Running Gold Hog stream sluice low flow mats

[agolddigger]

I've seen a ton of videos from Doc and others using the "high flow" mats but I haven't seen much love for the low flow mats.

I'm planning to take out my new Gold Hog on Sunday. One of my main reasons for buying this sluice was to remove the classification step, for super low flow that I need to classify I'll bring my 5lb Angus MacKirk instead.

I'm thinking if I'm not in a river but I still have somewhat decent flow I can run the low flow mats and not classify. Am I missing anything with this logic? If a heavy rock sits on the gold hog mats (static) for a few sec will that blow out the riffles?

Another question - is there any reason I can't use the low flow mats in a high flow situation? Is the gold going to get kicked out if it's running as hot as the high flow mats?

 

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[nate s]

The Gold Hog is awesome!I shovel in as fast as I can,in fast water.I like the low flow better than the high flow.I run the sluice as fast as I can.It catches fines so good its hard to get the gold out of the mat at clean up.And I dont ever classify material,I pick out the big rocks by hand.Best box I have ever used!

 

[agolddigger]

The Gold Hog is awesome!I shovel in as fast as I can,in fast water.I like the low flow better than the high flow.I run the sluice as fast as I can.It catches fines so good its hard to get the gold out of the mat at clean up.And I dont ever classify material,I pick out the big rocks by hand.Best box I have ever used!

Thanks! That's kind of how I'm thinking about this, I'll use low flow 90% of the time and only if I'm on a crazy stretch of river will I break out the high flow.

 

[nate s]

The high flow seems to load up and not clear all the way,even when I set up in the fastest water possible.It never seems to clear out all the way.I love to set up in fast water and shovel directly into my box as fast as I can.I have done this method for years with other sluices as well,Keene a52 and letrap with good results.when the gold hog came out I knew it was for me.

 

[arizau]

The high flow seems to load up and not clear all the way,even when I set up in the fastest water possible.It never seems to clear out all the way.I love to set up in fast water and shovel directly into my box as fast as I can.I have done this method for years with other sluices as well,Keene a52 and letrap with good results.when the gold hog came out I knew it was for me.

Doc likes to run his high bankers pretty steep. Did you try different angles or can you not setup where there is enough elevation change to do that?

 

[Hunt4gold]

Hey Jim,
We can help you with GH setup on Sunday. May be a little more work to set up on the low flowing creeks, but I've got a small tarp in my bag we can use if needed. See you tomorrow...

 

[agolddigger]

Hey Jim,
We can help you with GH setup on Sunday. May be a little more work to set up on the low flowing creeks, but I've got a small tarp in my bag we can use if needed. See you tomorrow...

Looking forward to it!

 

[Hunt4gold]

I'm thinking if I'm not in a river but I still have somewhat decent flow I can run the low flow mats and not classify. Am I missing anything with this logic? If a heavy rock sits on the gold hog mats (static) for a few sec will that blow out the riffles?

Another question - is there any reason I can't use the low flow mats in a high flow situation? Is the gold going to get kicked out if it's running as hot as the high flow mats?

If a rock sits in the mats, it will change the exchange to the sides, which may or may not dislodge small gold. Depends on flow velocity and angle. However, with the GH mats, that gold will most likely get captured again in the next few inches of mat.

I would suggest running the normal (some people call them high-flow) mat if you are in a high flow situation. The riffles in the low flow are just not design to be optimal in high flow situation, so you will likely loss some gold doing it. Watch Doc's video on proportional force and then put the two mats side by side and think about each section of the two mats from upstream side to downstream - the height of the riffles, how aggressive they are, etc. It will make more sense then.

 

[russau]

Try looking over Docs site for your complete answers. www.GoldHog.com Doc has pictures of all his mats from the side and talks about its best use and conditions.

 

[bcfromfl]

The high flow seems to load up and not clear all the way,even when I set up in the fastest water possible.It never seems to clear out all the way.I love to set up in fast water and shovel directly into my box as fast as I can.I have done this method for years with other sluices as well,Keene a52 and letrap with good results.when the gold hog came out I knew it was for me.

It sounds like you may be running your sluice too deep. If you run the water about 1-1/2" over the mats, combined with high flow, they should never load up...unless full of gold!

 

[agolddigger]

It sounds like you may be running your sluice too deep. If you run the water about 1-1/2" over the mats, combined with high flow, they should never load up...unless full of gold!

Agreed. After playing with my gold hog a bit I'd say that both mats keep very clean with enough flow.

Loving this sluice so far

 

[KevinInColorado]

Agreed. After playing with my gold hog a bit I'd say that both mats keep very clean with enough flow.

Loving this sluice so far

I'm eager to see how it works on the ultra fine, flat gold at our "claim" this summer

 

[agolddigger]

I'm eager to see how it works on the ultra fine, flat gold at our "claim" this summer

I'm eager to see that in 5 days if the weather/conditions are right..

 

[Tahoegold]

I would be interested in your experiment. I have a small sluice with down draft Hog mat. Also a Bazooka Gold Trap 24" sniper and a spot with super fine gold. I read that those mats dont need classifying. I thought about putting them side by side and alternate shovels from the same bucket of unclassified material. I may be going out about the same time here in CA. What type of Hog mat do you have? Hope you get on the gold! Looking forward to hearing about this!

 

[bcfromfl]

I would be interested in your experiment. I have a small sluice with down draft Hog mat. Also a Bazooka Gold Trap 24" sniper and a spot with super fine gold. I read that those mats dont need classifying. I thought about putting them side by side and alternate shovels from the same bucket of unclassified material. I may be going out about the same time here in CA. What type of Hog mat do you have? Hope you get on the gold! Looking forward to hearing about this!

