Best bazooka for me?

[Sluicer]

So I have finally decided to sell my proline sluice box and get a bazooka everybody seems to love them so figured I would give them a shot I am thinking about getting the 30 or 36 inch sniper I was just wondering what the difference for water flow and amount of material you can move is between the two is also I read you can process beach Sand with them if you preload the trap with gravel anybody on here ever done this? Thanks for any and all help!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[Goldwasher]

pre load the trap?.....your used to the flow and material a proline can run...tour gonna want a prospector. Sniper is gonna hold you back.

 

[Goodyguy]

I would recommend the Prospector as well for the same reason unless you are going to experience slow flow conditions regularaly.
Preloading the trap with 1/2 cupfull of 1/4" to 3/8" gravels should do the trick on the sniper or 1 cup on the prospector.

Goldwasher,
The pebbles will prevent an over density situation from occurring which would prevent proper fluidization of the trap.
Lack of fluidization will cause the slurry in the trap to become so dense that some of the incoming gold will be washed out of the trap due to it not being able to settle out of the incoming flow.

GG~

 

[Sluicer]

Okay I will look into those I was leaning towards the sniper because of the price difference between the two models but if you can run a lot more materiel with a prospector compared to the sniper then I guess it's worth it . And I should have been clearer when I said pre load the trap I meant put gravel into the fluid bed so the fine beach gold doesn't just get blown out. I have only ever heard of one person talking about it before so was just wondering if it in fact did work

 

[Goodyguy]

Okay I will look into those I was leaning towards the sniper because of the price difference between the two models but if you can run a lot more materiel with a prospector compared to the sniper then I guess it's worth it . And I should have been clearer when I said pre load the trap I meant put gravel into the fluid bed so the fine beach gold doesn't just get blown out. I have only ever heard of one person talking about it before so was just wondering if it in fact did work

Yep it works!
If the trap gets packed with heavies the back pressure against the flow from the tubes will reduce the fluidization of the material in the trap to the point that some of the incoming gold will be prevented from settling deep enough fast enough to prevent it from being washed out by the upper flow.

If all you are feeding the sluice is sandy material then pre-loading the trap with some gravels will solve the fluidization/density issue.

GG~

 

[TheGoldProspector]

So I have finally decided to sell my proline sluice box and get a bazooka everybody seems to love them so figured I would give them a shot I am thinking about getting the 30 or 36 inch sniper I was just wondering what the difference for water flow and amount of material you can move is between the two is also I read you can process beach Sand with them if you preload the trap with gravel anybody on here ever done this? Thanks for any and all help!

Im at the Same place as you

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

Hard to go wrong with the Prospector....... Trust me you will end up with one anyway even if you do like the Sniper. Jus sayin.

 

[Prospector70]

I wonder if it would be better to use marbles or steelies instead of gravel. If you do use gravel do you classify it down to one size/shape rock?

<3!

 

[3xflyfisher]

That's an interesting question Prospector. In looking at the concentrates out of my Prospector, there typically is a fairly even distribution of sizes. The top size is obviously -3/8" due to the grizzly on the sluice and normally there is more - 20 mesh material but generally, the sizes are pretty well distributed. Using typical gravels found in a stream or river, there is probably a relationship between the volume washed, mineralogy of dirt/gravel being washed, size distribution of the feed material and shape of the feed material (angular vs. rounded). When runoff subsides I might play with marbles or steel shot/bearings and see what effects there might be.

 

[Goodyguy]

I wonder if it would be better to use marbles or steelies instead of gravel. If you do use gravel do you classify it down to one size/shape rock?
nd
<3!

Size would be a factor if the gravels are all too small.
I would recommend a mixture of larger than 1/4" and no larger than 1/2" and stay away from thin or flat shaped rocks.

 

[arizau]

Yep it works!
If the trap gets packed with heavies the back pressure against the flow from the tubes will reduce the fluidization of the material in the trap to the point that some of the incoming gold will be prevented from settling deep enough fast enough to prevent it from being washed out by the upper flow.

If all you are feeding the sluice is sandy material then pre-loading the trap with some gravels will solve the fluidization/density issue.

GG~

Most of us that run ocean beach sands feed our devices, of whatever design, from deposits of mostly black sand usually of 100 mesh and smaller. In my mind, in a bazooka I can visualize that a mostly stationary bed of heavy black sand would form and grow very quickly all the way up to the tubes as it displaces the pebbles and thus require frequent cleanouts. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Sluicer]

Well after reading all of the very helpful replies on here I think I'm just going to save a bit more and get the prospector instead now to just decide between the 30 and 36 probably going to go with the 36 so I can run more material is the water requirements for a 36 inch prospector similar to a large riffle sluice?

 

[Goldwasher]

I'm gonna discuss this whole pre -load the trap Idea with the Todd and see what he thinks its his patent he knows its operation better than anyone. Unless Chris chimes in first.

