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How Well Do You Know Your Gold Detector?


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13 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Which detector would you take and why?

Ok, I see you asked a specific question and you're getting a lot of good answers.  But I'm going to step outside that question with my answer.  Besides a moderate to high frequency VLF and a lightweight PI, I'm taking a gold pan.  The chances it tells me something I don't know, even if the chance of that is small, is clearly worth the weight and cost.

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This is also outside the question, but in relation to the last response about the pan. The last few years I've been in a spot with lots of nuggets (old bedrock workings) where if I'd have taken the time to sift and sort every signal, I'd have recovered far less gold, so I use the plastic gold pan for a "speed" tool. I look at the display when there's a good tone, throw the target material in the pan and keep at it recovering as many possible targets in the time I have available to hunt the old workings. Then, when I need a break, I carefully pan (using a safety pan as well) the material to see what I've recovered. Saves a lot of target separating time and leaves me with a nice catch of nuggets in the poke at the end of the day allowing me to cover far more ground.

Oh, and I must add, when nuggets are travelling in crevices, lots of smaller gold drops along with them as well (most of the time, but there have been exceptions), so I also get the benefit of having cleaned crevices to get the nuggets but having the bonus of fine accompanying gold as well.

All the best, and I know this is straying from the seed ideas of the post, but I thought I'd share how I've found a plastic pan valuable as I can quickly scan it to ensure the target's made it into the pan as well,

Lanny

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17 hours ago, kiwijw said:

Dry panning GB_Amatuer or do you take along a bit of water with you...?

Water in the vehicle but water in the backpack/canteen just for drinking.  If there's water nearby I can transport the sample there rather than the other way around.  (I always carry a few ziplock bags for sampling.)  I figure just knowing there's gold in any form can be both a clue and a motivation.  But I understand tiny gold and metal detectable gold don't necessarily go hand-in-hand.

 

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If I was going to look for gold nuggets in tailing piles and placer digs, I would re-read Gerry's excellent article on "Finding Nuggets In Tailing Piles & Placer Digs" from W&ET 2009 Silver & Gold.  Gerry provides pro tips on how to dig less trash, pile selection, the detector choice, coil selection and placer digs. Hint- bring a quality "gold capable" VLF detector with 9" or 11" concentric and elliptical coils or a PI with stock DD and small elliptical coils for iron discrimination. Plus the article shows some great pics of gold nuggets and specimens found by Gerry and his customers.

Everywhere else, bring the GPZ!:biggrin:

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year's,

Bill

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Crikey, JW that was a bit of a "prattle", but for newchums to get a bit of an idea on the often complicated process we go through chasing the magic stuff, tis a must read.

Very merry Xmas to all, cos Xmas is a special time to be merry and why not tis not a bad excuse. :wink:

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Hi JW, I don't have a link...but maybe Gerry has something he can provide.

Bill

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On 12/20/2017 at 10:59 AM, GB_Amateur said:

Ok, I see you asked a specific question and you're getting a lot of good answers.  But I'm going to step outside that question with my answer.  Besides a moderate to high frequency VLF and a lightweight PI, I'm taking a gold pan.  The chances it tells me something I don't know, even if the chance of that is small, is clearly worth the weight and cost.

Even in our hi tech world it still comes back to a gold pan doesn't it. I still use one a lot. 

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JW, great write-up! All kinds of good information you've shared, lessons learned, aha moments, etc.

Great stuff, and thanks for taking the time to post it as well.

Sounds like you're having lots of fun learning the detectors and finding the nuggets.

All the best, and a Merry Christmas to you as well,

Lanny

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I have been fortunate to hunt gold in many Western States, AK and even Australia.  I was also able to find gold at the places with both VLF & PI type technologies.  I've been fortune enough to own and learn almost 40 models of detectors and find gold nuggets.  I still have about 5 units I like and would never go on a trip as described with less than 3 different units.

Here are the 3 I would take on that trip and why. 

Gold Monster 1000 as it is very good in tailing piles for larger nuggets.  You need light, fast and good Iron Identification.  It is also tops at finding small gold pieces and also great when detecting ore dump piles for species and wire gold.

GPX series PI with a DD coil.  Really doesn't matter which version (4000, 4500, 4800, 5000) as they all have Iron ID when using the DD coil.

GPZ-7000 to detect in areas with hardly any trash and to get the best depth/sensitivity combo.  Love it for well known areas that have been picked clean by all other detectors.  Would never recommend it in dredge tailing piles.

Now if I only had room for 2 detectors, I would remove the GPX and use the bigger coil on the Monster in those trashy areas.

The Equinox has me excited as I want to see how well the Iron ID words on it.  Could be great for big gold in dredge tailings.

Again,  These are just my recommendations and you could easily put in one of the other more popular VLF's that runs high kHz to substitute the GM-1000.

Some of you could also use an SD-2200 or GP series with DD, other than those do not like certain kinds of gold as well as GPX series.

Yes I enjoy dredge tailing piles and have found a couple grams in them.  Ore dumps are also quite generous to me as sometimes the higher dollar specimens come from those and PI technology does not do well on many of them ones I find.

I'll have to look around and try to find that article...maybe scan and copy it on here.

 

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