Small nuggets AT Gold?

[AKgoldnuggs]

I recently purchased a AT gold from Treasure Mountain, and have taken the unit to known good gold bearing creeks twice. I have not been successful in finding any nuggets yet, but I have a question. I only have a few small pickers to test my machine on. I get a very faint sound when running them under the coil, but nothing on the display. What is your experience when detecting nuggets in the field? I'm sure if it's a monster you'll usually getting a very strong signal and a number on the display. I'm trying to rely solely on sound, just trying to see how faint of a signal do you usually dig? Thank you in advance for any information you are willing to share.

 

[Mxt Sniper]

Hi, for very small size nuggets, subgrain to grain size, you need a detector with operating frequency of 48khz to 71khz, I think yours is 19khz, it should pick up 3-4 grain nuggets and larger pretty easily. I have found that detectors with 12-19khz operating frequency are very good on gold jewelry hunting in the tot lots and parks. I generally run disc of 1 to 2 just to knock out the iron bits, and i dig all the rest.

 

[AKgoldnuggs]

Thank you for the information! I'm not looking for anything really small, I just worry what I'm missing. I'm pretty new to my detector, probably 30 hours into it. The areas I am working I have found little pickers ( a bit larger then a grain of rice) with my sluice box. I'm not sure how many grains that would be. I often get very small audible sounds. Is that something you would dig if your properly ground balanced? I run over the target many times to ensure its there, but often come up empty handed. Thank you for responding! -Don

 

[Mxt Sniper]

I don't think you will miss anything 2-3 grains or bigger in size with your detector which is pretty small stuff. If your wanting to find the smallest gold go with a GB2 71khz, it misses almost nothing but the fines, I have been watching my buddys on a mining claim in northern nevada recently dig for pocket gold, they use GB2's to locate and trace the gold in the quartz veins, once they find a vein with gold, they get out the jackhammers and follow the vein, stopping every foot or two, to detect and pick up the bigger stuff and bottle it, then check the vein with the detectors to keep going in the right direction, they sweep up at the end of the day and grind the stuff and gold wheel the remains, its amazing how small of gold, these gb2's will detect, maybe a piece of gold 1/4 the size of a pin head! Get yourself a grain scale and then you can keep track of what your detector will and will not detect, see if its satisfactory for your use. Nice thing about the GB2 also is that you got the iron id switch to immediately check a signal with before digging, some mining areas are covered with tiny bits of steel from dozer blades, and these will discriminate out if you go into iron id, so you don't waste time digging them. I just found a 4.18 gram 10K chain/pendant this morning detecting a local park, so got the bug again to hit the parks for awhile. I just got back from drywashing in northern nevada a week ago. I do enjoy gold mining. In all its forms. hehe.

 

[AKgoldnuggs]

Yeah I'm impressed with the GB2. My uncle has one, and on our local forums there's some great pictures of small finds with them. I have 2 buddies who run side by side 4" dredges, so the underwater ability of the AT Gold really sold me. I'll need to invest in a grain scale for sure. I have a 2 week old baby, so I have to spend my money wisely with my time off and the wife's maternity leave. I've detected 5 or 6 parks here in Alaska, but haven't had any major luck. I've also tried 2 of the local swimming holes hoping for some jewelry. Thank you again for your detailed responses! Thanks again!

 

[Todd Pickens]

I got my AT-Gold for nugget hunting. I have not found any nuggets yet with it but I have found very small bird shot, allot of it. Run it in all metal mode with the sensitivity as high as you can stand it. I hit a quartz vain the other day that gave me a break in the thresh hold. I am going back to check it in a few days.The thresh hold on the AT-Gold is too loud for me I have to run mine at 0 or 1. My AT-Gold has become my jewelery detector it does a good job of finding bling.