First time out with BGT Super Mini

bearclaw

Greenie
Oct 7, 2013
13
23
Grass Valley, CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
My super mini arrived on Friday, just in time for the weekend! I was able to spend the day with it on Sunday and since this forum is full of people looking around for a good sluice thought I would put together an initial review.

To start off, I have only been prospecting since August so I am relatively new. I have probably been out around 20 times and have been using a Keene A51. This is a fine sluice and worked well, but often times getting it set up perfectly took a bit of time. Cleans ups were even worse with parts and pieces and carpet(hope to never clean carpet again!). But again, it did work and was a fine piece of equipment. I decided on the Super Mini because clean ups sounded like they would be a breeze and I wanted to lighten my load to add to my prospecting areas. Also, I was feeding the A51 with a trowel which took some time and was looking for something I could feed a little faster. To the field!

The first thing I noticed is how much lighter my pack was. I don't currently have to hike far, but every little bit counts and I'm trying to get down as light as possible for when I go on those longer excursions. Switching out sluices made a huge difference and there are a few other pieces of equipment I think I will now be able to eliminate as well.

I classified down to 1/2 inch as recommended for the super mini and filled four buckets of material. Setting up the sluice the first time was much easier than my initial set up with the A51. It took a couple of spots to find the right water flow but didn't take too long to fit it onto a premade V dam. Running the material was faster. Much faster. I could use my digging shovel 1/4 to 1/2 full and feed the material onto the deck at a decent pace. I burned through the buckets in no time at all. Didn't even have to set up my nice little bucket seat to get comfy, could stand and use the long shovel handle. One thing I was worried about missing from the A51 was the assay mat to see how I was doing. If any others are worried don't be. If you watch carefully you can see gold move its way down the deck once the lighter material has cleared and I was able to see this happen enough to get a good idea of how much gold I was getting. It showed specks and flakes alike.

When it came time to clean up it was even easier than everything I had read. Clean ups were done in less than a minute. I used a 2 gallon bucket which seemed like a perfect size for the SM but even used a pan once. One thing I really liked is that I could clean up after every bucket full. Why? As I fill buckets I am keeping track of where I dug what into each bucket and it is nice to do a quick pan after each bucket to see how well that spot produced. I got a lot of lighter material in my cons by doing this which would probably be cleaned out after running more buckets, but I was in a testing mood and wanted to see how each bucket did. I was actually able to run more material than I did with my A51 in less time with less of an effort.

The super mini might not be the flagship model, but this little thing can do some production! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the gold, but I did about average. The area I am at has high and low days and this one was a low day unfortunately, but I am going to be out all of next weekend and am digging into a spot I feel will be promising. Based off of just my experience today I would highly recommend the super mini to someone looking into getting into prospecting or someone looking for a small light weight sluice to take backpacking. I was between SM and the Prospector and am happy I got the SM. I will more than likely get a prospector down the road, but the SM keeps up with my small one man operation just fine.

A few questions for those with experience:

Is there such a thing as too much water flow on the super mini? The flow I had was probably a little faster than I used on the A51 and the deck usually cleared in 5-10 seconds and seemed about right.

What angle are you able to use/get away with? I would think that too much of an angle would have too much material coming out of the fluid bed and may spill some gold out, but what do you find to be optimal?

The angle and waterflow I had seemed to work well. The grizzlies stayed pretty clear, only had to clean them out a couple times per bucket and the deck cleared fast enough for to feed at a decent rate, but the whole time I was worried about running too fast. I didn't pan my tailings, might do that in the future but I had a lot of trust in this equipment for the first day out.
 

Aufisher

Bronze Member
May 12, 2013
1,948
4,830
The Golden State
Detector(s) used
Whites Goldmaster V/SAT. VibraProbe. Bazooka 48" Prospector Sluice. Shorts. Chickens + Goats + Goldhounds. 35' Chris Craft Caribbean motorsailer. FISH OIL + BURLAP
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
You are a smart cookie. Very well written article. I would say a bit of angle and good flow does the trick.
 

