Hi Johnny. The 2500 will pick up gold.. but what size is the question. In disc. mode it's not the most sensitive to the smaller stuff, in all-metal is another story. I don't know how the regular AM mode compares to the PP AM mode, but when I had my GTI 1500, I could get a signal on a 1-2 grain nugget in PP mode. I was surprised, to say the least. It seems like Garrett really jacked up the gain on these detectors. The thing to try is using a DD coil over some nasty ground to see how it responds to small low conductors. In a couple of weeks time I'll be doing a head to head between A QXT, GTI 2000, and a Cobra II. Seeing as the ground here is as tough as you'll find anywhere, it should be pretty instructive. A lot of people put down Garrett detectors, but the hell of it is, thet're really good machines & can hold their own with anything out there. I've used a GTI 1500 in the AZ desert & it had no problem with the ground.. went pretty deep too. We did some tests outside of Arivaca with ( if I remeber right) a 2 dwt nugget, and it did pretty good on it. Can't remember exactly how deep, it being about 5 yrs past. I'm not hooked on any one brand, but it ticks me off when people gratuitously slam a product, and it seems that Garrett has been subject to a kind of bad PR campaign by others. Just take a look at what happened when the Infinium came out. The Minelab PI boys were all up in arms and bringing, up any explanation they could create to show why the Infinium was not a decent nugget finder. A friend of mine used one with great up in AK in highly mineralized ground. I was there & witnessed it.. also saw a couple of SD 2200d's being used... they didn't do any better. On the other hand, the Garrett Scorpion is kind of a dog. It's sensitive and all, but overpriced, a bit antiquated, and has an absolutely retarded battery replacement scheme. No kudos there. While I wouldn't go as far as to claim that a general purpose coin detector will outperfom a dedicated nugget machine (GMT, GB2), it might be surprisingly effective. ...Willy.