V mat under unbacked miner's moss or no?

[Vance in AK]

So the used 2.5 in dredge I purchased has unbacked miners moss & no matting under it. The guy I bought it from said he had always run it that way. I usually hear of guys running ribbed mat under it to prevent "migration" down the sluice. I've only used carpet in the past so I am clueless.
Should I put v rib under it?

 

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[Mgumby16]

What brand of dredge? Prolines are made to run with just miners moss the riffles clamp it to the bottom of the sluice and prevent migration.

 

[Bejay]

What brand of dredge? Prolines are made to run with just miners moss the riffles clamp it to the bottom of the sluice and prevent migration.

Very important! Years ago I bought my 1st Prolines. I had always had Keene prior. I thought....heck this can't be right so I installed v mat and carpet under the moss. I must note that prior to my altering the sluice layout my recovery was good....but I was in an area where I did not get much fines and only pickers and nuggets..(this I realized after my errors in sluice set up alteration). Anyway....so I altered the set up and ran a day only to find pickers down at the end of the sluice...NOT GOOD. I immediately went home and called Proline. The Proline is designed for only moss....and after talking I immediately returned the layout to factory specs. So if your dredge is a Proline Mgumby16 hits the nail on the head!

Bejay

 

[Vance in AK]

Thanks guys. It's a Keene but it's a bit of a Frankenstein.

 

[ratled]

Vance for THAT dredge I would run ribbed matting under the MM. I do on my older Keene. I run 1/8 as regular black mat just under the header to be able to check values and I run 1/32" mat under the MM for the rest of the sluice. Over the years all sluices, riffles etc get banged, beat and tweaked and any love that can be brought to recovery system is a positive

ratled

 

[winners58]

I use ribbed rubber under the MM under expanded metal in the top of the box, MM over carpet in the lower riffle section.
the riffle section came with just carpet, so its up to what works for you as long as there is no daylight coming under the riffles.

 

[russau]

While running a dredge IF your riffle section doesent fit tight to the bottom of the sluice you will need ribbed mating under your MM or you will lose your fines. I build my own riffle sections of different heights and I make sure they are even on the bottom to help prevent this migration of fines. This was on my past dredge that I built. Now on the Keene 4 inch I just bought from my friend Im installing Gold Hog mats (IF I EVER GET OUT TO USE IT!!!!)

 

[Goldwasher]

Very important! Years ago I bought my 1st Prolines. I had always had Keene prior. I thought....heck this can't be right so I installed v mat and carpet under the moss. I must note that prior to my altering the sluice layout my recovery was good....but I was in an area where I did not get much fines and only pickers and nuggets..(this I realized after my errors in sluice set up alteration). Anyway....so I altered the set up and ran a day only to find pickers down at the end of the sluice...NOT GOOD. I immediately went home and called Proline. The Proline is designed for only moss....and after talking I immediately returned the layout to factory specs. So if your dredge is a Proline Mgumby16 hits the nail on the head!

What do you think changes by putting another layer down that would cause larger gold to move down the sluice? It would seem that if the riffles lock the moss to the bottom of the sluice they would do the same to vmat or carpet. After all its just a change of texture really. I believe you I'm just asking for your thoughts on it.

I'm running 9+ feet of sluice right now. Some would say its overkill but it allows me to run with streamflow and not have to worry so much about clay and it cleans rocks well. I can just shovel all day long. NO CLASSIFACATION. As usual 90% of my recovery is in my feed sluice. And that's the sluice that is "set up all wrong" and way "over fed"

I throw a few lead sinkers the kind with holes in them in when I start for the day they don't move past my first expanded. They do get friends during the day. Square nails and iron bits only make it to the second recovery plate. The first expanded only has moss under it. Carpet under my diamond riffles. carpet under moss in my secondary sluice. Gold hog in the final stage.

When I dredge I throw counted change and a wingnut or two into where I'm gonna run. When I throttle down for my first sammich or pee break I count the change. I haven't lost any yet.

 

[Goldwasher]

I don't like to share pics from dig spots. As even with location turned off I'm still paranoid. But I'm there enough to say that if you know how to find my location via pics...DON'T

I recover sub 100 mesh easily

 

[arizau]

Gold Hog markets their own version of miners moss Miners Moss. I don't have audio on this computer but, after a quick scan of the video in the link, it looks like he discusses what to use under and above it. If nothing else it may give you some ideas.

Good luck.

 

[Goldfleks]

That's quite the Franken- sluice. Is that 3 boxes together?

 

[utah mason]

Gold Hog markets their own version of miners moss Miners Moss. I don't have audio on this computer but, after a quick scan of the video in the link, it looks like he discusses what to use under and above it. If nothing else it may give you some ideas.

