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Fisher AQ In Gold Fields


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Got a desert trip planned in a couple of weeks and was wondering if anyone (Steve especially) has had a chance to test out the AQ for nuggets?  I got mine at the end of September and it has already paid for itself in beach finds, including my first platinum ring ever, a 25.2 gram monster.

I know it's not designed for prospecting, but was thinking about taking along it to play around.  I did air test a 2.0 gram gold/quartz nugget with Pulse Delay of 7, max sensitivity and minimum ATS and it was a solid hit at 5" and broke the threshold at 7".  For each 1/2 increase of Pulse Delay, I lost about an inch or so.

If anyone has field experience, I would like to know your results.  I will relay actual findings (if any) after I get back.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

John

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The Impulse AQ has the sensitivity to hit fairly small gold nuggets. Unfortunately the lack of ground balance controls means you are at the mercy of the ground and hot rocks. I found I could get the AQ to run in most any mode if I slowed to a crawl, as any coil speed at all introduced too many false signals. The only mode I could cover ground in effectively was volcanic mode. If the AQ was the only detector I had I would not discourage anyone from giving it a go gold prospecting, but I would not recommend anyone buy one thinking that will be a viable use of the machine. It really is highly optimized as a beach detector, and when looking at other possible uses of the machine like coin or relic hunting, I would put gold prospecting dead last on the list of things the AQ is very good at. Put another way, I was halfway determined to find a gold nugget with the AQ, but gave it up very soon as just not worth the effort.

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Thanks Steve.  I know you had at one time mentioned you might give it a go in the nugget fields and was wondering if you had a chance to try it out.  Will be taking the Nox 800 and Gold Bug II.  If I get a promising target, I’ll run back to the car and see what happens.

SDC 2300 on my mind......

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I speculated some time back on a question. Would the Impulse AQ be any good at gold prospecting, and would the Impulse Gold be any good at beach detecting? For me as a fresh water detectorist, the Impulse Gold may be the better way to go, as it will work as well in fresh water as anywhere else. However, the extreme short pulse delay on the Impulse Gold means it may not handle wet salt sand, though that remains to be seen. Some kind of "salt mode" would be welcome by prospectors, since the ground in places like Nevada can be loaded with alkali salt mineralization. Until the Impulse Gold arrives we will not know for sure how well it handles the salt beach, if at all. But for those who think the Impulse AQ might have gold prospecting applications, the basic answer is no.

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