I guess it all depends on what you call a "gold nugget". I just ran my 1 month old Excalibur ll with its 10" coil over some gold that I bought off eBay. This gold is very small. The biggest piece is like near 1/4" long and about 3 to 4 times as thick as a grain of rice. I am sure these were found with a gold pan. But i bought it to see if all of it combined would trigger the detector as a target, (6 pieces of gold). I put the gold on a plate left in its plastic vile, and then also tried with it poured out over the plate. None of it triggered the Excal with any sensitivity setting, (in PP or Disc), even passing right over it. I did not want to take my 12 X 15 SEF coil off my Sov. GT to put the stock 10" Tornado on, but figured if the Excal would not see it, neither would the GT with either the stock coil or the SEF on it. I then pulled out my Wife's 4 month old Whites MXT and tried the same test over the gold in Prospect mode. It did not pick the gold up either! The MXT DID have a faint tone in the coin jewelery mode, but not in prospect. The MXT is running its stock 9.5" coil, I did not try the 6 X 9 DD we bought for it to gold prospect with.
So again, I guess it all depends on what you want to call "Gold", or a "Gold Nugget". It would have to be a fairly large nugget to detect, (or find), with the GT, Excal, OR even the MXT! I have found
VERY SMALL lead fishing weights with the GT and the Excal! But when you think of the gold fields out there, I really do not think there are that many "small fishing weight" sized nuggets left. When we first started detecting on our beach, with my wife's Whites MXT, and my Whites 6000 DI Pro SL, we were making finds in the DRY sand, but very few in the wet sand, which is where most the rings are found. We had to buy the BEST specialized detector for the job we wanted to do to maximize or time and our finds. So we bought the GT and the Excal ll. The Whites work great inland, and the Minelabs we have are best for our beach situation. So I am thinking of buying a used "gold specific" detector so as to maximize our potential, and time when we go prospecting! It makes you realize why so many "Happy Hunters" around here have so many multiple detectors. It IS expensive! But it is also great that technology has gotten to the point of maximizing our time by making specific use detectors.
I ride motorcycles. I use to LOVE my dirt bike until I realized I could not ride my Yamaha YZ 250 WR 2 stroke like I was 20 anymore and had to sell it! (Hurt too much when I crashed it riding like I was 20 when I was 49!) In the past I had tried a "dual sport bike" that was a VERY POOR compromise on the street, and off the road on the dirt. I had to decide to buy a specific Street bike for the road, and specific dirt bike for the "off road" to do the best job, to maximize my enjoyment, and even safety. (Still have the street bike). So I guess it is the same with metal detectors. Use the best available tool, for the job you want to get done! Don't try to compromise, or you will end up with poor results!
Hope this helps.
HH
Beachnut -- on too much high tech morning coffee!
