Use Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II as a gold-nugget detector?

[HotRock]

I have one metal detector, a Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II that I press into all-around duty. It's a pulse-induction machine with a discrimination mode. I'd like to know others' experience with using a Sea Hunter II as an all-purpose machine, especially as a nugget shooter. I never have tried gold-nugget hunting with the Sea Hunter II and I'd like to know if any of you folks have done this and what your experiences were. I''m thinking that I could do some testing with #6 birdshot (shotgun ammo).Thanks, HotRock

 

[steve herschbach]

It will work just fine as long as the ground is not too hot, the hot rocks not too bad, and the gold large enough. Of course I can say the same about any detector. Doing your own testing is a very good idea - reality beats opinions every time. Consider though that you will find nobody who is anybody in the nugget detecting world using a Sea Hunter. That is a pretty big clue. But if you have one nothing lost by trying but time. If you do decide to get an actual nugget detector here is a good place to start Steve's Guide to Gold Nugget Detectors

Steve Herschbach

 

[fredm]

I tried a Whites Pi out in the Potholes area of California many years ago, before MInelab had conceived their Pi's...it drove me rapidly more crazy than I already was. The area has 3 or 4 kinds of hot rocks, mineralization and wet salt soil...to be fair I had very little experience with pi detectors back then...but I have no interest in trying that again...

fred

 

[steve herschbach]

We ran a Fisher Impulse at Moore Creek. All it did was bang on hot rocks. I do a lot of detecting in Hawaii with various Surf PI models and hot rocks are always a problem. The make a faint signal, which you ignore in favor of stronger signals. The problem is the faint signals can be deep rings getting ignored. But either that or dig a rock every two minutes. You need a fairly constant background mineralization with non-ground balancing PI detectors for decent operation. That is why they work well on most beaches - the sand mix is fairly homogenous.

Steve Herschbach

 

[panama rich]

Of course Garrett sells the Infinium which is similar to the Sea Hunter, but has automatic ground balancing and is tuned for nugget hunting.
Lots of prospectors use them in Australia successfully and that is what I use too. My point is that Garrett doesn't expect the Sea
Hunter to be used for nugget hunting, but try it out and see how is works in your area.
Rich

 

[Hoser John]

Not for me,the Infinium yes. Don't try bird shot unless your lookn' for bird shot,use gold test nugget glued to a poker chip,ie 1/10 gram is a good size to start with-John

 

[HotRock]

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts on the matter; they are very much appreciated. Yes, my Sea Hunter does find hot rocks very well. Hence my user name, Ha.

 

[rockpup1]

read a article in a old back issue detector mag.Cant remember who worte it-some famous gold prospector, wrote lots of articles.Anyhow he was using a sea hunter for hunting old flooded mines with great success,but he was the first person to search these mines since they quit working them.