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Your Pick Of Any Nugget Detector For High Trash Areas?


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Thanks Goldbrick and Argyle,

 

Appreciate you all bringing this post back to top of the heap.  I reread the info you all left and I think it sank in a bit better with the second read and the additional info. 

Much appreciated.

Terry

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At gains for me there is only one choice that would be the MXT with the 12" concentric, Because I have someones story somewhere stating that they hit a 1 ozt nugget at 18" with that set up, and I like the sound of that and having access to full Disc when mooching through the junk,, or the 5.3 because it hits the fine stuff and has a bit of depth to it and it's great for between the rock's.

John 

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4 hours ago, goldbrick said:

I wonder if there is a difference in performance in tailings depending on the type of tailings. Do we need to differentiate between hard rock tailings and placer tailings when talking about the relative merits of PI versus VLF. For instance tailings from ancient river deposits as opposed to a hard rock tailings deposit consisting of iron rich ultra-mafic rocks. Or is it a moot point in all ground types of hard rock tailings due to no electrical conductivity in hard rock tailings because they are busted up? I think quartz tailings can be very benign almost to the point of an inability to GB on them.

In regard to depth on tailings  between PI/VLF being basically equal, is that true in all instances except for say a GPX or GPZ due to the battery power enabling a much higher level of gain? Like VLF = TDI but VLF < GPX?

HH,

Merton

If you get  a VLF with a big concentric in that mild ground a Good VLF should hang with a PI machine, Not only that because the good VLFs have mix mode Audio they can give an All Metal Sound of up to 50 to 60% of the depth where they Bleep to so an Item that can be seen at 16 inches if you train your Ears you can pick them up at 20 to 24 inches, But sad to say that most people just Bleep and Dig but that's not how you find the good stuff, Anyone can dig a target that blows ya ears off but it is those rises in threshold that can make all the difference and the bigger the nugget the deep you can dig em, Learn these things about VLFs and they can give you a workout just as good as a PI can.

hope this helps,,

John 

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5 hours ago, auminesweeper said:

good VLFs have mix mode Audio they can give an All Metal Sound of up to 50 to 60% of the depth where they Bleep to so an Item that can be seen at 16 inches if you train your Ears you can pick them up at 20 to 24 inches, But sad to say that most people just Bleep and Dig but that's not how you find the good stuff, Anyone can dig a target that blows ya ears off but it is those rises in threshold that can make all the difference and the bigger the nugget the deep you can dig em, Learn these things about VLFs and they can give you a workout just as good as a PI can.

hope this helps,,

It definitely helps to know and remember such things.  It's things like that I'm sure that can make the difference with being successful or not with any detector.  I will surely be going over tailing piles others have gone over before so one needs any little edge to find that elusive nugget others missed.  

One thing John that I see in your thread above about all the detectors you owned other than the most useless ones is that you didn't fret so much over their weak areas but found their strengths and put that to good use.

I know I want what we all want, which is that magic detector that can do it all, but as you long time detectorist know, it don't exist yet. If not for limited finances I would just go out and buy the 7000, the 3030, the MXT, the gold Racer, and a couple other of the latest greatest.  But to keep myself in a limited budget and to deal with my spouse I have to limit my choices so I am not wanting to jump at the first detector that seems to shine.  I don't look at the pressures to not buy everything real negatively as I can see that many folks who can are often not all that happy in the long run.  But I don't want to go out and try to do a job with the wrong tool either.  There is much to be said for the confidence one has when they feel they have the right tool in their hand.  I am willing to stretch my budget if I know a product would serve the place of 2 or more detectors.  A detector like the 3030 could serve well my Beach and for the  most part my coin detector and I could actually go in the water without worry of destroying it.  And god knows if I get near the water and think it will give an edge to get in it, I will.   Or the Racer 2 appears to be able to serve as as a great coin, good Relic and good back up gold detector and there are other VLF detectors out there that would maybe serve better as a single purpose detector.  

In trying to be realistic I also see that I am very far from any gold nugget fields and not that far from the beaches so I can't get out but so often to gold prospect but can get to several beaches in 3- 5 hours including all the North Carolina Beaches, the Va beaches and the huge Myrtle beach area in South Carolina.  Also, all kinds of relic hunting to do here in NC and VA not to mention coin hunting locally so that's to consider as well.  But still I don't want to drive 3 to 10,000 miles to the goldfields and feel unarmed detector wise. Also, after pulling up a few nuggets, detecting gold nuggets makes other detecting feel a little more bland to me.  Kinda like being a deer hunter and then taking that first Elk hunt.  You don't want to give up deer hunting but Elk hunting is a bump up in the excitement level and that's what Nugget hunting feels like to me anyway so even though I can't get out to do it as much makes the tools I use no less important to me. 

 So that's some of the things tugging on my mind in making my decisions as what to buy.  

I want to say also that this website and the folks I meet here have all been so hugely helpful in my pursuit of detecting.  In the short couple months I have been mentally hanging out here, though I have met none of you in person, you all feel like friends and I'm grateful to all.

