Hand Suction Dredges ?

[team sidewinder]

Any opinions on hand suction dredges and which one might be the best ? Been looking at the Gold-n-Sand X-stream hand suction dredge. There is a spot where we finally got down to bedrock and I think one of these small hand dredges might get the last gold out. Would love to use a power suction dredge but not able to use any motors in this area.
Thanks for any input.

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

I bought the X Stream one and i have tried using it many times but I cant get it to work well at all. Maybe im just expecting too much from this unit but i pump for about 15 to 20 min trying to suck the last gravel off of bedrock with no luck. I usually end up with just an inch of dirt in my bucket so i give up and use my 10' 3/4" vinyl siphon tube and the old lungs. I have tried the short pulls and worked many angles and soaked the leather all day, but it gets clogged easily and makes me frustrated.
Ill tell you what though. This pump can move water!!! We use it now all the time to drain holes of water. It really pumps it out fast.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

I bought the X Stream one and i have tried using it many times but I cant get it to work well at all. Maybe im just expecting too much from this unit but i pump for about 15 to 20 min trying to suck the last gravel off of bedrock with no luck. I usually end up with just an inch of dirt in my bucket so i give up and use my 10' 3/4" vinyl siphon tube and the old lungs. I have tried the short pulls and worked many angles and soaked the leather all day, but it gets clogged easily and makes me frustrated. Ill tell you what though. This pump can move water!!! We use it now all the time to drain holes of water. It really pumps it out fast.

I have had that experience too. Means you are using the wrong tip for the material you are working. Try switching tips next time.

 

[team sidewinder]

Thanks for all the invaluable input from those who have used this product. I will be adding one of these to my arsenal of tools for finding gold. Thanks again.
ever
Ordered one today. Funny how the wife never complains when I buy tools for looking for gold or how much it costs as she has the " Gold Fever " worse than I do. Guns, now that is another story.

9/30 update
Hope this not the way things are going to go with this Sand-N-Gold product before I even get it. It is impossible to get any customer support people to answer my emails and the cell phone of the owner never returns calls even after leaving messages on his voicemail box. I wanted to change my order the same day I ordered and with nobody answering the company phone or emails I wasn't able to change my order so my original order is already in the mail. Bummer.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

I love my homemade Hand Dredge. Found a picker the second time out with it. No check valve. Just suction with 3" rubber piston through 2"x14"
nozzle. I pull up material into the trap, pull out the piston, flip it and dump in the sluice or bucket.






I have a 1 1/2" tip too.

 

[deserdog]

I use my 3 inch and 2 inch super gold suckers all the time when sluicing. I can suck up material as fast as my sluice can process it., with the 3 inch I can overload the sluice if not careful.

 

[Colorider]

Stopped by Gold-n-sand on Friday. Met Red and picked up an xtreme. Will test it out later this week.

 

[team sidewinder]

Stopped by Gold-n-sand on Friday. Met Red and picked up an xtreme. Will test it out later this week.

I really wanted to get the Pro model but couldn't change my order in time so guess I will just use the standard model X-Stream.

Colorider: Please give us a report on how your new X-Stream works out for you as mine is on the way. Thanks

Aurabbit79er: Nice job. Thanks for sharing that build.

 

[Colorider]

I sure will!!!
I am hoping to get out and play with it this weekend. It is a really nice looking product and looks to be very well built.
Sorry to hear that you could not contact them. They are very nice people and super helpful. They are really thin on staff. 1 gal doing orders, 1 guy in back doing building and I think Red pops in and out and helps build and take care of things. Maybe they got your messages and/or email and you will get the one you want.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I sure will!!! I am hoping to get out and play with it this weekend. It is a really nice looking product and looks to be very well built. Sorry to hear that you could not contact them. They are very nice people and super helpful. They are really thin on staff. 1 gal doing orders, 1 guy in back doing building and I think Red pops in and out and helps build and take care of things. Maybe they got your messages and/or email and you will get the one you want.

...and right now Red is juggling several things including producing a spoof of the reality tv gold shows (check out "Gold Guys" on Facebook) and traveling to the GPAA Gold Expos to promote the Gold-n-Sand products and the Gold cube (which he co-invented with Mike Pung!)...whew!

 

[aurumdigga]

Hand Dredge Gold Sucker Sluice Detector Gold Nugget | eBay

I like this device better than gold and sand. Why? because the bucket has to be level or below the dredge suction device to have optimal suction.

I can fill up a bucket more quickly with the Gold Sucker.

The only negative to the Gold sucker device is that it needs reducer nozzles that could be made very easily to get into small crevices. Other than that, you can move a lot of material with this device above.

Also, the Gold n Sand clogs up. This is frustrating when I know the device above has never clogged up. Also, there is less equipment to carry in to hard to get places. A motorized backpack suction dredge is heavy after carrying it for a while and you have to carry gas which is heavy too.

This plastic dredge above gets the cracks if you can pry them open and knock the material loose.

I think the hardest part of packing in to hunt is one person's ability to get to places and then walk back to the vehicle at the end of the day. Less or limited equipment is key to getting back to the vehicle and not having to travel up steep hills and killing yourself after prospecting all day. Remember, you might be bringing back a bucket of material to run through a concentrator device. Five gallons of concentrate material is HEAVY.

