Large deep vs small shallow

[genel112]

Thanks guys for all the info on Grids. Next question: I read and I hear about hunting for large deep or shallow small nuggets. I am confused as I want to find any of them. It appears that people seem to hunt shallow small first and large deep last. Won't large deep settings find small shallow too?

[Ridge Runner]

Gene

You remember when I said in the other post to hunt with different size coil this is not to miss the very small and the deep ones.Lots of big coils will detect some real small nuggets but at the same time it's best to hunt it with a small coil when it may get down to a 1/2 gram are less.The small coil will only go so deep so the big coil will detect out of the range of the small one.

I hope I've made it clear for you.Never stop asking questions being that's the best way to learn from others and save you time when in the field.

Chuck Anders

[doer]

The vastly most common sized bread and butter wages nuggets are under about 3 grams and usually much less rather than more in weight being mainly sub-grammers. To get both the brightest signal and the absolute most depth on these small nuggets, a smaller coil(like the round 8 or round 11, and 10 or 14 elliptical mono's) is needed.

Going to a much bigger coil(like a round 16 or 18+) yes will find still these small nuggets but can backfire and actually have less depth on those small nuggets. A bigger coil only has an advantage in extra depth on bigger nuggets over about 3 grams or so and also more coverage AND deeper big nuggets are sometimes to too rare to be searching specifically for them while sacrificing some depth on smaller nuggets at the same time.

But then again with a big coil 1(one) deep big nugget(that would have been missed by a small coil) could pay for about 100 deep smaller ones (missed by the big coil, but found with a small coil), so you have to weigh out your particular ground situation(depth to bedrock or nugget sizes) and priorities. Or instead maybe try to use a midsized coil(like a round 14 , 17 elliptical, or one of the 12 x 15-18.5-24 elliptical mono's) for the best of both worlds but a master of none. Or go over the same ground twice or more times with different sized coils. IMO as others may disagree.

[dutch john]

Gosh Great Information.

With gold hovering over $1300/oz, even finding a small pocket of several sub-gram sized nuggets can now add up to a nice $$.

Do the math; if you are able to "beep" small pockets of grain sized "bread and butter" flakes, they can quickly add up to a gram or more.... and with 31.1 grams to a troy ounce at plus $1300/oz, a couple of grams shure ain't chicken feed.

Plus, you never know, but you could also beep a lunker... so dig everything. The only true "iron" discriminator is the magnet on you digging tool