Greetings to all.
Sometime back "Landman" posted the question, "Is the X-Terra 70 the best gold Machine?" I have to agree with Steve Herschbach when he said "There is no such thing as a best gold detector". However, don't sell the X-Terra 70 short. Minelab is known for designing the leading gold detector around the world. The prospecting mode on the X-Terra 70 was not an after thought. It can find gold and has the ability to handle bad ground conditions. The X-Terra 70 is a true Multi-Purpose metal detector. The ability for it to operate at 3KHz, 7.5KHz and 18.75KHz gives it an edge over competing Multi-Purpose detectors. It's manual, automatic and tracking ground balance in all operating modes set it apart from most of the other Multi-Purpose machines. If you live where you have easy access to major gold fields, I would suggest purchasing a dedicated gold detector. Dedicated detectors like the Gold Bug 2 and the GMT have a slight advantage over the X-Terra 70 as far as finding tiny flakes of gold. However, there is not a very big difference. I own a Gold Bug 2 and the GMT and they can detect gold flakes down to around 1/10th or .1 grains. I have been able to detect gold flakes with my X-Terra 70 down to about 1/2 or .5 grains. A nugget hunter in Australia claims to have found flakes as small as .38 grains with the X-Terra 70. Gold flakes this small can be very hard to recover by sifting through the dirt. Using a gold pan and water is a lot easier, so if I can't locate the target in reasonable amount of time I put the dirt and target in a plastic bag and pan it out later. I normally get a fair amount of finer gold along with the larger flake that way. In general the X-Terra 70, Eureka Gold, MXT, Gold Bug 2, GMT and the Lobo Super Trac are good choices for detecting gold nuggets within the first 12" of the surface in moderate to bad ground conditions. As Steve mentioned, if you want to find larger gold nuggets a lot deeper in extremely bad ground the PI gold detector is the best choice. While PI gold detectors can detect reasonably small flat gold flakes down to around 2.5 grains they really shine at punching deep in extremely bad ground for nuggets larger than say 1/4 ounce. Good choices here are the Minelab SD/GPX detectors, the new White DTI and the Garrett Infinium LS.
If you don't live with easy access to major gold fields, have limited cash available but do plans occasional prospecting trips, the Multi-Purpose detector just might be the best choice. I don't think you can go wrong with the X-Terra 70.
I have attached a couple of pictures of some of the gold nuggets that I have found. The smallest of the four is 4.1 grains and the largers is 23.6 grains. While I have found tiny flakes as small as .5 grains, I selected the two on the poker chip for my setup nuggets.
God Bless and HH
Smitty II
Sometime back "Landman" posted the question, "Is the X-Terra 70 the best gold Machine?" I have to agree with Steve Herschbach when he said "There is no such thing as a best gold detector". However, don't sell the X-Terra 70 short. Minelab is known for designing the leading gold detector around the world. The prospecting mode on the X-Terra 70 was not an after thought. It can find gold and has the ability to handle bad ground conditions. The X-Terra 70 is a true Multi-Purpose metal detector. The ability for it to operate at 3KHz, 7.5KHz and 18.75KHz gives it an edge over competing Multi-Purpose detectors. It's manual, automatic and tracking ground balance in all operating modes set it apart from most of the other Multi-Purpose machines. If you live where you have easy access to major gold fields, I would suggest purchasing a dedicated gold detector. Dedicated detectors like the Gold Bug 2 and the GMT have a slight advantage over the X-Terra 70 as far as finding tiny flakes of gold. However, there is not a very big difference. I own a Gold Bug 2 and the GMT and they can detect gold flakes down to around 1/10th or .1 grains. I have been able to detect gold flakes with my X-Terra 70 down to about 1/2 or .5 grains. A nugget hunter in Australia claims to have found flakes as small as .38 grains with the X-Terra 70. Gold flakes this small can be very hard to recover by sifting through the dirt. Using a gold pan and water is a lot easier, so if I can't locate the target in reasonable amount of time I put the dirt and target in a plastic bag and pan it out later. I normally get a fair amount of finer gold along with the larger flake that way. In general the X-Terra 70, Eureka Gold, MXT, Gold Bug 2, GMT and the Lobo Super Trac are good choices for detecting gold nuggets within the first 12" of the surface in moderate to bad ground conditions. As Steve mentioned, if you want to find larger gold nuggets a lot deeper in extremely bad ground the PI gold detector is the best choice. While PI gold detectors can detect reasonably small flat gold flakes down to around 2.5 grains they really shine at punching deep in extremely bad ground for nuggets larger than say 1/4 ounce. Good choices here are the Minelab SD/GPX detectors, the new White DTI and the Garrett Infinium LS.
If you don't live with easy access to major gold fields, have limited cash available but do plans occasional prospecting trips, the Multi-Purpose detector just might be the best choice. I don't think you can go wrong with the X-Terra 70.
I have attached a couple of pictures of some of the gold nuggets that I have found. The smallest of the four is 4.1 grains and the largers is 23.6 grains. While I have found tiny flakes as small as .5 grains, I selected the two on the poker chip for my setup nuggets.
God Bless and HH
Smitty II