Treasure hunting outdoors is a fun hobby. Nothing gets exciting like gold prospecting! Unlike other metal detecting such as coins and jewelry, gold hunting needs you to use a good metal detector that can detect gold.
However, there are many gold metal detectors for sale on the market. Some cheap metal detectors are under $100, but some are expensive, like Garrett AT Gold, which is higher than $500. you must be confused about what metal detector is best for gold if you are a beginner. If you are confused about choosing the metal detector for gold, read this guide. You will find the best metal detector for finding gold nuggets and gold flakes.
What metal detector is best for gold hunting?
Pretty much that all metal detectors can detect gold. The difference is the accuracy, the more accurate, the easier to find the small gold nuggets and flakes. Even if at the place where the mineralized ground, also can quickly find out the gold. But, what factors should you consider if you want to buy the best metal detector for your prospective hunting place?
Environment
One of the most important factors that you should consider is the ground conditions of the area where you will hunt gold with a metal detector. In short, heavily mineralized soil means here has higher metals than other soil. It will lead to the wrong signal, and finally, affect the accuracy and reduce detecting depth. And will come in big perplex for beginners.
So you’d better choose one option with automatic ground balancing, which will minimize the effects of soil mineralization. A metal detector with ground balancing enables you to adjust the ground balance according to the soil conditions where you are hunting. Then you can detect the gold nuggets or flakes anywhere, even in places with lots of iron-rich soil conditions.
Search coils
The search coil's size and type will affect the accuracy of the metal detector. Different search coil sizes offer different performance and ground coverage. It would be better to choose the search coil that is perfect for your needs. Next, we’ll detail explain two often used types on the market.
The most common use is concentric coils. There are round shapes or elliptical shapes. The elliptical concentric coil can cover more ground and allow you to easier hunt in places where you can’t to free swing search coil, which means you can hunt for more access at a narrow room. The other type is DD search coils, which better suit areas with high mineralization in the ground.
Once you make sure which search coil you want, the next to decide what size of the metal detector search coil is you’ll choose. A metal detector with large search coils is perfect for much more ground, and they also can detect gold under depth ground. In addition, you should pay attention that the large search coil may skip some smaller targets due to their hunting more areas means the sensitivity will cut down. Opposite to large search coils, a smaller search coil can increase the metal detector’s sensitivity, allowing you to find smaller gold flakes easily.
It does not matter which search coil to choose. Recommend you’d better buy a coil cover to protect your metal detector search coil since the search coils are easily damaged.
Metal detector frequency
What is the best metal detector frequency for gold nuggets？ In general, there are Very Low Frequency and Pulse Induction, two different operating frequencies. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages, to decide to choose which one. This depends on the ground conditions where you want to gold prospecting.
The Very Low-Frequency metal detectors can provide high frequencies necessary for finding gold. They can detect large gold nuggets but might be lost sight of the small gold nuggets. In addition, they are more affordable than PI metal detectors. They can also hunt gold accuracy for below 8'' depths and are simple for beginners.
On the contrary, the PI metal detectors are typically designed for professionals, and they can find the larger nuggets buried at 10-20 feet depths. However, their accuracy is lower than VLF metal detectors on the disc mode. This is a challenging decision when comparing a VLF or PI metal detector.
Indeed, it depends on your purpose, soil conditions, prospective gold hunting areas, and budget.
Disc model
The DISC model is one of the most important features that you should think about it. A metal detector for gold will help you DIS other metals and pick out the gold quickly. Using a metal detector with discrimination can help you save much time and get pleasure on your treasure hunting weekend.
Metal detector price
Believe that the metal detector for gold price will affect most people to decide which one to choose. Some cheap metal detectors are under $100, and some gold detector machines are expensive, even higher up to $1000. As a general rule, the cheap models may be the best choice for beginners, spend minimal investment in metal detectors, and get the sweet spot on treasure hunting outdoors. In short, you’d better choose the metal detector for gold according to your budget and your purpose.
Waterproof
If you want to find gold flakes on the beach or riverside, a waterproof metal detector for gold is a great choice.
Best gold metal detector for beginners
Tilswall metal detector is the best budget metal detector for gold hunting. It has a 10’’waterproof search coil, so you can safely use it on the beach and land and even detect it underwater. The DISC modes help you distinguish different metals, and we’ll give you a pair of headphones and a small foldable shovel. Connect the headphones to the audio jack on Tilswall metal detector. When the detector identifies each metal will emit different sound and display on the LCD screen to accurately and conveniently detect objects you want.
The Tilswall metal detector is more comfortable to hold than many others, which is with ergonomic design handle, allow you adjustable stem extending from 35’’ to 45’’, and it weighs 2.35 pounds only. It's the best suit for beginners.
What is the difference between a metal detector and a gold detector?
A gold detector is a metal detector, but they differ in its use-purpose. A gold detector is typically designed to detect gold, often with high frequency and multiple ground balancing methods. Of course, the price is higher than the metal detector. A metal detector is a machine that enables you to hunt for metal such as coins, jewelry, gold, silver, etc.
Thought
A gold metal detector is a machine for gold prospecting. After spending a few minutes reading this article, you know that the metal detector for gold should be high-frequency models. Indeed, there are many factors you should consider when buying a detector to find gold. We hope this guide will help you purchase the best budget metal detector for your money.
Further Reading:
The Best Metal Detctor
The Best Metal Detector for Kids
How Metal Detector Works