what is the best sluice box for finding gold fast and easy???

R

robbenmessi1010

Tenderfoot
Aug 13, 2012
8
0
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
i was checking out some youtube videos and found that many people like the bazooka gold trap sluice box. i thought it looked very nice and easy to use. the price isnt really a problem for me either, so $200 is OK. so i need reviews from other people who have used this sluice. also, i would like to know if the bazooka sluice is better than the keene engineering A52 sluice. well, thank you so much!
 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!
Upvote 0
IMHO, the A52 is long outmoded by the various drop riffle sluices (eg Angus Mackirk) and the fluid bed sluices (eg the Bazooka).
 

Le Trap by far,no carpet no hastles,light,cheap and ez to pack in/out and fine retention is great-and no I don't sell'm anymore as retired-John
 

I really think asking a prospector which sluice to buy is like askin a fisherman which lure to buy. Everyones got their favorite, There's a whole bunch out there that work and most of us havn't got to use them all. This would be like me. When you use the words "best" and "easy" it's all realative to "who" and "where" you are, what kinda gold your trying to find and how much you expect to get out of how much work you put in. By your comment "the price isnt really a problem for me either, so $200 is OK" Kinda lends me to believe you have more expendable cash than most. If I were you I'd get me a Bazooka and a 52 and do another thread about which worked for you maybe some video of how things went. I didn't have the cash to buy a fluid bed so I made one.....actually several. The theory works...but what I found, you've got to get everything right, water flow and volume vs trap size, trap depth, output height and probably a few more variables to end up with a well functioning fluid bed sluice. Also made several standard sluices as well. Found I was spending more time MacGuyvering stuff than working on finding gold. My vial filled a lot faster when I figured this out. Narrow it down for yourself and just get wet and come home tired and you will have earned what ever you have found whether it's gold or lessons learned. Hunter
 

Drop riffle sluices and the preformed plastic type are liked by some , but if you do some research you will see a lot of people mentioning that a lot of fine gold under a certain size gets blown right out of them. More often than not , reviews of these sluices have a disclaimer that they work great but do not do so well with very small gold. The old standard of raised riffles and expanded metal are prefered by the majority of gold prospectors because they create a larger low pressure area behind each riffle than any of the drop riffle sluices can , which only makes sense since the literally stick up into the flow of the water and gradually slow it. There is also much more surface area behind the raised riffles , raised expanded metal , and matting or carpet of your choice to literally lock the ultra fines in place and shield them from the current. I use a keene A51 which is a slightly shorter version of the A52 without a flair and I am happy with it , even for very tiny gold. The A51 and A52 are not ideal for very low water flow situations however , and for those situations you will do better with a narrower or micro sluice. There is no perfect sluice for all situations or locations , thats why there are many different types and models. The gold trap sluices like the bazooka are loved and trusted by those who own them and they look like a very good buy , but I have also read reviews that claim they miss a lot of the ultra small gold. It just depends on your area and what size gold you want to concentrate on. If you are in an area where the gold is all or mostly very tiny then you want to concentrate on getting as much of the very small gold that you can. If you are in an area where pickers and nuggets are common , you may want to just concentrate on those and not worry so much about possibly losing a lot of really small stuff , in that case that tiny gold will only slow you down anyway and a drop riffle type sluice or bazooka type may be a good fit. But if every little bit counts and you dont want to lose any more small gold than you have to , the bazooka or drop riffle type may not be what you are looking for.
 

Last edited:
Where are you planning to look for gold? It makes a difference. If you have a place in mind, then you need to find out what is working there.
 

My three favorites are my Bazooka Gold Trap, Grizzly Sluice III, And my Top Runner Sluice. The Bazooka Gold Trap and the Top Runner work in med-fast water and require no classifing. The Grizzly Sluice III works on the side of the stream with low velocity water that you pour in, and it captures the most fine gold. I consistantly get gold with all three. I have found where I prospect if I use my Keene sluices my fine gold blows out of the box.
 

Dunno where ohiochris gets his info but the opposite of what he said is the truth. The drop riffles are definitely better at catching the super fine gold. Even the very first time I ran mine I did better than my buddy with his trusty A52. I have seen it multiple times and even put my angus mackirk at the end of an a52 and caught the fines that sluice missed!!
 

i agree with Kevin! it all depends on the person using the equipment and how he uses it,as to its ability to capture fine gold,nuggets. IMHO every stream is slightly different. on my 4 inch dredge, i have several different riffels styles or screen, depending on that particular gold size/shape for that stream.it neve hurts to "be prepaired" for whatever comes at you! and i also do like the river runner 2 sluice,Le Trap,and fluid beds!
 

KevinInColorado said:
Dunno where ohiochris gets his info but the opposite of what he said is the truth. The drop riffles are definitely better at catching the super fine gold. Even the very first time I ran mine I did better than my buddy with his trusty A52. I have seen it multiple times and even put my angus mackirk at the end of an a52 and caught the fines that sluice missed!!
Click to expand...


