Beaver 3" or Chameleon 3" Reviews?

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:11 pm

I have been pouring over the internet but can't seem to find any good reviews of the Beaver or Chameleon dredge series. I am looking for an affordable 3"- 4" dredge. I have been bitten hard after working a 4" dredge this weekend.

I like the AM sluices but I am wary of the capabilities of AM dredge systems in handling the vibrations of larger material blowing through and it's capability of retaining the gold in the sluice.

If anyone has a private vid. or knows someone that owns one that wouldn't mind a helper for a day so I can see and experience them while in use or would be willing to share a review, I would greatly appreciate it. Feel free to PM me with contact info =)

Shay, have you seen one of these work or done a test run? I would love to see a review on these products done by an experienced dredger like yourself.

Dredger Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 76 Location: Ohio

I believe Astro has a friend with a Chameleon. I'm sure he will chim in with something.

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 4:31 pm

My prospecting buddy Dr Phil has the Chameleon, and it is great.Back when we didn't know what we were doing with it and had first got it we would lose gold out the back of it.

But now that we know how to set it up we have tried running sluices behind it to see what it is losing, and every time it was just sub 100 mesh specs in the back one, not near enough to worry about.

I originally had some concerns because the larger 2 and 1/2 inch rocks would sometimes fall into the drop riffles and then blow out a good bit of the contents of the riffle, but even with that, the gold would just settle deeper into the riffle or into another one.

Heres one video of him running it, I had another video series but I had to make it private because the land owner was worried about possible trespassers.

http://youtu.be/btsPQ0oJMdw

http://youtu.be/cCFz5_B4bwo

Here's a post about it, I think this was the first time we took it out:

http://southernprospector.s2.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=1438

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:26 pm

I am alittle curious about the new "beaver" models.

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:52 pm

Thanks for the reply again Astro. We have exchanged a few PM's and I have watched all your vids and read all your posts on the Chameleon. They are very informative, as always. I am a big fan of AM but there just isn't enough info on the dredge lines to make the choice an easy one to make. I guess time will tell at this point.

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:03 pm

RWH wrote:

Thanks for the reply again Astro. We have exchanged a few PM's and I have watched all your vids and read all your posts on the Chameleon. They are very informative, as always. I am a big fan of AM but there just isn't enough info on the dredge lines to make the choice an easy one to make. I guess time will tell at this point.

I feel the same way about it..I would love to see one of the Beaver floating dredges in action.

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:13 pm

Got my 2.5" also. Looks like you all run yours fairly level. have you all tried running it with a small drop?