Bazooka Gold Company Status?

[gldguy1]

I just saw this in sluicing board so thought I would post incase some of you haven't been over that way and own bazooka products

 

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[HardHatMatt]

You might send a PM to the poster Goldwasher; he may be willing to provide some contact info for the owner and/or former manager.

 

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[HMiller]

Dang I was waiting for super Saturday @ 20% off to nab those. Good job getting them. I was mostly kidding but was tempted. Here is a pic at Arlington hardware I took. Might even be the 2 you bought.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[425jesse]

There was one in a glass case at the cashier too, not sure if it's gone also...

 

[crumbaker]

There was an obviously clear design flaw that I'm surprised nobody has picked up on. The things should have been made with clear plastic so you can see they are working right. They are great when in the proper situation(arguably just as good as a highbanker), getting in that proper placement is a lot harder than many people realize, and flat out not possible with slow moving streams and rivers.

I will be selling mine on ebay tomorrow. I would much rather use a highbanker with a tub, tractor battery, and bilge pump off site if needed. It's more money but I'm not going to spend half my day setting it up properly if its even possible. However I do recommend people owning one, it really is great when it can be used properly. Although I only used the thing 4 times.

 

[Goldfleks]

You definitely need water flow to run them optimally. You can run the Sniper in lower flow with enough wing dams on the river, but you are going to be pawing rocks off the slick plate and grizzly if you don't classify. But that's the same as any sluice running in low flow conditions. But when the river is ripping I don't think any sluice can compare to the volume of dirt you can feed the bazooka. I think it's more of a "tool" to have in the river depending on conditions. I recently pcked up a prospector model because of all the rains I can dump buckets and process faster than my sniper could. I don't anticipate using my prospector in August when the flow drops on the river, I'm anticipating having to build a wing dam and running my sniper again.

But I disagree that they are hard to set up. I just wedge a couple of rocks so it's not taking a sluice ride down the river and I'm set to go. All you have to do is stick your finger into the trap and you can see if it's fluidized or not. I think they need a little bit of VMatt to show the gold while you're digging, but that's more of just a preference of liking to see the gold as I dig (without haveing to do a cleanout) and less of an opperational thing.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I quite agree Goldfleks!

Crumbaker, I'd love to hear of a sluice that works in that sort of river, without a pump of course. For your circumstances a highbanker is definitely a better solution. Choose it carefully so you have a modern, efficient design which you'll be proud of for many years!

 

[goldog]

Nice first post crumb. If you can't set it up selling is probably a good idea for you.

 

[arizau]

There was an obviously clear design flaw that I'm surprised nobody has picked up on. The things should have been made with clear plastic so you can see they are working right. They are great when in the proper situation(arguably just as good as a highbanker), getting in that proper placement is a lot harder than many people realize, and flat out not possible with slow moving streams and rivers.

I will be selling mine on ebay tomorrow. I would much rather use a highbanker with a tub, tractor battery, and bilge pump off site if needed. It's more money but I'm not going to spend half my day setting it up properly if its even possible. However I do recommend people owning one, it really is great when it can be used properly. Although I only used the thing 4 times.

There are several threads about the bazooka on this forum and many of the posts are about how to set up and run the sluice. There are definitely certain stream conditions where they cannot be run but sometimes what you think you can't overcome can be if you use some the ideas put forward. Use the search function at the top of the page and, after reading some of the threads, maybe you will change your mind.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Great product and I couldn't be happier with my bazookas.
I hate to see them go.

 

[et1955]

I still don't understand how you BGT users can be so devoted to a mystery sluice, how can you learn where the gold is if you just shovel into it and don't know if you have gold till you cleanup. My A52 with my mods show me instantly that I am on the gold, knowing the deposition of gold by different floods will help you be a better and more efficient miner. Also have you BGT users ever set up a sluice below the BGT to see if you are losing gold, I have tested the tailings from 2 guy's that used the BGT up here on a certain river, easiest gold I have ever found. Mod suggestion for you BGT users, first add 1/8" ribbed matt above the grill for your on the gold indicator and second add an extension on the back end with ribbed matting so you can tell if you are losing gold.

