Do Bazookas really catch fine gold?

[Aufisher]

Those 48" zooks catch fine gold on the outside of sluice too lol. Of course I shovel all over the darn thing while my partner laughs!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Ok. I will stir the pot a little. Scientific studies show that hydraulic equivalence has everything to do with gold capture in sluices and other gravity methods including cyclones, etc. Here is one study and I have seen at least one other which was done by another government sponsored agency in Alaska. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0594f/report.pdf Doc at Goldhog has a good and instructive video on this subject too. This sorting and subsequent concentration is what a bazooka and other sluices do while ejecting lighter and less hydraulic equivalent material including gold. This principle is also demonstrated in the blue bowl and a miller table and is why many struggle to tune them to work right. Because of this I think there is some or a lot of validity on what Asmbandits has observed comparing sample pan finds thus expectations vs. actual bazooka gold recovery quantities and overall particle sizing and that it could and probably does translate, unknowingly, to other bazooka miners. Kevinincolorado. How do your pictured Colorado fines on this thread compare to fines recovered on your ocean beach black sand gold that you recovered in your testing and do you think you would recover the beach gold if that black sand was mixed with your Colorado feed? Since what you found is probably only worth a few cents, care to do a field test? I think it would be instructive for all bazooka users as to just how efficient a bazooka is in capturing really, really fine gold. I only have a homemade bazooka but if I can find some suitable running water around Tucson I may try a test of my own with my Oregon beach concentrates.

Good question on the beach sand test. That Oregon beach sand is scary stuff! When I ran it straight into an empty bazooka it caught all the +50 and all of the +100 but only a minor fraction of the -100. Preloading the trap with gravel significantly improved the -100 catch rate but some -100 (mostly well smaller than my 100 mesh screen which is my smallest) continued to escape. Very acceptable losses for most situations but it would be interesting to run a Bazooka next to one of those beach boxes designed to catch -100 gold to see who got more gold. Any time you feed your gear with a little garden trowel instead of a #2 shovel, I think you will lose the final weigh in of the gold against a Bazooka.

 

[Prospector70]

I need people handing me full 5 gallon buckets of dirt to wash...

say 3 minutes per 5 gallon bucket.
that's 20 buckets an hour
40 buckets are a cubic yard of dirt.
Imagine the gold I could get washing a half a cubic yard of dirt an hour...

God.. I'm going to end up with a gold mine aren't i? Holy ___!

 

[Asmbandits]

I agree that it is very hard to gain trust in this device, as I've ran mine now all summer and have formed the opinion that it works good for sure but at the same time I can't believe that I'm catching everything for some reason.. I've ran it all day, 2 clean outs, all day with 5+ clean outs, ran where most buildup in the trap was concentrated on the sides as there was higher pressure, and ran it where the bed was completely full of material.. All results vary so much it's hard to tell what's really working or if your prospect isn't as good as you thought.. I do know that no matter how I run it, the size of the smallest black sand I'm left with is very uniform with very little to no "dust" size particles. I do get some very fine gold sometimes but it's only a few specs compared to the 100+ mesh gold I end up with. I've panned a bit of fine gold from some of the holes I'm testing to run and I see the super fine gold/sand then but not as much as when I clean out the bazooka. I still can't stop using the bazooka.. You have to look at it like this, there's always going to be some degree of loss running a sluice or trap. The trap let's you run much much more material so in a way your giving up some of that super fine in order to double or triple the rest of the gold production. It's like watching someone spend 20 min panning each pan full all day long, while another pans at about 2 min per pan. Both are good panners yet I'm sure the faster miner ends up with more gold for the most part. Just my 2 cents..

Here is a photo of the black sand I capture with the bazooka, notice the size of the grain it is about 50-100 mesh, very little if non smaller than 50.


And this is what I consider flour gold, probably closer to to -10? This and the very fine sand with it are what I see very little of when running the bazooka. This was out of a ez sluice believe it or not, on a good pocket of flour I hit all day and ran at home in the recirculating setup I have. This is what I have been referring to..

 

[TheGoldProspector]

Here is a photo of the black sand I capture with the bazooka, notice the size of the grain it is about 100 mesh, very little if non smaller than 50. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1061880"/> And this is what I consider flour gold, probably closer to to -10? This and the very fine sand with it are what I see very little of when running the bazooka. This was out of a ez sluice believe it or not, on a good pocket of flour I hit all day and ran at home in the recirculating setup I have. This is what I have been referring to.. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1061882"/>

Im not delving too deep within this thread, but I can say the bgt NEEDS more waterflow than any other box i have witnessed/used. With classified material, off a drop, gold was caught in a box behind my 30" prospector..I havent used it since..
No hard feelings

 

[KevinInColorado]

Im not delving too deep within this thread, but I can say the bgt NEEDS more waterflow than any other box i have witnessed/used. With classified material, off a drop, gold was caught in a box behind my 30" prospector..I havent used it since.. No hard feelings

well yeah, if you run it too flat in slow water then the bed locks up and you lose gold. Don't do that.

