Bazooka Gold Trap style ?

[KevinInColorado]

I have made some pretty creative dams lately to try and get that drop. I have been working an area with a pretty flat gravel bar where I had to make my own drop with big rocks and gravel from my classifier.

Hmm, same here. Reminds me of playing in the creek with my friends when I was a kid...we used to build dams and dig holes for no reason at all!

 

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[CharlesP]

Sometimes so steep that the grizzly bars are level flat or a bit more...so the skid plate is fairly steep...but that is what they show in the demo video if you look close.

In general only as steep as water conditions require to get the grizzly to clear easily and no more. Even I get nervous for no good reason ;-)

Man that's steep. I think I may need to adjust my recirculating sluice set up for some more angle. More angle equals less work.

 

[NorCalPilot]

40 buckets before clean up? Or just 40 buckets in one day? Either way you must have had good day running that much material.

I run 10 buckets and clean-up. The gravel bar is consistent--about the same amount of gold each time. I don't have a scale to weigh the gold or I'd give you the amount.

As far as running at a steep angle, I asked Todd and he said he's seen videos of people running very steep and cautioned me against it. What he told me was the steeper the angle, the more gold gets blown out the back. He said if I was trying to catch the fines, run as flat as possible.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Hmmm. Im not sure who you are nor cal but i think that north California flora mite be playing with the old grey matter. 40 buckets a day would be impressive with 3 people. I know the underflow sluices dont require classifying but how do you scoop a 4" rock out of a bucket? I use the keene and wont ever go to a underflow style. That being said if your running 40 buckets a day you must be doing something that i am not. I organize my whole day around running as much material as possible. The Most ive ever ran by myself is 10 buckets in a full day. With a partner we finished a day with 22 buckets. I am 25 and prospect with a 23year old. We both work in Manuel labor and can move rocks the size of a car hood. We are beasts with shovels and pry bars. We dont have a snowballs chance in hell of moving 40 buckets tho. Thats a full full yard of material. Please elaborate on your process because im smelling some bullocks. Lol

 

[Joel1316]

My best record for 8 hours is 14 buckets, classified to 1/2". I just poured the contents of the bucket directly into the Miner.
That was a hard days work! haha

 

[KevinInColorado]

As far as running at a steep angle, I asked Todd and he said he's seen videos of people running very steep and cautioned me against it. What he told me was the steeper the angle, the more gold gets blown out the back. He said if I was trying to catch the fines, run as flat as possible.

Makes sense in theory but in practice, in slow water, steeper works for me without losing fines out the back. Only go as steep as you need to under local conditions to get the grizzly to clear easily and all's well.

 

[NorCalPilot]

Hmmm. Im not sure who you are nor cal but i think that north California flora mite be playing with the old grey matter. 40 buckets a day would be impressive with 3 people. I know the underflow sluices dont require classifying but how do you scoop a 4" rock out of a bucket? I use the keene and wont ever go to a underflow style. That being said if your running 40 buckets a day you must be doing something that i am not. I organize my whole day around running as much material as possible. The Most ive ever ran by myself is 10 buckets in a full day. With a partner we finished a day with 22 buckets. I am 25 and prospect with a 23year old. We both work in Manuel labor and can move rocks the size of a car hood. We are beasts with shovels and pry bars. We dont have a snowballs chance in hell of moving 40 buckets tho. Thats a full full yard of material. Please elaborate on your process because im smelling some bullocks. Lol

I'm not pulling your chain-- I reviewed my old posts and the best run (the first with the sluice) was 36 buckets. Since then, I've usually average about 20 buckets as I'm not trying to kill myself. I dig into the bar a few feet up from water level and don't classify. I dig two buckets at a time, carry them down to the sluice and run them. Repeat. There's no "scooping" from the bucket into the sluice-- I pour the 5 gallon bucket into the sluice.

The one time I ran 36 buckets. For 8 hours on the river, that comes out to about 5 buckets per hour including lunch... well within the capabilities of the BGT if you follow the process I described above. I agree--there's no way in hell one person could do that slowly feeding a Keene 1 scoop at a time.

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

I'm not pulling your chain-- the best run (the first with the sluice) was 40 buckets. Since then, I've usually average about 20 buckets as I'm not trying to kill myself. I dig into the bar a few feet up from water level and don't classify. I dig two buckets at a time, carry them down to the sluice and run them. Repeat. There's no "scooping" from the bucket into the sluice-- I pour the 5 gallon bucket into the sluice.

The one time I ran 40 buckets, I did 20 before lunch and 20 after. For 8 hours on the river, that comes out to 5 buckets per hour including lunch... well within the capabilities of the BGT if you follow the process I described above. I agree--there's no way in hell one person could do that slowly feeding a Keene 1 scoop at a time.

Which model BGT are you using?

