Results Of Nugget Detector Survey


Recommended Posts

A week ago I started an informal survey on seven US metal detecting oriented prospecting forums including this one.

The survey was not meant to prove anything per se. I was basically just curious to see what the detectors were that were employed to actually find gold nuggets in the last year.

The survey has many shortcomings. It only polls people who were on the US forums in the last week who cared to respond. The forums have tended as a whole to be Minelab oriented and so it is not surprising results might skew in that direction. Still, I got a large number of responses and so some conclusions can be drawn.

I eliminated duplicate and joke responses. I eliminated a couple borrowed units. It was winnowed down to just detectors that found gold for their owners in the last year. Everything else was pretty straight forward. The only thing of note is I put a couple Gold Bug SE responses under the Gold Bug Pro because they are basically the same detector. The SE was just a precursor model. Everything was compiled on a spreadsheet and totaled.

114 people responded as having used 220 detectors to find gold nuggets. That is an average of a couple detectors per person but the reality is a lot of people owned three detectors, and then quite a few just one detector. In general you could say many nugget hunters own a couple PI detectors (or a PI and a GPZ) plus a good VLF detector. If you really want to generalize things your could say people own a couple Minelab PI type detectors and a Fisher VLF. The Gold Bug 2 and the Gold Bug Pro were the runaway favorites in the VLF category.

Tesoro is conspicuous in their absence. Only one Lobo ST listed. I was a bit surprised to see not one Garrett AT Gold listed. Except for a few ATX units Garrett is pretty much a no-show. White's does a little bit better but still only just over a dozen units out of 220. The TDI PI models are the most popular alternative to the Minelabs with 8 listed.

As I noted Fisher totally dominates the VLF detectors with the Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro. And I was surprised at the very large numbers for both the SDC2300 and GPZ7000. The GPZ in particular due to it being very expensive and out for only the last 6 months. The adoption rate is phenomenal in my opinion.

Here are two sets of results. The first is simplified for easy digestion. I have lumped similar models together and not listed onesies and twosies. The second list is the full per model breakdown. Make of it what you will, and thank you for participating!

Simplified Results:

51 GPX5000/4500/4000

33 GPZ7000

33 SDC2300

32 Gold Bug 2

15 Gold Bug Pro

13 GP3500/3000/GPExtreme

8 White's TDI/DIPro/TDISL/SPP

5 White's GMT/GM3/VSAT

5 Nokta FORS Gold

4 Makro Racer

4 X-Terra 705

3 Garrett ATX

3 XP DEUS

Full Results:

33 GPZ7000

33 SDC 2300

32 Gold Bug 2

31 GPX5000

15 Gold Bug Pro

11 GPX4500

9 GPX4000

6 GP3000

5 GPExtreme

5 FORS Gold

4 Makro Racer

4 X-Terra 705

3 Garrett ATX

3 White's GMT

3 White's TDI

3 TDI Pro

3 XP DEUS

2 GP3500

2 Fisher F19

2 CTX3030

1 TDI SL

1 White's SPP

1 Troy X5

1 XT17000

1 SD2200V2

1 SD2100V2

1 Tesoro Lobo ST

1 White's GM3

1 White's V/SAT

1 Minelab F1A4

1 Garrett Scorpion

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin

Hey Steve,

Pretty much the results I anticipated to see. No real secret that Minelab is "King" when it comes to gold hunting PI's. Anyone that don't own one that is a serious gold hunter is missing out in my opinion.

The combination of a high end PI with a good gold hunting VLF is probably the best combination.

"In my opinion" Fisher and Minelab have always been the most popular metal detectors, so the polls pretty much show that.

I think if some of these US manufactures don't step up their game, some of these European companies like Makro, XP, Fors and others will take over. They are all making very impressive lightweight detectors, waterproof or waterproof coils, wireless features and more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Rob, hope all is well down south. Like my weather up here better!

Fisher needs to build a capable prospecting PI and Minelab a better prospecting VLF. Amazing how the U.S. manufacturers have just stood by and watch Minelab run away with the high end market. The only company that ever really competes with Minelab is Minelab.

Better get more familiar with the Makro detectors, they are an up and comer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was surprised no one is nugget hunting with a MXT in this survey. Just for kicks last trip this summer to Rye Patch I took my MXT Pro along and did a couple hrs testing with it, runs very well in that soil, and detected 2 grain nugget to over 2" buried no problem in relic mode. I was running a 4.5DD Detech coil. I find it hard to tear myself away from the Gold Bug 2 when hunting grain size gold as its been very successful for me. But it looks very workable with the MXT and the right coils.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The MXT is plenty capable just like many other multipurpose mid-frequency detectors. But the core active nugget hunters do migrate towards machines that produce. Multipurpose detectors all tend to give up a slight edge and so they are fringe units compared to the dedicated gold models.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Admin

Hey Steve,

Overall, the survey really sums up what I have seen in the field for the most part. Hunting mostly in the Southwestern US for gold nuggets, most that I stumble onto around the major goldfields are using some series of the Minelab Pulse Induction metal detectors. I think if you take this survey again next year, the amount of GPX units will drastically increase, just going off what I'm seeing and selling currently.

