Which gold hogg mat should I get?

[dustyv141]

Which gold hogg mat should I get for South East Alabama? I'm going to be going to the Alabama gold camp and I'm not really sure what to get. I also want something that will work around Dahlonega,Ga. Thanks for the help!!!

[arizau]

It depends on what you are using the mat in, eg. a stream sluice or a highbanker setup. If you do some searching you can find what Doc uses in every type of unit he sells...what he uses is probably what I would base my decision on. If you already own a setup* then the capture media it came with will probably work just fine without any additional expense though some, Doc's in particular, are said to work better. It is a fact that most of sluicing success is purely due to how well the unit is "tuned" (proper slope and water volume) and the same holds true for each GoldHog unit.

Good luck.

*If you don't then maybe just buy one of Doc's units to begin with. You may even be able to find a used one if you check around on Craigs list or Ebay.

[Capt Nemo]

Here's what's in the Gold Hog stream sluice.

High flow mat:
UR
Scrubber
Talon
River Hog (cut)
Talon
Bedrock
UR

Low flow mat:
UR
Yukon
Razorback
Downdraft
Motherlode
Bedrock
UR

[dustyv141]

I have built a sluice out of plywood and 2x4s and put a board at the top and made it a recirqulating sluice. I just bought some deep v mat to put in it and see how that works. I live about 3 hours away from any place to go prospecting so I'm trying to do all my testing at home on pay dirt from different places.I have the sheet metal to build a new sluice when I see what works best in my first one. I was just going to buy one kind of gold hog mat and put it all in one sluice. Thanks for all the help!!!

[akflyer]

Doc will caution you against just using one kind of mat. You have to expose the slurry to different mediums to get it all to drop out and give it a place to hide. Watch his videos and it will make sense. I have played around with it in my high bankers and love the mats, but tuning as has been said is the biggest part of gold recovery. Again, take the time to watch the videos if you want to be successful. I just taped the mats together on my first try and the mix and was happy enough with the results that I glued them up in the original configuration (I had watched all his videos on the piglet and raptor and used what he said in the order he said). I was pretty anal about capturing and testing all my tailings (pain in the butt to capture and run them all) but I will back up his claims on gold recovery and losses. I have yet to find a single spec in my tailings. Granted, the areas I have been working are mainly fine flood gold, but if you can catch the fine stuff the big stuff is easy.

[Huzzah!]

Agree with akflyer. Go watch the vids.

[johnedoe]

Well everybody has missed the first and most important thing...................

What kind of gold do you have?

If you have good chunky gold setup for that. If all you have is fine gold ..... set up for that. There are mats for all of this.

A high banker type setup can help in that you get to pre classify the material as you are running before the material hits the mats.

If you are just using a sluice then you have to pre classify the material before you run it through the sluice.

Got it?

[akflyer]

Well everybody has missed the first and most important thing...................

What kind of gold do you have?

If you have good chunky gold setup for that. If all you have is fine gold ..... set up for that. There are mats for all of this.

A high banker type setup can help in that you get to pre classify the material as you are running before the material hits the mats.

If you are just using a sluice then you have to pre classify the material before you run it through the sluice.

Got it?

The location he is prospecting is king of a give away. I doubt he is gonna be getting big nuggets. For gold hog mats, the first and most important thing is to watch the videos first on proportional force then the vids on setting up and tuning mats. Once this has been done and you still have questions then one can dial in on the things such as the gold size your targeting.
Yet another reason why you don't just use one style of mat. You mix them up to give the pickers a place to hide as well as the fine and flour gold.

[Tahoegold]

I have been experimenting with sluices/mats for fine and medium size gold. I was fortunate to get 3 sluices for $50 off craigslist. What I have discovered is, each sluice works best with different water flows. I want to move the most material I can. So, the water flow determines the sluice. I pick which sluice best fits that. I tried doing the different mats for doing that. But, it just seems each style works best for a certain water flow situation. I have a Bazooka 24" sniper and a Grizzly Gold Trap Motherload. These work best if you are shoveling right next to them and have the water flow to not have to classify. You want the material to have a smoothe surface to get moving, (UR is the smoothest) then, use the most agressive mat your waterflow can handle, then the last mat to capture fine gold and smooth to let rocks roll out. (Motherload does a great job here)
The A51 I decided is for the fastest water because it doesnt have a flare, so I experimented a little and put UR, Talon, New style Razor Back, Talon, NS Razorback, Talon, NS Razorback, Motherload. This can really move a whole lotta material.
The A51a is the smaller version of the A51 and is one I made to be convertable. I have different mats for this one. For now I chose, UR in the flair, UR, NS Razorback, Old style Razorback, Motherload.
The largest sluice I have is similar to the A51 and I use it for gentil water as it has a flare and is great for that kind of flow. I have it set up with UR in the flair, a half piece of Yukon, old style Razorback, OS Razorback, Motherload, Motherload, Motherload.

I have a small sluice that I can take to sample that has UR, NS Razorback, NS Razorback, Motherload.

I hope this info gives you an Idea of what to choose to place in your sluice.