Gold Sluice Hints & Tips - Setting Up In Deep Water

[Goldgrabber]

Here's a short video showing how I've managed to get my sluice set up in an area where I wouldn't have normally get set up in due to the depth of the water. When I was working my way towards the area I was gold prospecting in, I noticed someone had left some wooden planks near a camp fire so and I thought I could make use of the wooden plank so I took it with me.

The area I was working was just upstream of where my sluice is set up and I wanted to reduce the travel time from the working area to the sluice, yet the water was too deep for my sluice to get set up near by. The choice was either to walk longer distances with buckets full of material, spend hours building and maintaining a dam so sluice on or utilise the wooden plank I found.

As you can see, I managed to wedge the wooden plank between to boulders either side of the stream, this worked perfectly as it gave just the right amount of water flow over the plank and the flow was reliable every time I cleaned my sluice out as i Just plonked the sluice straight back down on to the plank and the perfect V flowed straight through the sluice every time. The wooden plank made setting up the sluice unbelievably quick and easy and it saved me so much time when out in the field just by not having to struggle to get set back up each time. I was so impressed on how easy it made getting the sluice set up, I'm contemplating taking a smaller plank with me specifically to use to get set up on future trips.

I hope you found the video useful and liked it. Please feel free to comment, like, share and subscribe to my channel for more videos as they come, thanks.

 

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[russau]

you are observant and got rewarded by it! I used to make sluice stands and had some with longer legs to setup in streams to take advantage of the water depths. these saved me a lot of walking back then when I could walk on rough ground.

 

[Goldgrabber]

Yes being able to get set up closer to the spot you're working makes life so much easier

 

[Goldgrabber]

I've even packed a plank for my next trip now, better to have one and not need it etc...

 

[russau]

I've even packed a plank for my next trip now, better to have one and not need it etc...

HAHAHA! that's what I always said when people ask me why I bring some much extra gear! I kept my 16 x 7 enclosed trailer packed with things ill possibly need when I went out. every year someone would need something I had in my trailer . my friends used to refer to me as the rolling hardware store!

 

[Goldgrabber]

yeah it's always better to have something and not need it, I've had a few tools break on me and it's only been the spare stuff I've had packed away with me which allowed me to continue to prospect because if something like your manual gold pump breaks when in the field, then you're stuffed for getting the material out of the rivers, always better to be prepared for the worst, just incase if happens

 

[nh.nugget]

I like the plank, even if you get skunked you can walk it LOL! I usually set flat rocks under my sluice sorta' like a table. Where I dug this year was about a 20 ft. walk to my sluice. I had a couple of spots set in the water for different water levels

 

[Goldgrabber]

Yeah I usually just build a steady base and dam to work my sluice through, I just knew it would take forever to work up a suitable dam where I was set up here and I didn't want to extend my walk any further from where I was working, hence the plank set up which worked great, saved so much set up time and walking time (which is a godsend whilst carrying 5gl buckets of material)

 

[fowledup]

If the area permits, ditch the buckets. I've been meaning to make a frame with wheels and a staionary handle for it to make it easier on the hike in. Works great for those sluices that you can shovel directly into.

 

[Goldgrabber]

its a good idea but would be nigh on impossible to drag that around the mountains I visit due to the terrain, they have such deadly drops and slopes when walking just with a back pack on, I'd hate to have to drag something as no doubt it would end up dragging me down a rocky hillside lol. I just returned from a last minute 4 day trip yesterday and almost lost it on 4 different occasions at heights from 30m with sheer drop off down to a rocky boulder river below