 

[NorCalPilot]

Standard Prospector model

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

Standard Prospector model

Yeah 5 buckets an hour is very doable with a prospector. Especially if you don't have to carry it too far. I bet you were one tired amigo after 40 though!

 

[Goodyguy]

My only problem with the Bazooka is it likes to float away on me. I have tried tent stakes but they were not big enough. I was thinking of trying one of those stakes like cement workers use on their forms.

I always just lay a heavy rock across the top of mine and have never had a problem with it trying to float away.

GG~

 

[Rdg Sluicer]

I always just lay a heavy rock across the top of mine and have never had a problem with it trying to float away.

GG~

That works if I am classifying but not so good if you are shoveling straight in.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

I have made some pretty creative dams lately to try and get that drop. I have been working an area with a pretty flat gravel bar where I had to make my own drop with big rocks and gravel from my classifier.

Somewhere someone posted a large portable dam. Take some of that shade cloth at home depot or Lowes. Leave it folded in 1/2 lengthwise and sew mule tape to the top and bottom. Run the mule tape out to some trees or rebar stakes.

Hmm, same here. Reminds me of playing in the creek with my friends when I was a kid...we used to build dams and dig holes for no reason at all!

No one ever did that as a kid. Those were the summers.

That works if I am classifying but not so good if you are shoveling straight in.

Smells like a buisness opportunity...

Rectangular Tidy catlitter bucket. Brick/gravel/rock in the bottom, sloped pan, hole in the side. Shovel into bucket, material slides forward to dump in front of sluice. Then flows under bucket and out the back.

 

[Goodyguy]

That works if I am classifying but not so good if you are shoveling straight in.

I never classify but then my grizzly doesn't go uphill like the factory unit.

 

[sidvail]

Same. I used GG's plans and built mine with flat grizzly. My rocks average 4" and less. As all my gold is flour and fines, I do classify to 1/2" so as not to carry all those rocks for no reason. Still, I'm digging pretty close to my sluice so I could shovel directly if the water is right.

 

[Goodyguy]

Same. I used GG's plans and built mine with flat grizzly. My rocks average 4" and less. As all my gold is flour and fines, I do classify to 1/2" so as not to carry all those rocks for no reason. Still, I'm digging pretty close to my sluice so I could shovel directly if the water is right.

I process a lot of bank run material and even the larger rocks have gold stuck to them so hopefully it gets washed off as they make their way down the sluice.

GG~

 

[CharlesP]

I process a lot of bank run material and even the larger rocks have gold stuck to them so hopefully it gets washed off as they make their way down the sluice.

GG~

Hey good guy. I have run bank material in the past and found some decent gold. Question to you is, how does it get in the banks? There isn't any boulders or bed rock around, but there's gold all throughout the material.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey good guy. I have run bank material in the past and found some decent gold. Question to you is, how does it get in the banks? There isn't any boulders or bed rock around, but there's gold all throughout the material.

Most likely the gold was washed in and deposited along with sediment during flooding over hundreds and thousands of years. The main stream cut a narrow path through those deposits therefore the gold on the banks never made it down to bedrock.

GG~

 

[CharlesP]

Most likely the gold was washed in and deposited along with sediment during flooding over hundreds and thousands of years. The main stream cut a narrow path through those deposits therefore the gold on the banks never made it down to bedrock.

GG~

That makes a lot of sense. The creek wasn't always where it is today. It's alive.

 

[midnightmoon]

Hmmm. Im not sure who you are nor cal but i think that north California flora mite be playing with the old grey matter. 40 buckets a day would be impressive with 3 people. I know the underflow sluices dont require classifying but how do you scoop a 4" rock out of a bucket? I use the keene and wont ever go to a underflow style. That being said if your running 40 buckets a day you must be doing something that i am not. I organize my whole day around running as much material as possible. The Most ive ever ran by myself is 10 buckets in a full day. With a partner we finished a day with 22 buckets. I am 25 and prospect with a 23year old. We both work in Manuel labor and can move rocks the size of a car hood. We are beasts with shovels and pry bars. We dont have a snowballs chance in hell of moving 40 buckets tho. Thats a full full yard of material. Please elaborate on your process because im smelling some bullocks. Lol

Hey GrizzlyGremlin.

You brought up a good point that I don't remember seeing on this board before.

Fact is, the East Coast crust is older, colder, and harder. That's why a 5.0 earthquake in the east can radiate 10X further than an equal magnitude quake in the west.

I've lived on both sides; and dug holes here and there ... [sorry, didn't mean to sound cat-in-the-hat here].

I knew the places I put a shovel to were in harder ground in the East. But I never saw the bigger picture until you brought it up.

It is more work per shovelful in the East. And at the end of the day, it adds up to fewer buckets.

You know what you guys gotta do ... get smaller buckets.

NOT!

... come West, young sluicers.

- - Katt.