Adding a ribbed mat to the BGT?

[CO2]

Hi, I ordered a BGT Prospector 30" and I'm looking forward to taking it out to the creek once I get it. I spent hours and hours selecting a quality sluice and the way I see it, the BGT does everything. Everything except quickly indicate if there's colors in your shovel.

So what about adding a ribbed mat section [edit: e.g. glued down with epoxy] right before the grizzlies? It would need to be appropriately sized so that the mat gets washed during cleanout (no loss of colors), but would it work or would it disrupt the flow of material through the grizzlies? Has anybody tried this yet? Thanks for the help.

 

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[vaquero44]

don't bother you really don't need it and might do more harm than good hangs up of material too.......if you got good water flow you don't need it..but I do understand experimentation

 

[CO2]

I think I'm going to get a cheapie ribbed mat sluice to replace my sample pan. It'll be much easier to move around to sample spots than the BGT Prospector. Thanks for the input; I would much rather not trade out the BGT's efficiency for the convenience of making sure I'm digging a good spot. A cheapie ribbed sluice should do the trick, then throw it through the BGT if there's colors in the sample.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I think I'm going to get a cheapie ribbed mat sluice to replace my sample pan. It'll be much easier to move around to sample spots than the BGT Prospector. Thanks for the input; I would much rather not trade out the BGT's efficiency for the convenience of making sure I'm digging a good spot. A cheapie ribbed sluice should do the trick, then throw it through the BGT if there's colors in the sample.

How about starting with the BGT, just dig for x shovelfuls, cleanout & pan, continue digging or move spots. I use a BGT for bulk sampling- more accurate than any single pan

 

[CO2]

How about starting with the BGT, just dig for x shovelfuls, cleanout & pan, continue digging or move spots. I use a BGT for bulk sampling- more accurate than any single pan

My mindset when I wrote this was based off my previous experiences with setting up a sluice dam in that it takes a while. But I guess with as forgiving as the BGT is for flow and drop variability, it'd probably just be quicker to set up the BGT and pull/pan the cons after a a few shovelfuls?

Ah, what am I saying. Just give me a $30 ribbed mat sample sluice. I don't care if I blow out the fines to see if there's flake within a matter of seconds. After my experiences this summer I am sick of panning!! Lol

 

[CO2]

The detector shop carries ribbed matting but they aren't willing to carry a cheapie ribbed mat sluice. So I picked up an Agnus MacKirk Adventurer 22" for less than $50. They say it's really good at capturing the fine gold for a plastic sluice. Guess this guy's not blowing out the fines after all. It's super lightweight and easy to clean out, so we'll see. The manual is attached.

 

[KevinInColorado]

AM sluices are good gear. You will definitely find uses for it

 

[vaquero44]

one thing about angus mackirk got to classify to at least 1/2" for material or if try running without classifying you risk blowing out your fine gold.

 

[CO2]

I'm classifying to 1/8 with the Angus MacKirk. It seems to work pretty well, and with the gray plastic it's an excellent indicator of the amount of black sand where you're digging. Just run some shovelfuls through and see how fast the riffles pack up with iron. I find that with a high iron concentration the AM Adventurer 22" probably works best if you do a cleanout after every gallon of material - but if you keep your cleanout bucket nearby it only takes 10 seconds to pull, dip and keep going.

Definitely looking forward to receiving that BGT!