6/03/12 THE BAZOOKA GOLD TRAP DOES IT AGAIN!

[Goodyguy]

What GG said goes for me too. If the tails coming out of my Prospector shows a line of black sand, I take the three minutes to pull it for a clean out.

The Supermini on the other hand seems to have a trap that behaves quite differently. It gets a stationary gravel bed which the gold drops thru (the bed is very, very loose due to the water from the tubes). The other odd part is that it ejects almost all of the black sand almost from the beginning...usually without losing any gold, although once when I set it up on an aggressive slant and dropped some larger rocks on it (unwelcome vibration?) I lost my -50 and smaller gold - lesson learned!

I would love some manufacturer/expert commentary on that Supermini experience since it does seem quite different than the larger model. Comments?

Smaller trap is the reason.

In other words the water pressure from the tubes has less work to do. Because there is less area in the trap and also above the tubes it minimizes the chance for the weight of the black sand to overwhelm the flow from the tubes thus allowing for a more efficient fluidization of the denser material. Of course the smaller trap area is naturally going to be more sensitive to jolts (slosh factor) and too steep of an angle.

GG~

 

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[bazookagoldtrap]

What GG said goes for me too. If the tails coming out of my Prospector shows a line of black sand, I take the three minutes to pull it for a clean out.

The Supermini on the other hand seems to have a trap that behaves quite differently. It gets a stationary gravel bed which the gold drops thru (the bed is very, very loose due to the water from the tubes). The other odd part is that it ejects almost all of the black sand almost from the beginning...usually without losing any gold, although once when I set it up on an aggressive slant and dropped some larger rocks on it (unwelcome vibration?) I lost my -50 and smaller gold - lesson learned!

I would love some manufacturer/expert commentary on that Supermini experience since it does seem quite different than the larger model. Comments?

I'll try and wrangle Todd down and get something official for you Kevin, He is by far the best suited to answer that.. I try and regurgitate what he tells me but a lot of it is still way over my head. :/

Chris

 

[Meep]

Gotta keep an eye on this thread, noticed similar things with the super mini and just figured I wasn't setting it up well enough.

 

[team sidewinder]

Thanks for clearing that up for me GG and KC. I think I will adding a Bazooka to my prospecting tools before next season. Thanks again guys.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Gotta keep an eye on this thread, noticed similar things with the super mini and just figured I wasn't setting it up well enough.

learning something here myself today...live and learn! I have not made the hold down straps for the mini which others have but since that would help avoid big rock related sloshing, I think I'd better get some straps made too.

Chris, thanks, I would love Todd's advice on what matters and what doesn't matter in making the Mini/supermini run optimally. I just hate learning the hard way and that does seem to be some of what's happening ;-)

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

Is anyone else still classifying? My main reason for going with a BGT was to get away from classifying. I have found my Super Mini performs much better if I classify to a 1/2 inch. It just doesn't seem to want to clear that well when I shovel directly into it. Not a big deal really since I can very rarely set up right where I want to dig anyway. Classifying to a 1/2 inch saves you from carrying a pile of rocks all day and you can pretty much feed it as fast as you can with a scoop or garden trough.

 

[Meep]

I haven't been classifying with it but, even in strong current, it doesn't clear it all. Maybe a sharper angle would help but I find myself sitting next to my sluice with an unclassified bucket, troweling stuff in, and giving the bigger rocks a good washing in the sluice before I brush it over the grizzlies by hand.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I have gone back to classifying with the Supermini, or at least being gentle with it. Big rocks and steeper angles seem to lead to losing fine gold. I think anything as small as the SuperMini is going to be negatively affected by processing bigger rocks. Whether you classify to 1/2 or 1 inch may not matter but...yes I'm classifying. Sure glad I also have the Prospector for higher production work...ain't no classifying there!!

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Hey Kevin, you and your darn bgt's lol. Got my prospector in the creek for the first time yesterday was very pleased, set it up off of a small bedrock waterfall so didn't have to keep clearing tailings all day. dug a big deep crack but never hit the bottom, ill pick up were i left off next time but so far the gold is decent. snapped a pic to share also shot a cool lil video ill try to post.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Congrats on your new tool! Looks like the ideal setup to be able to shovel yourself silly! Ps show us the gold? Tell just a bit about your site too...looks awful pretty

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey Kevin, you and your darn bgt's lol. Got my prospector in the creek for the first time yesterday was very pleased, set it up off of a small bedrock waterfall so didn't have to keep clearing tailings all day. dug a big deep crack but never hit the bottom, ill pick up were i left off next time but so far the gold is decent. snapped a pic to share also shot a cool lil video ill try to post.

Took the liberty of orienting your photo.....


BGT's Rule!
GG~

 

[Goodyguy]

Hangtowndiggins,

Noticed that the angle on your BGT looks a little extreme, while the angle does help to keep the grizzly clear it also is reducing the effectiveness of the trap.

Poor graphics showing the trap section, but you may get the idea of what I mean......

