Discovery 3300 for gold

[Digum]

I like the Discovery 3300 so much that I own two. It's good to have a backup or an extra in case a friend comes to visit. I hunt old homesteads, parks, fresh water beaches, just about anyplace. I've found rings so I feel confident it will work on gold nuggets. I realize there are soil conditions and other variables to factor in, but will it locate small nuggets? And how does the 3300 perform in fine gold areas?

 

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[Monty]

I have never hunted nuggets with mine but there is no reason I can think of why it wouldn't work. Perhaps it is not the best detector in the world to hunt nuggets, but it's my understnding detectors designed for gold have a higher frequency than normal. I don't know what freq the 3300 uses so I hope someone with a little more knowledge of gold seeking can jump in and help out. Monty

 

[FelixtheCat]

It operates on 6.7 khz. I don't know about nuggets but I have found lots of kid's size gold rings in tot lots.

 

[Digum]

6.7 khz is a pretty low frequency. I think most gold detectors have higher frequencies, but I don't know what that frequency range is. I too have found some small gold jewelry with mine, and plenty of silver. Of course, I don't know how much gold jewelry I've passed over by having a lower frequency MD.

 

[Monty]

I am saying this from a really poor memory, but......I think those detectors designed strictly for hunting gold are somewhere around 14.5 khz or thereabouts. You should be able to find gold with the 3300 but you might just have to dig a little more junk than one of those designed for gold prospecting. MONTY

 

[sniffer]

actually the good machines for gold operate at about 50 k. like the gold bug
the DFX runs at both 3 k and 15 k.

I don't think the 3300 will find flake gold but it should find gold larger than rice

 

[Digum]

I don't think the 3300 will find flake gold but it should find gold larger than rice

Rice size gold and larger sounds good. If it will find gold that small I'd be really happy. Discovery's and Titans come from Bounty Hunter (First Texs Products), right? So aren't most of their products circuitry and frequencies about the same, give or take a few model featers? If I'm right about this, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, anyone that has hunted gold with a BH product should be able to give me some kind of close indication on depth for small gold that size. Thanks.

 

[sniffer]

accuracy should be close. I've got a BH Time Ranger, when it detects gold it gives out a low growling sound

 

[Digum]

accuracy should be close. I've got a BH Time Ranger, when it detects gold it gives out a low growling sound

I've experienced a low growling sound with some other brands (Fisher and Minelab among others) when sweeping over old rusted barn tin or some rusty iron. The metal detectors were doing what we have always called "nulling out" and it's always been junk when we dug it. Usually lots of rust. It's a good way to know what not to dig. I haven't experienced this with the 3300 yet but it's good to know that there's a possibility for gold if I hear that sound in gold bearing areas.

 

[ivan salis]

with bounty hunters -- the 3 tones were a form of ID method----gold with bounty hunter is a growling noise --like a dog --- iron is a farty sound --pffftt the coins silver is a ping sound -- 3 very differant tones ---iron --fart ---gold /aluminum/ tabs growl -- coins and silver --ping there very differant from one another sound wize --- that way you can rough sort he group of metal you've found ---
to get gold with a tracker IV *
before hunting in a area --- lay a pull tab and a gold ring around 2 feet apart on metal free ground ---check it before placing the items --- put it in disc mode start with the disc knob all the way to low ---then slowly waving it over the pull tab slowly increase it until it no longer detects the pultab --now check that you can still get the ring if so your your dioscrimation is adjusted properly -- (ieven so you will get some pulltabs but you will get less of them on a overall basis thus less wasted effort and thus more productive hunts since you will spend your time digger better % chance targets )---- start off in all metal--- your best depth will be in all metal mode --once you hit a target in all metal mode ---flip the switch to tone mode -- see you get the gold growl * tone if so -- flip the switch to disc mode -- if it rings up in disc mode as gold dig it --or you can simply run in disc mode once you've got it properly adjusted.

 

[Digum]

I bought a Bounty Hunter Time Ranger for $485.00 and I've been quite impressed with what it is capable of.I would have to see some hard core proof that a detector costing $800. to $5000. was worth the difference.

TAKODA there is as wide a range in metal detector prices as there is frequencies. I've had detectors made by just about all the big name brands. I'm not putting other name brands down, they make some good MDs. I used to believe, because that's what people told me, that BHs weren't any good, they were only for kids. At MD gatherings I seldom saw a BH being used. Some people were and probably still are embarrassed to use them. They think you have to spend allot of money for a good detector. It's like a Harley, it won't serve the purpose of getting you down the highway any better or faster, it just costs allot more. It's a prestige thing. Most of my MDs ranged from about $500 up++++. I went to an old church grounds with a neighbor who had a Pioneer 202. I was a little embarrassed and surprised at what his little "enexpensive kids 202" was able to do on coins. I thought about getting a BH for about 6 months but the pressure of hunting friends making fun of me was too much. I finally decided to try the 3300. More features, and you can hunt right up against concrete, chainlink, or most metals unlike most expensive detectors. Soon after, I sold ALL of my expensive land detectors and bought another 3300 for a backup. I'm not big on prestige. The only person a metal detector has to impress is me, because I use it and it's my money. I've been looking at the wide range of frequencies too. I believe Garrett has a gold MDs that has an extremely low frequency whereas the Fisher Gold Bug II is like 70. Both companies have had gold MDs for a long time. Why such a wide range? Confusing. That's why I asked the gold question about the 3300.

 

[RI_JEFF]

I've been using a 3300 for about 7-8 years now and I love it! I've found gold rings but not too sure about small gold.

 

[woof!]

Coinshooting machines do a fairly good job of detecting rings because of their size and roundness. However, there's a big difference between detecting gold rings and detecting natural gold nuggets. The good news is that any metal detector will find the larger nuggets. The bad news is that the overwhelming majority of natural gold is small stuff, usually in mineralized soil, and won't be detected by a machine designed primarily for coinshooting.

Frequency isn't the whole story, but it does matter. Real gold machines run from 13 kHz (Tek T2) up to 71 kHz (GB2). Our F5 and Omega which run at 7.8 kHz have a computer assisted ground balanced autotune mode which is suitable for casual gold prospecting. A person swinging an F5 or Omega who knows what the heck they're doing, is going to find a lot more natural gold than someone with a high end gold machine who doesn't know what they're doing. Knowledge and skill are far more important in gold prospecting than in coinshooting, where even a newbie with an entry level machine can easily find stuff.

The BH 3300 platform machines allow searching in static all metals mode with manual ground balancing, and are fairly sensitive. With enough skill it might perform at about the same level (in gold prospecting) as the F5 and Omega. However the lack of computer assisted ground balancing and autotune mode means that developing the necessary skill in the use of the machine would take a long time.

Anyone who contemplates gold prospecting, I recommend reading my my book Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector, online in .pdf format at both the Fisher and Teknetics websites.

--Dave J.