A strangely addictive hobby, metal detecting is a fun mix of treasure hunting and old world discoveries. With each beep that you hear, you get a special thrill of excitement at the possibility of digging up a rare, historic coin or treasure (depending on where you live). Each find can be a fun discovery into the history of the area you are searching in, and you never know what might turn up next!
It is important to choose the best metal detectors for gold for the level of experience you have and the type of treasure hunting you have planned, so you need to ask yourself a few questions:
- How often will you be hunting?
- What will you be searching for?
- Where will you be hunting?
- How much experience do you have?
- How much do you want to spend?
What are the best metal detectors for gold?
If you have the best cheap metal detector for gold and silver that is too heavy to carry around, your treasure hunting experiences will end quickly. If you have a detector with electronics that aren’t strong enough to find anything, or the detector misreads its targets, you will get frustrated. If you have more electronic options than you need, you can become frustrated, trying to figure out all the different frequencies and knobs.
Ideally, you want a gold detector that is powerful, yet simple enough to guarantee that you have an excellent treasure hunting experience. Here are a few tips on what to look for in the best metal detectors for gold, and a few reviews to help you start shopping.
Minelab Equinox 800 Metal Detector
The high-performance Equinox 800 is capable of finding more gold than ever before. It’s easy for the beginner to use, as well as the seasoned pros, due to its switch on and go factory preset search modes and automatic functions.
The menu is very simple and easy to remember, especially during the constant changes of characteristics during detecting to check the effectiveness of certain settings. It features 4 detecting modes (field, park, beach, and gold) and each of them has two sub-modes, so you get to enjoy 8 different detecting programs.
The Equinox 800 is lightweight (1.3 kg), it’s waterproof to three metres and comes complete with a set of wireless headphones, a low latency Bluetooth interface and a very comprehensive book about treasure hunting with a metal detector.
Final Verdict – The Equinox 800 is perfect for the individual that likes to fiddle around with dials and change modes. The Equinox 800 runs smooth and quiet, even in the most severe ground conditions, while still maintaining excellent depth and sensitivity to gold nuggets.
Pros:
- Simultaneous multi-frequency
- Wireless Bluetooth headphones
- Lightweight
Cons:
- Getting used with the multitude of frequencies for a better detection
Garrett AT Gold Metal Detector
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The Garrett AT Gold also includes 18kHz frequency for increased detection of jewelry, smaller gold nuggets, coins, and relics! It also features three sensitivity levels and is quick to pinpoint objects working two to three times faster than many of its competitors.
Designed to find small gold nuggets, even in the most challenging detecting environments, the Garrett AT Gold works at a high frequency that is optimal for gold prospecting in shallow freshwater.
It also includes a True All Metal Mode, which has high sensitivity and large possible depth. It has a constant audio response that allows you to hear any small detection signals that can be created by faint targets!
Highly recommended for prospecting, the Garrett AT Gold works well for jewelry, coins, relic hunting, cache hunting, and shallow freshwater hunting. It features a Double-D submersible search coil, plus Garett MasterSound stereo headphones for dry land hunts.
Pros:
- Easy to understand controls
- Affordable
- Can change out the coils and upgrade them
Cons:
- Can’t use it in saltwater
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Fisher Gold Bug-2 Metal Detector
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When you are ready to take detecting to the next level, the second generation Gold Bug will help you get there. With ultra-high frequencies including the highest operating frequency on the market, the Gold Bug 2 was created for finding gold nuggets with its extraordinary sensitivity.
The Gold Bug 2 also features dust and moisture resistance, iron-discrimination, audio-boost and its capability to work in mineralized soil with its three position mineralization switch.
The Iron Disc mode will reject iron trash target and hot rock with its powerful 71 kHz operation for its extreme small gold nugget sensitivity. It is convertible to either a hip mount of chest mount and only weighs 2.9 pounds. Plus, it features Quartz-crystal locked electronics and a dual-knob ground control for fine and coarse adjustments.
Final Verdict – Although it is a little expensive, the Fisher Gold Bug 2 is very accurate and easy to handle. With its many features and frequencies, this is a great detector for those that know the differences in frequencies and want to maximize on that sensitivity.
