How long did it take you to receive your bazooka?

[akiger]

Can anyone confirm that Bazooka Gold Company is still in business? Just want to make sure the money for an order my wife placed for me for Christmas isn't sitting in a dead account. Thanks!

 

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[Golden_Crab]

BGT needs to get themselves a capital loan and sit on inventory and possibly hire a receptionist / logistics / CSR persons if the workload is still at your limit with buffer units in place. Buffer inventory is to keep things moving smoothly but is not a solution to having too much demand, think of it more as a service improvement rather than labor efficiency. When you make great products you also need to bring more new customers as you have less repeat sales unless you develop a facet to your business to offset this problem. You bring in new customers, especially in this niche, by word of mouth / reviews (of the company too! not just product) and right now you guys are kinda waffling that part by trying to keep up with work orders by sacrificing your service times. Cutting off future sales entirely to satisfy current purchases is a sure way to to be back in the red quick, and this is where the bigger guys will scoop up those customers and likely retain them for future purchases because they can afford to stock different products instead of putting all their eggs in one basket.

(I understand a loan may not help in the short term for right now, but dont expect your season to slow down yet )

Diversify and survive!

 

[Goldfleks]

Kinda sad this post I made nearly a year ago is still top of the list. I love my bazooka sluice, I think it's an amazing product and very forgiving for greenhorns like myself. I was even interested in purchasing a prospector model this year to take advantage of the higher volume of flow on the river in the winter/spring season. But after reading all the posts, it looks like the wait time is still 2-3 months. Too bad. By that time i'll have to use my sniper because of the reduced flow.

I was ready to order today too. In retrospect had I known the lead time was 2-3 months when I originally purchased, I probably would have went with something else entirely. Hard to beat 2 day shipping on Amazon Prime when you want it NOW.

 

[akiger]

My wife went into the James Cancer Hospital at OSU in Columbus, Ohio on 12/20 for surgery and needless to say it's been a long month. My four daughters and I celebrated Christmas in her room and unfortunately she is still there and will remain there for some time. As we were all opening gifts, she informed me that she had ordered me a 30" sniper (Order #7761) a few weeks before and wanted me to have it for Christmas. She knew how much I've wanted one all year, and honestly, I didn't expect a thing given how much my family and my wife have gone through over the past few months. So for her to have mustered up enough strength to make the order was a huge surprise all in itself. Given her diagnosis, Her side of the family and myself have been moving mountains just to take care of her.

To make a long story short, the sluice never came for Christmas and now I'm tasked to having to try and track down some level of the fulfillment progress of the order. The problem I have, given I understand this sluice is handmade and the company is small and overextended, is that I can't get the slightest communication from anyone at that company to see if it is even in business. I've called several times but only get an answering machine and of course no call back. I've written several messages in my account screen within their website with no reply. I've even emailed Chris and Todd directly and no reply again.

I don't mind waiting a couple of months for the sluice to show up. My issue is pushing money to a company that has no communication and ultimately I feel like my wife sent our money to an account that is no longer in use. If I could just get someone there to confirm that the company is still in business and that my order has at least had eyes laid on it I'd feel better. If I could get that kind of reassurance, I could get back to placing all my focus on my wife where it belongs, and not jumping back and forth between chasing down an online order and reassuring my wife that her efforts in the beginning weren't wasted.

Hopefully one of you reading this can help. My apologies for being long winded here, but I'm tired and this whole ordeal is far from easy. Sleeping in the hospital every night can wear a person down. - Adam Kiger

 

[akiger]

With a little support and love from you all, I have been given the insight I've been seeking and I have moved to cancel my order. The refund process will take some time, but at this point, I don't care. Thankfully I have one less thing to worry about now.

It really is a shame all this played out the way it did. I was so excited for that sluice too! I have the folding backpack sluice now and I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for anyone looking to let go of their BGT.

Thank you all again for shedding some light where I needed it the most. Happy New Year to you all.

Adam

 

[wildminer]

God bless you and your family and I pray for your wife's speedy recovery. What's his name at bgt is really pissing me off right now.

 

[Goldfleks]

There is a sniper for sale as of yesterday on Azuza CA craigslist, you could try there.

 

[akiger]

God bless you and your family and I pray for your wife's speedy recovery. What's his name at bgt is really pissing me off right now.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We have been receiving a lot of them lately and I can tell you they work! The more we get the more hope I feel...so thank you.

 

[akiger]

There is a sniper for sale as of yesterday on Azuza CA craigslist, you could try there.

Thanks for the referral! I called, but he had just sold it earlier today. He forgot to take down the listing. that's alright though. I know the big man up stairs has my back. Thanks again for everything!

