Best VLF or Detector for High Surface Trash Areas


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  • Admin

Hello All,

There has always been a debate to what detector is best for trashy areas, but I have a handful of areas that have potential for shallow nuggets (surface to 3-4 inches), but riddled with surface rubbish (wire, bits of cans and such).

Anyone have a suggestion from experience on what is the best to find gold nuggets in these areas?

I want to be able to walk through an area and eliminate as much rubbish as possible and hopefully ID the better targets such as gold and lead and dig them.

I know guys have mentioned the Fisher Goldbug 2 with Iron ID on. Dig only targets that talk.

I still have a Minelab CTX 3030, but haven't messed with it much for gold nuggets.

Any thoughts?

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  • Admin

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the information. This is one reason I picked up the XP Brand about 6 months ago. I haven't had the time to use it much, but heard it was great for this.

Are you using the 9 or 11-inch coil, Chris? Any suggestions on settings on the XP, I'm going to play around with mine more this week on a test bed.

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Rob

You sell the Makro Racer and it may be the best for the job. I've watch lots of videos on the Racer and what I can see it's a great detector. On one it had more depth on gold than the Fors Core. Then another it could detect a coin under 6 inches of hot ground but another well known detector couldn't. That one is made by Texas First.

You still need to get it listed on your store page.

Chuck Anders

PS If you try it and find me wrong let me know what you want for it.

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I have used many vlfs through the years. And there is alot of good ones. But I think the Nokta Fors Gold does the best in high trash areas. It has lightning fast recovery speed and great target seperation. I used mine successflly many times in this same situation. Fors gold's boost mode is a great mode for sniping little gold out of iron piles and such. Steve H. Used his to successfully pull out a very nice specimen in a junk situation. And did a good job doing it with the Fors Gold. I have not tried a Makro Racer to compare. but the Fors Gold has done me good in the last year.

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  • Admin

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the great info, sounds like a lot of choices guys are doing well with.

Deathray - Since I have a Deus, and originally purchased it for this task, I'm going to give it a whirl. I heard it handles the goldfield mineralization better than others.

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Accurate ground balance is the key.

As it's a near silent search when properly GB'ed.

My unit came with the 9", but have and like the bigger coils.

In gold fields mode try reactivity @ 3, iron discrimination @ 5 and sensitivity at 85%

Moderate fast coil speed. You can put the big coil on and whip it patch hunting.

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Ive had some areas I knew had gold just under the old timers camp trash or on the banks of the diggins. just get a metal garden rake,not a leaf or lawn rake, and slap a few super magnets on the head and rake it first. works great. gets rid of almost all the metal surface trash. let your favorite detector take care of the rest. AzNuggetBob

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Oh something I forgot to mention. when your cleaning off all that junk on your rake, pay attention to the iron trash your pulling off and throwing away, there can be some really cool iron relics on there too. AzNuggetBob

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Deathray ... I use big super mags about the size of a half dollar and have 8 of them across the rake tines. I got them at a gpaa gold show a few years ago when they were fairly cheap ... now they are about 3 times the money. Anyway when I first mounted them I wasn't thinking and mounted them on the outside of the tines ... furthest away from me ... and found they could be popped off on ocassion. Now I mount them high on the back side of the tines with the teeth still exposed about 3/4 to 1 inch or so ... the magnets never come off now because I am always pulling with pressure against them. It works great!

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I've been hunting this spring with the Deus, GPX 4000 and the Gold Bug 2. I've found a limited amount of gold (< 3.0 grams - all sub gram) but all with the GB2.

Neither the GB2 nor the Minelab are very good in high trash areas so I'm still hoping that the DEUS will shine in that department. Its certainly one of the most sophisticated detectors that I've used. I have not been disappointed in its ability (during tests) to locate sub gram gold in trash so I'm guessing that in the real world I just haven't put the coil over a nuggets as yet.

More adventures in the real world to come! I'm bound to learn more before the summer is out!!

Cheers

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  • Admin

Hey Yukonlewis,

I have done some testing here at home since I live out in the sticks. I have simulated a trashy goldfield from all the trash I bring back from nuggetshooting. This includes bits of tin, boot tacks, wire and other rubbish. I placed a few small gold nuggets, around 1/2 gram among the rubbish to see if I could figure out "what is what." I'm impressed so far, so I'm excited to give it a whirl on the real deal soon. The damn Deus is so light, I can swing it with one finger.

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Hey deathray one mans trash is another mans treasure, I love old relics too. most discriminating detectors have a hard time shooting through high/large trash areas, so why not just eliminate it, thats why I mentioned the the magna-rake. super magnets come in all shapes and sizes. get some longer ones so they cover at least two tines on the rake. If you still have a problem keeping them on you could use JB weld them on. before the magnets I used to just rake and throw the trash aside with the rake and not think twice about what was in it. but adding magnets and looking at what I picked up while (cleaning)them from the rake head I found many cool relics I would not have seen or thrown away. I prefer my Tesoro lobo at the moment but always keeping an eye for newer better machines, Like the new Fors Gold. hope this helps.



BTW if your thinking about soldering them on, never over heat a magnet it will loose its magnetism. AzNuggetBob

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Chris knows I liked that machine in just the hour or so of testing it. I had to take it to Frank up in Kingman or it probably would still be in my stable ... I have too many detectors anyway ... probably should sell a couple before getting another. The GPZ and SDC will stay for an extended term however! I can't wait to get back to AZ late July to use the GPZ again ... I was just getting used to the methods change when I left for NH back in May. Now seeing you and Doc cleaning up I need to get back to it before all the nuggets are gone! :)

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