You probably know this, but I just wanted to point out that having only one type of Gold Hog mat in your sluice reduces its effectiveness in capturing gold. If you're going to do a side-by-side comparison with the Bazooka, it won't necessarily be a fair test unless you have 2-3 different mats.

And no, classifying is not necessary. Giant cobbles need to be tossed before feeding into the sluice, but ones in the three-inch-and-under category will roll right through.

 

[Tahoegold]

I didn't know this. What I have is super fine flood gold. I found a pocket. So, I'm new to this but really am getting into it. I just want to get this done the best way. I can pan fairly well but I'm new to sluicing. I started to build a little back packing sluice and saw the bazooka. Bought one and have only used it once at Mineral Bar Am River last year and now I see how effecient it is. However, this gold I found sampeling and I just don't have the experience to know which is best. I'm thinking of just using a pan to capture and taking a big peanut butter jar of cons home to classify and pan. However, I want to go through more material. I put a 1/4" mesh over the grizzly to keep flat rocks out and hopefully allow better suspention at lower flows. These are just my ideas as I really don't know what works. I have been reading a lot here about production and not trying to concentrate too much on cleaning the gold. But, this stuff is tiney. Tapping the pan only gets some to come out at the river so I know I need to get some screens. I'm looking at some 6" ones like most folks use. 10, 40, 60, 100 is what I'm thinking to start. Getting the flour gold with minimal loss is what I'm trying to do. Any advice on setting up a 24" Bazooka sniper for this? Is the 1/4" mesh ok to use? Or does it even matter? I'll be headding out next week sometime. (Not to the Am Rvr as it's now hands n pans) Thanks for the tip on the mats. Right now I have small ribbed mat then downdraft after and that's it. Now I am wondering if I should not bother with the mat sluice and risk wasting time! I will probably use it a little and see how it works just to know. Thanks again!

 

[bcfromfl]

This is just my opinion, as I have absolutely no experience with the Bazooka, and only know what I've seen in videos and read. But if the majority of the gold you're trying to recover is sub-100 mesh (i.e. very fine stuff), I don't believe the Bazooka is as good at recovery of fines as a well-tuned sluice with Gold Hog mats. (That would be especially true for the 24" Bazooka sniper.) Doc has posted dozens of videos verifying how effective his mats are on fine gold, as well as tests looking at losses in tailings, which are negligible. No one has ever done this with a Bazooka, and I suspect that when one is set up with the proper flow to keep material moving through and not compacting, the fluid chamber is too robust to settle out fines.

I'd recommend copying the mat sequence used in the Gold Hog stream sluice, either the one for high flow or low flow, depending upon how you use yours and what the water flow is like where you dig.

 

[Sticks]

I want to see someone run one of these on the beach. I'm happy to see the favorable posts above on the low flow mat. That's probably all I'll be able to run anymore after the motor ban. Our district has some incredibly fine baby powder gold if you can catch it, there is quite a goodly bit of it too. Bigger gold will catch in nearly anything but those super fines are another animal. If a person could tune their system to get the super fines, larger pieces would all easily be caught at the top of the sluice. My riffle systems on nomad don't catch that ultra fine in good quantities, a little here and there are not the results I'm after. I get the majority of that by saving the last bit of tailings in either my panning tubs or recirc tubs. I'm about to run a few gallons of that saved material through my GH Multi Sluice. So far that has grabbed some pretty fine gold from dredge cons. That low flow mat in the GH Stream Sluice might be just the ticket.

 

[KevinInColorado]

This is just my opinion, as I have absolutely no experience with the Bazooka, and only know what I've seen in videos and read. But if the majority of the gold you're trying to recover is sub-100 mesh (i.e. very fine stuff), I don't believe the Bazooka is as good at recovery of fines as a well-tuned sluice with Gold Hog mats. (That would be especially true for the 24" Bazooka sniper.) Doc has posted dozens of videos verifying how effective his mats are on fine gold, as well as tests looking at losses in tailings, which are negligible. No one has ever done this with a Bazooka, and I suspect that when one is set up with the proper flow to keep material moving through and not compacting, the fluid chamber is too robust to settle out fines.

I'd recommend copying the mat sequence used in the Gold Hog stream sluice, either the one for high flow or low flow, depending upon how you use yours and what the water flow is like where you dig.

As I've well documented in my threads and posts over the years, the Bazooka sluices catch about 100% of the +100 mesh but only a small fraction of the -100. This makes it great for some placer deposits and almost useless for others.

 

[Tahoegold]

Thanks for chiming in Kevin. I was wondering àbout this. It's hard to go over all the info about this. I'm wondering what to do about this deposit of flood gold. Was hoping the bazooka would help. I really like how it works and am a huge fan. This is something outside it's capablities it seems and I don't want to blow this opportunity to capture the gold. Maybe my only option is to use the Supersluice and take the cons home. I use an Estwing 12" as well and I'm getting​ stuff so small it makes the black sand look like gravel.
Thanks bcfromfl, I'm looking at the Gold Hog river sluice set up. It comes with two sets of mats. One for fast and one for slow flows. I trust Doc's research. This may be the ticket for this kind of deposit. It's a fairly big rig to cart around though. I may build something smaller than he made which is 10" wide and 54" long. Something smaller and portable with the mat config for slow water. Thanks for the advice all!