which pans are your favorite ?

[davin]

just wondering which pans you folks prefer ?
I like the garret.

 

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[russau]

ive always wanted to try the Garrett myself but never bought one! It seems that ive bought about every other pan to try and then sold them. I still like the pan I started with and that's the green gpaa pan and ive got atleast 6 of them if not more!

 

[Laz7777]

I'm likely a rarity here, I use the Roaring Camp Mining Co. "Gold Saver" in a burgundy color.
when I first started over 6 years ago, it happened to be the one brand of pan that a local hardware store had, so I lucked out on a good one.
snagged a web pic of it to show
also use a Garrett piggyback gravity trap.

one thing I've noticed about the color of my pan: I not only see gold contrasted clearly, I get a better view of amalgam and "junk" like lead than I do in green. could be just the way may eyes are or because I'm used to it though.

 

[Aufisher]

Cheapo black dummy pan

 

[deserdog]

Round pan, proline blue. Love the la trap also.

 

[KevinInColorado]

A green Proline "Professional" is my preferred shape but my aging eyes see the fine gold much better against black, I've started using a generic black pan more. (yup, that's gold sitting with the black sand in my sluice concentrates)

 

[ChrisinCO]

Cheapo, generic black pan from Sportsmans Warehouse is the only one I haved used. The Garrett one looks pretty aggressive and was considering getting one.

 

[mike(swWash)]

I use the GPAA green pans. Cabelas has them for about $9 each.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Garrett 15" Super Sluice.

 

[Hamfist]

I really like the Garrett Super Sluice. It chews through large amounts of material very quickly but is also great for cleanup. My Pyramid Pro pan never gets used anymore.

The Prolines look very functional and I'm hoping to pick one up at the next gold show.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Oh I like the Garrett Super Sluice too! It works surprisingly well with -100 gold!

I don't like the Garrett Gravity Trap- the bottom is too small. (Just gave mine away at a club meeting in fact)

 

[The Dirt Pirate]

I have always stuck with the Garrett pans. I have at least a couple of sets of Garrett pans that I keep packed up and ready to go.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I have always stuck with the Garrett pans. I have at least a couple of sets of Garrett pans that I keep packed up and ready to go.

Cool. One key point from "the great pan debates" of the past: colors and shapes that work well for one person may not work well for another...we can all be right at the same time, for different reasons of course :-)

 

[Oregon Viking]

Oh I like the Garrett Super Sluice too! It works surprisingly well with -100 gold!

I don't like the Garrett Gravity Trap- the bottom is too small. (Just gave mine away at a club meeting in fact)

That's good to hear, because in my pic above^^......that's what's in it!!

 

[goldenIrishman]

I've got several types of pans, all of which get used depending on what I'm doing at the time. To me a pan is like any other tool in that you need to use the right tool for the job at hand. You're not going to use a tack hammer to drive 16d nails or a framing hammer to set brads.

Garrett "Gravity Trap" is my go to pan when I know I'll be panning a lot of material. It fits my hand well and I like how the angle on the sides feels. The GPAA ones have steeper sides and I can't use them for as long as I can my Garretts without my wrist starting to hurt. I've also got some smaller dark blue plastic ones I was given. These have no markings so I don't know what brand they are but they work well on small batches. Dual riffles. Large riffles on one side and small ones on the other.

Falcon blue pan works great for doing final cleanups on cons but it feels flimsy to me. I like a pan with a solid feel to it. If it was thicker I'd use it more.

Steel pans in various sizes I use for doing "Shake & Bake" with. Heat the materials in the steel pans and then put them in the plastic pans after quenching/cooling. I still have one of my first steel pans with "Chinese Riffles" hanging around. Like most guys I hate throwing tools of any sort out.

Years ago when I was a young tenderfoot, (yeah... Even I was one of those at one time) I had a couple of pans that I really liked. They were black ABS plastic with molded in arrow shaped traps in the bottom. I haven't been able to find them any more though.

I haven't tried any of the newer designs like the "Turbo Pan", "Pyramid Pan" or others like them because I feel they're just reinventing the wheel here. On pans, how well they catch gold is a matter on knowing your pan and at which angle it does the best job. Fancy isn't needed at all. How many times have we heard stories of guys using a hubcap to pan with and still finding gold?

 

[Laz7777]

goldenIrishman: the black ABS pan you described is made by Jobe, I have one...really lightweight, but I'll only use it to get the blondes panned off ater a clean-up.
steel pans (smile)...when I first started mining, I met up with two characters who used them exclusively.
one said : "plastic pans have no soul"...I asked him if his pan went to heaven when it died
another said: "the only use I got for a plastic pan is a dog dish"...fool, dog dishes are cheaper than plastic pans
the first guy was using an antique 1890's steel pan, with some tiny ridges for riffles, the other talked about how he could cook in his...
btw, I live in an area where a lot of "green gold" is found and consumed...maybe that's why I got those comments from them two huckleberries.

 

[coolfinie]

I like big pans myself, and find they make it easier to proceed through concentrate fast without dumping the nice yellow stuff back into the river.
So my preference is currently for the Proline 17" in blue and the Estwing 16" in black.
Dark colours rule for me.

 

[KevinInColorado]

That's good to hear, because in my pic above^^......that's what's in it!!

Um yeah, that's what reminded me silly!

 

[Capt Nemo]

I like the Garrett 14". Their 10" pan has too small a bottom. I do like the angles of those pans.

 

[SoCalDesertFox]

I use my busted 20" electric wok for initial dry panning on-site, I rip through 5 gallon bucket of concentrate in about 15 minutes, then finish those reduced concentrates off in a typical black pan in water at home.