Yesterday I was using my Bazooka Gold Trap in the local fossicking area. I spied a decent sized flat flake of gold working its way down the deck. I reckon it was at least 0.15 gram.
See you soon buddy, or so I thought. Did a clean up 15 min later, no flake. Is this a known flaw in these boxes or just bad luck? Also the clean ups seem very consistent in amount and size even though running time varied. Pitch was pretty flat with plenty of flow. Appreciate some advice as I am questioning my choices.
Why do you need to buy hyped up commercial gear. I have looked at some of these rather expensive mats and devices over the years and found that good old coir matting and coconut doormats were as good as if not superior.
I have tried some if these modern systems and do not see any advantage to be honest.
In my day there was absolutely no such thing as these commercial mats and we never lost gold.
In your case have you got too much flow? Have you pushed geavel through by hand and dislodged the gold?
There aremany questions that could be asked.
If l was going back to sluice boxes and dredges agsin, and l dont intend to, l would make my own using thick coconut matting and 15mm high riffkes angled slightly backā¦the āexpertsā in the shops will tell you l dont know what l am talking about but dont let that fool you.
āwhy the expensive gearā Thatās pretty much what I am starting to wonder about Lammerlaw.
My first box was ply, matting and wooden riffles, got those flat flakes nicely. Though was a tad heavy when wet.
I am going to go back to same spot with traditional sluice and see if there are any glaring anomalies. Could be I am using it wrong or fluid bed sluices are fickle at best.
Thatās an interesting issue and a bit worrisome! I must admit I had my eye on the Bazooka as it looked like a nice lazy / robust option I could just shovel straight on to.
That was my thinking as well Gavin. I am thinking I was running it too flat, perhaps more pitch would increase the exchange in the chamber. One thing I do not like is you canāt see whatās going on in trap. Newer models have a viewing perspex lid arrangement.
Iāve been using my bazooka for 8 years
I found I didnāt trust it shoveling straight into! Always seemed like to much material for itā:man_shrugging:t2: so I put some V rubber mat on it and I still classify 10mm and seems to work a treat
Certainly donāt think Iāve lost any big bits
To me it sounds like you had too much water flow going down the box. Flat flakes donāt like that as they are light weight & donāt bury themselves. Their surface area allows the water to get under them & lift & shuffle & skim them down your box. In your case right down & spitting it out the end. Best bet would be to remove the gold if you see it moving down your box.
So went back to spot with sluice fitted with vortex dream mat. Pretty much got a similar result for similar effort. The spot is rich on black sands. So would more regular clean out of either box be the way too go?
There was a few small flakes hanging out under the drop but most of it seemed to be at bottom of cells. Curious as to how much the black sand affects the exchange rate of heavies once the cells are full. First time using this mat so learning as I go. Crazy how little amount of concentrate is left at clean up.
I was just talking to a fellow prospector about the idea that you have to tune in your box to suit your stream.
I use dream matts quite a bit. mainly with jeff in golden bay and he runs the matts really fastā¦as fast as you can soās to keep the material spinning in the vertex drop hole and the rest of your material blasting down your sluice boxā¦your flare looks small you could bend up an insert to make a bigger flare and increase the flow and volumeā¦ not sure about your setup but our matts are super easy to remove and clean so you can have quite a few clean outs if need be .and consistent feed of material. Failing that go back to big long tables of miners moss over expanded rifles with consistent flow and feedā¦good luckā¦Mal
This is result of running vortex mat full bore, unclassified. I am impressed with itās fine gold retention. Also got lead shot and flakes, so it donāt miss much.
