60 lessons · $37 · 14-day guarantee
The Placer Gold Primer — Volume One cover
Digital books from the Tucker Gold Rush channel

The Placer Gold Primer

60 illustrated lessons for finding placer gold the small-scale way
“The water already sorted it for you. Your job is just to not undo its work.”— Wade Tucker, Tucker Gold Rush

Sixty lessons, six sections, one book: how to read a creek bend before you ever load a pan, how to run that pan all the way to black sand, how to set a sluice so it clogs less by noon, how to tell real gold from mica and pyrite without a lab, what the ground can hurt you with, and how to check whether the ground is even yours to touch. Sixty drawings, 179 named mistakes, a 168-entry symptom index. It doesn't need signal, or Wade, or a guess.

60 LESSONS, A DRAWING FOR EACH168 PROBLEMS INDEXEDEVERY SAFETY CLAIM CHECKED
Get the book60 illustrated lessons · PDF
$37
  • 14-day money-back guarantee. Write to us and you get your money back.
  • Bonus: The Gold Prospector's Cheat Sheet — one page to print, every number that matters
  • Pay once · yours to keep · no subscription
  • Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay · secure checkout by Stripe · download the moment you've paid

By buying you agree to the Terms of Sale and Refund Policy.

0 people went to checkout in the last 24 hours

PDF · 145 pages · 60 illustrated lessons · read on phone, tablet or computer, or print it

60Numbered lessons
6Parts
153 numbersin the reference section
168Problems in the index
14 daysMoney-back guarantee
NO SIGNAL NEEDED

For the day there's no Wade to ask.

This is for the moment you're standing at a bend with wet boots, a pan in one hand, and a question the comments section can't answer fast enough. It's the same method from the channel, written out in order, so you can check your own work without waiting for a reply.

What you needThe tools and materials for that lesson, named plainly, nothing extra.
How it goesThe exact steps, in order, with real measurements.
Why it worksThe mechanism in plain words, so you can fix it without the book.
How people ruin itThe common mistakes, named, each with the sign and the fix.
Where it doesn't holdThe honest limits — where this method stops working.
What makes it different

Built for the day it goes wrong

Look up the failure

The back of the book runs 168 symptoms straight to the lesson that explains them, so you search by what went wrong, not by a chapter title you half-remember from a video.

A drawing for every lesson

60 lessons, 60 drawings — the inside bend, the riffle angle, the claim marker — so you can check your work against a picture, not just your memory of the text.

The mistake is named before the fix

179 mistakes, each named the way it looks when it's going wrong, then exactly what to change.

Numbers you can check

153 measurements pulled into a reference section — pan sizes, riffle heights, grade angles — so you can look one up fast without rereading the whole lesson.

THE ARITHMETIC

One guided outing vs. one book

A single guided panning day with an outfitter in gold country typically runs $50 to $120 a person — one creek, one day, on someone else's schedule, with someone else's gear. This book runs $37, once, and you keep it for every creek you'll ever stand at after.

Guide prices are typical and vary by region, season, and outfitter — this is a point of reference, not a quote.

What you'll be able to do

After the book

  • Pick the one bend in a long stretch of creek worth testing first
  • Set a sluice so it runs itself instead of clogging by noon
  • Tell real gold from mica and pyrite using a window and a needle, no lab
  • Recognize the ground hazards — old workings, certain minerals, loose slabs — before they recognize you
  • Check whether the ground you're standing on is open, claimed, or off-limits before you dig
VOLUME ONE · SIX PARTS

From the bend in the creek to the edge of the law

One book, six parts, sixty lessons — reading water, running a pan and a sluice, telling gold from everything that fakes it, staying clear of what the ground can hurt you with, and knowing which ground is yours to work.

