It has been quiet on the board lately! So hopefully this will stir up some comments. Does anyone have any idea why we haven't heard anything from Gold Hog in quite some time? It seems like several years since any new videos, no advertising that I have seen.
Also, all the videos on You Tube don't allow comments? I have seen on some other sites that their were too many negative comments and so they stopped allowing them.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have used a number of their products and have been extremely happy with the performance. I outfitted the last 6 feet of my dredge with Gold Hog mats, I use the Multi Sluice for cleanup and used the Stream Sluice extensively in Colorado. So I am not throwing stones, or rocks as the case may be, pun intended.
Just curious as to what is going on. Lots of new mats out there and no shortage of people taking shots at Gold Hog. Just wondering about the silence on their end. After 40 years in retail I know you can't let negative comments just hang out without response . I hope all is well on their end.
So does anyone have any information? Just curious, and yes I know what happened to the cat!
Easy Goer
Gold Hog nary a Squeal!
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Joe S (AK)
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Re: Gold Hog nary a Squeal!
Wellllllll - I guess I might have a little input (maybe not only a little bit) on Doc and his Gold Hog line.
Doc is a very unusual gent.
He had been non-professionally Gold mining for quite a long while and he, for some reason, started studying recovery systems and the failings and advantages to each one of them. THEN his work really started to go Big Time.
Grappling with new ideas and designing prototypes in his garage he slowly re-wrote the book on Gold recovery and as he went along he started posting results on Youtube. Old concepts went right out the door while new ideas and increased returns flourished.
As an example, for a very long time miners had shared the unresearched "intuitive fact" that the only way to recover small Gold from concentrates was to use nearly flat, slowly flowing laminar water to gently coax the non Gold fraction of "heavies" to move around the Gold using the water flow and leave just the heaviest Gold particles sitting in place. It worked to some extent but the process was very time consuming and relied quite heavily on carefully fed volumes of cons, finely controlled water flow and critical box drop while attempting to not just loose the Gold out of the equipment. The best example to that was a Miller Table. You would grow very old cleaning a 5 gallon bucket of tightly classified concentrates. The same went for micro-sluices which also relied on the delicate balances of drop and water flow in their operation.
THEN, a few years before Doc hit the market, a flurry of new ideas burst forth using drops, special riffle engineering and such. Sometimes a bit delicate in set-ups but much better than before. The Le Trap was a good example of that new type design.
Then in the mid 70s expanded over lath allowed a more robust water flow with good fine Gold recovery. A substantially higher volume of concentrates to finish by hand panning resulted but recovering higher quantities of Gold was the exhausting end result.
Finally Doc (AND some others) hit the market with new ideas that changed everything. Moderate to heavier water flow was able to be used by protecting the valleys in the newer mats' designs from washing out. Finally "regular" sluices could use enough water flow to roll moderately large dross (maybe 3" or so) right through the box along with the moderate to small processed waste dross - meaning that dredge use was possible. New mats and new equipment bubbled up from Doc's incredible research and all of it was well documented (and promoted as well) on Youtube.
SO, what happened to Gold Hog videos? I would imagine / speculate that Doc, over the years, had put just too much into the effort and needed a break from it. Of course he just might have achieved his goal and found new challenges.
Gold Hog is still very active in selling their products but Doc, himself, has ventured into other Youtube pursuits like lawn care and home repairs as well as home maintenance. As I have heard he is still very involved there - just not the movie star at this point.
Now, I have a lot of Doc's "stuff" and am very (100%) pleased with everything I've used. I own a Gold Hog River Sluice, Mini River Sluice, Multi-Sluice, a large, discontinued (yet still works very well) Viper Pro Flare High Banker, a Gold Hog Flow-Pan, quite a few home made pieces of equipment using Gold Hog mats and even a Boar's Box vertical highbanker. To me, all that equipment is top notch (OK, maybe not the Flow Pan because I've just not used it much). You gotta wade into the stream to properly use it and, you see, all my streams are VERY cold, unlike Georgia.
So, Doc's still out and about but just not showing off his Gold Hog line on Youtube right now.
Doc is a very unusual gent.
He had been non-professionally Gold mining for quite a long while and he, for some reason, started studying recovery systems and the failings and advantages to each one of them. THEN his work really started to go Big Time.
Grappling with new ideas and designing prototypes in his garage he slowly re-wrote the book on Gold recovery and as he went along he started posting results on Youtube. Old concepts went right out the door while new ideas and increased returns flourished.