 

[ALewis]

Cool graphic....I usually have mine somewhere in-between. Exactly for reason stated, clears grizzly faster, might try running a little flatter. Thanks GG, always great info

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Hey thanks Kevin, and sorry for the quick post was limited on time so was trying to make a long story short.. Yea setting up off of the mini waterfall was ideal for sure. I had about 6 hours of dig time so started off just sluicing on a gravel bar for a couple hours ran about 9 5gal unclassified buckets just to get the feel for the prospector model. Decided to take a lil break and took a lil walk to look around for some cracks, found a awesome lookin one that I could tell had never been touched, so shifted gears and started scraping for the rest of the day, one crack led to another and never bottomed out before I ran outta time, when sluicing the couple buckets from the crack I was definitely seeing nice lil pieces dancing down the textured slick plate was a great sight to see! Cleaned the gold best I can for now so have a pic of what was dug in six hours time, didn't do too bad no pickers this time but was happy to see the amount of fines the bazooka trapped. As for the site, this is historical webber creek running thru the heart of ca gold country in placerville. It's year round snow melt from the Tahoe Sierras. Very secluded for being just 5 minutes out of town, not many people know of this spot, takes a 4x4 truck to get in and out. Lots of beautiful sights down on this creek. Have enjoyed spending the last 6 Saturdays down there by myself just being one with nature and getting my dig on!
Hey gg thanks for rotating my pic not too sure why it keeps posting them sideways, kind of irritating. And thanks for posting the helpful graphic. Funny how the pic made it seem like it was at an extreme angle but if anything I had it set up more close to flat, heve been out multiple times with the supermini so am familiar with general set up of the bgt's. Chris at bgt told me operate anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of fall per foot, so definitely had it set up in the safe zone, I have learned to adjust the fall according to flow, I would much rather clear the grizzly by hand then lose my fines.. If I could figure out how to upload the vid it gives much better perspective of how I had it running, anyway definitely appreciate your help

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nice range of sizes on that gold, good to see.

Chris' advice about 1-3 inches per foot of drop sounds reasonable to me for the prospector...a 9 inch drop over 3 feet does look like a lot!

 

[Goodyguy]

Nice range of sizes on that gold, good to see.

Chris' advice about 1-3 inches per foot of drop sounds reasonable to me for the prospector...a 9 inch drop over 3 feet does look like a lot!

One way to test that advice is to fill the trap with water while it's level and measure the volume. (you would have to cap off or plug the tube inlets for the test) Then raise the farthest end of the sluice from the trap by 9 inches and measure what spills out of the trap to see if it's up to half the total volume. If it is then I would not advise to use the 3" per foot maximum. Same method would apply for any size BGT.

I know I did not invent the BGT and my advice is not official but trust me, I have done extensive testing of fluid bed technology and have built fluid bed traps in all sizes and configurations from 2 inch x 3 inch all the way up to 8 feet long x 14 inches wide, with everything from 1 fluidizing tube all the way up to 48 tubes.

I am not a physicist nor have I played one on TV but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express

I'm not saying that you wont catch any gold if you exceed my advice but I guarantee that your gold recovering capacity will be diminished once you lose over 1/4 of the total volume and severely so if the volume is reduced by half. Even so that still leaves a lot of room for gold!

Of course if the tubes were placed in the trap at an incline and the bottom of the trap was designed on the same incline then a downward angle of the sluice would be compensated for. But you cant always place the sluice where that would work.

NOTE: For maximum fluidization efficiency, the material in the trap should be as level with the tubes as possible from end to end.

Go for the gold,
GG~

 

[KevinInColorado]

A rare KevinInColorado video! It shows my Prospector running today in a little creek just barely enough flow to run it but still worked quite well. The normal depth of the creek is about 4 inches, my dam and of course my hole do the rest! Also at the end you see first the +50 mesh gold (with one +20 flake in there) and then at the very end the -50 gold. The -50 is not fully cleaned yet as I wanted to get this published and call it a night. Hope you all enjoy and thanks to my buddy Vern for shooting video on gear he's never used before. Please forgive my movie editing skills, something to work on...

Here's a shot of the gold for those not in the mood to watch a video...

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Just a quick vid from last Saturday, hope it works

 

[Hangtowndiggins]

Awesome vid Kevin! Looks like you had just enough flow for the prospector in that creek, nice looking v you had going on too! What's the temp like over there? Our weather is calling for our first hard freeze warnings for this winter.. Great lookin gold in your pan looks like your in some thick black sand as well. About how long were you sluicing before you cleaned out the bazooka?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Awesome vid Kevin! Looks like you had just enough flow for the prospector in that creek, nice looking v you had going on too! What's the temp like over there? Our weather is calling for our first hard freeze warnings for this winter.. Great lookin gold in your pan looks like your in some thick black sand as well. About how long were you sluicing before you cleaned out the bazooka?

Even in a bazooka that V is nice to see although not necessary really given the simple function of the top deck. Faster current would have helped a lot to clear that grizzly but you work with what you're given. That being one of the more rich areas in metro Denver, I'm willing to live with it ;-D

It was sunny and 55 yesterday, cloudy and 55 today but dropping into single digits from tonight on. That was part of my motivation to get out there! I have a streak going ...31 months in a row of prospecting at least once every month...so yesterday covers me for December, just in case the rest of this month is too cold and too busy with the holidays. Most likely I will get out more times but it sure was gorgeous out yesterday!

There is a LOT of black sand in the creeks down here. Happily most of it comes out with a magnet. Still that heavy black sand discouraged the gold rush guys back in the day so we still have lots of virgin material to dig :-)

In this case, I had been digging for an hour at a fairly relaxed pace. Total yesterday was two hours of digging and two clean outs...first was to show the friend who held the video cam how I was doing (when he showed up).