bazooka prospector vs custom keene

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mountainman22

Jr. Member
Nov 5, 2012
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Canon City
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Prospecting
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The Bazooka Gold Trap for sure. You can process more dirt with no classifying and catch the fine gold. I found the Keene sluices, lose a lot of the fine gold we have here in Colorado. I don't even use my Keenes anymore.
 

Thanks nugget I was worried about the bazooka losing fine gold, as the trap doesn't seem promising to me. But you know your stuff so thanks a lot! That Keene does have a custom top runner type classifier, so I couldn't decide.
 

I caught some really fine stuff with my keene A51 sluice here in Indiana and I'm not sure how much smaller than this you can get as its all glacial gold and very,very fine. I think its all how its setup as some sluice's are more forgiving than others if not set up right for drop and water flow.
 

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NuggetShooter is right on the money, the Bazooka does really well for fine gold.

I have the Miner and the fine gold I get can sit on a pin tip, very very tiny.

You can watch the level of your trap by looking through the bars, if you see the white pvc tubes then you can scoop a few more in.

Before I clean out I usually wait about 10 minutes to allow it to self clean a little bit.

Both are great sluice box's, we just prefer the Bazooka. :)
 

Go with the bazooka and customize it like Astrobouncer does by installing some 1/4" hardware cloth over the stock grizzly.






GG~
 

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I have seen magnets employed to slow the gold down so it sinks better on some prototype sluices, and you can buy magnets ready made for sluices. My understanding is that gold isn't attracted to magnets (of course), but when gold passes through a magnetic field, it feels resistance. Any thoughts on adding something like that to a bazooka style sluice, for or against?

(My new bazooka is sitting on my desk at work - delivered while I was out in the field)
 

mountainman22 said:
Hey neo how many buckets can you confidently put through the mini between cleanouts
Click to expand...

I am not too sure about the mini, just keep an eye on the tubes to make sure that they dont stay covered up too long, I would say that if it does not self clean to show the tubes in about 30 seconds to a minute after adding material then you would probably want to clean out. If you have the mini already I would just play with it to get a feel for how quickly it cleans out with the material that you are running through it.

The speed at which is fills up with cons is also linked to how much of the material that you are running is comprised of heavy cons that will stay in the trap.

I would bet that the Bazooka website has some more detailed info though. :)


With my miner I have not hit a wall yet where I had to clean it out, the tubes always have self cleaned withing about a minute or so of adding a bucket.
I have seen video's on Youtube where they dont clean out till after 30-40 buckets full.

The best way that I found to use it was to fill your bucket and then bring it over to add, then go back and fill another, while you fill that one the sluice will self clean and be ready again by the time you bring back another bucket.

Putting 1 shovel in at a time from a hole infront of the sluice does not clog up the trap unless you have mad shovel skills. :D
If you are working with a pile of material that you put next to the sluice then I would say work a little slower and evenly feed material left to right.

I am no expert but it seems to work well for me and unless you have a team of people adding material to 1 sluice, I dont think 1 person can really do it wrong. :)
 

To catch fine gold in the Keene you need some really good mentoring or lots of practice... the Bazooka is pretty idiot proof by comparison (therefore perfect for me, I have the prospector)
 

I have a Jobe 36 sluice. I went out with a friend using the bazooka gold trap. The BGT is a lot easier to run, and more forgiving.

I have invested quite a bit as a newbie. The Jobe sluice, a mini gold grabber. A gold and sand pump. Along with a gold cube.
The BGT is by far the easiest to run. With the trap , a bucket , shovel and pan the lightest to pack in. You cannot go wrong.
 

I know for a fact that the Keene loses really fine gold. When I used just the Keene and I did clean up's with my Blue Bowl, I would get no smaller than small course flakes. Now doing clean up's where I use the BGT, I get feathery flakes left in the Blue Bowl. They stick to the bottom of the bowl, but they are next to impossible to see unless I have a bright light right over the bowl and I do several loads of concentrates and let them accumulate on the bottom. Then I finally start to see them moving enmass across the bottom. I know a lot of people don't like to bother with that fine of gold, but it just shows the BGT catches a lot more.


wingmaster said:
I caught some really fine stuff with my keene A51 sluice here in Indiana and I'm not sure how much smaller than this you can get as its all glacial gold and very,very fine. I think its all how its setup as some sluice's are more forgiving than others if not set up right for drop and water flow.
Click to expand...
 