As an example, for a very long time miners had shared the unresearched "intuitive fact" that the only way to recover small Gold from concentrates was to use nearly flat, slowly flowing laminar water to gently coax the non Gold fraction of "heavies" to move around the Gold using the water flow and leave just the heaviest Gold particles sitting in place. It worked to some extent but the process was very time consuming and relied quite heavily on carefully fed volumes of cons, finely controlled water flow and critical box drop while attempting to not just loose the Gold out of the equipment. The best example to that was a Miller Table. You would grow very old cleaning a 5 gallon bucket of tightly classified concentrates. The same went for micro-sluices which also relied on the delicate balances of drop and water flow in their operation.
THEN, a few years before Doc hit the market, a flurry of new ideas burst forth using drops, special riffle engineering and such. Sometimes a bit delicate in set-ups but much better than before. The Le Trap was a good example of that new type design.
Then in the mid 70s expanded over lath allowed a more robust water flow with good fine Gold recovery. A substantially higher volume of concentrates to finish by hand panning resulted but recovering higher quantities of Gold was the exhausting end result.
Finally Doc (AND some others) hit the market with new ideas that changed everything. Moderate to heavier water flow was able to be used by protecting the valleys in the newer mats' designs from washing out. Finally "regular" sluices could use enough water flow to roll moderately large dross (maybe 3" or so) right through the box along with the moderate to small processed waste dross - meaning that dredge use was possible. New mats and new equipment bubbled up from Doc's incredible research and all of it was well documented (and promoted as well) on Youtube.
SO, what happened to Gold Hog videos? I would imagine / speculate that Doc, over the years, had put just too much into the effort and needed a break from it. Of course he just might have achieved his goal and found new challenges.
Gold Hog is still very active in selling their products but Doc, himself, has ventured into other Youtube pursuits like lawn care and home repairs as well as home maintenance. As I have heard he is still very involved there - just not the movie star at this point.
Now, I have a lot of Doc's "stuff" and am very (100%) pleased with everything I've used. I own a Gold Hog River Sluice, Mini River Sluice, Multi-Sluice, a large, discontinued (yet still works very well) Viper Pro Flare High Banker, a Gold Hog Flow-Pan, quite a few home made pieces of equipment using Gold Hog mats and even a Boar's Box vertical highbanker. To me, all that equipment is top notch (OK, maybe not the Flow Pan because I've just not used it much). You gotta wade into the stream to properly use it and, you see, all my streams are VERY cold, unlike Georgia.
So, Doc's still out and about but just not showing off his Gold Hog line on Youtube right now.
Determination, Tempered in the Heat of Stubbornness,
Really Gets Things Done!
Really Gets Things Done!
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easy goer
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Re: Gold Hog nary a Squeal!
Joe
Appreciate the information. I also have a flow pan that I haven't really taken to as of yet. I find myself going back to my regular pan pretty quickly. Its on my list to give it a more thorough workout this summer.
My last time in Alaska we had "no" water issues and never really got on any "good" gold, thankfully the matting did an excellent job capturing the -100 gold so I didn't end up empty handed. I was assured there was no small gold in the area I was dredging, apparently there was some if you had the right equipment to catch it.
Easy goer
Appreciate the information. I also have a flow pan that I haven't really taken to as of yet. I find myself going back to my regular pan pretty quickly. Its on my list to give it a more thorough workout this summer.
My last time in Alaska we had "no" water issues and never really got on any "good" gold, thankfully the matting did an excellent job capturing the -100 gold so I didn't end up empty handed. I was assured there was no small gold in the area I was dredging, apparently there was some if you had the right equipment to catch it.
Easy goer
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Joe S (AK)
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Re: Gold Hog nary a Squeal!
One customizing thing that I did, which I found quite useful, was simple, inexpensive, handy AND was really easy. I had one of those Sharpies (Magic Markers) that was Silver in color and I made SURE that the mat was absolutely aligned correctly and then went to the back of it and marked it right and left. After that I marked the bottom Aluminum surface of the pan (under the mat) with another Sharpie - only black this time. While not "forever, forever" that was good to get me visually accustomed to setting up and using it.
I also swapped out the steel fasteners with 1/4" stainless steel bolts and stainless Nylock nuts. No rust, shiny, and no losses too. Bling is good - N'est-ce pas !
What customizing mods do you do to your mining stuff - inquiring minds want to know!
OK - Six days later I stumbled on this 7 year old video. If you haven't seen it yet - well - here you go!
https://youtu.be/3QflrVorsGg?si=oCfVkt_PuiiNe_c8
Joe
I also swapped out the steel fasteners with 1/4" stainless steel bolts and stainless Nylock nuts. No rust, shiny, and no losses too. Bling is good - N'est-ce pas !
What customizing mods do you do to your mining stuff - inquiring minds want to know!
OK - Six days later I stumbled on this 7 year old video. If you haven't seen it yet - well - here you go!
https://youtu.be/3QflrVorsGg?si=oCfVkt_PuiiNe_c8
Joe
Determination, Tempered in the Heat of Stubbornness,
Really Gets Things Done!
Really Gets Things Done!