 

[Goldwasher]

God bless you and your family and I pray for your wife's speedy recovery. What's his name at bgt is really pissing me off right now.

His name is Todd Osbourne. He should man up and stop taking orders.

 

[mofugly13]

At this point, would it be out of line to discuss the particulars of a BGT with regards to the little details and how they work? (I kind of feel like it would, but feel free to convince me otherwise) I read all about the BGT when I came here a little over a year ago, and decided I wanted one. Because I like to build things if I can rather than buy, and the BGT looked like just the type of thing a guy with a shop full of tools could build, I decided to build a copy of the prospector.

So, I searched for and read every thread on TN that I could find where the BGT, or homemade copies were discussed. I searched the web for the same type of info. I downloaded the product info pages from BGT's website and with the information given there, and everything I read on the web, including little nuggets of info from Goldwasher, I was able to make a scale drawing and from that, build what I believe is a near exact copy of a BGT Prospector.

However, there were some details that were hard to come by, and therefore educated guesses were made. The main questions being:

What are the sizes of the fluidizing tubes?
How big and how many holes are drilled in the tubes? On what pattern?

I think I came up with something very close, because my Bazooklone works. But I have a feeling it could work better if I truly understood the dynamics of the number of holes vs. size and pattern. I realize the effort and time spent during R&D is what makes the design work as well as it does. I know Goldwasher was reluctant to give out the kind of info I was searching for, because it was not really his info to give. But now that BGT is all but defunct, at what point would it be improper for folks to give out info on the factory BGT's they have with regards to the specifics of the fluidizing tubes? My gut feeling says that sharing these 'trade secrets' is not right while a man still tries to run his business. But if BGT goes under, what then? Everyone should be able to build himself one if they choose, and I understand there is possibly no patent restriction at this time. Discuss.

I'd be happy to share what my final, working configuration is.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

It took over a month for mine to come. They are behind on production but they are producing. They didn't expect to sell like this.

 

[Goldfleks]

Pretty sure John Hooser (I think) posted specs on the Aluminum Bazooka clone that he put together as well as the number of holes in the fluid pipes that he made.

I Think they just had them spaced every inch, and each pipe was offset so they spray every half inch. Spaying left right and down. But without looking it up i can't remember exactly, was over a year ago I looked at it. It's somewhere on this forum though.

Most mining equipment is easy to clone if you have a metal shop and know how to make stuff.

Most of us don't, so we buy from the MFGR

 

[Goldwasher]

It took over a month for mine to come. They are behind on production but they are producing. They didn't expect to sell like this.

Bwaaa hahahahaha hahahahahaahha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha lmao ha ha ha ha ha ha bwa ha ha ha

No offense Johnny but the problem isn't "too much business"

the reason HE......HE....... HE.....!!!!!! there is no THEY are behind is literally ignorance and lack of doing what is right.

It is interesting to watch everyone speculate considering what I know.

If you order a Bazooka today you are paying to make a Bazooka that someone has been expecting for a while...MAYBE as in if that's where the money goes.
If anyone is ok with that then go ahead and make an order.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Whatever. Don't ask me I just got one ha-ha.

 

[Golden_Crab]

Bwaaa hahahahaha hahahahahaahha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha lmao ha ha ha ha ha ha bwa ha ha ha

No offense Johnny but the problem isn't "too much business"

the reason HE......HE....... HE.....!!!!!! there is no THEY are behind is literally ignorance and lack of doing what is right.

It is interesting to watch everyone speculate considering what I know.

If you order a Bazooka today you are paying to make a Bazooka that someone has been expecting for a while...MAYBE as in if that's where the money goes.
If anyone is ok with that then go ahead and make an order.

Ahahaha drugs are bad!!

That said even if they didn't shoot themselves with bad business operations, their product has so many improvements to be made from an engineering perspective that the first manufacturer to throw some $$$ will overtake them in ONE QUARTER! and that will be how the BGT died.

 

[CO_prospectin_meskin]

Need bazooka like sluice get to me i can construct you one and will last longer heres a picture of my peronal sluice 😉

 

[CO_prospectin_meskin]

Bazooka like sluice with matting at beginning how i set up in my river take out matting and wash in pan saves alot of time 😉

 

[akiger]

I finally got two BGTs off eBay. Given all that my family has going on, I had about 3 hours free and took them both out for a test run. Couldn't be happier. Thank you all so much again for all the love, kindness and support!

 

[crusty]

I too played the waiting game for over 2 months. Finally started calling (no answer - voicemail full) and emailing (no response). Quick search here revealed the post that they were shutting down. Lucklily I paid via PayPal so I know I'll get my money back.

And thankfully a same day search of local Craigslist scored my the same one I had ordered, a barely used 36" prospector. Breaking it in tomorrow!