Sniping for Gold 101

Published December 27, 2007 by Jason

For those of you who don’t even know what the term ’sniping for gold’ means (but are interested), I have put together a short “field trip” to explore a gold producing creek in California’s Mother Lode District and to watch a “sniper” at work.

You will come away with a fundamental understanding of Sniping and the basic tools and techniques needed to pursue the craft as well as tips on where to look for gold.

Let’s hike Into the canyon to Study the topography and get at the gold!

However, before we can proceed, we will pause, briefly, for the neophytes among us, to build a ‘foundation’ on a most important term—Bedrock. It’s crucial to understand exactly what bedrock is in order to get the most out of our “field trip.”

“Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies our planets surface and in many cases is exposed as a surface we can see and walk on. Bare bedrock can often be encountered in mountain ranges. Most bedrock, though, is covered by an unconsolidated layer of broken rock and soil known by prospectors as overburden.”

OK, now that that’s out of the way, grab your gear—let’s roll!

Follow me down a steep, dusty trail, deep into a remote canyon to visit a typical placer gold bearing mountain stream in California’s Mother Lode Country. The watercourse’s channel drops in elevation, on average, 30 feet per mile, ideal conditions for the deposition of gold along its craggy course. We’ll hike along and view it all through a Professional Gold Sniper’s eye; we’ll even get a chance to ‘watch’ him hard at work!

Pay close attention, notice that the stream is narrower and steeper in some stretches than others—that’s significant. Notice, also, that along the creek’s path there has been sediment (overburden) deposited on its banks and bed (bedrock) in the form of clay, silt, sand and gravel, ranging in size from microscopic particles to, in some cases, boulders that dwarf automobiles.

In many sections the overburden is deep, while in others, usually in the steeper and narrower sections, it’s thin to non-existent, leaving some bedrock, both in water and along the banks, exposed in places—sniper’s delight!

Typical Mother Lode Country gold bearing stream. Lots of bedrock showing in this section!

Most of the overburden is composed of materials eroded from the canyon’s walls (bedrock) and mixed with particles and chunks torn from the streams bed (bedrock) during times of flood, as well as other matter introduced upstream by merging channels.

As the erosion process deepens the stream’s channel by breaking up and removing countless billions of tons of material, gold, if present, is released from bedrock veins and seeks its natural place to settle in the streambed. In California’s Mother Lode Country however, the preponderance of the gold in modern streams has been acquired from Ancient Tertiary River Channels that have been breached and plundered along their paths by present day watercourses.

All the sand and gravels lining the stream’s bed and covering its banks, from canyon wall to wall, may seem to be permanent landmarks, however, in reality, it is all on a journey towards the sea—a very slow journey, by our standards perhaps, but a journey nevertheless.

What we have going on here, simply put, is a massive canyon cutting operation where over a vast period of time natural forces have cut the canyon to its present depth and, left unmolested, will continue to do so until the stream-bed is ‘excavated’ down to sea level.

Typical Mother Lode Country canyon.

In the meantime, the stream is performing like a giant conveyor belt in this huge earth moving operation as it transports its load (overburden) along its channel, toward the sea, often in violent spurts linked to periodic flooding.

Gold, discounting Platinum, is the heaviest constituent, of consequence to us, of the gravels that compose the overburden in the streambed, having a specific gravity of 19.3, if pure. Simply stated, gold is 19.3 times as heavy as an equal volume of water. As a comparison, the specific gravity of quartz is under three.

It should be easy to understand then why gold, because of its high density or specific gravity, will settle on or near bedrock as it separates and descends from the lighter gravels that are stirred up and transported during periodic flooding. Much of the gold finds ‘refuge’ in cracks and crevices and beneath and behind boulders and other anomalies and obstructions on the streambed. There it is safe from ‘eviction’, except in the most cataclysmic of events. In addition, it has been well established, as a general rule, gold will be found in its highest concentrations on or near bedrock.

Now that we have visited his place of work, let’s bring in the “Sniper,” we’ll call him ‘Alabama Jack’—’A. J.’ for short, and watch to see if he can find some gold.

Here he comes now, hustling nimbly up-creek over wet and slippery rocks and boulders as confidently as if out for a Sunday jaunt along a paved boulevard. He’s wearing a tight fitting, heavily patched and tattered wetsuit with pull-on knee and elbow pads that have ragged holes worn in them and bare skin poking through in spots. His diving-mask has been pushed up above his eyes, to rest on his forehead, so as not to restrict his vision as he hikes up the creek. In his hands are a few simple tools: a rock hammer, screwdriver, gad bar, crevicing tool, small shovel’s head, and a modified grease gun of the sort used for lubricating automobiles. We’ll learn more about the tools later.

