What setting is best for gold nuggets in your opinion?

[Justinsane]

what do you think is the best setting for detecting nuggets? I don't want to lose anything at tailing piles at old mines.

 

[Justinsane]

n/t

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

All metal mode. Discriminate nothing.

 

[dahut]

what do you think is the best setting for detecting nuggets? I don't want to lose anything at tailing piles at old mines.

Free gold (as found in nature) is unalloyed with other metals. It normally causes a mid-range conductivity response. So, here's what I recommend.

Ground balance precisely.
Often the minerals vary considerably around tailing piles, even from foot to foot. So stay on top of it.
Hunt in ZERO DISC, with zero IRON discrimination.
Gold and iron are synonymous when searching mined areas, and you are searching for mid-range targets. You want to hear iron, not risk masking nuggets by disc'ing it out.
Run the SENSITIVITY as high as possible, without a lot of falsing.
Let your detector be a little twitchy, but not too much. Nuggets are usually small, and it takes increased gain to respond to them.
Ignore coin range targets.
The value of coins pales compared to the gold you seek. Unless it is a gold coin.... so save your time for gold detecting.
Dig anything that hits in the low foil to pulltab range.
If it repeats, don't pass it up. Especially if it sounds small.

Before You Go
Get you some lead. Lead is close to gold on the periodic table of elements: Lead (Pb) - 82, Gold (Au) - 79.
For all practical purposes, lead can stand in for gold.
So find a lead bullet, like a .22, or some wheel weights, and cut you off a small piece of the stuff. You want to start with a piece about 3-4mm in size.
Now, set your detector up like I describe above - it should be able to pick up the lead easily.

Once the instrument is picking up your ersatz "nugget," start nipping off pieces of it, bit by bit. Run your detector over it each time you cut off a hunk. Eventually, you will find out not only how your detector responds to gold, but what SIZE nuggets it will hit on reliably.

My bet is that anything smaller than an ear ring back will be iffy.

PS It is also important to know that tailing gold can be bound in rock. Unless you are hunting old placer tailings, the gold may not look at all like gold.

 

[Justinsane]

Thank you very much guys..I have had very little success with the users manual...you have provided me much more insight.

 

[Justinsane]

Ps can I use nuggets instead of lead?

 

[G. E. Edwards]

Yes,Just don't snip off little pieces to see how small a nugget it will pick up. lol

 

[dahut]

Yes,Just don't snip off little pieces to see how small a nugget it will pick up. lol

Good point. To borrow from the phrase - "Use em if you got 'em."

 

[Mike Hillis]

I'd recommend you get a good book, like Larry Salle's ZIP ZIP if you don't already have one. He is a little geared toward Whites but the info is priceless.
Also get Dave Johnson's prospecting book off the Fisher Site. It is a free download and has lots of good information in it too.

When you practice with your lead, be sure and make it odd sized, like real nuggets look. Beat some thin and wack the edges, get it roughed up. The big stuff you are going to hear, but the little stuff takes some practice.

Good luck,
Mike