Best coil for nuggets with Vaquero

[nuggetshooter323]

I have every coil for the Hot Tech machines, and I have used them all on the LST, Tejon, and the V. The 10" elliptical is the most responsive for nuggets. It's a good compromise in size, it's big enough in size to go as deep as conditions will allow (sometimes you can penetrate only 1"), and it's small enough to pick up some pretty small nuggets. I would look out for the 10x12. It's of little use in a trashy area, the area has to be pretty clean.

I understand what you say, Have you actually tried the 5X10 AND 5.75 on the V, or just the lobo? I think it's hard to say for sure which is best unless you have tried both coils on the Vaquero. The Lobo is a (mainly) gold machine. Vaquero is multi-purpose and not as deep (on gold at least) so I thought it would be a good idea to have as much depth as possible since it is not as hot as the Lobo. I'm finding tiny stuff (1 grain shot, etc.) so it seems to be working great for me so far. Steve H. actually said the V will work fine for 2-5 grainers with the small coil. I know he is quite the authority so I trust what he has to say. He has found gold with the Vaq and recommends it for a budget priced nugget shooting machine.

 

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[Ken~Digs]

You're Welcome Scott , Prolly work pretty killer on Nat gold tooo. . .


I Agree with nuggetshooter , the 10" Elliptical is a Great All-around Coil - This coil found these from approx. 5" ~ 14" Loud & Clear. . .

 

[Reg]

The Vaquero will work find for small gold down to less than 1 grain. At least mine hits on this size gold with the 5" DD when using the all metal mode. I normally don't rely on the disc mode when the gold gets extremely small.

Now, my old original Lobo which I modified dramatically does a better job in the disc mode. In fact, an old friend used this old Lobo to find hundreds of nuggets in AZ. The rest of this story will be left for a different time.

Getting back to the Vaquero, the big thing the Vaquero needs is a second fine tune pot for GB because trying to ground balance this detector in bad ground can become frustrating for a beginner. Actually, it can be frustrating for the experienced person also.

When I get around to it, I will either change the original GB control to a multi-turn pot or add a second control for a vernier. Since I haven't taken the unit apart yet, I am not sure just how much room I have to work with.

I don't recommend people modify their detector because it can and usually does void the warranty.

Reg

 

[atomicscott]

The Vaquero will work find for small gold down to less than 1 grain. At least mine hits on this size gold with the 5" DD when using the all metal mode. I normally don't rely on the disc mode when the gold gets extremely small.

Now, my old original Lobo which I modified dramatically does a better job in the disc mode. In fact, an old friend used this old Lobo to find hundreds of nuggets in AZ. The rest of this story will be left for a different time.

Getting back to the Vaquero, the big thing the Vaquero needs is a second fine tune pot for GB because trying to ground balance this detector in bad ground can become frustrating for a beginner. Actually, it can be frustrating for the experienced person also.

When I get around to it, I will either change the original GB control to a multi-turn pot or add a second control for a vernier. Since I haven't taken the unit apart yet, I am not sure just how much room I have to work with.

I don't recommend people modify their detector because it can and usually does void the warranty.

Reg

Do you have any pics of gold found with the Vaq? I would love to see them! Agreed the GB is touchy on the Vaq, but it's not too bad when you get start getting used to it. My thinking on the 5.75 DD was that the new Fisher GB Pro uses a similar size DD coil and I've read thats one reason it is so sensitive to small gold (as well as being able to handle mineralization better). Fisher could have easily gone with a larger elliptical coil, but they chose the 5" round DD for their newest 19khz machine.

 

[Reg]

Sorry, I never took any pics of the couple of small nuggets I found with the Vaquero. Since then, I have had a bunch of gold stolen, sold off some, and was lucky to get some of the stolen gold back. I still have several pieces of gold around the size I found with the Vac but I don't know for sure which is which.

I know the gold found was larger than a grain but don't remember just how much bigger. However, I did a lot of testing including with a couple of sub grain nuggets and found the Vaquero was able to detect them even in a buried test. That is why I know the detector can detect that small of gold.

To be honest, I do a lot of experimenting with my detectors so I have a much better idea of what to expect and the best set up when in the field.

You mentioned that Fisher put a smaller round DD coil on their new GB. Well, I have one of those also but never put the Vaquero head to head with the new GB. Maybe some day I will do that.

BTW, I am not sure you know this or not, but Steve Hershbach who is a well known nugget hunter and businessman called the Vaquero a poor man's gold machine because it does work well. He mentioned that on one of the better known gold hunting forums in AZ and on his own forum some time back.

