Holy Cow! Bazooka Gold Trap Miner is HEAVY!

Joel1316 · Jun 3, 2013

Yes, the title says it all, hahaha....
Used my Bazooka Miner for the first time on Saturday. Found a nice place where I could drop the Miner in the river that had really strong flow. Had to put some rocks on top of it to keep it from floating off.
I put the Miner to the test! Forget the scooper! I was just pouring my 5 gallon bucket into the sluice, granted I didn't let it get clogged up (which was hard to do since I had good flow). Everyone nearby watching, was either jealous of the processing rate or thought I was idiot for processing so fast.
It was my first time out with the Miner, so I wanted to push it to its limit and see how well it did. Unforunately, the Miner is so wide, I didn't have anything to act as a catch pan to see how much gold I was blowing out (hopefully not much).
When it came time to clean out, then I realized and began to curse out the Miner. With the strong water flow, the weight of the Miner and now the weight of the processed material inside the trap; the Miner weighed a ton (literally)! My 11 year old son was helping me lift it out of the river and into our large bucket. It was heavy, the handle ripped and broke off even before the sluice moved, LOL.
Finally was able to get a handle on it and was able to do a clean out. I didn't know how a solo guy would do this?!?!? It will be easier when my son gets bigger and stronger....

Overall, found a lot of nice +30 gold. Still need to Blue Bowl the rest to see what we really got...

Any ideas on how to repair the handle?

fuseboxxx · Jun 3, 2013

Joel1316 said:
Yes, the title says it all, hahaha....
Used my Bazooka Miner for the first time on Saturday. Found a nice place where I could drop the Miner in the river that had really strong flow. Had to put some rocks on top of it to keep it from floating off.
I put the Miner to the test! Forget the scooper! I was just pouring my 5 gallon bucket into the sluice, granted I didn't let it get clogged up (which was hard to do since I had good flow). Everyone nearby watching, was either jealous of the processing rate or thought I was idiot for processing so fast.
It was my first time out with the Miner, so I wanted to push it to its limit and see how well it did. Unforunately, the Miner is so wide, I didn't have anything to act as a catch pan to see how much gold I was blowing out (hopefully not much).
When it came time to clean out, then I realized and began to curse out the Miner. With the strong water flow, the weight of the Miner and now the weight of the processed material inside the trap; the Miner weighed a ton (literally)! My 11 year old son was helping me lift it out of the river and into our large bucket. It was heavy, the handle ripped and broke off even before the sluice moved, LOL.
Finally was able to get a handle on it and was able to do a clean out. I didn't know how a solo guy would do this?!?!? It will be easier when my son gets bigger and stronger....

Overall, found a lot of nice +30 gold. Still need to Blue Bowl the rest to see what we really got...

Any ideas on how to repair the handle?

I've got the mini model and the handle is fabric riveted on. Never broke though. I made a bigger version out of ABS plastic and never put a handle on it. Don't think you need one but if ya do just get a screen door handle and rivet it on

medic7a · Jun 3, 2013

Joel, for the handle either replace it with a stronger piece of webbing or take it off completely. A solid handle will make placement a pain. When you take the bazooka out of the water stand on the downstream side of it(if you can), lift the nose up till water is no longer running into the fluid bed, be careful not to dump material back down the ramp, and pull the bazooka out of the water.The water pours out of the bottom. If that doesn't make sense I will post some pics if you want. I have found that this is the easiest way so your not fighting the current trying to push it down the creek and as you pull it your losing the water out the bottom.

Joel1316 · Jun 4, 2013

medic7a said:
Joel, for the handle either replace it with a stronger piece of webbing or take it off completely. A solid handle will make placement a pain. When you take the bazooka out of the water stand on the downstream side of it(if you can), lift the nose up till water is no longer running into the fluid bed, be careful not to dump material back down the ramp, and pull the bazooka out of the water.The water pours out of the bottom. If that doesn't make sense I will post some pics if you want. I have found that this is the easiest way so your not fighting the current trying to push it down the creek and as you pull it your losing the water out the bottom.

Thanks Medic! Never even thought of lifting it out by the nose first... I'll do that next time.

Hoser John · Jun 5, 2013

FABRIC HANDLE RIPS OFF-OMG :dontknow:

63bkpkr · Jun 5, 2013

Add Water and Dirt & LIFT carefully

Yes Joel, add some water(top and middle) and some extra dirt in the front and a dead lift straight up is Gonna be a real back puller! I've a Keene A 52 sluice box and in its stock configuration picking it up out of a river is like trying to wrestle a live pig into a meat grinder.

