you're right about the Quattro, it isn't a gold machine, just a coin/relic detector. But I've heard that the Explorer 2 can detect small surface nuggets, and have been wondering for some time now, whether or not the Quattro could. So I always aim to give the Quattro a go on the goldfields, but I do have a Minelab SD 2200. My son detected a tiny gold nugget with it while we were away, I would say under a gram in weight. I know exactly what you mean about the -10 signal and all the chattering. may have to drop your sensitivity down quite a bit, to about 8 to 10 I would think. The general rule would be to drop your sensitivity down considerably, but you are doing that. It's normal for the reading to read 39 or 40 in coin mode. Just remember the ground in different settings is giving you conductive and ferrous readings, a percentage of each which increase or decrease with a different mode. The other thing I was thinking, you might have hot rocks, or very mineralized clay, so the detector will sound annoying with all the constant chattering. Try dropping a coin, or a relic of some kind on the ground, right where you're detecting, and see how the detector responds. If anything, it'll reasure you that you will hear a good target if there's one there. I found by detecting in mineralized ground that is damp the detector seems to run more stable than in dryer conditions. What do you think? If you use discrimination, unfortunately, you will miss targets. Also use a smaller coil, like the 7.5 inch, or a 5 inch. Unless I'm actually there Rotty, to run my detector over the ground, it's hard to know exactly what's going on. Maybe your degree of mineralization is more or less, or different in minerals to ours. We have a lot of iron, iron ore, what we call hot rocks, and they can be at the beach too. There's also sometimes a degree of sulphur in the ground, particularly near the creeks here, that seem to seep through the ground in places. It's actually a good indication of gold nearby when this happens. Sometimes, you've just got to make a decision that maybe the ground is hot, and there's nothing there. Again, depends on the local, the history of building sites, and the likelyhood of relics. From what you've said, it sounds like an old settlement, so just keep trying. But when in doubt, always go back to a test garden, even where you detect, as it'll help put things into perspective about what's happening there.
Hello John (wirechief)!, nice to hear from you again! The local schoolyard sounds like a great place to try. Hope you find something soon!
Angela (Golden)
