Will Traccker 4 Work For Nug Hunting

[Ralphyk]

Hi. I am new Metal Detector enthusiast. Very new I am Expecting My First Detectors from ups in a few days. I ordered a Tracker 4 & a Tesoro Compadre also.
I Live in Gold Hill Oregon a town with a historical Gold Mining History and I plan on nugget hunting The Hills and Dry Creek Beds and stuff.
I was wondering if the tracker 4 would pick up a pebble size nugget at 6 inches and if smaller about how much.

 

[jackintexas]

I don't know much bout the Tracker 4 but the Compadre is one sensitive machine. I have never hunted for nuggets with it but it sure picks up small chains better than most I know......Jack

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

I'm not that familiar with the Tracker IV but what you can do if you have a capable scale and some soft lead, is make you up some test pieces. Maybe start with making 4-3-2- and one Gram pieces. Maybe make a 1/2 Gram while your at it. Soft lead as I understand (have confirmed this with BH Engineering and electronic prospectors I know) will give you a similar response as if it were Gold. Use soft lead like fishing sinkers as wheel weights for instance have a bit of other alloys mixed in such as Tin. I'm not sure how well the Tracker IV will do with ground high in mineral iron and such but as I understand, in effect, all detectors will find Gold if it is big enough for the frequency and size of coil used. The problem with most gold anymore is it is small to flour. To get any of the bigger or big enough requires much work or searching and possibly the expense of a Pulse Induction machine to get the edge over others seeking to do the same thing. Many of the well known places for finding Gold have simply been worked over and many times. The pickings are smaller and fewer unless you can go deep or go where no one else has. To be honest, If knew back when what I know now, I would have bought a dredge or a P.I. machine. I would be at least 2 of 4 metal detectors less. I do though like my White's Gold Master V/SAT and it will find the very tiny stuff but I think it's day in the sun is pretty much gone unless I find a mud slide or wash exposing bedrock or exposed new placer materials. Also, keep in mind air testing will not be the same as surface or buried. You have to add in the ground effects to see what your machine will do. I use an actual 1 and 2 grain pieces of Gold to make sure in the field I'm hearing what I need to hear with my White's Gold Master. I'm sure if you make yourself some lead test pieces, you can do the same in the field. Maybe you can glue them to a poker chip or plastic card of some kind. Better than nothing.

Best of luck and fun, Robert

 

[Suninyourhand]

Yea, after you trip over the nugget you can use the Tracker IV to verify it is really gold. Only kidding. I have heard of people that have used this detector in Austrilia for gold nuggets...but the gold there is alot of times quite large in size and shallow in the ground. Use a 4 inch coil on the unit, that will help. As far as ground balancing in the type of ground conditions that gold is found in naturally...the unit might have some issues. But who knows, just bust out there and try it. The most important thing in the quest for gold is research.

 

[Ralphyk]

Thanks for the reply's. I guess I will be the Guinea pig? If all goes well it will work and I can prove the bounty Hunter will work for Nug Hunting.Eventually I want a Lobo but this will have to work for now.I know its hard to believe there is nuggets around still but this is Oregon were talking about. It is as good as it gets for nugs in America besides Alaska and maybe those places like Arizona. I dont think a lot of people metal Detect around my neck of the woods that i have noticed.I dont think people no a whole lot about Southern Oregon.This area is a couple small towns and the rest is pretty much BLM.It would take me a life time to cover all the ground around here. I read it ok to hunt BLM as long as you dont keep old relics of Historic Value but gold and coins are fair game is that true?.. There are a lot of old gold mines around here so I hope to find scraps around those locations. Is it just wet black sand that will give me trouble with the ground balance. I dont plan on looking for nuggets in just damp locations. And About the Dredge comment I am seriously considering getting into that also.I watched a utube video of people Dredging on the Rogue River in my town and they found a lot of Gold in one day .

 

[Dave J.]

The TK4 will detect a large shallow gold nugget, but there aren't many of those. The TK4 was designed primarily for finding coins down to about 6 inches depth.

For "real" gold prospecting you need a metal detector with a ground balanced all metals mode, and you have to be willing to dig everything that beeps. Most of which will be junk. Among machines that have this feature there is wide variation in their ability to find gold.

The BH Platinum is the top of the BH line and has a ground balanced all metals mode. However our Fisher Gold Bug, GB Pro, and Tek G2 are much superior for gold prospecting (but cost quite a bit more), and in coin & relic use are also reputed to out-hunt anything else in iron trash.

--Dave J.

