grizzly gold pan

[Captain Mark]

Has anyone used this pan and does it really work all that good? any other suggetions for a new panner?

[Fred]

Mark; I regularily use the "Garrett Gravity Trap" and I am not a novice panner. I carry 2 large pans and a small "pay pan" when I am in the field. I have been useing them for 20 yrs(can that be right?)(gad) to good effect and have taught several people how to pan with them. Fred

[Hoser John]

I only use round to get my cons down!!!Tons a au 2 u all-John

[Jon (VA)]

Hi Mark.

I have a Grizzly and it does well con'ing in gravel environments but has problems - in fact doesnt work well at all - in clay - then again, I can't think of one that does. I got mine for $10 (without the video) from a retailer so it just ain't that expensive if you are like me and just had to try it out for curiosity. (My curiosity has cost me many many many $$$ in the past but that's another story)

I got the mini sluice to go with it and I have to say I endorse that in a big way. I had some cons that I had panned out everything of any size and set aside until the day I could figure out a way to get the small stuff. Well, that mini sluice was amazing. I will have one for life.

One legitimate problem with the Grizzly pan... the plastic is brittle. I haven't yet but have heard of others who cracked thiers. If you can live with yourself after you sit on it and hear it splinter then I say go ahead and get one

Happy Panning!
Jon

[Fred]

Curiosity? My is horrible and near insatiable,but then what prospectors isn.t. Hmmm.doesn't that outcropping up there look interesting. Yes but no time to take rock climbing lessons,someone might beat me too it,soud familiar?lol Fred

[Idiggold]

Ha! Ha! Right on Fred! Spoken like a true prospector! GRIN That's exactly the way I am too. Always living on impulse with an added touch of safety consciousness after hurting myself too many times.
As to the Grizzly pan, I use a Grizzly pan occasionally and they do work very well. I can't say that I ever used mine in a clay situation but can imagine it works just like every other gravity method when clay is encountered.
I wouldn't know what you'd have to do to lose the gold out of a Grizzlypan! I guess you'd have to dump it upside down and agitate it underwater. They are super effective at catching gold even when operated OVERvigorously. I simply run the stuff to be panned through a 3/8" classifier and then it processes like a dream.
I had wondered about the brittleness of the plastic when I first got mine, but have backpacked it, piled stuff on it etc. and have not so much as even cracked it in over a year's use. I do recommend punching a hole in the end of the plug and then drilling a small hole in one of the corners of the pan to tie the plug to as chasing it down a river when you drop it or knock it out wouldn't be fun. :twisted:
I can honestly say they are every bit as efficient( and most users say better) as a Rota Pan is in EXPERIENCED hands and much better than a Rotapan that is in the hands of a novice. They cost a LOT less at $24.95 CDN versus a Rotapan at around
$245.00 CDN. Of course you have to classify seperately but what the heck, for the money difference, I would. Besides that, anyone can be a GRIZZLY pan expert immediately versus using a Rotapan which has a steeper learning curve.
That's about all I can think of to say about it.
Allan

[Chris in BC]

Asking oppinions about pans is like asking who makes the best 4x4 on the market today, in a crowd of 100 people you will get 20 guys that swear by the Garrett gravity trap, 20 that swear by a LeTrap, 20 that claim round is best, 20 that like the grizzly, and 20 that like a variety of others and combinations of all. What it really comes down too is what you like, what works with your conditions and fits into your budget. I am a LeTrap kind of guy, but love the 14" heavy plastic round pans if there is lots and lots of fine real heavy black sands, i find the Keene black pans a little flimsy and have found that clay muds up in the griz pan. All pans will work, read something the other day from Ken in CR about the natives using 45 gallon drum lids beaten and molded to shape like a big wok and sounded like they were very very proficient with them. I also hooked up with a young kid last season trying to break into the mining game for fun and couldn't afford gas to get anywhere most of the time, he picked up a 30" steel pan that was made around the turn of the century, rusted near through, but he got the thing working beautifully after a few outtings. The short of it is, the griz will work if you have little to no clay and will work well if you like it and it suits your style. Chris

[Fred]

That is a bit more complicated and I would recommend that you begin a small library on the subject of mining.lol There are quite a few good books on basic mining technics. Fred

[Hardpan]

Mark, It is always good to have one of those pans around so the kids and novices don't feel left out, but the best is still the Garrett Gravity pan. Duckjob, It's easy to separate your concentrates with a Gold Genie spiral-wheel concentrator. Or if you're dealing with ultra-fine "face powder" sized gold, separate it out by amalgamating it with mercury. Nuff said, Hardpan

[Hardpan]

Duckjob, To get gold from quartz or for that matter, from any gangue material that the gold is in, I use a "Chinese stamp mill" to crush the rock down to 20 mesh and smaller. Then that material can be put in the spiral concentrator, panned, or amalgamated. If you are going to amalgamate, and the concentrate is "dirty" (gold coated with iron or manganese) the mercury won't readily stick to the gold. The solution to this is to simply give the cons a bath in nitric acid to clean it's exterior, so that the mercury can do it's job. Nuff said, Hardpan

[Fred]

Hardpan; It's interesting that you should mention the Gold Genie as I used to have the dealership up here in BC. I wasn't aware that those fine folks(Terry,lilea and Dave) were still around. Fred

[Hardpan]

Duckjob, If you sell your gold, you only sell the nuggets and selected ore specimens, as they will fetch many times spot price . The fines should be saved up and melted into slugs that should be saved for a day when gold prices are higher, and as a tangible hedge aginst inflation. I like to sell my specimens at gem and mineral shows. Nuff said, Hardpan

[Hardpan]

Fred, I have had my Gold Genie since about 1985 and it still does a great job. There are a lot of spiral concentrators out there but, the gold Genie is still number one to me. Nuff said, Hardpan

[Fred]

Thats about how long I have had mine,and I definitely agree about the quality and effiency. Fred