 

[crumbaker]

The spots I have found in Ohio the water was never really moving fast enough, except at one location. Would probably keep it if I was in Oregon still. I did have a more traditional small sluice also that was far more forgiving when it comes to water speed.

 

[425jesse]

BGT has a slick plate, and you can see the gold just fine as it dances into your trap. First couple shovels are a good indicator, then shovel like mad.

Shocking (not) to see you (ET) talking about how great you are , do you ever just tell other people good job and enjoy? Last time I saw you posting you were bragging how great you are too, how your sluice is better than guys with 6" dredges and helicopters for access. Maybe just encourage others and be helpful once in a while.

When I asked you about help all I got was bland advice and a bit of an additude, kinda like above.

And if you don't like it and don't use BGT, why do you feel the need to comment here?

 

[Goldwasher]

There was an obviously clear design flaw that I'm surprised nobody has picked up on. The things should have been made with clear plastic so you can see they are working right. They are great when in the proper situation(arguably just as good as a highbanker), getting in that proper placement is a lot harder than many people realize, and flat out not possible with slow moving streams and rivers.

I will be selling mine on ebay tomorrow. I would much rather use a highbanker with a tub, tractor battery, and bilge pump off site if needed. It's more money but I'm not going to spend half my day setting it up properly if its even possible. However I do recommend people owning one, it really is great when it can be used properly. Although I only used the thing 4 times.

There is an opaque thought design in you design...Plastic is softer than rock and sand. It would not take long before your view window is useless from abrasion.
Glass would last a little longer but, glass and creeksides don't get along. Not all good Ideas make good design attributes.

Having to take the box apart to access the inside of the trap just isn't a reasonable thing to ask of customers.

The sluice works fine if your watching it or not.

 

[Goldwasher]

I still don't understand how you BGT users can be so devoted to a mystery sluice, how can you learn where the gold is if you just shovel into it and don't know if you have gold till you cleanup. My A52 with my mods show me instantly that I am on the gold, knowing the deposition of gold by different floods will help you be a better and more efficient miner. Also have you BGT users ever set up a sluice below the BGT to see if you are losing gold, I have tested the tailings from 2 guy's that used the BGT up here on a certain river, easiest gold I have ever found. Mod suggestion for you BGT users, first add 1/8" ribbed matt above the grill for your on the gold indicator and second add an extension on the back end with ribbed matting so you can tell if you are losing gold.

People who shovel into sluices to " see" how much gold there is. Are going to get less gold than people who properly sample before even setting up a sluice.When your on gold you can see it hang up on the slick plate.

A bazooka loses the same gold any sluice loses. the gold that a sluice loses from the part of it that holds gold is not going to suddenly get caught in vmat at the output end. Sluice boxes excel at catching gold. People run sluices wrong and lose gold.
Anyone who actually spends decent time running a sluice would know that.

 

[Goldfleks]

I still don't understand how you BGT users can be so devoted to a mystery sluice, how can you learn where the gold is if you just shovel into it and don't know if you have gold till you cleanup.

Sample pan.

Learned this the hard way. Pretty sure I've had my Garrett 1/2" plastic classifier pan for over a year now and only just recently started using it. I used to just shovel buckets randomly and just clean out every hour or so. And I got specs. It was a game of "pick the hole" and jump into whatever hole was there, and just run volume. I would dig horizontal and follow those red rusty layers until the overburden collapsed down, and then I would run overburden trying to get back to that rusty layer. I found specs, but not much. And that was OK for me a year ago. I was extremely green to prospecting (still am) and just seeing a spec in my pan was worth it.

