Fun few days dredging!

[Jason in Enid]

Fun few days dredging! UPDATE!

What a great last few days it's been! I'm sunburned, beaten, bruised, bug-bit, sore, tired, and wishing I was still out there!

My son and I made a last minute gold dredging trip. I haven't worked my cons so I don't know if I have anything for our efforts or not. I met several other dredgers on the river, two of whom I knew from here, but had never met in person. Wasn't planned, just great minds think alike!

I was really proud of my son. At one point he spent almost an hour on the bottom working the nozzle (in almost zero vis). I shoveled tailings and kept an eye on him to make sure he was safe.

I ended up with a hole 7 foot across and about 7 foot deep. I never hit bedrock. Thought I did at one point, (saw fresh bedrock in the tailings) but then the hole just kept going down. I was working blind the last few feet. I went 4 feet through overburden to a concrete-hardpack. Broke a hole through (and broke my pick!) and then burrowed my way through another 3 feet of hard pack with the blaster nozzle. I was still feeling big cobbles one the bottom when I stopped. One thing I noticed in this hole, there weren't any BIG rocks in what I moved. They may have been deeper than I got.

Spent the last morning doing some exploration (good looking spot!) and I lost my camera over the side of the canoe. I spent almost half an hour swimming on breathholds, searching the bottom, but I FOUND IT! Unfortunately it was after the exploration so I have no pics of a prospective new spot.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Sounds like a great trip. Hope you end up with some gold.
Jim

 

[rockygulchJoe]

Dredging whith one's son, it doesn't get much better than that. I wonder if that concrete hardpack wouldn't act as a false bedrock?.

 

[Jeff95531]

I love Tales of the Trip. Hope you find some good gold for your efforts!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Officially my best OK prospecting trip yet!

Yesterday I got my dredge concentrates separated by size. Today I panned out all the bigger stuff and then ran the small stuff through my cleanup sluice. That gave me about 3 - 4 cups of super-cons. I have panned MOST of it so far (I forgot how tedious this was!) and I have been getting about 50 colors per pan! Now keep in mind that these are fly-spec and smaller, but it's still more than I have ever recovered from Oklahoma so far. I plan on finishing the last of the super-cons and posting a pic tomorrow.

On another note, Mike (who was dredging there at the same time) just alerted me that some of the things I have been seeing might be native silver. I noticed them in the heavies of my pans. They looked like dark (grey-black) little sticks. I put a magnet to some and they didn't react, but I didn't think much about them. I saved some, but I think I tossed a lot more. I may have to go dig up some gravel from the yard and re-run it to make sure I didn't miss (ignore) some (lots).

I'll get pics of those up tomorrow too.

 

[okbasspro]

Officially my best OK prospecting trip yet!

Yesterday I got my dredge concentrates separated by size. Today I panned out all the bigger stuff and then ran the small stuff through my cleanup sluice. That gave me about 3 - 4 cups of super-cons. I have panned MOST of it so far (I forgot how tedious this was!) and I have been getting about 50 colors per pan! Now keep in mind that these are fly-spec and smaller, but it's still more than I have ever recovered from Oklahoma so far. I plan on finishing the last of the super-cons and posting a pic tomorrow.

On another note, Mike (who was dredging there at the same time) just alerted me that some of the things I have been seeing might be native silver. I noticed them in the heavies of my pans. They looked like dark (grey-black) little sticks. I put a magnet to some and they didn't react, but I didn't think much about them. I saved some, but I think I tossed a lot more. I may have to go dig up some gravel from the yard and re-run it to make sure I didn't miss (ignore) some (lots).

I'll get pics of those up tomorrow too.

All Right Jason glad to hear that.I will pan by lower sluice cons tonight hopefully I got something.K River is a huge hit and miss the gold is in pockets.Congrats on the Oklahoma Gold there bud.

