Prospecting Machine...suggestions?

[Daniel Tn]

I'm looking at possibly getting a machine to do a little nugget hunting with. I live in a very good region of TN/GA/NC but I don't think we have those 1-2 oz nuggets like what you guys have in the western states. I could be wrong though. That's not the point of this message though.

I'm mostly a relic hunter and just got a couple of gold pans in a prospecting kit and am wanting to try my hand at it. I'll probably be adding a sluice box shortly and my eye is already reading about gold machines. Since I probably wont be using it much, I don't need nor can afford one of those $1,000+ machines. I already have an Explorer II for relics and coins and that cost enough for me. Instead I'm looking at a machine like the Fisher Gold Bug 2, Garrett GoldStinger, Tesoro LoboSuper Traq, or possibly an MXT.

Fisher machines do pretty well in the soil here and I've never used a SuperTraq but I know alot of the guys around here relic hunt with them. I had an MXT once that I tried for relics and it had a time IDing things as iron in the ground here. Matter of factly it read the whole ground as iron but I never played with it much with a DD coil on it. Nor did I try it for prospecting. Any suggestions from you guys/gals? I'd like to keep the price under $800.

 

[rexb]

I think there may still be some big nuggets over your way, historically there were some huge ones in your region. BUT, I imagine any left would be something like twenty feet down and in a very localized pocket that it would almost be impossible to find. The smokies are always wet and unlike the west, the decay rate, detritus, and dirt overburden increases much more quickly. The smokies are also much older than any of the major mountain ranges out west, so even without the organic material the rock is more decomposed and covering everything pretty well. It's my experience that anything big in the way of heavies (gold, sapphires, diamonds) in NC will be deep, at least four feet deep if it has been carried by water at some point. We used to run the Jacobs Ruby Mine in Macon, Co. and unless you dug down you would never know the place had one bit of corundum (rubies and sapphires) The indians never found them to my knowledge.

Now on the topic of a detector, I can't add as much since I have not used any of the detectors you've mentioned above, although I have heard good things about most of them. The Whites GMT is supposed to be specifically designed for gold although I think some still prefer the MXT, although I will have to leave it to others to explain why. I do own a minelab xt17000 which looks just like the eureka gold and is it's analog predecessor. It does pretty well overall. Now that I think about it maybe the MXT offers better discrimination features than the GMT?! I'm not sure.

Rex

 

[Daniel Tn]

I read a few articles that said in the hey day of the Coker Creek District (which is where I'm at) that some estimated 19,000 ounces of gold was produced out of that district in about a 100 yr stretch. I think most of it came from mining but it was indeed the site of one of the first "gold rush" places. My region of TN is notorious for having shallow bedrock. Which I thought would be a good thing for looking for gold. Take a peek at this creek up towards the Coker Creek district and you'll see what I mean. Wouldn't you love to have a dredge in there? LOL.

My mother is just now turning 50 and she says when she was a kid, one of her cousins found a nugget while they were skipping rocks in a creek at their grandparent's house (which is in Coker Creek by the way) that was about the size of a quarter. My great grandpa was one of the gold miners of the early 1900s here. They say he'd leave out and stay gone for a week some times but always came back with a little pouch with some pickers and flakes in it.

 

[rexb]

Daniel,

In the mountains themselves there are areas closer to bedrock, usually I think those are higher areas, and the lower ones have more overburden. It's tough for me to tell how deep the nice creek is you have pictured there. It looks alot like the one near where we operated, but the gravel and boulders went down over ten feet in some places. But you could have maybe less then a foot before bedrock, again I can't tell from the photo, but I'm sure you know. Our mine was in a valley at about 2500 ft, the surrounding mtns. would be in the 4000 ft range and maybe that is more like the area you are located at. Good luck out there.

Here is an eastern gold forum and another of a directory video of eastern gold videos.

http://au-prospecting.com/gold/index.php

http://www.au-prospecting.com/videos/

RCB

 

[willy]

The MXT will find some pretty small gold (subgrain) and also offers bettar trash/hotrock handling. One thing infrequently mentioned is old campsites/homesteads etc. that one stumbles upon whilst nuggethunting. With a dedicated nugget detector you're often in for a nightmare of trash, whereas a detector like the MXT simply gets switched over into coin or relic mode.. quick 'n easy. Who wants to hike out 5 miles and then back with another detector just to check out one patch of ground? ..Willy.