Newbe! Whatt equiptment is needed Cheapo

[CHEAPO]

I haven't started yet but am getting the itch. I need to know what all equiptment you need besides
A Garrett starter kit. I am planning on going to the "Uwharrie Ntl. Forest " in the next 4 to 6 weeks.
It is the closest place to me ,( about 175 miles) in NC.I have read the story in Aprils Lost treasure
which is very helpful. Are there certain name brands of equiptment i need? I have been watching the
videos etc. and that is pretty much my knowledge base at this point. Any help greatly appreciated.
Cheapo

 

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[Skiddum]

Go to FINAL PRODUCT - Banjo Pan
you can get on there pre order list
It's a pan/ sluice mix. learn to pan and sample really well and learn your area laws and such. at the end of the day you'll always have a pan in your hand. this pan will make it go nicely. it's made by gold cube and has some of tnets highest members approval. but you get to know your pan then you'll be set. and then when your ready for a sluice I'd suggest getting a Bazooka. a good 1 to start with is the sniper. it's 30 bucks more than the super mini and holds more and can go through material much faster. and it holds onto big and small gold alike. once you get good with your equipment then you can always move up

Also get you a 20 30 50 70 100 mesh screens. you can get the small 4 inch 1 ones and a small finishing pan. screen all your cons through the screens and then run each 1 through your finishing pan. as long as gold is the heaviest thing in the pan you'll be able to get it out with ease. if your dealing with really fine gold you may have to make your own screens. 150 170 200. you can buy these from ebay 1 12"x12" 200 Mesh 75 Micron  fine Stainless Steel  mesh Keif Pollen | eBay

And there fairly cheep and easy to use as well.

 

[Skiddum]

also if you look on here there threads like prospecting A to Z.
Prospecting tips and threads from people who have 10 20 years experience who have posted there knowledge on how and what to look for when prospecting.
Advanced prospecting books WI teach you to look at the geology of the country side and then there's little books that have maps and tell you where to go in your state that have gold and other minerals

 

[infotraker]

Hi, on my site salmonfallsgoldprospecting.com I have a list and pics of starter equip. With average prices. I do not sell equip.

 

[johnedoe]

Go to FINAL PRODUCT - Banjo Pan
you can get on there pre order list
It's a pan/ sluice mix. learn to pan and sample really well and learn your area laws and such. at the end of the day you'll always have a pan in your hand. this pan will make it go nicely. it's made by gold cube and has some of tnets highest members approval. but you get to know your pan then you'll be set. and then when your ready for a sluice I'd suggest getting a Bazooka. a good 1 to start with is the sniper. it's 30 bucks more than the super mini and holds more and can go through material much faster. and it holds onto big and small gold alike. once you get good with your equipment then you can always move up

Also get you a 20 30 50 70 100 mesh screens. you can get the small 4 inch 1 ones and a small finishing pan. screen all your cons through the screens and then run each 1 through your finishing pan. as long as gold is the heaviest thing in the pan you'll be able to get it out with ease. if your dealing with really fine gold you may have to make your own screens. 150 170 200. you can buy these from ebay 1 12"x12" 200 Mesh 75 Micron *fine Stainless Steel *mesh Keif Pollen | eBay

And there fairly cheep and easy to use as well.

Talking about a weird looking pan.... .... And you thought the EZ pan was an odd one....

 

[russau]

FORGET about buying any equipment for right now! what you need is KNOWLEDGE and to get that join a club near you or hookup with someone thatll show you how-2-do it! then after getting some knowledge under your belt figure out what type of mining you want to do. and YES a gold panning kit is one of the first things to get and to learn how-2-use it! good luck!

 

[CHEAPO]

Hey guys , thanks for the info. I am checking all of this out. Banjo looking good.
cheapo

 

[Doug Watson]

russau hit the nail on the head. Start with the panning kit you got and learn that first before getting other types of pans and equipment. He was also correct about checking out any clubs in your area and hook up with someone that's been doing it. It'll save you a lot of time and put you on the right course. Learning to read the area you're in and learning the basic pan and how to use it comes first. Basic pan and a few digging tools create lots of fun.

 

[hunterbill]

Metal pan will replace shovel. Don't get sucked in by gimiks and fancy gadjetry. You have to FIND gold before you can recover it. Whatever contraption you use, it is only as good as the dirt you feed it with. Learn to find good spots before you buy things you don't need.

 

[hunterbill]

Spoon, Dust pan/brush, Boots.

 

[Skiddum]

