rusty metal vs. plastic pan argument

Ben Cartwright SASS

Ben Cartwright SASS

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Aug 7, 2012
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Massachusetts
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A friend of mine just came back from an Alaskan cruise where he took advantage of their gold panning side trip. He has always given me a hard time over the fact that I use Garratt plastic pans, he says that rusty steel pans are the best and are easy to use and you don't lose any gold, or at least not much. He looks down on plastic pans. I am trying to defend them, saying once they are "seasoned" scuffed up they work great.
He had his notions reinforced by the person they had running the panning for the tourists, he swears by rusty metal pans, says the rust traps the fine gold.

Before I go to the mat with him, I wanted to see what people had to say. My personal feeling is that plastic is lighter and with the riffles does a better job for newbie or old timer. After all if they didn't work well you would see more steel pans for sale rather than plastic.

In the first couple trips to NH I haven't found any gold yet but seem to have hit it for Garnets (and some pyrite) the biggest garnet is 3.8 carats.

GarnetsWildwood3.jpg


GarnetsWildwood5.jpg
 

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I just pray someday I have to worry about all kinds of coarse gold walking out of my pan. If I am so lucky I will go buy me one of each pans. Lol.
 

I learned to pan with a metal pan. I still have my first pan and it is very rusty. Now I pretty much just use it for a safety pan when panning in a creek, doesn't want to float away. I always figured if you can pan with steel and not loose gold there is no excuse to loose any with a plastic pan.

BH Prospector
 

Just wanted to throw my .02 worth in. I have one or maybe 2 plastic pans for packing in, the rest are old metal ones,from 15" down to a 6"(used to burn mercury off on a campstove). I prefer metal, after being 'prepped', learned from an old timer even back then. By that I mean, when they were new 40+ years ago, I would burn them off in a campfire, then all winter they'd sit outside my front door full of sand. Had to pee? you peed in the pans. By spring, they had a good rough texture which helps (at least for me). Did that for many winters and still holding up after all these years. My favorite is still my 15", high sides and 1 lip at the bottom.
Shep
 

Shep....you Tourist!!!:laughing7:
 

My .02 cents as well, only folks I seen using metal were the dredgers, used them to hold nuggets at the bottom of their hole. That being said, those metal pans are freaking heavy compared to plastic, but I bet no one has ever broke one throwing it across camp! Lol
 

After the debate I need a metal pan. Please rattle off some names of pans,sizes, Riffles, no riffle, deep bottom lip, or no lip? Thanks.
 

419GottaMinute said:
My .02 cents as well, only folks I seen using metal were the dredgers, used them to hold nuggets at the bottom of their hole. That being said, those metal pans are freaking heavy compared to plastic, but I bet no one has ever broke one throwing it across camp! Lol
Click to expand...

worked full plastic pans on the Wild AM today, they were heavy, but then again I work a desk all week.
 

I found, well I think I found, one piece of flour gold, it was heavier than the black sand, stayed put as I swirled the water. I used the snuffer to pick it up, then back at the house I emptied the snuffer, about 25 pieces of black sand and the "gold" It took quite a while to see it in my cereal bowl, but there it was, and when the water swirled it stayed put. I could hardly see it with the 5x magnifier but it showed up with 16x, I still wasn't sure so I tried to crush it, it wouldn't so I picked it up with tweezers and it stuck on the end of one sharp point. I looked at it again with 16x and it looked like it might be gold! But with the naked eye you really have to look to see it, but I am excited.
I am glad that I bought paydirt from Kuger, that practice allowed me to not get buck fever.

I will be posting a movie I made while sitting in the stream of the other people in the club sluicing and the river, I got a waterproof digital camera that takes videos.
 

Abetting to another thread on another post. I understand about surface tension and some flour gold might float. Have seen it, in finally cleanups, but beleive the gold might have gotten contaminated. What I mean is, after a days dredging (Ahh, fond memories), don't fill fuel tank, check oil or change oil, or worse, put hand cream on because your fingers are wrinkled or just damn sore,( for you Kuger ;-) )then pan out. Do your panout, then daily maintenance for the next day.
Don't throw your pans in the ol box w/ engine oil, oily gloves and wrenches. Keep em rusty and 'clean'. NO TRACES OF OIL! otherwise you gotta go thru the process of drinking alot of beer, pissing in the pan and conditioning your pan again.
Have read stories about the olden days, where the ol miner panned all day and had to use his pan to cook up a squirrel or rabbit for dinner and use the same pan for work the next day, so maybe I'm wrong or they were finding bigger gold???
Just Shep here and my .02
 

Valuable info right there Shep,I had a bit of an equipt failure one time and lets just say.....got some oil where it wasnt supposed to be(wasnt in the water...for the spying enviro's)I had to throw away all my carpets,miners moss,and rubber matts,along with my hoses....oil is BAD news and flour gold will FLOAT!!!
 

NO TRACES OF OIL! otherwise you gotta go thru the process of drinking alot of beer, pissing in the pan and conditioning your pan again.

I'm not seeing the downside:occasion14:
 

I was raised on plastic pans and prefer them. Some are certainly better than others. Beware, most brands will break:icon_scratch: The Keene 3 in 1 Super Pan I believe is still guaranteed for life and as far as I could tel it would not break. :icon_thumright:

I Had a metal pan once. It rusted. But not in a good way.

As others have stated, there are times when metal is preferable or required.
 

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Use whatever works best for you. I don't think there's really much of a difference between the two especially if both metal and plastic can have ridges. Just a personal preference. I only use metal pans when I burn the mercury off of my gold.
 

My experience via my father, who "sniped" in the Sierras for 50 plus years always use metal, riffle, no lip. I believe they measured about 12 "to 14". A nice, fire-cured pan won't rust if is taken care of properly..... Dry the damn thing after using it or set in a camp fire for a couple of minutes! Oh, how I miss the Yuba River!
 

Even with underwater sniping I get a lot of junk in my bottle and I keep that stuff to repan later.

So far, I have not had anything else show up in my worked cons that I have missed.

Granted I am working with chunky gold here.

I use an 8" keene Blue pan and two Garrett pans, one is a 14" Gravity Drop that my grandfather gave me and it use to be his.
My mom still has a couple of his metal pans too.

But then again I am new to actually getting anything in my pan. :P
 

anybody notice what kind of pan Parker was using last night?Sure he is young but his grandad has more experience than anybody on the show,and likely taught Parker with a metal pan.....if you cant pan with a metal pan you cant call yourself a panner.......maybe he is a tourist though :icon_scratch:
 

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