Finding gold nuggets with a metal detector is a lot of fun and actually finding a gold nugget is quite an experience. I still consider my first gold nugget to be one of my most exciting finds. The good news is that your Garrett Ace 250 metal detector can detect large gold nuggets. The bad news is that ground mineralization may prevent your from being able to tell the difference between the gold nugget and ground minerals.
This is to be expected as the Ace 250 was never designed to be a gold nugget hunting metal detector. While your Ace 250 may be a gold ring magnet at the park, gold country typically consists of heavy mineralized rocks and sediments that can cause your metal detector to sound off. For this reason, gold metal detectors often utilize higher frequencies, ground balance control and metal detector circuitry suited to these conditions.
This does not mean that you cannot find gold nuggets with your Ace 250. It does mean that you will need to have realistic expectations and use some specific nugget hunting strategies. To get started, you must be able to distinguish a good target from mineral induced chatter. For this to happen, you will likely need to turn down your sensitivity until you achieve some stability.
Because gold nuggets come in a variety of shapes, sizes and may be combined with other minerals, you will want to set up your Ace 250 to accept all targets. When metal detector for gold nuggets, you will want to dig everything even targets that id in the iron range. If the signal is iffy, dig it. If you are having difficulty locating the target, you may be picking up a mineralized hot rock. You will likely dig a lot of trash, but this is part of the nugget hunting game. Nugget hunting requires more patience and persistence than other types of metal detecting.
It is also important to remember that heavy mineralization and decreased sensitivity will reduce your detection depth. Being so dense, gold will naturally work its way down through the soil until it rests on rock or compacted sediment. When nugget shooting with an Ace 250, it is important to make sure that you are searching areas where the bedrock or compacted sediment layers are shallow. In general, the slopes of hills and gullies tend to have more shallow and exposed bedrock, whereas the base of hills will often have deeper sediments. While it is possible to find a shallow gold nugget in areas of deeper sediments, you stand a much better chance of finding a gold nugget by focusing on shallow areas.
If you have tried metal detecting for gold nuggets and are discouraged, keep in mind that you likely have a better chance of finding a gold ring at a park or at the beach than you do finding a gold nugget. Gold nuggets tend to come in clusters, called nugget patches, and even the best nugget shooters can go days or weeks without finding gold and then they hit a patch that rewards them well.
Note: While it is possible to find gold nuggets with the Ace 250, there are other metal detectors better suited to this type of metal detecting.
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