Out & About.

Out and about.

My word it was good to get out to the gold fields again! Thursday morning saw me on my way to an area I have not visited for quite some time Yahoo was my thought the cabin fever had sent in with me big time. By the time I set camp then went and had a look at the place along with a lot of sampling a spot was chosen for work Friday. This area is a good area to test gear I had made a new Banjo {the plans which I posted here was that Banjo} and my little back pack one had a bit of work done to it as well so this was the spot indeed. Nice and rocky if any weakness was to be had in the units this area would soon bring them to light.

Friday after a rather pleasant night found me in position my pumping distance was some 70 meters from the water. A face was soon cut {this has also been talked about in another post} and work commenced.



The big unit stood the test and cave me some very nice gold. The way I work my unit is with a straight back I use the shovel to rake the rocks from the hopper I keep my hands dry. You may also note if you set the unit right you can also work dry without slushing around in water.



The pump I am running is a Honda 2.5 fitted with a non self priming Jessy if ever you get a chance to buy such a motor & pump do so no matter what condition it is in they are worth ever dollar. The Keen pumps are also very simular but they have a different shaft size to the motors sold in Australia so if your thinking of importing one you must also buy the motor which will turn out very, very costly.



On my little back pack unit there is fitted what we deem for want of a better name a Scoot Shoot fitted with two drop boxes. And boy let me say this not a speck gets past them little babe’s. but more on the scoot shoot at a later date.

Scoot Shoot.



The gold won on that trip.





I withhold permission for this article to be cut and pasted or duplicated onto any other web site. The reproduction of this account must include the
attribution of authorship and the associated copyright notice which follows the account. You may not modify, alter, add to, adapt, edit, abridge, condense or repackage this account without the written permission of the author.
© JB 10/4/2011

Nice James great pics as well.....sounds like your cured of that cabin fever mate....
Dave

Bugga James now ive got the twitch!! well done mate

Dave mate I had a ball, the gold looks more than there was I took the photo in the back of the car, it turned out good … grin but it looks better than it was. Sob
Cheers mate

yes the gold in NSW is not as good as Vic gold lol

Muracha mate the Banjo’s were singing …… grin grin
james 101

Muracha mate …..our next trip to vic ….. Mate the gold!

James
I keep coming back to these pics I haven't been out in a month and now that twitch in my left leg is getting bigger due to your photos.....LOL....it looks like your digging in a dry river bed that's over flat ground the area that I am working has very large hills around me it seems I'm very limited on areas I can sluice and find myself on the river banks most times...I'm using the same size pump as well and it seems I have a bit of trouble with the hoses kinking and blocking the water flow is this the reason you have the hard pipe coming off your pump and banjo????????
Can't wait for Easter guys I have 3weeks off and heading to some private property that's never been touched I'm crossing my fingers......can't wait to see what you guys pull out over Easter James or murachu who will get the most?????????????
I might be the black horse here guys I'm hoping to have some pics worth putting up for ya......
Cheers
Dave

Great work James. That's it........ I can't stand it........... I'm throwing the gear in the ute and going out this morning.

Dave mate from the pump I run a 1.5 m length of ribbed pipe, to stop kinking. At the Banjo end I have the same setup it works a treat. When I pump over distance I use from the pump a 2 inch line for about ¾ of the way I am pumping, then drop back to 1 ½ inch for the remaining distance, this stops the loss of pressure due to water friction in the line. Mate on the next trip to your spot take a little time and check the area out look at the high benches above the water line & the sand bars if you get a bit of a show take the hole a bit deeper or set your unit up on it for a few hours to see what you get. This Easter we have a family reunion on at Majors Creek, so my prospecting will be very limited bugger.
cheers

Panhead I wish you the best of luck mate

My Easter golding will be curtailed as well James --but as they say"away from the madding crowds" lol

OH well mate we must do what we must .... bugger hey! I heading out today to get my fix early.
cheers

To cure the twitch!
Well I just had to have a trip out to the old gold fields of Rushworth to cure the twitch! I hadn’t been to these gold fields for a good dig for a long time.
I had the truck packed the night before so as to have an early getaway the next morning!! ahh well I was away by 8 o clock (grin) travelled quickly with no traffic on the way to Rushworth and before long I was pulling into the road that would lead me to a good dig ! I pondered whether to drop in to my old mate Alan for a quick cupa but, it was early, the lure of the gold drew me past his place and upwards towards a gully I had sampled many years ago before the drought set in to this area.
Left then right? or was it left ,left then right? Or was it the next track uphill? Been at this moment before!! LOL! So stop the truck, get out and have a look around to get my bearings ---- nope I’m lost! So no use wandering around and getting more frustrated –decision –go back to my old mates house and have that cupa!! OH Karma sometimes I hate ya!
“Good to seeya mate “was his greeting, “come in I have the coffee on! “So cups of coffee were consumed and lot of catching up done, yes it was gold.
Well around noon we drove off to the spot I couldn’t find and because of all the growth since the rains my mate was a little confused as well but we did find the gully in about 10 minutes.

I set up the Banjo straight away but as I was doing this it became obvious that someone had been through this gully a few weeks before me. The tromell signs were everywhere!

Having set up the Banjo and got things running I first put through the tromell tailings to see how much he lost and with the Banjo singing it didn’t take long to redo his pile . I cleaned the top tray from the Banjo, which catches probably 90% + of the gold and I had to hand it to this guy he was good ,not much lost in his oversize and my mate paned a little of his clean up pile and got 1 speck! I dips me lid to you whoever you were because the CLAY was atrocious in this spot and to have cleaned the clay as you did and not lose much gold told me I was up against someone who knew what he was doing.
Let me describe the clay in these parts – if it’s the red clay it’s as hard as pottery when dry and as slippery as an ice rink when wet, also there is grey clay, a pug, which acts in a similar way to the red but one difference, you can find gold in the red clay but you almost never find gold in the grey clay but it will be stuck to the outside of the grey stuff! So washing the clays became a very time consuming job but the banjo did cope admirably!



My Mate wanted to get back to his house before we got eaten by the Mozzies so we packed up after an hour or so and left the gully, the gold gotten was poor but the spirit was lifted heaps by just getting out there and having a go.

Murachu Mate what a yarn, you did well indeed, and the WATER my word it’s good to see. It's good to tickle the itch hey. Sky mate sorry I forgot to answer your question Yep I run around one meter of 32 mm flexible hose from the pump then attach the lay flat. This stops kinking at that end, on the Banjo I have the same setup it is a good system and it works well. Sorry again mate
James 101

Great going guys. Hopefully I'll have a pick to ad by Sunday night! The old lay flat! Neat is the key I recon, kinky stuff otherwise.