Setting a sluice in a small stream and leaving it.

[watersteps]

I would guess that most people would say "that won't work" . Well here is my idea, I want to place 1,2 or 3 sluice's in a small stream on my own property. Now, I live in Potter County, PA. and the stream is about 600' long. I don't have a sluice or know which type to build, but what the heck if it works while I metal detect other areas, why not?
The last thing is, is there any gold in Potter County, PA.?
Anyone got any ideas?

 

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[smokeythecat]

I'm going to get a carpet scrap today for the creek. Truly.

 

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[Goldwasher]

just wow

 

[Goldwasher]

I dont even mess with sluice boxes anymore. I just leave snuffer bottles at the bottom of the creek and the gold jumps right in. No point in dealing with the cons and the extra work.
Reminds me of the legend of the Lost Gold Mine of the Garrett Super Sluice. Supposedly a hard luck prospector left his super sluice in the creek overnight only to come back in the morning to find the riffles full of gold and not a speck lost. He left the pan in the creek again and the next morning the same results and without a speck lost.
He mined the passive methods for years and made a fortune but when he died the location was lost.
To this day they say a super sluice is still waiting with the riffles full of gold and not a speck lost. And so the legend was born and the masses exclaimed that ain't no gold getting past those riffles.
Just a thought but not giving away any secrets.

you have to remember a magnet to seperate all the black sand....crap recovery without it.

It also helps if you zip tie a classifier upstream of the snuffer.. not important where just upstream.. sometimes in another county is ok.

It helps to classify

 

[Duckshot]

Sounds like a good idea but probably won't turn out as promising as it sounds. You might trap fine flood gold and smaller stuff. Pickers take forever to travel down stream, it'll likely take a huge flood to move them. The placer and pickers and stuff you can see without a magnifying glass are already trapped in natural riffles- boulders, cobble, and drops from bedrock to gravel.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

It takes awhile to fill a snuffer when I leave it like that. You have to be very patient and that's the hardest part for me. Sometimes I have to wait days and days just to get a measly ounce and sometimes theres hardly any big nuggets at all, gets pretty frustrating. Do you know how tiny an ounce of gold is? My wife thinks I'm crazy that I waste my time with it at all but it gets in your blood.

 

[dave wiseman]

Put the magnet in a plastic baggy..pick up black sand and pull the magnet out of bag,

 

[Asmbandits]

Your best bet would be to cut riffles in bedrock in a known producing area. There are spots I go to every year that act like permanent riffles, cracks that replenish. I agree that a flood current would remove most any placed sluice device, but I would bet that if you were to create riffles or artificial cracks in the right place on the right river in bedrock you may have a chance of this working.

 

[watersteps]

As I am getting my building materials ready to build my first sluice I was wondering if I need riffles in my sluice. I will probably only find very small gold, if any.
I was thinking of just using a mat in the bottom and expanded metal on the top. The sluice would be 12 inches wide and 36 inch long. Does anyone think I should have riffles anyway?

 

[smokeythecat]

I did get the carpet piece. I'll try putting it in the creek tomorrow. I had to have a happy nap today!

 

[goldenmojo]

Watersteps. I don’t think you are going to have enough catch space with a sluice. Your only hope on something like this would be a big piece of carpet Lain sideways across your catch area. The area would have to have enough flow to move flood gold but not so much as to move larger cobble. You would have to stake the carpet with something like masonry stakes at a fairly steep angle on the corners puncturing the carpet twice with the same stake. If you knew there was a lot of flood gold coming down the river or creek it would be a viable experiment. There is no way you will recoup any costs on this project with your gold take unless you can get your materials for free and pedal a bike to the location. I can think of a couple of places where it might actually work but cleaning a large carpet and processing would be horrendous. Stick to learning how to pan and go where gold actually is. Good Luck. Take Pics.

 

[dave wiseman]

Jason and the golden fleece...a natural sheepskin has lanolin in it and will catch the fine gold...if that much flood gold actually comes down the creek.

 

[mattt]

Know a guy, during drought many years ago in plumas county that poured concrete rifles behind his house on his land on a gold bearing creek. He said it would be his retirement account when he dug it up years later . He hasn't retired yet but would love to know what he gets when he does.The rifles got buried during first winter rain 20 +years ago.

 

[watersteps]

The stream is about 100 yards from my home, and I own the property on both sides of the stream. The sluice will be home made and cost very little to build. I am trying to decide on the best type of matting without having to buy any.

 

[watersteps]

Now today as I'm working on placing a sluice in this stream I think back a year or so and I believe I made a huge mistake. One day while walking along the stream I noticed a 16' drain pipe lying in the stream. The pipe had a 12" OD and was corrugated or ribbed. I talked to my neighbor and he said it was his drive way drain pipe that the state dug out and pushed into this stream. That was like 10 years ago. The following year I hooked a cable to my tractor and pulled the pipe out of the stream and drug it up to my workshop. My plan was to use this for my own driveway but it did not work out.
Now if your thinking ahead you already know what I'm going to say next. The pipe was in the stream with water running through it for years, the pipe is ribbed and it is half full of dirt, gravel and stones.
I believe this was a natural sluice system, now all I have to do is take the dirt out of the pipe and pan it. Right? Wrong, I already dumped most of it in my lower field and around the workshop, dumb, dumb, dumb.
I will be checking the ribs today and try to find some remaining dirt and try to pan it.
I will let everyone know what happens.

 

[watersteps]

Well after checking the pipe I find that it is empty or no dirt lying in the ribs. I used it for a drag to level ground and it must have rolled the dirt out.
I will go back to building my sluice now.

 

[Capt Nemo]

If I could set a sluice that the waves wouldn't destroy, I could probably do quite well. That Superior coastline is a conveyor belt between Grand Maris and Whitefish Point. Get a good alongshore current going, and it will move stuff fast.

 

[watersteps]

OK, I have finished my home made sluice, can I post pictures and the explanation in this thread or should it be posted in another area?

 

[arizau]

For background of previous posts on the subject at hand, do it here.

 

[Molewacker]

While talking to my neighbor, he told a story of loggers dropping logs into the E Fork of Lewis river up by Dole valley during low water and then coming back to dig out the accumlated finds in the summer hoping for gold.