 

[bakergeol]

First off- a lot of great posts here. Thanks guys. Also some difference of opinion here which is good. I do think that Asmbandits has gotten a lot of flak for his opinions but he has some valid points. Not all areas have the same amount of super fine gold. The more you process- the more gold you get is probably what Todd Hoffman said in Gold Rush Guyana LOL Some areas are special with regards to very fine gold content- and certainly Colorado has some unique fine gold areas.

Good Luck
George

 

[Prospector70]

Do you consider the GC a sluice, or a highbanker?
The more dirt you process the more gold you get. Doesnt matter the amount of gold in the dirt you are digging, if you would have used a GC or a standard riffle sluice in the same spot where you were operating your BGT you would have far less gold. Because you can't move as much dirt when you are classifying.

This assumes that you are using all devices as intended.
The BGT Requires lots of water, no one is disputing that.
The BGT Requires the pebbles and other small heavies to properly pressurize the fluid bed, don't classify unless Clay. Load the trap with rocks first.
Watching gold go in is futile, you shouldnt be able to see micron gold walkin down the plate, watch it in your pan later at home.
Don't overload. You know it when it happens.

<3

 

[Goldwasher]

I am not bashing anyone. I said myself that all sluices lose some gold. I never questioned anyones ability only gave advice against believing you are losing gold because you don't like your take at the end of the day. There are to many variables for that to be an indicator. Todd has recommendations on how to run your sluice based on the average size you are trying to recover. If your mainly recovering -20 you should run flatter and slower. In our area and especially on our claim there is gold from Micron to ounce plus pieces. With 20+ being the norm. Running as much material as possible after proper sampling produces the best results. When we have the flow we run our bazookas full blast so the material clears. Or else we would be piddling along. Running like this puts any other sluice to shame in respect to volume of gold captured of all sizes including - 100 mesh gold. Way more!!!We are not losing any amount that would warrant a change of gear or approach. We are not foolish or Ignorant. To the contrary our approach has been dictated and guided by results. I say that and speak in confidence on behalf of several members who post here and run Bazookas. Again someone asked a question and I answered getting defensive and taking things personally is not what I intended for anyone to do. Sorry If I offended anyone.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Well said goldwasher! One caution on running flatter to catch fine gold: depending on water velocity, going too flat will depressurize the fluid bed...then there aren't gaps in the bed for your fine gold to drop thru and you'll lose gold. I've found I can be confident the bed is good if golf ball sized rocks are clearing the grizzlies unaided. If your water velocity is too weak for that then it's sketchy for good pressurization. To resolve this, increase sluice slope. This puts a bigger head of water pressing DOWN on the water in the tubes increasing pressurization in the tubes and therefore fluidization in the bed. Gotta love physics!

 

[ChrisinCO]

Well considering that where I was there should be no gold my maiden voyage of my BGT yeilded 6 extremely tiny specks and a lot of lead (guessing on that) pieces in about 30 shovels or so. Excited to get it into the Denver area!!!. I may add some 1/4" hardware cloth to the grizzlies as it came with the bigger grizzly option.

 

[fowledup]

Here is a photo of the black sand I capture with the bazooka, notice the size of the grain it is about 50-100 mesh, very little if non smaller than 50.
View attachment 1061880

And this is what I consider flour gold, probably closer to to -10? This and the very fine sand with it are what I see very little of when running the bazooka. This was out of a ez sluice believe it or not, on a good pocket of flour I hit all day and ran at home in the recirculating setup I have. This is what I have been referring to..
View attachment 1061882

Please don't think I'm being condescending or questioning your abilities, but I can hear your frustration with what myself and others are saying about what we are recovering. It's not that no one disbelieves or doesn't understand what your saying it's just that we are not having the same problems. I was thinking about what you'd said about Todd's "disclaimer", he's a business man. He is going to tell you the results of what he knows the Bazooka will do in the average prospectors hands. That's just smart, Todd's a good guy who's not gonna mislead you or give you false expectations, not his style. We've all told you we have and are constantly checking what we are recovering, some of these guys here have some serious time behind these traps and have them down to a science. I would say I'm average in my bazooka abilities and I'm telling you mine recovers black sand like your "flour size" photo all day long. I will say that I typically use mine different then most as I'm a crack ho most of the time, I don't shovel into it, I'll scrape cracks and classify into a bucket until it's full then feed it with a scoop.
Curious what river were those black sands in the photo are from? Is it the only river you've ran your Bazooka in? The grainy black sands in the photo were pretty big. Up where I'm at there are two rivers not 10 miles apart- Butte Creek and the West Branch of the Feather River. Butte Creek has super fine black sand like your bottom photo, looks like cream of wheat in the pan, but black obviously-lol. The upper West Branch you'll never see a piece smaller then the top photo, never. So maybe location has something to do with it. Are you close to Placerville, ask Todd or one of the guys on here to meet up with you and see how they are running their boxes. Again not saying your running it wrong but I'm pretty sure some of the folks on here that know these boxes inside out can help you improve your take.
Another thought, run your bazooka into a masonry/tub, you might even try a curtain or deflector to make sure your knocking down the discharge. Run five gallons thru the trap then run the tub thru your ez-sluice. Compare the two. Then reverse the sluices. Grab another five gallons and run it thru the ez-sluice into the tub and then run that thru the Bazooka. Hate to see folks develop hard feelings over a chunk of ABS (although a beautiful chunk of ABS), good luck and take care- fowled