Underneath his wetsuit, pressed against his chest, is a sandwich, cigarette tobacco, rolling papers, and butane lighter packaged in a zip-lock bag; higher up, near his neck, is a bulge from a plastic bottle meant to carry his gold.

It is hot in the suit, and he has walked far. He unzips and strips off his wetsuit’s “farmer john” top, drops it and his tools in a heap on the gravel bar, and kneels to gulp a few cool swallows of water from the stream.

Higher up on the bar he locates a Madrone tree, tosses a few stones out of the way, plops down in its shade and slumps back against its trunk to leisurely huff on a cigarette. From his resting place, he studies the creek for a likely spot to snipe. Upstream, he spots a location that appears to have real potential. Drawing deeply on his smoke, he exhales slowly and with closed eyes, succeeds to visualize his nugget bottle crammed full of course placer gold. A thin, wide grin parts his lips.

A.J.’s canyon is deep and narrow, its rim thickly covered with thorny, nearly impenetrable Manzanita thickets. The streambed, 2000 feet below, is only 30 or 40 feet wide in places, expanding to as much as a couple hundred in others.

Among the trees that sprout from the stream banks and canyon walls are Cedar, Conifer, Cottonwood, Madrone, Maple, Oak, and Willow.

In spring, Water Lily stalks shoot up in ponds and eddies from gnarly, underwater knobs of root systems. They grow broad, green leafs, shaped like elephant ears and drape them only inches above the water. Brush becomes thick and poison oak abundant. Ladybugs arrive to cluster and mate in huge, dynamic masses and lay their microscopic eggs in aphid colonies. Blood sucking mosquitoes hatch by the millions.

Deer come everyday to drink, tentatively, from the creek; water snakes lurk in pools to ambush trout; rattlers and other snakes stalk prey on rocky sand bars and canyon walls. Grey Squirrels skitter about in the trees and Browns scramble over rocks on the canyon floor. Blue Jays screech and scold from their tree top perches.

From December to May, California Newts, members of the Salamandridae family, depart their canyon homes to gather in abundance in the streams cold clear pools to mate and leave their eggs. Giant, German Brown trout, patrol the cold, deep pools at the bottom of water falls. They dart about like hungry sharks, eager to gobble insects, larva, and other tasty morsels that wash down from above.

Our sniper friend, ‘A. J.’, first arrived on the creek in early spring, after the heavy winter rains. He located his camp at the confluence of a minor tributary where he pitched a small dome tent amongst trees, boulders, and tall, thick blackberry bushes—effectively cloaking his shelter from casual view.

Today, he is working at his practical distance limit, two hours round trip, from camp. If he decides to continue sniping this drainage, tomorrow he’ll move his camp about an hours hike above where he quits today. He’ll snipe downstream and then upstream, an hour each way, before moving camp again. If the creek pays well, he may work out of his new camp for a week (or longer ), if not—if it pays poorly, or not at all, he’ll move again, or relocate on a different drainage altogether. Such is the life of a Professional Sniper.

“A. J.’s” Creek

As we rejoin A.J., he has climbed back into his gear, picked-up his tools and arrived at the spot on the creek that had caught his eye. He’s standing at the waters edge, assessing the sites potential. Before he proceeds, let’s examine a couple of his tools.

A. J.’s crevice tool or “scratcher” is a simple handmade device about 18 inches long, constructed from 3/16” square metal that has been bent and twisted into a handle on one end and formed into a goose neck, sharpened to a point and tempered on the other—the business end. It is designed to scrape, loosen, and dislodge tightly packed gravel from bedrock crevices.

His sniping or suction gun is a modified automotive grease gun. Eighth inch holes have been drilled in the rear plunger cap to allow a flow of water or air to enter and exit behind the plunger’s O-rings. The front pump lever and lube assembly has been replaced with a blank cap with a hole drilled in its center and a ¼ inch metal tube, 10 inches long, shoved into it a half inch and brazed. (Nowadays, they are made from PVC pipe and sold in mining supply stores).

To function, the plunger arm is pulled back while working underwater to suck material (ideally gold) into the barrel, or pushed to force out and focus a concentrated jet of water on a target, such as tightly-packed material in a crevice.

‘Alabama Jack’ gets into GOLD!

The spot that has caught A. J.’s attention is in a section where the creek has widened and slowed down, 60 feet downstream from a small waterfall. Piercing sunlight penetrating the misty spray from the falls has spawned a rainbow that arcs from bank to bank mere feet above the stream. The brilliant display of prismatic colors fails to impress or distract Alabama Jack; he has seen dozens just like it.

