Gold Pans!

Oh I'v got them Twitch's two, been home far to long...... bugger

hmmm all my gold together dont even amount to yours robbo lol
one day maybe one day i can put a pic up like the famous james , murachu and robbo art work

Rustydog wrote:hmmm all my gold together dont even amount to yours robbo lol
one day maybe one day i can put a pic up like the famous james , murachu and robbo art work

Mate that day may be closer than ya think .... before the year is out.

I still love my old black pan with solid round base, 3 riffles that run 180 deg, Poor old thing has had plant's growing out of it, when I caught my wife wanting to drill a hole in the bottom for drainage, I re claimed it! My pan!
When I concentrate the heavies I have the pan tilted towards me, bump the pan in a few locations to build up the heavies in one spot, then lightly swirl in an away direction to reveal the gold, thats my method!
I used a mates pan the other day which had a 50mm wide shallow notch at the back of the bowl. Using my method I was astounded how the gold acted, at first I thought this pan is cr#p then I realized the perfect design for riffles in a sluice box! Total separation????

someday wrote:I still love my old black pan with solid round base, 3 riffles that run 180 deg, Poor old thing has had plant's growing out of it, when I caught my wife wanting to drill a hole in the bottom for drainage, I re claimed it! My pan!
When I concentrate the heavies I have the pan tilted towards me, bump the pan in a few locations to build up the heavies in one spot, then lightly swirl in an away direction to reveal the gold, thats my method!
I used a mates pan the other day which had a 50mm wide shallow notch at the back of the bowl. Using my method I was astounded how the gold acted, at first I thought this pan is cr#p then I realized the perfect design for riffles in a sluice box! Total separation????

I agree pans can be a very personal item, I got mine and just love them. cheers

As stated at the beginning of this line of post. There are so many gold pans on the market today it is so hard to find the one that is right. So lets have a look at a sample of pans which can be obtained through you local dealer and second hand.
BUT having the right pan is one thing this is a must do, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF WET PROSPECTING IS KNOWING HOW TO PAN COMPLETELY.




© J.B 2013

Whiskers wrote: THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF WET PROSPECTING IS KNOWING HOW TO PAN COMPLETLEY.

Mate, never a truer word spoken

I've been using the Garrett 15" for the past hmm 12 months ish, it's all I use now, from sampling to full bore panning to clean-ups
The only down fall I find with this pan is the amount of material caught in that last riffle, no big deal but!
Reckon if the last riffle was the size of say your black pan in your last pic and ran 360? deg around the pan, she'd be a winner

The other thing to look out for when using this pan, If your too heavy handed stratifying you'l end up with gold at the extremity's of the wash?? Just something to be aware of!

Cheers
Chris.

I have the Garret set. 14 and 10 plus classifier
Must say I love the 14 not that Ive used any others lol
I barely ever transfer to the 10 as the 14 seems fine to pan off to the finest flakes.
Must buy another few pans soon, one for the Mrs too. every shop I've been to the individual garrets are sold out
would like to try the turbo pan.

someday wrote:

Whiskers wrote: THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF WET PROSPECTING IS KNOWING HOW TO PAN COMPLETLEY.

Mate, never a truer word spoken

I've been using the Garrett 15" for the past hmm 12 months ish, it's all I use now, from sampling to full bore panning to clean-ups
The only down fall I find with this pan is the amount of material caught in that last riffle, no big deal but!
Reckon if the last riffle was the size of say your black pan in your last pic and ran 360? deg around the pan, !she'd be a winner

The other thing to look out for when using this pan, If your too heavy handed stratifying you'l end up with gold at the extremity's of the wash?? Just something to be aware of!q

Cheersq
Chris.

The gold apearing at the sides of the cons is because most of us nowadays use the new plastic pans and we don't follow the old way of circular panning but use a side to side motion thus putting the gold to the sides of the cons in the pan! This is nothing to be afraid of but as you say "be aware" that it happens

I take too long panning Though iam getting there slowly I think my biggest problem is i still dont trust myself but i guess thats what catch pans are for

I'm like you guys I just love the Garret Super Sluice or any of the Garret range of pans their good. Panning is slow when starting out but you will get quicker the more you do it. I have a smile to myself when i see people getting into sluicing or Banking without knowing how to pan as i said THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF WET PROSPECTING IS KNOWING HOW TO PAN COMPLETELY. This is where it all starts.

cheers
James 101

G'day all we bought one of those Turbo pans the other day... Bendigo Gold had them on special... Yet to try it out...

Cheers.

Mike.

G'day Mike

There's a couple of members that use that pan, looks rather scary to me! I'm guessing you'd need to rotate the pan in the opposite direction to settle the gold before doing the spit out direction? will be interesting to hear your opinion when you get a chance to give it a whirl
P.s. I reckon gloves will be needed if doing lots of pans?

Remember with the turbo pan! No clay! Your cons need to be sooooo well washed !

and a really big tub for practicing!

someday wrote:and a really big tub for practicing!

For sure on that one !

G'day Mike, mate it will be interesting to hear what you think of them. cheers

G'day guys thanks for your comments yes I am looking forward to give it a whirl pardon the pun... will let you all know how it goes...

Cheers.

Mike.

