help choosing a detector, please :)

[_ant_]

Hi, I've very new to this forum... and though i've had an interest for a long time, i'm very inexperianced with metal detecting.

I've previously had 2 decent (though old) metal detectors (in the UK, before moving here to Australia).

I had a Fisher12(something)x and also had an OLD PULSEPOWER P.I. Beachscan (a predecessor to the beachscan 2 and the goldscan).

I had the PI machine on the (UK) beaches a few times. i maybe found 20 things, all of them were junk, and at least 15 of them were TINY particles of foil, about 12-inches deep in wet sand. Whilst it was very impressive that you could find somethin soooo small, and even more impressive that it could be found so deep, repeadidly digging through a foot of wet sand in cold,damp conditions (when noone "normal" wants to he on a beach), was not much fun - especially so without finding anything that was worth finding. There were a couple of thinds inteh edge of the water taht were deep enough that i could not physically dig them - the sand would fill the hole quicker than i could get it out!! ...but i'm sure there's plenty of you out there who are all too firmiliar with that!

I sold the detectors before moving here to Australia, and now want to try my hand again. The main detecting (i think) i want to do is "gold nugget hunting" though the detector will undoubtidly get some use on the beaches too.


My question is about detector choice. I like to do my homework before parting with cash. There's a lot of advice and reviews out there, though you don't always know what you can trust.

P.I. seems to the the technology of choice for gold-hunting and for beach detecting. The P.I.'s for gold-hunting are WAY out of my price-range. However the Headhunter Pulse may (just) be a possibility - but i've only seen mention of it for beaches, not for gold-nuggets. Is it any good for goldnuggets, or would it be a relly poor choice?

Also, i've looked at the Teknetics G2 (high-frequency, rather than PI)- seems to get really good reviews for it's performance, and supposedly uses the same circuits as the Fisher GoldBug... any comments?

To me, both of these don't appear to be big brands - like Fisher, Whites, Minelab etc. and that is (at least a little) worrying.

All / any advice will be VERY gratefully recieved.

Many thanks,
Anthony.

 

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[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

The only difference in the Teknetics G2 and Fisher gold bug pro is the shaft and coil size. Gold bug DP has the 11" DD coil like the G2.

 

[Sandman]

It would be difficult to have a good nugget detector and a good beach one in the same machine. I suggest you check into the Minelab Eureka, the less expensive of the gold detectors.
http://www.minelab.com/usa/products/gold-detectors/eureka-gold

If your not going in the water the Sov GT is a fantastic beach detector and also a fine dry land type, but I am not sure on its use for nuggets. Most detector manufacturers say their detectors find gold nuggets, but how big is the nugget? You can get the Minelab's in AU.

The Detector Pro pi had some flooding problems but I don't know if it was operator error. Neilo, one of our members is from your neck of the woods and he could help ya if you post his name in the subject line.

 

[_ant_]

The only difference in the Teknetics G2 and Fisher gold bug pro is the shaft and coil size. Gold bug DP has the 11" DD coil like the G2.

Thanks "stoopstroop" - sounds like other than price there's little to pick between them

 

[_ant_]

It would be difficult to have a good nugget detector and a good beach one in the same machine. I suggest you check into the Minelab Eurea, the less expensive of the gold detectors.
http://www.minelab.com/usa/products/gold-detectors/eureka-gold

If your not going in the water the Sov GT is a fantastic beach detector and also a fine dry land type, but I am not sure on its use for nuggets. Most detector manufacturers say their detectors find gold nuggets, but how big is the nugget? You can get the Minelab's in AU.

The Detector Pro pi had some flooding problems but I don't know if it was operator error. Neilo, one of our members is from your neck of the woods and he could help ya if you post his name in the subject line.

Many thanks for the advice SandMan - the Minelab Eureka looks like a very serious piece of kit. It seemed to get some very mixed reviews:
http://metaldetectorreviews.net/detectors/117-1-eurekagold.html
with some people saying it is excellent, and easily out-performs the Fisher Gold Bug, and others stating that it performs very poorly, and therefore the positive reviews must have been written by a minelab rep (though i seriously doubt that!). I think that it'll have to go on my list if one comes up on ebay at the right price

I'm not too bothered about actually going into the water - digging in wet sand is ok, digging in under-water sand seems far from fun, maybe there's a technique to it that i'm missing!

I know what you mean with "claims their detector will find gold" i'm sure any detector will find gold - if it's a big chunk of it... but if it's constantly sounding off because of ground-conditions, mineralisation, hot rocks etc, the process of trying would soon become very thankless... ...that's kin of why i wondered about the Detector Pro Headhunter PI - it may be a beach detector, but the really expensive gold detectors appear to be PI machines. is there much differance between a gold-nugget PI and a beach PI, and is it practical / worthwhile attempting to use a "beach" PI for nugget hunting, or are you better off forgetting the idea, and getting a specific gold-nugget machine?

Many thanks again for your help,
Ant.

 

[Sandman]

Wet salt water sand is conductive because of the salt which is a mineral which will set off the PI detector that is set up for gold with to much gain. Add to the salt water sand there is black sand which is Magnetite or iron oxide. Gold detectors would find wet sand very hard to be stable so you would have trouble figuring which singal was the salt sand or a deep target.