KevinInColorado

Gold Member
Jan 9, 2012
7,037
11,369
Summit County, Colorado
Detector(s) used
Grizzly Goldtrap Explorer & Motherlode, Gold Cube with trommel or Banker on top, Angus Mackirk Expedition, Gold-n-Sand Xtream Hand pump
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Is there such a thing as too much water flow on the super mini? The flow I had was probably a little faster than I used on the A51 and the deck usually cleared in 5-10 seconds and seemed about right.

I agree that clearing in 5-10 sec sounds about right. no such thing as too much flow thru the bottom of a Bazooka as the tubes will limit the flow. The Mini/SM only uses about 3 gal per min thru the tubes. The flow on top clearly could be excessive in a fast moving river situation but it sounds like you had it about right. In very fast moving water I would lift the sluice up enough to make the depth on the top deck less and less until it took about 5 sec to clear. That said, I have yet to run mine in REALLY fast water so a field test or experience from others would be good here.

What angle are you able to use/get away with? I would think that too much of an angle would have too much material coming out of the fluid bed and may spill some gold out, but what do you find to be optimal?
As flat as practical is best. that way the fluid bed is as large as it can be. That said, in the manufacturer's demo video they show some pretty steep angles. With my Prospector I have had good luck at fairly steep angles but that Mini has such a small fluid bed...

The angle and waterflow I had seemed to work well. The grizzlies stayed pretty clear, only had to clean them out a couple times per bucket and the deck cleared fast enough for to feed at a decent rate, but the whole time I was worried about running too fast. I didn't pan my tailings, might do that in the future but I had a lot of trust in this equipment for the first day out.
- sounds like you were really running just right!

How about bringing a friend and shooting a video for us (even with just a smart phone)? you can get better feedback that way i expect.
 

Prospector70

Hero Member
Nov 6, 2013
832
1,256
Detector(s) used
Bazooka Gold Trap 48", Keene A51 sluices and a
Number 2 Shovel baby!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Sorry for the Caps, i've copied this from the instructions from this document:
http://bazookagoldtrap.com/docs/BazookaInstructions.pdf


SET YOUR SLUICE AT AN ANGLE JUST SHY (ABOUT 5 degrees (I believe this is still an inch per foot or thereabouts)) OF THE WATER LEVEL.
IF YOU HAVE GOOD FLOW ON THE UPPER DECK, YOU WILL HAVE GOOD FLOW INTO THE WATER SCOOP

THE ANGLE OF YOUR SLUICE AND THE VELOCITY OF THE WATER FLOWING INTO THE WATER SCOOP (WHICH PRESSURIZES THE SPRAY TUBES), WILL DETERMINE THE PSI WITHIN THE TRAP. IF YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER FINE GOLD, YOU WILL WANT TO ACHIEVE A LOWER TRAP PSI. IF YOU ARE RECOVERING COARSE GOLD, YOU CAN MOVE THE SLUICE TO INCREASE THE TRAP PSI AND ALSO INCREASE THE RATE AT WHICH YOU
CAN LOAD PAYDIRT INTO THE SLUICE. BECAUSE THE UNIT IS TAPERED, THE PSI IS INCREASED AS THE WATER FLOWS DOWN THE UNIT, SO THAT THE PRESSURE FLOW WITHIN THE TRAP IS SLIGHTLY HIGHER
THAN THE PRESSURE FLOW INTO THE SCOOP.
 

OP
OP
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bearclaw

Greenie
Oct 7, 2013
13
23
Grass Valley, CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions!

I got out yesterday and today again with the super mini and I feel very confident I have it dialed in correctly. I just have to reiterate that I love this little thing! It would be tough to go back to riffles and carpet at this point.

Another positive of today is I finally got back on the good stuff at the location I've been working. Attached is today's finds, some nice chunky stuff and fines. Lucky to have tomorrow off and will be doing some more digging for sure!

bgtsmd4.jpg
 

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