2" Dredge and a wet suit would be nice depending on where you are going to be digging. Too many states are cracking down on the 6" and 4". Maybe a dry washer depending on where you are going?

I'm guessing you are looking at wet stuff, not desert stuff..... Unless you are just weird and like to wear waders in the desert.

My Dad and I hit the GPAA show in Phoenix earlier this year... We picked up some prospector picks, some crevicing tools, and sadly
only one prospector scoop...

The prospector picks... That made the digging so much easier... night and day. (came across a kid named Knighten a while back, last name Day,
not related this conversation, just popped into my mind and made me laugh). I highly suggest one, or several... Handy Handy tools, nothing in Home
Depot can replicate it.

Crevicing tools, they had some neat stuff, mostly funky bent metal, hooked and sharp on one end, tiny little spoon on the other.. I would have never
known to even search for such things if I didn't see them..

Prospector scoops... I bought one, just to have it... Beats the crap out of ice scoops and garden trowels... They work really well. I need to get some more...

Buckets, can't have enough buckets... I scarfed as many as I could from as many places as I could and then supplemented with the $2.65 Lowes buckets....

Those $2.65 Lowes buckets are OK if you are just storing some garden tools on the porch, but they really suck and don't stand up to abuse AT ALL. Get the
"Food Grade" buckets at Lowes or Home Depot if you have to buy some. They are about $5, but will last more than 2 trips.

At the GPAA show, I also bought some of those Snappy Grips for the bucket handles.... Those stupid little things are worth their weight in Gold if you are moving
dirt any distance in a bucket.

I only know what has worked for me so far, and I don't know the area you are in, so I have no idea what kind of processing equipment you could need.

You can never have enough classifiers and pans... Snuffer bottles either... I've got quite the large # of snuffer bottles going... Gold from here, gold from there,
bottle of really heavy stuff in the pan that isn't gold... Go out sampling and use a different bottle for each spot. I got 80 pieces here, and 20 there... Keep them
separate and then compare, and you can see that the 20 pieces is far more gold than the 80...

I'm new at this too, my mistakes are still fresh in my head... I probably won't remember them in 20 years. I hope you can learn something from what I've already learned...

Here is another thing I've learned... You CAN get your gold clean, really clean, in a pan... There are a ton of products out there to get your gold clean, and I bought one,
and now it collects dust.. Blue bowls, miller tables(cleanup sluices), spiral wheels, that kind of thing. You pretty much have to classify to use most of those contraptions
anyways, might as well learn how to pan it.... I actually find it faster than using my Black Magic fine gold recovery sluice/miller table thing. Just have to learn how to do it.
Mike Pung, the gold cube guy has a VERY good series of videos on how to get CLEAN gold in your pan.. Techniques may vary, and there are other videos, but it CAN
be done, and once you know how, its actually REALLY easy, and FAST (after you classify).. I can get CLEAN gold at the top of the pan that I can barely see with my naked eye,
and some I can't even see with my naked eye. Just take the time to watch the vids, and a little bit of practice.

I did not think you could get that little tiny stuff out in a pan... I couldn't... I wasted money I could have used on other stuff on a piece of equipment I didn't need.. I thought
people were nuts, like the Gold Hog guy and Gold Cube guy for doing final cleanup with a pan... I was wrong.. Its really easy, with a little bit of practice, and of course
classifying.

I guess I have to get back to work at some point here.

Paul,

Hey, get a burro ! You can never have enough buckets, I like to have some 3 gallon buckets. A bucket of black sands gets heavy. Hip waders are good if you are using a sluice. Rubber boots are good but sooner or later you will step in a deep area. I have an Apex pick that works well for digging in cobble. Neoprene gloves are good for cold water.
Scott

Paul,
It really depends on the method of your mining/prospecting.
As mentioned, desert mining will require equipments and gear that are vastly different than wet mining, metal detecting adds different equipment and gear.

