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Rattlesnake!

The following is a true account of an unusual rattlesnake encounter my family and I had while camping and prospecting for gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills.   Since first becoming an independent gold prospecting miner in the late 1970s, I’ve spent lots of time camping, hiking, prospecting, and mining gold in backcountry (bush) environments. […] Read more

The Prospector’s Logbook

This is a brief story describing how I came to design The Gold Prospector’s Logbook, how using it helps me, and how it could benefit you too if you’re a prospector.

During the years I was a full-time gold prospecting miner, I chased gold throughout several of our western gold-producing states. I panned, sluiced, sniped, dredged, dry-washed, metal detected, and once, in partnership with others, turned to hard rock mining. Read more

Becoming A Gold Miner—Step by Step

The author sniping for gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains    Typically, greenhorn gold miners begin their careers by learning to master the simplest of mining techniques and tools, and then, step by step, they advance, augmenting their skills as they go. The following is my acquired skill set and order of progression: First—the Gold […] Read more

Do Metal Detectorists Need a Pinpointer?

  What Is a Pinpointer? A pinpointer is a miniature, handheld metal detector.  Its purpose is to home in on and pinpoint metal objects first identified beneath conventional metal detector coils.  The targets will be pinpointed either on the surface, in a dig hole, or in the pile of soil removed from a dig hole. […] Read more

Are you thinking of joining the metal-detecting hobby but find yourself stuck on the sidelines because getting started seems to be too expensive and overly complicated? When it comes to buying a detector, do you have the time to research the myriad of competing options, each highly touted and clamoring for your business? And what […] Read more

The above photo shows the author standing between two other miners who were also sniping along the North Fork of the Yuba River, circa 1979   There are millions of acres of gold-bearing lands in the United States that are open to prospecting and mineral extraction (mining). With that in mind, I have put together […] Read more

Will Metal Detectors Detect Meteorites?

Meteorites are often detected by metal detectors but are not always recognized as meteorites by metal detectorists. This post explores the mysterious world of meteorites. Meteorite origin, composition, value, and sensitivity to metal detectors are highlighted. In addition, preliminary meteorite identification tips for use in the field are presented, as are links to supplementary research […] Read more

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, before I began to metal detect, I sniped for gold in the waters of creeks and rivers. Sniping, simply put, is a method/art used worldwide by gold miners to home in on and recover concentrations of gold from caches (usually small), both in wet and dry environments. […] Read more

Does Metal Detecting Pay?

So, does it pay? If you broadly define pay as simply a positive return on investment, then my short answer is yes, definitely—it pays! However, if you strictly narrow it down to time and dollars invested versus dollars returned, my answer is maybe. What qualifies me as an authority? I supported myself for years as […] Read more

So many of us freshly retired seniors, abruptly cut off from our jobs and our society of work friends, go into a sort of shock. Enmeshed in our funky daze, we lose our sense of purpose and wind up becoming depressed, withering, couch potatoes. It is an insidious trap from which many of us never […] Read more

Simple Answer: Yes. Absofrigginlutely! In skilled hands metal detectors detect metal. Gold nuggets are metal, therefore, yes, metal detectors can detect gold nuggets—however, the design and quality of the detector, size and depth of the gold, prevailing ground conditions, as well as the skill of the detectorist, are all critical factors that can significantly affect […] Read more

With the onset of a particularly cold, wet winter, I quit my job as a welder in a Seattle shipyard and headed for California’s Gold Country. I was clueless but eager to develop the skills to pan enough gold to realize my dream of becoming a free and independent miner. Because my bankroll was perilously […] Read more

Sniping for Placer Gold (Hardcore)

This is a story about a professional, hardcore gold sniper, whom, for reasons of anonymity, I will call Alabama Jack (AJ). The tale, 100% true, chronicles one of his frequent forays into the untamed backcountry of one of California’s gold districts in quest of a sufficient quantity of gold to bankroll his expenses in the bush and those back in town.

Preface California’s streams are the focus; however, the principles of sniping apply universally. I was a stranger in a big city during the late 1970s, recently divorced, chained to a dull, monotonous job, and trapped in a lackluster, rewardless life. As fast as I collected my weekly pay, I squandered it in saloons, taverns, and […] Read more

He Made His Living With a Gold Pan

It was the early 1980s. I was sniping for gold throughout California’s Mother Lode country, rolling out my sleeping bag wherever it suited me best, while scraping out a living from isolated rivers and creeks that favored me–mostly at the bottom of deep, narrow canyons. One midsummer day, while scouting, I stumbled upon a scanty […] Read more