Best of luck Mike.
As with any piece of equipment that your new to, understanding what it's trying to tell you is the key, in most cases that won't happen over night!

Cheers
Chris ...

P.s. Once you've given it a whirl, let us know how it pans out

After seeing all this gold in pans I fear I am doing something wrong!

Is this panning only or the product of a week plus running highbankers etc?

How you doing Ben. I can only talk for me in regards of what you see in my pan and it was the product of a few days a week at times plus running the Banjo/highbanker. But I still had to pan off to get what you see. So you could say it was panning as well.
Cheers
James 101

Mike54 wrote:G'day guys thanks for your comments yes I am looking forward to give it a whirl pardon the pun... will let you all know how it goes...

Cheers.

Mike.

Thanks mate that would be good, i have never had anything to do with them it will be good to know what their like. cheers

I'm often been happily surprised after a days sample panning! Best I scored was a tad over 4 grams, not long ago either!
When I first started sampling I would chuck the pan contents back in the drink so I had a clean pan for the next test dig, don't do that anymore depending on the mood I'l either take me snuffer bottle or me bowl, the bowls more cumbersome to cart around, but you get to keep all the heavy's, rather than just sucken up the visables with the snuffer bottle!
Remembering this is not a time consuming operation to get every last spec, your looking for good ground with gold at depth!

Thanks guys - I haven't got the highbanker up and running yet - I wouldn't even know where to start running it either. I have panned some locations that I was happy with the colours - but was only a couple or so per pan!

Are you guys scraping out a crevice or digging holes to a bottom and working a lead?

Ben78 wrote:Thanks guys - I haven't got the highbanker up and running yet - I wouldn't even know where to start running it either. I have panned some locations that I was happy with the colours - but was only a couple or so per pan!

Are you guys scraping out a crevice or digging holes to a bottom and working a lead?

Ben having the equipment is only ½ the yarn . There are a lot of steps you must take before your on payable gold. They have been talked about in the sluicing section on this site and other areas within the site as well. You ask are we scraping out a crevice or digging holes to a bottom and working a lead. Mate we go where the gold is and not many people but work all of the above at times. Someday has given you the most important bit of advice you can have and that is TO LEARN HOW TO TEST AND TEST REGULARY. If you don’t you don’t get the gold.
Cheers
James 101
©

Thanks James et al.

It can be hard getting the gist of it via written word. I have been going out with a few guys that have been doing it a while but they admit that they are still very amateur. I haven't seen pans like you guys yet lol.

I'll keep reading

Ben

Ben78 wrote:Thanks James et al.

It can be hard getting the gist of it via written word. I have been going out with a few guys that have been doing it a while but they admit that they are still very amateur. I haven't seen pans like you guys yet lol.

I'll keep reading

Ben

There is no quick fix in this learning thing ,it is a slow curve that will take a long time to accomplish ! No short cuts ! Lol just like detecting . Practice ! Practice! Practice ! Is the way . Learn to pan efficiently ,this can be done at home with lead shot and then fine gold. Then you can takeon how to read a creek or river for gold ,how to follow a lead and so on but you Must learn the basics and return to them time and time again because there will be times that mother nature will throw you a curve ball and you will need to know how to cope with it .

Reading the posts in here will set you well on the way to understanding why some people will always be fosickers and others will become prospectors!

If you have any questions I'm sure you will get answeres you need here .

Ben78 wrote:Thanks James et al.

It can be hard getting the gist of it via written word. I have been going out with a few guys that have been doing it a while but they admit that they are still very amateur. I haven't seen pans like you guys yet lol.

I'll keep reading

Ben

Ben I fully recommend you as a wet water prospector seek out the prospecting "Bible" "Prospecting for Gold" by Ion Idriess. Or Australian Gold Prospectors Handbook" by C. Barclay Smith. 1931.
Read these books then reread them. Your so right when you say getting the gist of it via written word is very hard. And it is even harder to link up with someone who knows what there doing plenty can spend all day telling you how good they are at getting gold. But you will know the guy that dose when you meet him if you can join a club then do so. The post Ark done is spot on the money that’s the best advice I can give you.

cheers
James 101

G'day Ben, yes it's one big learning curve!
The post where it was mentioned, that most new to this way of life don't walk far from where they park their car says it all
Mind you I've been known to do it too!! Not through laziness, just a quick gold fix or testing some mods

The gold you'l find in these locations can be either newly deposited flood gold and or gold lost from previous fossickers who don't understand the importance to pan and pan well!

I've been prospecting an area thats been doing my head in for years, always looking for the source, trying to figure out how the gold got there!
All I was doing was wasting fistfuls of cash on fuel etc and quite frankly always coming away feeling frustrated and ill, so much for having a good time out bush

Anyway I changed the way I was looking at this head bang spot and started to actually process the dirt that my test panning was pointing me too!
Cool, multiple fuel money paid for

Hopefully one day the penny will drop on this spot! Until then, when I find good gold in my pan it's time to move some dirt!

Cheers
Chris.

WTF! Why don't you keep your advise to yourself!
Seriously though it does get up ones nose that no matter how many times this panning thing is mentioned people just gloss over it! Now I would love to sit at the piano and play but there is one thing I can't do ? Yes play the piano ! I don't want to make the effort to learn how to play it so the reality is I will never be able to play!