Need advice

[Digzit2]

I am in Illinois where all our gold is fine. I have a keene a51a sluice that I am wanting to put gold hog motherload mats in from top to bottom,is this a good idea or should I use a diffrent combination of mats?I don't care for the carpet/riffle set up that I currently have. I am only about 3 months new to prospecting in Illinois. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

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[et1955]

Hi Digzit2, before tweaking the a51a I would suggest looking at how you mine and process your material. Maybe you could explain to us how you do this, also what type of material are you running, does it have clay in it, are you classifying, so many variables to consider when making mods to your sluice.

 

[Digzit2]

I am running river gravel with no clay and classifing down to 1/8th in 5 gal.buckets.I will run one bucket then do a clean out.I have found some gold with my current set up.I also have low water flow.

 

[winners58]

a backpack sluice isn't made for production you can improve it with some miners moss under the first couple of riffles.
the Goldhog rubber mats need a good steady flow to work right, might step up to a larger sluice.
you can also set up a recirculating setup with a small 12v bulge pump when the water levels get too low.
.