new ground 2

[Au dave]

well i got out for a bit of digging yesterday (sunday), and tried a spot nearer the old mines.. about 200 metres from 2 in fact (1 upstream, 1 downstream) by the map..but i didnt go looking for them as the hill they're on climbs at about 40 degrees. I found an outcrop of bedrock that crossed the river at 90deg to the creek flow so decided to clean out some of natures riffles..found 5 pinhead pieces and saw alot of flour in the pans i ran.my new design drop riffle works well and the garbzook ate everything i threw at it..pics and vid of drop riffle operation attached ...haven't run all the cons but will over the next few days to see how much collected.
heavy pans all.

 

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[Au dave]

sorry all gotta work out how to load vids ...will add when i sort it out

 

[utah mason]

Yeah, whats up with that. You cant just load from phone or camera, need youtube account? Seems silly

 

[Au dave]

this should hopefully work https://youtu.be/JCUQtbzJb24

 

[Au dave]

well i panned out the cons and got 7 specks all up and a little flour...not much compared to what you guys get in the US but aussie gold on the east coast is flour and specks..at least i found more in this spot than i have on my other 2 trips out and there is more to work on that spot . Im still learning and hopefully will get more in the future but only consider the gold as a bonus of getting out in the bush the pics dont do the area justice..its an absolutely beatiful area full of wild flowers and animals that dont seem to care about me being on their turf..will get more pics whem im out there sunday...happy hunting all

 

[KevinInColorado]

Seems like that sluice was running a bit too fast. Try slower and see how it behaves & catches.

 

[Au dave]

i had the same thoughts K in C the crk was running fairly fast, it was quick enough to push fist sized rocks off the zook grizzlies, but i did get a couple of specks from it ..will set up slower on sunday if i can get to that spot again (2in of rain over the last 2 days) I was also thinking of running the zook cons thru drop riffle to concentrate the cons...what do you think?

 

[KevinInColorado]

i had the same thoughts K in C the crk was running fairly fast, it was quick enough to push fist sized rocks off the zook grizzlies, but i did get a couple of specks from it ..will set up slower on sunday if i can get to that spot again (2in of rain over the last 2 days) I was also thinking of running the zook cons thru drop riffle to concentrate the cons...what do you think?

Using a drop riffle: seems to me it would take longer to set up the drop riffle than it would to just pan down the single pan of cons you get from a Bazooka. I dump my 'zook thru a 4 mesh screen and then pan it down a bit further at the creek.

 

[Au dave]

my smallest screen is a 1/2 inch and i did about 8 pans at the crk and came home with 1/3 of a 5 gal bucket unpanned.may be my grizz on the zook is too small (1/4) inch and the trap too big 8 x 6 x 2 inch ..just feel i should be panning less and digging more. I think i need to trust the zook and run more thru it and empty it less often.. im still learning and probally will be for the rest of my days..lol

 

[KevinInColorado]

my smallest screen is a 1/2 inch and i did about 8 pans at the crk and came home with 1/3 of a 5 gal bucket unpanned.may be my grizz on the zook is too small (1/4) inch and the trap too big 8 x 6 x 2 inch ..just feel i should be panning less and digging more. I think i need to trust the zook and run more thru it and empty it less often.. im still learning and probally will be for the rest of my days..lol

8 pans meaning 8 clean outs of the sluice? That IS a lot...but you are still doing a lot of learning by testing right now. As you get used to running the sluice you'll do fewer clean outs I'm sure. I bring my cons home in a coffee can and its never full

 

[Au dave]

i get about 1 1/2 pans out of the zook and just over 1/2 pan out of drop riffle...yes i ran both sluices simultaneously...sucker for punishment i guess...lol tomorrow i intend digging out the giant riffles/bedrock on the bank to see what i get.

 

[Au dave]

well i went to the same spot and as i expected the creek was running harder and about a foot deeper. i set the drop riffle in the slowest part i could find and the zook in the same pinch point as last week, ran a couple of buckets thru drop riff. with little result so concentrated on feeding the next 6 - 7 buckets to the zook.. buckets were classified to 1/2 " as i had to carry them about 20 feet, unfortunately i found that there is too much fluidisation in the trap so will have to modify this week to drop the flow (i have 3 rows of 1/8 in holes per tube) will also do cons during the week to see if i have anything ..but not holding much hope..got a dry week and a hot weekend so crk height should drop more already 4" lower than saturday..heavy pans all

 

[Adventure_Time]

well i panned out the cons and got 7 specks all up and a little flour...not much compared to what you guys get in the US but aussie gold on the east coast is flour and specks..at least i found more in this spot than i have on my other 2 trips out and there is more to work on that spot . Im still learning and hopefully will get more in the future but only consider the gold as a bonus of getting out in the bush the pics dont do the area justice..its an absolutely beatiful area full of wild flowers and animals that dont seem to care about me being on their turf..will get more pics whem im out there sunday...happy hunting all

I think it has something to do with them being able to kill just by looking at you.

 

[Au dave]

hahahaha ..yes i have a lot of respect for aussie fauna most of them are fairly safe as long as you dont aggrevate them or that they have a bushfire behind them..thats when they get into kill mode