Bazooka Question

[AugustMoose87]

I was lucky enough to get a 36" prospector for my birthday

I took it and played with it in the river on my lunch break today, and I'm loving it. The closest thing to a complaint I have is wish I could SEE that it was working properly, like you can with a regular sluice. I'm sure as I use it more, I'll became more confident with it and that wish will pass.

I had an idea, but wanted to make sure it wasn't a stupid one first... I'm thinking of using the concentrates I got today to "prime" the trap the next time. I figure doing that would be the same as working for 4 hours straight rather than 1 hour 4 days in a row... Right?

 

[Asmbandits]

You have to give it a good fingering to tell if its working properly Stick you finger in the trap and press down through the material, if its easy to push through and fluidized its working, if not you need flow and or angle. You want enough flow to clear material from the grizzly bars but you will still probably have to manually clear it once in a while. Flow is your friend, keep that in mind.

Yes you can "prime" the trap, ive heard of some using marbles and old cons and what not but I wouldn't worry about this personally, just feed that sucker!

 

[Aufisher]

Congratulations on your new sluice!

 

[Goldwasher]

just pan out your cons and throw the waste out. The first shovel or two "primes" the trap all you"ll need. As long as you have flow over the top deck small upper one your trap is fluid.

 

[AugustMoose87]

So I'm less concerned about the priming, and more interested in not spending the same amount of time panning as sluicing each day - do a bunch of sluicing a little bit at a time, then do just on thorough pan out at the end

 

[Goodyguy]

So I'm less concerned about the priming, and more interested in not spending the same amount of time panning as sluicing each day - do a bunch of sluicing a little bit at a time, then do just on thorough pan out at the end

I would not advise it if you are talking about multiple days of running between clean outs.
The reason why is because the longer the sluice runs with out a clean up more heavies will build up in the trap such as black sand. Too much black sand or any abundance of dense material build up and you run the risk of hindering the fluidization process due to the increase in back pressure against the jets. If that occurs then it's more likely that incoming gold will not have as much of a chance to settle down toward the bottom of the trap and therefore could be discharged.

That's why some will prime the trap with filler gravels to prevent dense material packing and to keep the jets clear enough to maintain maximum fluidization.

As far as saving time on running your cons goes, there are less cons to run with a clean out from a bazooka prospector than most any other sluice. I save up my classified cons until I get a 5 gal bucket full and then spend 10 min to run them through a gold cube.

GG~

 

[Goldwasher]

I would not advise it.
The reason why is because the longer the sluice runs with out a clean up more heavies will build up in the trap such as black sand. Too much black sand or any abundance of dense material build up and you run the risk of hindering the fluidization process due to the increase in back pressure against the jets. If that occurs then it's more likely that incoming gold will not have as much of a chance to settle down toward the bottom of the trap and therefore could be discharged.

That's why some will prime the trap with filler gravels to prevent dense material packing and to keep the jets clear enough to maintain maximum fluidization.

GG~

heavies will always displace the less dense material..the bigger stuff ends up on top..beach sand eh sure bring some gravel.....if the material your digging has any gravels in it they will prime the trap just fine its not called priming its called working!!!!!

You guys JUST DIG leave the dang box alone so I can concentrate on doing its job

 

[Aufisher]

Set it up right, shovel all day and then pan concentrates.

 

[KevinInColorado]

So I'm less concerned about the priming, and more interested in not spending the same amount of time panning as sluicing each day - do a bunch of sluicing a little bit at a time, then do just on thorough pan out at the end

You can if you want. No harm but don't you want to see your gold sooner? Anyway...

 

[OwenT]

So I'm less concerned about the priming, and more interested in not spending the same amount of time panning as sluicing each day

Set it up right, shovel all day and then pan concentrates.

Right, run all day, do one pan when it's all over.

 

[motohed]

I don't know about you but my finger does'nt fit !!!!!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

I don't know about you but my finger does'nt fit !!!!!!

There's a joke in here somewhere but I'm too much of a gentleman to go looking for it

 

[AU_Solitude]

I don't know about you but my finger does'nt fit !!!!!!

 

[AugustMoose87]

Set it up right, shovel all day and then pan concentrates.

That is exactly my problem - I'm doing this on my lunch break, 30 minutes each day.

I'm not talking about ALWAYS doing that, just in this situation - shovel for 30 minutes (maybe 2-3 gallons of raw material) Monday, empty the trap; come back Tuesday, pour yesterday's cons on to the deck, then shovel for another 30 minutes. Rinse and repeat until I've spent 10 or so hours shoveling 25 gallons of raw material, and THEN process the cons.

As far as saving time on running your cons goes, there are less cons to run with a clean out from a bazooka prospector than most any other sluice.

GG~

I must be lucky then, because the 36" aluminum sluice I have produced 1/3-1/4 the cons my new bazooka does. But it also took 20 times longer to do a proper clean out - a trade off I'm happy to make

 

[OwenT]

That is exactly my problem - I'm doing this on my lunch break, 30 minutes each day.

I'm not talking about ALWAYS doing that, just in this situation - shovel for 30 minutes (maybe 2-3 gallons of raw material) Monday, empty the trap; come back Tuesday, pour yesterday's cons on to the deck, then shovel for another 30 minutes. Rinse and repeat until I've spent 10 or so hours shoveling 25 gallons of raw material, and THEN process the cons.



I must be lucky then, because the 36" aluminum sluice I have produced 1/3-1/4 the cons my new bazooka does. But it also took 20 times longer to do a proper clean out - a trade off I'm happy to make

Oh, personally I would be nervous about doing that but it should be ok, I would get some material in the trap first though, then run it back in not too quickly. As for the amount of cons it makes, from the same the amount of material run over a day you'll probably have less total with the bazooka considering you would probably clean out a traditional sluice several times while you only do one with the bazooka.

 

[Aufisher]

Look for gold on the plate and shovel till heart hits max beats and that's what I call cardio! Who needs a stinking gym. membership!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yes, do it like OwenT says.