 

[KevinInColorado]

Where did you go Chris?

 

[wtetro]

<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1061619"/> ...from other recent days. Can you say fly poop gold? Sure, I knew you could! LoL!

Love the silver Dime Kevin!

 

[Asmbandits]

Please don't think I'm being condescending or questioning your abilities, but I can hear your frustration with what myself and others are saying about what we are recovering. It's not that no one disbelieves or doesn't understand what your saying it's just that we are not having the same problems. I was thinking about what you'd said about Todd's "disclaimer", he's a business man. He is going to tell you the results of what he knows the Bazooka will do in the average prospectors hands. That's just smart, Todd's a good guy who's not gonna mislead you or give you false expectations, not his style. We've all told you we have and are constantly checking what we are recovering, some of these guys here have some serious time behind these traps and have them down to a science. I would say I'm average in my bazooka abilities and I'm telling you mine recovers black sand like your "flour size" photo all day long. I will say that I typically use mine different then most as I'm a crack ho most of the time, I don't shovel into it, I'll scrape cracks and classify into a bucket until it's full then feed it with a scoop.
Curious what river were those black sands in the photo are from? Is it the only river you've ran your Bazooka in? The grainy black sands in the photo were pretty big. Up where I'm at there are two rivers not 10 miles apart- Butte Creek and the West Branch of the Feather River. Butte Creek has super fine black sand like your bottom photo, looks like cream of wheat in the pan, but black obviously-lol. The upper West Branch you'll never see a piece smaller then the top photo, never. So maybe location has something to do with it. Are you close to Placerville, ask Todd or one of the guys on here to meet up with you and see how they are running their boxes. Again not saying your running it wrong but I'm pretty sure some of the folks on here that know these boxes inside out can help you improve your take.
Another thought, run your bazooka into a masonry/tub, you might even try a curtain or deflector to make sure your knocking down the discharge. Run five gallons thru the trap then run the tub thru your ez-sluice. Compare the two. Then reverse the sluices. Grab another five gallons and run it thru the ez-sluice into the tub and then run that thru the Bazooka. Hate to see folks develop hard feelings over a chunk of ABS (although a beautiful chunk of ABS), good luck and take care- fowled

No problem running mine here I have never said that I had a problem getting gold with it and do very well at my claim and the few gpaa claims I've ran it at, in fact my claim partners both run them as well. Plenty of experience backing my observation, I did make an observation and shared it, no more no less, sharing my experience was the goal in my post.

 

[ChrisinCO]

Behind Kohl's 5 mins from my house in the springs.. Just wanted to play with the new toy and had 45 mins to kill...&#55357;&#56832;

 

[Dain8404]

Highbanker Kits Coming Soon!
Posted by BGC on May 15, 2014

Still impatiently waiting for this.....

 

[Prospector70]

Well considering that where I was there should be no gold my maiden voyage of my BGT yeilded 6 extremely tiny specks and a lot of lead (guessing on that) pieces in about 30 shovels or so. Excited to get it into the Denver area!!!. I may add some 1/4" hardware cloth to the grizzlies as it came with the bigger grizzly option.

Those are my favorite places to find gold. Seek the source, no one else thinks there is any there. You may find a nice surprise upstream

Edit: More water will keep the grizzlies clean. I was booming mine last weekend completely submerged and it was clearing the grizzlies just fine (A few Cantaloupe sized rocks too!) And I didnt have to deal with the tailings, which was nice. Got some fairly good oro too.
Bazooka Berzerker! Whoo!

 

[ChrisinCO]

I was getting quite a few 1"+ long flat rocks and a couple of 1" or so steel washer in the trap. Found some 1/2" hardware cloth laying around the shop. It will provide some horizontal classification as the grizzlies are the 1/2" size. Will give it a whirl this weekend.

 

[Prospector70]

I was getting quite a few 1"+ long flat rocks and a couple of 1" or so steel washer in the trap. Found some 1/2" hardware cloth laying around the shop. It will provide some horizontal classification as the grizzlies are the 1/2" size. Will give it a whirl this weekend.

It's the same model I have HWHG. Great unit. Some like the hardware cloth some don't. In my case it held more small rocks and I ended up having to hand clean it too much. I might have been doing it wrong though .