Gold prospecting?

[controlfreq]

Kind of a silly question but here goes. Detecting for gold is a bucket list item for me since we don't live close to any place to do it; are there any public or pay-per-day, etc. sites in the lower 48? Live near the bottom of that but wife and I are planning a road soon so figured maybe I'd drag along the Infinium before it gets too old (and me too.) We already went to the Crater of Diamonds a few years back so we are fully acclimated with getting skunked. It was fun though.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

I don't know the Infinium, so no idea how it might do as a gold
nugget detector.

Suggest you post this in the Prospecting section (or have a Mod
move it).

Rather than a "pay per day" thing, have you considered joining
the GPAA? That would give you access to a huge number of claims
all around the country, although they're not all necessarily good
claims for nuggets.

 

[controlfreq]

Thanks

 

[jmc24]

I have never used the Infinium so I will not comment. I am giving you a excerpt from a review by Steve Herschbach over on Detector Prospector. The full review can be found in that sites Detector Data Base forum. There is a paragraph below specifically about nugget hunting and much more on DP.

The dual tone discrimination on the Infinium really does work, and work well. The catch is it might not work like you think it should!

A hi-lo tone means aluminum, gold, nickels, zinc pennies, and various wire-like items. Like small, thin nails, bobby pins, and actual wire. Some thin, flat, flaky rusted steel reads hi-lo. If nugget detecting or beach detecting, hi-lo tones are the ones to go after to get the gold nuggets and gold jewelry.

Silver, copper, and clad coins read lo-hi. As does larger steel junk or relics. Want old silver deeper than any VLF detector will detect? Dig lo-hi tones. You will come up with larger, heavily rusted items of all sorts but you will be amazed by the depth you pull up coins with an Infinium. The worse the ground mineralization, the more advantage the Infinium will have over VLF detectors. Try digging lo-hi tones only, and you will find deep coins others are missing. See Coin Detecting with the Garrett Infinium for details.

You can use the discriminate control in conjunction with the dual tones to get a bit more information about the target. I have found in actual practice, however, that I rely strictly on the tones for making my digging decisions. Gold - always dig hi-lo tones. Silver coins - always dig lo-hi tones.

In very trashy locations it pays again to keep headphone volume low so as not to be overwhelmed by the signals. I have a favorite freshwater beach I hunt. It is hunted to death, and VLF detectors can barely find any targets. My Infinium made the beach seem like it had never been detected. There are signals everywhere. Sure, I’m digging iron junk, and lots of aluminum. But I’m pulling up old coins passed over by thousands of detectors. The biggest catch is you need a location where digging large deep holes is ok… and backfill them! A good pinpointer like the DetectorPro Uniprobe is a major help also.

You will also find that on shallow or very large targets the audio will "stick" or drag on for a longer than normal time. In other words, a deep coin will give a nice little tone similar to what a VLF might. But the same coin an inch below the surface will exhibit this "dragging tone" effect. Bury a quarter at 8" and one at 1" and note the difference. This effect can be used to determine the size and depth of targets. Be careful in trashy areas, as closely spaced targets can be "masked" by the effect. A dragging tone from a shallow junk item can cause an adjacent deep good item to be missed. Moving very slow in trashy sites helps considerably.

ganes-creek-ak-gold-garrett-infinium.jpg
Gold nuggets found at Ganes Creek, Alaska by Steve with Garrett Infinium

Nugget detecting with the Infinium is pretty much a no-brainer. Most mining areas will have no interference issues, except perhaps other detectors. I prefer to hip mount the Infinium for long hours of detecting. I keep it on the rear of my hip so that I do not stress the coil wire when bending over. Make sure and get a coil cover for nugget detecting as rocks and gravel are rough on coils. The stock 14" x 10" DD coil is probably best for most nugget detecting applications, but it is nose-heavy when the control box is hip mounted. If ground conditions allow the 14"x10" mono is lighter and will get slightly better depth in mild ground. I like the 10" x 5" DD for hip mounting applications, as the wand/coil combo is very light and works well is steep terrain or thick brush. If you do get into heavy iron junk, oversize iron reads lo-hi, while nearly all gold nuggets read hi-lo. But when possible dig it all!

Tidbits... The 14" x 10" mono coil is much easier to pinpoint with than the DD version and gets a bit more depth dead center. But it is nosier in areas with electrical interference and if used nugget detecting will hit hot rocks more than the DD coil. Still, it is my favorite coil. The 8" round mono coil is very popular with lots of people. Mono coils are more sensitive around the edges than in the center, so tiny surface targets will signal at each edge, giving a double blip. It also makes pinpointing these tiny items hard - try dragging one edge along the ground. The little 7" x 3" DD is the most sensitive to small items and is fantastic for working trashy sites, but like most small coils does not cover ground well and gives up overall depth. I prefer it for wading at I can pinpoint and scoop so well with it, and it is great for nugget detecting deep nooks and crannies. To pinpoint excavated items in a pile of dirt with the elliptical coils, try dragging the coil pointed end down in the dirt. The target will signal directly off the nose of the coil. For those so inclined, I cut my Garrett headphones off a few inches above the waterproof connector. I wired a 1/4" female receptacle onto the end creating a "dongle" into which I can plug any headphones. You can put a 1/4" male jack onto the Garrett phones so as not to waste them. One thing to look out for are large elongated steel items. Like a steel strap a foot long or a long spike. These can signal well off one end or the other. Again, a powerful pinpointer can help with un-centered targets.