I am outfitted for wet running stream mining.
In my back pack I carry a 10" x 30" sluice box, two pans, two sieves 1/2", various hand tools, looking tube plus other assorted gear.
I carry two buckets, rake, suction devices.
I use hip waders, the wife uses farm boots.
Depending on time of year will be a clue as to clothing. Areas I frequent temps run from 30dgs to 100dgs + depending on time of year. I try to be prepared.

I strongly recommend a good map(s) of the area, a decent GPS, research the area your going into, know the terrain and conditions and prepare accordingly.

Good luck and get out there.


Bill

To complement Robert's post I would like to add that you do not buy five gallon buckets but instead get 3 gallon food grade and make sure your classifiers will work on top of them. You don't end up having to carry as much weight and it's a lot cheaper than buying a mule. The grips he is referring to are priceless, by all means get some.



I personally stack my classifiers so the recommendation to get multi sizes is priceless, you go through one layer at a time clearing out debris and rocks until all that is left is concentrate fine enough to be fed through a cube or your sluice.



One last thing, go get a .44mag and load the first chamber with snake shot and the rest for other critters, 2 and 4 legged. I barely dodged a VERY large badger on our way home from our meeting tonight, but your main problem is going to be snakes, the occasional large cat or bear, and some real idiots on two feet.



Oh, and a Miller table or Black Magic is a must, you won't realize how much gold you are washing away if you do not buy one.



One last thing you need is a partner, or a Chapter, you need to almost always have somebody with you incase you roll and ankle or get attacked by an animal. I recently was on the back side of the elk mountains and found a cave where you could see some people had been digging. So I check the rock, it's sound, and I start going in just a few feet to look around and hear a Mountain Lion give a guttural low pitch growl. RETREAT, RETREAT, RETREAT!



And of course the empty frame fold out bottom backpack. It allows you to attach all your gear and a bucket of concentrates and secure it all without it banging around. Instead of having limited compartments you can decide what you pack and build your own compartments if you like. These are very nice for attaching small shovels, picks, and pry bars.

I saved my fathers life twice as a child with us being alone in the mountains, one time nearly killed us both. So please always bring somebody with you, a trusted companion or friend, the mountains can turn from beautiful to deadly in a matter of minutes. I can go on about freak snow storms and dangerous critters but I think you got the idea.

Oh, and a Miller table or Black Magic is a must, you won't realize how much gold you are washing away if you do not buy one.

I'm going to respectfully disagree... I was with you until a couple of months ago, then I realized I was wrong...
If you have an hour to waste, watch these videos from Mike Pung, the inventor of the Gold Cube.

http://www.treasurenet.co...rt-gold-panning.html

The past couple of months, my Dad and I had been doing a bunch of sampling, so we had bunches and bunches of material to clean up..
We were using the Black Magic, after classifying.... After using the Gold Cube. We had pans of classified concentrates all over the place..
So while my Dad was running them on the Black Magic, I was playing with the pans, seeing if there was anything in them... I had watched
some videos and what not... But with practice, and we were out there on the back porch about 4 evenings a week, I was getting it all, we
found out that after I went through the pans, there was nothing left for the Black Magic to catch... The key was practice, practice, practice...

I always go through each pan twice, especially the small stuff.... I also don't toss the concentrates, just in case.... When I run my
Gold Cube, I've learned that there is almost nothing in the bottom 2 trays, so I just clean up the top tray and store the cons from the
bottom trays.... When there is a bunch of bottom tray cons, I combine that with the tailings from my panning tubs and run it through...
There is generally very little to nothing in the cleanup...

So on the chance I do miss anything, I'll get it eventually.

For the record, I'm in the desert, and in one place I like to play the gold hasn't traveled more than 1/4mile, at my house its moved maybe 2 miles, over
who knows how many years... So its CHUNKY, not big, but CHUNKY, It hasn't been pounded flat and smooth by water and rocks.
so almost all of it sticks right at the top of the first tray of the gold cube.

The other plus of taking the time to learn how to do a cleanup with just classifiers and a pan... All of your panning skills improve..
If you are in a "hands and pans" area, the skills will allow you to pan FAST and efficiently. If you are sampling with a pan, that will
go faster, and you'll be more confident that you are getting all the gold...

