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Thanks for the report Steve. Although not ideal for nugget hunting, it certainly is interesting seeing how it tests. I wonder how the results would vary with a completely open pattern with sensitivity at manual 30, if it can run that high without emi. I might have to test my ctx on the Bic pen and small lead pieces.

Being the greenhorn I am, I'm looking for a little guidance from the veteran prospectors here. I recently ordered a new kayak to explore the many rivers and creeks around here and also hopefully find a little gold. Would I have better luck panning and getting a small sluice box or possibly do better with a detector along the banks and in the channels. I know that is a loaded question as there are way too many variables to give a definitive answer, but what are your experiences prospecting in and along the water? I would certainly appreciate some insight. Thanks.

I always check my change. In fact, I have to tell the wife to not give exact change because I need to check more coins in my unending hunt for silver. Haven't been very lucky lately, but have found what seems to be an over abundant amount of '65 quarters. Go figure...

That is a great find, exactly what I am hoping to find. Congrats!

Thanks for the links Steve, I will continue reading.

The Racer Gold with the larger coil is intriguing for sure. Certainly getting off topic here, but I might also try my White's Dualfield. Certainly not the best suited for small gold with a longer pulse delay (15uS?) but probably deeper than the Tejon in general. Hopefully won't run into anyone else detector prospecting, or I may get laughed at! Anyone have experience using the CTX3030 for prospecting? Maybe the 6" coil could help its gold capability? I discounted the CTX altogether but maybe it is worth considering(?)

That is a very good point. I certainly do not have any plans to get rich from gold prospecting. It'd be great if it happened but I really just want to get out and have fun trying to find some gold, any gold, including the tiny pieces. I would consider anything found to be a success. For me, this is a hobby for fun, not a job. I'm interested in the comparison between the Goldbug II and the Racer Gold. Seems like the Racer has an advantage if it can ID a target while in threshold-all metal mode whereas the GBII cannot(?) I will have to look over the specs and manuals to get a better feel for each. I would also be concerned about being an early adopter of the Racer Gold though. Who is to say a new and improved version isn't right around the corner, such as what happened with the Racer / Racer II? I've also heard speculation as to the new Fisher machine. If that is a hot gold detector, it may be worth waiting for. Thanks for the helpful comments Steve, appreciate it.

Thanks for the responses guys, appreciate it. I think I'll order the 10 inch Tesoro coil and see how it does. It will give me the chance to try to find some gold without buying a specific gold machine. If I do get lucky and find something I'll definitely be thinking about a hot vlf gold detector.

Thanks Steve. No doubt the GB is touchy on the Tejon. Too touchy in fact. It would be a lot easier if there were two controls - course and fine. I have been reading what you have posted on the Gold Racer. If and when I do make the jump to a dedicated gold machine, it will probably be between the Gold Racer and the Goldbug 2. I'm wondering how the difference in frequency translates to real world results though. I come from a ham radio background and know that 15kc in radio spectrum bandwidth is nothing. But I'm not so familiar with frequency variance in detectors. I did notice a profound difference when testing the Tejon (17.5kc) vs the Omega 8000 (7.7kc) on my small pieces of lead though. So how well will the 71kc GoldBug 2 detect smaller gold than the 56kc Gold Racer? And how small of gold do you need to try finding to make it worth it? If you are going for microscopic pieces, would it be better time spent looking for larger, although more infrequent finds? Those are the questions I'm pondering - and by doing so, perhaps showing my novice status in gold detecting.

Thank you Steve, I was hoping you would make a suggestion. I really have no idea how large of nuggets to expect (or if any at all for that matter). I didn't have any nuggets to test with but I thought the stock coil results were impressive for such small pieces of lead. I will post my results when I get a chance. I live on the southern extent of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I do know there has been gold found in the rivers headwatered in the Olympics. Again, I don't know how large, but I assume very fine gold. I'll try to do some research to find out. I'm resisting the temptation to go out and buy a dedicated nugget detector since it all may be for nothing. Can't wait to get out and give it a try though! Jon

Hello all, Longtime lurker, first time poster as they say. I've been coin detecting for about 2.5 years and now want to try gold detecting. Although I consider myself a decent detectorist when it comes to coins, I have no experience detecting gold. I don't even know if there is gold in my area...but I'm going to give it my best shot to find out. That being said, I don't want to go out and buy a dedicated gold machine right now. I would like to try what I have, see if it looks promising and then maybe get a GoldBug II. I tested 6 of my 9 machines on small pieces of lead down to 0.2 grams and the Tejon gave the best air test results (as expected as it is the highest freq. machine I have). I was using the stock 8x9 concentric coil. My question is - what would be the best small nugget coil for the Tejon? My ground is 'hot' as my AT Pro normally ground balances at 94, so I think a double DD or 'widescan' would be best. I am looking at the 5.75" widescan and the 10" elliptical widescan. Would the 5.75" be significantly better than the 10" on small nuggets? Should I be looking at the NEL coils also? Thanks in advance for any insight or help you can give. I'm anxious to try my hand at gold detecting and want to get the best coil for the Tejon to give it a shot. Jon