Sluice Test Day

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 4:26 am

Dwight, Kevin, Connelly and I decided to test several of the new sluices that I had brought in for stock from Angus Mackirk, California Sluice and LeTrap. All sluices worked perfect so when it comes to choosing the sluice for you it just comes down to budget and the amount of water you have available. I still have several other sluices in stock to test on the next outting but we had fun and found gold. One sluice out performed all the others, see the pictures and desriptions below.

Dwight running a LeTrap

Kevin and Connley getting cons to run

Angus Mackirk "GrubSteak"
This sluice will trap even the smallest gold with very little water flow!

Angus "Explorer"
This is great sluice that will trap even the smallest gold but you can run more material at a faster rate but takes decent water flow.

California River Sluice
This sluice grabs all the gold and runs great on medium water flow and is a great buy at the price! If you get one of these I recommend putting a rock bridge across the sluice for making setting up easier.

LeTrap
This is a tried and true sluice that takes decent water flow and traps all the gold. I also recommend adding a rock bridge to this sluice for easier setups in the water. Up until today I thought this was the finest sluice money could buy, Now I rank it #2.

Angus "AU Trap"
If budget is not an issue this is the finest sluice in the world! I was flat out amazed at the fine gold recovery of this sluice. The thing that made this sluice out perform all the others is volume of material you can move through this sluice at an almost nonstop rate and still recover all the gold. This sluice has it all but takes decent water flow to run.

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:18 am

Why haven't more stores done this? We can theorize all we want, but field test get results. Thanks for the effort.

I started out with a traditional riffle and carpet sluice and was never happy with it. I was always paranoid about loosing gold in the carpet and it was a real pain to clean. When the Angus Grubsteak came out I bought one and was convinced of its superiority the first time I used it. It cleared almost instantly and cleanup took about five seconds. One thing that never gets mentioned about the Angus sluice is the diamond pattern on the slick plate. It acts as a sort of classifier. The gold falls in the grooves and the larger material slides over it without dragging it away. I tried the Grubsteak this spring in Oregon on beach sand. My uncle was feeding it straight fine black sand. It was slow to clear while running the black sand but it did work and it did catch the beach gold. A wider one like the Autrap would have performed great. A traditional sluice wouldn't work at all. The only complaint I have with the grubsteak is that it needs so be wider, but Angus already makes those.

I looked at the Letrap but couldn't get over how thin it was. Come on people, would it be that hard to make it a little thicker?

I ended up making my own 12 x 48 sluice designed after the California River Sluice. I can't keep up with it shoveling and it will catch anything I put into it. If I were to buy another sluice it would be the California river sluice. It can't be beat for the money.

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 12:28 pm

Shay, Dwight, Kevin and Connelly,

Thanks for the work ya'll did and the report, this will make anyone wanting to buy a sluice decision much easier, I look forward to more reports on the other sluices!! Cool

Skip

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:22 pm

I was amazed myself with the "AU trap" It is now my first choice.
Enjoyed it guys.
Need a larger one for my trommel.

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 5:33 pm

Had a great time on the creek with you guys yesterday!! It's always fun to test out new toys!!

I was impressed with the Angus Mackirk sluices! If you have a creek with really good water flow the AU Trap is the way to go. You can feed that beast about as fast as you can scoop dirt from your bucket. I like the thickness of the plastic the sluice does not flex like other manufactures sluices. Angus MacKirk make a sluice for every type water flow and creek.

The Angus Mackirk Mini Long Tom is a great sluice for light water flow or for running cleanup on dredge cons. I set one up at home recirculating water to run a bucket of dredge cons (about 4 gallons). I ran the bucket 2 times so I could check the recovery. In the second run only found 16 specks of -100 gold. The material I ran was only classified to -12 so it may have done better classified like I do to run my green bowl. To dry and classify all the material would have taken a while then running it through the green bowl would have taken 8+ hours. I'm not going to complain if I only loose 3 or 4 specks per gallon of cons and save myself a lot of time!

