wasting my time

[BBAW]

I am going to northern Nevada with my Whites Classic 5 ID detector, and although I know it is not made for nugget hunting as some models are, am I going to be able to detect gold nuggets, or am I wasting my time because I have the wrong machine?

Any information will be appreciated. I'm new at this.

Bill from Boise

[dave wiseman]

Hey Bill,post that on nuggetshooter.com and check the detector reviews by Steve H. at akmining.com they know their stuff. Dave

[thompy]

it will work just not as sensitive as a gold machine

[Amona]

BBAW posted

although I know it is not made for nugget hunting as some models are, am I going to be able to detect gold nuggets, or am I wasting my time because I have the wrong machine?

Bill
Be careful if you going to some of this "Western state-Nuggets hunter web site", the will give you the best advise including to buy an expensive MD "Perhaps" you find some nuggets at the end of the day.The success that you have in this hobby "not necessarily" depend to buy and use an expense machine.

Sincerely
Amona

[Jim McCulloch]

Bill, for the record, ALL modern metal detectors, properly tuned, WILL find gold nuggets, IF the nuggets are big enough, and shallow enough. So, yes, your Classic 5 (basically a relabelled Classic IDX) WILL find nuggets, perhaps 5-7 grains in size, and larger. (There are 480 grains to the Troy ounce; a 5 grain nugget would be about the size of a large grain of wheat). NO, your Classic 5 will not compare to a GMT or MXT, either of which will find much smaller, and deeper, nuggets, but you won't necessarily be "wasting your time" with your Classic 5. If you do decide to become a more serious nugget hunter, then, yes, you will need to be a better gold machine. Hope this helps; HH jim

[rexb]

Coin detectors will normally only detect somewhat larger nuggets, which are relativiely rare. They also will detect them at fairly shallow depths. As you probably know gold detectors are more sensitve and some have the ability to search deeper such as the pulse induction or "pi" units. If you will be gold detecting fairly regularly you might want to peruse Minelab, Whites, Tesoro, and Fisher models made for that purpose. The previous advice you've been given is great.

Rex

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi bga78,

Forget about the brick, it is not a realistic sample to use. Check your nugget in your soil.

Bury the nugget (325mg = roughly 5 grains) at 2,3, and 4 inches in your soil, run the gain high as possible without getting a lot of ground noise (some minor noise is good as long as you can clearly distinguish the nugget) while running SAT at preset. Ground balance the unit, and try your test using both manual ground balance with a slight positive offset of a couple of full GB units (which should give best result), and again with autotracking ON. Note the difference. Threshold should be set to just a faint hum.

Try again with higher SAT if that means higher Gain can be used (it should) and see the difference.

Try the boost feature out of interest to see any further difference in nugget response. This feature will also increase ground noise, thus it is designed to be used to enhance a signal already located.

Take an Fe3O4 reading on the ground by pumping the coil over the ground between roughly 1" and 6" (this measurement indicates the soils magnetic susceptibility, and directly affects the unit's depth/sens capability) and let's hear back from you.

Jim.

[Reg]

Hi Bill,

Over the years, I have used a very wide range of detectors for nugget hunting and found gold with most of them. The trick is to get the coil over the size of gold that can be detected.

I haven't used the detector you mentioned, but as a general rule, I only use the all metal mode when nugget hunting. The discrimination mode is too easily fooled. In fact, I used to give seminars to a local prospecting club many years ago and display just how easy that can be. Actually, it is very easy to ignore a decent size nugget if you are not careful and not know much about hotrocks that are common in gold producing areas.

If you want to know how well your detector will do, simply substitute small lead objects such as split shot in different sizes for a gold target and see how well your detector will detect different sizes. Try smashing some of the lead flat and leaving some round and note any difficulties with either. Cut the small flat pieces down to see just how small of a piece you can detect.

Now, as for a hotrock, if you do not have one, then you can use something as simple as a cheap ceramic magnet, or even one of those flexible ones commonly used for advertising. Your detector has a factory preset for the ground balance so if it is set correctly, then you will get a positive signal from even the magnets mentioned.

Most small gold will fall in the foil range if you decide to use the disc feature . It takes a decent size nugget to even register as high as a nickel.

A simple coin hunting detector with a fast autotune and an adjustable ground balance would work somewhat better but that isn't an option that you mentioned. So, it is best to simply practice with the tools available to see just what to expect.

Reg

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Reg, you may or more likely did not notice that "Bill" only posted on TNet the one time and that was about three years ago. I mention this in the event you don't receive a response....Jim.

Hi bga78, you will find there is plenty of depth/sens still available on the GMT beyond the Gain setting of "5". I'm not sure what you mean by a "GI roof", but did want to caution you about EMI (electromagnetic interference).

The GMT is a highly sensitive unit at high gain levels, and you may experience electrical interference (instability, chatter etc not caused by the ground) from any number of local sources (electrical works generally, household appliances, perhaps even microwave or other radio wave transmission sources). If that is the case, try your depth/sens test in a location (more) removed from such obvious sources. This should enable you to satisfactorily experiment with higher gain settings.

Jim.