Permits and rules

What counts as hand tools

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Casual-use collecting on ordinary BLM is built around hand tools. If it needs a motor, a compressor, or a truck-mounted boom, you have left hobby collecting.

Usually fine on open BLM, under the cap

• Rock hammer, crack hammer, chisels
• Hand shovel, pick, pry bar you can carry
• Screens and buckets
• Hand rake

Rock hammer

The everyday tool. Point for seams, square face for breaking a piece already off the ground. Not a sledge.

Crack hammer

Heavier than a rock hammer, still one hand or a short handle. For cracking a cobble, not for opening a trench.

Chisels

Used with the crack hammer. A wide cold chisel beats a screwdriver. Keep the struck end dressed so it does not mushroom.

Hand shovel

A short shovel you can carry. Wilderness and some ACECs ban even this. The unit order beats this page.

Pick

A hand pick or a light mattock. If you need a truck to bring it, it is no longer a casual-use tool.

Pry bar

A bar you can carry. For a seam, not for levering a boulder onto the truck.

Screens

Leave the dirt in the wash. Mesh and the weight cap are on the screens page.

Bucket

A full 5-gallon bucket of agate is often already near the daily cap.

Hand rake

For loosening the top of a wash. Not a thatcher, not a machine.

Not casual-use tools

• Explosives
• Backhoes, winches used as excavators, pumps for sluicing a public wash
• Anything you would need a mineral materials permit or claim to justify

Wilderness and some ACECs tighten this further — sometimes no shovel at all. The unit order beats this list.

Informational only. Ask the field office if your hand tool looks like a machine.

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