question about detectors

[glocks&gold]

Hello i am new to prospecting and down the road im sure i am going to get me a detector and primarily going after gold ive seen the prices range from 300 on up to 6 grand.Is there a certain price point you get to to where your just buying bells,whistles? or do you have to look at it like the more you spend on a detector the better it is at finding more gold whether it be smaller pieces or the depth at which it is able to find gold therefore paying for itself quicker? thanks guys!

 

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[Terry Soloman]

First question to ask yourself is: Where am I going to use my new machine? If you don't live in a place that is known for nuggets, or if you don't have access to a gold claim that is known for nuggets, then you have no business buying a $6,000.00 machine. If you are just going to poke around club claims that have been pounded for years in your spare time, then a VLF like a Fisher Goldbug Pro, Tesoro Lobo Super Traq, or a Whites GMT will work fine for you. If you plan on going deep into the Klondike, or flying deep into the California Rockies, or Arizona's Bradshaw mountains, then maybe you should think about investing in a more expensive and deeper Pulse Induction machine.

 

[Featherdfishead]

Welcome to the ball game G&G. Check out Steve Herschbachs writings on different detectors, you dont necessarily have to spend thousands. it depends on your soils and type of gold deposits your search for. I paid of my new Fisher Gold Bug Pro in one summer season, but i've also mined along time and detected afew years.
Good Luck
AjR

 

[glocks&gold]

First question to ask yourself is: Where am I going to use my new machine? If you don't live in a place that is known for nuggets, or if you don't have access to a gold claim that is known for nuggets, then you have no business buying a $6,000.00 machine. If you are just going to poke around club claims that have been pounded for years in your spare time, then a VLF like a Fisher Goldbug Pro, Tesoro Lobo Super Traq, or a Whites GMT will work fine for you. If you plan on going deep into the Klondike, or flying deep into the California Rockies, or Arizona's Bradshaw mountains, then maybe you should think about investing in a more expensive and deeper Pulse Induction machine.

thanks man i am in the high desert within an hour or so to areas in the past that produced gold but i hear what your saying but wouldn't a better detector pay for itself quicker than a cheaper one? I've never been afraid to spend the money for a quality product over a cheaper one thanks bud!

 

[glocks&gold]

Welcome to the ball game G&G. Check out Steve Herschbachs writings on different detectors, you dont necessarily have to spend thousands. it depends on your soils and type of gold deposits your search for. I paid of my new Fisher Gold Bug Pro in one summer season, but i've also mined along time and detected afew years.
Good Luck
AjR

thanks man i will check it out where can i find his writings?

 

[meMiner]

Be prepared to drive yourself nuts trying to find out the answer. I certainly had a heck of a time and still sometimes doubt my choices. It is worse than trying to figure out who to marry, where to live the next ten years or the best dog for you. The best place to start for drilling down on nugget detectors (and return to) is Steve's write up, as you have already been advised. Other than that, yes, you get what you pay for. However, what works best in one place or by somebody is not necessarily the detector for you and your circumstances. First thing to ask yourself is PI vs VLF (or both). Then waterproof (heavy) or dry land. New or used. Not to mention, do I buy now or wait until that next wonderful machine is available? Even after you buy, you will then be asking yourself about coil sizes, batteries, etc. The good news is a great hobby and there is room for one more guy. Good luck....

 

[glocks&gold]

Be prepared to drive yourself nuts trying to find out the answer. I certainly had a heck of a time and still sometimes doubt my choices. It is worse than trying to figure out who to marry, where to live the next ten years or the best dog for you. The best place to start for drilling down on nugget detectors (and return to) is Steve's write up, as you have already been advised. Other than that, yes, you get what you pay for. However, what works best in one place or by somebody is not necessarily the detector for you and your circumstances. First thing to ask yourself is PI vs VLF (or both). Then waterproof (heavy) or dry land. New or used. Not to mention, do I buy now or wait until that next wonderful machine is available? Even after you buy, you will then be asking yourself about coil sizes, batteries, etc. The good news is a great hobby and there is room for one more guy. Good luck....

thanks man i appreciate the reply i will have to read steve's thought's on this is it on this site?

 

[Featherdfishead]

Look at steves post on the half pounder he recently found and then you should beable to find his other writings and his website.

 

[glocks&gold]

thank you bud i just saw that wow! and thank you everyone here for your help looking forward to getting to know you all and learning

 

[beekbuster]

look into the notka fors gold. the reveiws are phenominal. many of the top pros are calling it the best vlf today, and its on sale at kellyco right now.i am a beginner myself and have spent the last few weeks researching what detector to get. i got a gmz right off the bat to have somthing to swing, but wanted a more professional detector. had my sights on the gmt till i read the reveiw of the fors gold. if you want to stay around the 500 dollar mark then i would say look for a gold bug 2 on craigs list. agian i am green as fresh cut tree, but i have let the reveiws and advice of the pros lead me to this conclusion.

