Seeking Detector Suggestions For Colorado

[Lighthouse]

I'm planning on doing some river sluicing in Colorado this summer, but also trying my hand at doing some detecting. Looking for the right set up for that region. Does anyone have experienced suggestions?

[fredmason]

Do you have any detecting experience?  I do not have any Colorado experience.

I don't know about nuggets but coins and relics are a good possibilities...therefore, I suggest an xterra-705. It may not do everything very well, but, it will do anything pretty dang good.

And they can be found for a good price used.

fred

[Lighthouse]

Does anyone here go detecting for gold in Colorado? If so, what kind of detector do you use?

[Steve Herschbach]

Colorado has a combination of highly mineralized ground and large gold is rare. That being said it would be a more difficult place to get started. You either have to be proficient with a hot 30 kHz plus detector (example - Fisher Gold Bug 2) for small gold on bad ground (a difficult detecting scenario) or invest in something expensive like the Minelab SDC 2300.

A couple Colorado gold locations

More locations pages 84 - 177 https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0610/report.pdf

Nugget Detector Guide

[Lighthouse]

39 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Colorado has a combination of highly mineralized ground and large gold is rare. That being said it would be a more dijdicukt place to get started. You either have to be proficient with a hot 30 kHz plus detector (example - Fisher Gold Bug 2) for small gold on bad ground (a difficult detecting scenario) or invest in something expensive like the Minelab SDC 2300.

I appreciate your feedback. How do you think a GPX 4500 would fare? 

[cobill]

Hey NuggetBuddy, I live in Colorado and like Steve said the gold is small here... -20 mesh and smaller in our rivers! The best detector choice would be the Gold Bug 2, which can hit gold as small as pin-sized. Open areas for detecting will have the fines and any area with larger gold is privately claimed.

Bill   

[Glenn in CO]

1 hour ago, NuggetBuddy said:

Does anyone here go detecting for gold in Colorado? If so, what kind of detector do you use?

I and my wife have detected and prospected for gold in Colorado for over forty years in Colorado and specialize in searching mine dumps that contain gold that a high frequency VLF can easily detect. Most gold found in stream and rivers in Colorado will be on the small side. There are some placer areas that are yielding some large nuggets today in Colorado by mechanical methods and also using a metal detector currently on display at the Colorado School of Mines Museum. Visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Colorado School of Mines Museum to see specimens from different areas of the state and obtain possible areas where one could use a detector. Also visit local museums that have a geology section that might have gold specimens for local mining areas. There are many gold and silver specimens that have been found in Colorado in the past with a metal detector that are troy ounce or larger in size and worth many times above current spot prices in value. Do the research and you could be rewarded quite nicely.

Good Luck!