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Post by jimmiejack55 on Oct 20, 2014 9:17:53 GMT -5
Well me and my buddy went out to test the new to us dredge. We learned a lot. I learned the inflatable pontoons cannot be relied on. One got a hole in it just riding down the road. Lucky for us, the location is a shallow river, which is really the size of a large creek. Our location is not known for gold, but we needed to learn how to use the dredge. When learning to pan, I used lead shot to practice with. Some round and some smashed flat. I thought the best way to learn to dredge without gold is to dredge lead. We just set the dredge on a shallow spot near a crack and got to dredging. We dredged about 3 hour run times on two separate half days. The first day wee had the throttle way to high and were blowing out lead, and we were also feeding it too fast. The riffles couldn't clean out properly. The second day we slowed down the throttle and fed it slower. Sadly, we weren't in as good a spot as the first day. Regardless, we ended up with about 16 pounds of lead. Pic 1 is lead nuggets, bullet casings, etc. Pic 2 is me running the dredge on the first day. Pic 3 is all the lead that wouldnt go through a 1/4 inch screen 10.8 lbs(golf ball for reference). Pic 4. is about 5 lbs of shot in a 14 inch garret pan. Pic 5 is a random pan after the first day of dredging.
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Post by indyme2 on Oct 20, 2014 15:32:29 GMT -5
That's a lot of lead pulled out of the environment. Good job!
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Post by Gold Seeker on Oct 20, 2014 16:48:54 GMT -5
That's a lot of lead!!!
How much of that lead did you bring for testing?
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Post by victory on Oct 20, 2014 19:18:23 GMT -5
Good job my friend! Every little bit helps clean up our water ways.
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Post by jimmiejack55 on Oct 21, 2014 10:01:21 GMT -5
That's a lot of lead!!! How much of that lead did you bring for testing? None, it was all there before I got there. A little more info about the location. This is the same spot where I was able to pull 10 pounds of lead using only my metal detector, trowel, coffee can, and my hands. It is situated just up river from a large, 4 lane, bridge. There is a road that most vehicles can make it down and areas to park under the bridge. Many people use this area as a put in for kayaking as well as for fishing (I'm sure there are other extracurricular activities as well). Since this is technically a river, in Texas it is considered navigable, and therefore public. There is also the remains (pilings, concrete slabs)of an old bridge about 100-150 yards upriver from the new bridge Now there is also a flat area about 10 yards wide about 50 yards or so below where we are dredging. The little 'island" where we have the dredge setup is almost the middle between the old bridge and the new. I believe the 'island' has been a popular place to put targets for practicing both from the old bridge and under the new bridge. I have never seen anyone shooting down there, and most of the lead is well weathered, so I believe it is not as popular as it may have been at one time. Regardless, the lead doesn't move much, even from flooding. Now if lead prices would just go up as high as gold, I'd be a millionare.
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Post by RWH on Oct 21, 2014 17:15:02 GMT -5
Nice job. Save the lead and melt down for a weight belt. Keep dredging you only need about 40 more pounds.
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Post by goldrunner on Oct 25, 2014 18:54:27 GMT -5
That is a crazy amount of lead. Pretty cool.
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Post by uregold on Oct 31, 2014 20:36:33 GMT -5
insane lead...
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Post by ywevis on Nov 10, 2014 6:04:49 GMT -5
I got some creeks like that. I am amazed at how much lead I find over gold in the creeks.
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