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folding or fixed?

I know what you mean. The larger gold i've found has been in Maine. But none big enought to be a picker. Coos canyon gift shop. If your looking for info ask for Rosie. Anything North of the gift shop is good for gold. Except near houses private land. The Central Maine Prospectors are having an outing Sat may 23. At small falls on the Sandy River in Madrid. All are welcome. If your interested Rosie could give you directions. From her shop. You can cut cross country just north of her store. About a half hour drive. They will be there all day starting at 8 am.Meeting at noon. Hope to see you there. Also reading your earlier post. I tried riffles over the hog mats. Doesn"t work the box wiil pack solid. And you will get no exchange.
 

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My first sluice was a Royal folder. I got it before I knew enough about getting gold to make a smart choice. I'm not faulting the sluice, but knowing what I know now, I'd save my money for a Bazooka. Since I spent my money on the folder, I ended up making a fluid bed sluice that I use most of the time. Once you've gotten used to just dumping shovels full of material into your sluice, you'll have a hard time mustering the patience to classify the stuff.

That said, the folder is handy to pack in. I carry a wrench to tighten the joints up to keep it from sagging when it's running, which is one of the short comings of the folding design. For small gold, I ditch the Hungarian riffles, flatten the angle of the box a bit, and just run it using the expanded metal and carpet, which I replaced with a more ribbed carpet than the original. I've also run it with just the first set of riffles in place when pursuing small gold.
 

Have to agree with you. Bazooka sluices are the best. But can be a pain setting up.Mainly when working in a flat area.Hard to get any angle on the box to get a good exchange in the box. So you always have to push the larger rocks thought. Or classify. Bought a smaller 30" sniper. Thought it would solve this problem. Only have tried it once. But looks like it needs a pretty steep angle also. All sluice"s need to be set up so they work.But for me its a bazooka or nothing. But i do use a regular sluice with gold hog matting. For running my cons. Which I love also. Which will bring a bucket full of cons down to about a cup full.
 

Hey triple D i wish i could join u guys on sat but it looks like i have to work up there fri,sat and Sun. I go to Maine to get fresh cut lilac and i have to fill my cooler first before i can go have fun . so looks like Mon or tues is mining day . You say north of The shop is good ? I saw the map and the river runs along side the road . Are private properties posted? I dont want to trespass.
 

Don"t think many are marked. But just the areas around the houses. Pretty large area you can prospect. Let me know how you do.
 

Some roads leading to different parts of the river off the main road are posted but there are plenty of accessible areas. Good luck!
 

triple d said:
Don"t think many are marked. But just the areas around the houses. Pretty large area you can prospect. Let me know how you do.
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Today went to Byron to sluice the great Swift river for all its "large" gold.
Wow is all I can say.
After searching about 20 minutes for a parking spot I finally walked down to a gravel bank and thought I landed on the moon. There were so many craters everywhere and I got the distinct feeling I was about 100 years too late.
An army of miners were already busy at work in every possible spot where u might find gold.And it was only 8AM!!!
So I tried anyways,dug some test holes all over the place and after 3 hrs found not a trace of gold.
So I moved down to river that runs along Rt 17 and tried there.
After 5 hrs of sluicing and heavy digging I ended up with 3 tiny pieces smaller than I usually find home in Mass.
On an average sluice day in Mass I normally find between 30 and 60 pieces,3 to 5 miles from my house and that gold is starting to look pretty good now.
Needless to say I won't be going back to Byron.
Overrated ,overworked and overexploited.maybe 1 in a 1000 miners might find a little nugget
Which will be quickly posted on you tube so more people will go there and spent their money at the stores.
 

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good luck on the swift my friend.............you and everyone else heads there.........I got lucky at one spot there last year and a nice picker that was it pretty much but I have recently discovered a new honey hole closer to home and have got gold every clean out
 

Where did you go on the Swift? Tourists park at Coos Canyon near the store you are referring to and try to strike it rich within sight of the picnic area.

