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Here is what I found last week in nev. Will post these later after I clean them up. Rick.

Hello Moxford, I by no means call myself an expert but I can offer my opinions on what has worked for me. I detect for gold and that is it. I currently use two units. I have a Minelab 3000 that was modified by Ishmael many years back and I have been using the Sadie coil with it lately, it is a small almost round mono coil that is produced by NuggetFinder Coils. The other unit I use is the GB Pro by Fisher and I use the ten inch eliptical coil. The GB Pro is a VLF unit. I am going to offer my opinions in the order in which you asked them. California mineralization... I have not found any places in which my 3000 could not handle the ground. You will however have to become familiar with what type of coil and size of coil to use in a particular ground situation. I hunt many diverse areas and choose to go with the Sadie coil because I have been able to find pieces of gold right at a grain, sometimes a hair smaller along with six or seven pennyweight nuggets at 16 to 20 inches in pretty hot ground. How do I judge what is hot ground or mild ground ? Here lately I have been using the GB Pro to somewhat gauge the ground. I have some areas in which the GB Pro will balance out with a ground reading of 25 to 50. I have hunted over some Serpentine areas that give me a ground reading of almost a 100. The depth of the ground you are looking at hunting is going to gauge a lot of what you are going to be up against. Many guys will hunt over exposed to very shallow (six inches) bedrock with a larger coil. I have found that the signal rate sometimes is too slow to hear very tiny pieces with a PI in this very shallow ground. These same guys will also have some deeper ground very nearby where the larger coil will be more ''usable". I have found that by going with the smallest coil that has proved itself out in these varying conditions is the best coil to go with. You will notice that there is less EMI with a smaller coil, and many times the smaller right coil will handle the same hotter ground and still get you that three pennyweight nugget at fourteen inches. This is the exact reason I go with the Sadie. If I think there may be a chance of a larger nugget at more depth then I change coils to one that will give me the depth I am looking at. No matter how many times this subject is brought up it still comes down to the right equipment for the job. I do not believe you are ever going to get away from this situation and feel that you are getting what gold may be in an area whether it be tiny, small or large nuggets without having the right tools. The GB Pro has served me very well in these very diverse hot and cold ground conditions. The GB Pro is a very capable gold detector and will find a pennyweight nugget in pretty hot ground at twelve inches, sometimes a bigger piece at more depth. Where the GB Pro or a few of the other VLF's will shine is on those sub-grain pieces on very shallow bedrock. These same VLF's will also pick up specimens in quartz or other host rocks that a PI will not touch. Do not get me wrong as a PI will also pick up some of these same pieces, but not always. If I am looking for sub-grain pieces at zero to six inches or detecting hard rock mine tailing's then the VLF is the choice detector. Trouble is you hardly ever run into ground that will allow you to use only one detector, a VLF or a PI. So once again you are back at having the right equipment for the job. I have hunted in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, California, North Carolina and Alaska and have found diverse ground conditions in all these states, from one end of the spectrum to the other. Some of these conditions can change literally in just a very few inches. Waterproof... I do not use any of my PI coils under water. I have not used any of the Minelab units that are made strictly for underwater. Just from what I have read I would want to try the new Garrett unit that will allow for full submersion. This is an area of detecting that I just do not get into, I had enough Scuba in the military. The GB Pro is submersible to the box and I have used it very effectively for finding underwater crevices that are not too deep. There are other VLF's that will do this also. Smallish nuggets... I cannot answer this with a sound answer without knowing how small or deep and in what kind of ground conditions. I tried to answer this above. Surf Detecting... Again this something that I just do not do, however, I have some friends that have had excellent results with varying PI's and VLF's on the beaches of Northern California. The units they are using are not fully submersible though,but they do handle the beach soils. ATX... I have played with one of these several times and while it is a very capable unit , in my mind, it does not compare to either my 3000 or GB Pro under the same conditions. Again, these are just my opinions. Hope this helps, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS

Fred got it. Everything from low mineral great for VLF ground to stuff that will challenge the best PI in California. The CTX and ATX are no more SCUBA capable than the AT Gold. All three are good to ten feet and my CTX I do not think I would trust to that. Frankly, I would separate SCUBA needs from nugget detecting needs. The SCUBA units good to 200 feet do not make the best nugget detectors but if I had to pick one it would be the Garrett Infinium. I have found gold as a California newbie with the Gold Bug Pro, Gold Bug 2, F75 SE, ATX, and GPX 5000. A Gold Bug Pro would cover me for most stuff but there are plenty of places I would rather have a PI. Check out the posts from a California expert on this forum - Ray Mills (TRINITYAU)

Moxford; I am not being a smart-@#$ but your question covers way to much ground...some pun intended. In parts of plumas County there is some very hot ground...one claim is named the HOT PATCH... Hopefully others will chime in with conditions in other areas... fred