V3 and gold hunting?

[OregonMike]

Hi,

Let's say I want to take the V3 into gold country and look for nuggets.

1--Is the V3 a good detector for this, or should I borrow a friend's detector made specifically for gold?
2--If the V3 is indeed suitable, what settings should I use, and what else should I know before trying this?

Thanks!

Mike

 

[CROCK of COINS]

Mike, If you have a friend with a gold detector, why not get it and compare the two!

The V3 has a program for "Prospecting", and it works good.

I tested the new White's GMZ gold machine and my V3 side by side.
I used this small vile of gold.

I did NOT adjust the V3 program...just used the stock Prospecting settings.


Good Luck
Jerry

 

[Jason in TN]

Used the prospecting mode for a while in the dry sand at the beach it was amazing the small foil and earring backs that I would find with it.
Found a half carat diamond earring in platinum setting for a girl that ask me to look for it the setting was tiny.

Jason

 

[Aurium]

I've been observing several prospecting video's and the common theme seems to be high resolution coil (e.g. small), or elliptical and the higher frequencies. I would also guess that wheat kernel sized nuggets would be the most challenging and probably more common than larger sized stuff (so small gold particles would require a higher resolution coil, to improve detectability). I used to do a lot of prospecting in Idaho, and Alaska w/out a metal detector, and along with the technology there are some good common sense principles to use when searching for gold. Especially in water drainage basins, or arroyo's (dry washes). Principally that gold has a high weight relative to the rest of the minerals and will tend to seek it's way to bedrock, or behind/under boulders. In water this is due to how quickly gold flocculates (e.g. sinks) in a solution. It's also helpful to understand that a streambed, dry wash only "throws" gold at certain times in it's history so don't be limited to the bottom deposits (richer ones) sometimes are much higher in the canyon and what you are seeing is a sample of what's there. Look for rounded rocks (water worn) at higher elevations above the current waterway or arroyo, also look for bedrock outcroppings that would have acted as an eddy maker
during waterflow, as this tends to concentrate the gold as well. (these little hints always seemed to improve my finds)

It's a lot of fun looking and finding I hope you have many success's as you get out and bang the bottoms.

 

[Architex]

I have a small flat nugget weighing less than a tenth of a gram mounted on a card. I put my V3 in the prospecting program with no changes, threw the card on the gravely, mildly mineralized ground surface and tried an air test. The coil picked it up at 4-5 inches. Pretty good I thought and comparable to my GMT. This was with the standard coil. For what it's worth I was impressed.

Keep in mind that in gold country the ground is almost always very mineralized and results will not be nearly as good, also when the nugget is in the ground it's much tougher also.