Panning V's Detecting

I enjoy doing both and have done so for about 20 years. I got to a point where i was getting frustrated detecting because i was on a bit of a drought finding ground and gold. The longer it went the less effort i was putting in so therefore the results were never going to improve. I purchased a new 4500 and after a few weeks with it sitting in the spare room i really started to regret buying it.
Finally when i took it for a run and found a piece on the first outing all my doubts dissapeared and my enthusiasm has returned to what it was years ago when i first started detecting . While panning is fun and can provide good results it never quite gives you that buzz of cleaning a piece of dirt in your hand and revealing that colour of gold . Both will have you hooked but when u succed finding a nugget big or small there is nothing else like it.

Gaz

Hi All, totally new here and new to prospecting, but, I see here many comments on spending time with the detector and digging up scrap, I have a Garret ATX and its iron decriminator feature works a treat... saves a lot of time digging only to find bottle tops.. in saying that I still dig for lead and aluminium.. I am still learning how to use it and have been playing at the beach with it... lots of learning to do in this hoby but it all seems like relaxing time well spent that one day may pay dividends... good luck to all..Im off to the beach

I've been looking for gold for over 35 years , started with panning then later using detectors , found some good gold with both methods but as the years went on it got harder & harder to score enough weight to cover all the costs involved & come home with a decent profit .

These days I cherry pick natural traps in dry run offs using a dry concentrator then pan out the final cons .
There is some testing involved to find the rich accumulations of fine gold that no detector can see .

So much more lucrative then digging holes all day chasing junk , ground noise & mostly sub gram gold .


Outback .

Thanks for your input outback.