Here you will find an ongoing list of helpful ideas you can use in your prospecting.
              They are learned over time out in the field while looking for gold, some are mine,
               some I picked up from others.   If you have ideas to contribute please e-mail me.

                                                   This is a simple one, sometimes you need buckets, lots of buckets.
                                                   They can be had for free from any bakery or grocery store that has
                                                   a bakery. They come in 2 , 3, and 5 gallon sizes, I prefer the 2 gal.
                                                   That gravel can get quite heavy and I've had back problems you all
                                                   can have my 5 gal ones. ;-) What? fill them halfway, well it never
                                                   happens on my claim. Some how they always get filled to the brim.
 

                                                 This was one of my first equipment modifications, I added handles
                                                  to all my classifiers. They are made out of conduit pipe I bent in a
                                                  vice. Now I can really shake that material vigorously and separate
                                                  it out as I wish with little effort.

                                                 Here is another one of those mods for people with bad backs.  I put
                                                 a easy grab handle on my vac pac bucket. When you vacuum up all
                                                 that gold bearing dirt out of a drywash or dig you can get the bucket
                                                 very heavy. What? fill it half way? well it usually don't stop sucking
                                                 till it wont suck anymore and then its plumb full and heavy as heck.
                                                 Then I usually pour this material into a classifier that's setting on the
                                                 top of another 3 gal bucket a little at a time. Lift, pour, classify, then
                                                 lift, pour, classify, over and over.  It is hard to lift and find a place to
                                                 grab it underneath, this simple handle has made my life much easier
                                                 now. Be sure to back up those screws with large washers on the inside.
                                                 Definitely a 5 star idea.

                                           One item thats a must have is a small tub, or dish pan made by rubbermaid.
                                           It can be used to pan in, collecting concentrates, cleaning out the sluice box,
                                           or set it under the end of the drywasher to rerun damp material again. Here
                                           I'm collecting my concentrates, then I transfer them to that milk jug with top
                                           cut off. Old milk jugs are a good thing to have around too! You can sample
                                           different areas and bring home the concentrates in them. Label them 1-3.
 

 On to Helpful Hints page 2