 

[controlfreq]

I have never used the Infinium so I will not comment. I am giving you a excerpt from a review by Steve Herschbach over on Detector Prospector. The full review can be found in that sites Detector Data Base forum. There is a paragraph below specifically about nugget hunting and much more on DP.

The dual tone discrimination on the Infinium really does work, and work well. The catch is it might not work like you think it should!

A hi-lo tone means aluminum, gold, nickels, zinc pennies, and various wire-like items. Like small, thin nails, bobby pins, and actual wire. Some thin, flat, flaky rusted steel reads hi-lo. If nugget detecting or beach detecting, hi-lo tones are the ones to go after to get the gold nuggets and gold jewelry.

Silver, copper, and clad coins read lo-hi. As does larger steel junk or relics. Want old silver deeper than any VLF detector will detect? Dig lo-hi tones. You will come up with larger, heavily rusted items of all sorts but you will be amazed by the depth you pull up coins with an Infinium. The worse the ground mineralization, the more advantage the Infinium will have over VLF detectors. Try digging lo-hi tones only, and you will find deep coins others are missing. See Coin Detecting with the Garrett Infinium for details.

You can use the discriminate control in conjunction with the dual tones to get a bit more information about the target. I have found in actual practice, however, that I rely strictly on the tones for making my digging decisions. Gold - always dig hi-lo tones. Silver coins - always dig lo-hi tones.

In very trashy locations it pays again to keep headphone volume low so as not to be overwhelmed by the signals. I have a favorite freshwater beach I hunt. It is hunted to death, and VLF detectors can barely find any targets. My Infinium made the beach seem like it had never been detected. There are signals everywhere. Sure, I’m digging iron junk, and lots of aluminum. But I’m pulling up old coins passed over by thousands of detectors. The biggest catch is you need a location where digging large deep holes is ok… and backfill them! A good pinpointer like the DetectorPro Uniprobe is a major help also.

You will also find that on shallow or very large targets the audio will "stick" or drag on for a longer than normal time. In other words, a deep coin will give a nice little tone similar to what a VLF might. But the same coin an inch below the surface will exhibit this "dragging tone" effect. Bury a quarter at 8" and one at 1" and note the difference. This effect can be used to determine the size and depth of targets. Be careful in trashy areas, as closely spaced targets can be "masked" by the effect. A dragging tone from a shallow junk item can cause an adjacent deep good item to be missed. Moving very slow in trashy sites helps considerably.

ganes-creek-ak-gold-garrett-infinium.jpg
Gold nuggets found at Ganes Creek, Alaska by Steve with Garrett Infinium

Nugget detecting with the Infinium is pretty much a no-brainer. Most mining areas will have no interference issues, except perhaps other detectors. I prefer to hip mount the Infinium for long hours of detecting. I keep it on the rear of my hip so that I do not stress the coil wire when bending over. Make sure and get a coil cover for nugget detecting as rocks and gravel are rough on coils. The stock 14" x 10" DD coil is probably best for most nugget detecting applications, but it is nose-heavy when the control box is hip mounted. If ground conditions allow the 14"x10" mono is lighter and will get slightly better depth in mild ground. I like the 10" x 5" DD for hip mounting applications, as the wand/coil combo is very light and works well is steep terrain or thick brush. If you do get into heavy iron junk, oversize iron reads lo-hi, while nearly all gold nuggets read hi-lo. But when possible dig it all!

Tidbits... The 14" x 10" mono coil is much easier to pinpoint with than the DD version and gets a bit more depth dead center. But it is nosier in areas with electrical interference and if used nugget detecting will hit hot rocks more than the DD coil. Still, it is my favorite coil. The 8" round mono coil is very popular with lots of people. Mono coils are more sensitive around the edges than in the center, so tiny surface targets will signal at each edge, giving a double blip. It also makes pinpointing these tiny items hard - try dragging one edge along the ground. The little 7" x 3" DD is the most sensitive to small items and is fantastic for working trashy sites, but like most small coils does not cover ground well and gives up overall depth. I prefer it for wading at I can pinpoint and scoop so well with it, and it is great for nugget detecting deep nooks and crannies. To pinpoint excavated items in a pile of dirt with the elliptical coils, try dragging the coil pointed end down in the dirt. The target will signal directly off the nose of the coil. For those so inclined, I cut my Garrett headphones off a few inches above the waterproof connector. I wired a 1/4" female receptacle onto the end creating a "dongle" into which I can plug any headphones. You can put a 1/4" male jack onto the Garrett phones so as not to waste them. One thing to look out for are large elongated steel items. Like a steel strap a foot long or a long spike. These can signal well off one end or the other. Again, a powerful pinpointer can help with un-centered targets.

Thanks, I have some Infinium (ILS) articles by Steve Herschbach that I reread time to time. Will say the Iifinium can be bothersome in trashy areas but if it's down there, the ILS will generally find it. It was designed in part as a gold machine, I got it due to its versatility and deep water (SCUBA) ability. For unknown reasons it never caught on and was discontinued by Garrett. I only have the 8" mono and 14" DD coils and use it mostly for beach and relics.