Got a AM grubsteak. New to this and have some Qs

[Colorider]

Been lurking for a while and panning for a few weeks and am hooked. Bought an angus mackirk grubsteak last week and set it up with a recirculating system for home sluicing. I'm not sure about the angle I am supposed to have and also how much water flow. I set it up on Saturday to experiment. Angle was steeper then I think it was supposed to be and water flow was faster then I think it should be. There was a nice v of water flowing at the water entry point to the 1 st collecting section What I noticed is they a lot of small gravel and sand was getting in the riffles. When I slowed the water and/ lessened the angle, It looked to be catching less of the junk and was still catching the black sands, but not as much. Was hard to tell because there was less material in the riffles.
I'm using a 600gph pump and 3/4 in id tube. Spray bar is simple PVC with holes drilled. Have a valve on it that I can control flow with.

Any setup tips and tricks ? Have watched a lot of vids and am taking notes.
Got a few small flakes out of my 1st 3 clean outs from material out of clear creek.

Love this site and thanks for any and all info.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Welcome to tnet!

1. Glad you are find ing gold already...pretty great to be so close to decent ground like Clear Creek!
2. Pan the stuff that comes out of the sluice to see if its losing gold.
3. It's normal for some lighter sand to settle in the riffles when you first start shoveling. If you shovel long enough, the black sands and gold! Will displace the lighter stuff.
4. Practice, experiment, watch YouTube videos, go to a club meeting (high Plains Prospectors meets this coming Sat morning bearish to ou at Clear Creek Prospecting Supply on the south side of 70th Ave just west of Broadway so that's an option)
5. Enjoy getting the gold!

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

You are in a fantastic area!! Enjoy it as much as you can! I was at clear creek last month and had a blast. Also found plenty of gold!(of course im coming back for much more!) keep in mind that most of the gold in clear creek is super fine "powder" gold. Run that sluice a bit slow. If your finding flakes your doing something right. Now its time to run as many buckets as possible and get very rich!!

 

[Colorider]

Thanks a bunch guys ! Some if the gravel in there was from family owned property in tolland. I have a feeling that is where the flakes are coming from based on your comments about clear creek gold size. . They are small flakes, but flakes non the less.

 

[Rebel73153]

Not familiar with the McKirk but it is a drop riffle like the California Sluice Box Stream Sluice i run as a recirculating set up. As such the flatter you can run it the better the owner of the company said. Not much angle at all. Just enough so the material isn't setting on the slick plate. Also i think you are going to need more pump. My stream sluice is 10"x38" and i run a Johnson 2200 GPH pump and that is just enough to do the job. You want a fast flow with little angle. You want the material in the riffle to be bouncing around but not be washed out. Here is a pic of my set up. Not pretty but it sure does a good job on the gold. Good luck and have fun. Ohh, and welcome aboard.

 

[Colorider]

From the pic and vids I have looked at, my angle was too steep. As far as flow , the grub steak is pretty narrow and short compared to yours. The material in the riffles was bouncing around pretty good. Tonight I will play a little more. I have parts gathered up to make an adjustable stand for the rear of it. That will help a lot in getting the slope angle right and easily adjustable. Crazy how I started a few weeks ago with a hardware store pan and now I have 5 good pans, 3 classifiers , shovels, a sluice and recirculation system. Pretty dang addictive and fun. Driving up clear creek with the wife and 7 yr old boy on Saturday was so much fun. Stopping and panning and collecting gravel. Then went up oh my god road and looked at the old mines and ended up in central city. We all had a blast. I have lived here my whole life ( 45 yrs) and can't believe it took me this long to get into this hobby.
Vinny the 7yr old wants to pan and sluice on the patio every night after get home from work. Great family activity.

 

[Rebel73153]

Sounds like the whole family is getting involved. That's great. Enjoy the little one while you can. They grow up way too fast.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Colorized, one of my prospecting buddies has a 7 year old girl. Even a year ago she was WAY into it! Great fun to have her along for an outing..."I think we should dig here!" - she's a kick and I bet your son is too