Opinions on the bazooka sluice

[yodi]

I have been reading up on the bazooka sluice I know many of you use them how do they stand up to boxes like the keene mod 51 and 52

 

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[goldenmojo]

Are you asking about durability? My Bazooka Prospector sustained a repairable crack on a fin after being tossed off a ledge 12' down onto a cobble bar. Normal wear and tear the Bazookas work just fine and you save so much time using one versus other sluices that you can afford a few extra seconds in the realm of safe handling. As for production you can classify once by shoveling into a Bazooka or classify twice by using a different sluice. Bazooka gets the gold.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

I've only used my a52 once since I got my bazooka at the beginning of the year because we had this little creek all dammed up there was only about an inch of water running through it so we couldn't run the bazooka with that little of water. The a52 was nice for a back up in that situation. Other than that we run about a yard or two depending on how many of us there are through my bazooka in a few hours digging. We normally get about 3x the amount of gold we would running the a52. My back don't hurt as bad either at the end of the day because I'm not hunched over a classifier for 4 hours haha.

 

[goldog]

As long as you have enough water the Bazooka Prospector will allow you to move much more material.

The fins will crack if you're not careful, but easily repaired or reinforced

When running well it is a beautiful sight.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

So far so good with ours. It's pretty sturdy. With the prospector model you can upgrade to the heavier/thicker ABS and grizzly bars.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Ok Kevin chine in! Haha
So bazookas offer much, great sluice no doubt.
Whatever sluice you decide on remember HARD WORK is the key to gold, no sluice makes it. Most all catch it just fine!

 

[Goodyguy]

The A-52 is a workhorse and very versatile, as in it can be modified easily for use in different situations. Such as using different type mats, with or without the riffle tray, with or without the expanded metal, use as a stream sluice or with a highbanker, trommel etc.

With that being said, I have gotten spoiled by the Bazooka gold trap because It's so simple to operate. As long as you can get enough flow to it you just feed it paydirt and it traps the gold. Clean up is a breeze, mere seconds to dunk into a bucket as opposed to the time and effort of raising the riffle tray removing the expanded metal and mat and then washing out the mat and rinsing down and reassembly of the A-52.

GG~

 

[yodi]

Wow you guys are definaty talking me into getting one not having to classify would save sooo much time. Most of the gold in my area is relay fine how does it handle 100 mesh and smaller?

 

[Skiddum]

Trust me I was extremely skeptical when I first got mine. but the way they work is amazing. they force the gold under water into the trap witch is essential to catch the small gold and there it stays. small gold can float on the water but the way the bazooka works the material that's in the trap when new material is entering the material in it bulges up creating like a mit to catch it and then gravity pulls it down into the trap. and because it's all fluidized the gold sinks to the bottom. watch these two videos. the music is kinda crapy but he explains in detail how the bazooka gold trap sluice works and he shows it to its a great video set up once you get through. then you'll understand why I love the Bazooka is thing is amazing for small gold. they use these on the colorado river. the gold there is 100 mesh and smaller. in utah where I'm at we have extremely small gold to. and if it catches the fine gold it'll catch the biggest stuff no problem.
here's a video on how theBazooka works. I'm sorry for the horrible music and lighting but if you watch it all the way through you'll understand how and why the bazooka works so well.
Watch "Looking for Gold - Episode 6 - Bazooka Gold Trap Sluice - Part 1" on YouTube
Looking for Gold - Episode 1

https://youtu.be/IlKmPslbKe4

Watch "Looking for Gold - Episode 6 - Bazooka Gold Trap Sluice - Part 2" on YouTube
Looking for Gold - Episode 6 - Bazooka Gold Trap Sluice - Part 2:

https://youtu.be/l5qdo5S9YWM

and not having to classify is a huge huge deal. with a regular sluice over half your time will be spent classifing the bazooka Just goes straight from the river to the zook. ol from the river into a bucket then to the zook.
the mini or sniper are great to use for starters. there great backpacking and such. and the sniper will easily eat more material than a regular sluice. even a keene a52. that's saying something. just remember the smaller ones have to be fed slower. like the mini a green jobe scoop works great. or a bucket just feather feed it. the sniper can handle more material and it's 30 bucks more than the super mini. there the same length at least if you go the 24 inch sniper. but it will handle more material than the mini.
with the bazooka it's not how big the sluice is. it's how big the trap is. that trap determines how much you can feed it at once. now if you just slowly poor from a bucket you won't have no problem. but you take the mini or the snipers and try feeding them a hole shovel full all at once you'll over feed them. I've seen people stick there shovel on the skid plate and let the water slowly wash the material off it. that works well. that's one thing you have to understand. how much material can fit into that trap at once determines how fast you can feed it. but again the sniper will still eat more material than the keene a52. the mini is Really close to it as well just because you can straight scoop from the river or use a bucket then just sit and slowly poor into them.

