home made bazooka

[Trinity_miner]

Hey guys, I just got done doin a thorough testing of my home made bazooka. I built it 30 in wide by 8 inches narrowing to six at the trap end. The trap is 6"x4"x2.5" deep. I'm pretty impressed with how these things eat the dirt, but I'm wondering just how the trap should look/act when set up properly. I just wanna make sure I'm not blowin gold out the end. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

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[Duckwalk]

I dont own one so correct me if im wrong but would the length of mesh be an issue? i imagine the amount of water rushing into the fluid bed would just blow the whole top section of material out long before it had any chances of settling down to the bottom of the trap.

 

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[Timberdoodle]

There are a few important changes I would make to it which will help ensure the gold is making it into the trap in the first place. I have seen fast flows carry gold right over horizontal screened drop zones. It is good to have a slightly upwards angle in relation to the flow direction.
Put a top on the trap (clear plexi is good for viewing) and move the grizzly forward. You want a flow pattern that goes down into the trap and works back and out for the best results. The water speed and turbulence over the long grizzly is likely carrying the gold out with it. The top of the trap should be higher than the sluice bottom which will give the upwards angle on the grizzly.
Shorten the grizzly and try and install the front of the grizzly with thin flat bar or something that will not create much turbulence or you are disturbing the overall effect of the stratification that occurs before the grizzly and sending gold back up into the flow. You want the gold to stratify to the bottom and slide into the front of the trap which is why grizzly bars are preferred in general. The goal is to capture all the minus material that has stratified to the lower level of slurry and bring it into the trap to be further worked.
As far as opening and exit size, I would make the input a little larger than the output. So if the output is 1" tall, I would make the input 1.25" to 1.5" tall this will reduce a siphon effect from holding material onto the grizzly and keep from getting too fast a flow pattern in the entrance.
Put a deflector in and set the holes in the tubes like ebuyc mentioned.
I think you will get much better results with these changes.