Reg

 

[atomicscott]

Sorry, I never took any pics of the couple of small nuggets I found with the Vaquero. Since then, I have had a bunch of gold stolen, sold off some, and was lucky to get some of the stolen gold back. I still have several pieces of gold around the size I found with the Vac but I don't know for sure which is which.

I know the gold found was larger than a grain but don't remember just how much bigger. However, I did a lot of testing including with a couple of sub grain nuggets and found the Vaquero was able to detect them even in a buried test. That is why I know the detector can detect that small of gold.

To be honest, I do a lot of experimenting with my detectors so I have a much better idea of what to expect and the best set up when in the field.

You mentioned that Fisher put a smaller round DD coil on their new GB. Well, I have one of those also but never put the Vaquero head to head with the new GB. Maybe some day I will do that.

BTW, I am not sure you know this or not, but Steve Hershbach who is a well known nugget hunter and businessman called the Vaquero a poor man's gold machine because it does work well. He mentioned that on one of the better known gold hunting forums in AZ and on his own forum quite some time back.

Reg

PS: I guess I could take a pic of some of the small nuggets I have if you are interested.

Thanks for your posts Reg, very inspiring and motivating! Actually Reg, Steve is the reason I purchased the Vaquero! I asked him on the AMDS site about the capabilties of the Vaq for finding small gold in the 2-5 grain range. He said it will do just fine with the small coil. Others have said it will find sub-grain gold if the ground balance is setup just right. I have found 1 grain shot with the 5.75 DD coil at at least 3" deep. I had a New Gold Bug (NOT the PRO) and in air testing it would not hit on the same piece of shot, even when almost touching the coil! Needless to say I sent it back assuming it was defective. I really love the Vaquero, just need to get back out to the gold fields and swing it over some! Happy Hunting to you, Scott

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Most nugget hunters hunt in manual ground balance mode anyway. The only thing your missing that is on some more expensive detectors like the GMT, is ground grab. Not a big deal, just a few extra seconds to adjust the ground balance every so often. I would even go so far to say that if you have a Lobo Super Traq and your working a small defined area, go over it with the LST, then hit it with the V set a little positive. The LST is auto ground balance in all-metal mode, and sometimes the auto GB may not be set in the best position to pick up the pickers. Where as the V being manual might be more of a sure thing, seeing how you can adjust it more negative or more positive whenever you want.

 

[atomicscott]

Most nugget hunters hunt in manual ground balance mode anyway. The only thing your missing that is on some more expensive detectors like the GMT, is ground grab. Not a big deal, just a few extra seconds to adjust the ground balance every so often. I would even go so far to say that if you have a Lobo Super Traq and your working a small defined area, go over it with the LST, then hit it with the V set a little positive. The LST is auto ground balance in all-metal mode, and sometimes the auto GB may not be set in the best position to pick up the pickers. Where as the V being manual might be more of a sure thing, seeing how you can adjust it more negative or more positive whenever you want.

You said it all shooter323! Thats exactly why I wanted a manual ground balance machine. Its nice to have the option of manual GB even if you have ground grab. You can set the GB where YOU want it not where the machine thinks it should be.

 

[Reg]

I have the Vac, the LST, the GMT, the GB SE and the GB 2 just to name a few of the detectors I own.

Now, with that said, the LST has some disadvantages and an advantage or two. First, the LST is a very easy detector that needs little training to use. However, I don't recommend using it for hunting for meteorites because it will quickly null many of the more common ones. At least, that is what I found to be true.

Now, on my LST, I found that if you use the Alkali mode, the ground balance range is widened enough that some small iron junk like maybe a small boot tack can be balanced out with just a few passes over the object. I never had any gold do that. I found this out while field testing the LST for Lost Treasure many years ago.

Now, I also found that on a much later model, a quick switch from normal to Alkali didn't work like on my detector and it took a few passes before the ground adjust was even right, let alone ignore small iron. On my unit, if I switched modes, the ground balance seemed to follow immediately. I am not sure why the difference.

Finally, I prefer the ability to adjust the GB and lock in a setting and that isn't something available on the LST. At least, it isn't available on mine.

Personally, I feel the Vac is a little more sensitive to very small gold than the LST. At least it is when testing against my LST. As I said, one concern I have on the Vac is the GB is very touchy and takes some skill to get it right. I also feel that Tesoro should or at least, could add a second GB vernier control as an option. I would think it shouldn't be that difficult.

Now, I would like to clarify something when it comes to the new Fisher GB or the White's GMT and that is, both have a way to override the ground grab feature. In other words, you can manually adjust the ground balance using the touchpad buttons to a little positive or negative as you desire if you don't like the setting the GG set for you.

