What is a great beginners sluice to start off with?

[Golden_Crab]

Well personally I've found my gold in most places a Zooka, or similar system, either can't work or works in limited capacity. Hence why I prefer my outdated technology... it always works and classifying is not a problem when you are on good gold.

Just how much do you expect to move with that super mini compared to a real sluice? I'm glad you don't need to classify while you feed the plate with a spoon... I'm still using my fullsize shovel churning out 5 gallon buckets in minutes...

As far as space for small gold... no... what happens is for you to keep your heavies agitated properly you'll end up displacing the lighter / smaller particles due to the high velocity of water pressure coming into your trap to keep those much larger particles of similar density fluid. You choose between cleaning out frequently or losing a significant amount of fine gold. This is basic physics 101...

If you are a weekend warrior that just likes to hit the same spot everytjme with beer in hand, ya get a gold trap... if you want to be able to sluice anywhere.. get something else. From my perspective you are taking this to a personal level instead of just stating logical reasons, backed by in the field experiences and science, why someone should use what you believe to be the best sluice for someone brand new to this activity.

I've said all I'm going to, cheers.

 

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[utah mason]

Paying people to talk their up their sluices? Come on, let's be realistic. I highly doubt that they are paying people for good reviews. Its just a damn good product. You like the a.m. sluice, but against the bgt? That makes absolutely no sense to me. They are harder to set up, and it isn't a true fluid bed.

 

[triple d]

If the water flow is that slow and low I don"t believe. Any sluice would work. With a boozka you have many choices. Most other sluices you only have one. So thats why you have to research and choose the right one.

 

[wildminer]

Although I suppose you could, I have never fed my super mini with a spoon. Some recommend using a trowel, but I have always used a #2. To each their own, but looking back it would have been great to have a bgt in the 1960's when I started sluicing! Peace and love.

 

[Goldwasher]

You haven't dealt with seasonal water flows I suppose. So what happens when it's summer and you have but a trickle of water or perhaps you decided to explore a feeder stream where you will have a tough time getting appropriate water depth & flow... are you going to suggest a smaller bgt? Goodluck getting it to clear the plate properly while you feed it with a hand trowel. In the meantime it takes maybe three good scoops full size shovel and a quick shake and you got plenty of surface area exchanging material in just about any situation a prospector might come across. How about an area with large hematite / magnetite particles yet fine gold... you'd still recommend a bgt? Better clean out often! I get it... they pay to get people to talk them up... it's not a bad product, it is not a one stop shop either.

I like AM sluice but you need a loooong and wide sluice or you better clean out every half a bucket if you don't want to start losing most of your fines. Nor do they excel with flakey gold... nothing creating turbulence to break surface tension to allow flat pieces to settle.

the owner is my friend I have built them . NO ONE is getting paid to "TALK THEM UP"

 

[Goldwasher]

The amount of marketing done by Bazooka is nil compared to the time everything else has been on the market. The organic reputation is stupendous.

 

[Goldwasher]

Well personally I've found my gold in most places a Zooka, or similar system, either can't work or works in limited capacity. Hence why I prefer my outdated technology... it always works and classifying is not a problem when you are on good gold.

Just how much do you expect to move with that super mini compared to a real sluice? I'm glad you don't need to classify while you feed the plate with a spoon... I'm still using my fullsize shovel churning out 5 gallon buckets in minutes...

As far as space for small gold... no... what happens is for you to keep your heavies agitated properly you'll end up displacing the lighter / smaller particles due to the high velocity of water pressure coming into your trap to keep those much larger particles of similar density fluid. You choose between cleaning out frequently or losing a significant amount of fine gold. This is basic physics 101...

If you are a weekend warrior that just likes to hit the same spot everytjme with beer in hand, ya get a gold trap... if you want to be able to sluice anywhere.. get something else. From my perspective you are taking this to a personal level instead of just stating logical reasons, backed by in the field experiences and science, why someone should use what you believe to be the best sluice for someone brand new to this activity.

