sluice boxes

[norcalsteve]

I am buying my first sluice box and am looking at the jobe 36" yellow jacket and the keene a52. Is one better thsn the other? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve

 

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[KevinInColorado]

As a newbie I would suggest you look at something more modern. Those are great gear in their own way but how about a Bazooka Goldtrap instead? They are much easier to set up, don't require you to classify the material (a huge time savings!) and do great catching fine gold. Oh, and clean out takes about 8 seconds!

 

[Hoser John]

Le Trap get the best results,be it big or small,no carpets or insipid mat bs ,lightweight to carry in and holds pounds. I'd post the pic as proof but new owners made a change to website and it won't post anymoreJohn

 

[ALewis]

Check out the Bazooka Goldtrap....
As I have as much fun building & tinkering, mine is a homebuilt affair. Really like it though.

I have thought about getting a keene to use as a highbanker, but my little sluice below has run some serious material for me this year, and the setup and cleanout can't be beat.

 

[A_Sly1_U]

How is the capture rate on the bazooka? As long as I don't overload my a52 I don't lose much of anything. It will catch gold so fine you can't hardly see it. How's the durability of all the plastic sluices? I've never owned one, so don't take my questions as criticism. My a52 is quite often on the bottom of a big pile of other mining and camping gear. Being all metal it's very durable. In the grand scheme of things the sluice box you pick probably won't make much difference in the gold you get. There are a lot of good products on the market.

 

[Aufisher]

Get the Bazooka and a Le Trap!

 

[rtenpin]

Get an Angus MacKirk! (sturdier than a Le Trap)
I've had mine 2 years now and it works great.

 

[team sidewinder]

I like my A52 as it has worked well for me and picks up everything and by everything I mean the smallest of flour gold. I can't see any reason for me to change something that works so well for me.

 

[Oakview2]

Le Trap get the best results,be it big or small,no carpets or insipid mat bs ,lightweight to carry in and holds pounds. I'd post the pic as proof but new owners made a change to website and it won't post anymoreJohn

Here you go Hoser, PS This is Hosers photo, pretty enough to frame

 

[ALewis]

Have seen this pic before. Amazing

 

[KevinInColorado]

I catch lots of superfine gold with both my angus Mackirk Expedition (use it in low, slow water) and my bazooka Goldtrap Prospector (in faster, deeper water...even a decent creek with a dam). In real life I almost always use the bgt cause it processes material soooo much faster resulting in much more gold! The AM sluices are quite durable and fairly light too. The Le Trap is even lighter but it is a bit flimsy....Of course even the bgt prospector is lighter than an A52 or similar traditional sluice. They all work but the traditional sluices are heavier, take much longer to learn to run well and take longer to clean out every day too.

 

[norcalsteve]

Thanks for all the advice. I think i am leaning towards the bazooka.

 

[wild eyed willey]

in the end, it really doesn't matter which one you choose, they will all catch gold. but the bazooka gold trap and the other plastic sluices will weigh less is that is an issue.
I think the setup and cleanout of the plastic models is faster and the gold trap doesn't require classifying which in it self is a time saver. you may find the gold trap needs a good fast water flow to wash the heavies off the end which could cause some work building a wing wall. Most of the other sluices will require building some sort of a wing wall too. despite the hype you read, all of these sluices will catch gold, I have built several sluices over the years and even my first really crude one caught gold. so your choice should be, portability ( weight, length, wide, deep), do you want or need to carry classifiers and extra buckets? are you easy on your gear, or do you need rugged metal construction to keep yours safe? In the end, as long as you keep oil out of them, they will all catch gold. In the olden days, they would take a lams wool ( fleece) and lay it on the river bottom and catch gold as the water washed the sand over it, no riffles, no grizzle bars, no muss, no fuss. gold gets caught because it is heavy and because it is heavy it stays in your sluice. The only way you might have trouble is if your water flow is far too great and that not easy to do without a pump system. so choose the right one for you or build your own, but have a blast................

 

[sideshowmick]

 

[sideshowmick]

It is very weird to me that it posted thos pics upside down. hhmmmmm .

 

[63bkpkr]

In general for metal or plastic sluice boxes: water flow just over the riffles, a V to X pattern in the water going down the sluice indicates good left to right angle being level. I have an A52 and I backpack it in along with a ton of other 'stuff' and its weight and length even with the flare removed is at a maximum for even me......................63bkpkr

Just after getting down the 3000' drop into "MY" canyon. The A52, because the output end is so wide, does not fit the standard 5 gallon bucket well, it jam fits about 3/4's the way into the bucket so if not used carefully it will break the sides of the bucket. The blue rectangular 'recycle' bucket is just over 5 gallon capacity and the A52 easily goes right to the bottom of the bucket, but no handles on the blue bucket. Purchased in California at Home Depot.

A52 goes easily and readily to the very bottom. Note: have the bucket about 2/3 rd's full of water before placing the sluice into it or the whole thing will tip over.

Way too much water going through the sluice! Notice the "classifier" modification to a standard wastebasket. The wastebasket drops right into a 'standard' 5 gallon bucket. I suggest not putting more than a third of a bucket full of sample into the classifier. With water in the bucket and 1/3 of a bucket of raw sample in the classifier pump the classifier up and down and around a couple times and all the fines will be washed out and the rocks and pebbles should be mighty clean. This is a lot of work and the larger the raw sample the worse the shoulder and back damage can get.

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Got my bgt's yesterday!

Tired of classifying and taking apart my a52 to clean out after each run, broke down and got myself the 36" prospector heavy weight with big grizzlies, and got the super mini as well! Guys at bazooka are cool I saved a few bucks they were nice enough to take the sales tax off of both as a package deal and picked them up from bazooka direct, they're fab shop is about 10 mins from my house so saved on shipping too, they helped me out with some specs that I couldn't find anywhere online they said play with 1 to 3" of slope per foot and the super mini only needs 3gal per minute running into the fluid bed scoop so sounds pretty minimal to me, have a feeling the super mini will be my new best friend around my area plan on getting it dirty for the first time tomorrow! Going to set the prospector up on my 12 volt recirculating system, bazooka said 500gal per hour give or take thru the fluid bed and 1500gph over the top deck, so a lil les flow than I was thinking, just wanted to post this info if anyone had the same questions I did,
Ill give my feed back on how I like em after I actually use them

 

[KevinInColorado]

Congrats Hangtown! You're gonna love leaving your classifiers home and doing 15 second clean outs

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Thanks Kevin appreciate it, after reading all the success stories and hearing all the good things about em I decided to make the change, I think I will be happy with them for a long time, love the fact of the super quick clean out, if something comes up when I'm sluicing and need to leave immediately then throw in a bucket and off I go

 

[KevinInColorado]

Indeed. Another thing I love is doing 10 gallon test holes with clean outs after each to see where the gold is. Way faster than panning decent samples or (horrors) clean outs with miners moss or carpet.