SE Prospector's Choice Pre-Scored Trimmable Sluice Box Matting with 3 Different Riffle Types for Gold Prospecting, 10" x 27"

I build most of my own equipment, it's the best way to figure out what is (or is not) important to how something works.I wanted to build a lightweight sluice to be able to carry with me when I hike, so I solvent welded together some pvc boards and bought this mat. It's held in place by part of a carpet bar and a bolt with wingnut.I did a couple of trials to get my setup dialed in, stopped to wash the mat with soap, and then adjusted the amount of slick plate it had in front of it.I placed it in series (at the front) with the tailings flowing into a plastic drop riffle sluice, and from there into my bazooka gold trap. I then proceeded to feed 10 5-gallon buckets of 1/2" screened dirt with an average of ~7 specks/small flakes per pan through the sluice.Here's what I learned:1. It works (well) with a wide variety of water flows and angles.2. It's fairly quick to process material (doesn't have to be fed that slowly3. I could excluded the largest rocks while digging and skipped classifying, if I hadn't built the box with a crossbar... ...the mat won't really hold anything much larger than the size of the hungarian riffles.4. It's tolerant of many shapes of gold (coarse and oddly shaped pieces, flat flakes, foil like bits, and powder down to below 75 mesh... ...I don't have a finer screen, so I don't know how small).5. I lost around 3% of the gold that I fed through the sluice, with fairly heavy water flow and feeding it kinda fast. Almost everything I lost stopped in the first riffle of the drop riffle sluice... ...which led me to routing a couple of drop riffles in the pvc sluice box bottom. I did collect some ultra fine gold in my fluid bed sluice, but nothing of size made it that far.6. It can be difficult to clean the mat, and generally it has to be removed from the sluice and rolled backwards in a pan or bucket to get everything out of it.7. The pre-scoring on the back of the mat makes me a little bit nervous when I have to manipulate the mat for cleaning... ...it seems solid enough, but it's a little surprising every time I see it.8. A small brush is good to help get the bubbles out of the finer parts of the mat when you set it up.9. It needs to be washed, with soap, when you first get it. It was easier to handle and worked better after I washed it.10. The color does show gold pretty well, when I'm lucky enough to get something big enough to see... ...or enough fines to fill the first riffles.After some tinkering, I determined that it's much smoother (and more gold stops in the first section) if it has at least 6" of slick plate. I've been using this in a sluice now for a week long vacation (took 4 sluices, wound up liking this one the best for my area and available flow), and I've netted almost 3 grams of fines with it.I like it!I'll update this at a later date if I have anything to add.

Using in my mini 6" highbanker with a 2,000 gph 12 volt pump. This Matt works fenaminal at catching the even finest gold my loss out the end doing about a 95% capture rate.

Riffles well good all around mat the sides aren't cut quite straight.

It came folded and warped. Still trying to get it to straighten out, but doubtful so far. It does catch gold, seen it. Just those awful warped riffles. Is this normal? or should I order a replacement? It does work, but could work better if not so warped. My first guess was that is was warped by high heat from the mold, then folded and packaged before it cooled off. Not rolled into a tight roll for shipping. Other than that, It still works, and I love that it does catch gold.

Works great and you don’t have a bunch of stuff to pan out it cuts out a lot of stuff that you end up having to get rid of with the miners moss stuff that used to be in the sluice box

Great looking gold mat. Heavy and flexible, it lays very flat. Can't wait to try it out!

We won't know how well it catches gold until I use it. My sluice is 10" but I still had to trim it; it is easily trimmed with a sharp utility knife. Also, it appears to be made of silicon.

I bought this to try it out. It worked but I ended up buying gold hog matts