 

[_ant_]

Wet salt water sand is conductive because of the salt which is a mineral which will set off the PI detector that is set up for gold with to much gain. Add to the salt water sand there is black sand which is Magnetite or iron oxide. Gold detectors would find wet sand very hard to be stable so you would have trouble figuring which singal was the salt sand or a deep target.

Thanks for the info - that's a big credit to the machines that do manage to work on a beach - it's amazing that a detector can work through a conductive medium, laced with iron oxide, and still find something useful!

You may never have tried it, but any idea how a beach-PI copes if nugget-hunting inland?

Thanks again,
Ant.

 

[Sandman]

Ant, my experience in prospecting is when I occasionally visit my brother in New Mexico where he hunts for nuggets and meteorites. He used the Garrett LS. Many on this forum use them with great success on the beaches.
http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_infinium_main.aspx

http://www.losttreasure.com/content/archives/garrett-infinium-ls
I can tell you for a fact that field tests are true only as far as describing how the controls and settings work. It is the times when the author takes the detector in the field and reports on what he found that can be taken with a few grains of salt. He can't lie about the controls. Natch if he tells the bad parts of the detector's merits or lack of, he won't be hired to write any more reviews.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Hello Ant! This is a very interesting topic for sure. If I were putting the meat on your Bar-b, I would purchase a used Minelab GPX 4000 (US$2,500) while you still can, and then worry about your water machine - depending on your location. Tesoro Lobo SuperTRAQ comes highly recommended by Aussie hunters for small VLF gold. Good Luck.

 

[_ant_]

Ant, my experience in prospecting is when I occasionally visit my brother in New Mexico where he hunts for nuggets and meteorites. He used the Garrett LS. Many on this forum use them with great success on the beaches.
http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_infinium_main.aspx

http://www.losttreasure.com/content/archives/garrett-infinium-ls
I can tell you for a fact that field tests are true only as far as describing how the controls and settings work. It is the times when the author takes the detector in the field and reports on what he found that can be taken with a few grains of salt. He can't lie about the controls. Natch if he tells the bad parts of the detector's merits or lack of, he won't be hired to write any more reviews.

Many thanks again Sandman!! - that Garett LS sounds a very interesting machine - i'll look it up, and see how much they're going for - will have to have a word with my friend Ebay...

 

[_ant_]

Hello Ant! This is a very interesting topic for sure. If I were putting the meat on your Bar-b, I would purchase a used Minelab GPX 4000 (US$2,500) while you still can, and then worry about your water machine - depending on your location. Tesoro Lobo SuperTRAQ comes highly recommended by Aussie hunters for small VLF gold. Good Luck.

Hi Terry, the Minelab looks a very serious piece of kit - and i'd love one... but if i said to the wife "i've just spent $2500 on a metal detector" then it'd be me on the bar-b!

 

[George (MN)]

The Garrett AT Pro has a reasonable price for what it does. AT stands for all terrain, meaning anywhere you want to use it. Salt will ID up to 20 in the iron rejection, so that should probably be rejected if detecting saltwater beaches.

It's accurate at depth visual (numerical) ID makes it great for coin hunting, too.
Raising the discrimination does not seem to reduce depth.

The early units (prior to early to mid-March) had problems since corrected. I think Garrett & forums have info on serial numbers for improved units. This is why you'll see some negative reviews of this (now) great detector.

I don't know if there is somewhere online where you could check on the smallest nugget it has detected. It's 15 kHz frequency gives it deeper detection of the lower conductors. This is very obvious in the air test getting a US nickel coin at 15". Stock coil is 8.5" x 11" DD. It does have a manual ground balance which really helps in mineralized ground. Best wishes, George (MN)

 

[_ant_]

The Garrett AT Pro has a reasonable price for what it does. AT stands for all terrain, meaning anywhere you want to use it. Salt will ID up to 20 in the iron rejection, so that should probably be rejected if detecting saltwater beaches.

It's accurate at depth visual (numerical) ID makes it great for coin hunting, too.
Raising the discrimination does not seem to reduce depth.

The early units (prior to early to mid-March) had problems since corrected. I think Garrett & forums have info on serial numbers for improved units. This is why you'll see some negative reviews of this (now) great detector.

I don't know if there is somewhere online where you could check on the smallest nugget it has detected. It's 15 kHz frequency gives it deeper detection of the lower conductors. This is very obvious in the air test getting a US nickel coin at 15". Stock coil is 8.5" x 11" DD. It does have a manual ground balance which really helps in mineralized ground. Best wishes, George (MN)

Hi George,

I hadn't even looked at the AT Pro - sounds great - 1 machine that does it all. I've just done a bit of a google, and it looks to be 1) comfortably in the right price range and 2) well regarded by a lot of people

there's a forum post here:
http://www.goldminingcentre.com.au/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34
that i found that where someone is doing a test with gold, and it seems impressive. also, a "fast sweep" is appealing... could be onto a winner there

Many thanks for the advice,
Anthony.