Here are some pics of the bedrock I was cleaning up
Before
After

 

[Jason in Enid]

Now I'm sad I didn't do separate cleanouts for the overburden and the hardpack. My hole should be there until the next hard rain. Maybe I can get up there again before it rains and do some horizon testing, along with the other testing we mentioned. Of course a LITTLE rain wouldn't hurt either. That river is about to stop flowing completely.

 

[okbasspro]

Winter time is good for dredging no bugs and flowing water

 

[Jason in Enid]

Dredging whith one's son, it doesn't get much better than that. I wonder if that concrete hardpack wouldn't act as a false bedrock?.

I'm sure it would. I had never seen hard-pack like it before. The sand between the rocks really was like concrete. Of course, I was trying to get as deep as possible in the hopes of some pickers hiding on bedrock.

Bedrock in this river is funky. OKbasspro and Mike were dredging side-by-side. Mike hit bedrock at 2 foot, OKBP was at 5 feet with a distance of only a couple feet between. My hole this trip was at about 7 and no bedrock. Just upstream where I dredged last time I hit bedrock about about 2 feet. If only I could find the upstream side of a lateral drop!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Winter time is good for dredging no bugs and flowing water

And freezing-ass cold water! bugs don't bother you when you're on the nozzle!

 

[okbasspro]

And freezing-ass cold water! bugs don't bother you when you're on the nozzle!

The bugs tear my up I'm allergic to everything that bites. The cold water doesn't bother you if you got a heater.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The bugs tear my up I'm allergic to everything that bites. The cold water doesn't bother you if you got a heater.

Haha, you keep rubbing in that heater dontcha? Maybe one of these days I'll find a good used one or perhaps even build one. I have researched the plans enough, I know how but knowing and doing are two separate things!

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

The bugs tear my up I'm allergic to everything that bites. The cold water doesn't bother you if you got a heater.

Technically, pissing in yer wet suit is NOT a heater,..

 

[Jason in Enid]

These are the gold flakes and what is probably native silver from this last dredging trip in Oklahoma. The -50 mesh stuff isn't showing up on the camera but the -20 to +50 mesh gold is there.

I still haven't gone back to my gravel pile to search it again for more of the silver.

 

[okbasspro]

I am glad to see that Jason you did better than me nice to see someone else get a nice cleanup.You are by where I hit a 1/4 oz pocket last year.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I am glad to see that Jason you did better than me nice to see someone else get a nice cleanup.You are by where I hit a 1/4 oz pocket last year.

Oh don't tell me that! Now I have to go back and dredge that area more, and I HATE having to shovel EVERYTHING I dredge.

 

[okbasspro]

Technically, pissing in yer wet suit is NOT a heater,..

Dont have to wiz in the suit got the Cadillac of heaters.Jason I can run to lines off it Wink Wink.

 

[okla. prospector]

Hi guys,
So you guys where down at kay river? I need to get down there one of these days to help with my gold fever. Thanks for the story loved it oh and can't forget about the pics too.
Okla. prospector

 

[Jason in Enid]

Dont have to wiz in the suit got the Cadillac of heaters.Jason I can run to lines off it Wink Wink.
View attachment 827545View attachment 827546

Yeah, still need to get side by side and work through a section of that river! That stupid bedrock thing has me stymied the more I think of it. No change in the surface gravel level, but the bedrock can shift by feet under it. Next time, I'm opening a HUGE hole in the gravel, then doing a cleanout before I work into the hardpack. I just have to know if it's all up top or not. The hardpack is so slow to work through, I need to know if it's worth the time and effort.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Hi guys,
So you guys where down at kay river? I need to get down there one of these days to help with my gold fever. Thanks for the story loved it oh and can't forget about the pics too.
Okla. prospector

Glad you enjoyed the post. There is gold to be found, but it AIN'T EASY! You could get lucky and find a good pocket or you could work for days and have nothing to show. Nothing about this gold here makes sense. It's everywhere and nowhere.