Pros:
- Very accurate and easy to use
- Lightweight and easy to handle
- Easy setup out of the box and you are ready to go
Cons:
- A little on the expensive side
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Fisher Labs GOLDBUG Pro Coil Combo
With features tailored to gold prospecting, the Gold PLUS Metal Detector can find gold as well as relics and coins. It features a sophisticated ground balancing system that can separate control over signal gain and threshold. It also has a unique discrimination control system making it a great relic-hunting detector.
When outfitted with the optional 11″ DD search coil, the Gold Bug Pro becomes a highly effecting Coin-shooting detector. When used as a coin-shooter, it has a slightly lower sensitivity to high conductivity coins like U.S. quarters, which is a result of a specialized design that emphasizes sensitivity to small pieces like gold nuggets that have low conductivity metals.
With its revolutionary metal detection technology, the Gold Bug Pro features extreme ground and target information with an ability to find the smallest gold nuggets in any highly mineralized soil. The Gold Bug Pro also includes a new state of the art advanced formula and uses multi-purpose capability with a 19kHz Operating Frequency to become a standout machine for Gold Prospecting.
Final Verdict – Some individuals just enjoy the hunt while others enjoy the technology that goes into the search. For those that are into working with sophisticated search systems, the Gold Bug Pro 2 Coil Combo gives you a unique discrimination system to help you find those small nuggets, plus it is great for fitting into those small spaces.
Pros:
- Lightweight and affordable
- Has a lot of features, easy to make adjustments
- Great for fitting into small places
Cons:
- Instructions are not very good
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Minelab GOLD MONSTER 1000
When optimizing metal detector performance, there is always a compromise between sensitivity and frequency since higher frequencies are more sensitive to small gold nuggets and lower frequencies are more sensitive to large nuggets. The Minelab Gold Monster 1000 has an extra sensitive 45 kHz VLF performance that is highly adaptable, plus it has a high speed 24-bit signal processor.
You will find that most detectors can find large nuggets that are just under the surface, but high-quality detectors can find a lot of small nuggets from farther down at a greater depth. With the Minelab’s combination of performance and processor, it has a boosted sensitivity to gold than other VLF detectors without giving off false signals and excess noise.
It also has an improved discrimination of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, and it works better with salty soils than other higher frequency detectors making it a great choice for gold recovery. With automatic noise cancellation and auto ground balance, the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 also features an automatic sensitive with a fully automatic operation, plus an easy, quick start and two included search coils.
Final Verdict – Treasure hunters that appreciate a higher level of technology will enjoy the ground balance and improved discrimination of the Minelab GOLD MONSTER 1000. With easy adjustments, it is easy to use and can locate nuggets several inches down. It is not a good tool to use in the dark, however, because the screen doesn’t have a backlight.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Can find nuggets three to four inches down
- Easy adjustments and has waterproof coils
Cons:
- Doesn’t have a screen backlight so it’s hard to see in dark places
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Bounty Hunter Tracker IV
With a streamlined appearance, the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV has removed the hardest part of operating a metal detector by featuring a mode selection switch and only two operating controls.
A built-in Automatic Ground Trac provides balance when detecting minerals, plus it can detect metals in harsh ground conditions from inland sites that are highly mineralized to salty wet beaches without any loss of sensitivity or the need to make circuitry changes by the operator.
With the ability to find larger objects up to three feet deep and coin-sized objects up to eight inches deep, the Tracker IV has three modes: 2-Tone audio mode, Discrimination Mode, and Motion All-Metal mode. Use in any soil type with its ground balance feature that preset neutralizes its response to the mineral content you encounter.
You can also distinguish between unwanted metals and targets with the Disc/notch control so you can easily find coins, jewelry, and relics among the unwanted targets in the soil.
Plus, it comes with a ¼ inch headphone jack that will work with most headphones.
Pros:
- Easy to use in any type of soil
- An affordable gold detector that is great for beginners
- Easy to follow manual
Cons:
- Volume in headphones is not adjustable
- Only the pole is not made of plastic
- Weak adjustment pole that could easily break if treated a little rough
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Garrett Metal Detector ATX
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Featuring a design that works on any terrain, the Garrett ATX Pulse Induction Military Grade Metal Detector can be used in either wet, humid, or dusty environments.
It also features weatherproof housing that can be immersed in water up to 10 feet. And, with advanced ground balance, you have a wide range to ground balance including heavily mineralized ground to saltwater without having to worry about switching to a special mode.
