Well I hope this helps . . .. Minelab FBS detectors are super detectors for the deep targets others tend to pass up and the worse the ground gets the better it does in comparison. Unfortunately, the circuit does not do well detecting small mid-to-low conductive targets. The BBS detectors (Sovereign and Excalibur) have the same issue; i.e., great depth on a ring but in terms of earrings, chains, charms and the like, there are many models at far less money that do a better job. Going with a smaller coil - 8" or smaller - will help in high trash but will not improve teh sensitivity to small pieces of gold that you are looking for. When I hit tit lots, I tend to use either an Ace 350 or A Teknetics 8000 , , , my son uses a Tesoro Silver uMax - all three of which will detect targets far smaller (but not as deep) as the Minelab;s will.
Unfortunately there is no one detector that will do it all and this is one example - I have had people ask me if the Explorer or E-Trac would be a good gold prospecting detector and I have told them that as long as the only thing they were looking for were larger nuggets yes, but if you wanted grain sized pieces, a gold detector was the only way to go (and for half the cost)
Hope this helps - feel free to give me a call if you have any more questions at XXX-XXXX-XXXX
Andy