As a side note - Another of the great things about detecting aside from finding things is that it takes me outside and often to such wild places.  There is a lot of value to that.  To be sitting in that spot where the surrounding scenery just makes you wonder now on earth anything could be more beautiful.  

 

 

 

Lake in Canada.jpg

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3 hours ago, Roughwater said:

It definitely helps to know and remember such things.  It's things like that I'm sure that can make the difference with being successful or not with any detector.  I will surely be going over tailing piles others have gone over before so one needs any little edge to find that elusive nugget others missed.  

One thing John that I see in your thread above about all the detectors you owned other than the most useless ones is that you didn't fret so much over their weak areas but found their strengths and put that to good use.

I know I want what we all want, which is that magic detector that can do it all, but as you long time detectorist know, it don't exist yet. If not for limited finances I would just go out and buy the 7000, the 3030, the MXT, the gold Racer, and a couple other of the latest greatest.  But to keep myself in a limited budget and to deal with my spouse I have to limit my choices so I am not wanting to jump at the first detector that seems to shine.  I don't look at the pressures to not buy everything real negatively as I can see that many folks who can are often not all that happy in the long run.  But I don't want to go out and try to do a job with the wrong tool either.  There is much to be said for the confidence one has when they feel they have the right tool in their hand.  I am willing to stretch my budget if I know a product would serve the place of 2 or more detectors.  A detector like the 3030 could serve well my Beach and for the  most part my coin detector and I could actually go in the water without worry of destroying it.  And god knows if I get near the water and think it will give an edge to get in it, I will.   Or the Racer 2 appears to be able to serve as as a great coin, good Relic and good back up gold detector and there are other VLF detectors out there that would maybe serve better as a single purpose detector.  

 

Because my sites are EXTREMELY filled with junk I moved away from multi-frequency machines because the recovery is too slow and I was loosing too many Targets, Plus a friend showed me exactly what the MXT could do and he whooped my Etrac and my Sovereign GT and no matter what coil I used they would not see the Targets laying on the ground, So I would be forgetting the 3030 unless it was a Winchester or a Marlin, lol

It's been a long while since the first model MXT came out but the new models are the same machine with a few nice bits added, I have never found an Area where the machine was lacking, Not once have I ever gone out and found nothing of interest, I never worry because someone near by is using an XP or an F75 or what ever, The only difference is I can just twist a knob to adjust something and keep going and using Duracells I get about 60 hours of Battery time I normally change them around 57 hours just so I don't get caught out,

Without making me sound like a Whites sales Rep, If money was no object and you took me to the biggest detector store on the planet and they had everything from a Realistic 3001 to the GPZ 7000, and you told me to pick one as a Gift, I would pick the MXT A/P over all others, for a simple reason, It has never sent me home empty handed, I have found some natural Gold with them and I hit the jackpot finding gold jewellery with one, and to this day some folks never let me live it down,

Is it the Best machine? NO

Is it the Deepest machine? NO

So what does it have, It has 15/16 years of Proven track record, as Steve said it has found more Gold in ALASKA that any other machine in history, And by knowing just some of these things you just know you are going to find something, I see the MXT as the Perfect Exploration Tool into unknown Areas, It will do the Job and won't complain there are at leased 30 or 40 coils made for them, They are like the Wheel once invented it's hard to come up with a better Idea, Minelab were so impressed that they reverse engineered the MXT to find what made it Tick when they were Building the Xterra range of machines So that is a huge compliment in it's self, 

Read This Review By Steve, http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/whites-electronics-mxt-metal-detector.htm

But you should Also seriously consider the Nokta/Makro Range of machines too, Because this young whipper snapper of a company is kicking butt and taking names, Including mine but at present I am staying with the MXT because I am waiting for one of their machine to hit the shops.

Hope this helps..  John 

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To quote Steve :

" but the only VLF I am inclined to use is my Makro Gold Racer. The Noktas though have better balance running a large coil and so if I was doing a lot of tailings again I would be tempted to get another Nokta. "

I agree but with different reasons, I wouldn't know a gold nugget if it hit me up side the head. But for iron infested sites I hunt for coins etc, I really like the newer features that was added to the Racer 2 ( Iron Audio Volume, Tone Break) but I really like swinging the Fors CoRe much better. I was hoping that Nokta would update the original Fors CoRe as they did the Racer to Racer 2. Give the updated Fors CoRe the same features that were added to the R2. Have it share the same coils and at that point they could drop the "CoRe" name and simply call it the " Fors Coin" to go with the Fors Relic and Fors Gold machines. Would make a nice trio of machines. I just like the Nokta physical package better, hand grip , balance etc etc. However, isn't that big of a deal. I have the R2 w/ oor coil, and use that in the worst of the iron and utilize the added features and the Nokta with the 5.5 x 10 coil for areas with less trash. 