Part OneReading the CreekHow moving water sorts gold into a creek bed, and how to read the stones, bars, and bends that show you where it stopped.
Part TwoWorking a PanLoading, shaking, and finishing a pan so the gold stays in it instead of going over the lip.
Part ThreeGear Beyond the PanSluice boxes, finishing tables, and metal detectors — what each one actually does and where it earns its keep over a pan.
Part FourTelling Gold From Fool's GoldThe kitchen-table checks — light, hardness, weight, and a magnet — that tell real gold from pyrite, mica, and everything else that fakes it.
Part FiveWhat the Ground Can Hurt You WithThe rocks and habits that get a careless prospector hurt, ordered from the one that has to touch you to the one that never needs to.
Part SixClaims, Permits & the RulesWhere you're allowed to dig, what paperwork you need, and how to keep a find legally yours.
From inside the book

Every lesson has a drawing

Sixty lessons, sixty drawings — the bend, the riffle, the claim marker — so you can check the page against the picture, not just the memory of a video.

Lesson 6 drawing
Lesson 6 · page 16 · How Far That Stone Traveled
Lesson 16 drawing
Lesson 16 · page 37 · The Riffle's Job
Lesson 26 drawing
Lesson 26 · page 59 · What a Detector Hears
Lesson 36 drawing
Lesson 36 · page 80 · Pyrite's Hard Edge
Lesson 46 drawing
Lesson 46 · page 101 · Gloves, Bags, and a Marker
Lesson 56 drawing
Lesson 56 · page 125 · State Water Permits
A page from the bookA page from the bookA page from the book
WHY THIS BOOK EXISTS
A video can show you the bend. It can't stand there with you.

Every video on the channel teaches one piece of the method — one bend, one test, one mistake. That works at home. It doesn't work knee-deep in a creek with no signal, when the question you have is the one the video didn't cover.

So the whole method went into one book, in the order you actually need it: read the water, work the pan, run the gear, tell gold from what fakes it, stay clear of what the ground can hurt you with, and know which ground is yours to work. Every lesson names its mistakes and says where it stops working, because a method that claims to work everywhere is one nobody tested.

It's not a replacement for the channel. It's what the channel can't do, which is ride in the truck with you.

— Wade

WHO'S TALKING

Wade Tucker

Wade Tucker

Wade Tucker hosts Tucker Gold Rush, a channel about finding gold the small-scale way: panning, sluicing, metal detecting, reading a creek, and the rules of where you're allowed to dig.

This book is the channel's method, organized: sixty numbered lessons in six parts, each with what you need, the steps with the real numbers, why it works, how people ruin it and where it doesn't hold — plus a drawing for every lesson, a 168-problem index and a one-page cheat sheet to print.

Every safety and legal claim in it was checked against official guidance from the BLM, the Forest Service, NIOSH and OSHA before it shipped.

“The water already sorted it for you. Your job is just to not undo its work.”

All 60

What's inside

    Reading the Creek

  1. 1The Inside Bend
  2. 2Where Water Gives Up
  3. 3Stones Stacked Like Shingles
  4. 4Black Sand's Address
  5. 5The Head of the Bar
  6. 6How Far That Stone Traveled
  7. 7Bedrock Is the Floor
  8. 8Cracks That Hold Gold
  9. 9Flood Line Reading
  10. 10False Floors and Clay Layers

    Working a Pan

  1. 11The Right Pan
  2. 12Classifying Before You Pan
  3. 13Loading the Pan
  4. 14The First Shake
  5. 15Tilt and Wash
  6. 16The Riffle's Job
  7. 17Working to Black Sand
  8. 18Reading the Last Inch
  9. 19The Snuffer Bottle
  10. 20Into the Vial

    Gear Beyond the Pan

  1. 21Setting a Sluice
  2. 22Feeding the Box
  3. 23Checking Your Riffles
  4. 24The Ten Dollar Table
  5. 25Assembling Your Starter Kit
  6. 26What a Detector Hears
  7. 27Ground Balance Explained
  8. 28Hot Rocks and False Signals
  9. 29Pulse Machines on Wet Ground
  10. 30Choosing a Coil