I've said all I'm going to, cheers.

a sniper will run in the same flow parameter as a 10"x 36" or 48" riffled sluice and run more material. I own angus. bazookas, proline, jobe folding(fixed to not fold and modified) and keene. If I cant run a bazooka I go to the other less productive sluices. And even then I go to sniping pretty quickly. As in If I can't run a bazooka I'm changing tactics because classifying isn't productive when your alone.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hi, I'm new to this hobby And still have a ton to learn. was wondering what would be a great sluice to start off in the hobby with. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Welcome to T-Net and Small Scale Gold Mining

When I started out there was no such thing as a Bazooka Gold Trap sluice. Like everyone else I started out with a gold pan combined with gold fever and a bad case of ignorance on fire.

Soon I came to the conclusion that with a sluice I could run more material faster than by panning alone so I started looking for a sluice. I found a used one for sale in the classified section in the back of a Field and Stream magazine, it was a Keene a52 and it came with carpet, a thin sheet of raised expanded metal, and a riffle tray. Unlike today's version there was No handle to carry it and No inspection mat.

I didn't know that you needed to classify the material before feeding it into the sluice or that you needed to regulate the feeding rate as I had no one to school me on the finer points of sluicing. I would dump bucket load after bucket load of unclassified material onto the flair and after final clean up it occurred to me that I was recovering more gold by panning than by sluicing and that something must be wrong with the sluice.
That's when my gold recovering education began
I started reading at the library. (no internet at the time)

There I learned the importance of proper classification and feed rate, combined with proper flow and angle. That knowledge can not be over estimated as it comes into play in all aspects of Gold recovery from sluicing to operating a simple Miller table.


Fast forward to today............................................

While there is no substitute for first hand experience, you can learn more in one day on the Internet than spending weeks at a library.
Even in today's age of technology the quest for gaining maximum gold recovery with minimum effort is ongoing.

Enter.... The Bazooka Gold Trap and fluid bed technology.

There is no disassembly or re-assembly required and there are no parts to keep up with or clean such as carpets, mats, riffles, screens, etc.
it saves you time and labor because there is No classifying needed (or classifiers to buy) which means more time and energy to feed paydirt to your Bazooka which equals more gold at the end of the day. Plus it saves you time and labor at final clean up by taking only seconds.

While I value my trial and error learning experience with the a52, I would loved to have had a Bazooka Gold Trap sluice available to me as a beginner. With that being said, you cant go wrong with a Keene a52, but dollar for dollar in my opinion, for a stream sluice you really cant beat the Bazooka Gold Trap whether you are just beginning or a seasoned prospector.



Go for the Gold
GG~


*NOT A Paid Recommendation! (however any gratuities would gladly be accepted)

 

[johnh]

I have a bazooka 30" sniper that I picked up a few weeks ago. been out a few times with it now and while everyone will preach to you that you don't need to classify with it I've found that it works a bit better when your low on water volume to go ahead and run it through a 1/4 screen before feeding it. you don't have to be fancy and buy an expensive screen or anything like that. go to the super market and buy yourself a kitchen strainer that will seat on a bucket and just fill the bucket with water pop that screen on top and toss a shovel in there shake it a few times side to side to wash out all the finer material. rinse and repeat until you have half a bucket and get to feeding to the sluice. also invest in a few long stakes I have had the sluice try to float away when your first getting going best to stake that sucker down. also had my 8 year old daughter clearing rocks for me and does that kid like to kick/hit / unseat that sluice for some reason. stakes would have saved me about 2 hours of shoveling when that sucker started floating down stream along with spilling out half the trap before I could catch it. poor kiddo was like soooooorrrrryyy lol then she chased a bug for 20 minutes sigh lol. another thing I've noticed is take 10 minutes at the start and build a rock dam to funnel all the water you can to it helps it immensely. if your wanting to do your clean up right at the stream your working make sure you take a fine screen with you as well you'll find all sorts of pebbles in the trap that you wont want with your finer gold just make sure you check it for pickers and nugs.
shovel
BGT
2-3 buckets (yes more then 1 you always seem to need an extra)
cheap kitchen strainer (don't get one with wide slits that run all the way up look for one that has holes metal if you can but mine is green and cost me 99 cents at the dollar store)
a small bottle of dawn/jetdry (if your going to do your final clean up right there. if not just toss them all in the bucket when your done and deal with it at home)
lid for your bucket for when its bouncing around in the back of the truck on the way out yes I did this and yes I lost most of what I gathered in that 3 hour outing (don't tell serious miners you did this btw they will laugh at you!)
gold pan
stakes (don't need them but they sure do come in handy in a pinch you can spear a fish and roast it over the fire)
small plastic coffee can for lead (pack it out so the fish aka dinner doesn't eat it before you eat them)
Trash bags (for the kids wet cloths and any trash you find in your travels. half the reason I do this is to get out and see all the pretty out there. trash isn't pretty =)

