Underwater Sniping.. Tips/Help/Thoughts/

[MadMarshall]

So I have been dedicating the majority of my time these last few months to underwater sniping. And so far I have been pretty successful. But on the other hand it has it's price.. For example the Chafing.. For me this is a huge problem. The fact that I am in the wetsuit for an average of 6hours a day and when I piss it burns so freaking bad.. Just wondering what I can use to stop chafing?


Well some things that I think that help me out with finding gold when underwater sniping.. First thing is mobility (this hold true for all aspects of Prospecting). I never ever pick just one place to spend my day. The only exception is when I am returning to further exploit an area previously prospected.
It is always easier to work your way downriver then it is upriver.. Often I park and then hike upriver for a ways and then get in the water and work my way downriver to the vehicle.

Areas in the river are often not very forgiving for Underwater Sniping. Lots of gravel covering bedrock.. bedrock to deep ect ect. So one has to make use of all opportunity's presented.. Find tools to increase the depth on which you can find and recover gold. I use crowbars and the handdredge to allow me to break and recover the gold..

When you find your gold find the easiest way to exploit it. This never ever involves TWEEZERS.. Snuffer bottles work poorly. Hand Dredge seems to work good though it's kinda a pain to carry around.

And Lastly Gold prospecting can get very Discouraging. Me I just tell myself.. " All it takes is one" Just one crack can pay for your day/ week/ maybe more you just never know.. But I find myself thinking those words a lot when I get in a slump.


Anyway any thoughts or such on how to get more gold Underwater Sniping or anything related would be nice.. I have became quite the fan over the last months..

 

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[EriktheProspector]

Hey Victor,

You've got more time under your belt and I was simply providing my 2 cents - if it's worth that. I'm definitely still learning, and am the first to admit I have a lot to learn.
I realize we all have different definitions of what 'good' gold is in a day. Some it's a flake, some a pennyweight, some 2 pennyweights. As we become experienced what we consider to be 'good' will be 'poor', and so on.
I'll keep learning, as will you, and all of us.
I feel the more we learn about prospecting, as with many things, we realize how much more there is to learn.

Pickers to ya'

E

 

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[EriktheProspector]

Never ever spit in your mask.

Hi John,
Been a scuba diver 17 years. Tried using bottles of anti-fog, toothpaste, and spit. My dad taught me to just use spit, and many times it's just what you have. I've heard or felt nothing of this being a problem to one's health, nor the gear. Not a problem, nor has it been one for my dad who's been diving his entire life.
Anyways, to each his own.
E

 

[EriktheProspector]

Eric it was nice meeting you.. But on another note it is note I can not say I totally agree with you.

Lets start at the beginning.

1) You must find the general gold path by using the fundamentals (inside bend, reading river during flood stage).

How much Gold dictates the Gold path? I do not believe in gold paths.. More pockets so to speak..

2) Check course bedrock, smooth bedrock usually does not trap gold.

I suspect smooth bedrock was rough and jagged at one time..


3) Look for hardpack cobbles. These are the richer pockets, whether newer or older with clay and volcanic layers, look for hardpacked cobbles.
4) If you're in the clay you're on the pay! If you're on the ash, you're in the cash! As I say.. I highly recommend processing entire crevices if possible. There may be ounces of micron gold within clay and gray ash layers from what I've seen, but you must process all of this at a later time, and the right suction gun will be needed for the job.

Both 3 and 4 I suspect fall under the same.. Common thinking among many.. Not me .. those thoughts do me as much good as looking on the inside bends ect ect.. The best indicator for payable gold is GOLD. The art of reading gold .

5) You're a surgeon! Gold may be anywhere. Work slow. Gold may sit on top of the hard pack cobbles, or at the very very bottom. I highly recommend working slowly as it is surprisingly easy to miss gold if you're reckless and swinging wildly. Sniping a crevice, to me, is like a delicate surgery. Each crevice and rock must be carefully opened or extracted using the correct tool, amount of energy, and angle of attack. Also, don't blow material around. Get your face closer to the crevice and sometimes you'll see gold you didn't know was there.

Well this may be a matter of preference.. But let it be said that finding gold is of very little concern to me.. I want PAYABLE GOLD.. and with that in mind ..Sniping for me is like demolition.. I do not wish to dick around and spend an hour for a few flakes.. I am a firm believer of finding the gold Exploiting it as quickly as possible.

Now a days people definitions vary greatly on what is good gold and what dictates finding good gold.. Now I can not speak for everyone else but for myself payable gold is 2 pennyweight a day and more.. anything less then that doesn't really constitute my time.. Now when I am cracking bedrock or underwater sniping more often then not I am doing roughly about 20 pans of material a day. Anyway overall it has been my experience that the best indicator for payable gold is gold ..

