QUESTION ON WHAT DETECTOR I SHOULD BE GETTING........

[ECOTERRY]

Im a Newbie......
May I get everyones advice on what the Best detector would be to start out with ?
Just looking for the best all around one, What should I buy ?
Thank you.

[Functional]

Im a Newbie......
May I get everyones advice on what the Best detector would be to start out with ?
Just looking for the best all around one, What should I buy ?
Thank you.

What kind would you like?

What do you plan to do with it?

What are the soil conditions like where you plan to use it?

What is your budget?

What do you prefer, bells and whistles, or something that gets the job done?

F.

[Jeffro]

Go get a Garrett Ace 250 or a Fisher F2 or a Bounty Hunter 3300.

[thompy]

i would look at the mxt, xt-70 , teknetics t-2 or fisher f-75,f70, some mid upperend machines, i would imaginge you have mineralized soil conditions your way , you want something with a ground ballance, all these machines are more sensitive towards gold

[Jim Hemmingway]

Im a Newbie......
May I get everyones advice on what the Best detector would be to start out with ?
Just looking for the best all around one, What should I buy ?
Thank you.

Hi ECOTERRY, there is no one detector that will be best for every type of hunting, so it depends on what type of hunting you intend to do. Since you are on the nugget hunting forum, can we safely assume that nugget hunting will be at least one of your potential pursuits? If so there are quite a number of dedicated gold nugget/prospecting detectors on the market. If you are also interested in coin, jewellery, and relic hunting in addition to nugget hunting, you may wish to look at a few mid-price "all rounder" units that do a good job on the above types of hunting scenarios.
The well known "all rounder" type units, with a proven track record, include the White's MXT, Minelab XT-70, Tesoro Lobo, yet there are also other units that will perform many tasks well, as Thompy noted above. A less expensive unit, that similar to the Tesoro Lobo does not have visual identification but certainly deserves a good look, would be the Tesoro Vaquero. It's advantages include extreme lightweight, three piece breakdown for backpacking, good build quality, manual ground balance, both true all-metal and discrimination modes, push-button pinpointing, a variety of available searchcoils (takes all coils available to the Lobo, for example), operates at a moderate 14.7 kHz frequency that is also quite suitable for prospecting, and offers both a threshold control as well as frequency shift...all for a new selling price of around $420..not bad at all.
I'd recommend you do some reading on the subject, with a view to your primary detecting interest. Go to some of the better known sites like Kellyco, for example, to see a wide variety of detector types and prices. I also suggest you go to www.akmining.com, and see Steve's line-up of detectors in easy to understand explanations of how they perform and for what tasks; while there, check out Steve's Alaska Gold Forum, where you will find excellent gold detector reviews for both the dedicated units, all-around units that are also suitable for gold nugget hunting, and PI (pulse induction) units. Hope this helps..Jim.

[TRHunter]

trust me its less about what type of detector and more about where you are hunting. I use an old. ie, used Whites V-Sat for gold. An oldie but goodie for minerlized soil and have found nuggets. But it was because I was where there was gold. The secret is less money spent on the toy, more time spent on the research, gold is where you find it. But I am female and men do love their toys.

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI TR: You posted -->

But I am female and men do love their toys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sheesh, blushing violently. oops, sorry, you meant detectors sigh.

Don Jose de La Mancha

[Stryker_FO]

as stated in one of the other threads .. The MXT is the detector of choice for Gaines Creek Alaska and thats where there are alot of nice nuggets found.

[ECOTERRY]

Thank you so much everyone
I am looking do a little bit of everything, Gold, Coins, Rings, Just stuff like that
I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, so i know we have gold up this way....lol
The MXT 300, I was kinda thinking about getting this one, Any ideas on it anyone ?
It looks to be an all around good one.

[thompy]

the mxt is a great choice, and there are some good books out for the mxt

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi ECOTERRY,

The MXT is a good, solid choice, and you can be confident this unit is up to any of the tasks as noted before...that also includes reasonable (for a single frequency VLF unit) beach hunting performance as well. The 12 inch coil on the MXT300 has it's uses for covering ground (ie at the beach, areas where targets.. whether they be coins or relics..are more widespread, and searching for precious metal ores at depth), and getting some extra depth, but I also recommend that you purchase the primary prospecting DD elliptical coil (I think it measures something like five and a half by 10 inches) to provide better separation of targets, better sensitivity to smaller targets (ie small jewellery and small gold nuggets), and as an aside, it's much lighter to swing for any length of time.
Incidently, I'm leaning in the same direction as outlined to you...for the same reasons. This unit also has outstanding auto ground tracking, and for a VLF (that while it's not as sensitive to very tiny gold as the GMT and Goldbug2) it's quite capable of handling most commonly encountered mixes of ground mineral/iron trash/small to large targets (down to say, about one-third grain on gold..which is not too bad at all) ..quite well. This all around capability is why this detector is so popular. I stand to be corrected, but that's my understanding of this fine unit. Jim.

[j.letson]

Don't over look the Tesoro Lobo Super Traq. Simple to use, primarily designed for nugget hunting but great for coins and relics too. Plus the lifetime warranty can't be beat.

[EARTHLING]

ONE THING............ PI detectors are great for gold hunting BUT, VLF detectors are more sensitive to small gold under 1 - 2 grams..... even steve at minelab will tell you this......... if you want something that is good for locating patches then you need a large elliptical coil... they hunt different from round coils