His attention is focused on a run of slate bedrock that has for the most part been swept clean of gravels by fast water for 50 or 60 feet below the falls. A long crevice snaking across the center of a broad 2-foot deep, V shaped depression seems to offer possibilities. It’s approximately 3 inches wide and running perpendicular to the stream.

The crevice emerges from the gravel bar under his feet, slopes downward in bedrock to the creeks center where it becomes concealed under a foot of mixed Quaternary and Tertiary gravel. The crevice reemerges on the other side of the overburden, rises through the bedrock toward the opposite bank and pinches into a hairline crack, 6 feet from the waters edge.

A. J. enters the creek and kneels in the water on the downstream side of the gravel covered crevice at its deepest point. He’s facing upstream, the water rushing and foaming past at chest level; he drops his tools on the streambed beside him.

A sniper (me) working a crevice on the downstream side of a boulder in a creek very similar to “A. J.s.”

With hands protected by thin rubber gloves, A. J. pushes and pulls against the largest rock in the overburden, a rounded boulder weighing 80 lbs. It doesn’t budge. Working his gad bar

under the stubborn rock, he gets enough leverage to break it loose. Wrapping his arms around it, he stands and strains to toss it behind him, out of his way, were it smashes like a cannon ball against a raised knob of bedrock and bounces into the stream with a resounding kerplunk, spewing spray in all directions.

After removing half a dozen more heavy rocks, he grabs his shovel head (no handle) and, using both hands, scrapes deep into the remaining gravel, pulling it toward him and away from the crevice. Some of the lighter sand and pebbles are lifted into the current and swept downstream in a swirling cloud; the heavier gravels begin to pile up around his knees and legs. In minutes, he has uncovered two feet of the crevice at its deepest point.

A.J. spits into his diving mask (to prevent fogging), rinses it out in the stream, straps it back on and snaps it into place over his eyes. With snorkel plugged in his mouth, he ducks under-water to get a better look.

The crevice is tightly packed with sand and gravel mixed with square nails and other bits and pieces of iron. Rust from the decaying iron is coating the gravel in the crevice with a reddish brown crust—a good sign?

Where heavy objects, such as iron, lead, and coins (often remnants of the Gold Rush days), accumulate in streambed crevices, gold is often present! For the second time today, A.J. cracks a smile.

Repeatedly, he smacks the impacted gravels in the crevice with the curved, pointed end of his rock hammer to loosen them,

then with his crevice tool or “scratcher,”

he scrapes the crevice’s contents, repeatedly, until much of the ‘cemented ’sand and gravel is broken-up. Next, with a cupped hand, he vigorously “fans” the crevice, directing strong pulses of water down into it while watching intently. Sand, pebbles, rocks, a couple of square nails and a lead mini-ball pop up in a cloud of bubbles to swirl in the current and settle on the downstream side of the crevice.

Among the ejected contents, clearly visible against the dark slate bedrock are, seven shimmering yellow flakes and a couple dozen tiny grains of gold. A. J. sucks them up in his suction tube or “sniping-gun.”

He quickly returns his attention to the crevice. At 3 inches deep, on what appears to be its bottom, is a scattering of pebbles lying atop a thin layer of heavy, black sand peppered with tiny grains of gold. Gently, this time, he fans the crevice and sucks up the gold that is ejected. He estimates the value of the gold recovered so far at $25. A shot of adrenalin squirts into his bloodstream and raises his heart rate, induced by the anticipation of more gold close at hand!

With as much down pressure as he can muster, A. J. rakes the jagged crevice bottom several more times with his scratcher, stirring up a thick milky cloud of silt. After fanning it one last time to expose the true bottom, two nuggets, weighing between 1½ and 2 dwt each and a couple dozen flakes are reveled on an otherwise clean slate bottom. (Dwt is an abbreviation for pennyweight; one pennyweight is equivalent to 1/20th of a troy ounce of gold.)

Before recovering the gold, he darts his head above water to scan up and down creek for movement, bright colors, or anything out of place—an instinctive practice that he repeats dozens of times each day, whether or not has found gold.

He goes on to clean out the rest of the crevice, following it until it “peters out” on one side of the creek and to water’s edge on the other. Just as he is finishing up, he uncovers a quartz lined vug-hole. Sharp little quartz crystals, partially obscured by orange silt, line the shallow cavities narrow walls. A.J. probes it with his screwdriver, but is unable to eject any of its contents. Inserting his sniping gun’s tube into the hole, he blasts into it with a jet of water, flushing out a milky cloud of silt.

After the “smoke” clears, six melon seed sized nuggets and a one half-ounce ’slug’ have settled on bedrock around the vug-hole. A. J. sucks the smaller nuggets into the gun, but the half “ouncer” is too large to pass through its tube; he takes off his glove to pick it up and pauses only a moment to examine it before dropping it into the bottle he carries tucked away in his suit.

