Well I finally broke down and ordered my Angus Mackirk Rocky Mountain with the Abyss Riffles. When I called AM to order, I got a lot of great information regarding the sluice box. I wouldn't be surprised if they converted all of their sluice boxes to have the Abyss riffles in the future. The Abyss riffles is basically a channel at the bottom of the riffle to better protect your gold from washing out.
I'm an Angus Mackirk fan, I own the Foreman, Backpacker and now the Rocky Mountain. I like that its capable to trap large flakes and very fine gold, easy to carry (lightweight), self cleaning (leave the sluice in the river and eventually all you will have left is black sand) ease of setup and easy to clean out.
Used the Rocky Mountain this weekend and it performed very well and lived up to all the reasons why I like AM sluice boxes.
The river had pretty good flow and the Rocky Mountain loves a good strong flow! As told by AM, I would be able to feed the Rocky Mountain at a high rate, which is what I wanted. I classified down to 1/4" and was able to scoop material in very fast; cleared a 5 gallon full bucket in about 15 minutes (that's fast for me). Check tailings and did not find a single piece of gold... I did 3 clean outs, only because it was first time using the sluice and didn't want to do something stupid to lose the gold. I ran about (10) 5 gallon buckets, I think with the deeper, larger riffles; 1 clean out would have been fine...
Me and my son ran a Keene A52 with Miners Moss (removed expanded metal) and the Angus Mackirk Rocky Mountain. Hands down, I will be taking the Rocky Mountain with me and leaving the A52 at home. The A52 could not handle the material as fast (in my opinion) and with the changing river flows constantly required re-tuning of the angle. Clean up on the A52 continues to be a task (but really only needs 1, maybe 2 clean outs) and re-setup was a pain in the rear. Don't get me wrong, I love the A52, but I think I found its replacement....
I'm an Angus Mackirk fan, I own the Foreman, Backpacker and now the Rocky Mountain. I like that its capable to trap large flakes and very fine gold, easy to carry (lightweight), self cleaning (leave the sluice in the river and eventually all you will have left is black sand) ease of setup and easy to clean out.
Used the Rocky Mountain this weekend and it performed very well and lived up to all the reasons why I like AM sluice boxes.
The river had pretty good flow and the Rocky Mountain loves a good strong flow! As told by AM, I would be able to feed the Rocky Mountain at a high rate, which is what I wanted. I classified down to 1/4" and was able to scoop material in very fast; cleared a 5 gallon full bucket in about 15 minutes (that's fast for me). Check tailings and did not find a single piece of gold... I did 3 clean outs, only because it was first time using the sluice and didn't want to do something stupid to lose the gold. I ran about (10) 5 gallon buckets, I think with the deeper, larger riffles; 1 clean out would have been fine...
Me and my son ran a Keene A52 with Miners Moss (removed expanded metal) and the Angus Mackirk Rocky Mountain. Hands down, I will be taking the Rocky Mountain with me and leaving the A52 at home. The A52 could not handle the material as fast (in my opinion) and with the changing river flows constantly required re-tuning of the angle. Clean up on the A52 continues to be a task (but really only needs 1, maybe 2 clean outs) and re-setup was a pain in the rear. Don't get me wrong, I love the A52, but I think I found its replacement....