Even if you still want to use your table or bowl or whatever, and I still use mine sometimes, I still suggest you watch those videos..

Ooooops, Ben, should have mentioned that I'm in Northern California (still no dredges, but we're getting closer). If I get down to the Mohave my little unit will recycle 15 gallons of water all day or 'till it turns to mud. Thanx.

Robert, thanks for the reply. Lots to digest. A proper prospector scoop...snappy grips for my half million buckets...got pans, snuffer bottles & classifiers...('scuze me, I'm writin' this all down). Thanks for the suggestion about keepin samples separated.

Scott, thanx for the tip on neoprene gloves; sierra rivers get cold. Seems melted snow is never really warm. And I guess rubber boots will keep me dry only until I actually step in the water, so I need to pick up some hip waders.

Being in California you might consider a hand held suction device that has a clear bottom so you can look into the crooks and crannies of the bedrock and just suction them out by hand, there is somebody out in Cali that makes these but don't know the name off hand. They also make a set up hand held pump where somebody on the river bank works a manual pump while you crawl the river looking around with the end of the pump attached, and these are still legal. I think they are still legal so you might want to look it up before purchasing.

Paul,

Thought of something else I've seen some other guys use. A utility wagon for the garden sold at the big box home improvement stores, and a three wheel stroller that parents use to push the little ones around when jogging. You might find one of those used at a garage sale.
If you have a lot of ground to cover and it's rough I don't think they would work that well.
Scott L.

Robert,

During our Gem and Rock show I brought some of my old concentrates and panned them again and was surprised, actually shocked how much residual gold I had not found, and I do take a little longer than some but I try to get it all but and always process twice. For me the Miller Table or Black Magic is a way to cut down on the time spent on the second cleanup, but to be honest I would rather just do it once and that is why I am considering buying a cube myself instead of a sluice.

Guys are dredging in California. Some counties are ignoring the "ban" and not enforcing the rules....County prosecutors refuse to prosecute. As well as Sheriff.

Leo,

I will not cross that boundary and here is why. When you are dealing with local laws and enforcement that is one thing, but when you cross the giant Bureaucracy of the Feds, EPA, BLM, and whomever else they are using these day you invite a whole ton of hurt on your life if they decide to enforce their laws. It's why I always go to the BLM before a dig, just to be on the safe side. The last thing I want in the news is a picture of me in cuffs for violating a Federal Ban and being accused of contaminating the non-existent water supply of California or them further restricting water use to farmers because some two inch smelt might be endangered.

I agree it's mostly nonsense, but we all have to be responsible prospectors if we want to continue to be allowed to do this. Seriously Imagine the headline, " Illegal GPAA Prospector Contaminated our Water with Heavy Metals." You and I know that is not true, but the average idiot will have their hair on fire.

Guys are dredging in California. Some counties are ignoring the "ban" and not enforcing the rules....County prosecutors refuse to prosecute. As well as Sheriff.

I agree...... too a certain extent..... but I dont recall that being a federal ban, This is a California thing and the buzz out there is, the local rules apply. I dont see how the Fed would get involved. Look....they backed down on the Bundy issue and our current government promotes "civil disobedience". We see it all over the place happening. Are there Fed rules prohibiting dredging in NF or on BLM ? .....I know quite a bit of people doing it with no resistance ever since the latest court ruling. They seem to have had the reassurances from the county governments that there is no chance of being prosecuted......well really its only a civil penalty. Sure out weighs the risk vs reward ratio.

That may be the case, but if one Federal Authority steps in their lives will end as they know it, especially if it is the EPA. I don't know what the EPA or California Water Board are charging for infractions these days but I am willing to bet they are much higher than local fines, maybe even carry a felony record for life?

I am not into the dredging thing, seems like a cool thing to be doing....But I think if I wanted to get into it, Alaska would be the place to do it. I really have a negative mood for California overall, its just unbelievable how things have gone in that state. I hang out more in Nevada than anything, and just so many places to go and not be bothered.

Ben. Oh yeah...saw a hand suction thingy that even has a hose that connects to a bucket. Low tech time saver. That goes on the Christmas list. Thanks again.