In total, he has spent 25 minutes working the crevice and recovered something over ¾ of an ounce of gold—a spectacular start to his day. In fact, it’s more gold than he has recovered in all his hard work of the last 2 weeks.

Okay folks, were burning daylight, I think we best end this ‘field trip,’ before it gets too late and we have to spend the night with Alabama Jack, in his tiny tent. Certainly not recommended for the more discriminating of campers!

Before we wrap it up though, I have some,

Personal Thoughts and Observations:

Sniping for gold is a hit and run—”skim the cream off the top” sort of strategy that has been employed by gold hunters for centuries. In fact, not all that long ago, in our own country, many hundreds if not thousands of unemployed Depression Era men, together with a smaller number of women (even a few with rugrats) turned to the gold bearing streams of California’s Mother Lode District to snipe for gold in-order to survive those harsh, lean years. Most only made from pennies to a dollar or two a day, but it was enough to get them through those tough times! Tough times aside—it’s hard to restrict what I wouldn’t give to go back and join them!

One man and wife team of snipers, from those years, was Jesse and Dorothy Coffey. Accompanied by their fiery little dog, they made a living sniping for gold and had a great time doing it, all throughout the depression. They camped and sniped alongside creeks and rivers in California’s ‘Mother Lode’. And, thankfully, they bequeathed a warm and exciting account of their four year long adventure, in the form of a biography, as told to and written by George Hoeper. The work is titled, “Bacon and Beans from a Gold Pan”; it’s true, heartwarming and inspirational. I re-read it every few years—usually on a cold winter’s night snuggled-up close to a warm, cracklin’ fire.

Anyway, back to my observations, sniping for gold can be defined in simple terms as:

The art of locating plausible gold catches (usually on or near bedrock) that are quick and at least relatively easy to access, removing the overburden, if any, recovering the gold, if any, and quickly moving on to the next “juicy” looking spot—if any.

Sniping for gold is a poor man’s craft, as opposed to mining gold, which often involves a large capital investment and long term risks that are far in excess of those associated with sniping.

Sniping is not restricted to cleaning crevices in creeks and rivers, but is a strategy employed just about anywhere gold is found, including the deserts. Sniping techniques have evolved using (among others) gold pans, sluice boxes, highbankers, dredges, drywashers, metal detectors, and even heavy equipment!

Well that’s about it folks, I hope this “ field trip ” has helped you to understand what sniping is all about and even inspired a few of you to “give it a go,” as a hobby. If for no other reason, simply because it’s fun—and healthy too! For many enthusiasts, from loaners to large, dynamic families, sniping season is looked forward to each year with great anticipation as the most happy and carefree time of their year.

Proponents excitedly count off the days like kids awaiting Christmas. It’s their time to get out of town, camp in the ‘bush’ and snipe for gold—just like the ol’ timers! And, the very real possibility of snagging a respectable nugget, somewhere in the backcountry, to cherish and brag on, is enough to keep most would be 49ers revved-up and ’shoveling gravel’ from sunup to sundown!

Please keep in mind though that there are many valid mining claims out there in gold country; do your research to make sure the spot you have in mind to snipe is on open ground. Fortunately, for us modern day enthusiasts, there is plenty of ground left for all of us!

A few words, however, to anyone contemplating quitting their job, in a rush to go off sniping, as a quick and easy way to get rich. My advice? Caution!

It’s not only hard work and fickle, but just a select few, the very best, were able to consistently make a living at it throughout most of the ’70s,’80s, ’90s and beyond. Sorry to pop your bubble, but those are the true, hard facts, my friend.

But, on the plus side, the market has been steeply trending upward. Gold, as of this writing, is threatening to achieve and crash through the long anticipated milestone of one thousand dollars per ounce. So, there is a real possibility, even likelihood, that a determined person can at the very least—make a living. After all, I, and others, made out when spot gold was much less. And, who’s to say who will be the next to strike it rich. It could be you!

So fellow dreamer, if you are in good physical condition, have few ties and financial obligations and are not only able to tolerate but thrive while living in the “bush”—the life of a Professional Sniper may be just the one for you. GOOD LUCK!

It’s been interesting.” I’ve enjoyed it—I hope you have too. I know A.J. did!

This brings us to the end of our ‘Gold Country Field Trip’.

In most of the articles on GorpStew I tell how I have lived my dream of earning a living (meager though it was) while living in the bush and prospecting for gold.

Do you have a dream? Are you living it now or hoping to someday? Please tell us about it. Whether it be a couple of sentences or a page or more in length, send us your Dream Tale today using this form. I’ll post it on GorpStew right away so that we can all enjoy it.

Thanks,