MXT question: smallest nugget I can find with 1400 coil???

[Tony N (Michigan)]

What's the smallest nugget I can find with the 1400 coil?

I have an MXT with an Eclipse Deepscan DD 1400 coil.
[size=large]I am curious what the smallest nugget is that you think I can pick up with that coil? [/size]

Thanks for any help.

Tony

 

[Digger Bob]

Tough question, Tony. It all depends... How deep, how mineralized, how machine is set up, quality of headphones, strength of batteries, shape, orientation, and composition of the nugget, etc. Under ideal conditions, with everything set just right, and the nugget on the surface, and you moving slowly and concentrating on listening to the slightest change in tone, you should be able to hear a 1/4 dwt. nugget. How big is that? A tad larger than this one...


[attachment 31932 P7230025600x450.jpg]

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

O.K. that sounds great that it will pick up a nugget a little larger than that one.

In other words, when you say "slightest change in tone" I'm not listening for a beep as if I were coin detecting but more of a whisper change in threshold?

How far from the coil do you think it would pick up the size nugget you said it would in normal California soil where nuggets are found?

Thanks!

Tony

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I found a .01 oz nugget at Ganes with a 14"DD on my MXT which was not very big.

 

[Digger Bob]

Tony, if you have used your machine for coin hunting, you know that it's silent until you go over something. Then you hear a "beep".

In the Prospecting mode, there is the constant threshold tone. You are listening for a slight upward turn in the sound. Not a long, drawn out increase, but a short, sharp increase. Do this; flatten out a fishing sinker. Then cut it into 4ths. Take one of those and do a bench test with it, varying the distance. Close your eyes and memorize the sound. Now bury it an inch deep and do it again. Notice the difference? In soil that has any mineralization, you should get about half the depth you would in the air. And you still have to differentiate that sound from the hot spots in the soil. See how the target sounds just a little sharper, not louder. Ground will be more "mushy". Small hot rocks will sometimes sound the same as a nugget and you have to dig them to be sure.

As far as Calif. soil, well there is no "usual". It can vary from dead quiet sand to pure serpentine where you can't even get your coil more than 6 inches from the surface without it over loading. But I would think you couldn't get much more than a inch on a nugget that small in "average" soil.

Digger Bob

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Thanks Bob. Lots of good information there!

I am curious as to why you don't beep for gold in the Relic mode?

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Do you remember about how deep it was?

 

[Digger Bob]

I have heard of some of the real pros that use the MXT, use the Relic mode for prospecting. Personally, I've never tried it. But "they" say that once mastered, you will get better results. Experiment with it and give it a try.

Digger

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

n/t

 

[Nuggs]

Hello all,

I recently sold my GMT and bought a new MXT for nugget hunting. The GMT is a nice sensitive unit but now that I have tried the MXT I could never go back to the GoldMaster. I am now able to cover much more area instead of spending most of my day digging trash.

Also the areas that I nugget hunt once were home to many old miners living in camps along side the creeks and rivers. Now when I see a likely spot that might have been a camp I can now hunt for old coins or maybe hit a cache that was once buried and never retrieved. When I used the GMT I just had to walk by and wonder what if.

Now for my question, are there any nugget beepers out there that use the Sunray probes? I have been considering mounting one to my MXT, these areas I hunt can be high in trash from the old prospectors and I thought the DX-1 probe might help in getting out of the holes a little faster. Thanks for your comments.

 

[Nuggs]

I ordered the SunRay DX-1 probe for my MXT today, also went out early today and did some prospecting. I was on a dry creek bed with exposed bedrock.
There were many cracks in the rock that were approx. three inches wide and about 12 inches deep. Could not get my coil in any of these cracks but when the probe gets here I am going back to the same bedrock because the probe which is shaped like a long popcicle will slip right in and also give me ID on any targets.