Advice Needed!

[Mike B.]

I'm looking forward to going to Co. to pan for gold! However, I have never panned before and have no equipment! Any help would be appreciated! I really don't want to spend alot on money, since it's so hard to come bye! ...lol...

Is it best to go to a place a pay X amount of dollars a day and learn?

Thanks for any and all help!

Mike B.

 

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[goldinmypan]

Your best bet would be to hook up with one of the prospecting clubs in the area you plan to visit. I'm sure that someone there would be glad to take you under their wings as a guest and show you the ropes. Scan back thru old posts and you should be able to find a link to the clubs. Also the GPAA website has listings for their chapters. Good luck.

 

[Jeffro]

Best advice if you want to save money is to find free areas, unless those pay to play sites come with a teacher, then it would be worthwhile to listen.

Equipment is pretty cheap for panning, if you don't go in for all the fancy gadgets, like magnets and such. Get a decent pan. The rest can be found around the house. A nice healthy screwdriver comes in handy for prying rocks out of cracks and scraping them out. A coffee can with a lid to dump your black sand in. A garden trowel for digging. A regular shovel and/or a metal rake to get the loose gravel out of the way quick. A backpack to carry it in, or a five gallon bucket. A snuffer bottle comes in handy when you get home to pan out your concentrates. (I don't bother out in the field, it all goes in the coffee can. I'd rather spend my time moving dirt. More dirt moved= more gold)

Tweezers can be handy. So can a small prybar. Or even a large one

 

[r49miner]

If you are fortunate you'll have a mining shop near by that can sell you a good gold pan. See if they have teaching mining video's. I know Dave McCracken put some out years ago. Then see if you have a local club near by and seek advise there. I think you would really want to know how before heading out on a vacation. Why go to classes when you could be searching for gold. Just some thoughts.

The Miner

 

[Jeffro]

Gotta disagree with ya on Dave McCracken- In my opinion he's a standup guy. I dunno if you are anywhere near the area of Happy Camp, Mike. But if you are, Dave has several miles of rivers to work in good gold producing areas for 20 bucks aday, last time I was there. Go wherever you want, too. He put me into some good gold on my trip down there, too bad it was just one day. I woulda like to have been there much longer!

 

[Mike B.]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the info. I'll be checking into Dave McCraken. I live in Dodge City, Ks. It's about 7 hours to the Denver area. From what little I know alot of good gold has been found west of there? (I guess all gold is good gold).

Thanks again!

 

[Jeffro]

OOPS, my bad- Happy Camp is in Ca, not Co. Sorry-

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI: side advce, there are tons of excellent advice on pannng etc on the net. Just go to google and type in what you are looking for, panning for example,

Google, free panning lessons. etc.

Tropical Tramp

 

[Smithsgold]

The GPAA puts out a panning video you might want to get It's great for beginners.(Sure Fire Panning Methods) cost $12.95 on there web site.
http://www.goldprospectors.org/

I'd also contact one of there chapters in Colorado I'm sure they will help you out.

Good Luck,

Jeff

 

[r49miner]

I more than disagree with you about Dave McCracken. He has done more for mining and people wanting to learn about mining than anyone I know of in the last 30 or so years. He has been fighting to keep the rivers open before 1993 when I got involved, and he's still doing it. Check the Library for his books, they are very informative about mining. Nuff said, we all have our opinions.

I wanted to say something about the Gold pan. It's a tool and most people new to mining/prospecting think that's what everyone does all day. Well it's not for the most part. The gold pan is used for testing an area, for cleaning what you have Sluiced, High Banked or Dredged, what's left in the sluice box, your concentrates. I would not want to sit by a river and pan all day, the next morning it would feel like rigamortis set in and wouldn't be able to move.

The gold pan is the tool you use after you have gone through a ton(s) of material. You use the gold pan to retrieve the Gold from your concentrates. So when you say you want to pan, I hope you are referring to panning your concentrates.

Panning is a learned art, the more time you practice the better you get. It takes patients to get the nack of it so be easy on yourself and don't give up. Pictures (Video) is worth more than 10,000 words.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[Nashoba]

I more than disagree with you about Dave McCracken. He has done more for mining and people wanting to learn about mining than anyone I know of in the last 30 or so years. He has been fighting to keep the rivers open before 1993 when I got involved, and he's still doing it. Check the Library for his books, they are very informative about mining. Nuff said, we all have our opinions.

I wanted to say something about the Gold pan. It's a tool and most people new to mining/prospecting think that's what everyone does all day. Well it's not for the most part. The gold pan is used for testing an area, for cleaning what you have Sluiced, High Banked or Dredged, what's left in the sluice box, your concentrates. I would not want to sit by a river and pan all day, the next morning it would feel like rigamortis set in and wouldn't be able to move.

The gold pan is the tool you use after you have gone through a ton(s) of material. You use the gold pan to retrieve the Gold from your concentrates. So when you say you want to pan, I hope you are referring to panning your concentrates.

Panning is a learned art, the more time you practice the better you get. It takes patients to get the nack of it so be easy on yourself and don't give up. Pictures (Video) is worth more than 10,000 words.

Just my humble opinion.

And an opinion agreed upon by many I am sure...If you are going to pan, I too hope you are, at the very least going to run material through a sluice....I guarantee yu that if you are in gold bearing ground, using a sluice will increase your take many times over...You'll be dredgin' before ya know it!

~Nashoba~

 

[M3R1IN]

About Dave McCracken, all my research on the guy leads me to believe hes an outstanding guy whose done a ton to help keep mining alive and legal
on the new 49ers website which dave runs theres a plethora of knowledge for anyone interested in panning, sluicing, dredging and high banking, all the text and diagrams are free
There are also about 30minutes of demo video available on that site which i have found to be worth the small fee they charge for the video access
indeed a video is worth more than 10 000 words, i cant express how important it is to actually see something done rather than read about it
If u wanna join the new 49ers free newsletter they offer a discounted price on all the video access its only $25 bucks if you do it this way. Again i think its well worth it
how much i would have given to know 4 months ago what i know now when the weather was still nice
and ive just scratched the surface