Need a metal detector!

[GoldChops]

Hello All,
I'm a first time poster who just found the site. I need a metal detector for a specific area and I don't know where to start. My fiance's father owns 80 acres in the motherlode section of california. The property has a river on it and there is an old mine with a huge pile of tailings. Highly mineralized soil. I want to hunt nuggets and to spend about $1,000. I have never prospected but bought pans and a sluice box. I would like some help! Thanks.

[beerdoodle]

look into gold prospectors.com as well

[TonyinCT]

You're looking at a gold detector for sure. I suggest the Eureka Gold from Minelab. Under 1000 and will find tiny nuggets without much trouble in some tough ground.

[GoldChops]

Found out my future father-in-law purchased a Tesoro Lobo and when I got there I had to put it together. It was easy to put together and I did the quick tutorial and took it out on his property right away. The instructions told me to keep it on "All Metal" select when I want to hunt nuggets. Come to find out the whole property used to be a flume/chinese camp. Every foot was a hit. NAILS NAILS NAILS. As many square nails and tin cans as you could ever want. I feel like it was very hard to find any sign of a nugget. Next, I hiked up to the mine and saw the watery enterence that was very scary. I didn't go in but found more nail and pieces of the the old mine in the tailings. I found old drill bits and hammered nuts and bolts. Again it was tough going. I went to the river and found no nuggets but lots of flour gold in black sand with a ton of sandy(granite) over-burden. What do I do? Get a dredge for the river? My back is hurting from digging every nail up???

[Sphelt]

Try switching to discriminate mode using the lowest setting (0-2) to just eliminate the nails. You will loss some gold but it better than not finding any.

[TomNWMI]

but there are a couple newer models on the scene that have iron discriminination built into their prospecting modes. The Whites MXT has a dedicated prospecting mode that has an iron perecntage readout you can go by to help with some of the nails. Its not real hot on the small specimen gold in quartz but will pick out the bigger pieces no problem. The new Minelab Xterra 70 also has a dedicated prospecting mode with iron masking that eliminates a good percentage of iron. The iron ID modes do need to be used with caution when after the small specimen gold. Either detector can be switched to the normal discrimation mode quickly which allows a second opinion on ID'ing iron. The ML X-70 is a tad hotter on the small stuff according to most prospectors that have used both.

Good luck.. sounds like a great site you have there!

Tom