metal detector. good for beginner gold propector in california?

[steveh2112]

hi all. i am a total newbee to gold prospecting
i've watched a lot of youtube videos and not sure if a detector is a good idea for me. i plan to spend a month or so in the sierras panning and wonder if a metal detector will help me find the richer gold areas?

i understand they are great for nuggets but nuggest are rare. i'm more interested in finding good places to pan for the fine stuff.

will a detector help me given i have no experience where to look other than watching all the gold vids on youtube.

thx steve

 

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[jeepGold]

AT Gold BUT for fines, and flour gold, pretty much NO detector will detect it. If you can find a small nuggy then it'll be with either a gold bug or a AT Gold. That's best to be used in the desert. River banks and such you just need to learn how to read the river bed. I like desert prospecting and have a dry washer. I've found little nug's here and there with my AT. That's when I stop and set up the dry washer.
Learn how to read the terrain and either get a dry washer for the dry stuff or a sluice for the wet

 

[cruiserkev]

X2 on the AT Gold. Well worth the cost. Still looking for my first nugget in the field but have found several pieces of gold and silver jewelry with it. Also have done a lot of training in my test garden. Buried a BB size gold nugget I already had in a plastic bag at around 8 inches down to initially test the detector. All metal mode with sensitivity 2 notches from max with the 5x8 DD coil. Faint signal but it still found it. Also have found single bird shot lead pellets at this depth while treasure hunting. Need more time prospecting in the field but I have no doubt the AT Gold will get the job done. Works awesome for general treasure hunting too. HH

 

[atomicscott]

X2 on the AT Gold. Well worth the cost. Still looking for my first nugget in the field but have found several pieces of gold and silver jewelry with it. Also have done a lot of training in my test garden. Buried a BB size gold nugget I already had in a plastic bag at around 8 inches down to initially test the detector. All metal mode with sensitivity 2 notches from max with the 5x8 DD coil. Faint signal but it still found it. Also have found single bird shot lead pellets at this depth while treasure hunting. Need more time prospecting in the field but I have no doubt the AT Gold will get the job done. Works awesome for general treasure hunting too. HH

That is great depth! Now put the same nugget in highly mineralized ground as found in nugget bearing areas, surrounded with hot rocks. Things change entirely.

 

[steveh2112]

thanks. i'm leaning towards getting a garret pro pointer AT because its small and cheap so i figure a lot easier to take on long hikes up the river bank. for $127 its almost a no brainier i think.

 

[atomicscott]

thanks. i'm leaning towards getting a garret pro pointer AT because its small and cheap so i figure a lot easier to take on long hikes up the river bank. for $127 its almost a no brainier i think.

Look into the Falcon MD20. It is a hand held gold detector that will detect TINY gold, like close to a grain of salt! They sell for about $250.