notarichman
Tenderfoot
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2012
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 1
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- murray, idaho
- Detector(s) used
- minelab xterra 705
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
- #1
Thread Owner
Where I live there are lots of mineral types. The variety makes metal detecting difficult. My detector only displays numbers. That means i either have to memorize or write down the numbers that correspond to the item I'm looking for. Some of these numbers are the same for many types of metal, i.e. 20 might represent gold, silver, copper, lead, aluminum. So I don't know which one it is picking up. The display also indicates depth with down pointing arrows, but doesn't display inches down...you have to guess that 3 down arrows means 3" or something bigger is 10" down.
My primary interests are finding ONE gold nugget big enough for me to pick up with two fingers and finding relics that are worth donating to the local museum. Yes, I want to be able to say that I found a nugget worth mentioning and display it. I'm not interested in hunting coins or jewelry, except for the relic side of my goals. My brother coin hunts and I occasionally join him though.
Now to my problems -- 1. there is a lot of galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, antimony, silver, gold, and other ferrous minerals in the area. panning for gold doesn't work as well it seems because some of these minerals are actually heavier than black sands...which seems to be in big chunks, not sand sized. I can use a magnet to get some of the black magnetite out of the pan, but galena especially is hard to separate from the gold. This especially seems to hold true if the gold is embedded with another mineral (making it lighter). Any ideas on solving my problem?
2. My detector doesn't seem to differentiate between what is electrically conductive or magnetic. Does anyone know how to use the xterra 705 to do this? Since this area has lots of larger magnetic pieces and lots of conductive pieces and I don't know which I am picking up...
3. the xterra 705 has a prospecting mode and a coin hunting mode. In prospecting mode it will detect gold in fairly small amounts as long as it is not too far away. In coin mode it will only detect gold if there is a fair amount of it, i.e. a gold ring or coin. In prospecting mode it just sounds off when detecting, while in coin mode it displays a number which is supposed to correspond with types of metals. This means that I can only estimate the type of metal I detect in coin mode, but I am trying to detect gold in prospecting mode in fairly small quantities. any solutions? I can switch back and forth between modes quickly and do, but if it isn't detected in coin mode; then I have no clue as to what I am detecting or how deep it is.
4. Because there is a lot of ferrous minerals and a lot of old iron objects such as nails, horseshoes, iron rails, and metal roofing buried in the ground, i either have to continually turn on and off the iron eliminating filters, keep it in coin mode, or keep it in all metal mode and dig up everything (every six inches there seems to be something). On top of that the iron rusts, making it spread out and appear larger and the ferrous minerals become electrically conductive when water is present, but when dug up they no longer conduct and the signal disappears. any ideas
Thanks for any advice.
My primary interests are finding ONE gold nugget big enough for me to pick up with two fingers and finding relics that are worth donating to the local museum. Yes, I want to be able to say that I found a nugget worth mentioning and display it. I'm not interested in hunting coins or jewelry, except for the relic side of my goals. My brother coin hunts and I occasionally join him though.
Now to my problems -- 1. there is a lot of galena, pyrite, chalcopyrite, antimony, silver, gold, and other ferrous minerals in the area. panning for gold doesn't work as well it seems because some of these minerals are actually heavier than black sands...which seems to be in big chunks, not sand sized. I can use a magnet to get some of the black magnetite out of the pan, but galena especially is hard to separate from the gold. This especially seems to hold true if the gold is embedded with another mineral (making it lighter). Any ideas on solving my problem?
2. My detector doesn't seem to differentiate between what is electrically conductive or magnetic. Does anyone know how to use the xterra 705 to do this? Since this area has lots of larger magnetic pieces and lots of conductive pieces and I don't know which I am picking up...
3. the xterra 705 has a prospecting mode and a coin hunting mode. In prospecting mode it will detect gold in fairly small amounts as long as it is not too far away. In coin mode it will only detect gold if there is a fair amount of it, i.e. a gold ring or coin. In prospecting mode it just sounds off when detecting, while in coin mode it displays a number which is supposed to correspond with types of metals. This means that I can only estimate the type of metal I detect in coin mode, but I am trying to detect gold in prospecting mode in fairly small quantities. any solutions? I can switch back and forth between modes quickly and do, but if it isn't detected in coin mode; then I have no clue as to what I am detecting or how deep it is.
4. Because there is a lot of ferrous minerals and a lot of old iron objects such as nails, horseshoes, iron rails, and metal roofing buried in the ground, i either have to continually turn on and off the iron eliminating filters, keep it in coin mode, or keep it in all metal mode and dig up everything (every six inches there seems to be something). On top of that the iron rusts, making it spread out and appear larger and the ferrous minerals become electrically conductive when water is present, but when dug up they no longer conduct and the signal disappears. any ideas
Thanks for any advice.