Keene anyday and in everyway as no convaluted bs--just real equipment to recover gold. The miner is MUCH more important than any box ever made because ifn' ya don't know what the LL your doing nothing is going to work--pure simple and ez-John
 

Nugget, the only gold at all I've been,getting is exactly what you describe. I have to use a headlamp flashlight or I.can't see any of the gold at all! Am I just not deep enough? I've not found gold yet that I don't need a flashlight to see. What gives!
 

I agree that BGT is a very well designed Sluice.
I still use the A52 but there is a "Mess with it" factor to consider.
After 15 years I have tweaked it some and I always get fines if the is anything at all where I'm digging.
I was told by an old timer who helped me refine my panning ability, that if you find fines in the pan at the end, you would have found anything bigger that would be there.
Same is true with a sluice.
One of the first things I did was put ribbed rubber matt in the flare.
That slowed the gold down alot, and let me start pulling out the pickers before they entered the riffle rack.
I also noticed the flour gold did slowly move to the riffles from the flare.
But what really helped was when I replaced the standard A52 riffle rack with 3/4" dredge riffel rack.
In 1996 it was $30.00 I think.
The rivers I like have swift water and I like to run material at the speed limit.
My PVC sluice stand lets me quickly fine tune the set up.
I put my 20gal. tub by the sluice and I dump my classified.
If I'm really rocking I'll loose count on how many buckets I dug.
The tub gets full and then I know how many.
Working solo too often I have a tub of diggings to run and only a couple hours of daylight left.
You can see here I'm getting back to the ranch at the back end of sundown.
Back From Heaton Flats 5.JPG
So I'm defending my A52, only because I made mine work for me.
It catches the fines because I make it catch-um.
On another thread I stated that I sometimes set up a double sluice.
I did catch small fines in the 2nd sluice, but only fines, and nothing bigger.
There was between 3 to 10 flour fines when I did it. depending how rich the dig was.
It's beat up and the carpet is original, but I still trust it.
Weather homemade or store bought, you need to find out what works the best for you.
To trust your gear you need to know your gear.
 

I agree the BGT is the way to go.I have the A-52 and i do catch fine gold with it but, you have to screen your material down to aleast 1/4'',run/feed it slow and clean outs are kind of a pain in the A%$. Now for the BGT i have the super prospector,super mini and a reg mini i have only used the super mini and i can run more material and catch more gold with the super mini than that big A-52 and the Bgt cleans out in a bucket in 10seconds so its a no brainer the Bgt is the best option for me and alot of guys on here.And if i had to only own one i would choose the super prospector it can handle more dirt than you can give it and it still cleans out in a five gallon bucket.

good luck and happy hunting!!
 

If your on the Arkansas around Buena Vista and north, don't dig deep. Your looking for flood gold, it's shallow, and temporary. On the exposed riverbed, dig an area on the downstream side of your selected rock, just the area sheltered by the rock from the current approximately 8" or so deep. Your only going for the gold recently dropped, if you dig too deep you may or may not find any more gold than if you stay shallow. Last Spring I dug a huge 4' hole behind a rock with my Gold & Sand, not a speck of gold. It was a big waste of time. I still have the material, I was going to run it through my Gold Exorcist just to make sure I didn't miss anything. If you snipe shallow material from behind a lot of rocks, you'll find more gold.


mountainman22 said:
Nugget, the only gold at all I've been,getting is exactly what you describe. I have to use a headlamp flashlight or I.can't see any of the gold at all! Am I just not deep enough? I've not found gold yet that I don't need a flashlight to see. What gives!
Click to expand...
 

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Hey nugget , I'm actually around salida at point bar. Since I'm not a gpoc or gpaa member I only have access to point bar. Will I need to stay shallow here as well?
 

Wingmaster, your photo up there of your finest piece, is about the biggest I've found. I would lose my mind if I found one of those larger fines you got.
 

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