Do Bazookas really catch fine gold?

I ran my A-51 behind my bgt last time out. I was running my bgt pretty steep and not washing the rocks as well as I normally do. I was just dumping them and letting them flow on down. Definitely some fines in there. I just posted a video on my prospecting journal yesterday. Here's a picture of clean out a-51 on left

Even after enlarging the photo, it looks like a similar amount of gold in each pile. Is the BGT losing half the gold? Was the A-51 PERFECTLY clean? I had an off-brand miners moss sluice that I thought I had cleaned several years ago and I hadn't used in in a while. After drying for many months, I rolled up the moss and pounded it on a table and tons of fine cold came out of it. Do you weigh your gold?
 

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That's a good question. It may not have been totally clean, I didn't think​ about that. I should have banged it out again before taking it out again. No I don't weigh my gold, maybe I should start.
 

Bazooka Are not made to catch black sand. They are made to catch gold. Even Gold Hog sluices are made to catch gold not black sand. Asm if you don"t believe the gold I find is very fine I don"t care. I have to use a loupe to see most of it. Thats very fine gold to me.
 

last Saturday I was running my Bazooka prospector In a popular public spot and there was a guy there next to me that was an older guy and had the stand Keene old school sluice and he had a newbie with him. Didn't seem like a friend but more like a client.
So they set there sluice right next to mine which is fine but the guy is giving him all the standard instuctions. make sure the v is going down the middle, not to steep not to flat, classification and feed rates and here I am just chucking shovel fulls of dirt and cobble on the deck and basically undermining everything he was trying to tell the guy lol. he didn't look to pleased but didn't say anything to me and I kept quite even though I was tempted to talk to the guy as he kept looking over at what I was doing instead of his "instructor".

I did my cleanout and was just admiring my take and the older guy came up from behind to check it out. He didn't say much but I jokingly said " see it works ok" and he seemed to acknowledge.

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Lol..lol..lol.. great story M.T.T.S. if it was me I most likely would have started whistling Girl from Impomena ... just to rub in the stress free operation of the zook. Lol

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I've tried catch pans to see what I was losing and it wasn't worth worrying about. The bazookas will catch it if you feed it properly and they like good water flow even with fine gold I've noticed.
Once the gold hits the trap it's stuck.
 

last Saturday I was running my Bazooka prospector In a popular public spot and there was a guy there next to me that was an older guy and had the stand Keene old school sluice and he had a newbie with him. Didn't seem like a friend but more like a client.
So they set there sluice right next to mine which is fine but the guy is giving him all the standard instuctions. make sure the v is going down the middle, not to steep not to flat, classification and feed rates and here I am just chucking shovel fulls of dirt and cobble on the deck and basically undermining everything he was trying to tell the guy lol. he didn't look to pleased but didn't say anything to me and I kept quite even though I was tempted to talk to the guy as he kept looking over at what I was doing instead of his "instructor".

I did my cleanout and was just admiring my take and the older guy came up from behind to check it out. He didn't say much but I jokingly said " see it works ok" and he seemed to acknowledge.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I would have shown him how you can feed the hell out of a Keene and skip all procedure and get great results as well. Swap out the riffles for 3/4" raised expanded and its even better.

You can feed a four foot sluice much faster than all the beginner books and club pros tell you. Most people are pretty scared of sluicing be cause they "lose Gold"

Don't shovel in loads of 4 inch cobble but with the right material prep you don't have to bucket classify thats for sure. A few bigger rocks roll right through just like in a drop riffle.
 

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FYI - Snake River Products has an A52 insert that easily replaces your standard riffle system without any modifications to your sluice. We have three different insert configurations - straight vortex matting, vortex/Cleangold matting (turns your A52 into an awesome beach box!) or a blank insert so you can put what ever matting you choose. Insert includes a straight flare to replace the standard angled one. $95 (or $60 for the blank) buys you a bunch of versatility and fine gold recovery but allows you to revert back to the standard riffle system anytime its needed. We also have a 1/4" hopper that can also be added.

Check it out at snakeriverproducts.com
 

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