuger]

You're right - we have to have people who can look at these things every single day - for every single state.

Even though there are some great folks on our side (like PLP), it seems like every single county in every state has their own view of what should happen with metal detecting, prospecting and treasure hunting, and make their own little laws here and there -

The government's favorite tactic is to pass these laws while the general population is looking at other, "more important" things. Bottom line is, while we are all worrying about the economy, our next paycheck, global warming, health benefits, and all the other "major" news stories - there are people behind the scenes that are working on taking away all the 'little' pleasures of life. I do not believe there is a town council that doesn't have at least one person who has an agenda for being on the council - whether it is the length of your grass, the color of your house, how many dogs you own, if your car runs or if you are 'stealing' their treasures.

That comes from an attitude of "If I don't do it, you shouldn't either" or "If I don't believe in it, you shouldn't either" - and we see it everywhere in the country, on all different types of things.

B

AMEN.......SPOT ON!!!