Anyway Erik gold is always bring different thoughts and opinions from prospectors and contradicting us all!!

I like your thoughts on smooth bedrock being rough and perhaps trapping gold at one point. I have found that "usually" smooth bedrock does not trap much, or any gold, but I hear that when there are exceptions to this the gold can be very rich.

That's funny that I described sniping as a "delicate surgery" and you described it to be "like demolition". Lol! Perhaps in time I too will see it like a demolition. Get in, tear that $hit up, and get the heck out of the crevice. Just ravage and run. Jk.

Nice thoughts on gold as being an indicator rather than the 'gold path'. My buddy got a nice picker last weekend that wouldn't have qualified as right on the 'gold path'. It was very big and flat though and those shapes can travel and get trapped in surprising ways.

Regarding 'reading gold'. I always try to read my gold, and gravels, to understand an area. Here's a gold pan I had after cleaning a crevice below a dry gulch. There is a story the gold is telling about the area.

There's smooth placer gold, wiry gold, and mercury covered gold. I believe the crystalline or wire gold came from the dry gulch above, as well as some of the other gold in here. Might be worth metal detecting the gulch.

 

[hey_ad_man]

Knee pads

 

[Lanny in AB]

If you can't get out to pee for some reason, pull open the top of your wetsuit, the neck portion, face the direction of the current and let the water pour into your suit. Is it cold! You bet, but it will help flush out what you had to do and could not do anywhere else at the time, plus no chafing. This works, but it's a last resort that does a bandaid fix. Then be sure to flush those boots and wash that wetsuit: I use a mild bleach solution with some detergent (bleach is easy to overdo, so remember the term "mild"; just enough to kill the cooties and not enough to break down the suit's materials).

Always remember that the thickness of any crack underwater may not be at all the original thickness when a super-flood was yarding material and gold down the stream bed. The crack may have been much larger or maybe the same, but huge boulders hammering the bottom may have opened that crevice and when the rocks moved on, the crevice snapped shut! All kinds of crazy things go on when big floods are smashing their load against the bedrock.

1. Test 2. Test 3. Test: Assuming wrongly causes gold loss. "If you don't go you'll never know". I've been shocked and pleasantly surprised by gold taken from what looked to be hairline cracks that couldn't possibly have admitted any gold deposition. The other way I've been disappointed by crevices that looked big enough to do the job, but were barren. Go figure . . .

All the best,

Lanny

 

[northern_sierras]

I just got into sniping the other day and have a couple questions. Is the gold typically going to be larger in the water than on the bank? I spend most of my time on the feather river below the confluence of the nelson creek where there is quite a bit of bedrock. Do you guys just start checking all the bedrock and work your way down or are there specific features of the waterway that would make certain spots a priority?

 

[Hoser John]

3 prong garden spades shred that crumbly black shale present there and then fan man fan like crazy as all goes away and suck it up-John

 

[hey_ad_man]

Hey y'all

Curious to what your choice of snuffer may be? 4-8 oz bottle? Homemade?


I use a regular 8oz bottle. I have this baster and would really like to use AT LEAST the nozzle since it has a loop on it.. great for tying fishing line and adding a heavy sinker to prevent from floating away. Any ideas on the baster/nozzle would be welcomed!

 

[Bluestar9]

Hey y'all

Curious to what your choice of snuffer may be? 4-8 oz bottle? Homemade?


I use a regular 8oz bottle. I have this baster and would really like to use AT LEAST the nozzle since it has a loop on it.. great for tying fishing line and adding a heavy sinker to prevent from floating away. Any ideas on the baster/nozzle would be welcomed!
View attachment 1162434

Here's what I did. Used 1/4" O.D. tube. Cut to suit.

 

[kabah088]

If you can't get out to pee for some reason, pull open the top of your wetsuit, the neck portion, face the direction of the current and let the water pour into your suit. Is it cold! You bet, but it will help flush out what you had to do and could not do anywhere else at the time, plus no chafing. This works, but it's a last resort that does a bandaid fix. Then be sure to flush those boots and wash that wetsuit: I use a mild bleach solution with some detergent (bleach is easy to overdo, so remember the term "mild"; just enough to kill the cooties and not enough to break down the suit's materials).

Always remember that the thickness of any crack underwater may not be at all the original thickness when a super-flood was yarding material and gold down the stream bed. The crack may have been much larger or maybe the same, but huge boulders hammering the bottom may have opened that crevice and when the rocks moved on, the crevice snapped shut! All kinds of crazy things go on when big floods are smashing their load against the bedrock.

