A must tool with a gold pan

[Bejay]

Most miners have seen or heard of using a suction gun. Personally I started using one about 35 years ago. Being a fisherman and a miner I realized that my shrimp gun Shrimp Guns could pull up gold that was in submerged cracks and crevices. Often times the great cracks and crevices were under water, and trying to scoop out the material was a fruitless task. But my shrimp gun would pull it out with ease: (living on the Oregon coast we use the shrimp guns to get our fish bait).
I sold my backpack dredge and simply carry in a gold pan, a square low sided meat lug (a restaurant buss pan works good also)....along with my shrimp gun. I can hi grade the submerged cracks and crevices and shoot the material into the low side lug. Then I simply pan the material. I often set up a sluice and shoot right into the sluice. There is a technique to the use/process; but it is easily mastered. One must suck and shoot quickly; so the material does not fall out of the tube. No need to mention keeping it in the tube and then cleaning out the tube by breaking it down....which is really not necessary when one masters the "suck and shoot" technique.

I have used the shrimp gun almost as much as my 4 inch dredge and on some days recovered as much gold as the dredge can...... using the shrimp gun.

For miners who like to rely on their gold pan I highly suggest a suction gun....and I am sold on the one I have been using. Easy to pack in and an extremely effective gold getting tool.

bejay

 

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[delnorter]

Hey Bejay, good write-up. I too use one in the northwest corner of California. A great tool. What diameter tube do you find most useful? Do you carry neck down attachment nozzles?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Bejay]

My shrimp gun is a two inch. I have never found the need to neck down, but I have a variety of crevicing tools that loosen up the material. I can actually meet the performance of a 2 inch dredge with my suction gun. But as I have gotten older I tend to wear out sooner than a gas run unit. But I can not over emphasize how useful the suction guns are ( the ones you don't break apart and clean....a lot of wasted time). Suck and shoot....gets the hard to get gold every time.

The shrimp gun I posted has a unique suction method. There is a 2 inch rubber ball squeezed between two nut/washers on a threaded stock attached to PVC pipe. The ball can be squeezed tighter for better suction. One ball lasts me many-many years....and new ones can be bought from the same company that makes them. I buy my shrimp guns at Bi Marts in Oregon (on the coast they are prevelant). They are around $18.00.

About 4 years ago while in Az during a major extended rain/flood I ran all over the desert sucking and shooting in washes that were normally dry. Many other miners saw me doing it and I had to have my secretary send down 18 and I sold them for my cost plus shipping (many were friends). One went clear up into the northern bush of BC and is being used in remote inaccessible areas by a miner who runs a big trammel operation on his claim up in northern BC. I gave a few demo classes for those miners wanting to learn the technique.

Go get some gold.....it is probably the cheapest and most effective tool other than your gold pan.

Bejay

 

[YumaMarc]

I use one very similar made of PVC, here in the little streams of Honduras. It works great pulling the sand from under boulders and out of cracks in bedrock.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Soon as I read this I knew exactly what you were talking about Bejay! My dad and I used to make our own "Slurp guns" out of PCV pipe to get ghost shrimp for bait while fishing Fiesta Island in Mission Bay. The ones we made used a tennis ball between a couple of fender washers as the piston and would suck a shrimp out no matter how deep down his hole he was hiding.

I've often though of building one with a trap section for sucking gold out of cracks. Barry turned us on to Turkey Creek and while exploring out there I came across several places that just screamed to be suctioned out. That it happens to be the closest place with running water makes it a nice change of pace for us. Just need to check on the status of the land and if it's open, next time we go out htere camping there will be a "Gold Gun" in the truck!

 

[golden sluice]

Thats great, ive known about the design for a while, I just didnt know they were called shrimp guns. I made a small one and I used to use one for nugget sniping, till I cracked it.

