Introducing the MotherSucker Hand Dredge, from Motherlodeprospecting.ca.
This concept is pretty much universal and you can get them pretty much anywhere, but to find one that is has the ability to convert from a basic unit to a continuous feed system, is worth it’s weight in gold.
Basically, the principal is simple. You take a tube of PVC, cut it into a manageable length, make a pull handle, and attach some type of seal [ to create a vacuum ] at the end of the shaft, add some sort of tip at the end, and there you have it. Your own “Aspirator” for sucking up the gravel your shovel can’t get to.
Well, there is a bit more to it than what I’ve written here, but anyone can make thier own with a little ingenuity. Although, the money and time you spend on experimentation and messing up, you probably would be better off just buying one and get out there after the gold, rather than screwing around wasting time in your garage and building supply stores for hours or days trying to make something that will likely cost you more in the long run, and keep you from the river getting gold.
Motherlodeprospecting.ca builds the “MotherSucker Hand Dredge”. It is approx. 30 inches long and made from heavy duty 2″ PVC, and works in 2 different ways.
It’s basic operation is that of a “Sniper” type of tool, and designed for cleaning out submerged bedrock cracks, pot holes, etc. where the current is too strong or material too deep for reaching. In fact, it pretty much keeps you from getting your hands and arms we at all with it’s long length, and has 3 sizes of suction tips.
It’s advanced operation is called the “Prospector”, that allows you to turn your “Sniper” unit into a full fledged continuous feed system in a couple of minutes simply by removing the “Sniper” tip, and inserting the “Prospector” head into the receiver, and attaching the hose to a receiver that slips into a bucket and is attached to your unit by a 6′ lightweight, lined flex hose. As your buckets fill, all you do is slip the receiver out of the full bucket, and slide it into an empty one and you are ready to go, and can fill multiple 20L buckets almost non-stop.
Mining season is short above the 49th parallel, so you might as well fork over a few bucks and get one that is already working than spending probably twice as much re-inventing the wheel. Sometimes being “Cheap” can be a lot more expensive.
Anyway, enough about that.
These products work on a simple principal. Gold, seeks the lowest level, and gets embedded into bedrock cracks and pot holes. Have you ever tried to shovel out a pothole under water with a relatively swift current fighting your every move? Of course you have, and probably failed miserabley.
These gravel aspirators are phenominal at being able to recover values your shovel can’t get at, particularly, in submerged bedrock pot-holes and bedrock cracks, and at the same time staying dry.
Although nothing is 100% perfect, these items do their jobs well when they are set up properly. However, with that being said, there are several types of aspirators out there, and it’s important to find one that works for you.
Single Draw Aspirators – These gold dredges are just that. You pull the handle up, to suck in the gravel, but before it all falls out the tip again, you need to get it into your gold pan. No check valves and no nugget trap = “poor investment”.
Nugget Trap Aspirators – These gold dredges are much better at retaining the values. When you pull the gravel into the barrel, the tip extends into the body of the unit a few inches, making a pocket where your heavies can settle. Lighter stuff and material that didn’t get past the top of the tip will fall back out again, so it is important to get a fast, hard draw, and about 1/2 way into it, pull the tip out of the gravel and take in more water, thereby discharging the tip contents into the barrel also. This saves you losing gold that may have otherwise been lost. There is a technique to this, but a little practice, and you will be on your way. I don’t like to call it a “Single Draw Aspirator”, but in essence, that is what it is, although, you can do several draws on it before you actually have to empty it. A little shake between each draw will drive those heavies further into the nugget trap and save them there until you get around to emptying it into your bucket or pan.
Continuous Feed Aspirators – This is what the Gold N Sand unit is about, but there are more out there, so don’t get focused on only one until you have done some research. Although it is a really nice unit, it does have some limitations, as indicated in a previous post here.
The nice thing about these units, is that you can continuously suck material from the river bottom, under boulders or bedrock area’s and drive it all directly into a bucket for processing later. However, I have my reservations on the “Sump Pump Hose” that is being used on many of these items. The ridges make them like “Poop” tubes, and they can trap gold and that can be hard to clean out. If you aren’t careful, you can lose it. Layflat Hose is definitely the answer here, and motherlodeprospecting.ca is currently in the process of building a new type of unit that can process a lot more material in a shorter time than many of the others. If you are interested, then you should go there and register into thier catalog area and they will tell you when the unit is ready to hit the market.
Remember. Single draw aspirators, or “Hand Dredges” as some like to refer to them as, are not for heavy production. They are for sniping, and recreational users. They simply are best used at getting to those areas your shovel can’t get to, or cleaning off the bottom of a dug hole. Either way, they have thier place in anyone’s prospecting tool box, and definitely more than pay for themselves in gold finds that would otherwise have been lost.
As I said before, sometimes trying to be too “Cheap” can actually cost “More”, much more than if you simply invested a few bucks and take advantage of the time someone else has already invested.
