First run with my new Gold Rat

I bought a Gold Rat at the start of the week after feeling the need to upgrade from panning, what a great decision that was! I'm only new to the hobby but after panning at Oallen Ford a few times, I found it back breaking work for little reward with the pan.

I ducked out to Oallen yesterday at around midday, and after a little bit of dam building, playing with the angles, a test buck, and a quick pan and it was catching gold. I then ran 8x20L buckets of classified material through the sluice and managed to get a bit of gold and one little picker.

I'm not sure if Geroge from Bangalee is on here, but thanks for some pointers and showing me some crevicing techniques.

Good onya DG, I'm happy with my Goldrat as well and am keen to try out my new powered header unit for the sluice, but will have to wait until I get back to Vic in a couple of months where it's legal. Don't be in too much of a hurry to put your pan aside as yet though. Whilst it can't outperform a sluice for volume, it is invaluable for testing and when you're crevicing.

Nice! I was also on the Shoalhaven river on Saturday near Braidwood. Had a quick pan, 2 specks , bloody hot. Put the pan away and went for a swim. We packed up and ventured down to Areluan. Took a couple of newbies and we mannaged to find a little bit of yellow. They were stoked and want to go again. I warned them finding gold is not easy, but hard work is rewarded.

Good to see rat worked well. I'm going to buy one in a few months. Might see you on the river some time

Good stuff!

Another winner. Still haven't tried my mat. Itchy!!!!!!!!!

Even the fine stuff adds up! Well done :Y:

Thanks guys. Oallen is a handy spot as it's only about 50mins away from home, but think I'm going to have to look further afield so I can find some chunkier stuff instead.