Metal detecting for sluicing op

[prospectorbowie]

G'day all, 1st time poster here, I've been bitten by the gold bug and coming down with the fever.
Now my question is, I'm after some sort of gold detector more complimentary for sluicing/panning, as in detecting for flour/pickers/nugs basically every size you would be able to find in a creek.
Which route would be better to explore for that purpose? Detector or pin pointer?

 

[grubstake]

Hiya Bowie and welcome to PA.

Detecting flour gold is a very big ask - metal detectors primarily react to target surface area, which the tiny particles of flour gold don't really have. I reckon your only chance of picking up a signal from fines would be a gadget called the Falcon MD20 Gold Tracker. They're hyper-sensitive, but they're also relatively delicate and may be impractical for your purposes:
https://falconmetaldetectors.com/

Pin pointers are primarily designed for coin detecting, to narrow down the target location thereby reducing the size of dig-hole necessary. They generally work OK for nuggets but probably not as small as 'pickers', although some models are more sensitive than others. Water-proof models are available, so a pin pointer might suit you, but I'll leave it to others with field experience to comment on the relative sensitivity of the many makes and models.

In the actual metal detector field there's one outstanding choice - the Minelab SDC2300. It's sturdy, waterproof and highly-sensitive to tiny gold (as well as anything bigger). It has a unique one-piece folding design that makes it more compact than other detectors, but even so it would be a lot more clunky in use than a pinpointer.

 

[Geehi]

I have a brand-name pin pointer - smallest piece of gold it will detect is a 0.5g pressed up against the nose.
If you learn to use your pan and sluice properly, you should be able to find "every size you would be able to find in a creek".
If you're looking for flour gold, get a 30 mesh sieve, and either a blue bowl or Miller table (or, better still, both ).