The Garrett ATX is also fully collapsible and can be operated with the stem either fully collapsed or extended anywhere in between. It gives you optimal performance that is based on your metal hunting preferences and condition, so it can be used in either Motion or Non-Motion Modes.
With its advanced new DD search coil, the ATX gives you enhanced detection and easy pinpointing of small items.
Final Verdict – For those treasure hunters that cover all types of terrain, the Garrett ATX is a great middle of the road detector that is easy to set up and perfect for those that already have a little experience. It is heavier than its competitors, so make sure you have the strength to carry it everywhere you want to go with it.
- Works on all terrains
- Has just the right amount of options and settings
- Easy to set up, great machine for those that have some metal detecting experience
- On the heavy side
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What to Look for When Buying a Detector
When you are out shopping for your new gold detector, there are several features that you should examine to compare gold detectors to choose the best one for your needs.
Coil Construction
You will find that there are two types of coils: either DD or concentric. The most common are concentric coils that are metal rings that nest inside each other and are usually circular, although you may also find them oval.
Concentric circles emit a cone-shaped search field that will be about as deep and wide as the coil is itself, so if you have a concentric coil with a diameter of 8 inches, your magnetic field will also be 8 inches deep and wide. Since magnetic fields are cone-shaped, you will find that your field is the narrowest at the deepest point meaning that your effective depth is probably less than the full width of the coil.
The other type of coil is the DD that received its name as it looks like two Ds facing one-another. The DD coil has a blade-shaped magnetic field instead of a cone-shaped, and the size of the coil determines the size of its magnetic field with a common DD magnetic field measuring 2 to 3 inches wide, 10 to 11 inches long, and 10 to 11 inches deep.
There are two advantages of the DD coil design over concentric coils, including a thin magnetic field that is better at differentiating between closely spaced metals. Gold detectors can only identify one type of metal at a time.
The second advantage is that a DD coil has a magnetic field with about half to two-thirds of its coil diameter at its maximum depth, whereas a cone-shaped field only has small pinpricks at its deepest point.
Discrimination
You can often find a discriminator, also known as a microprocessor-controlled analyzer, on many high-end metal detectors. The discriminator works by comparing signals sent by the receiver coil to the signals known of different types of metals – like the signal for gold is a lot different from the one sent by aluminum.
The discriminator can ignore the signals from junk metals like aluminum and steel, which allows you to focus on more valuable metals like silver and gold.
Search Depth
Search depth is the measurement of how deep the device can detect coin-sized pieces of the metal underground. Even though you may find a metal detector that covers a large area, this wide range may make it harder to locate an exact area to start digging. With a smaller coverage area, it can often be easier to zoom in on a ring or coin.
Ground Balancing
With this feature, you can cut out interference that you can get from natural metals like iron. A good ground balancing gold detector will focus on finding the minerals in the soil that are unnatural. You will fill find that most metal detectors will have three different types of ground balance, including auto, preset, and manual.
Target Identification
With some user-friendly metal detectors, you will get a graphic target ID that analyzes any distortions and determines what possible metal lies below. A more advanced detector will show you a number between one and 100 that will match a certain type of search field distortion.
Operating Frequency
Gold detectors with multi-frequency detection can discriminate between the targets you are searching for and unwanted targets. The only place it will not work as well on is the beach, so if that is your central place for treasure hunting, this feature will not help you.
There are other special features that a metal detector can have, including informational displays that can make them stand out in the gold detector market. When you consider purchasing a metal detector, it is important to figure out which features appeal to you and which you feel you will not need.
Other Metal Detector Features
• Volume Knob – Since your metal detector will beep regularly, it may be important to have the ability to control the volume so you can reduce or increase the volume as the situation warrants.
• Headphones – Many people also prefer for others not to know what metal they are picking up, so using a set of headphones can help you keep all your business to yourself.
• Sensitivity Knobs – Some hunters prefer to have a range of sensitivities that filter out junk metal and just focus on the valuable metals.
• LCD Screen – Many basic models will not come with an LCD screen, but if you are interested in having an interface to collect information, you may want to check out models that include one.
• Custom Notching – Similar to discrimination, notching allows you to filter out unwanted results.
• Weight – The weight of the metal detector is also an important consideration considering how much time you plan on walking around with it, so it is essential to find something that won’t strain you.
• Waterproof – Depending on the model and manufacturer, some metal detectors are waterproof. Some can submerge up to 10 feet. Others may have waterproofed coils but can’t be totally submerged.