That is just my opinion but I like the Gold Sucker device after trying the gold n sand for two years. The Gold Sucker has more suction pressure to pull in more material in my opinion too.

 

[GoldDoozah]

9/30 update
Hope this not the way things are going to go with this Sand-N-Gold product before I even get it. It is impossible to get any customer support people to answer my emails and the cell phone of the owner never returns calls even after leaving messages on his voicemail box. I wanted to change my order the same day I ordered and with nobody answering the company phone or emails I wasn't able to change my order so my original order is already in the mail. Bummer.

I ordered an Xstream from Gold-n-Sand a couple of weeks ago. It took over a week to ship to the east coast and arrived without a lid. I tried e-mailing and got a failure deliver notice over 24 hours later, so they could still be having e-mail problems. The first time I called, Red answered and was very helpful. He didn't even ask for a sales order number and shipped a lid out right away.

I am a supporter of small business and tend to give them a little more slack than large corporations with practically unlimited resources. Keep calling. I'd be surprised if Red didn't try to fix the situation.

 

[aurumdigga]

I hope this device works for you. Just remember to take a hammer with you. The nozzles will not come off easily. You have to give them a good whack without breaking them to change nozzles.

The clogging and the time to change nozzles..... and having to have a backpack to carry this device, (which is a must to carry this device), makes using it in my area just a pain. I carry a pry bar, a shovel, two 5 gallon buckets, my Gold sucker and a pan... plus some water to drink. This is a full load to walk a few miles with. I mean, you just can't pull your vehicle over and jump near a bank and start getting gold around here. You have to find spots that are hard to get to. Finding gold is tricky on lands where there are no trails and you are by yourself. Be careful and have fun. You will learn soon enough what works for you.

 

[QNCrazy]

Hello all! Newbie here! I recently moved to Oakdale, CA, and have returned to my grass roots of fishing, camping, and of course prospecting. I've been actively prospecting the gold country near here most recently with my homemade hand dredge sluice. My first time out, I only had enough time to fill about half a five gallon bucket. Got two small pickers, 50's, and 100's. Besides my homemade dredge, I use an Angus Mackirk expedition (love it). Here are some pictures of my recent outing. Looking forward to sharing stories and experience with all.

 

[deserdog]

Here is a picture of me using my 3 inch on Cajon Creek:

Most of the gold is small at Cajon Creek, but here is some of the junk metal sucked up by the 3 inch:


I have tried smaller nozzles, but the little nozzles, 1/2", 3/4" and 1" make it very hard to pull back on the handle.

 

[aurumdigga]

Your design looks like it works better than the unit that is talked about on this thread. The hose pipe is smooth instead of ribbed. The ribbed tube is the problem with the other unit in my opinion.... plus the lack of suction.

I may try the clear smooth tube to just see if this fixes the problem I have had. The only thing is that this type of tube can get crimped.... but .... it has to work better than the ribbed tube. I got clogs about every twenty pumps with the other unit. I was ticked to no end when this kept happening.

Now you can see where it is clogged if it does get clogged instead of just having the black hose that you can't see through.

 

[aurumdigga]

Hello all! Newbie here! I recently moved to Oakdale, CA, and have returned to my grass roots of fishing, camping, and of course prospecting. I've been actively prospecting the gold country near here most recently with my homemade hand dredge sluice. My first time out, I only had enough time to fill about half a five gallon bucket. Got two small pickers, 50's, and 100's. Besides my homemade dredge, I use an Angus Mackirk expedition (love it). Here are some pictures of my recent outing. Looking forward to sharing stories and experience with all.

Your design looks like it works better than the unit that is talked about on this thread. The hose pipe is smooth instead of ribbed. The ribbed tube is the problem with the other unit in my opinion.... plus the lack of suction.

I may try the clear smooth tube to just see if this fixes the problem I have had. The only thing is that this type of tube can get crimped.... but .... it has to work better than the ribbed tube. I got clogs about every twenty pumps with the other unit. I was ticked to no end when this kept happening.

Now you can see where it is clogged if it does get clogged instead of just having the black hose that you can't see through.

 

[deserdog]

Here is a picture of my feeding the sluice:

 

[Aurabbit79er]

I hope this device works for you. Just remember to take a hammer with you. The nozzles will not come off easily. You have to give them a good whack without breaking them to change nozzles.

The clogging and the time to change nozzles..... and having to have a backpack to carry this device, (which is a must to carry this device), makes using it in my area just a pain. I carry a pry bar, a shovel, two 5 gallon buckets, my Gold sucker and a pan... plus some water to drink. This is a full load to walk a few miles with. I mean, you just can't pull your vehicle over and jump near a bank and start getting gold around here. You have to find spots that are hard to get to. Finding gold is tricky on lands where there are no trails and you are by yourself. Be careful and have fun. You will learn soon enough what works for you.

All my Dredge parts are twist locked to each other. Here is my rock guard on the nozzle.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

Damm my garage is a small mining company.

 

[deserdog]

I don't use any rock guards on mine. The more rocks I suck up and out of the hole with my hand dredge, the fewer I have to pull out by hand. It's the same theory of why people move up to larger dredges, less rock to move by hand, more material moved.