Bazooka sniper 36"

[tyeechinook]

Hi I was just curious as to the best angle to set the sniper. I am hoping to get out this weekend for my snipers maiden run and want to cut down on the learning curve. Thanks


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[Master-Peter]

Sorry .... could not resist...

Short answer: RTFM (read the f***** manual)
Longer answer: STFF (searcht the f***** forum)
Very long answer: It depends!

I'll try to break it down from my reading and understanding, Not from real experience so far. Others might chime in if I say something wrong.
The average angle is about 5° to 10°. The optimum depends on water speed as well. You want to keep the grates more or less self cleaning and the fluidbed fluidized. Not more not less.

If in doubt dont be shy. Poke your finger deep into the fluidbed and feel how you are doing - like at the wife. If fluidized, you are doing right - go on - think less work harder. If not fluidized ... something is wrong - adjust the angle or ask the wife. You want the Zook to swallow whatever fits the grizzley and spit the rest. The Zooks are much more forgiving than wifes, usually you only risk to loose some, not all. ;-)

Run it as flat as you can and as steep as you need. As long as she's fluidized and selfcleaning she's happy and doing the job, catching the valuables out of the **** you throw at her, like wifes are doing,

Cheers
Peter

 

[Goldwasher]

Someone been in the dog house lately .....but, yes run it to have the grizzly clear...fast and flat if you can.

 

[Master-Peter]

Someone been in the dog house lately ...

Hmm... dunno what that means. At some points my eglish lacks unfortunately.

 

[Master-Peter]

OK ... Google helped ... Nope I was not in trouble

 

[OwenT]

I don't think it matters too much. I just run it so most everything clears by itself.

 

[tyeechinook]

Awesome thank you all! As usual I'm probably over thinking this...


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[KevinInColorado]

Since the Sniper trap is small, it's a bit easy to lose fine gold by running it too steep. I've made that mistake a couple times

So, keep it as flat as practical but steep enough to fluidize (trap full but loose, not packed hard)

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Don't be holding out Kev, tell him about how to use a V-notch weir for flow calculations and the ruler and level trick for angle!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Don't be holding out Kev, tell him about how to use a V-notch weir for flow calculations and the ruler and level trick for angle!!

LoL right...I know my answer was probably more confusing than helpful...sorry about that. Best thing you can do is read some stuff and then just get out there and try it!

 

[OwenT]

Since the Sniper trap is small, it's a bit easy to lose fine gold by running it too steep. I've made that mistake a couple times

So, keep it as flat as practical but steep enough to fluidize (trap full but loose, not packed hard)

Uh oh , guess I need to get a bigger trap .

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Unlike my contribution which definitively shed light.

 

[goldenmojo]

This angle is the steepest that I would run any Bazooka, but that is me. You just have to practice with it. As you can see there is no V flow on the plate as mentioned in the instructions. The river was surging this day but that made no difference in catching the gold.

 

[OwenT]

So can I run it in faster water to make up for the angle or is that just as bad?

 

[425jesse]

You can run it steep.
You can run it underwater.
You can run it flat with good flow.
You. Can. Run. It.

**just remember to secure it of in fast deep water**

 

[Goldwasher]

As flat and fast as you can.. try to get the grizz to clear on its own. If you have to drop the front to clear better then feed slower. If you have to flick rocks every once in a while SO WHAT...you didn't have to pack in a classifier!

 

[OwenT]

Cool. I'm going to think less and shovel more .

 

[AU_Solitude]

I have the 36" sniper...it all depends on the water flow. I tried to set it up on a slow section of river a while ago that was crawling along and its next to impossible to direct enough water into the flume and achieve the right angle to make operation even possible (downside of the CA drought.) Run these at too shallow of an angle or with ill water flow and you'll end up with a bunch of sh** on your plate that doesn't clear off as it should.

I have found it is best to run my sniper fairly steep and haven't really suffered any gold loss, I have even gone back and panned what I could of my tailings - IMHO it's better to run it a little on the steep side and suffer, at worst, mild gold loss than to be fighting with a clogging trap or slow moving gravels (It's a numbers game to me, I'd rather lose a little retention to speed up the volume of production.)

 

[GFBurke]

How often are you guys doing a clean out? ish? As in, "after a few buckets" or "just run all dam day!" ?

 

[AU_Solitude]

How often are you guys doing a clean out? ish? As in, "after a few buckets" or "just run all dam day!" ?

I clean and pan to con's every hour, save for later on the sniper. Varies with black sand/geology.