Gold Pans - What do you use.

[Lasivian]

Thanks

 

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[Bonaro]

The Grizzly works just as well if not better than a regular gold pan. Its simpler, but I find they take up more space in a backpack. Also they require deeper water to pan in, which is sometimes troublesome.

Another thing is a final cleanup, darn near impossible in a grizzly. You wind up dumping it in a gold pan to do a rinse anyways.

You can process more material quicker with a grizzly though. Just fine for concentrating, but then so is a sluice.

Good Lord, Is that Jeffro?
Havent seen that name in years....still chasing sunstone?

 

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[Reed Lukens]

Another old post Dan from 2007

 

[The Gilded Lens]

My handy dandy Garrett. I have the kit they sell that includes the 14" and the 10" (which I don't ever use which goes against their advertising that women prefer it) and their classifier and snuffer bottle. I love the 14" but am interested in getting their Super Sluice model. I love how the gold just pops off the green color and how indestructible they are. They float, which is both a blessing and a curse. Ever see a crazy woman swim for her gold pan? LOL

 

[AnthonyG]

Anybody ever use the stansport brand gold pans received a set as a gift

 

[63bkpkr]

Ok, so I will be different - I've tried several pans in the past but purchased a "Batpan" a few years back so all the others stay at home. I find it easy to use right down through clean ups. Due to its triangular crossection it is cumbersome to carry in a pack (I backpack all the time) and it will not lay down on the ground so one must push it into the sand or it will spill the contents. It is so nice to use it makes up for the drawbacks mentioned here....................63bkpkr

 

[Vance in AK]

I have used a variety of round pans for years but about 15 years ago I tried a LeTrap square pan and from that day forward it has been my #1 pan. I now own at least 10 along with a rare original set of nesting screens for it. I believe there is nothing better or faster and I have tried most all of them.

Bonaro, an old prospector friend just gifted me two LeTraps & a set of nesting screens. I don't think they were ever used. How many/what size screens were in the complete set?
Looking forward to trying them out this year.
I have a large variety of pans but primarily use the Garret Super Sluice & last year started using the Hex Pan, but not enough to know what I really think of it.

 

[Bonaro]

Bonaro, an old prospector friend just gifted me two LeTraps & a set of nesting screens. I don't think they were ever used. How many/what size screens were in the complete set?
Looking forward to trying them out this year.
I have a large variety of pans but primarily use the Garret Super Sluice & last year started using the Hex Pan, but not enough to know what I really think of it.

My set has 4 screens, one is a different color and one other is a lot deeper than the remaining two. I don't know if I have a full set. I also have a baby LeTrap pan thats about 1/2 the size of the standard, it also has one sceen

 

[Bonaro]

Another old post Dan from 2007

Arrrgh...I never check the date

 

[infotraker]

I have used the trinity pan off and on for about 4 years. It can be used as a regular pan and for working black sand. It holds gold well in the depression. I work out the black sands from the side off the catch, not using the little sluice area.

 

[AnthonyG]

I had someone buy me the deluxe Yukon set of stansport gold pans

 

[AnthonyG]

Was looking to get some reviews on the ..would have rather had the garret gold pans but it's the thought that counts

 

[SLNugget]

GPAA Pan is my fave of the many I have tried.

 

[Vance in AK]

Was looking to get some reviews on the ..would have rather had the garret gold pans but it's the thought that counts

I have some just like them. Not my all time favorite but they catch gold just fine! Sometimes I think it's best to learn with a more basic pan like them. Makes you a batter panner & keeps you from being sloppy.
Go have fun with them!

 

[2cmorau]

i learned to use the "betea para lavor oro"<-- ck spl, when i went down south, the locals showed me many times how to use this pan, at first like anything it was frustrating but with practice turns out this is one hell of a pan, but it's on the bookshelf as a conversation peice now
here locally i use the proline 14" wide bottom when prospecting, for cleanup on the cons a 10" drop bottom pan

 

[Gelmac]

This shows some of the pans , which are made of wood at a remote south eastern part of Sudan. The women pan for gold at the Winter where there is still water and revert to farming in the Autumn (fall).

