What features make a detector suitable for gold prospecting?

Ground Balance

A very sensitive coil, as some 1 gram nuggets or smaller due to it's size. Usually, smaller coils are used for those size targets. Some say DD coils are superior in higher mineralized soils. Some discrimination is an asset too! being able to id iron as such saves you a lot of wasteful digging. Generally, a higher frequency machine over a lower frequency will work better for smaller targets.

Most manufacturers sell single frequency detectors designed and tweaked for gold. Now, should you require more depth, PI (pulse induction) is the way to go. Not only will they go deeper, they will also punch through highly mineralized soils, where single frequency machines tend to struggle. But, as of now, PI machines are limited to any discrimination.

Go look up some gold searching forums which have sub forums on detecting with a metal detector.

Good luck!

PS - Coils will not pick up flour gold. But you can however, run your detector "hot" and pick up areas where the iron is concentrated, an area which probably has a greater chance of having some gold.

waltr said:

Ground Balance

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To counter the masking of small targets?

John-Edmonton said:

A very sensitive coil, as some 1 gram nuggets or smaller due to it's size. Usually, smaller coils are used for those size targets. Some say DD coils are superior in higher mineralized soils. Some discrimination is an asset too! being able to id iron as such saves you a lot of wasteful digging. Generally, a higher frequency machine over a lower frequency will work better for smaller targets.

Most manufacturers sell single frequency detectors designed and tweaked for gold. Now, should you require more depth, PI (pulse induction) is the way to go. Not only will they go deeper, they will also punch through highly mineralized soils, where single frequency machines tend to struggle. But, as of now, PI machines are limited to any discrimination.

Go look up some gold searching forums which have sub forums on detecting with a metal detector.

Good luck!

PS - Coils will not pick up flour gold. But you can however, run your detector "hot" and pick up areas where the iron is concentrated, an area which probably has a greater chance of having some gold.

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Very helpful. Thanks.

The three main features for a nugget hunting machine are 1) stability in highly mineralized soil, 2) sensitivity to very small targets and 3) they go beep when the coil is over a target. When nugget hunting you go slow and dig every target.

You can spend a ton of money on gold machines but two great set ups that don't cost a lot are the ML Gold Monster 1000 and if you want a detector that can be used for other things like coin, relic or beach hunting a ML Equinox 800 with a 6" coil would be a good choice.

Both of these machines will deal with the super nasty ground that gold is found in and remain stable. Both are sensitive to very small gold with the nod going to the Gold Monster.

Check out the You Tube videos for "Nugget Shooter Journals" or go to "nuggetshooter.com" for a number of videos and tutorials on both these machines.

Of course there are some other reasonably priced machines that can do really well gold hunting but the two I've mentioned are currently more on the cutting edge.

Frequency wise you want a detector that runs 30 KHz or higher the higher the KHz the better but when you are running high KHz detectors they are susceptible to a lot of ground noise

any detector can find gold but some do it a lot better than others

I currently use a GM 1000 ( gold monster ) and I will tell you it is vary sensitive to vary vary small non ferrous targets I.E (gold,aluminum,brass, lead and believe it or not all clad coins thats rite clad coins will all ring in as a non ferrous target on the GM 1000 the only difference is when you get over an actual gold nugget it will be a softer tone as compared to a coin.


The GM 1000 is really simple to use and is pretty much a turn on and detect detector there are other machines but they are a little more complex in their set up which is the reason I chose the GM 1000 I did not want to have to constantly tweak settings as I hunted the one thing that took me a bit to get used to is its also a silent search detector there is no threshold to listen for.

I don't have any experience on this but I've read a lot, and use, an xterra 705. It suppose to work very well on gold with the smaller 18.75kh DD coil and is relatively inexpensive.
You can read Steve Herschbach's positive opinion of it's use for gold prospecting on his forum.

MuddyMo said:

I don't have any experience on this but I've read a lot, and use, an xterra 705. It suppose to work very well on gold with the smaller 18.75kh DD coil and is relatively inexpensive.
You can read Steve Herschbach's positive opinion of it's use for gold prospecting on his forum.

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you are correct MuddyMo the 705 is an excellent detector and in my opinion probably the most under rated detector on the market still to this day I actually have a 705 and started out in 2009 with it and an AT pro still have both those machines but me and the ATP never did see eye to eye I keep it around only for one reason and thats to have a loaner machine when people come to visit me which is not often,I still use the 705 quite often I purchased the GM 1000 because I wanted a detector specifically for small gold which is what you find most of the time.

Hi Yashar and welcome to the forum.

I am assuming you are asking about affordable VLF detectors. PI detectors are a different animal entirely.

I have found gold with VLF detectors that transmit at 18khz or higher. The higher the transmit frequency plus smaller, sensitive coils the smaller the gold bits you can find and the more likely you will be successful. There are dozens of detectors that can find big gold (1 gram size or bigger). The much more plentiful .5 gram or less gold requires a more specialized detector. Knowing how to quickly ground balance you detector to deal with changing mineralization, interpret threshold tone variations and swinging slowly and being patient are key, along with knowing something about the ground you are hunting and trusting your detector's capabilities even when starting out which means lot's of practice.........

If you want a dedicated gold prospecting only detector running at 40khz or higher you have plenty of good choices, like the Gold Monster 1000, the Whites GMT or new Goldmaster 24K, Fisher Gold Bug II, etc.

Or you could go with a detector like the Makro Gold Racer, Gold Kruzer, Minelab X-Terra 705 or the Fisher F19/Teknetics G2+ to name a few which can function well at gold prospecting and can also do well at micro jewelry hunting and even coin/relic hunting. The Garrett AT Gold has a good following but I seem to be allergic to that detector's audio.

Then there is always the Equinox 800, the XP Deus with HF high frequency or X35 coils or the Multi Kruzer and the Anfibio by Nokta Makro.

All of these detectors have the features you need to find small gold. There are others out there too with somewhat older designs.

Another great resource is Steve Herschbach's Detector Prospector Forum.

good luck,
Jeff

Any opinions on the best detector for prospecting for gold in a salt water environment ? Sizes from .1g to 20g

if you are hunting streams in the gold country look for small bird or buck shot that can appear white when corroded. This means you are in the part of the stream where heavy objects are dropping. Any good gold metal detector will pick up these bird or buck shot gold markers.

If you are in a gold bearing stream, I guarantee you will find color among the lead you find.