How many miles away from Coos Canyon did you go? I've been going to the Swift for 30 years and have never seen what you described. Sorry to hear about your experience.

What river do you mine in MA?
 

matt_unique said:
Where did you go on the Swift? Tourists park at Coos Canyon near the store you are referring to and try to strike it rich within sight of the picnic area.

How many miles away from Coos Canyon did you go? I've been going to the Swift for 30 years and have never seen what you described. Sorry to hear about your experience.

What river do you mine in MA?
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I WENT over the bridge at the store and up the mountain about 2 miles to the east branch,very busy there with miners.after 3 hrs I went back down and followed Rt 17 north about 3 miles and tried there.
Another local MAINE miner was there showed me her take.1 little piece about -50 she got in 5 hrs sluicing.
I guess if u live near Byron u can go to the river a lot and eventually find a good spot.
But I live 220 miles away so it was a 1 time shot,either get lucky or not.
I usually go in the Eastern slopes of the Berkshire mostly Westfield river where we supposedly have no gold.lol.
 

It also seems you really need a dredge up in Byron to really find good stuff and dredging starts June 15th, I can only imagine how busy it will be up there.
 

If you want to dredge in Maine, do it this year. Maine has already banned dredging in a number of the better gold streams and Trout Unlimited is actively working to get Maine to ban dredging everywhere in the state. 2015 may well be the last year for motorized prospecting in Maine.
 

WesternMassGold said:
I WENT over the bridge at the store and up the mountain about 2 miles to the east branch,very busy there with miners.after 3 hrs I went back down and followed Rt 17 north about 3 miles and tried there.
Another local MAINE miner was there showed me her take.1 little piece about -50 she got in 5 hrs sluicing.
I guess if u live near Byron u can go to the river a lot and eventually find a good spot.
But I live 220 miles away so it was a 1 time shot,either get lucky or not.
I usually go in the Eastern slopes of the Berkshire mostly Westfield river where we supposedly have no gold.lol.
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Wow...well I am shocked. I've never seen the crowds you described except right at Coos Canyon.
 

The east branch in the public area. Is the hardest hit prospecting spot in New England. But there is still a lot of gold that is taken from it. But mostly other areas of the east branch. But I still believe for someone not knowing Maine. The best chance to find larger gold.Is in it or the swift below it. There are many fine gold streams in Maine. But you will never hear any one talking about them. Its mainly trial and error. Time to go there is after a real heavy rain.
 

I guess the lack of a good snow melt flood did not help.
I also just finished cleaning the cons from the 5 hr sluice trip in Byron and 2 pieces total in my sluice .about -40 size.
So that's a total of 5 because I had 3 tiny ones in my pan from digging test holes.
 

Need to dig down to the hard pan. Then clean out the cracks.And try to pry out as many boulders as you can.Very hard digging but thats wear the gold hides.A large flood will move the gold. Then its easier to find.Alway suck out the bottom of the holes. And cracks if you have a hand dredge. That spot on the east branch gets hammered.
 

You would be surprised how much gold I have found in abandoned dredge tailings. Much of the gold on the East Branch is hammered flat by stream action. As such, it sometimes behaves like an airplane wing in fast moving water, including dredge sluices. I am sure the dredges are catching nuggets but I know they are losing fine gold as well as larger pieces which are flattened.
 

The other thing about the East Branch is don't ignore bedrock which is high and dry even this early in the season. It may have been underwater in March and April. I have found good gold in areas high up on the bedrock. The flow pattern of the stream in a particular area may be much different when the water is several feet higher than it is right now.
 

Finally back home in Mass. Went sluicing yesterday in my trusty old spot. Took a friend with me . We both set up our sluices ,he has the original set up in his 50 " Royal back packer and i got Goldhog Razorback in mine.
We both dug in the same spot and ran our stuff . End result >>> My Razorback 31 pieces , His original set up >> " zero" pieces.
Do your self a favor and toss the original mats and get Razorbacks. Sure works for me.
 

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