Gold Pans - What do you use.

I still have the first and only pan I have ever used and bought, its a Estwing 14"
pan, I bought it years ago at the Glory hole mind in Dahlonega Ga
 

I use a 14" Estwing steel pan.It holds a lot of material and clears fast.The riffles are less pronounced and around the entire circumference.The taller riffles seem to be to slow to evacuate the unwanted stuff.Normally I take it down to see if color shows and save concentrates in a bucket I can squat on as I'm panning.Only so much time in the bush so I can take a bucket of cons home and pan in the back yard.If I tried taking it down to just gold and sniftering it up I can't go through near as much material.My Dads 87 and can't get into the back country very far but he can still pan cons if he don't have to walk to far. It's pretty nice to sit and gab and pan.O use a smaller pan for final clean up.Estwing.com lists alot o pans in the geologic tools section.
 

I've used a Dixie cup and a pie tin before-

Other than that I have at least one of just about every pan out there. They're all good. I personally prefer the generic green pan with the riffles, 14".
 

le trap square,but I'm reallylikin my new proline,blue,i've got black keene,green garrett,also,they all work,first 2 my fav's.
 

I perfer a black pan over a green one, and I am not a fan of the big riffles in pans. What I like is a big (wide) bottom pan with about a 2-3 inch lip. I can work it faster and lose very very little.
Camels are great when they a set right!

Brad
 

Yeah, I like the blue ones too. I think they're Swedish or Norwegian or something? Anyways, people like them for just that reason, the contrast. Some peoples eyes pick up the gold specks better in a blue pan.

Funny what odd stuff you come across when you move, eh? ;) Lord only knows what I'd come across if I moved again.... to much of a doggone packrat! :D
 

Jeffro said:
Yeah, I like the blue ones too. I think they're Swedish or Norwegian or something? Anyways, people like them for just that reason, the contrast. Some peoples eyes pick up the gold specks better in a blue pan.

Funny what odd stuff you come across when you move, eh? ;) Lord only knows what I'd come across if I moved again.... to much of a doggone packrat! :D
Click to expand...
Your talking about the" Klondike special"?? http://www.guldstrom.se/index.html
 

Howdy
Does anyone have any experience using the GRIZZLY PAN. I would like to know how effective they are. Thanks, John
 

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.
 

Darren in NC said:
Le Traps are very similar to Garrett's green pans except they are square and the riffles go all the way around the pan instead of just being on one side. I haven't used them. I've only used my Garrett pan, but I have heard good things about them.
Click to expand...

Hi, Raleigh!
I've recently joined TreasureNet...and I've been surfing through this site...looking, learning, whatever.
There is lots of talk about pans. What size, what color, what shape(s), riffles, no riffles, deep vs. shallow...what's a guy to think?
I'll tell you what I think... my pan (a big, blue, partially riffle-sided one) is hanging in a tree...where it has hung for years. I don't use it anymore. It's too lossy! Too heavy! My poor back...stooping over to swirl & wash this slurry. Do I use a sluice? I've made a few...but they are a bear to clean! ...and they use a lot of water...which washes away a lot of fines! N.C. has fines...lots of fines (in spots)!
What do I use? A device called a "Goldpype". It captures 100% of all heavy materials in classified sands / gravels ( run through 1/4 inch mesh hardware cloth over a large square tub)...in a single pass. This includes birdshot, BBs, swivel snaps, pieces of rusty barbed wire fence, and assorted trash. And black sand...lots of black sand! The black sand does not impare the "Goldpype", though. It goes right on separating / holding the gold. No visual effort is needed, either. Just feed it sand & a trickle of water - as a matter of fact, this trickle can be recycled back to the feed end. Just think... this makes it perfect for working a "dry" find! Bring in 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of water and run that dry stuff through it. The water will last all day; it thickens and turns muddy (like PANcake syrup?) but it still flows....and the gold still falls out!
The "Goldpype" is made from PVC pipe / pieces / PVC glue. It is entirely homemade...anyone who made a plastic model when they were a kid ( and those who didn't) will have no problem building one. I spent about $30.00 building mine, but I had a few of the flat PVC strips on hand. I found more than that in gold the first time out in the field! Is this cheap or what?
Where did I come across this kit? No kit...only instructions / pictures / directions. In a booklet ordered from AuRUMASTER ..."aurum" is Greek for "gold"... in Pittsboro, NC. The booklet costs $20.00. Contact [ goldpype at yahoo dot com ] -whitevette
 

Ted, I totally respect you're drive to market the Goldpype (I'm working to build a business myself after all), but posting testimonials in unrelated threads goes a little far. Have you considered sending a Goldpype into ICMJ or Goldprospector magazines for a field test? I haven't gotten into the manufacturing side yet, but I imagine that would be a good way to get the word out about a new product. I don't know about GP, but I think I remember reading that ICMJ welcomes products for review.

john12, I've not used a Grizzly, but I think I remember reading something about them being great up until a plug in the bottom comes out and flushes your gold. Am I thinking of the right pan? If so, might be able to just slap a strip of duct tape over the plug to make sure it doesn't come loose.

My pan of choice is still my Proline 14" in blue and a few cheapo 10" black plastic pans for odd jobs and sometimes final clean up of what's already been cleaned, but I've got a bunch of others and will likely try one of the new HEX pans we just started carrying as well. I read a good review at 49er Mike's from I think Zooka, and had a regular customer rave about 'em, so had to give them a shot.
 

I own a grizzly and dont use it anymore. I always have problems with the plug coming out and not going back in properly. Plus i dont really find it any faster than a regular pan plus the plastic its made of is more brittle than my other circular pans. It never came with any instructions on different techniques to use with it. I was disappointed with it, as far a non-traditional pans go i like the Trinity pan and the hexagonal one that trinity has out now too. but im in Northeastern Thailand along the Mekong river and i hope to get out to the sand bars in november once the river level drops and see if i cant find me some flour gold or sapphires.
 

I have been liking my new Garrett super sluice, I feel I can be rougher with it than some of my other pans. I have a letrap square pan, it works great for rough production panning, the little spout/thumb grip on the back makes pouring off cons easier. I don't like it for finishing. Then there is the 17" proline professional which I like a lot except it started to crack from the lanyard hole on the rim. There is the pan the GPAA sent me when I joined. The green keene pan. A few black plastic pans. A 16" drop bottom steel pan which I haven't used yet due to it not being rusty enough yet. A 16" steel estwing pan, I wish it were deeper. An 8 inch steel pan which I use for finish panning, when I'm done working it down I can put it on the stove and dry it out.
 

I am a newb and thinking about buying a Trinity Gold pan. Could someone who has one or have used one before tell me if they like it or not. Would it be worth the investment? I would be using it to sample and clean up cons from a small river sluice.
 

I use two pans while panning first I use the standard green Garrett or the Garrett super sluice (if I ate my wheaties it's heavy) and I pan it down fast then dump the cons into my black pan , once it gets 3/4 full I'll clean it up, this allows me to pan faster and process more material. With my eyes I see black sand good with green and gold with black.
 

about 40 years ago my first pan was a 10' steel pan and I actually still own it, it's on the wall in the garage. I lugged that thing over uncountable miles of Colorado high country and it served me well especially considering that was before a plastic pan was invented. 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.
I still train the tourists using round pans for the sake of using something familiar to them.
 

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