The number of calls and inquiries about VLF's has really declined in the last year or so. The overall demand for recreational and serious gold hunters seems to lean heavily towards PI's, mostly by Minelab.

I think the reason the survey shows what guys are using successfully in the field, especially over old, worked US goldfields.

When you toss out the "price tag" I would rather find a Gram nugget at depth, missed by VLF's, then a Grainer missed by a PI and picked up with a high freq. VLF. Overall, the PI's for the most part will gain much more in weight (nuggets at depth, small and large) over a VLF in my opinion over time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I absolutely agree on all counts Rob. That is why I sold my SDC 2300. No way am I going to put my GPZ aside and lose all that depth just to get a tiny bit of extra sensitivity on micro gold. One larger nugget from down deeper makes up for hundreds of shallow little bits.

Another issue is that frankly a PI is just easier to use. A beginner is far better off with the SDC with its minimal control set and ability to ignore most any mineralization. A VLF will drive a beginner nuts trying to decide what is ground noise and what is a hot rock and what is gold. For me a VLF is nothing more than a tool for dealing with trashy locations. Otherwise I am using the GPZ.

GPX (all versions) is still best overall bang for the buck, especially with all the great deals going on. Mostly because there are so many coil options and its ability to deal with almost any ground. The GPZ is more like a Super VLF and so there is some ground where it has issues but where it works nothing works better. And the SDC is just a sweetie. Toss in the Gold Bug 2 or Gold Bug Pro and those five basic models pretty much cover it all when it comes to gold prospecting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with you guys about depth and putting more weight on your poke with the pi detectors, I do however feel like a lot of new hobbyist would be more likely to find something with a vlf . A lot of guys don't have known patches to rehunt with new technology might get more thrill out of a few grain sized nuggets than weeks or months of getting skunked looking for the bigger deeper nuggets. It's no doubt that serious detectorist need to use professional tools, but a lot of weekend guys might be better served saving some cash and enjoying the hunt a little more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahorton, I might have agreed with you before the SDC came to town. It's as turn on and go as you can get and handles the mineralization much better than any VLF ever will. I would highly recommend an SDC2300 to any beginner that could afford one over any VLF. If money is an issue for somebody starting out of course a VLF might be their only option, but they will require a much more frustrating and time consuming learning curve with any VLF as opposed to the SDC2300. Dennis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Dennis, im sure you're right, I learned on an old original gold bug and man that thing can make some noise lol. Pi detectors are certainly more pleasant to use I just think there is still a market for vlf to weekend prospectors, I also think most beginers could benefit from learning a manual ground balance machine. I haven't tried an sdc but would definately like to give it a go. I personally would recommend an auto ground balance vlf like a Lobo st to someone just starting out as to save a littl cash and also some frustration.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with you guys about depth and putting more weight on your poke with the pi detectors, I do however feel like a lot of new hobbyist would be more likely to find something with a vlf . A lot of guys don't have known patches to rehunt with new technology might get more thrill out of a few grain sized nuggets than weeks or months of getting skunked looking for the bigger deeper nuggets. It's no doubt that serious detectorist need to use professional tools, but a lot of weekend guys might be better served saving some cash and enjoying the hunt a little more.

This was my experience as well. I started hunting for gold with a Gold Bug Pro and swung that thing everywhere all over the club claims in my area for about a year without finding anything. Then I l thought I needed to upgrade to punch deeper into the ground and picked up a used GPX 4800. I swung that for about a year and found nothing. I was convinced the whole nugget shooting thing was a myth. Desperate old prospectors were just buying nuggets off eBay and posting them on the forums to show off their "finds" ?

I'd been at this for two years now and hadn't even seen a speck of gold. Surely it was impossible to find gold nuggets in the ground with a metal detector. "The mind is the greatest discriminator".

Then the SDC 2300 came out. I really liked the design. I'd been thinking for a few years how cool it would be to have a compact detector you could throw in a backpack, hike in somewhere and detect with.

The technical abilities of that detector, along with the last few years of knowledge I'd gained hunting for gold led to me finding my first nugget. That was a huge eye-opener for me. Now I KNEW there was gold in the ground and you COULD find it with a metal detector. I've been on a pretty good streak ever since then. The smallest nuggets in my collection have definitely been found with my SDC and since upgrading to a GPZ I've added some large ones to my poke too.

For my terrain the SDC proved to be the right detector for me to beat the skunk. The GPZ has just helped me push it even further to find some bigger ones at depth missed by others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.