I've used mine quite a bit. It's a noisy little thing that will false and warble, so keep adjusting that ring until you find a bit of peace, and figure a way to slow those knobs from turning so easily when bumped (I put rubber washers under mine to generate friction to hold them in place, my prospecting buddy's idea, and a great one.) (See if your machine warbles and bleeps when the wire moves that's glued into the shaft connected to the head; you may have to immobilize it in some way to help with falsing as when that cable moves, it generates a sound.)
As it's waterproof, I've used it to pinpoint gold in or on bedrock under water, but the box is not waterproof as you likely know.
Oh, and it will sniff out fine gold where there's absolutely no water; that's a bonus.
I've used it to snipe bedrock where others have placer mined, and guess what? They really do leave gold behind, small stuff mostly, but I have been surprised when sniping for tiny stuff with the Falcon to hit nuggets too; one was actually very decent at two grams hiding in a tough spot.
The most fun I had was working an old placer claim where clay had sluffed on to the bedrock, but there were little ridges of bedrock still exposed so I thought I'd give it a shot as I had to have something very narrow and small to reach down into those drops between those ridges, and man was the gold there! Good sized flake gold that my Gold Bug and X-Terra couldn't hit because I couldn't get the coils into those small, deeper spaces, but that little Falcon sniffed the gold out, and yes, there were smaller chunks as well, 1/4 gram to slightly larger. It was lots of fun for sure.
One thing that will drive you nuts are the hot rocks, but you'll sort of get used to most of them and eventually learn to ignore the most common ones. Anything conductive will make you work, like bits of track and blade, tiny bits of can-slaw, copper, etc, but if you're in a proven gold area, there's gold there that the Falcon will find. Look for deep little pockets in bedrock, areas that are traps that bigger coils can't get into. Look for areas placered where there was clay underfoot; the small gold will be there as it sticks. Just adopt the mind set that you'll be working tiny areas and you'll have much more fun.
Yes, it will find gold in matrix, concretion, or hard-rock, but the gold has to be pretty close to the surface. One thing the Falcon is not is a depth machine. Tiny gold deeper will just not register. Bigger gold deeper, you've got a shot, but only several inches unless it's a screamin' chunk of the Mother Lode herself! Tiny gold shallow? You'll have a lot of fun in a good gold producing area, and I mean it, if you've got the patience for it. Pack a hammer and chisel for busting it out of the bedrock.
All the best as you realize and appreciate its strengths and limitations,
Lanny
