A shooter from the East earns gold pieces (7)
I believe the answer is:
nuggets
'pieces' is the definition.
(nugget is a kind of piece)
'a shooter from the east earns gold' is the wordplay.
'a shooter' becomes 'gun' (I've seen this before).
'from the east' says the letters should be written backwards (on a map from right to left).
'earns gold' becomes 'gets' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'gun' backwards is 'nug'.
'nug'+'gets'='NUGGETS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nuggets that I've seen before include "Small lumps of gold" , "Lumps of metal like gold" , "Solid lumps of a precious metal" .)