DESERDOG'S
ORIGINAL GOLD SUCKER HAND DREDGE

In marketing language, a gimmick is a quirky feature that distinguishes a product or service without adding any obvious function or value.

If you take a look at hand dredges, gimmicks abound in some! Take the PSP gold sucker hand dredge on Ebay for example. This device reeks of gimmicks. The first that comes to mind is the check valve. If you can chew gum and walk at the same time, a check valve is just a hindrance.

First you have to empty the barrel of the PSP gold sucker hand dredge  by pulling the handle all the way out. This makes the device less functional, not more.

Second, if you use a check valve, off the shelf or made in house, you will get jams and have to clear them. This makes the PSP gold sucker hand dredge less functional, not more.The maker of the PSP gold sucker hand dredge says in his spiel about his top of the line product that check valves are a negative, but suddenly they are a good thing? No!  All the above apply to bucket hand dredges also.

Third, the PSP gold sucker hand dredge uses another check valve and a "filtered inlet port" to direct water on the down stroke through the handle. How long do you think it will take for the "filtered inlet port" to get clogged? You are not moving sand and gravel in an aquarium like the maker of the PSP gold sucker hand dredge shows you, but moving real world material, full of clay, organics and all sorts of stuff that will quickly clog the inlet port. This makes the PSP gold sucker hand dredge less functional, not more.

All of the things talked about above make the PSP gold sucker hand dredge a less functional device than an original gold sucker.

Gimmicks abound in the prospecting gear, just look at all the new pans that have come out recently. But as time goes by, some of the new gimmicky pans seem to fade away.

If an added feature does not make a device easier to use or let you process more material in a given time, then it is just a gimmick, like all of the supposed advanced features of the PSP gold sucker hand dredge.

Another hand dredge full of gimmicks is the FM2 gold suckerhand dredge. The theory behind this device is that an internal classifier screen in the collection chamber will classify the material you suck up and then you can process more material. But this is just not true. To put it into the real world, imagine you are classifying material with a normal size classifier, and another prospector next to you is classifing his material with a classifier that will fit into a coffee cup. Which prospector is going to process more material? Given the same material, the gold prospector using the normal size classifier is going to classify and process much more material. Now take the coffee cup classifier and put it inside of a hand dredge.

I went out sluicing a little today on Cajon Creek in Cajon Pass. I used my 3 inch super gold sucker and my fine gold sluice. There were a few other gold prospectors out today. .

I was just there about an hour and a half, and did not move alot of material. But I did get a nice little show of gold.

I showed a prosepctor I will call Jeff how the Le Trap pan can be used to quickly make your concnetrate into a super concentrate. And , suprisingly, no one had ever showed him how to pull out the gold quickly form your concentrates whwen you are in the final stages. Swirl and tap, I thought every one kew this! I was watching Jeff as he was looking at the cons after panning down, and he said he didn't see much gold. So I asked If I could see it, and swirled it and then tapped it and there was a nice little show of gold in the pan. He said no one had ever shown him!

A gold prospector sent me an email of his prospecting efforts of 03-07-2010. He just bought another original gold sucker to have a back up. He gave me permission to share his email and the pictures he sent me. Here is the first email he sent me.

"Hi Ray, I love these things so much that I had to get another one for a back up. By the way, I went to my claim today and after chopping out a hole in the ice, I retrieved 5.1 grams of gold (1 nugget being penny weight) with the help of your suction dredge. I am 5ft 9inch in height, if that helps for making one. Cheers"

Here is the second email and some pictures; "Ray, Glad to see you got my email. I took some photos of yesterday's prospecting and thought I'd share them with you. The two larger nuggets were taken with a shovel then panned but the pickers and fines were done with your sucker tube. I look forward to having a "back-up." Much of my prospecting day begins and ends sniping the crevices with this handy device. Many thanks for a wonderful product! Cheers - Randy"

Nice warm day of gold prospecting!

5.1 grams of the good stuff!!

Nice!!

That's some nice gold! You do not need a fancy bucket hand dredge with check valves like the gold-n-sand, or the SM_Prospecting Hand Dredge, or SMB_Prospecting Hand Dredge, or the PSP_prospecting hand dredge with check valves and filtered inlet ports to find good gold, just a simple tool to remove the material from the crevices, like the original gold sucker.