The best coil

[Gramps43]

I have a White's 4900/D pro plus with an 8", outside dia., coil. What would youse guys suggest as a good coil for nugget hunting?

My little grey cells await,

Gramps

[jog]

You might call Whites and ask there Tech Support. I'm not familiar with that one.

[Gramps43]

I got an answer to my E-mail to White's and they that the coil on the machine would probably be the best bet for this model. I gave it a quick test with a 14K ring that I just picthed in the grass, with a string attached, and using the settings the manual called for it sounded off loud and clear. Later this week I'll try an under ground test.

I still have a question regarding coils more precisely the 4x6" DD, will it function on this machine and give any better performance than the 8".

A question for MDer's down in southern Oregon. How much of the area east of Christmas Valley is under private control and what luck have you had in that area?

Many thanks,

Gramps

[63bkpkr]

Hi Gramps,
Yup, I'm late coming in on this one. Have you asked White's Specifically about the 4 x 6 DD? The coil frequency and the detector frequency need to match, kinda like regular TV signals and HD TV signals and the receivers for same all have to match.
I do not recall the DD coils being available back in the day the 4900 was new or even newer. I have a 6000D and I do not believe DD coils are available for it. Now I've a DD coil for my XLT and it is great for trashy areas as it sees between some of the trash and comes up with a good president for the United States. Ooppps excuse me my brain flipped over to a different frequency there. The DD coil finds more of the good stuff as it has a small electronic path and will see between junk items to find the "good stuff". Of course the good stuff was mentioned in a western movie but then they were talking about the whiskey being sold to the general cowboys versus the "good stuff" the higher ups drank but again that is a different subject. Yup, I'm just full of it tonight.

Good luck with the field of research you are going into and I hope it works out for you. A thought - if you are going to take a 4900 out into 'hot mineralized soil' then I do not think the 4900 will serve you very well. My 6000D would not handle it well at all.

63bkpkr

[2cmorau]

Now I've a DD coil for my XLT and it is great for trashy areas as it sees between some of the trash and comes up with a good president for the United States. Ooppps excuse me my brain flipped over to a different frequency there.

[2cmorau]

must be the sometimers

I was thinking if you pass (lead)birdshot (# 7 or 8 )over your loop and graduly pull away this will give ya an idea of the loop you have, if it won't read one birdshot try two
or try to find an older whites GM2 or GM3

woo hoooo 45 grains this weekend MDin with the GMT and GM3
watch for posting pics later

[Lanny in AB]

Hey there, where's those pictures? It would be great to see some gold now that things are freezing up.

All the best,

Lanny

[jmoller99]

I have a Whites 5900 Di Pro SL and it works well in highly mineralized soil (manual ground balance is very handy), but not for small gold. The 4900 and 5900 are similar in a lot of ways, so I doubt yours will find much gold directly with it (1 gram or larger nuggets are easy to find with one if its not too deep, but those are not that common).

I also have a Whites Goldmaster/Vsat (circa 1994) and GMT. Both work extremely well for small gold (with the smaller 4X6 DD coil being very sensitive - the smaller coil size is good for looking up along the river bench areas - the standard coil is too large to work around the irregular shaped river rock I work). I wish the GMT could detach the controls from the shaft of the detector, like the GM/VSat can - it makes for much less stress on the arm over time. I bought my GM2 and GM/VSat units off of eBay and I find that with a DD coil they work just as well as a GMT (you just have learn how to ground balance them - find I mostly run my GMT in manual GB mode, but I like its ground grab facility to set a start point at).

I have found that my 5900 works pretty well for finding Silver ore (depending on ore chemistry). Your 4900 might work ok for that if you can learn to ground balance it - I recall that the 4900 was sold as a prospecting detector (along with coin hunting) 30 years ago. Also, keep in mind that its 6.8 Khz (just like the 5900 and 6000), which is not a good frequency for prospecting small gold. 12 Khz and above work a lot better for finding gold.

Practice with your 4900 and give it a try. You never know what you find if you don't get out there and look. It will find concentrations of deposited black sand - that does not necessarily mean gold, but it might point to places where gold might have collected. Fine (100+ mesh) gold is in many rivers that come out of Colorado (traveling as far as Nebraska and Kansas) - there are few detectors that will find flakes as small as 30+ mesh gold, so sometimes, if you know its potentially there, you look for black sand and sample with a pan.

[Gramps43]

Thanks all for the great info, I reckon if I'm going to poke around for gold with a detector I'm going to have to save up my beans and get a dedicated gold machine.

Y'all take care this winter,
Gramps

[Hoser John]

Please listen to 63B advice as NOT a decent nugget shooter. Trying to put lipstick on a pig just makes a pig pretty Throwing good money after bad is not the way to go. With the great depression on there are many 1,000's of good nugget shooting detectors out there for pennies on the dollar(less than the price of a new coil & cover) on craigslist and many forums. tons a au 2 u 2-John

[jmoller99]

Be aware of the areas you plan to hunt and the gold you are likely to find. If you are are dealing with 30+ mesh in your area, the Falcon MD-20 might be your best choice, but since its coil is about 1 inch - its not much use for a lot of general prospecting tasks (I use mine for crevassing, poking thru tailings and checking cons in the pans - sometimes the rock you were about to toss has a bit of gold on it somewhere).

Find out what others are using in the areas you plan to search, it may help you narrow down your choices. You won't use a lot of discrimination options when looking for gold (most gold VLF detectors only give you guesses if the object under the coil is iron or not, and I have found you really can't trust that too much) - you will certainly find lots of trash because of that. Good headhones will help you hear things that you should dig, no matter what else you see displayed (if the detector has a meter of some sort on it).

I still use my Whites 5900 a lot, but not for gold. I have found silver ore with it in the last year - quality old VLF analog detectors still have a lot of potential under the right circumstances.

[Gramps43]

Where I'd really like to go is down in south central Oregon east of Christmas Valley and prospect some of the dry river and creek beds and maybe even look for a few objecto de outer spaceo. First thing would be to get in touch with county govs. and see whats open to a wandering old fool with an MD or two and maybe a dry washer.

Y'all take care,
Gramps