Good luck.

Hog moss. I run it in my A-51, or at least I did. I just upgraded to gold hog mats. it's thinner then a lot of other brands, so it will fit under the riffles that came in the sluice without having to change anything. I do have a piece of thin v-mat under it as well

 

[Goldwasher]

yes. I use different ones separately or together depending on flow. The big one is my hi banker when I have to run a pump. I hike my stuff in in the fall and out as conditions make each one useless.

its really a lot more like a sluice sluice vs a "stream sluice"

Sluice boxes were invented so less people or time were needed to dig, process material and move tailings. The material is supposed to move over a distance and break down clay and clean rocks.

Both rocker boxes and long toms produce tailings right where your working..ANNOYING Your either going to have to move material you already dug close MAYBE and fed into your majigger and now you have a pile building up. As an individual that takes a while. The fellas back in the day worked in groups. A rocker box or dry washer sure could be a bottle neck IMHO.

A sluice run could have one guy on a fork, a feeder at the stockpile and a guy pickin' and diggin' and a fella running a Studabaker back and forth and get some work done.

I'm set up for the one to two man version. A 36" stream sluice was made so you can move more material than a pan. My set up is so I can move as much material as I want while I have the water.

Come spring I'll be sniping again and reminding myself how much gold I can get without a sluice. From the bedrock I exposed all winter

 

[Bejay]

Very important! Years ago I bought my 1st Prolines. I had always had Keene prior. I thought....heck this can't be right so I installed v mat and carpet under the moss. I must note that prior to my altering the sluice layout my recovery was good....but I was in an area where I did not get much fines and only pickers and nuggets..(this I realized after my errors in sluice set up alteration). Anyway....so I altered the set up and ran a day only to find pickers down at the end of the sluice...NOT GOOD. I immediately went home and called Proline. The Proline is designed for only moss....and after talking I immediately returned the layout to factory specs. So if your dredge is a Proline Mgumby16 hits the nail on the head!

What do you think changes by putting another layer down that would cause larger gold to move down the sluice? It would seem that if the riffles lock the moss to the bottom of the sluice they would do the same to vmat or carpet. After all its just a change of texture really. I believe you I'm just asking for your thoughts on it.

I'm running 9+ feet of sluice right now. Some would say its overkill but it allows me to run with streamflow and not have to worry so much about clay and it cleans rocks well. I can just shovel all day long. NO CLASSIFACATION. As usual 90% of my recovery is in my feed sluice. And that's the sluice that is "set up all wrong" and way "over fed"

I throw a few lead sinkers the kind with holes in them in when I start for the day they don't move past my first expanded. They do get friends during the day. Square nails and iron bits only make it to the second recovery plate. The first expanded only has moss under it. Carpet under my diamond riffles. carpet under moss in my secondary sluice. Gold hog in the final stage.

When I dredge I throw counted change and a wingnut or two into where I'm gonna run. When I throttle down for my first sammich or pee break I count the change. I haven't lost any yet.

My best answer is that my call to Proline (think the owner Jeff or Rich.....been 8 years) explained to me that Proline designed it that way. But the truth was in the pudding...........after I went back to the original Proline moss. I had to stitch the moss back together as I had put more V matt in the upper sluice.

It was explained that the Proline (hi bank/dredge combo was ALL ABOUT getting the upper end of the sluice set correctly so that the water boils before it leaves the upper end. The way the moss is pinched/compressed between the riffles and the bottom of the sluice allowed water to permeate beneath the riffles as opposed to just over the top .

I would suggest that anyone can call Proline....they even called me back twice to see how my recovery was going. Proline is good stuff....I am sure they have spent a lot of money engineering their equipment to work perfectly. But one always needs to follow the manufacturers recommendation when one finds the equipment not performing correctly....before we go altering it....IMHO

I'll go back a little. Originally when I was running the system I was NOT finding "fines" ....only pickers and nuggets. So I felt I was losing the fines! So I altered the sluice the way I thought it would do a better job. I dredge for 4 years in the specific stretch/location and never found fines. One day Perry Massie showed up and talked to me and I explained that it was nuggets and pickers! He came the next day with some friends and they dug all weekend and never go a color.....true story!

Now why was there only nuggets and pickers you might ask? The reason was I was in a huge boulder field setting on extensively exposed bedrock....the fines/black sands were further down the stream. I have a 10 ft aluminum "long tom" sluice I have run with a fairly large trammel.....sometimes it is over kill and sometimes I would rather be safe than sorry!

Bejay
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