Klamath River with an 8"


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No Blues Dad, I been very happy with my wife of 15 years, no lead in my pencil after 5 heart attachs, neck surgery, COPD, I take Nitro all the time, Viagra and such are out. DR. said it would kill me! BUT what a way too go. Wife said: You don't need lead in your pencilk, you don't have any one to write too! Ha! Ha! Low on my list of things to do. Grubstake

When your old enough to remember Johnnie MacBrown and BOB Steel, Lash Larue. Well you know.

funny thing is ole grub probably out live all of us :D ....

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Hey Grub,

You left out a few that most of these youngsters never heard of, :( like Tom Mix, Sky King, The Green Hornet and a host of others.

I think that some of us should get together and have a meeting at the park, on what's called the dead pricks bench. It could be a meeting of the constipated minds. :lol::lol::rolleyes:

Bob T.

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This guy went to the Doc and the Doc ask what is your problem.The guy said when I was a little boy I could not bend it around my finger but as I got older I could bend it a little and now I can wrap it completely around my finger.Doc ask well what do you want to know.Well just how much stronger am I going to get?

Chuck Anders

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Hi Colorado Bob,

I guess that must be the same bench they called the 'DP bench

up in Mariposa when I first went there in the '70's.

Well, here's the thing; I am all for a Sky King memorial weekend,

but I'm not quite ready to kick back on the DP bench yet.

And besides, we haven't finished the Transporter either, so we got

work to do before we get to go sit down...

All the best,

Flak

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Get up here Flak I hope to be doing some dredging in the Merced River a least a few weekends out of the year, we'll help getr in the water and back out.

I just read an article written by Dave McCracken where they were about 10 miles upstream from Happy Camp man talk about an adventure just reading the article, he had 5 ton boulders looming over his head, a shelf of bedrock avalanched on him and trapped his leg while his partener had to get a pry bar and lift the rock off him.

The gold was like around a pound a day at times once even 2 pounds but mostly 1-3 ounce days they were contract sampling for a mining company but then went off on there own later on after there contract was up ( OF COURSE !! ) .

Just reading the article honestly I wouldn't want to do this on a full time basis but for a summer if I were younger ? you bet.

You'll be looking for hard packed virgin stream bed which i doubt theres any of that left ?

Wife said: You don't need lead in your pencilk, you don't have any one to write too! Ha! Ha! Low on my list of things to do. Grubstake

LMAO wife has a good sense of humor Grubstake

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i'm hoping there's still some on his claims. They ain't 49er claims, so those members didn't hit it, unless they followed a paystreak into it. That's where his claims are, similar area to dave's article, about 10-11 miles upstream of happy camp. And surrounded by tall cliffs, closest put in for the dredge is like 1.5 miles upstream from his claim, so hard for someone to just jump in and start work. So that's what I'm hoping for, some virgin hardpack. ALthough, I suppose we could all wish for another 100 year flood to move shit downstream for us too, lol.

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I'll see if I can get the article copied and post it or send it to you it was written in may/june of 1990

I found part of the article here

Watch out for bedrock article

id egive anything to see the face of ole blues dad after he quits his job to gold hunt after 4 months..aint dave mc craken the guy that sells memberships to gold hunt..i seen his vidio where he dips the pan and gets an ounce or two..i think not

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id egive anything to see the face of ole blues dad after he quits his job to gold hunt after 4 months..aint dave mc craken the guy that sells memberships to gold hunt..i seen his vidio where he dips the pan and gets an ounce or two..i think not

no offense woodcutter, but you need to stop being so negative about this entire thing. You need to get some facts straight. I'm not quitting my job, I'm taking the summer off. Also, I'm not purchasing any memberships to anything. I'm going out there to learn how to dredge, plain and simple. That's it.

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Vini,

Thank you for the offer. Later in the year I would love to try to take you up

on that...I love the Merced!

Dave McCracken wrote some very in-depth books, ran a bunch of claims in Nor Cal,

found a crap-load of gold and...

was a fairly astute businessman - which is usually where resentment creeps in.

