The V3i has way more bells and whistles than a person needs for prospecting, but I have a friend that has one who has paid for the machine many times over in gold nuggets found. His finds were featured on White's website. The 22 kHz single frequency mode is quite powerful. I would not buy one just to prospect with it but since you have one it certainly can be used successfully to find gold nuggets. The 6x10 DD is the way to go for prospecting in general.