and just as another lessons learned from my failures. don't think that having a sluice of any make / model will keep you from having to pan at the end of the day take the time to learn to pan well cause no matter what you will eventually need to not only to identify good places to set up your sluice but also to sort the trash from the gold that will fill the trap.

 

[Goodyguy]

Johnh

Welcome to the forum

 

[A_torres559]

Thank you all for the great advice and recommendations.

 

[russau]

the owner is my friend I have built them . NO ONE is getting paid to "TALK THEM UP"

And Ive been waiting for my BIG pay check to come in the mail!!!!! I guess I can stop waiting for it!

 

[vaquero44]

just to point out something the 3 years I've been doing it you really got to have several sluice types for all occasions ........I don't believe there is one do all then think of the area your in? what type of gold is expected or known for? research before you buy? ask questions? ask other minors there opinions of the area your trying to figure on doing before you get equipment..........just my humble opinion also figure if your a one man show like myself you will want something on the light side too!

 

[cobill]

I watched a guy run his BGT 36" Prospector at Cache Creek, CO. for 2 days this month and I was running my Letrap. We had low water flows, so he just built a small rock wall to increase the water flow to his BGT. He ran 4 times more material in the same amount of time as me, just because he was dumping material out of his bucket, while I was using a scoop to load material. The material at Cache Creek is loaded with large black sands. We tested the BGT for gold losses and couldn't find any! The BGT found minus 100 gold easily and the thin gold indicator V-mat he installed before the grizzly showed the gold without a cleanup. I only wish someone had shown me the BGT sluices earlier, but my second one is on it's way to CO.

Bill

 

[goldog]

Wow. Passions on all sides. FWIW, I've used a small Keene A51 and A52 for years. Worked well. Got the BGT Prospector a while back and use it if the flow is adequate.

As long as low flow isn't an issue I would vote for the Bazooka.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

If you're talking any kind of water with flow, one of the BGT's will work. Like cobill said, you might have to divert some water, but you'd have to do that with a Keene anyway. I also use a Grizzly Sluice III for no-flow situations like ponds and sampling, but I can usually always get a BGT to work almost anywhere. Once you find pay dirt, the high production of the BGT allows you get more material through the sluice.

 

[Aufisher]

Get the Bazooka and run 2-4 times the material.

 

[425jesse]

Bazooka

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

"Beginners sluice" - i recommend an A52. Easy set-up usually with no need to be a beaver and spend an hour building a dam..just set up and go. Using my A52 when i first started taught me a lot about the way gold travels too.

 

[G-bone]

I would cast my vote for a BGT Sniper as a starter.


Having started out using a conventional "type" Sluice (Royal folder) in the field and dealing with the set up with the proper drop and making it level side-to-side etc......Carrying and setting up and Clean-out on a Bazooka Sniper is WAY easier.

And if you find that this hobby is not for you, you can re-sell the BGT and probably get most of your money back.
If you buy a new A52, you will loose money on the resale.

Good luck and get out there!!