When I was first getting started metal detecting for gold nuggets I spent a lot of frustrating days just trying to get a grip on all the different sounds my new machine was making. The ground in most placer areas has a large number of different minerals mixed in that will give some sort of a signal when your coil passes over them. Also the amount of iron in the soil varies from one spot to the next and that can mean constantly checking your ground balance on machines without automatic ground tracking features. Now through all of this you are searching for that tell tale signal that means a target. This article will deal mainly with the VLF detectors like your Fisher Gold Bug 2, Whites Goldmaster, Tesoro Lobo, and others made for gold nugget detecting

The threshold adjustment is very important, if not adjusted properly you will miss small and or deep signals. The threshold is the background hum or buzz you listen to all the time when nugget hunting, it is the disturbance of the threshold that indicates a target and if you have it set so it can't be heard you will miss a lot of gold. Threshold sound should be set so that you can just barely hear it; if you keep it to loud it will drive you nuts and will also cause loss of sensitivity. This adjustment is where a lot of people have a bit of a problem and no two persons hearing is the same. Try to imagine the sound of a mosquito buzzing around your head and try to set the detector at that level.

Now we get to where people really get into trouble, ground balance. Most VLF machines have manual ground balance and the user must constantly check and read just as needed. There are now machines that once balanced, maintain that balance, but sometimes they have trouble in really "hot" ground. Most manufactures tell you to balance to a point where you hear no change in the signal when pumping the coil up and down. This is a personal preference, but I run my machine just a touch positive when nugget hunting. This means that when doing the balance procedure of pumping the coil up and down you set it so there is a slight signal on the down stroke. Remember I said very slight or you will be digging false signals

Now we are to sensitivity, with this adjustment you control how sensitive your detector is to the minerals in the ground. Higher means more noise, but more depth and lower is less noise and less depth also lessens the detector's ability to hear small targets. I run the sensitivity as high as possible without my machine running erratically and although I listen to a lot of ground noises, I have figured out how to ignore most of them and only hear the tell tale zip-zip of a target. When people ask how I sort through the jumble of noises, I like to use the sound a trumpet makes as an example, a trumpet sounds like a trumpet close or far away and you can even pick it out from all the other instruments in the band, right? Ok so now look at the sound good metal targets makes and listen only for that sound strong or very week through all the other stuff. If you can do that you can find gold nuggets!

These are just a few tips that I hope will help someone find a few more nuggets. I strongly suggest reading your manual over and over until you fully understand every bit of it and keep practicing and doing research. Before long you will things will come together and your finds will begin to increase. This gold hunting hobby takes a lot of patience and it helps to be a little nuts. Most of this information is meant to help after you have learned all the basic functions of your detector and many settings were not discussed mainly as I mentioned these are just a few tips to help hone the edge so to speak.... Good hunting.