    Telling Gold From Fool's Gold

  1. 31The Window Test
  2. 32The Needle Test
  3. 33The Weight Drop
  4. 34The Magnet Check
  5. 35Mica's Mirror Flash
  6. 36Pyrite's Hard Edge
  7. 37The Streak Plate
  8. 38Peroxide on Film, Not Rust
  9. 39Choosing a Cleaning Brush
  10. 40Weigh Dry, Judge in Shade

    What the Ground Can Hurt You With

  1. 41The Shaded Slab
  2. 42Galena's Honest Weight
  3. 43The Blue Crust Warning
  4. 44Red and Yellow Together
  5. 45Standoff Distance
  6. 46Gloves, Bags, and a Marker
  7. 47Old Workings, Closed Door
  8. 48Dust You Shouldn't Shake
  9. 49Washing Before You Eat
  10. 50The Kit in the Truck

    Claims, Permits & the Rules

  1. 51Public Land vs Claimed Ground
  2. 52Reading a Claim Marker
  3. 53Verify Before You Dig
  4. 54Motorized vs Hand Tools
  5. 55Suction Dredge Rules
  6. 56State Water Permits
  7. 57Panning on Private Land
  8. 58Marking Your Own Find
  9. 59Selling What You Keep
  10. 60Leaving No Trace
Straight answer

Who this book is for

It's for you if

  • You've watched the channel for a while and want the whole method in one place, not spread across videos
  • You're planning a trip to a foothill creek and want to know which ground you're actually allowed to work before you load the truck
  • You want to know, cold, whether what's in your pan is gold or something that only looks like it
  • You own a sluice, or are about to buy one, and keep losing color off the tail end of it
  • You'd rather carry a printed book creekside than count on cell signal for a video
  • You want the mistakes named upfront, so you don't have to make all of them yourself first

It's not for you if

  • You want video — this is a book, pictures and text, not footage of Wade at the creek
  • You're after large-scale or commercial mining methods — this covers hand tools, a pan, and a sluice, nothing bigger
  • You want the law settled for you — Lessons 51-60 teach you how to check claims and permits yourself; they don't replace calling your local BLM office or state agency
How it works

Paid, then yours in a minute

1 · Pay onceCard, Apple Pay or Google Pay on Stripe's secure page. We never see your card.
2 · DownloadThe PDF opens the moment you've paid — phone, tablet or computer, or print it.
3 · Keep itBookmark the download page — it works any time. Lost it? Write to us with the email you paid with and we send it again.
Before you buy

Questions

What do I get?

One digital book, The Placer Gold Primer — 60 lessons across six sections, each with steps, a drawing, the named mistakes with fixes, and the honest limits of the method, plus a back-of-book index of 168 symptoms and a reference section of 153 numbers.

How do I get it after I pay?

Checkout runs through Stripe — card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. The download page opens right after payment, and the PDF links work straight from that page.

Can I print it?

Yes. It's built to be printed and carried — the whole point is having it on paper at the creek, where there's no signal.

Is the advice in here safe to follow?

The hazard section, Lessons 41 through 50, covers the minerals to leave alone, gloves and washing up, and why you stay out of old workings entirely. Every safety and legal claim was checked against official guidance (BLM, the Forest Service, NIOSH, OSHA). No book replaces judgment at the actual site — if a slab, a mineral, or an old working looks wrong, leave it and ask someone local.

What if it isn't useful to me?

You get 14 days to decide. If it's not useful, you get your money back — no form to argue with.

How do I pay?

Stripe checkout, $37, one time — card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

The whole method, in order, for the day you're standing there alone.

Sixty lessons, one book, $37 — read it before you go, or keep it in the truck for when you need it.

Get the book60 illustrated lessons · PDF
$37

By buying you agree to the Terms of Sale and Refund Policy.

0 people went to checkout in the last 24 hours

$3760 lessons · PDF
Get the book