Looking for the best gold nugget machine any ideas

[Anonymous]

I hope this is a appropriate topic for this forum. I am leaning tward the Minelab GP extream but am a little worried about all the bad press on the forums. also thinking of the Minelab SD2200 as it is the proven work horse. Are there any other suggestions or comments for the minelabs. Also any rumors of any new gold nugget machines, Garret, Whites, Ect. Thanks for any info, Miles

 

[Anonymous]

White's Gold Master series are very good nugget macnines. I have used one for years now. Alot of people have found much gold with these machines. The SD series Minelabs are good machines, but remember you are paying alot of money and they do not get all the gold the coil sweeps over. ML would be the greatest when working in highly hot ground where the IB machines won't work. PI are mainly used at the beaches in, around and under the water. Salt water doen't effect them. Eric makes the best PI machines in the world and maybe he will be making another type of dry ground nugget machine. He only knows. This is just a start. Rick S

 

[Anonymous]

You can have the best gold nugget machine made. But if you have never used one before. You are in trouble for several reasons. First you need to find some one that will teach you how to use that machine. Then you need to have somebody teach you where to find gold and also have permission to be able to hunt for gold there. Vlf machines are very good in some areas where in other areas. PI machines are the best way to go. Gold nugget hunting is the hardest type of metal detecting there is. Most gold nuggets only whisper that they are there.
Terry in Hawaii

 

[Anonymous]

REmember prospecting is another learning process. Something I have has pretty good success with is going back into a mined area and finding places that were missed during the original mining, pays off, but takes some looking and understanding of what took place, this can be done while scanning around. HH Geo

 

[Anonymous]

Miles
Whites is coming out with a new gold machine next month called the GMT which has the option of auto or manual ground balance. You can check this URL TO hear more and ask your question there. Also check some of the other gold forums.
Good luck
fm

 

[Anonymous]

Where have you hunted nuggets before? Where do you plan on hunting nuggets? How often will you hunt nuggets? While hunting nuggets, is that all you're going to hunt? What kind of budget do you have for a specialized nugget hunting unit? How good are you at doing research and getting permission to hunt private property?
Before deciding on which gold machine is the best, you probably need to do some soul searching and answer the above questions. I'm not trying to be a smart alec, just that sometimes we go off on a tangent and the next thing you know, it was a wrong turn. I'm only speaking from personal experience though and your situation may be completely different.
Maybe you don't need the "best" nugget machine out there. Maybe you will only hunt nuggets occasionally. Maybe you've never hunted nuggets before and won't like it. Like Terry said, it's probably the most difficult hunting there is and some people do it for years before finding their first nugget and that may only be a grain or smaller. (480 grains to an ounce). Perhaps there is a multi-purpose machine that would work better for you, where you are going to hunt I know nugget hunters that have made fabulous finds with a $200 unit and others that haven't found $100 worth of nuggets and have $8000 tied up in the "Best" and, of course, just the opposite as well.
Anyway, just thought I'd share some things that you might want to think about before getting too deep... <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

 

[Anonymous]

I used to live in California so I've been nugget hunting in California, Arizona, Nevada, Eastern Oregon. Last time out I used the Gold Bug 2 Found very little gold but did find a meteorite in arizona on a friends claim. That was 2 years ago and before that its been 3 years using the Gold Bug. Just haven't been able to keep up with the new gold equipment. Money is not a huge issue but I won't buy the most expensive just because its out there.

 

[Anonymous]

ExplorerXS That should give me a well rounded arsenal for most types of hunting Gold, Coin & Relic

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry but myself and a friend both owned an Explorer Xs and we both got rid of them fairly quick. You could rub gold chains all over the coin and it would not respond. The Excalibur and Sovereign seem to be better machines on the most part...Some have had excellent results and many have sold the Explorer...Kinda like the ones that are good are really good and the ones that are bad are really bad...Just my experience...Frank

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Miles, I thought from your orginal post that you had never hunted for gold nuggets before. The Minelab Explorer is not designed for nugget hunting. Your Goldbug 2 is a very good vlf machine for gold nugget hunting. I can speak a little about the new vlf gold nugget machime that White is coming out with. It will ground balance by it self very fast. While I saw a working prototype several months ago at a friends house. I must admit that I did not pay much attention to it. However my friend said that it was a good machine and that he had found gold with it. But then he is a very good Goldmaster operator and has found many prounds of gold nuggets. I can not say if the new White's machine will go deeper then your Goldbug 2 because I don't know. In my gold nugget hunting group while we still use Goldmaster in some areas. We now mainly use Minelab SD2100 and SD2200D to be able to go deeper in the areas that we have hammered very hard before with Goldmasters.
Terry in Hawaii

 

[Anonymous]

moved to St. Louis, MO I use the explorer for coin hunting only and would use it on the beach as well but lack beaches in MO. The gold machine will be for when I move back west to the golden state and have easier access again to the better gold bering areas. Unless something really hot comes out in a month or so I'll probably go with the Minelabs for the deeper stuff.