Angus Mackirk Explorer Sluice

[kuskus]

Hey everyone hope the golds been good

I'm ordering an new sluice the Mackirk Explorer, can't wait.

Just wondering if anyone has any tips and trick on using it,
Such as water speed, depth and how offen I should do a clean up?

Cheers guys, I'll be out the weekend it arrives.

 

[Dirtdemon]

nice one Kus , been having a bit of a look at sluices myself , but first going to get my detector all set up before I go spending more money at the moment ...
with the warmer months coming up , will be good to get down by the river

good luck with it mate

 

[Teemore]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips and trick on using it,

The AM range of sluices are the ants pants of "in the stream" sluices, next stop a high banker but it's a different animal.
There are many reviews and vids on the AM product ..... may be easiest to try a search under Angus Mackirk, if the info you seek is not there it's probably not worth knowing
Cheers T.

 

[Guest]

I have both a AM eureka and a Grubstake, they are awesome, Clean up as often as you want it only takes 10 seconds. As for setup you just adjust it until you see material "dancing" behind the riffles. Enjoy Balx

 

[kuskus]

Thanks heaps everyone, studying all night and I can't find a bad review.

Itching to use it, but your right teemore about the highbanker I'm already looking lol. I'm going to build the bucket trommel as I think it will be easy and cheap as I'm a pool plumber and have all the pipe, but I'm going to mod it so I can trommel right into the AM.

I see big things are coming this summer

 

[MurrayC]

I just picked up the AM Boss and took it for its first swim last weekend. No experience with sluicing at all but they seem pretty much idiotproof. Stick it in the river with water flowing half way up the header box. pretty much keep it level if the water flow is decent, or angle it slightly down if its slow, and just dump your sands in evenly.

only advice I can think of beyond that is pan out the stuff when you clean it out a couple of times. As you can end up with a pile of black sand in your pan and be losing gold if you are not careful in the final stages of panning. I dump it back into a container a couple of times just to make sure as I've been surprised a couple of times with gold I had unexpectedly lost from the first pan through. That black sand is sneaky!

 

[XIV]

I have the AM Forman
Great sluice and fits in my backpack with my pan and tools
For fast water flow, keep it almost level
For slow flowing water, you might have to dam it up a little and have it on a steeper angle
For low slow water, I take some black plastic with me to capture all water in a dam, for max water then it will just depend on how much water you get running down it to the angle you will need
I run a few buckets through be for clean up
But you can run it for some time before doing a clean up
And as ball said, just make sure the sands are "DANCING" not washing out
It is very simple to use, and you will get the hang of it very quickly
Cheers Kane

 

[G0lddigg@]

great buy and once you get the hang of it you will always find a place in the car for it

Tips -

1 - unless you are running very fine classified material do not run flat you need angle to flush out the riffles otherwise your dancing but not exchanging. 1 inch per foot is close but varies with every condition
2 - they like fast water, not heaps of water. So velocity over volume. its not enough just to stick it in the creek with a few inches over the riffles this will work but to really get the vortexes working hard to pull the gold down you need velocity and you get velocity by building a wing dam or opening up sections of the creek above your work area.
3 - feed onto the bumpy bits if you can see gold hanging on here your dialed in.
example below - this was from 10 min dig yesterday on a light sandy flood bench and as you can see from the second picture gold floats easily so it help to wet material before feeding.
your looking for a nice V in the middle of your flow that will tell you that your pointing as centered down stream as you can
4 -get lots of gold and take lots of photos for us blokes who get stuck in an office all day

hope that helps mate have fun out there
GD

 

[kuskus]

Wow that's awrsum thanks heaps GD XIP you have given me all the advise I need, I think you have turned me into a pro, lol

Can't wait for it to arrive, I recon at least 3 weeks from America. 8.(

Very nice pics GD :lol: where is that from? And you say sandy type material? :/

 

[Ag Man]

Hi Kuskus,
Good choice!
I too have an AM Explorer. Good all rounder.
You'll be happy with it.
They're quite forgiving with flow & angle.
I usually clean out & pan off after each bucket of 1/2 classified material put thru. Only coz it's so quick to do & gives your back a break from digging.
Brilliant how gold just hangs back on the feed tray. This is my best bit to date & it just dropped off the shovel onto the tray & didn't move .97grammer

 

[Ag Man]

Got mine from McMirk in 10 days

 

[kuskus]

Fingers crossed mines that quick. :lol:

 

[WalnLiz]

How nice does that bit look Ag ......that would make the heart flutter in such clear water.

 

[Ag Man]

It was rather exciting Wal. Still trying to better it...
Let my young nephew borrow the bucket sieve for a while, so I thought to try shovelling straight in & that was the result from the first load. Very hit & miss that creek but the chunky bits out weigh the fines

Kuskus, yeah I hope yours turns up quick too.
Mine was quicker & fair cheaper than the local distributors could do.
Got a free hat as well ?
I think I got a coupla YouTube clips of the sluice Kus. Will look for them.
Also will look for a link to a review which made me decide on the Explorer

 

[kuskus]

Cool what's your youtube channel?

 

[Teemore]

If it's not too rude to ask what were the posted cost direct from the states .... thought their postage rates were pretty sever these days, lookiking at a couple of others for my collection.
Cheers T.

 

[kuskus]

$62.95 for shipping and $89 for the explorer and that's US dollar but that's for that size parcel.

I was looking local and it was $180AU plus shipping. Cheaper and better to go direct.

 

[Ag Man]

I think it was about that. $170 or so delivered. Local distributor didn't stock this model so it'd cost extra too because it's a special order to them.

Agriculturalman I think my YouTube username is?

http://youtu.be/jtqpl4AHMWQ
[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/jtqpl4AHMWQ[/video]

 

[Danielkrupski]

I tried to go direct thru angus about 12 months ago they wouldn't do it. The said to go thru their aussie distributors . I did and can't rave on enough about them. Currently cleaning cons with their predator 3. Best thing I ever bought. I also bought the boss sluice but cos of the creeks I visit there is not enough flow so bought the grubsteak and after rain it works a treat. A great product. Wish I got a hat tho agman

 

[kuskus]

Nice vid AG man, how fast do you feed it? And did ya find any gold on that trip?