Im glad you are having such good luck with your drop riffle sluice. Where I got my information was spending almost a year reading everything I could find on the subject which included real firsthand reviews from actual people and not companies , research on how and why riffles/sluices work , plus I talked with quite a few people who used both types. Drop riffles are not so efficient at gradually slowing the water flow and "exchange" is naturally limited in this type of sluice. Anyone can claim one did "better" than another type of sluice , especially when we dont know that each sluice was set up properly for conditions. All Im saying is the physics behind why and how they work do not back up drop riffles as being better for fine gold. Thats all I have where I am at , ultra fine and super thin specks , and few of them , yet my sluice is very efficient at catching them. Maybe what I am saying is just an opinion , but its an educated one , do a google marathon , scour MANY gold prospecting sites and forums , you will see what I have seen. Too often the reports say that drop riffle type sluices work great but are not good for micro gold , too often for me anyway. Maybe your idea of small gold is different than mine , I am talking about gold so small its literally hard to see , almost dust , and Im sorry but that stuff can flow right through a drop riffle sluice without touching a thing unless in a low/slow water situation. All sluices miss some of the fine gold , put another sluice of any type at the end of another and you will find gold that the other missed , and pretty much all sluices will catch some ....but some are better at it than others. I just suggest that anyone looking to buy a sluice do some in detail research first. The information is out there and it backs what I am saying. But MORE importantly , different conditions exist that effect how a sluice works. Drop riffles work best in slower water , in SOME conditions probably better than a raised riffle sluice , I will concede that. Higher volume and fast water though , you really need raised riffles , sticking up into the flow , to slow the water and create eddies that will literally pull the tiny heavies in behind the riffles or they will flow right through. They also make the exchange work more efficiently , working the heavies in and the other stuff out. There are in fact , too many variables to consider in this discussion. Water flow and speed , classify or not , and how much classification , the location and type of overburden , chunky fines or flake. All this probably explains why some have better performance than others with a drop riffle setup. If you dont believe what I am saying thats fine , everybody has their own opinion.
 

Last edited:
You make some very good points about water conditions. With my AM I do have to limit water depth and flow somewhat to catch the superfine stuff but it catches it quite well.

A well practiced miner who knows his sluice can make any decent sluice work...I don't mean to say an A52 is a bad choice, they work well of course. Still, I too did a lot of reading and concluded the opposite of you. Funny thing but like you say, we all get to have an opinion!
 

I think it might be fair to say that a raised riffle sluice may be more tolerant of various water conditions than a drop riffle. Water flow and speed are still an issue but not as much of one.


Another thing that influences my opinion is that really fine gold behind raised riffles , and under expanded metal in the carpet is less likely to be kicked or drug out by a larger stone or whatever rolling and bouncing its way through the sluice , so its as much about holding the fine gold after its been caught as you run more material through it , as just catching it alone. Atleast theoretically. That allows me to have more confidence in what I am using.
 

i have used all three types mentioned, the only type i am not all that secure with is the in stream fluid bed...i like the auto classifacation, but, not the single trap and especially the difficulty in viewing the action in the trap. I think it is a great design if hooked up to a pump, i just dont think they get enough preassure from the stream. as hoser has mention LE Traps are the cats meow on many levels they are cheap and excellent at fine gold recovery especially with classified material. and they work well in a power sluice set up. Angus Mckirks motto "catch the fine stuff laddy and the nuggets will take care of themselves" (or something close) is pretty spot on. one thing that isnt being mentioned here really but, touched on by Ohio chris is, that once the gold is at the bottom of the slurry it tends to stay there. That is the reason for carpet and expanded.thats what slick plates are for and flares in dredges.In a drop riffle if the gold is pushing along at the bottom of the slurry it drops in the DROP and stays put....until molested pretty hard. In a Keene, Proline or similar if you add your material properly it stratifies and the majority of the gold will show up in the inspection matt and in front of the first riffle and the superfine unfortunately get blown up into the fast flow required for these sluices... like the gold is a motorcycle and the riffle a ramp,and can get blown down pretty far. if you are running properly you should always find the majority of your gold in the first 1/3 of your box. if you look close, and you should be before clean up....and find gold in the last low preassure area you should worry you are losing gold. When in the field i dig every good crack and find gold because of the way it drops...big and little. when i find a good boulder or bedrock dike some times i dont find as much gold directly behind the boulder/dike as i do just down stream from it because during a flood this obstruction is influincing the heavies not so much trapping it.....if i find two obstructions in a row i tend to find more gold between the first and second, and just infront of and behind the second obstruction, waterfalls work the same way.Apply that effect to the way you look at a sluice.I do not believe it is possible to buy a sluice based on the fastets and easiest to find you gold. back east i would focus and classifying and making sure your box wichever it is, is running at optimum...i wager your recovery will be pretty close regardless of sluice.....its really hard to make gold not act like gold.I decide wich sluice i will be using here only based on how far im gonna have to hump the darn thing and how the water is going to be flowing. I hope i've helped a little.
 

Last edited:
trouble is, is that nothing is EZ when it comes to captureing gold! and theres no one sluice thatll do it all for everyone! like it has been stated," to many variables". best advice i can give is get one,learn it,and use it and stop looking for the greener grass in the next valley.otherwise youll do like me and buy every new idea out there and they basically do the same thing a little differently and youll have a ton of $$ invested and most of the equipment youll buy will sit there collecting dust untill you resell it for a loss!
 

russau said:
trouble is, is that nothing is EZ when it comes to captureing gold! and theres no one sluice thatll do it all for everyone! like it has been stated," to many variables". best advice i can give is get one,learn it,and use it and stop looking for the greener grass in the next valley.otherwise youll do like me and buy every new idea out there and they basically do the same thing a little differently and youll have a ton of $$ invested and most of the equipment youll buy will sit there collecting dust untill you resell it for a loss!
Click to expand...

Sad, but true.
 

Russ - your subtle humor, as usual, makes my day! Now I have a mental image of this fascinating/puzzling pile of gold getting gear under a light coat of dust taking up half your garage ;-)

Ohiochris and others- good point about classification...it is always important, especially so with a drop riffle in low water conditions. I classify to 8 in low water and 4 in fuller flow. At 8 I always worry I will toss aside a nugget...what can I say, I'm an optimist!!
 

Drop riffles do catch fine gold good. I've had both. Funny but when it comes to cleanup devices I've not seen one with hungarian riffles.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Gold Bug II Help

⬅️ Previous Thread

Gold Mining

Next Thread ➡️

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Latest Discussions

Back
Top