I told you I wanted to do a panning video. So what you’re going to do is, I’m going to break this down a little bit differently. I’m not going to get real scientific on this; I’m just going to put it in plain terminology. Now unfortunately we are probably going to listen to gunshots down the road because its deer season and everyone is getting sighted in. But I am going to show you this, I am going to try and keep it simple but it really is hard to keep panning simple, I am going to warn you about that now. So if you don’t want to watch a pretty in depth panning video, go away, shut this off, and don’t watch it. But I figured I would show you a couple different tricks, I am going to show you some techniques, I am going to show you some things that I like to do. And panning is not something really you can just pick up a book and read on it’s something that comes with practice, so you really need to practice. And of course you can practice with cons.
Now the nice thing about practicing with our cons is that they have a bunch of fine gold in it. So I am going to run some of our cons, these are cons that we would probably sell but I am just running some test buckets real quick just to see how they did. Because they were head up here for two days and I wasn’t here running, so I wanted to see. So I am going to switch the camera over, I am going to try and get it at a decent view. I don’t know if it’s actually going to be a good view or not for you to see this but let’s hope so. Okay, so I like to use a fairly large pan; I’m trying to think, this is a 14 inch super pan I believe it’s made by Garrett. One of the reasons why I like it is, I like this area to be large. Sometimes the smaller pans you can’t get the material to spread out enough and you will see why a little bit later on. But I actually like a little bit larger pan and I do like these little grooves in here, I do like them especially while I am speed panning and quick test panning. So I am going to take a couple scoops of this material and there is going to be a bunch of black sand in this stuff. I am just going to take a couple scoops of this and you can see that there are good size rocks. I’m starting to let some larger rocks go into our pans but I guess this would be more so for test panning in a creek but I am working cons just to show you.
And all you’re going to do is; probably the most important thing about panning is to understand the shape of a pan. So when you look at a pan you will notice that you have this V section, this corner section here. So it’s deep right in here and you’re going to use this deep part right in here, that’s really what I am going to use when I’m panning. And what I’m going to do is of course, I’m going to stratify which means I’m going to cause materials to separate by layer. I’m going to stratify this by loosening up this material in water, that’s really all I’ll do. So I have a pan here and all I do is I make it real violent looking. Now back and forth you will notice that my pan is just under the water surface, lots of water back and forth and then some circles. Back and forth and then some circles, back and forth and then some circles. Now right before I actually go to do any feathering on this you can see that all these big rocks are at now at the top. So I’m going to keep water in my pan and I’m going to take some of these big rocks look at them real quick, throw them away. Look at them real quick, throw them away. So whenever I see a big rock I’m just going to take a peek at it, throw it out, get it out. Side to side, round and round, side to side, round and round, side to side, round and round and I’ll explain that in a second.
So now what I’m going to do is, you can see where I’ve got this material and the way I have this material in the pan is it’s angled down. So it starts here and then it goes close to the edge and what it has formed, is you can see by the shape of my pan most of the gold should be in this corner the way that I have been shaking this. So it should be in that groove right down in here, that’s the deepest part and most of the gold should be in there. So now that I do this back and forth, round and round and just before I do something – just before I start to skim this, I’m going to do a little bit of a shake-shake. So I do a little bit of a gentle, gentle shake. Now all I’m going to do is I just want to take this layer off, I just want to take this top layer off. Now technically speaking I could just take my hand and just scrape that top layer off because the gold should be below that but you can also use the water. There is a couple ways to use the water, some people call it feathering but you’re going to put the pan in, the dirt isn’t moving until you almost don’t feel any weight on your hand. So there is a certain angle on this that you will notice that if you hold it like this in the water you will feel weight. Sort of just let it drop until you really don’t feel any weight, the material is not moving and all I’m going to do is I’m just going to pull up and towards me just a little bit. Up and towards me just a little bit, that’s all I’m going to do – that’s my initial panning. So I am going to take these big rocks, make sure I’ve got water, rinse them off; round and round and round, back and forth, round and round and round, back and forth a little jiggle, jiggle, jiggle and then same thing.
I am just letting it flow go down, straight down let it pull. Now at this stage you will start to see that I’ve got black sands showing down towards my front which is dangerous. So I am going to let some water in, grab some more rocks, check them out – round and round, back and forth and then jiggle, jiggle, jiggle and then same thing down and pull. Straight into the water pull it, straight into the water, no pressure I can’t feel any weight on my hands and just pull it up. And that’s all I’m doing, I’m allowing that water to gently just float off the material. Round and round, back and forth jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. Now the other way I like to do this, that scraping motion, is I like to just do what I call rock and roll. Which is the material in the pan is one; the only thing that moves is the water. So what I am going to do is I’m going to move my whole arm, I’m really not moving my hand, I am moving my whole arm rather than my hand. So I’m going to move my whole arm and just go back and forth with this. Now I am keeping my material in this pan fairly level to the water and this will just gently; you will see the rocks start to float off. Now when I do this I will start to see black sand on the back of my pan, so as I do this I’m slowly going to lift my pan up and work the water line on that black sane.