The A 52 has a cross bar at the out flow end so I added one about where input flare attaches and this gave me two solid Upper lifting points and it helped a great deal to control/steady the sluice as it came up out of the water. This meant I did not loose half of the cons from the sluice and that's a good thing..........................63bkpkr

CharlesP · Jun 16, 2013

Drill the rivets out, and then try a nice thick strip of leather to replace it. You could even put a larger washer than the replacement rivets to get it more space to grab.

Joel1316 · Jun 17, 2013

Thanks CharlesP. I talked to Todd and he advised to drill the rivet out with a 3/16 drill.
He mentioned tha the straps will fail when trying to lift up when full of water and material. He is working on a better handle for the future.
medic7a has the best idea of lifting from the front and back.

CharlesP · Jun 17, 2013

Joel1316 said:
Thanks CharlesP. I talked to Todd and he advised to drill the rivet out with a 3/16 drill.
He mentioned tha the straps will fail when trying to lift up when full of water and material. He is working on a better handle for the future.
medic7a has the best idea of lifting from the front and back.

Cool deal. Todd is a great person to ask. Lol. I love my mini and my prospector. But that miner is a big boy.

Joel1316 · Jun 18, 2013

Funny thing is, with the right flow, my Mini can handle quite a bit of material by itself.
I want a Prospector next : )

gqlikeu · Jul 28, 2013

I need help! Im new to gold prospecting and I found that I like the bazooka miner but I can't afford to pay $300 for one plus shipping. So what I did is I bought a 4x8 sheet of abs plastic in 3/16 size. I have a plastic welder and I have already figured out the the length and width of the unit and have bent the outer shell. I still need some measurements though and I have looked for three days on the net but i have had no luck finding them.

1st measurement i need is the height of the top of the long bed from the bottom of the bazooka.
2nd measurement i need is the height from the top of the short bed to the bottom of the bazooka.
3rd measurement I need is the diameter of the pvc pipe used.
4th measurement I need is the with of the holes in the pvc and also how many holes per pipe. ( also need to know if there are any holes that face down and if so how many )
5th measurement I need is how far off the bottom of the fluid trap is the bottom of the pvc.
6th measurement I need is how high is the dam/over spill wall at the end of the bazooka.

I was assuming I need 3/4" pvc but im not sure?
I also made an assumption that the dam/overspill wall was 3 and 3/8" tall? But im just not sure and I didn't want to start welding the box together because I assumed so. Any help would be greatly rewarded by the Gold karma gods. I am also assuming that there is a vertical support strip in the middle of the long bed between the long bed and the bottom of the bazooka.

I have not welded anything up yet I just used adhesive foam blocks to hold up the beds and get an idea of the position of the beds. ( I only tacked the end dam/over spill wall in place. ( the dam / Over spill wall has holes in it because I am letting the fluid bed pipes protrude so that i can screw on clean out caps.

I have scoured the internet but I have not found pictures of the inside of the miner, so if some one will post them I would be in your debt.

KevinInColorado · Jul 29, 2013

To get what you are asking (I have the prospector, not the miner but still...), I would have to cut up my Bazooka- not gonna happen! You'll have to wait until someone on here backs their truck over one or somethin'. Or just guess, make one and maybe get lucky!

DizzyDigger · Jul 29, 2013

GQ, I suggest you start a new thread on your build? I think you'll get more
responses and input.

gqlikeu · Jul 30, 2013

KevinInColorado said:
To get what you are asking (I have the prospector, not the miner but still...), I would have to cut up my Bazooka- not gonna happen! You'll have to wait until someone on here backs their truck over one or somethin'. Or just guess, make one and maybe get lucky!

I really don't think it is that extreme and not nearly as difficult as finding tiny flakes of gold buried under the earth.

For the hole count in the pvc all you would have to do is stick a flash light in the intake side of the bazooka facing the light towards the pvc, then use a mechanics mirror in the open slot at the end of the trap and count how many holes are are in the pvc. ( you would really only need the mechanics mirror to view the very last holes closest to the end of the trap) The light should light up the holes nicely and you should be able to see if there are any holes that face down.

To measure the diameter of the holes in the pvc use a piece of putty or clay and place it on the tip of a stick then put the stick in the open slot at the end of the bazooka and lightly press it against one of the holes to leave the impression of the hole in the putty or clay. Remove the stick with putty and measure the diameter of the hole impression.

The rest of the measurements should be easy as pie!

I have enough plastic left over from the 4x8 sheet of abs to make a super prospector too so feel free to count the holes in your prospector if you want I will need those too!

My biggest 2 issues with the Bazooka line is the price and the fact that you can not unclog the holes in the fluid bed's pvc easily. By letting the PVC stick out of the end of the box it is easy to modify it in a way that allows you to hook up a pump and valve to adjust flow rate to the fluid bed and use it for dredging applications where needed. :headbang: