Gold Detectors

A Gold detector is simply a type of metal detector that is designed specifically to find gold and of course gold nuggets. This type of specialty metal detector is built to find gold in different forms, these forms of gold may include:

1. Lode or large hard rock deposits that exists in a vein and usually mixed with other materials

2. Placer deposits that is found in either a stream or in dry sands and gravel.

3. Pure gold nuggets, which can be found individually or in streams.

The gold finding ability is the thing sets these detectors apart from the general purpose metal detector. Choosing the right detector will give you the ability to be successful in your gold prospecting. Arming yourself with the right type of equipment can save you plenty of grief in the field and it will also prevent you from spending huge sums of money on the wrong type of metal detector. As a minimum, good gold detectors must have the following features:

1. Deep seeking all metal mode. This deep seeking all metal mode give precise (usually adjustable) ground balance. Most modern metal detectors that are built for the general purpose use, feature automatic ground balancing. This is usually fine for beginners and for the weekend hobbyist. Most hardcore and serious gold prospectors prefer the feature to adjust the ground balance themselves. This custom ground balancing allows for a more accurate prospecting but proper ground balancing is a skill that will always take time to master.

2. Iron discrimination. Iron discrimination is another feature you need when buying gold detectors. On the iron discrimination mode, the gold detector will be able to identify hot rocks and common trash items like iron nails and other ferrous trash that will just give you false readings. You may also want to use this mode in areas with lots of trash to check the area first for iron content.

3. Ability to vary mineralization settings. This feature is a bit unique for a good gold detector. The ability of the detector to vary mineralization allows the gold hunter to change the mineralization settings on the detector itself to be able to concur with current ground conditions. This feature allows gold hunters to operate with high effectiveness in soil with high mineralization that also containing numerous hot rocks.

Remember, when you are considering a gold detector that will be primarily used to prospect for gold, it is recommended that you should consider one that is specifically made for finding gold.

All major manufacturers offer at least one or two metal detector products designed specifically for finding gold and the most expensive machine are not necessarily the best selection when looking for the best gold finder. There is such a big load of lies and stories about metal detectors and most especially gold detectors. Metal detector manufacturers will use so much advertising hype that most people think they would be able to discover gold the first time they use such machine. There is so much half-truth. Here are some facts that we know about gold detectors.

All gold detectors are basically based on the same technology. Obviously, there are many different types and models but they are all just variations of the same machine that relies on electromagnetic technology. A magnetic field is generated inside the gold detector which reacts to the magnetic field of the metal buried on the ground. The metal detector has that ability to convert this reaction into an electrical signal that will tell you when metal has been detected on the ground. The most important thing about gold detectors is tuning. You must be very careful in calibrating gold detectors to properly receive the right signals from the ground, depending on what you are looking for. Often, this tuning and calibration must be performed (usually by pressing one or several buttons) every few minutes depending on the type of gold detector.

Another important factor to consider is motion. Some gold detectors require you to have a fairly slow swinging action while other types of gold detector need a much quicker action. For excellent results, you will have to use the speed which is considered as optimum by the manufacturer of the gold detector. Read carefully the gold detector's instruction manual before performing any searches on an area. Last but not least is frequency. Most gold detectors operate at low signal frequencies between about 5-10khz and 15-20khz. The main reason for that is because low frequencies can go deeper into the ground. So if you are targeting objects like rings, nails, chains, coins or similar objects then low frequencies between 5-20Khz is what you will be needing. Multi-frequency gold detectors (which are of course very expensive) have recently appeared in the market for the past few years, they claim several advantages in gold detection and in depth performance. In our opinion all these claims are sort of overstated.

We have noticed that not even a single gold detector manufacturer specify the detection depth of their instruments. This is always of course very confusing. The main reason is that there are lots of things that can affect the depth detection like for example the ground type, moisture level etc. Gold detector manufacturers will never specify a specific depth range (Example. 10 meters) because there is another manufacturer that will immediately specify a higher range (Say 11 meters). In our opinion gold detector depth range is will be almost the same for all brands of the same type of detector.

Another half-truth that we hear is that the deeper we can go into the ground, the more treasure that we can find. We think that this is not always the case. It is more like the deeper you go, the less you will find. If there is someone that would burry a treasure 300 years ago, how deep do you think that person would dig? We think that the average depth would be around 10 meters. Archeologists discovered treasures that are hidden for thousands of years, and they are buried in the ground at a depth of less than 5 meters.