Fanning for Gold (Sniping?)

NuggetN8

Hero Member
Mar 13, 2012
618
416
Northern California
Detector(s) used
SDC 2300
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Hi guys, I've been using this technique for quite a while now and I just wanted to share how to do it in case some of you don't know how to do it or don't even know about it. I've always known this method as "fanning" but there might be another word for it. (After I was done typing this I did some research and I think it's the same thing as sniping for gold) What you do is get a viewing glass or some goggles or something so that you can look down into the water in a creek that has bedrock. Then you use your hand to fan the gravel away by using a waving motion and use tweezers to scrape the dirt or clay apart (if there is any) and pick up any gold that shows up under the dirt or clay with the tweezers. Look for really small cracks and holes in the bedrock that people normally wouldn't think to scrape out or wouldn't even see without a viewing glass. Also, if you have a sniffer bottle (one of those things that are made to suck up concentrates and or gold out of your pan) than you can use those to blow some of the smaller material out of the way and suck up the finer pieces of gold. It may not work for all creeks depending on where you usually find gold in the creek. This is only good if there isn't much of any overburden. This method may be a lot easier to understand if you saw somebody doing it so I will try to make a video tomorrow of me doing it because I've been doing really good the past few days. Today I found a few nuggets while doing it and a whole lot of smaller pieces, hopefully I can find a nugget on camera =). Good luck to anyone who decides to try this out! Personally, this is my favorite way to find gold.
 

Upvote 0
Check out my hand pump posted up you could use one in these situations
 

Nice pump, I've been experimenting with something like that this past week. I have a few sucker guns that I made a long time ago but I'm working on one like the one you posted. I tried using check valves that I found at home depot but they get plugged up too easily by gravel and it loses suction.. You used gate valves? Not sure what those are. Did you make them or buy them?
 

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