SE for nuggets?

[bing! (L.A.)]

I need to buy a new metal detector. My current interest is nugget shooting. Havent done it for long, and I suspect its not going to last (considering fuel costs and the desert environment). I'm thinking I should get and SE, try to find bigger nuggets and then use it for coin shooting later on.

Anybody has experience with the SE and nuggets? Is this a waste of time? Will it go bonkers?

Am experienced with the EX2, sold it a year ago. /bing

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Bing. Go over to the X-Terra Forum. You will find that the X-Terra will do a much better job at nugget hunting than the Explorer. The Explorer won't handle the gold fields very well. There are a couple of X-Terra uses that are having success with the X-Terra at nugget hunting. It is also a good coin machine.
Mick Evans.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Sure, the SE would find thumbnail size nuggets no problem, assuming it could handle the ground that you were hunting in. But there's 2 problems: 1) The type of ground where nuggets are found in, is nearly always nasty minerals. It has to do with the formations in the earth as to where gold can occur, is also by definition going to be also mineralized area, if I'm not mistaken. 2) very few nuggets in nature are ever thumbnail sized and larger. Even pea sized gold nuggets are rare. If you look at the sized nuggets that md'rs are finding, it's oft-times grain-of-rice sized and smaller. Those are what they end up making their bulk of weight off of, by the end of the year (they add up).

So I think the SE would not the choice for nugget hunting. It is a coin/relic machine, and wasn't designed to excell on teensy things. JMHO

 

[bing! (L.A.)]

I guess the XT70 is the middle ground between and all purpose machine and a nugget hunter.

Thanks!

 

[FrontierWest]

On the size of nuggets. I am sure most of the goldlike is lying in creek bottoms (placer) is indeed what you state..... however...lots of what Bing is looking for out there. But metal detectors are like tools in my mind and you would not use a claw hammer where you need a 10 pound sledge!!!! Get a GPX 4000!!!! If you cn't afford one..stick to coin shooting. Mine is almost paid for and this is my first summer detecting for gold.

John