Another Tool of The Trade: The Falcon MD 20 Gold Tracker

The Falcon MD 20 Gold Tracker is a good tool but it often produces uncertain results.

As depicted in this video, here’s how the detector should work. The detector sounds when going _toward_ gold, silver, copper and so on. Non-ferrous stuff. Which includes aluminum and, unfortunately, too often, strong iron targets. Those overwhelm the detector.

This pet wood shown probably contains iron oxides, giving a signal when the probe moves _away_from the target. In the field it is often difficult to tell which direction in which a signal is coming from.

Rocks need minerals in enough quantity to test reliably. The detector responds better when something singular is presented, not a mix of different, weak, conflicting materials. Never-the-less, even with a conflicting signal, one knows a rock is metalliferous.

I do like it for many reasons, though, particularly when pawing through ore samples at a rock shop. There may be a bucket of rocks advertised as silver ore, for example. If those rocks are from a named mine then I am interested. I’ll use the Falcon to test each rock for a signal. Finding none I pass.

This is especially important when testing gold specimens. A flashy specimen labeled as gold may be pyrite. If so, it won’t trip the Falcon. In either direction of the probe. Pyrite doesn’t register on any quality metal detector. Or it is cancelled out. While pyrite is iron related, it is what’s called a sulfide and not fully iron by any means. It is too different in its  makeup to signal a metal detector.

Pyrite is often mixed in with gold but if one can’t see gold, and if a detector doesn’t register gold, then proceed with tremendous caution with any purchase.

If a mineral isn’t visible, I want that rock to at least respond to a detector. You’ll read nonsense about how a seller’s material contains a metallic mineral above the crustal abundance. How do they know?

The Falcon is also good for testing rocks brought home from the field, ones not considered as metal bearing when collected. All finds should be eventually tested with UV lights, a Geiger counter, and a metal detector.

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