 

[Skiddum]

Hi yes. I have a question, your seasoned prospectors. I'm sure you have tons and tons of gold 5 hat you've found. so as someone who's reletively new. there's hundreds of pans out there. I've been looking at the hogpan. and I've bought the le trap square pan and the trinity bowl. ive got the turbo pan but found that it looses allot of really fine gold. the duel riffle pan from pioneer and keene I learned on. but I'm still woundering if I've made a good decisions. see the gold hog pan I understand because of the gold trap. I understand the idea and it makes scenes. but the price doesn't. I'm still thinking about getting one just because I've seen it used up close and it worked amazing. like seriously. but it still needs a pan to work it. and so does the Bazooka like any good sluice. so I figured the trinity bowl cause they say it's one of the best for concentrates. so I figured it would be great. but then Ive seen the le trap pan. I'm wondering if you have to classify with it. if it makes much difference with it. that's a huge deal for me I hate it. it takes forever. but if it dosent need a classifier then I'm all for not having to pay 300 bucks. I've looked at the pyramid and the grizzly. and I've seen the same problem with the plug idea loosing the plug during washing doesn't sound appealing. but anyway let me know what you all think.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Garrett gravity traps & 15" Garrett super sluice. I have yet to try any other pans, since I haven't mastered these yet!

 

[Skiddum]

Yeah the garret Gravity 14 inch is the one my wife loves. the riffles are so big that nothing escapes.

 

[arizau]

Hi yes. I have a question, your seasoned prospectors. I'm sure you have tons and tons of gold 5 hat you've found. so as someone who's reletively new. there's hundreds of pans out there. I've been looking at the hogpan. and I've bought the le trap square pan and the trinity bowl. ive got the turbo pan but found that it looses allot of really fine gold. the duel riffle pan from pioneer and keene I learned on. but I'm still woundering if I've made a good decisions. see the gold hog pan I understand because of the gold trap. I understand the idea and it makes scenes. but the price doesn't. I'm still thinking about getting one just because I've seen it used up close and it worked amazing. like seriously. but it still needs a pan to work it. and so does the Bazooka like any good sluice. so I figured the trinity bowl cause they say it's one of the best for concentrates. so I figured it would be great. but then Ive seen the le trap pan. I'm wondering if you have to classify with it. if it makes much difference with it. that's a huge deal for me I hate it. it takes forever. but if it dosent need a classifier then I'm all for not having to pay 300 bucks. I've looked at the pyramid and the grizzly. and I've seen the same problem with the plug idea loosing the plug during washing doesn't sound appealing. but anyway let me know what you all think.

The single most important thing is to learn how to pan and not the pan itself. The next thing is to test pan to finality to see if there is gold where you are and if not try other places until you find gold. The next thing is to run as much of this material as you can to produce only concentrates and leave the recovery for later. The more material you concentrate the more gold you are likely to recover. Panning takes time and is most productive when you pan only the saved concentrates to finality. For pure recreation, go ahead and pan each pan to finality but know you will probably miss some of the gold that you may have captured.


You are discussing several pans/processers that have different purposes. For example the Hogpan and the pyramid pans primary purpose is to allow you to run larger volumes of material in a day which can be somewhat equal to what you can run through a small to medium sluice to produce a concentrate which you collect in a bucket. That being said, you can use any traditional round pan to the same end (but less efficiently and volume) if you just pan out most of the larger stones and a lot of the lighter dirt and sands without trying to fully pan down to recover the gold. If you are not careless you can continue adding material to this partially full pan and continue the process for quite a while before you ultimately empty the concentrates into a bucket. This process is the best way to utilize a pyramid pan too but do not try it with a Hogpan as you will surely lose gold. At this point you have produced concentrates, with little to no gold loss, where most of the larger and lighter material has been eliminated from a much larger volume of material. Now, on to the gold recovery stage where can utilize a specialized gold recovery pan some of which you have mentioned above.

Ok, now you have concentrates. People most often pan their concentrates at home or in camp after a full day of collecting them. Panning to final gold recovery is a somewhat tedious process especially when a lot of the gold is very small. Screen classifiers are probably your best friend when it comes to final processing of gold concentrates. First screen classify concentrates (examine and toss out larger stones) into batches of similar sized material then pan them separately. Larger gold can be visible and collected by hand from the screens prior to panning. Batches that contain gold and only other similar sized material are fairly easy to pan until you get down to the -30 mesh range where it becomes increasingly harder to separate gold from heavy black sands.

As to what pan is best? Probably all of the above as long as long as you know how to pan. Since I only final pan, carefully collected, classified concentrates and use a safety pan I am not too worried about losing gold no matter what type of pan I use as I can re-pan the safety pan material to recover what I may have lost in the initial pan. OK. This sounds like preaching but it works for me and probably many others.


Good luck and heavy pans.

 

[chlsbrns]

We use a dremel to channel to a slot/hole cut into the bottom of a pan. Put your finger over the hole, stratify, quickly open and close the hole and the heavies drop out. Its faster and easier than removing all the lighter stuff from the top to get to the heavy stuff on the bottom.

The white/lighter colored areas next to the hole is the channel.