Is there hope for this detector???

[goldenIrishman]

Hey Ya'll,

I've never used a MD before but my better half Robi has a little Radio Shack Discoverer 1000 that I've been trying to learn. Now I know it's not anywhere near the quality of something like a Whites or MineLab unit, but is there any hope of using it for hunting nuggets or is it going to be stuck finding loose change at the local park?

 

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[MinnesotaStateUniversity]

I'll let the experts chime in, but I'd rock it. Mine's homemade lmao

 

[jmoller99]

The discovery 1000 is not a Gold Detector (it will find Gold Rings, coins and all manner of the same sorts of trash a coin hunting detector will). It will not do you much good looking for gold (It can't even be ground balanced; in the highly mineralized areas you would be looking for gold - this alone will stop you dead in your tracks).

It is, however, a good detector to learn on. Spend a lot of time learning how it works and hunt for coins with it. Looking for gold, even with a detector optimised for finding it, is very hard to get down - It was at least a year and half before I actually found my first gold nugget. In that time I probably dug up 100 lbs of trash (gold optimised detectors find everything, along with gold (if the gold is large enough)).

 

[dustytrails123]

Nuggets no park yes

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Nugget detecting is one of the most challenging types of metal detecting you can undertake. Personally, I think using anything less than a quality unit made specifically for nugget detecting is a waste of time. There is a lot of competition these days, and when you hunt ground pounded by experts you better have a good detector in your hands.

The parks is the best place for the Radio Shack.

 

[Jason in Enid]

It's useless for nugget hunting unless it's a 1+ ounce nugget laying in the open on the surface.

 

[goldentruth]

Hey Ya'll,

I've never used a MD before but my better half Robi has a little Radio Shack Discoverer 1000 that I've been trying to learn. Now I know it's not anywhere near the quality of something like a Whites or MineLab unit, but is there any hope of using it for hunting nuggets or is it going to be stuck finding loose change at the local park?

My first MD was a Radio Shack "Famous Treasures" which I have seen for sale on mail order magazines. I spent time bench shecking with many diff types of metals and "Test Burried metals" I watched the guage and remembered the sounds. With this one you "Dig Everything" (Might as well!) I went to an old asphalt road which ended into a hill and it where a home had been burned down, I got a beep and under several lose 1 foot x 5 inch thick piles of asphalt I found a nice Brass Mini Sabre type letter opener with embossed stamp design on both sides of the blade. My first find! but after that a lot of iorn junk, foil and pull tabs. I went to a gold pile tailing site and it had so much metalic materal in the soil at that area, it was like I was searching blind everything signaled and it would not ground balance, it drove me crazy and was worthless, had to quit that area. I then bought a tesoro goldensabre and knocked out the metalic soil. later I tested this Md at my 1oo year old house which I think has been metal detected but ended up finding many wheeties ,some silver dimes and a quarter. I eventually sold the Radio shack MD for $50 and I didn't mind cause I paid $40 for it so I did not get burned and had something to test and get more experience so I would be better at the upgrade. Now I own a GMT Goldmaster that does more then both before. I thought I would share a good find with you on that MD...Good Luck friend

 

[Rawhide]

It must be true, its on the internet. lol

 

[kazcoro]

No ground balance= dead in the water. Kinda sums it all up. Sorry, bud.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Thanks for all the replies folks! I pretty much had a feeling it was going to be one stage removed from worthless for nugget shooting. Robi and I are researching different gold detectors now and trying to decide on which one to purchase. There's atill a lot of different specs to have to wade through but thanks to the forum I've at least got a good idea of what to look for now.
Jeff

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well providence has shined on us in the form of a very large chunk of cash coming in soon. To celebrate I've decided to get Robi and myself "His and Hers" detectors. I'm thinking a White's GMT or Garrett Infinium for Robi and a MineLab GPX 5000 for myself.

 

[kazcoro]

That would be a vary large chunk of cash indeed.