Getting a MD because I have so much access

[dunc]

I really like gold prospecting and have thought a lot about getting a MD to look for gold. Recently I thought about all of the people I know that have land a lot of people would probably love to MD on. The second oldest bar in Ca., an old brothel from the late 1800's, old gold and copper mines, and a lot of friends that live on property with 100 year old or older homes. This weekend I get to look through an old storage shed on my in laws property that has been sealed for a long time with the original owner living there 60+ years and leaving his "junk" for someone else to deal with.

My question is, I don't plan on making this an obsession as gold has really taken care of that but I would like a suggestion on a detector that will allow me to look for gold first and foremost, but also other metals? My price range is around $500

Thank you in advance for any responses.

 

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[Seamuss]

Garrett Scorpion normally runs $549 but go on sale from the company for about 489+. It is a gold nugget hunter with an all metal mode switch on it.

http://www.garrett.com/hobby/hobby_division.htm Go to hobby division site.

 

[dunc]

thanks for the reply. I borrowed a md today and used it for about an hour. I am going to try and take a class or something first because either that machine was horrible, or I am horrible (more likely scenario).

 

[camperlee]

you will find no matter what detector you get you have to understand what it is trying to tell you and that takes many hours of swinging. usually with a new detector there is a video covering the basics that walks you right through the process.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

There are cross-over machines that are made, that can .... with the switching around of controls, be used to both hunt nuggets AND be used for coin/relic purposes. The MXT comes to mind as one such cross-over machine. But a machine that tries to do both, will excell in neither class. Ie.: there will be better nugget machines, and there will be better coin/relic machines. The reason is, the nugget machine ability is usally designed from the ground up, to excell in teeennsssy little pinhead sized nuggets (the most common size found). But a coin relic guy prefers to pass up birdshot, staples, etc... and go for coin/relic sized things, have good iron reject, etc... So they are two almost diametrically opposed goals. Not an easy task to design a machine that does both, since it involves designing from the coil on up.

As for your CA sites, get on the Kinzli California forum and introduce yourself. There's some gold rush area hunters on there. Some of them have found gold rush era coins (even gold coins) from the motherload country.

 

[Zincoln Miner]

check out the tesoro "lobo supertrac" if you decide to expand your budget.

 

[bill-USA]

Hard to think you could find a better all around machine than the MXT for the price area that you're shopping in. With it's prospecting mode, it completely changes it's detection frequency to become a gold detecting machine. The MXT from whites is a great producer in most any mode once you are familiar with the machine.

Your comment about worst machine or worst operator leads me to believe you may have had the gain or sensitivity set too high and the machine was seeing every rust speck in the area under the coil. Learning whatever machine you decide to use is the most important step of the detecting process, if you're serious about detecting. I think Charles Garrett recommends a minimum of 100 hours using the default setup to begin understanding the machine, before you start experimenting with the settings. (Not many folks do that, which is an inverse measure of how serious they are about learning the MD process.)

Once you learn any machine, in your price range, intimately, you will be able to find stuff that most of the rest of us just walk over, and don't even hear. To learn basic metal detecting principles at a minumum cost, I'd recommend the Garrett Ace 250 at about $200. The MXT at 500 to 700 is the machine I would recommend for major versatility with a salt mode for beach hunting, prospecting mode for gold hunting, and a great general metal detection mode it fits nicely into almost any hunting situation except underwater.

If I could have only two detectors, it would be Garrett's 1500, and White's MXT.

 

[dunc]

thank you for all of the responses. I probably did have the sensitivity too high because the thing beeped constantly. I also had no bbok to read or D.V.D. to watch. My friend that let me borrow it thinks he is an expert in absolutely everything and explains things in extremely complicated ways. I also don't really think he knows what he is talking about as he has never found a thing.

The kinzli forum is down right now but I will definitely check it out, thanks.