Bazooka sniper or prospector. Which should I buy?

[crazykid]

Which is better a 30 inch sniper or prospector? What are the differences? Thanks

 

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[H&F909ORO]

Again anything from KevinInColorado you should listen to. He is the BGTWiki

 

[KevinInColorado]

Well since I have both, I better be able to answer this:
- sniper has a two tube fluid bed, prospector is 50% bigger fluid bed (roughly) with three fluidization tubes.
- sniper is only about 5 pounds vs 8 for the prospector
- the wider skid plate on the Prospector means you can shovel more material faster. In particular, due to it being wider than a shovel, you can shovel right into it whereas you sort of shake your paydirt off the shovel onto the Sniper
- both catch 3/8 to -200 or so gold very, very well!
- both rinse out easily into a bucket in a few seconds
- both produce less than a full 14" pan worth of cons per clean out.

...more questions?

 

[crazykid]

Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate your feedback. I'm just getting into prospecting. Beside the sluice what else would you suggest? I live beside the Uwharrie forest and want to check out the creeks there. Thanks again

 

[KevinInColorado]

Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate your feedback. I'm just getting into prospecting. Beside the sluice what else would you suggest? I live beside the Uwharrie forest and want to check out the creeks there. Thanks again

that's a big question. I think you also need:

For the creek:
- a shovel and a bucket to wash your sluice out in
- a large gold pan to work your cons down at the creek so you aren't hauling a lot of nothing home
- Boots/waders/river shoes as relevant for weather
-Gloves - waterproof and insulated for winter, non absorbent polypropylene (cheap at hardware stores and truck stops) for summer

For e finishing process:
- some classifying screens - the ones I use the most are the following mesh per inch: 8, 20, 50 ...then I pan each resulting material separately, about 1/2 cup of material at a time in a 10" black finish pan (at $2 each, I have a bunch of these so I can dump each size in its own pan during classifying.
- a good magnet to pull the iron sands out of the finishing pan before panning (then let the iron sands all dry, reseparate and pan the non- magnetics left behind by the dry iron sand)
- some jet dry or similar dishwasher rinse aid to break surface tension and avoid floating gold in the finish pan
- a small suction pipette or eye dropper to suck up the gold
- a green Walmart soap dish to drop the gold in as you suck it out of the black pan
- small display/storage vial for the gold after the final separation in the soap dish
- a big basin to finish pan in while sitting at home with a cold beer

...how am I doing guys? What would you add?

 

[Aufisher]

If you can afford two, I would recommend the 24" sniper and the 36" Prospector. One for backpack and one for drive up and short walk use.

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you can afford two, I would recommend the 24" sniper and the 36" Prospector. One for backpack and one for drive up and short walk use.

easy to agree with that! This will also help you deal with different water flows and conditions.

 

[delnorter]

Roomy backpack, crowbar and knee pads.

Mike

 

[keitha43]

I would also recommend both. As the prospector requires more water flow than the sniper. So in slower moving creeks the sniper would be the better choice. But with good water flow the prospector can process faster than I could fill it. Of course I am older and slower than Kevin

 

[crazykid]

You guys are great. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[425jesse]

I only have tried the 30"Sniper, it's awesome. I have never set up a sluice so easily. I haven't tried the prospector yet, but it is my next purchase for sure. If you think about it, it's a good idea to start with the sniper, because it can run almost anywhere the prospector could, but the prospector can't run in all the same places as the sniper...good luck!!

 

[Prospector70]

I can only speak to the prospector, (I LOVE IT!)
Prospector shipping weight:
30 inch 11 lbs.
36 inch 13 lbs.
48 inch 19 lbs. <- that's my baby, baby.

Sniper shipping weight:
24 inch 5 lbs
30 inch 6 lbs
36 inch 9 lbs

I too would recommend both sluices, one for river one for creeks. I sure wish I had that sniper... *whistles rudely* For that matter I wish I had one of each size. (Especially that sweet 48 inch miner).


Adding to Kevin's great suggestions:
A clean well lit area where you can work without dropping your dirt (Absolutely NO carpets)(at least no carpets you can't burn and pan the ashes out of lol)
A hobbyist head mounted magnifier (Cause I'm old and blind, that's why)
A very fine paint brush for moving the fines around in your green soap dish

Optional:
If you aren't good at panning (or are fond of drinking beer and watching the dirts spin like me), you may want to consider a blue bowl. They work great if you follow the instructions (although its a slow process, it gives you more time to enjoy your frosty adult beverage).
Best of luck!

I like carrying home all the traps contents, I'm fond of looking at the tiny rocks and finding interesting bits of metal. (Zippers, buttons, brass thingies, fishing weights, shot pellets, fired bullets and small doohickies) I also have a nice collection going of unfired rounds, a .22 short, a 9mm a 30 aught six and a new CF 22-250 round found yesterday.

I have about 2.5 gallons of cons to keep me busy this week until I can get out again. We tried a new spot in the Platte, saw the gold going down. So I know its there waiting for me.

After thinking about that here is another consideration:
How much shoveling do you like to do? If a lot I recommend going big.

 

[Aufisher]

48" is a hungry beast!

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

48" is a hungry beast!

I Bet!!!!!

 

[bazookagoldtrap]

I can only speak to the prospector, (I LOVE IT!)
Sniper weight:
24 inch 5 lbs
30 inch 6 lbs
36 inch 9 lbs

the 36" Sniper is actually just under 6 lbs carry weight. The weights listed on the website are shipping weights that include packaging. Thanks for posting this P70, it reminded me that we need to add carry weights on the product pages.

Thanks Again!

Chris

 

[DynoGuy]

Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate your feedback. I'm just getting into prospecting. Beside the sluice what else would you suggest? I live beside the Uwharrie forest and want to check out the creeks there. Thanks again

I have both a 30" Prospector & a Super Mini and mostly go to Uwharrie, depending on what time of year and which creek you go to in Uwharrie you will need one or the other because of water flow. Maybe Kevin can answer the difference between the water flow needs of a Sniper and a Super Mini.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I would say the Sniper is about half way between the Prospector and the Supermini. That said, I've run my Sniper with surprisingly little water and it still works although I had to push more rocks off the grizzly since the water wasn't doing it for me.

The fluid bed in the Sniper is about 4x the supermini so I would guess it uses 4x the fluidizing water but since that's still just not much water it's not the main issue, it's the water thru the grizzly that adds up. The fluid bed in the Prospector is about twice as big as the Sniper or a little more btw.

...I would love to get accurate data on this from the manufacturer of course...

 

[Hoshnasi]

I would say the Sniper is about half way between the Prospector and the Supermini. That said, I've run my Sniper with surprisingly little water and it still works although I had to push more rocks off the grizzly since the water wasn't doing it for me.

The fluid bed in the Sniper is about 4x the supermini so I would guess it uses 4x the fluidizing water but since that's still just not much water it's not the main issue, it's the water thru the grizzly that adds up. The fluid bed in the Prospector is about twice as big as the Sniper or a little more btw.

...I would love to get accurate data on this from the manufacturer of course...

Can you shovel feed the sniper without classifying?

 

[Campngolf]

Can you shovel feed the sniper without classifying?

I took my 30" Sniper out for the first time last weekend and I was amazed at how easily it handled unclassified material. Our water flow wasn't the best so if you have good flow, I think the Sniper could take a nice steady stream of material.

 

[425jesse]

Agreed exactly with camp!