I would not buy anything - yet. The Troy X5 was designed by prospecting engineer guru Dave Johnson. It is a very hot 19 kHz detector and a direct predecessor of the Gold Bug Pro in terms of performance. My recommendation is you use it to find out if you have what it takes to succeed at nugget detecting, which basically boils down to determination and patience. If you can find any gold with the X5, and I promise you it is perfectly capable of it, then maybe you would want to invest in a detector designed specifically for the task. But if you get a VLF you will discover the X5 is about as good as any of them.
You have to run in all metal. Your mention of nugget detectors using tones indicates you think perhaps they are more sophisticated than they are. Nugget detectors all do best when run as all metal dig it all machines. At most you can dial in a minimum amount of iron discrimination, but it will cost you a percentage of your gold finds. Still, if you eliminate 90% of the ferrous trash to get 90% of the gold that can be a fair trade.
Use a small nugget, like maybe a half gram, to get the machine properly calibrated in your ground. Use all metal mode, and start with gain/sensitivity at recommended factory preset. Get ground balanced and run the coil over the ground in the immediate area plus your buried test target. You may encounter hot rocks. The trick is to work the ground balance and sensitivity to get the most beep on the test nugget and the least noise from the ground. It is a balancing act. Get the sensitivity as high as you can while keeping the ground from getting too noisy. Ideal would be no ground noise and clear signal on nugget, but usually you have to compromise.
You may find the ground or hot rocks are horrible, in which case a ground balancing PI is your best bet if you do decide to invest in a machine. If the ground seems ok with the X5 then another machine like a Gold Bug Pro with a DD coil may be a good option. The X5 comes with a concentric and DD coils for it are rarer than hens teeth. A DD would help if the X5 seems borderline but as I note getting another detector may be the better option at that point.
If all the gold on the claim is under 1/4 gram a Gold Bug 2 or White's GMT will do best on the tiny stuff.
Troy Shadow X5 at Crow Creek, Alaska
The review I did above was back when the Shadow X5 was new but my conclusions proved prophetic. It is a very powerful detector highly sought after on the used market. Give it a go and at the very least you will learn more about the ground you are on, and that would be very valuable information when considering a new detector.