Reg

 

[nuggetshooter323]

That is good to know about the Alkali mode. Where I hunt at an old mine is rife with boot tacks, and they sound just like gold. There's a lightweight, porus, black rock that sounds off like crazy. I thought it was coke used in gold processing, but I find it when I sluice in the river so it's natrual. It would be great if the Alkali mode can null that stuff out also. There are sections on the mine tailings that are just black with the stuff, so I know a lot of nugget hunters don't hit it very much because you just get constant signals. I bet there's a bunch of untouched specimens under all of it.

I tend to use my GMT more because I think the GB is more responsive, and it's got the manual and lock feature. Also the Iron Probability Feature the Iron Analyzer and the Ground Grab are great time savers. In an area with natrually occuring nuggets, I would normally dig everything, but the peticular mine I go to has targets from iron tools, boot tacks, I even found a small lead figurine of a chinese man with a post on the back (it had been attached to something.)

I've been planning on getting another V in the future, it's nice to know it's a good back-up for nugget hunting. With the 5.75" widescan it would be a nice small package for climbing up and down tailing piles.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I have the Vac, the LST, the GMT, the GB SE and the GB 2 just to name a few of the detectors I own.

Now, with that said, the LST has some disadvantages and an advantage or two. First, the LST is a very easy detector that needs little training to use. However, I don't recommend using it for hunting for meteorites because it will quickly null many of the more common ones. At least, that is what I found to be true..

Really? You weren't hunting in All Metal, or you ground balanced in All Metal and then the machine nulled them? I have to say it has never happened to me and I have found quite a few Chondrites with the LST at Gold Basin.

..Now, on my LST, I found that if you use the Alkali mode, the ground balance range is widened enough that some small iron junk like maybe a small boot tack can be balanced out with just a few passes over the object. I never had any gold do that. I found this out while field testing the LST for Lost Treasure many years ago.

Now, I also found that on a much later model, a quick switch from normal to Alkali didn't work like on my detector and it took a few passes before the ground adjust was even right, let alone ignore small iron. On my unit, if I switched modes, the ground balance seemed to follow immediately. I am not sure why the difference...

Did you also find that Alkali mode cut your depth in half? I find both Black Sand mode and Alkali cut my depth dramatically (as does discrimination above a setting of 4). I have never been in a situation where switching out of Normal mode was really necessary, even in heavy dry black sand on the beach or in the desert though. The LST has found gold chains in the dry sand at the beach that BBS and PI detectors have walked over.

All this talk about the Vaquero as a nuggetshooter kinda reminds me of the guy that uses a Seven-iron, when he really needs a Nine-iron. I have found lots of gold nuggets and pickers with the LST. I believe it is a huge step up from the Vaquero if you are hunting gold nuggets 90-percent of the time, and coins and jewelry 10-percent of the time. If you are going to hunt gold nuggets 10-percent of the time, get a Vaquero and be happy!

 

[Allcav]

With the soil switch in Black sand mode, your gain will be cut 40-60% compared to normal mode. In the Alkali mode, your gain maybe cut 0-5%. This is according to our Technician Carl and the way I understand it.

 

[Reg]

Robert,

I found the same to be true and that is the black sand mode will reduce the gain. This technique of reducing the gain is a common way of dealing with black sand.

Also, like you said, there is very little gain loss if any when switching to Alkali mode. What I found to be true is when in the all metal and Alkali mode selected, the ground balance worked better overall and on at least some of the small ferrous junk, multiple passes would result in the signal reducing significantly or being eliminated all together. I never had the signal reduce on gold even with multiple passes.

The down side of using the alkali mode was many meteorites like those found at Gold Basin would be or could be ignored after only a pass or two. On the upside, the signal from a lot of the basalt would quickly disappear.

I found this quirk with the Alkali mode to be true when I field tested the detector for a magazine when it first came out.

Personally, I don't know if all LST's do the same, so I feel people should do some testing to find out. BTW, don't have a piece of basalt? Find a very old red brick and use it as a test piece. The old red fired bricks got their color from the iron oxide being transformed to maghemite so the brick will usually sound off as a signal much like that from some basalt. Some older red bricks are "hotter" than others.

Reg

PS: I just went back and rechecked whether my LST while in the Alkali mode would null out a small tack and it did balance it out just fine. Then I took a small nugget, maybe 2 to 3 grains and checked to see if it would null out and it wouldn't. This is what I found when I field tested the LST and noted it in the field test.

I did this test as an air test today but actual in ground test as well as an air test at the time I tested the detector for the magazine.