The LeTrap is a great sluice for fast water also. It tends to flex being it is made out of thinner plastic. Shay is right it needs a rock bridge. That may also help with the flexing. I will add one to mine and test it next time I get out.

Kev

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:04 pm

Thanks for the post, I love the drop riffle sluices! I had no idea the Au trap is that good. Its just not a commonly seen sluice, I guess due to its price. Thanks for the review, if I didnt have family here for thanksgiving I would have tried to get up with you for sure.

Dredger Joined: 19 Mar 2010 Posts: 163 Location: Virginia

Thanks for the test and report gents ! I have allways been a lil skeptical
about plastic mining equiptment, but you live and learn .. Well done !

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:32 am

Because of the small amount of water . Astro let me use one of his hand built drops yesterday this thing was only 3/4 as long as your arm and about 6 inchs wide and I could not feed it fast enough.

I took my Keen 51 with me to use. And I am glad astro told me to leave it and use his.

Drops are the best. I think in spring Shay I will get a couple to use. Angus is my first choice and I think that smaller California would be ok for small creek testing.

Thanks guys for braving the cold for the test. Shay these kinds of things will bring you alot of intrest to your site and your store. You got a good head for people and business. Keep it up brother all you guys impess me more each day.

Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 6 Location: new zealand!

what is the smaller "recon" au trap like for ultra fine / fine gold and production ability Question

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:29 pm

aulover wrote:

what is the smaller "recon" au trap like for ultra fine / fine gold and production ability Question

It is identical to the AuTrap just a scaled down version of it. I think it might just be the perfect sluice.

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:19 am

Which is best Recon or Explorer?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 10:10 am

I have the Keene A51 and although it catches fine gold I have never liked the clean up. Do you need to clean up more often with the Angus "AU Trap" and the "recon" compared to the Keene A51. The Angus "AU Trap" doesn't look like it needs anymore water flow than my A51 right? Last question; with the Angus "AU Trap" or the "recon" do you still need to set it up with a V pattern water flow?

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:06 pm

Deputydog wrote:

I have the Keene A51 and although it catches fine gold I have never liked the clean up. Do you need to clean up more often with the Angus "AU Trap" and the "recon" compared to the Keene A51. The Angus "AU Trap" doesn't look like it needs anymore water flow than my A51 right? Last question; with the Angus "AU Trap" or the "recon" do you still need to set it up with a V pattern water flow?

You can run half a bucket and clean up if you want, thats how easy AM sluices are to cleanup...just take a pan and wash it in to the pan. You still wanna have a V. Really the only con about AM sluices, turbulance. The AUtrap sluices, there are 4 of them. Same design just different sizes for different needs. Go with the AUtrap Foreman if you dont have enough water for the autrap boss(ie AUtrap), Or Autrap Recon...you can just process more material with the Foreman. It is the next biggest to the AUtrap but does not require as much water as the Boss(AUtrap), same thing.

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:07 pm

Thanks for the info.

Joined: 10 Feb 2012 Posts: 6 Location: new zealand!

whats the least water flow you can have with the explorer? like can it run in a stream like this :
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/563683/563683,1279566030,1/stock-photo-an-image-of-a-small-stream-running-through-a-meadow-57442471.jpg

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:29 am

aulover wrote:

whats the least water flow you can have with the explorer? like can it run in a stream like this :
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/563683/563683,1279566030,1/stock-photo-an-image-of-a-small-stream-running-through-a-meadow-57442471.jpg

Yes.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:58 pm

Southern Prospector wrote:

New members check this thread out. Very Happy

These really are GREAT sluices and one for every kind of need. Before I went Angus mackirk, I had used a52, 2 sizes of yellow jacket sluice and a few others. These sluices are so easy to work with and clean up a breeze. All I use now is the autrap foreman. I had an explorer and did not think the foreman was able to catch even smaller gold. Looking to get the rocky mountain with abyss riffles.