SNIPER NEEDS HELP WITH OVERBURDEN

[jbontempo]

I just started doing this and I'm having a hard time figuring out how to clear the massive amounts of overburden In the Weaverville area Rivers streams etc. I still have not made it down to bedrock and I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to keep digging. I'm not sure how big of a hole I should be trying to dig under the water or even exactly what points I should be focusing on.. inside bends? I'm still kind of worried about bears jumping into the water with me to spend a ton of time underneath the water

 

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[rodoconnor]

The whole point of sniping is to work the bedrock cracks.Don't be moving huge amounts of overburden, that's what dredges are for. Find some shallow, accessible BR to work.Your time is valuable. Good luck

 

[goldenIrishman]

Yup! Your time is worth money! The more of it you can spend actually sniping gold instead of moving overburben the higher your profit margin is going to be. In gold mining the old saying of "Time is money" is very true.

 

[Goldwasher]

Yea,look for exposed bedrock. Google Earth is your friend.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Sounds like you really need to read a book on sniping... So... Underwater Sniping for Gold: Sam Radding & Jim Garlock: 9780972612814: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Lanny in AB]

What others have said, and a bit more.

When you find a place that's fairly shallow to bedrock, tuck in behind a protruding ledge or wall, or behind a boulder and start to move the material until you get to bedrock.

The boulder or the ledge/wall will keep you from fighting the current and let you dig/excavate in peace. Work your hole to the left and right as far as you can without getting whipped around by the current (you may need a weight belt to keep you down), and work back downstream behind the boulder as far as you can as well without the current getting the best of you.

Pay particular attention to clay as you work your way down, because if you're in a stream known for coarser gold, nuggets and nice sized flakes will stick to a clay layer.

Work down to bedrock and then be very careful to work out every crevice and crack. In coarse gold areas, that's where most of your gold will be, especially if it's shallow to bedrock.

The book Reed has recommended will give you lots of good ideas, and see what Youtube/Internet has to offer on the subject as well.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[G-bone]

Thank you Mr. Lukens
I've been getting drawn more and more to this type of prospecting.

G

 

[ScottC]

If your moving gravel manually to get to bedrock, the best tool for that is the bucketdigger pull action shovel, it's designed specifically for removing overburden manually for serous snipping.

Check it out at www.bucketdigger.com