This year I've been sample panning my layers before I dig in. If my pan is empty, I pull another sample pan from a deeper layer. Until I pan out some gold in my sample pan. This allowed me to skip the upper 5 feet of my hole and all the pretty rusty red layers that I used to chase and dig where I'm actually getting gold in every bucket. Once I know I'm on the gold (and that's all relative to your area and how much gold in your pan is worth you digging for) then I start running buckets. After I've cleared out that section I'll run a few sample pans of the next layer below to see if it's worth going deeper or if I should stick to this layer and dig horizontal. It's pretty easy to follow the lines/colors in the ground when they are all piled high like a big cake.

But that's prospecting, and that has nothing to do with sluice design.

I still think I might add some V-Mat to my bazooka, just because it's fun to see the sparkle while I'm digging. But I'm never worried about not having gold in my box. I know it's in my box because it keep showing up in my sample pans as I test what I'm digging every time I move to a new section and the type of gravel/material changes. The guys running V-Mat are always hunched over their boxes waiting for the black sands to clear after every spoon full of dirt waiting to suck up a speck of fly poop with their snuffer bottle.

 

[Goldwasher]

Sample pan.

Learned this the hard way. Pretty sure I've had my Garrett 1/2" plastic classifier pan for over a year now and only just recently started using it. I used to just shovel buckets randomly and just clean out every hour or so. And I got specs. It was a game of "pick the hole" and jump into whatever hole was there, and just run volume. I would dig horizontal and follow those red rusty layers until the overburden collapsed down, and then I would run overburden trying to get back to that rusty layer. I found specs, but not much. And that was OK for me a year ago. I was extremely green to prospecting (still am) and just seeing a spec in my pan was worth it.

This year I've been sample panning my layers before I dig in. If my pan is empty, I pull another sample pan from a deeper layer. Until I pan out some gold in my sample pan. This allowed me to skip the upper 5 feet of my hole and all the pretty rusty red layers that I used to chase and dig where I'm actually getting gold in every bucket. Once I know I'm on the gold (and that's all relative to your area and how much gold in your pan is worth you digging for) then I start running buckets. After I've cleared out that section I'll run a few sample pans of the next layer below to see if it's worth going deeper or if I should stick to this layer and dig horizontal. It's pretty easy to follow the lines/colors in the ground when they are all piled high like a big cake.

But that's prospecting, and that has nothing to do with sluice design.

I still think I might add some V-Mat to my bazooka, just because it's fun to see the sparkle while I'm digging. But I'm never worried about not having gold in my box. I know it's in my box because it keep showing up in my sample pans as I test what I'm digging every time I move to a new section and the type of gravel/material changes. The guys running V-Mat are always hunched over their boxes waiting for the black sands to clear after every spoon full of dirt waiting to suck up a speck of fly poop with their snuffer bottle.

anyone I know that has put v matt on one wishes they didn't.. I recommend perpendicular scratches. A couple good groves will catch gold long enough for you to see it. But, they aren't gold fabrication grooves so don't get too excited.

People do try to have staring contests with their pans and sluices. I guess maybe some have heard that's where gold comes from.

 

[Goldfleks]

I just need to get on bigger gold. Hah! The bigger flakes like to linger.

 

[arizau]

Seems like we have "whupped that dog" (v-mat) enough. He should be dead by now.

 

[mofugly13]

How about a little v-mat or hog-mat on the portion of the slick plate behind the grizzlies? This would be very hard to do on a real Bazooka, as that area is not accessible, but on my Bazooklone, the grizzlies are hinged at the top, and I could easily get a piece of matting back there. However, I am mostly of the mind that no matting is required, the BGT seems to do just fine without it.

 

[Tuolumne]

I no longer use a sampling pan. My mini bazooka does a better job! Concentrates go strait to my 11" clean up pan.
Once I run a bucket here and there then when I'm getting color I switch to the prospector and never stare or squint for gold.

Vmat is waste, I shovel so much it would slow down the big rocks that slide over grizzly
Plus it's not a sluice, it's not meant to have a preview

Clean up only when taking breaks or end of day!
But my claim has gold anywhere I dig so it's easy for me to trust my zook!