Some Advice On Detecting For Gold

[Tyler]

I’m new to digging for gold. Although I’m a pretty seasoned relic hunter. I’ve been hunting for civil war artifacts , colonial relics and coins for years here in Virginia. I currently run a GPX 4000 with a 15x12 DD, 11DD, and a 10x5 DD. All minelab coils. I also have an older big box whites TDI with a 12 inch mono as well as an Equinox 800 with all the minelab coils. I live in the gold pyrite belt here in Virginia. There are many abandoned mine sites within a few square miles of me. Several fault lines. But not many people hunt gold around here other than one club that has a claim on a steam about 5 miles away. All that said, would it be worth me getting a mono coil for the GPX? Or can I do just as well with what I have turning them onto mono mode? I was thinking of an 11 inch mono commander or an elliptical mono coil of similar size. The soil varies around here. It fairly hot on the high ground and better ground down in the river bottoms. 

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

You can run the DD coils with the mono switch activated for puesdo-mono for a little more sensitivity when running in sens-extra or normal timing modes on the 4000.
 

The Smooth timing on the 4000 is best used in mono mode using a mono coil for handling the more mineralized ground areas.
The DD would not work well with the Smooth timing as they were designed for handling difficult ground conditions with a mono coil and a DD would only give you less depth in that timing.

So basically, mono’s do have more depth over DD coils but generally mono coils cannot handle the more difficult ground mineralization unless you are using the Smooth class of timings.
 

The 4000 only has one Smooth timing for mono’s and the 4500 has Smooth and Enhanced while the 5000 has both previous model timings plus another smooth timing called Fine Gold.

Hope this helps. Sounds like you have some hot ground there.

[Tyler]

3 hours ago, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

You can run the DD coils with the mono switch activated for puesdo-mono for a little more sensitivity when running in sens-extra or normal timing modes on the 4000.
 

The Smooth timing on the 4000 is best used in mono mode using a mono coil for handling the more mineralized ground areas.
The DD would not work well with the Smooth timing as they were designed for handling difficult ground conditions with a mono coil and a DD would only give you less depth in that timing.

So basically, mono’s do have more depth over DD coils but generally mono coils cannot handle the more difficult ground mineralization unless you are using the Smooth class of timings.
 

The 4000 only has one Smooth timing for mono’s and the 4500 has Smooth and Enhanced while the 5000 has both previous model timings plus another smooth timing called Fine Gold.

Hope this helps. Sounds like you have some hot ground there.

Thanks for the great info. I’ll definitely keep those charts. I may get a medium sized mono for the GPX for the more mild to moderate ground so I can cover a little more area and still get some good sensitivity on small stuff. While still getting some descent depth on larger pieces. If I don’t get one hopefully I can do ok with what I already have. I should be able to still get some shallow sub gram nuggets with the DDs in mono mode hopefully. When relic hunting with the TDI I was picking up some BB sized pieces of lead with the 12 inch mono with fairly good depth. I’m just wondering if it’s worth investing in a 11 or 8 or 10x5 inch mono. Another option in good ground and creeks would be using the equinox 800. I haven’t played with the 6 inch coil much or used it in gold mode yet. The 10x5 coiltek might be useful as well. I could use that in iron invested old home sites for relics and coins too. 

[RickUK]

@RONS DETECTORS MINELAB,as usual Ron you provide some excellent answers and always willing to help folks.....all makes alot of sense.

[Valens Legacy]

I have been using my 800 with the 10x5 coil in our creek beds and side walls with some good results on my 800.

So I would say that you have everything covered with that and with Ron's advice.

Good luck and good hunting.