This book is perfect for a someone looking to begin their Gold Panning Adventures. It is well written with excellent pictures which make a transition into gold panning relaxing and fun. This description may be from another edition of this product.
The book was well written in easy to understand language. The pictures were good. However it sounded like an advertisement for Garrett Metal Detectors and products.Mr. Labal seemed to lack detailed knowledge about dry washing in the desert and dry washers in general. Dry washers do more than "vibrate" to extract the gold. Some use air and some use a combination of both. He talked about the lack of water in the desert and how drywashing was the only way to get the gold out. There is some truth to this but there are portable sluices or wet washing machines which use recirculated water to separate the gold from the "pay dirt". Most people who dry wash take wash tubs and containers of water with them. This allows them to use a gold pan and water to separate the gold from the concentrated material dry washers produce.The book was revised in 1992 and needs to be revised again. There have been many advances in recreational prospecting equipment in the last decade and the book needs to reflect that.As president of my local prospecting club I would recommend this book to any beginning prospector. I learned that my gold pan can do more than I thought it could!
Hits the nail on the head
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
This is a comprehensive book on panning. Two things stand out for me. One, there is a by-the-numbers recipe for wet panning that is more detailed than any other book that I have read. Two, this is the only work that describes, in detail, dry panning.
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