4" Manual Gold Dredge Working Large Bedrock Boulder

[Goldgrabber]

Hi, Here's a video where my friend and I were working a large protruding bedrock boulder which had the equivalent of a gravel bank behind it. We spent 4 days working behind the boulder, making a dam so that the water level would drop and help stop the hole filling back in during the evenings.

We worked the hole with my mates 4" manual gold pump which just shifts material like crazy. It NEVER got blocked with stones at all whilst in constant use for 4 days, my trusty standard 2 1/2" pump works great but always gets blocked with fist sized stones but the 4" just sucks them straight up and spits them back out.

My friend had previously worked the same spot but only for a day and always wanted to dedicate more time to try and reach bedrock and we just started to see it bottom out on the last day before we had to fill the hole back in, it was a shame we didn't have just 1 more day to see the bedrock floor and see any gold on it. My mate did find his biggest piece to date out of the material we worked and I also found a small picker along with more fine pieces, not enough to justify 4 days work but it was great fun all the same.

I hope you enjoyed the video and please feel free to like and comment on it. Please subscribe for more videos as they come and check my channel for my current videos, Cheers...

https://youtu.be/REgjLuC6xrI

 

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[GoldpannerDave]

I don't think you need a 90 degree bend; I think just a 45 degree will work. (Also rotate the hand dredge some as you take it out of the water).

I always enjoy seeing the Scottish countryside. Thanks.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Are you going to show us what you got from that hole? I realize you often consolidate your cons, but if I were you, I would certainly like to know what I got from behind that boulder.

 

[Goldgrabber]

Cheers guys, I've now got 5 buckets 1/2 full from my trips out so far this year, I've hardly panned anything out as I've been thinking of leaving it for the winter but I know there is gold in the buckets as I see it getting trapped in the sluice I use (not a massive amount at all, but enough to keep the interest up)

 

[Reed Lukens]

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Put a 45° on the end and it will quadruple the amount of material as mentioned by many others already
Have him watch this to get him to make that small improvement -

 

[Goldgrabber]

I already said in the video that a bend would be beneficial, I also put an annotation on the video saying the same and pointing to the material coming out that a bend would stop

 

[deserdog]

I love my 3", a 4" would be huge though!!!

 

[Reed Lukens]

I already said in the video that a bend would be beneficial, I also put an annotation on the video saying the same and pointing to the material coming out that a bend would stop

Yea but a 90° is too much The video just shows you mine and how I made it. The 45° still has a small learning curve.

 

[Goldgrabber]

I already have a 90 bend on both my 2 1/2 and my 4" pumps and the bends work perfectly if you have the knack, the handle on my 4" needed work which is why I didn't take it on this trip, I've told my mate numerous times to put ANY bend on the end as anything would be better than a straight pipe and I did point this out twice in the video