 

[Goodyguy]

Most of us that run ocean beach sands feed our devices, of whatever design, from deposits of mostly black sand usually of 100 mesh and smaller. In my mind, in a bazooka I can visualize that a mostly stationary bed of heavy black sand would form and grow very quickly all the way up to the tubes as it displaces the pebbles and thus require frequent cleanouts. Any thoughts on this?

If the pebbles do get displaced you could always add more.
Due to me running a 3/16" grizzly on my fluid bed gold trap I've found that frequent cleanouts were necessary due to the build up of black sands which result in a reduced fluidization which leads to gold loss.

Since I started adding pebbles to the trap I've found I can go much longer between cleanuots with hardly any gold loss.

With the highbanker attachment there is no need to add the pebbles because I can increase the flow through the tubes as needed.
Same thing with my super fluidbed gold trap highbanker 3" dredge combo.




GG~

 

[Goodyguy]

I'm gonna discuss this whole pre -load the trap Idea with the Todd and see what he thinks its his patent he knows its operation better than anyone. Unless Chris chimes in first.

If you would like a second opinion about preloading a Bazooka sluice when running all beach sand, check out some of KevinInColorado's posts on the subject...

If you run just heavy beach sand, the Bazooka catches the +100 gold very, very well. However it spits out a fair amount of the -100 gold. To fix this, you have to preload the fluid bed with more normal gravel. That's based on some testing I've done, your results may vary.

For -100 mesh gold on a Bazooka you'd need to classify down below -4 (not sure how far down but pure sand is totally good to go) and restrict the amount of water flowing into the fluidization tubes. Otherwise you'll catch virtually all the +100 but only a fraction of the -100 as some will get kicked out. Despite the classification advice, you also want to preload the trap with some gravel in the -4/+20 range to help create a stable initial bed of material. Sounds tricky but once you get it dialed in you can rock n roll.

The alternative is a Gold Cube or the Doug Watson's Super Concentrator...both designed for beach sand and both solid pieces of gear.

Good questions! I preloaded with quartz/granite type gravel that was just under 1/4". I agree that those gravel pieces act a lot like ragging in a jig. There was some ejected as the heavy beach sand replaced it in the trap. Less than 1/2 cup ejected I would say but of course I only ran about a gallon of beach sand.

I too feel large cobbles act like riffles in the creek. In my favorite creek, the spots with big cobbles are exactly where the gold accumulates! Part of it of course is the simple fact that larger cobbles and gold are both dropped by big storms (the creek rises 8 feet in a really big storm!) in the same spots but my theory is that smaller storms which move flood gold will drop it due to the turbulence from those large cobbles.

There are more but you get the idea...

Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[gunflintguy]

Well after reading all of the very helpful replies on here I think I'm just going to save a bit more and get the prospector instead now to just decide between the 30 and 36 probably going to go with the 36 so I can run more material is the water requirements for a 36 inch prospector similar to a large riffle sluice?

Sluicer,
I have the 36 sniper and I am very happy with it. It can move a lot of material in a short amount of time. I have been working in a creek that isn't much larger than the sniper and have had no problems moving material. I generally fill a 5 gallon bucket of material and then either shovel it in or pour it in and the sniper doesn't get plugged up. I can't help you with the water requirements for a 36 prospector.

For me I have to pack my sniper in to where I am working and finding a pack that it will fit in was a bit of a challenge. I had second thoughts on the size of the 36 vs the 30 for that reason, but once I found the right pack, I'm glad I went with that size.

 

[Aufisher]

I have the largest prospector I can carry for drive up mining and would like the largest sniper I can fit on or in my backpack.

 

[Sluicer]

Gun guy how long would you say it roughly takes you to run a 5 gallon bucket of unclassified materiel wondering how much slower it would really be compared to my proline and regarding the beach sands I'm in the middle of building a beach sluice and was just wondering if these would work or not I'm just doing a sluice with a 2 foot slick plate with 4 feet of vortex matting if it doesn't work I'm only out 20 bucks so o well

 

[Goodyguy]

Gun guy how long would you say it roughly takes you to run a 5 gallon bucket of unclassified materiel wondering how much slower it would really be compared to my proline and regarding the beach sands I'm in the middle of building a beach sluice and was just wondering if these would work or not I'm just doing a sluice with a 2 foot slick plate with 4 feet of vortex matting if it doesn't work I'm only out 20 bucks so o well

I like your sluice idea. It also wouldn't hurt to put at least a foot of deep V mat before the vortex mat.
How wide are you making your sluice?


GG~

 

[Sluicer]

Good guy I was going to make the sluice 6" by 6 foot long but I'm starting to think that that by beeing that long it would be a hassle to clean out I'm thing of maybe a 4' by 6" with a 1 foot slick plate followed by 1 foot deep v followed by the vortex any thoughts on this idea over previous one? Thanks for all the help still trying to learn the ropes