So I am going to go back and forth, see black sand, walk it fan it off the tip. Then back up I see a couple of big rocks I can grab, rinse them off, spin back and forth jiggle, jiggle, jiggle and then I use my rock and roll. Rock and roll, rock and roll, rock and roll keeping it fairly flat, keeping the water surface and the material surface even or level. I see black sand back here so now what I’m going to do is; I’m going to start to lift my pan up and just rock and roll the light stuff off the front. See a couple of big rocks, put water in my pan bring it all back down. Now this is an important step here when you get down to this point, I had a pan tilted like this so now what I’m going to do is, I’m going to bring it back get all that gold back in the center of the pan flat. See a rock take it out and now I’m going to round and round, back and forth, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. And now I’ve got this hang on the pan, so I’m going to rock and roll, I start to see black sand in the back so I get that out of the water and I just walk the blondes out very gently. A lot of people have a tendency to watch this tip and that’s really not what you want to do. You really want to watch back here because you want to watch for this black sand line and as you see the black sand line appear, you gently walk that water back down here.
So again all I’m going to do is bring it back flat, round, round, round, back and forth nice and gently jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle and I’ve got lights on the top again. Same thing rock and roll I see black sand, so now I’m going to just walk it off the top just like that, bring it back down. Now I’m going to stop that round motion and I’m just going to do a back and forth real gently back and forth nice wide strokes, wide strokes jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. I got blonde, rock and roll rock and roll, black sand, lift it up and feather it out. So I’m getting down close to almost all black sand and gold, so I’ve got it sitting here. So what I’m going to do is bring it back flat, back and forth, back and forth and slow it down just to a jiggle. Now I have all the lights on top, fan it back and forth, rock and roll and I’m just walking lights down and I let the black sand appear all the way down to about here and then stop. Bring it back down flat, bring it back down here back and forth back and forth, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle and then pan it again – lift it out. Once I get down to about this level then I am going to spin my pan and now I’m going to walk this material down to this corner without the grooves. Same thing back and forth back and forth and you notice the angle of my pan and I’ve got that main groove sitting there at the deepest. Gently just rock it and now I’m just going to feather it back and forth, back and forth just like this. I see a big rock look at it.
At this level you really should look at your big rocks carefully as you may have corts inclusions in gold that look like rocks; jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle just take a little of that light layer off and fan. Bring it back down, back and forth back and forth jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, walking it off bring it flat, back and forth. The reason why I bring the pan flat is because gold likes to drag so if I bring it back flat my gold will be sitting back here further rather than up here. So that’s why what I do is I bring this back flat, get water, bring it back bringing all the material back here then work it and my gold will drag ad be in the back side of this. Rock and roll it, rock and roll it, see something that looks like gold that’s moving stop and look at it. And I could pan like this for 100 gold its no problem. Now when I am done with that part of it, you’ll notice that I just have a little bit of cons in here. And I just want about a half an inch of water surrounding my cons down here or about a half inch of water. So here is my material and I’ve got about a half inch of water from here to the water edge is about half an inch same thing, half inch all around. And the smaller this pod gets, the smaller the water and you want to maintain that. So I’m just going to bring all the water up and rip it down, water up rip it down, rip it down.
Then you will notice that I pretty much have all black sand in here, let me get this a little closer for you and I’m starting to see gold already show up. I’m starting to see fine gold all in here to bring it in here in a second. And this is one of the reasons why I like this wide pan because I can strip this and allow the material to spread across here nicely. Again I am just looking, I’m really not trying to get the gold out, this is more of a test panning phase for me. Now if you have large rocks up here, you need to get them out. So get some water in here and get rid of them because they will hold up the fine gold up top. And I’ve got a bunch of gold sitting right in here; let me zoom in for you. Right in here I have a bunch of fine gold sitting right here; a bunch of 50’s and 100’s all sitting in right here. So same thing I’m just going to go; now if I want to stop and collect this gold, I’m just going to let the water gently pull down this end. Let the water pull and keep this stuff back here out of the water and jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. So you will notice that this material is not moving just the material with the gold in it is moving, same thing. So now I can come bringing the water up and let it strip, bring the water up let it strip, water up strip. Just let the water get to the top and then let it fall back down, water up to the top, nice and smooth.
Then the nice part about this action is, is it spreads across this large pan in here. There is a big ole piece of lead; that’s buckshot or a sinker or something. That’s a little split shot with a piece of fishing line still in it. Bring it strip, bring it up strip, bring it up strip again get these bigger rocks out of here. Now hold up the fine gold; they are a bunch of little lead shots in here. Well you can see – let me show you this, this pretty cool, I’ve never seen this dirt before so I’m hoping you can see this. There is a bunch of bird shot up in here, there are like 10 pieces up in here. But one of the things I can do now is; one of the reasons why I like this big pan is I can keep this material here and gently just let it spread out, bring the water up and let it spread out. And I can see all the fine gold in here 100’s, 50’s, 200’s I can see it all. Look at that big rock or a piece of iron ore there or something; why is that sitting there? Just a ton of fine gold in here. They’re finding a bunch of fine gold on that run, let me show it to you if I can. I mean a ton of fine gold, wow. I want to see if you can see it; I am going to try and get you to see this. Hey I am a good panner, look at that stuff, and look at all those 100’s, that’s amazing. And this pan is just covered with them; do you see them all? All these little specs in here, this is just full of them, that’s amazing. Even some back over in here, there is quite a bit of gold in here but that fine stuff is amazing. I have a great picture of it.