He said cheep so I figured the banjo is cheep. and it looks like it'll be a great tool. pan sluice combo. so he can learn to ban and understand the sluice as well. and yes I've definitely fallen for the EZ pan. it works great odd odd odd pan all the way. the banjo pan you can use like a regular pan or do it the quick way buy using it like they show. it should be a great pan. and yes and no. I've been prospecting for over a year and haven't been apart of any clubs yet. plan on it this year but I've found this site just as useful. if there's a question then I ask. but the nice thing about clubs is you can try out different equipment and talk to people about different things. and they know what there talking about. they also have claims and such so you can go out and learn to read the lay of the land with there help. there's also books like Advanced prospecting and detecting that are great to learn this stuff to. So yeah. but you'll always have use for a pan. learn to use them. I've got tons of them and have practiced with them all seeing if I can pan down to 100 mesh. some are easier than others the EZ PAN for instance. it's so weird to use I always feel as if I'm going to loose stuff just cause you tip it forward and stratify the hole time going in and out of the water. goes against everything I was taught haha. but I've gotten down to 100 mesh easy and then repanned everything and never found a spec thus far. even my wife has. and she swore up one side and down the other that pan would never work. she even got mad the first time she used it that it did work. she was so mad she had to try for the next 30 minutes to prove it didn't work and every time she caught the gold. it's now her new favorite lol.
but gold cube knows there stuff. and having a pan sluice combo will come in handy especially when your sampling and if you hiking far out there. you can still move allot of material and get a nice bit of gold out of it. and the round part of it can be used like a normal pan. but having a regular pan and knowing how to use it will come in handy. if you can learn to pan down to -100 mesh with both you should be in good condition to get into the bigger equipment. also you can check out the blm or buy the some books on prospecting in your state and location. prospecting in known places for gold is always best. so knowing where to look is a great start. and the blm they have maps of claims and private property lands and such so you don't get in trouble or wind up pissing off another prospector buy jumping his claim. and learn the laws of the areas in your state. there's allot of different areas in each stare and each 1 has there own special rules and regs that need to be fallowed. like utah here. theres 4 or 5 places you can actually dredge. but there's other areas where only panning is allowed and so on so knowing where you can go and what you can and can't use it a must.

 

[goldenmojo]

Cheapo Welcome to prospecting and the forum. As Russau said Knowledge is the most important thing in the toolkit. I was a newbie recently and plenty study on this forum quickly cured that condition. Get the Garrett Kit it is a good one and will get you on the road to finding gold.

Good Luck in your pursuits

 

[ohiochris]

Bare bones all that is needed is a good pan like the Garrett pan to start out with , learning to pan correctly is the first step. Youtube videos taught me a lot. But you do need a digging tool of some sort and a classifier , I made my own classifier out of a 5 gallon bucket and 1/2 inch hardware cloth. If and when you do start finding gold it may be so tiny that you cant get it out of the pan , so you should get a snuffer bottle , and then somewhere to put it so you will need a gold vial or some other small jar with water in it. I sometimes just let the small gold sit in the snuffer bottle for a while since it will stay there. Thats about it for starting out , though technically the pan and learning to use it is the most important part. If you start finding gold you will realize right away that there are other things you want to invest in to either make the job easier or more productive. A good way to practice panning is buy a bag of general purpose sand from the home improvement store and practice panning it down to just black sand , the bonus is that sometimes there are tiny gold flakes in these bags of storebought sand so its possible you could literally find your first gold that way. I have found flour gold in a few different bags of storebought sand as well as small garnets. It all depends on what area the sand came from.

 

[bobw53]

Spoon, Dust pan/brush, Boots.

Knee Pads, Knee Pads, Knee Pads

 

[goldog]

Think garage sales for classifiers (you don't need down to 100 mesh. 4ish to 20ish is a good start) digging/crevicing tools. If you're handy, DIY plans and ideas for sluices, trommels etc are here and elsewhere on the net... Save big bucks on some really good equipment equal to or better than name brands.

Just be sure that what you make actually works.

 

[KevinInColorado]

A kitchen strainer is usually 18 mesh, a rice washing sieve is about 30 but you definitely need a 50 mesh too. This is because a decent fraction of your gold AND other stuff is smaller than 50 mesh. Separating bigger from smaller make panning each SO much easier!

 

[goldog]

So where do I get a cheapo 50 mesh Kevin? I'm talking a dollar or two.

For someone starting cheap, as fine as you can find at garage sale/thrift store will have to do.

Just trying to keep with the OPs challenge.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Fair question Goldhog, never seen a 50 mesh that cheap but maybe one of us has a spare? Cheapest deal online I've seen is the pollen sieves on Amazon - set of 3 for 12-20$$. Using a 50 mesh makes such a big difference, it's really worth the investment!!

 

[Mitch Dickson]

If you haven't ordered yet, get the Garrett Super Sluice pan and forget the garrett kit. The bottom is too small and the sides at too much of an angle. Makes them very slow. Sure you can pan gold with them, but you can do that with a Buick hub cap That super sluice, a shovel, and a plastic peanut butter jar to put your concentrates in is all you need to start getting gold!

You must use a peanut butter jar. It is considered low class for any self respecting gold panner to use a mayonaise jar My old gold partner always used a "JIF" jar, and constantly haranged me for using a Kraft Mayonaise jar. He would say he hoped no one seen us as I was embarrasing him having that mayo jar out in public where people could see it

 

[bobw53]

If you haven't ordered yet, get the Garrett Super Sluice pan and forget the garrett kit. The bottom is too small and the sides at too much of an angle.

I'd agree with that... I'm finding I really don't like pans that have a small bottom... 12-14 inches in diameter and only a 4 inch or so bottom... I find them kind of hard to work...
I've got some cheap garbage pans, 10" with a 6" bottom, and two little riffles... I love those stupid things, I need to find where I can buy a case of them. I like the Super Sluice,
but the rest of the pans in the kit... Not so much, especially the "finishing" pan.. The bottom of that thing is about the size of a half dollar.

I also don't like the pans with the rough riffles on one side, and the fine riffles on the other side... I find the fine riffles to be essentially useless, and they are hard to clear out, and then
you don't have any regular old smooth sides to work with, and simply getting your cons out of the pan becomes a chore, should be swirl, dump, and with the riffles all over
the place, it just doesn't work that easy.