1. Test 2. Test 3. Test: Assuming wrongly causes gold loss. "If you don't go you'll never know". I've been shocked and pleasantly surprised by gold taken from what looked to be hairline cracks that couldn't possibly have admitted any gold deposition. The other way I've been disappointed by crevices that looked big enough to do the job, but were barren. Go figure . . .

All the best,

Lanny

As a long time surfer I will have to attest to the "collar grab and scoop." I do it all the time when I am surfing and get too hot. And works wonders at clearing the Jacuzzi in your wet suit.
As for chaffing, In my experience it is good to start with a good wet suit. I am not too sure about urine causing chaff but more of a sand or abrasive material in your wet suit which causes the chaff.
Only chaffing issues I have ever had were from long over use of a entry level wet suit. I use a 4:3mm in waters down to 52F.

And yes I am new to sniping however had a good experience last weekend working a large boulder crack above the water line, smooth, and not in a seemingly ideal position to capture gold. However, low and behold once I began demoing this crack, there was a lot of clay and cemented sand/gravel/grassroots. Cleared it out and found some chunkies which to my experience level would classify as pickers. Also found a .2 g nugget, a first for me the weekend before which sparked this bedrock crack interest.

 

[beekbuster]

I just got into sniping the other day and have a couple questions. Is the gold typically going to be larger in the water than on the bank? I spend most of my time on the feather river below the confluence of the nelson creek where there is quite a bit of bedrock. Do you guys just start checking all the bedrock and work your way down or are there specific features of the waterway that would make certain spots a priority?

yesterday i got all of my gold in a 3 ftx 3ft area. one crack mostly exposed just under the water line, found the biggest piece there. then the rest was in the cracks of shale with no overburden on it. not my first choice of the day but i was tired from digging down 3+ ft of overburden in another area i had good luck previously, but such was not the case yesterday. i dug in 5 places yesterday and only found gold in one spot, the other holes were not more than 10-30 ft away. if i start a crack, i will finish it, or it will eat at me.

 

[Bronze]

Under armor for the chaffing.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Here are what I use to snipe with, I also sell the larger bottle picture in case you are interested. Just PM me if you are interested.

They work great, almost never clog beyond the tip and the tube itself lasts for years as long as its not struck with a rock or bent as it can crack.
When I do get a clog removing it is as simple as tapping it firmly on a rock while squeezing the bottle. Doing this takes care of 99% of any clogs.
That nasty 1% requires getting a twig and pushing it out.

I don't use the 8oz Harbor Freight bottles any longer because they are incredibly inconsistent in quality. Sometimes you get great bottles with lots of springback, sometimes you get bottles with smaller neck sizes that require cutting the tube but lately I have only found disappointingly crappy bottles from HF. Very thin plastic with almost no springback and it punctures too easily.

That is why I moved to 12oz Professional restaurant bottles from a specialty restaurant supplier in town, oddly enough they are right across the street from Harbor Freight! HA!

 

[NeoTokyo]

Gabe I am heading out with a friend tomorrow, give me a call if you want to join us.
We are going up to French Gulch.

I think you may know him, his name is also Eric and he is a member of Shasta Miners.

 

[PioneerPauly]

Good read so far! I just got into sniping and boy does it kick the crap out of panning.. Im sure panning has its benefits but over where I prospect, nobody works in the waters!! Anyways, I wish I had advice to share but im still new..

"The people who say the gold is gone, are the people finding it."

Cheers

 

[Bejay]

So fully underwater sniping is very rewarding. Using a fully underwater metal detector and your sniping tools (suction mechanism and crevice tool)... one can use a hooka set up to supply air. Depending on water temp......one can use a wet suit or not. If no wet suit; then one does not need to wear much weight.......very little weight will work and ankle weights (like you use in the gym) to work out do the trick (they Velcro on and come off in a flash) Usually you want to find river bottom in deep pools that has a lot of bedrock exposure and crevices. Always nice to buddy up and have someone up top keeping an eye on things. When the summers are hot and swimming is enjoyable makes it easy on the "doing part".

Rinse off your wet suit after each days use....and air dry it. Washing it out occasionally with either baby shampoo (like was mentioned earlier....very safe) or "simple green" at the end of the season ensures it stays healthy.

PS: Us old farts who have to piss at every change in temp and ?.....can't be in and out of our suits constantly. Urine is sterile...it is the bacteria that grows in it that makes the rash!

Bejay