Hey Chris, I am not sure if I follow your question, but if the ground is too hard I might have an idea. I read a story the other day about a prospector that used a small jack hammer (about the size of a large drill) and a small cement mixer from Harbor Freight. Once he broke the clumps of soil from the ground he would run it in the cement mixer along with 2 or 3 large rocks to act like an impact mill. Then he was able to run the material through his drywasher to get the gold.