Please Help Nugget Hunting. Bounty Hunter Tracker IV Desert Gold

[JHArizona]

Hello. I am in a prime area for hunting Picker Gold and small nuggets in the High Mohave Desert of Arizona. Lots of people here hunt gold with metal detectors. (and meteorite) I recently purchased a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV detector with an 8" Coil. It says in the book it is good for finding gold, and can penetrate into black sand which is ideal for this desert area.

I know the gold is out here, and I have read great reviews about this detector, but I am starting to have doubts. It will pick up on a gold ring and sound loudly, and even a gold nugget necklace from Alaska, however, The necklace has 18 carrot gold hasp soldered onto the nugget, and ring is all 18 carat gold. That means there is a nickle hardener....Does it sound on the nickle and not the gold? I am running with high sensitivity in all metal mode. No discrimination...

I was able to test on a little 1/2 pennyweight picker nugget found in the desert that has been glued to a poker chip. No response at all, yet this was found with a metal detector to begin with right here near my home by a friend....

It appears that either the Tracker IV Bounty Hunter, Or it's 8" coil will not detect 24 carrot small gold? Could this be? The way my manual reads, I should be able to detect the gold and go nugget hunting.

I am thinking of purchasing the 4" Nugget coil and feel that may be my problem, but don't want to spend the extra 40 bucks if it is the machine itself. I don't know what to try. I cannot afford an expensive unit like a whites or mine lab. This was the best deal for the amount of money I had to work with. Any help with my Tracker 4 and nugget shooting will be greatly appreciated. Please point a newbie in the right direction...

Thanks.

 

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[JHArizona]

Do you know if there is any way to modify the machine and make it stronger? Boost that locked frequency to pick up deeper or tinier metals or anything?

 

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[ivan salis]

well differant freqs are known to preform better for certain types of use --the 3 and 15 for exsample are good deep hunter signals --the 6.59 range is a good shallower freq and small item (bounty hunter )-- you can only "push" as much signal as the ground will accept -- like a stero you can "jack it up" and make more "noise" but will the results be better--no and often its worse instead ---- a "properly" balanced machine thats "pushing" all the signal the ground will properly accept" will give you the best overall preformance . -- with a bounty hunter depending on soils mineral conditions --on coin sized items say 8 to 10 inches in decent soil is normally the max --if your getting that --- thats very good indeed

some times running a smaller amount of power can help find small tiny shallow items --some say .

 

[JHArizona]

Definately getting that. In areas over the hard sun baked soils, or wet sands, I am getting atleat 10 to 12 inches on anything the size of a quarter and larger, and in the soft loose dry sands, I can get a range of about 3 feet deep on a quarter....I guess i wont try to mess with it.

 

[ivan salis]

10 inches on a quarter sized item in decent soil is about as good as it gets my freind -- your machine is working as well as can be expected -- to get the depth you say 3 foot in loose sand is staggering -- word to the wize --if your getting that don't mess with it a bit .

 

[JHArizona]

I will take the advice....I wont touch a thing. The 3' depth is only in the loose sand though.....Like a deep soft spot in a wash, and it has to be on the highest sensityivy possible on all metal mode. I have been burying a 1996 Washington quarter in different spots to test it...deeper and deeper each time. 3' is the max.....At that depth it is just a chattery little chirping sound and any further it is no sound at all....closer to the surface it is the louder it gets...

I plan to test it with an axe head tomorrow and see what I can get for depth with that, and maybe on Wednesday start sticking a big old chunk of RailRoad rail in different spots.....Its about all I have to play with

Gonna pick up so rechargeable batteries too I think. Been through 8 9 volts already and only got this think about 2 weeks back...I play with it waaaay too much and havn't made it to the gold mines yet... I want to try out Cyclopic Mine first, move down to Gold Basin, and then over to King Tut Placers but I think I am going to wait until my 4" coil arrives and I have some rechargeable batteries on hand. I have to look into the other mines here still too. A lot of them are suddenly becoming active again...

Gonna hit the hay for now. Thanks for all the help. I have learned alot on this website. What a great forum!

Thanks again!

 

[cuttlefish]

JHArizona, how is the 4"coil working out for you on your Tracker IV?
I want to get one and was wondering whereabouts in Canada you got yours as $30 with shipping all in is a great deal.
I'd be really grateful if you or anyone else could let me know where this is, as I live in Canada.
Thanks

 

[JHArizona]

Hello. I purchased mine on eBay from a member that goes by "galesfinds" Go to the ebay community tab, and run a search, and you should be able to find any of the active listings for sale. They run a website where the coil is available at:

http://www.galesmetaldetectors.com/coils.html

but on the site it is $54.00 Every now and again I see it on ebay for the $30.00 as I purchased mine. Maybe even contact and ask them about it?? That is who I purchaed from anyway.... I live in the US and thought it was never going to arrive. I guess the tracking and package was stuck at customs, but it made it. It was a brand new coil, but not in original packaging. It works pretty well so far.

The coil narrows in on smaller objects much easier, and provides a stronger signal that the 8" couldn't do. I traded in my depth for object size with this coil. The dtector with the nugget coil only gets about a 3" depth, but can locate small objects better. It s perfect for here in the little washes in the desert....I dont need much more than a 3" depth.

It will sound easily and loud on a gold nugget about the size of a US Dime about 3" deep. Anything smaller than that has to be pretty much on the surface, and the dust will not sound unless there is a high concentration of it. It is great for getting into little crevices and under brush and shrubs where the 8" wouldnt fit, and I am pretty happy with it over all. It does have its pro's, but also has its cons. As I had mentioned, you do sacrifice the depth, so if the object is over 3" deep, it probably wont find it unless it is the size of a car. Also with the small coil, the area coverage isn't so good. If you want to do a large area, I would recommend a larger coil, as 4 inch is really slow moving...

Hope this helps.
JH

 

[cuttlefish]

Thanks JHArizona, I checked out their ebay site, only has one metal detector on it right now.
I have emailed them at their regular store to see if they can do me a deal on a nugget coil...is 3" depth all you can really expect?
I read quite a few reviews where people said they were getting 5-7"
Thanks for the help!

 

[Astrobouncer]

I had one of these detectors for about a weekend. I had to take it back cause the speaker stopped working (batteries were fine, I tried 2 sets of brand new 9 volts and also tested their charge to make sure) and it was bouncing the metal detection indicator like crazy when it was stationary (its a motion detector).

In the time I had it I was impressed. This thing was amazing for finding magnetite. It was finding very small pebbles at depths of 2-9 inches no problem. I would get a strong signal and then pan a whole bucket of dirt down to find the aforementioned pebble which only weighed a couple grams. I had to dig three feet down to find a magnetite stone that was about 1/4 the size of my fist. It also found me some blacksmith nails from the 1800s in my field (an old cotton growing field), and a buried firepit with some scraps of metal that was about 30 inches down, under the red clay. That firepit must have been there for a long time.

I was gonna get a replacement when I took it back, but the place I bought it from was out of stock so they gave me my money back. I will get another one, I just hope the next ones sturdier.

 

[JHArizona]

It al dpends upon what I am detecting. I can find a pop can with the nugget coil at about 5 to 10 inches or so. Larger items at even deeper depth. A piece of railroad rail will register at up to about 2.5 feet or so in dry loose sand....

As far as the actual gold goes, I can find a raw gold nugget the size of an American Dime at about 2 to 3 inches or less. Anything smaller than that is tough to find....