Understand your ground, then use Fitness For Purpose

How many out there prospector/detectorists, upon arriving at a certain gold bearing locality, first jump out of their car & go for a walk, visually scanning potential gold bearing ground first, before saddling themselves up with their favourite detector coil combo on & going off for a swing?
The reason I ask this is because & although tedious to do, or might be seen as a waste of time walking/doing, visually scanning potential gold bearing ground first, within reach of a metal detectors coil capabilities, is just as important towards a successful gold find, as that of the tools one uses to find gold with.
We should all know by now, that no one detector coil/timing does it all, so why persist in thinking so?
The ground one intends swinging a coil over, has a lot to tell regarding its depth, the type of soil or rock/plant covering it, including degree of mineralization present, so look for these signs. Look & try to understand what the ground is telling you, before deciding on taking off, swinging with your favourite detector coil combo on all day, hoping for a nugget hit, whilst the ground siting back laughing saying in silence, "Hey Dodo", you do know any chance of gold here is down 4/5 feet deep    
Look for all/any surrounding signs the ground has to offer, before putting an appropriate size/type coil on (fitness for purpose) changing coils/timings as need be, increasing ones chances of lobbing on to that bit of colour, that otherwise would have been missed.
Believing that you'v covered all potential gold bearing nuggety ground successfully, with the one & only favourite coil on, is not only being naive, but you will be leaving gold behind, for another person to find.

Cheers Kon.

Gee Kon,

You must be able to drive to all your detecting spots. I just stick to the one coil that is connected to my Zed and travel kms on foot to where I need to go. No problem reading the ground as I go and adjust the settings if need be.

Cheers

Doug

I don't mind victorian goldfields, In wa, fnq and pretty much everywhere else around Aus one can go pretty remote(this is not a bad thing). but gold in vic gold is so concentrated, all you have to do is pull off a main arterial rd that is close to a famous creek

Cheers GG

in your particular circumstance Doug, walking klms away from your vehicle to get to your prospecting locality, can make things a little difficult, especially with the carrying of extra weight.
I basically do the same, but with a lot less driving/walking to my destination. That's the Vic goldfields for ya, one dirt track after another till you're basically on the diggings themselves.
Unfortunately, In order to maximise ones chances of finding gold or increasing the gold tally, necessitates the use of a change in coil size/type, for you know as well as I do, receiving the faintest of gold signals within deeper sections of ground, or over gold that is just to small to be picked up at greater depth by a change of ones settings/timings alone, using only the one coil, will have you wondering/thinking of what else could be lying deeper down just out of reach, more so if the gold found at depth is of descent payable size.
Not to worry though, for where there's a will, there's always a way.

Cheers Kon.