folding or fixed?

[KevinInColorado]

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.

Wow impressive difference! Congrats on finding the right gear for your circumstances.

 

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[coolfinie]

Reading the above through again, and I also always value packability and reduced weight so see the attractions of folding sluices.

Maybe it's a good time to design a folding bazooka or take apart calsluice! Reaching for the pen, ruler and paper in three, two, one .......

 

[WesternMassGold]

Finally got my final set up for my Folding sluice figured out. 2 razorback up top 3 UR then 2 Razorback on bottom and no riffles at all.I guess i wore out my favorite spot, only got 13 pieces sluicing for 5 hrs.
What i dont get is that all the gold i found is in the top 8-10 inches of the soil and digging deep doesnt do anything the deeper i go the less gold.Should it not be the other way around? i dug 3 feet down behind a really big boulder but only got gold the first 8 inches then nothing. Bedrock is nowhere to be found here.
None of the spots i have around here have any gold deep.

 

[Gold Rover]

Finally got my final set up for my Folding sluice figured out. 2 razorback up top 3 UR then 2 Razorback on bottom and no riffles at all.I guess i wore out my favorite spot, only got 13 pieces sluicing for 5 hrs.
What i dont get is that all the gold i found is in the top 8-10 inches of the soil and digging deep doesnt do anything the deeper i go the less gold.Should it not be the other way around? i dug 3 feet down behind a really big boulder but only got gold the first 8 inches then nothing. Bedrock is nowhere to be found here.
None of the spots i have around here have any gold deep.

6-10 inches is the depth where the flood usually gold sits.

 

[bobw53]

What i dont get is that all the gold i found is in the top 8-10 inches of the soil and digging deep doesnt do anything the deeper i go the less gold.Should it not be the other way around? i dug 3 feet down behind a really big boulder but only got gold the first 8 inches then nothing. Bedrock is nowhere to be found here.
None of the spots i have around here have any gold deep.

Welcome to the world of useless digging. Remember, Gold is Where You Find It. I wouldn't even know how to look at a stream, but I've been bit the same way.. My Dad and I were digging a while
back, I was going straight down in the arroyo, he was going sideways at the edge... We got good gold... Went back with high hopes, I kept going down, he kept going sideways in the same holes... Nothing....

Another area. Dug a nice big hole, got some decent gold... And a lot of clay... Then we decided to go at it systematically.. Took the top 2-3 inches right next to that hole, same surface area size and
got the same amount of gold, with a lot less digging and no clay to deal with...

Is there another pay layer down there? Where you are maybe... Where I am, I now doubt it, I now know I am close to the source, the gold hasn't traveled far enough to go deep... I'm now in the process of
chasing the gold up the hill to find the rocks its coming out of.


I think its pretty neat that you are digging in the Westfield. I'm a western MA native myself, East Longmeadow, my folks and most of my family still live there, and my cousin actually lives in
Westfield, and my mom worked at the hospital over there for 20 years...

 

[WesternMassGold]

Hey bobw53, people dont even know there is gold in the westfield river and i like to keep it that way .
But i know what u r saying. I been just digging sideways away from the water and scraping the top 8 inches or so . Not sure why there is no gold further down .
I mean the flood gold got there i think from Hurricane Irene but those gravel banks weren't built in a day . they have been there for hundreds or even thousands of years.
More flooding must have happened before over and over. It is puzzling. Gonna post a picture of the bank i been digging in.

So thats how deep i dig and by now i have cleared an area about 30 feet by 20 feet got a little over 300 pieces there.

 

[bobw53]

Hey bobw53, people dont even know there is gold in the westfield river and i like to keep it that way .

Many many years ago, there was actually an article in the paper about people panning in the Westfield..

I don't know if you've ever run across this thread... Seemed quite interesting... Gold in Forest Park.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/318110-massachusetts-gold-sites-ct-nh-also.html

Here's my diggings...