 

[starvin]

Comments about Southern Oregon: One: Be sure you check with the BLM as there are mining restrictions that abound in your area. I do prospect on the Rogue River and can tell you that you have to be very careful where your at. Most land around the good areas are private property. Have fun, probably will see you out there this summer.

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Did some reading on how to operate the Tracker IV and it looks like for Gold, you will place a 3 position switch in the middle position for "ALL METAL" and will turn the "Discrimination" control knob to OFF. This detector is a "MOTION" detector so if you stop over the target, there will be no sound. In reading, it indicates the "Tuning" and "Ground Balance" are automatically done for the operator. Another thing I see is when the unit is turned ON, there will be no sound until a metal object is passed by the coil. The "ALL METAL" mode will put the machine at it's maximum depth detection capability.

I'm going to try and relate these controls to a real Gold detector. Real VLF Gold detectors are "ALL METAL" machines so the Tracker IV has that feature. You will run without any "Discrimination" so your set there. Now where it differs is you will have no control over "TUNING" and "GROUND BALANCING." Now as best I can translate what "TUNING" is on a Tracker IV, it would be on Gold machine what is called "THRESHOLD." I suspect your Tracker IV will have a silent or I think what would be called negative ( S.A.T. or self adjusting) "THRESHOLD" until a metallic object causes the machine to produce an audio response. I've read of pro's and con's of auto and manual adjust in the prospecting world. The "GROUND BALANCE" is a common feature on VLF Gold machines but yours will always self adjust itself to the iron mineral content of soil and rocks. Have also read of pro's and con's of auto verses manual adjustment on this. I'm more Old School so prefer manual adjust.

The "SENSITIVITY" control will be important to learn. On Gold machines, this would also be known as "GAIN" or is the Power adjustment. Turn it up, more power, turn it down, less. This is the part that I think you will struggle with getting to know and is why the manual recommends just as the Gold machines do, to start out learning with less "SENSITIVITY" or "GAIN." One example I like most from Larry Salle, author of ZIP ZIP, is his thought on headlights and fog. The detectors signal is like headlights. The light bounces off a rabbit (Nugget) and so you see it. If there is Fog, Dust, or Snow (iron minerals) in the air (soil) , you will have a harder time seeing the rabbit. If the Fog is really bad, the last thing you want to do is turn on your bright lights that would make it even more difficult to see the rabbit. The same goes with turning up the machines Power trying to detect a nugget in soils and gravels with greater amounts of iron mineral. Now in the manual, the Sensitivity can be so much that it will chatter or beep erratically. The Gold machines, if the power is turned up to much in relation to iron mineral content, they do what is called Over Lode and in effect, are overwhelmed and stop working. All you do is turn down the power and on some, re-ground balance.

Now as I understand and have experienced myself, iron tends to detect more broad in relation to the coil width and your non-ferrous metals tend to detect more narrow. In some cases, this can be used in determining if you should dig or not if without an ability to discriminate. If your machine has what I think is a silent self adjusting threshold or hunts silent, I suspect it will not hit on Hot Rocks like my BH Pioneer 505 will. The bad part is, a small enough nugget can be masked by a Hot Rock and if your Tracker Tunes out the hot rock, I would guess it would possibly tune out some nuggets that may be beside or under them. Not knowing this machine, that is just my guess from reading the manual and trying to relate terms used to those of Gold machines.

Hope this gives you something to think about and maybe look more into. If the controls on the Tracker IV translate over to what I think they are, maybe this will help you to understand them more. I wish more operator manuals explained their machines features in more theory so a guy would have a better idea as to what he is looking at besides it has a bunch of bells and whistles.

Best wishes to you on your nugget hunting, Robert

 

[aussie]

A very good post on setting up the tracker 1v. We use one as a second detector in Australia with lots of ironstone and hot rocks and it doesnt seem to be worried by any of that and runs silently at full discrimination. Use the 4inch coil to find gold down to half a gram or less and the standard coil will handle the larger pieces .It is a very light detector but of course you cant expect it to go too deep

 

[Suninyourhand]

Here is a thread that has quite a bit of information...it might have something you can use. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=244158.0

 

[Ralphyk]

Thanks to you all. Seeing everyone's enthusiasm for Metal detecting excites me. It must be a fun Hobby. I am sure I will have more questions down the road.
I am already feeling the need for more detectors I will have to contain my self for now though. Hopefully I can find something of value sooner than later and invest into a Vaquero.It seems like a good all around detector. I have to admit I am really looking forward to coin shooting with that Compadre also. I pretty much got the tracker 4 for the mountains and as a loaner. I already got 4 friends wanting to go when my detectors get here..