How Small Does It Need To Be?

[Gold Seeker]

24 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Oh, perhaps that was worded wrong, I'd never complain and of course he super happy to find a bigger piece, but I really enjoy the challenge of the smallest of small pieces, I get more of a thrill out of finding a really tiny bit than I do a .1 of a gram for example which is probably my most common size find.

I was just giving you a hard time, I know how it feels to even find a very very small piece of gold, or any gold for that matter!!

[klunker]

Every bit of gold, regardless of it's size should be considered as a gift.

[cudamark]

I look at it as more of a reward for all the junk crap you have to sift through to get that gold! 😀👍

[dig4gold]

21 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'm just as thrilled finding a bit the size in the photo below as I am a 1-gram nugget, where as it appears some people wouldn't even bend over to pick up a bit a hundred times the size of this one

I do it for the fun, the challenge, so finding a bit like this is often harder than a much bigger bit.  So for me, the smaller the better, always a great feeling finding the tiniest bits.

I have no interest in selling any gold I find, even if I was fortunate enough to stumble on a lot, I'd keep it all, my little throphys have value to me far more than their money value.

Hi Phrunt. Any chance you could wave your E1500 over that little sucker & tell us how it does, maybe your gold monster, GB2 & Garrett 24K too? Cheers.

Any gold is better than no gold & even a tiny bit like that .009 piece is still gold & you can go home & say you found a piece of gold. Does size matter? My girlfriend says "It's not the size that matters, but the way you use it."😂

D4G

[jasong]

I totally get what everyone says. So with hesitation I will answer honestly and say I'm the most jaded and miserable SOB detectorist ever here. 😆 I don't care about nuggets if they aren't paying for my trip and time. I usually just leave the tiny shallow stuff and only come back for them when I need some psychological boost. Or leave them there to have a place to take someone new to teach how to detect on the harder targets. 

The thrill, enjoyment, and wonder I read other people detailing here with regards to digging nuggets, I think for me comes from finding where the nuggets are hiding, solving that mystery, and the research and adventure leading up to it. I don't care for digging or the nuggets themselves. I suppose there is a rush in finding the big ones though still, anything over 1/4 oz still gives me an immediate "heck yeah" feeling still. Small faint surface stuff I often pass up unless I really need some rattle. 

I'd dig nothing at all if I could make that pay better though. Nuggets do nothing for me. If I can sell locations instead of gold so I can get back to the hunt quicker, I'm all for it. If I was in the 1800's I'd be a scout like Jim Bridger and not a miner, really love exploring and solving mysteries. 

[Lead Detector]

4 minutes ago, jasong said:

Nuggets do nothing for me

That's an interesting point of view. You do seem to be in it for a slightly different reason then most. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I actually thought I would see more answers like yours. 

[Norvic]

As KL gifts, even more so when they are the indicators to a new patch.

[phrunt]

55 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

Hi Phrunt. Any chance you could wave your E1500 over that little sucker & tell us how it does, maybe your gold monster, GB2 & Garrett 24K too? Cheers.

Any gold is better than no gold & even a tiny bit like that .009 piece is still gold & you can go home & say you found a piece of gold. Does size matter? My girlfriend says "It's not the size that matters, but the way you use it."😂

D4G

I can tell you already the E1500 has no hope in the world of hitting gold that size, regardless of coil, 0.03 of a gram if a nicer solid sort of piece is its smallest size, I'd say more realistically 0.05 of a gram would be its starting point, a little bit behind the 6000.  In VLF terms I think of the 6000, 7000 and E1500 all being no more sensitive to small gold than the Gold Bug Pro.  Yes, they are often deeper on small gold, but outright tiny gold sensitivity they are similar to the Bug, and nothing at all like the GM, 24k or Gb2 performance.

I would never be able to find that piece again, it's in a bottle with a bunch of sluiced gold, I guess I could use some tweezers and try find a similar size piece and compare the 24k, GB2 and GM, I believe the GB2 would win, followed by the 24k and GM being very similar.  The real benefit of the 24k is it has no bump sensitivity at all, while maintaining very similar if not the same tiny gold performance as the GM, and it has a concentric coil 🙂  

[Gold Catcher]

I wonder if they would make a Sadie for that one. Would get you the really small stuff. 😁

[Steve Herschbach]

51 minutes ago, jasong said:

I totally get what everyone says. So with hesitation I will answer honestly and say I'm the most jaded and miserable SOB detectorist ever here. 😆 I don't care about nuggets if they aren't paying for my trip and time. I usually just leave the tiny shallow stuff and only come back for them when I need some psychological boost. Or leave them there to have a place to take someone new to teach how to detect on the harder targets. 

The thrill, enjoyment, and wonder I read other people detailing here with regards to digging nuggets, I think for me comes from finding where the nuggets are hiding, solving that mystery, and the research and adventure leading up to it. I don't care for digging or the nuggets themselves. I suppose there is a rush in finding the big ones though still, anything over 1/4 oz still gives me an immediate "heck yeah" feeling still. Small faint surface stuff I often pass up unless I really need some rattle. 

I'd dig nothing at all if I could make that pay better though. Nuggets do nothing for me. If I can sell locations instead of gold so I can get back to the hunt quicker, I'm all for it. If I was in the 1800's I'd be a scout like Jim Bridger and not a miner, really love exploring and solving mysteries. 

I know a lot of what I call "real miners." Alaska still has plenty of small placer mining operations, many of them family operations. Or serious gold dredgers. Almost to a person they consider metal detecting for a gold a complete waste of time. They have a family to feed and bills to pay and no time for toys. In the world of gold mining metal detectors are toys. Useful toys at times perhaps, but still toys. Me on my favorite mining tool....