 

[GreyGhost]

I've been metal detecting for about 5 years. I started out just looking for relics but my interests shifted towards finding gold.
The first machine I bought was a Gold Bug Pro. I didn't have any luck with that so I thought to myself "MORE POWER" so I bought a Minelab GPX 4800.
Didn't have any luck with that either then the Minelab SDC 2300 came out and due to the fact that it folds down so small I was really interested in it. Been thinking for awhile how great it'd be to have a little detector I could basically keep folded up in the truck and break out whenever I got the urge to detect.
Well after looking for about 3 years I found some gold with the SDC 2300. However in that time I also learned a lot more about metal detecting for gold and the best places to search.
I've kind of come to the conclusion that the most important thing isn't the equipment, it's being in the right place and knowing where to look. Coming full circle, I think I could have probably found the small gold I did with the Gold Bug Pro.
Gold prospecting is a constant learning process and it's not easy, it's why gold is so rare and valuable.
In conclusion if the area you're in is known for large nuggets then try out an expensive Minelab GPX 5000 (or the new, REALLY expensive GPZ 7000) and get used to digging some really deep holes, hoping to find that one in a million ounce or larger whopper (I know you can put smaller search coils on the GPX series detectors for small gold but I don't have any experience with this).
Or you can focus on finding the smaller gold which in nature is a lot more common, and does add up after awhile. With the right expertise and knowledge a VLF detector like a Gold Bug Pro will suit you fine or a more powerful pulse induction detector like a Minelab SDC 2300 would work too.

 

[NeoTokyo]

This is always a hard question and has so many variables and there are so many quality gold hunting rigs on the market.

I have been really enjoying the Nokta FORS Gold lately (As I have said many times now. ) and I feel that it is one of the easiest machines to learn out of all that I have tried and owned.
Pricepoint wise, its just a little more than a Gold Bug Pro but it has more options and more depth but doesn't lose out on those tiny bits.

I feel that Fishers Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro are great detectors as well and should not be ignored.
The Tesoro Lobo is also a very good and successful detector.

Keeping it more on the simpler side of life really helps to learn a detector and while the FORS may have a lot of extra's, it is very easy to learn, just like the Gold Bug Pro.

Really all of the quality gold machines will find gold if the user is dedicated enough and learns the machine and the ground he is working.

 

[Featherdfishead]

Unless you require a PI machine I would recommend getting a Gold bug Pro, Tesoro lobo, Fors Gold, Garrett At Gold, ( Makros coming out with a Racer Gold edition I believe - all kinds of bells and whistes for the price range) or the likes to make sure your going to enjoy detecting for gold, some people just dont have the patience, access to areas with detectable gold and/or the fortitude to stick in there when not finding gold for awhile. Also I just read on a respected forum that Minelab is goiing to be unable to repair the GPX series due to obsolete parts, so i'd steer clear unless you can pick one up very cheap or have connections to a good mod guy.

 

[glocks&gold]

thanks again guys for all the advice on the different detectors sounds like there are quite a few good ones out there can you tell me the difference betweeen a 500.00 detector and a 1000.00 detector as far as being able to detect gold at greater depths? is it going to be much and is that what your paying for with a more expensive detector to get more ability to go deeper into the ground or a huge rock?

 

[SHoward]

To look for gold you want one in the 18 khz or higher range. I think all of the major manufactures have one or more models in this range. They start at around $700.
Good Luck

 

[Hard Prospector]

I have a Gold Bug that I bought just for taking friends out who don't prospect, its a very simple yet effective machine that I picked up new for $450 out the door couple years ago. Nearly the same as the Pro(without manual ground balance) makes it about $200 less yet for most people just as effective. One more consideration to think about

 

[huntsman53]

Just my thoughts but there are too many folks that go head strong into Gold Prospecting and buy expensive equipment but find very little Gold! Sure you can pay the high prices for high end metal detectors that supposedly do all but if you don't Nugget shoot where Gold is, don't have the experience and knowledge of where to look, then you just have an expensive investment with no return. Start out cheaper with metal detectors such as the Fisher Gold Bug models or the White's GMT or even the Garrett AT Gold and get to know whatever metal detector you buy and most of all do your research for where Gold and especially nuggets are found and/or are likely to be. The metal detectors I mentioned are proven producers and can be had at a eighth or a tenth of the cost of the high end metal detectors and they can do near as well in the right situation, in the right areas and in experienced hands! While I own and prefer the White's GMT over the others due to their known capability to find small nuggets, the others can do nearly the same in the right situation. Why pay $3,000 to $6,000 for a metal detector and only find $1,000 to $2,000 worth of Gold in a certain period, when you could have recovered nearly the same with a $500 metal detector??!! Once you pay for your' cheaper metal detector several times over and if you decide to try a more expensive metal detector, then you probably can afford to do so but I would keep the good ole cheaper metal detector to fall back on in case the more expensive one doesn't really do what it is supposed to do.


Frank

 

[glocks&gold]

Thanks again guys for all your advice and i did read steve's list of his top detectors and i enjoyed reading it he was very thorough and after reading i will start off with a 500.00-800.00 range like you said in the beginning till you learn how to use a detector and where to use it what good is spending thousands on one if you cant find the gold in the first place.Now maybe if i find thousands of dollars in nuggets with the cheaper detector then maybe ill treat myself once i know what im doing.Let me ask you guys a question when talking about depth in a detector does the type of ground that your using your detector in play a large part in how deep it can detect a nugget whereas in one type of dirt your detector might only detect down to say 6 inches and in another type you might get a 12 inch depth is that how it works?

 

[Hard Prospector]

In addition to buying your first machine, you should consider some informative books on nugget shooting starting with Dave Johnson's; Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector. Your questions and many others have already been answered at depth in some great books out there on the subject. Before landing the troops you need to bomb the beach.....

 

[glocks&gold]

In addition to buying your first machine, you should consider some informative books on nugget shooting starting with Dave Johnson's; Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector. Your questions and many others have already been answered at depth in some great books out there on the subject. Before landing the troops you need to bomb the beach.....[/QUOTE thanks bud i will check into that!