The Great Search

How Chris McCully had one of Bering Sea Gold’s best seasons to date

Chris McCully is a newcomer to the world of Bering Sea Gold, but he is already making waves.

If there is one thing that Discovery has shown us over the course of the last decade, it is that mining for gold is often much more difficult than it seems on paper.

And very few mining locations in the world which are more dangerous or unpredictable than the choppy waters of the Bering Sea.

If you have ever tuned in to watch the teams battle it out to bring in the most gold on this show, you will already know that all of the Bering Sea Gold captains believe that they have the super-secret, special method which will ensure their success for the season.

Chris McCully’s rise to Bering Sea Gold fame

However, with issues ranging from changing tides to failing equipment, standing in their way – there are just no guarantees when it comes to searching for gold at the bottom of the sea.

This uncertainty is exactly why many longtime Bering Sea Gold fans discounted the newcomer, Chris McCully, as soon as he joined the show’s cast in season 16.

When Chris first joined the Bering Sea Gold cast, he had already been mining in Nome for more than a decade as part of his father’s crew.

It did not take long for this 19 year-old, first-timer to establish himself as one of ‘Mr. Gold’s’ biggest competitors.

Now, with the final season 17 gold weigh-ins already complete, Chris has officially cemented himself as one of Bering Sea Gold’s most successful captains.

Chris McCully’s Bering Sea Gold run

Bering Sea Gold has been on the air since 2012 and a few of the show’s fan-favorite cast members, including Shawn Pomrenke, Emily Riedel and even Vernon Adkison, have been part of the show since day one.

But, although Chris has spent pretty much his entire life mining with his father (and even for Kris), season 17 of Bering Sea Gold only marks his second season on the show.

As a result, Chris’s entire Bering Sea Gold run so far, can be outlined as follows:

Season Episodes Initial air dates
Season 16 10 August 1, 2023 to October 3, 2023
Season 17 12 October 6, 2023 to December 22, 2023

Chris McCully’s season 17 weigh-in

Season 17 of Bering Sea Gold certainly saw all of the captains being pushed to their absolute limits.

But it seems as though Chris’s idea to use a former shrimp boat, complete with a hydraulics system which can move the hose and pick up the jets and cut out hours of manual labor, really paid off. And he ended the season with an impressive final gold tally.

At the end of the season, Chris managed to clean about 13 ounces of gold out of his dredge, which brought his total for season 17 to a whopping 233.54 ounces.

This impressive gold haul is enough to earn the young captain about $420,000 (and is just slightly over 15% of Shawn’s even-more impressive 1535 ounce gold-total for this season).

Season 17 was not all sunshine and rainbows for Chris McCully

Although Chris did end season 17 of Bering Sea Gold on a very positive note, with more than 200 ounces of gold in the BG Mining pockets, he did not quite manage to reach his initial 300 ounce season-goal.

In the end, Chris may have had an impressive final weigh-in, but he did not bring in as much gold as he probably could have, since the visibility at his claim never really returned to a workable level after that huge storm hit midway through the season.

Will Chris McCully be returning for season 18?

It has only been a few months since the last episodes of Bering Sea Gold season 17 made it to air. But many fans are already wondering whether the show (and all of its stars) will be coming back for another season.

Unfortunately though, the future of the show still seems to be up in the air. Kris Kelly reportedly signed a deal which would guarantee at least three more seasons of the show at some point in the future, but rumors have already started spreading that some of the show’s other stars believe that it will come to an end pretty soon.

However, given that Chris ended season 17 without reaching his initial target, it is pretty safe to assume that he will return if the show is brought back for another season – even if it is just to prove that he has what it takes to go up against Shawn Pomrenke (again).