 

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That does help, That's one huge vote for the MXT.  Sounds like it's a Rock solid machine and for sure and not the most expensive VlF machine out there.  As to the 3030 I wasn't planning on using it for Gold prospecting if I were to get one.  A big negative feature of the 3030 is cost, so if I got one to satisfy beach and coin use I still have to fork out some more money for a VlF gold machine If I want to do it right.  I talked to Gerry McMullen last night on the phone and he's been finding a lot of gold rings on the beach with the 3030 and feels like it's the best beach machine there is at present and agrees also that it is not a great prospecting tool.  He regards the Racer highly but says he hasn't checked out the Racer 2 yet as it's so new.  As to beach machines he rates the 3030 tops, with the Excal 2nd and the CZ21 third.  For non wading machines he likes the Safari and the Etrack and feels it best to consider one of those over the older slow response of the Quattro.  He says the Quattro was only sold for a short period of time for a reason.  

I think I will check out the MXT further since it's been given so many rave reviews.

Hope my old pics aren't adding too many Mbits to the website.  Just trying to add a bit of scenery to the black and white.

Oh yea, I made it to the North Pole in O6.  I didn't get to meet Santa though, Guess he was still in bed as it was 3:30 in the morning! I stopped at the mailbox in the pic and mailed a letter to my wife so she would have a letter from the north pole. 

 

North Pole AK.JPG

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The CTX3030 is a good beach machine, The Quatro was renamed as the Safari, Both if them were very limited in term of adjustability and have very slow recovery so no good in junk filled sites and the Etrac could find targets but they can give you 8 sets of numbers for one Item which is useless when they do that when you think that they have 2 sets of numbers which is a pain, I did one area with it and dug all the targets that should have been good targets  and there was a fair bit of junk there to say the leased and then I did the same area with the MXT with the big 12 inch coil and I dug so many good targets it was a shock to see how much I had missed, so BBS and FBS machines are of little use to me, and they are too expensive just to keep as a beach machine,

On the beach I normally use the 12 concentric coil or the 950 concentric coil as they work better and they pin point better and don't suffer from EMI as much,, I also have the 15" inch MXT MAX concentric coil which is like the Hub Cap off a Kenworth, But you would need at leased an 18"/20" DD to match it maybe bigger, But it is powerful and sensitive down to about 0.02 to 0.03 grams. All in all the whole kit will cover just about anything you want to do,

But as Steve and others have said  Nokta /Makro are breaking new ground So I would keep one eye on them also, Because we have good things to come from them in the future.

John

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22 minutes ago, auminesweeper said:

On the beach I normally use the 12 concentric coil or the 950 concentric coil as they work better and they pin point better and don't suffer from EMI as much,, I also have the 15" inch MXT MAX concentric coil which is like the Hub Cap off a Kenworth, But you would need at leased an 18"/20" DD to match it maybe bigger, But it is powerful and sensitive down to about 0.02 to 0.03 grams. All in all the whole kit will cover just about anything you want to do,

John,

If I hear you correctly, (Ok, actually I don't hear you) if I read you correctly, you use the MXT on the beach with a large (12" concentric) coil?  Do you get decent depth with it in the wet salt sand?  Most tell me we can't get any depth with the single Freq machines in the wet salt sand?  I don't think the Carolina beaches are real mineralized like some are so was wondering if it might not hold as true on our beaches but I don't know.  I did however write down the phone number of a detector company at a Carolina beach and I plan to give them a call tomorrow for their opinion. 

You also say the 15" MAX concentric coil is super sensesitive on tiny gold (.02-.02)?  that sounds amazing.  I never thought that large of a coil could be that sensitive.  

Terry

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45 minutes ago, Roughwater said:

John,

If I hear you correctly, (Ok, actually I don't hear you) if I read you correctly, you use the MXT on the beach with a large (12" concentric) coil?  Do you get decent depth with it in the wet salt sand?  Most tell me we can't get any depth with the single Freq machines in the wet salt sand?  I don't think the Carolina beaches are real mineralized like some are so was wondering if it might not hold as true on our beaches but I don't know.  I did however write down the phone number of a detector company at a Carolina beach and I plan to give them a call tomorrow for their opinion. 

You also say the 15" MAX concentric coil is super sensesitive on tiny gold (.02-.02)?  that sounds amazing.  I never thought that large of a coil could be that sensitive.  

Terry

The 12" coil will hit things real deep, you might have to lower your Gain to about 7, getting good depth is fairly easy but on the beach you need to remember not to over power the Receive signal by turning up the Gain too high,

Normally as coils get bigger the become less sensitive But that relates more too DD coils, where as Concentric coils do not suffer from a loss in sensitivity, DD coils have become more of a Crutch  than anything else, One company did a big publicity stunt and suddenly everyone fell for the Hype but the trouble is many detectors became noisy and suffered from EMI and in the process became less sensitive and then users also had to learn to draw an "X" to pin point the Target and some folks even now still miss their targets, where as with a Concentric when you pull the pin point trigger as the signal gets Louder the Target always ends up in the middle of the Coil, Too many people use DDs as a crutch because some fool told them that detectors are better when fitted with DDs and in ground with soil readings below 70 to 75 by using a DD you are almost ALWAYS losing depth, because on coin sized targets a DD can normally go as deep as what they are wide, But the Average depth of a concentric is usually about 1 and a 3rd times its width (BUT) in theory should be able to see a coin sized target at a depth that is Twice their width, But the chances of that happening are fairly slim but it does happen. So really a good mixed selection of coils will help you get the best out of any machine,

hope this helps,,, John 

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