but I'd definitely recommend the Bazooka to anyone. I've got 3 of them the mini, sniper, and prospector.
I won't use anything else. I'm trying to get rid of my Keene A51A. Just cause I have no use for it anymore

 

[rsruss800]

Trust me. You will baby your Bazooka once you find out how well it works. It will become your primary sluice, unless as others have pointed out. There just isn't enough water. Run it hard and steep and try and keep up shoveling. Don't worry......the fine stuff will be in there.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Ok Kevin chine in! Haha
So bazookas offer much, great sluice no doubt.
Whatever sluice you decide on remember HARD WORK is the key to gold, no sluice makes it. Most all catch it just fine!

Not much left to say. I love reading about people's success with these things!

After several years running Bazookas I finally sold all my other sluices (except one AM) and won't use anything else. 2-3X the gold is easy with this gear Now if only they'd start selling a well tested/designed highbanker!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Not much left to say. I love reading about people's success with these things!

After several years running Bazookas I finally sold all my other sluices (except one AM) and won't use anything else. 2-3X the gold is easy with this gear Now if only they'd start selling a well tested/designed highbanker!

Yeah, me too. I am selling my Wolf Trap, keeping my Le Trap, using my A52 as part of my recirculation system. My only problem is the I have a 48" Miner and I need to buy or make a smaller one for situations when the Miner just isn't suitable.

 

[johnedoe]

Have there been any good recovery and loss tests on the bazooka?
Everybody swears by them but I haven't seen any unbiased performance tests on them yet.
I doubt they would work on beach sands due to the nature of the material being run but I do agree in their environment they look like a good sluice.

 

[Gelmac]

The A-52 is a workhorse and very versatile, as in it can be modified easily for use in different situations. Such as using different type mats, with or without the riffle tray, with or without the expanded metal, use as a stream sluice or with a highbanker, trommel etc.

With that being said, I have gotten spoiled by the Bazooka gold trap because It's so simple to operate. As long as you can get enough flow to it you just feed it paydirt and it traps the gold. Clean up is a breeze, mere seconds to dunk into a bucket as opposed to the time and effort of raising the riffle tray removing the expanded metal and mat and then washing out the mat and rinsing down and reassembly of the A-52.

GG~

Well said, GG. Thanks.

 

[Skiddum]

johnedoe
Beach sand. yuck nasty stuff haha. I don't think it would be to much of a problem. I was reading a forum not long ago where the guy put a ball bearings in it. for beach sand I think this would definitely be a great idea. just cause the bazooka needs some small rocks and such to help keep everything agitated in the bottom. running straight sand may clog it up but then again it may not. I've never tried with straight sand. but if there's small rocks in it I don't think it would be to difficult. I've seen otherror types of fluid beds like the one that hold hog shows you how to build and then there's that one concentrator thar is a fluid bed. and they don't have anything but fine cons and they work rather well so you may not need rocks or ballbearing at all. I know allot of people have run a keene behind therest bazooka and found almost nothing maybe a spec or 2 that probably made it out on a rock or something that wasn't cleaned off well enough. others have run side buy side with keene and bazooka and you can definitely see the difference between the 2. I'll post one I thought was funny. it's rino and bob. haha. it's a father son video and the dad just pushes him around you can tell he's giving his son a bad time. haha

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you just run black sand it tends to all get blown out in my experience...it doesn't tend toward a lock up.

 

[Skiddum]

Watch "gold mining with stingray" on YouTube
gold mining with stingray: https://youtu.be/G2090qj7Yn0

here it is Its a funny video you you've to skip through tell his son shows up then they both go at it but Rhino tears it up

 

[Skiddum]

If you just run black sand it tends to all get blown out in my experience...it doesn't tend toward a lock up.

so it just blows the black sand out does it keep the gold when your running straight black sand. I'm guessing it does.
I can't wait for bazooka to Coe out with the highbanker package. especially for the minis. be a great concentrator and most of us have them. thats definitely the things about bazooka. once you get 1 your hooked. ivery found that with the 3 I've got im set for anything. heck with just the mini and the sniper I'm set. the prospector was just so we could run allot more material. but with those 3 I don't think there's a river around that I couldn't use 1 of them and have it work just fine from low flow to high.

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you feed it just sand, even black sand, it will keep almost all the gold above 100 mesh but lose most of the -100. If you preload the trap with gravel, it keeps everything down to 100 and a lot but not all the smaller stuff. Beach sand gold is tricky as we all know. Dave Watson and also the Gold Cube guys sell stuff built for straight beach sand.

 

[rsruss800]

I bought mine upon Kevin's advice. I have run equal amounts of material from the same hole at the same time using a 36" prospector and an A52. Bazooka won hands down.