Recreational Gold Panning Recreational gold panning is the outdoor leisure activity of panning gold from gold bearing streams and burns. Recreational gold panning is an outdoor pursuit which promotes fitness, health, and friendship and brings us into some of the most beautiful parts of the countryside. Equipment used in recreational gold panning The basic equipment for gold panning would be a shovel, bucket, garden riddle and gold pan, as well as suitable clothing for working in rivers, such as waders, wetsuit, or drysuit. Other equipment could include gravel pump, underwater viewer, sluice, snuffer bottle, and patio weeder. Consideration must be given to weight as all this equipment must be carried in a backpack. When first sampling a new area, gravel is shovelled into a garden riddle sitting on a bucket or goldpan. The gravel is sifted and put back in the river and the finer gravel panned. When gravel has been cleared almost to bedrock a gravel pump is then used to pump out the heavier sediments. At this stage, underwater viewer and patio weeder are used to examine exposed bedrock. If small specks of gold are found in cracks, they can be sucked out using a snuffer bottle. Returns from recreational gold panning Returns from leisure gold panning are meagre to say the least. Typical returns for a full day's outing probably averages around quarter to half a gram. We would consider a gram for a day’s work to be a very good outing indeed. Of course, there is always the allure of that elusive nugget which may be lurking under the next rock! Gold Sniping Sniping for gold is the method of using a drysuit or wetsuit, snorkel and mask to look for gold in cracks in exposed bedrock on the river bed. It is not gold panning. The only equipment used in gold sniping is basically just a geologist's hammer, small chisel, patio weeder for scraping cracks, and snuffer bottle. As can be seen in this photograph, sniping is confined to exposed bedrock and as such little or no change is made to the river bed whatsoever. Perhaps if gold panning is not an option, gold sniping could be permitted under certain conditions. Stop Press The high price of gold is attracting 'gold diggers' to the hobby - if you will excuse the term - folks who pan without permission, damage salmon spawning beds, and who have no regard for other ecological considerations, such as lambing, deer stalking, and other country activities. If you are unfortunate enough to be taken advantage of in this way, rather than simply close your rivers to all gold panners, please consider granting exclusive panning permissions to the Gold Club. We will respect your land and property at all times, and we police our members. There will always be rogue panners, just as there will always be salmon poachers, but please don't close your rivers to responsible panners as a consequence.