Steve's Gold Nugget Detector Guide Update

[Steve Herschbach]

46 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The Gold Monster is terrible for shallow creek gold hunting, every time its coil enters the water it sounds off as it adjusts its balance or something so in shallow water where its in and out all the time its the most frustrating detector to use. The 24k on the other hand does this seamlessly as do others like the Gold Bug 2 even though its the most sensitive.   The 24k handles hot rocks significantly better than the GM and GB2.  The 24k and GB2 can be used in rocky terrain in its highest sensitivity where the Gold Monster constantly sounds off with its bump sensitivity, The GM and 24k are equally good on small gold to the point I can't tell any small gold performance differences between the two but other factors come into play helping me decide which to use.  My GM is a closet queen, I adapted it to be a pinpointer to try find a use for it and still rarely use that.

In saying all of that, 70% of the time I'd end up using an SMF like the Equinox for prospecting over a dedicated single frequency machine, even in the case of shallow creek detecting as the Equinox is waterproof. and has more features to adjust.  

The Gold Bug 2 for me is the most sensitive to absolutely tiny gold, but has its flaws too, one being using it in and around hot rocks the hot rocks completely null out the gold targets, it will not detect a nugget if a hot rock is in its field of detection.  It was very slow recovery from hitting a hot rock to being able to detect another target, a large part of that time is taken up making its hot rock audio.

Now it's down to splitting hairs these sorts of things are more important than ever in determining if a detector suits someone's needs or not.

Hitting the tiny gold, they can virtually all do it near equally, or close enough for most to never notice any difference.  Now it's down to intricacies between models more than performance.

Detectors like the Equinox having very good gold sensitivity with their large coils are also a factor that shouldn't be discounted.  Depth on bigger gold along with the tiny gold sensitivity and great ground coverage.

I think we are currently looking at the death of the dedicated gold VLF, with the existing models the final ones, the SMF's have taken over and for the most part suit people better than the gold machines with similar performance and more versatility. 

I absolutely agree with all that and more Simon. The Gold Monster can drive some people nuts with coil knock sensitivity. I think it not coming with a normal telescoping rod is a crime. A screw together rod? Really? And as top heavy roll over prone as a Gold Bug 2. I think the 24K does the job as well or better in a better package, with better tuning options. But in the end, so what? People don’t want a Garrett, they want a Minelab.

Ask any dealer what people want and what is selling. Gold Monster all day long and just a smattering of other stuff. That’s just the way it is unless a dealer consciously tries to talk people into something else, and in sales it’s best to give people what they want, not what you think they need. Trying to switch horses can lose a sale as often as not, so you can’t blame most dealers for just going with the flow. And the flow is to the Minelab brand name.

To be fair, the Monster is as close to automatic as they come, and for a lot of people that really matters. You’d be amazed how many people never really comprehend or learn how to ground balance a detector like a Gold Bug 2 properly.

And to you other point, yeah, I agree. I use a VLF so little for nuggets that having a dedicated VLF makes little sense. My Equinox serves the purpose as well or even better for some uses (think large nuggets in steel can infested bucket line tailing piles = Equinox with 15” coil) than all but the hottest nugget VLF on the tiniest bits. 

[Gold Catcher]

Speaking of coil knock sensitivity, I only know one detector that is even worse at it: Manticore

GC

[phrunt]

5 minutes ago, Gold Catcher said:

Speaking of coil knock sensitivity, I only know one detector that is even worse at it: Manticore

GC

Probably your difficult ground and the ground balance, I get only mild knock sensitivity with mine yet I get it quite bad with the GM and the Equinox to a lesser degree than the GM.  Even in my milder ground its critical to keep the GM well ground balanced or the knock sensitvity is worse.

[Steve Herschbach]

Yeah, little know fact coil knock is related not just to sensitivity, but the ground balance setting. Even suppressed background EMI plays into it, which would give the Manticore more issues than a Monster, the Manticore being a multi.

[Gold Catcher]

Could be. But for me in Goldfield mode /Prospecting theme and Sensitivity >20 the coil is beyond sensitive. Each time I put the coil on the ground for recovery scooping it screams like crazy, and any slightest knock will make it sound off. Perhaps it's just my machine though, but it sucks.

GC

[Gold Catcher]

1 minute ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Yeah, little know fact coil knock is related not just to sensitivity, but the ground balance setting. Even suppressed background EMI plays into it, which would give the Manticore more issues than a Minter, the Manticore being a multi.

Good to know that it could play a role. Even though I GB quite frequently and use auto track.

[Steve Herschbach]

Or you have a bad coil. Been known to happen with Minelab as of late, and due to the higher voltage to the coil tolerances are way higher for Manticore coils than with Equinox coils.

[Gold Catcher]

Thanks Steve. Will wait for the M8 to see if it would make any difference. If there would just be any hope that 2024 would mark the year of the M8 arrival, beyond just a few dozen shipped...

[abenson]

6 minutes ago, Gold Catcher said:

Could be. But for me in Goldfield mode /Prospecting theme and Sensitivity >20 the coil is beyond sensitive. Each time I put the coil on the ground for recovery scooping it screams like crazy, and any slightest knock will make it sound off. Perhaps it's just my machine though, but it sucks.

GC

I have the same issue. Garry claims it's a loosely wrapped coil cable that causes that. I can't say one way or the other because I haven't been back out looking for gold with the Manticore since October. But yea it's an issue. That's with the M8