You can see the hole, and then just above the hole, the scraping of the top... Same amount of gold in each.. Who knew? I figured you just kept digging
deep and I was wrong. Apparently gold isn't always at the bottom on the bedrock..

Up at the top of the hill there is a tailings pile... I thought they had just dug(blasted) a shallow hole, its filled with trash.. Until my Dad pointed
out that one of the pieces of trash is the ass end of an old Ford truck frame standing up in the shaft. Started looking a little harder, and she's pretty darn deep.
That shaft is sunk into a big old vein, and its on my claim... I don't think I have the cajones to clean out the trash and go down there, maybe someday.

Now my goal is to chase the gold up the hill, and hopefully find some rich spider veins that the old timers didn't get to. And if that doesn't work, just drywash
the top 2 or 3 inches...

 

[WesternMassGold]

looks like desert land . hope u have water nearby. By the way it looks like i can pan faster than i can sluice. 2 days panning total 122 pieces in Western Mass.
click to enlarge.

 

[G-bone]

How goes the battle WesternMass?

Also Steveh2112 - how goes the battle for you? what did you end up with?

Using my Royal Folder last week, I realize even though it is compact and packable, the set-up time and getting the proper angle/water flow required, is not conducive to easy "pick-up and move" if I'm not getting any color in a particular area.
Once I had it all running, there was no way I was breaking it all down to move.
So we stayed in the general area and sampled spots with in the area we were at.

That said, if I find a hot spot, I would take the Royal in and set up to work that area hard.
The Gold Hog Mats work well and can handle a few people feeding it.

I will also be using the Royal at home as a recirculating Sluice.
As many times we might hit the desert and bring a few buckets of sample material home to run.
Or run my cons from a recon run.

SO - I have purchased a 24" Bazooka Sniper (hope to have it by next week - fingers crossed) .
I am assembling my "Prospector's" pack which will have the following:

24" Sniper
folding shovel
Pick
Crevasse Tools
2 pans (14" Garrett and 15" Super Sluice)
Collapsible Canvas Bucket (this may be optional as well - as I can use the supper sluice dang near as a bucket)
And all the other little goodies you normally take.

Depending where I go - maybe include my Gold Bug Pro as well.

I think with this set-up, I can really cover some ground if need be.
After 5 or 6 pans worth ran thru the Sniper - no color? pick it up and move on within minutes.

But if I do stumble on the some good pay dirt, I can run a lot of material thru the little Sniper too, if need be.
Oh - also a head lamp included in my pack, so when I hit pay dirt, I can shovel on into the night

And Like I said, If I find a good spot , I come back another day with the Royal folder and bigger shovels.

Cheers to all

G

 

[WesternMassGold]

Hey G-bone , i know what you mean with the set up for the royal sluice. Takes time to set up for sure .Here is what I did .
I have 2 Razorbacks up top and 3 UR mats below that . I took off the last section of the sluice and here is why . After going out 4 times i checked the last section seperatly for colors and found none.
it seems all the gold collects in the top 5 parts down to even -200 size none made it to the bottom.Now its easier to set up because the sluice is shorter and you can run really fast water thru it.
On my first try with the shorter set up i got 185 pieces. The next 2 times i got 104 and 101 pieces .I finally reached my goal of 1000 pieces.

 

[kabah088]

I also have the Royal folding sluice. Works very well for me. The cut carpet rides down and creates some gaps for me at the seams but I don't think it makes a difference. No material for me gets sucked through the cracks. Seems to hold flour gold and fly poop just fine as long as it is dialed in with head and slope.

Fits in my backpack so I only need to carry a bucket with me to my spot.
I will have to take a look and see what you others have done with aftermarket matting and such as I would be interested in trying out the gold hog stuff as an alternative to the riffle/carpet combo.

 

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

I too just tried out my new folder and it works great! Assembly takes less than a minute and it caught plenty of fine gold... and i run my sluices fast! Only downer is the sagging in the middle, but this can be relieved by wedging rocks where needed to level out the sluice.