Anyone use a Surfmaster PI Dual Field for prospecting?

[wyobuck]

Heading out to WYO soon to search some way out old mining locations. Some areas have waterfalls with some good sized pools where there just has to be some gold. Just wondering if my Surfmaster will work in these pools and banks. Spoke to a White's tech and he said it will ignore the bad ground and work just fine. Anyone have info? Thanks

[Eric Willoughby]

Heading out to WYO soon to search some way out old mining locations. Some areas have waterfalls with some good sized pools where there just has to be some gold. Just wondering if my Surfmaster will work in these pools and banks. Spoke to a White's tech and he said it will ignore the bad ground and work just fine. Anyone have info? Thanks

I have a Garrett Infinium L/S that operates in exactly the same manner as yours does, beach/underwater machines are tuned for gold. They may not detect as small of gold like machines such as the Gold Bug (1,2, Pro, Pro SE) or Whites GMT who can virtually detect gold as fine as dust, but they will find nuggets from small pickers to much larger. Your machine should work just fine if there is gold there. Good luck!

[scott565]

I have a Garrett Infinium L/S that operates in exactly the same manner as yours does, beach/underwater machines are tuned for gold. They may not detect as small of gold like machines such as the Gold Bug (1,2, Pro, Pro SE) or Whites GMT who can virtually detect gold as fine as dust, but they will find nuggets from small pickers to much larger. Your machine should work just fine if there is gold there. Good luck!
[/quote]

Cap'n Crunch:

What coil do you use with the Infinium?
I tried the 8" mono, but it would not detect small "sample" flakes (under 1/4 inch wide). Threshold tone did not change at all when passing a sample anywhere under the coil. I have the smaller 5" DD elliptical, but I believe it is defective - the detector just sounds off repeatedly - even with the coil in the air with nothing else around it - this was in the desert, so no EMF to worry about. A couple of friends with MXTs detected these small samples just fine.

-Scott

[Treasure finder]

Hey Scott,
I have an Infinium also and the reason it won't pick up those flakes is because they
aren't in the ground! The PI's detect deeper in the ground because they need the
ground matrix to charge up, they air test poorly. Try it, you will be surprised!
As far as the small DD coil goes, Garrett at some point changed the coil wires to a
different type as the early ones gave the same problem that you describe. I had that
problem with a brand new 8 inch Mono and Garrett replaced it no problem. Also be
aware that the smaller DD coils are not waterproofed as well as the 10x14 DD or the
Mono coils.
Rich

[scott565]

Hey Scott,
I have an Infinium also and the reason it won't pick up those flakes is because they
aren't in the ground! The PI's detect deeper in the ground because they need the
ground matrix to charge up, they air test poorly. Try it, you will be surprised!
As far as the small DD coil goes, Garrett at some point changed the coil wires to a
different type as the early ones gave the same problem that you describe. I had that
problem with a brand new 8 inch Mono and Garrett replaced it no problem. Also be
aware that the smaller DD coils are not waterproofed as well as the 10x14 DD or the
Mono coils.
Rich

TF:
Thanks for the info; makes me feel a little better. I understand your point about an air test, but I sort of expected to hear some kind of change in audio, but there was none. I use a very low T/H tone with headphones, my hearing is pretty good. I called Garrett and they are replacing the DD coil at no charge, plus I am getting the control box updated(mine is 4 yrs old) for a fairly low cost. I was out in Palm Desert last week and tried some nugget shooting in the Dale mining district using the 8" mono - unfortunately didn't find anything but a lot of bullet casings, had some luck sluicing though. I am very happy with Garrett - they have been great to deal with. Flew with the control box and coils in a carry on bag; the airline just told me to take it out separately for scanning like you would for a laptop. No problems either way, but they did swab it at LAX.

-Scott

[Treasure finder]

Hi Scott,
I live in the Los Angeles area and my sister and I have a house not too far from
the Dale district, though I have never looked for nuggets there.
As far as sensitivity goes on the Infinium I can easily find bird shot and BB's
with the 8 inch coil try out one of those targets in the ground and see how
you do. I have only been nugget shooting twice with the Infinium, will be
going out again soon.
Happy hunting
Rich