Budget gold finder? Find gold without breaking the bank?

[Cutthroat]

I posted this on another forum but it is not very active at all, so I thought I would have better luck here.


I am also trying to figure out if any MD's exist that can detect gold flakes on a budget. I live in South Seattle, WA but can go anywhere in the state if I research enough to find a place that is not claimed already. I will be using a sluice box and pan sometimes for rivers and a dry washer/rocker box for ancient rivers, but I also want to use a MD sometimes.

Nuggets are being found in WA right now on about five claims (well, the guy I talked to was aware of five but he did not tell me which ones of course ha ha), but 99% of what all "weekend" prospectors find is gold flake or flour gold with the small pickers here and there.

So... my question is, what detectors can find small pickers or gold flakes and not break the bank? I don't care about used or not as long as it works. I just need a list of four or five detectors to look into and try to find a good deal on. I also want to hunt silver coins and gold rings and such, but if I had to pick one feature, it would be a machine for gold prospecting that can find very small pieces... and of course still scream at me if I move over a nugget of any size.

Thanks for any suggestions. So far form this discussion, it sounds like Tesoro Vespera or whatever is possibly one. Can it find gold flake size or small picker size pieces? What are some others?

[Lowjiber]

Take a look at this article. The bottom 2/3's has comparisons between Pulse Induction detectors, the DFX, and the MXT that may give you some "food for thought".
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/MXT_f...n_disadvan.htm

[Cutthroat]

Thanks John, I will read the article.

By the way... "If you can read this, you're too close!"... I can read this with my head being at least 2+ feet away from the monitor and with normal resolution and font size.

[Lowjiber]

Originally Posted by Cutthroat

By the way... "If you can read this, you're too close!"... I can read this with my head being at least 2+ feet away from the monitor and with normal resolution and font size.

You oughta try through my eyes.

[davemd]

Not exactly a "budget" detector, but I would take a look at the Minelab Eureka Gold. It has the high frequency required for small gold targets. Plus, it can also be used at lower frequencies making it perfect for coinshooting and relic hunting. It is kind of expensive, but you won't find a more flexible Gold detector.

Next in line if you are looking for decent gold performance but still keep the flexibility for coins and relics would be the White's MXT. It is not going to be nearly as sensitive as the Eureka, but it will be about half the price if you go used.

One thing to keep in mind if you are going to be using this for sluicing etc is that you don't actually have to detect the gold. You could use the detector to find highly mineralized areas that indicate the presence of black sand and just play the odds on it containing gold. It won't put you right on the gold, but it will narrow down the search area. For this approach, just about any detector would do the job as long as you can run it in all metal mode and lock the ground balance system if it has one.

Dave

[Lowjiber]

Originally Posted by davemd

One thing to keep in mind if you are going to be using this for sluicing etc is that you don't actually have to detect the gold. You could use the detector to find highly mineralized areas that indicate the presence of black sand and just play the odds on it containing gold. It won't put you right on the gold, but it will narrow down the search area. For this approach, just about any detector would do the job as long as you can run it in all metal mode and lock the ground balance system if it has one.Dave

That's exactly how I use my MXT...to find concentrations of black sand.

[IntoIt]

No question the whites goldmasterII or Vsat would do it for about 200 and up used.
I`m looking forward to my next Vsat for gold nugget hunting.