 

[Bejay]

Soon as I read this I knew exactly what you were talking about Bejay! My dad and I used to make our own "Slurp guns" out of PCV pipe to get ghost shrimp for bait while fishing Fiesta Island in Mission Bay. The ones we made used a tennis ball between a couple of fender washers as the piston and would suck a shrimp out no matter how deep down his hole he was hiding.

I've often though of building one with a trap section for sucking gold out of cracks. Barry turned us on to Turkey Creek and while exploring out there I came across several places that just screamed to be suctioned out. That it happens to be the closest place with running water makes it a nice change of pace for us. Just need to check on the status of the land and if it's open, next time we go out htere camping there will be a "Gold Gun" in the truck!

Don't need a trap.....as it takes time to break it down to clean it out. The trick is to suck and immediately shoot the material into a low sided lug. The reason for the low sides, ( 6 inches is max), is because you would lose material and have it fall out to of the tube if you had to lift it higher. Place the lug close to the spot you are sucking; and that way the lift and shoot factor is almost immediate. If the water is running and wanting to carry away the floating lug before you get material in it simply hold it in place with your foot until it becomes stable with material in it.

If you use a trap system in the gun it will fill up quickly and you have to break it apart and clean out the trap. No need to have a trap and you can suck and shoot a tremendous amount of material quickly. Like I said earlier.....I use mine as if it were a dredge often on little creeks with lots of bedrock showing. But there have been times when I go down through 3 ft of gravels to get to bedrock.....testing before I were to bring in a dredge to remote locations. Talk about a quiet form of mining.

Bejay

 

[AU_Solitude]

So this has piqued my interest....you honestly use these things with success? I didn't believe they would generate enough suction and thought they were more of a scam; you see a whole slough of them in different varieties on E-bay.

 

[pods]

These operate the same as a Gold-n-Sand hand dredge. I like the idea of a rubber ball for a gasket though. GnS uses a leather gasket that works well once wet. You are limited on size of material and amount due to dealing with two check valves that can foul. A straight tube into a nearby pan would work well. I saw one guy on Youtube that had one with a bend at the end. He pulled up the shaft then rotated the tube to keep the material from falling out.
I like the idea of having a small one for crevicing small areas. I looked into using some big syringes at work (~500 ml) and it seemed too precise and prone to plugging. A small homemade one with a rubber ball gasket would be just the ticket.

 

[AU_Solitude]

Well to me if anyone incorporates a check valve into any of their designs they are seriously limiting themselves to the size of gold their suction device will take in; if you are familiar with the PVC check valves that most of these devices use, they don't exactly let good size material through (a 2" check valve may have clearance for like 1/4" material when fully open).

I am thinking of building one and to me it seems like this shrimp sucker, K.I.S.S, none of the bells and whistles so many others incorporate are necessary and would honestly just be obstructive.

 

[YumaMarc]

Here is mine, in use in a small stream in Honduras. It works great sucking the sand from under the boulders, etc. I'd like to figure out a way to make a valve or something to have it pump into a bucket instead of the little side tube. I need an easily made and replaced one-way valve.

 

[delnorter]

That's the same design I have Bejay. Rubber ball between two nuts and washers. It's been quite a few years and haven't had to replace the ball yet. I do have a reduction PVC piece into which I screw a 8" long by 1" diameter PVC crevice extension. I've also painted mine black to reduce it's visibility to others.

Mike

 

[Bejay]

Here is mine, in use in a small stream in Honduras. It works great sucking the sand from under the boulders, etc. I'd like to figure out a way to make a valve or something to have it pump into a bucket instead of the little side tube. I need an easily made and replaced one-way valve.
View attachment 960008

That is why I don't recommend the little side tube. You are always emptying it. Just suck and shoot the material out of the tube....no need to store it.

Bejay

 

[Bejay]

The one I use is a little different and I offer the link below so that you may see that it has a double handle that you hold with one hand and suck with the other.....(nice)! It also has a rubber ball that is squeezed instead of the rubber piece shown in the vid.
http://shrimpguns.com/shrimp-guns/

Bejay

 

[william1]

great Idea!