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Minelab 800 Settings For Large Gold Targets


Boatman4009

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The Equinox cannot find items that small that deep. You expect too much of metal detectors if you think you can find one ounce nuggets three feet deep. That’s basically not possible with any metal detector.

Turn on the detector, use Park 1 and increase the sensitivity to 25. If there is interference reduce the sensitivity until the detector is quiet. Put the detector on a table with the coil aiming into the air and with no metal nearby. Wave items under the coil to see how far you can detect them. For most normal items this will be 1 - 2 feet.

For large items and while learning I would stick with Park 1. Playing with the settings too much starting out will confuse you and make things worse. Learn the basic operation of the detector and how it reacts in the field before changing settings too much. If you change settings, use a buried test target to make sure the new settings actually work better.

 

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The video above says it all. Note that the aluminum soda can fades out at 24" (60 - 70 cm). A flattened 1 ounce gold nugget is roughly the size of a half dollar and a rounded nugget will appear even smaller to a detector. I’m sorry you were mislead. Don’t listen to anything else they say... they may try and sell you an even more expensive detector of some sort. There are some manufacturers that make outrageous claims about what their detectors can do.

The larger the item is the deeper it can be detected. Almost no gold nuggets can be detected over two feet deep except under very rare circumstances, and those would have to be very large gold nuggets weighing many ounces or even pounds. I have dug a lot of gold in my life and most of it was less than a foot deep.

Information on Deep Seeking Metal Detectors

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I challenge anyone to prove to me they can find a natural unmodified one ounce gold nugget at three feet with an Equinox. You might claim a one ounce nugget can be found within a three foot range, but not up to (down to?) three feet.

If an Equinox could perform such a feat it would not just obsolete single frequency detectors, it would obsolete Minelabs $7999 GPZ 7000. If somebody asked me if they should get a GPZ 7000 to find one ounce gold nuggets at three feet I’d tell them not to waste their money. An Equinox sure is not going to do it.

Natural gold nuggets have everything going against you. They are a gold alloy with a much lower conductivity than a pure gold target except those rare nuggets that are of exceptional high purity. Some Australia & California gold is very pure and a lot of Alaska and Nevada gold is quite low purity. The target ID numbers in the chart below reflect lower purity as lower VDI numbers, so some larger nuggets read lower than smaller nuggets. The size is usually irregular and often includes rock material or air spaces. Wire and dispersed gold varieties are almost invisible to metal detectors. Finally, gold is normally found in highly mineralized ground.

The nugget top center is just shy of one Troy ounce so a good example of what we are talking about. Probably about 80% gold, irregular shape, and so it reads about the same as a nickel. I can't imagine it would be detectable even at two feet with the Equinox, if I had to guess I'd say maybe 14" - 16" max in milder ground. Click chart below for larger version.

Also note that a large solid gold nugget can read as high as a silver dollar! Proving once again it is size more than the type of metal that determines where targets fall on the target id scale.

gold-nugget-vdi-target-id-size-relative-to-coins-steve-herschbach.jpg

whites-metal-detectors-standard-vdi-target-id-scale.jpg

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The truth is the truth....playing with words to make a sale is only one of many ways to LIE!

Boatman, if you have a place where you have proven that the gold is up to three feet deep , perhaps you should consider a push....or a pick and shovel. Pick, shovel, spread out the dirt and detect...

more work but you won't miss much-once you learn the detector.

fred

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Boatman, 

 You came to the right place! I've never hunted gold nuggets! Unless they appear on a beach, I probably never will! But if i ever get the chance, i will come here first, for the best advice! These guys know their stuff, and you are in good hands here! 👍👍

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