Sub Gram Target Comparison - Tarsacci, Rutus, Legend

[JCR]

 @Ridge Runner   had inquired on another thread about how the Tarsacci & Rutus Versa would do on a sub gram Gold nugget.  Since I do not have any opportunities to Gold nugget hunt, I could only speculate. The test video below is my attempt to answer the question. Other members here who have actual experience in Prospecting already know The Legend is quite capable. The Versa in this contrived test did very well even without a dedicated Gold Mode.  The Tarsacci MDT wasn't shamed, but targets this small are not meant to be it's strong suite hunting Inland sites. The Tarsacci is an excellent Micro jewelry hunter on a Salt Water site using it's All Metal capability. It's all about using the right unit for the conditions.  

 

[Ridge Runner]

JCR  

 Thanks so much for making this video just on my interest of your Versa and the Tarsacci metal detector .

 The only way I could see using the Tarsacci nugget hunting and that would be in lots of open ground with few rocks. The true test is in the gold fields with what’s called the beast coil because like you say the Tarsacci is just a different animal than a regular VLF detector.

 When Rutus company sees this video the next Versa will have a gold mode on it .

 The Tarsacci on bigger gold and deeper gold may be ( I’ll leave it at May be) .

 JCR I thank you again for going to the trouble of making this video.

 Chuck 

[JCR]

It was a interesting test.  Not much out there on this aspect for these units.

Thanks for the idea.

[Jeff McClendon]

Thank you for the work you did to make this comparison.

The Tarsacci reminds me of the Etrac as fas as audio response. At least it has 18 kHz which is a decent frequency for .5 gram and larger gold. But I wouldn’t use it for gold prospecting.

The Versa did very well. That was the first time i have seen it used in the USA by someone that knows what they are doing. It has real possibilities.

The Legend could have been in the A discrimination pattern so it could have given a response from the direction it seemed to be weakest. DT tones on 6 is not going to be a benefit in a real world gold prospecting situation. DT on 0 or at most 1. Same for all of the iron bias settings especially in really bad iron mineralization.

[JCR]

Even though I probably never will take the opportunity to do any electronic prospecting, and on my Relic sites, I do not want to be digging targets that small, I did learn something from the test.     Both the Legend and the Versa have a Max kHz of 40. The Versa in Park mode, Multi Low conductors, hit the target very well.  Off camera I tried the Legend in Field mode M2.  It did not even peep on the target. But in Goldfield(a specialty mode) it did quite well. There is evidently a substantial difference in the two units signal processing of their Park/Field general purpose modes.  The genetics of the Versa are Eastern European, where they hunt sites of occupation going back thousands of years for small low conductors.  The Legend behaves as a more general purpose unit, (geared towards the USA market?) which is not a bad thing at all.

 Anyway, it’s all good to know.  I much prefer a machine that can do more than I need it to, verses the other way round.

[Jeff McClendon]

The Legend should have no issues hitting a .48 gram piece of lead at 2” using Park M2, Field M2 and Goldfield Multi or 20 or 40 kHz single frequency in your test scenario.

The Legend’s problem is similar to the Equinox 600/800 since they all have a very compressed iron range and a fairly compressed low conductor small target range. So IDs on smaller low conductor targets tend downwards very quickly in moderate to high iron mineralization. Using the G or F discrimination pattern on the Legend or hunting with the horseshoe button OFF on the earlier Equinox models on small low conductor targets is simply going to reject the small non ferrous targets that are responding with iron range target IDs. Your small lead target in 3 to 4 bar Legend dirt at 2” is likely going to have iron responses that are target IDs 1, 2 or 3. I have some Arizona test dirt that the Legend shows 4 bars on and a .5 gram lead or gold target at 2 to 4” depth will be lucky to have non ferrous targets ID of any kind. In the 8 to max bar test dirt that I have from Colorado, the same targets just have a target ID of 1 on the Legend in Goldfield Multi, Park 2 or Field 2. If I use the G discrimination pattern I get nothing unless I am using some threshold tone or running a high enough sensitivity to hear a waver in the noise floor.

[EL NINO77]

You can use any Rutus detector as a Gold detector...because all Rutus have the option of a true All Metal mode, and also Mix Mode /true static mode + discrimination mode/...,,.those are things that a true Gold detector should have..,,

Everyone has their own test system...for how the detector should work..I have my own test for detecting a small target under a very iron stone...where many modern detectors give false signals on the stone itself...

VERSA passes this test very well.../Hot rock +3/...Small Gold coin 8K.. 0.33gram..

 

For comparison, I put the EQ 800 into the Park 2 program to compare the quality of discrimination,,and resistance to such mineralization...

EQ 800 test on iron stone itself...

 

Now EQ800 in the test where there is a small gold coin 0.33gram..under the iron stone..

 

[JCR]

Good information.  Prospecting with a detector is certainly a whole different game.   
 A question  for those with real experience.  Is there a way to use one of these newer detector platforms to Bench Test/Grade mineral/metal samples?  I know that the older Analog detectors could.  On my Garrett CXII, you can set the Ground Balance to a certain point and pass samples across the coil for a determination of metal content.  This is using the All Metal(non motion) channel.  Seems like a very useful capability for a Prospector.

[Jeff McClendon]

6 hours ago, JCR said:

Prospecting with a detector is certainly a whole different game.   

Prospecting with detectors like the Versa, Legend and Equinox for sub gram gold is really mostly about how much can you simplify things without driving the user nuts and does the detector have 20kHz and higher frequency capability.

Being able to setup a detector like the Legend in gold prospecting mode or even Park or Field M2 to hit sub gram gold in higher iron mineralization just means keeping iron discrimination of any kind on as minimum settings as possible.

Some people don't like to hear a lot of iron responses or dig lots of iron even when gold prospecting. They may miss the smaller gold targets by using iron discrimination at some higher iron mineralized sites. If smaller sub gram gold is all there is at those sites=skunked.

The less filtered and processed VCO type audio like the Legend's gold prospecting mode or the ferrous/non ferrous Pitch tones on the Legend for use in Park or Field M2 is a great tool for gold prospecting but many people can't stand VCO audio for long.

The same goes for not wanting to listen to an audible live threshold for hours even though it can really help in the gold field sometimes.

At least on the Legend and Equinox 800, you can adjust the volume and pitch levels of the iron tone and threshold tone to make the auditory damage less problematic. They also both have single digit target ID notching when things like hot rocks get overwhelming. I don't know about the Versa, sorry.

So, getting a detector like the Legend, Versa or Equinox 800 setup as if it was a close to a first derivative detector as possible is a good starting point. Forcing the Legend or Equinox 800 to not be able to respond in the lower iron range when there are possible known sub gram gold targets in the detecting area is not a good starting point in higher iron mineralization.