Newbie looking for detector

[rhartman911]

Hello,
I am looking for a cheap gold detector I would like to try and keep it under $500 if thats realistic. I use a Highbanker and I have been going in places with no water and been bringing samples back to the car, where I have brought water to test pan and I would like to be able to narrow my samples down to where there will be more of a chance for a good pan test. It sucks to hike in and all the way back to the car just to find out bad pan samples. Once I find a decent place then I can worry about getting water in
I dont know what the deference is between a metal dectector and a Gold detecetor I have seen some used one on ebay but as you can tell I know nothing about the dectectors. Not sure if the area I live in helps to determine what I would need but I live next to the El Dorado National forest and have easy access to Sonora,Jamestown, Coloma etc.....(California)

 

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[nuggetshooter323]

A detector for gold has features that allow it to operate in highly minerlized areas where gold occurs. A regular metal detector without these features would get too many false signals a would be pretty useless. For the budget you mentioned you'll have to go used. Right now on ebay there are three or four older Whites Goldmaster gold detectors, they are in the $200-250 range. One of them is a really nice Goldmaster VSAT, it looks like it's in perfect shape. Another good one is a Fisher Gold Bug, factory refurbished, it's at $207 right now. It's the older model of a current detector, the Gold Bug II. The Gold Bug is the best used one on ebay right now, in my opinion.