(in oakwoodcutters case, perhaps creeping resentment is an understatement).

I think Dave parlayed a huge interest at the time into a pretty successful business venture.

I did not agree with his hype, (although I think George Massey put him to shame in the

hype department), but come on guys, we can all spot hype when we see it.

Don't go there if you don't like it.

Most of his advertures, as far as I know - and I do know - were quite real

and some of them, as Vini has talked about, provide stark examples

of what NOT to do when messing with rocks.

His explainations of dredging techniques, winch use and lots of other basic

underwater gold prospecting information was very useful and is still some of

the best writing from that era (70's-early 80's), that is still useful today.

It takes a surprising amount of money to run a big dredging operation.

Dave's strategy was one way of approaching it.

Not my choice, I detest hype, or being "sold" anything,

but it was his choice, and a bunch of other people who joined his clubs,

dredged his claims, and found a way to put some gold in their pokes,

made the same choice.

All the best,

Flak

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ya chuck, I've watched all of those the last few weeks at least 5 times each, lol.

Flak, you gotta look at it a couple different ways though.

Of course Dave has to bring the hype, that's what sells, and basically he is selling a product, memberships to the 49ers. Of course, being a member gives you access to the Klamath and Salmon, both great gold bearing rivers. It's the same as joining any other organization, such as the GPAA or LDMA, albeit a bit more expensive. But you don't just get access, you can join his weeklong or weekend classes, and basically get to pick the brain of an expert. So ya, I think the price is a bit higg for what he sells, but I think what you get for what you pay is worth the cost in that instance.

But also, the 49ers spearhead a lot of efforts to protect the rights of small miners.

Either way, I'll enjoy myself this summer, without paying for the membership. Just go and learn what I can, and hopefully find some gold.

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blues bad

Get their free email that you see on there and sometimes a member is selling his membership and they run about 15 hundred.

It's just something else to think about at another time and place.You have like you said you got this summer already cut in stone.You lucky dog!

Chuck Anders

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Whatsforsupper-

You are right about Dave M. being a straight shooter kind of guy. I had the pleasure of joining one of the group projects run by Dave last summer. I learned a lot in a week that would have taken much longer on my own. As you say Dave is always willing to share what he knows but he also won't do the work for you.

I joined the New 49er's and I am not sorry. It is a great organization.

I will be back on the river next summer for a month or so. Actually, I expect that I will take a short trip up there in couple weeks to do a little prospecting and maybe find some gold.

Ken

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Your a knothead woodcutter :lol:
i know vini its funny others tell me that as well..all in all iam ok..i just hate to see this guy get pumped up and end up in the funny farm....ive been reading this post and its just seems like theres high expectations..i got that dvd about the new 49ers...and anyone whos seen it knows its way exagerated..and before i got into this i was feed this and that..after dumping 10.000 into all the stuff..let me tell ya i was totaly misled 100% and bulshited into buying equipment i no where needed..anyways it was a learning expierience..but ive got allthe stuff now..iam just waiting for someone to take me to there favorite spot with lotsa gold in it :)
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Oakwoodcutter

When I started out prospecting the only thing that I put money out for was a gold pan.After that I have made most of what I needed to dredge with.I've put more money out on one detector than I have anything else.

I had meet this guy in Colorado some years back and he was like you just starting out.The first year he just had some gold pans but the next year here he comes with two other guys and a new gold dredge a 4iner.The men that came with him was going to do the diving but they got in the water and the first thing they said was it's to cold.They never started up at all,so home they went.

Maybe sometimes we all like this guy.

This guy got a job at this big store and they had everything.The way he got the job was he told his new boss he was a super salemen,so the boss said lets see what you can do.

The first customer walk in the boss said okay show me what you got.Well when the guy walk out of the store he had a new rod and reel plus a boat motor with a trailer. The boss was real happy with his new sales guy.

He ask him what did the man come in here to buy and he said o'h he wanted a box of kotex and I told him that he's not going be doing nothing this weekend so why not go fishing.

Chuck Anders

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