Know absolutely nothing about MDs

[sidvail]

Know absolutely nothing about MD's

Pre-newb here. Have never used an MD before. Are there any posts I should read here that will give me some pointers on what to read, buy, try or just school me on what it's all about?

I'm a panner turned sniper that would like to broaden his fun time. I live in Sacramento and there are tailing piles EVERYWHERE. I heard MD's are the way to go with these.

I did some searches but need a true beginners post to start in. Any direction would be appreciated.

 

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[Hoser John]

Run up the hill and join the Auburn Goldhounds,website same name, lists meetings,outings,great folks who will help you through them horrendous newbie blues and a much quicker way to pay your dues and get it on much cheaper by eliminating misteps-John

 

[Hard Prospector]

Like HJ suggested, join a prospecting club because their full of detectorists. Lots of MD talent here so just start going through back pages looking for archived topics that interest you. Arizona outback forum is good , a subscription to ICMJ and your off to a good start.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Fisher Goldbug; Whites GMT/GMZ; Tesoro Lobo Super Traq; Teknetics G2 There are quite a few tailing pile detectors out there - Join that club!

 

[jmoller99]

A lot of detector clubs focus more on coin shooting and jewelry hunting than prospecting. Don't let that stop you (however, if you have a detector that is specifically for Gold detection, it will not be a good match for Coin hunting in parks - you will want a detector that handles coins well if you work with the detector club). There are detectors that operate in Prospecting, coin/jewelry and relic modes (Whites MXT, Fisher Gold Bug Pro, Tesoro Lobo ST come to mind - the Minelab 701 also may be a good choice) - you may want to consider them. However most detectors are not good at finding small gold (they have to be designed for it and they need to deal with highly mineralized soil), so you have a lot of thinking to do before buying a detector. No one Dectector model does it all perfectly - all detectors are compromises for a given function/use.

Detecting for coins is a good skill to learn (you will certainly find more coins than gold - it took me a year and a half of Gold Detecting before I found my first gold with it - I found lots of lead bird shot, which reads just the same as gold). I feel that it is a good idea to learn how to detect for more common targets, as there are common detecting skills that you need to gain - like pin pointing on a motion detector - this one always throws new detectorists - since your coil must always be in motion when you pinpoint (many signals will simply dissappear if you stop your coil over a target - its supposed to work that way).

 

[Treasurecoast1715]

Pre-newb here. Have never used an MD before. Are there any posts I should read here that will give me some pointers on what to read, buy, try or just school me on what it's all about?



I did some searches but need a true beginners post to start in. Any direction would be appreciated.

Welcome!

Check out Kellyco's website. They have a bunch of great info on their website. A very helpful and knowledgeable sales staff as well. I was very pleased with their service and help when I was starting out!

 

[63bkpkr]

sidvail ,

HI There and welcome to the "thought" of using a metal detector to find Gold. In 2007 I purchased my GMT and in 2010 I found my first gold with it. If you are finding gold now panning and sniping I would stick with that as metal detecting for gold is not a glorious task. The old Tailings Piles are certainly there along with rusty pieces of iron, hot rocks, etc., etc. and then one needs permission to got onto the property where they are dumped.

Now on the other hand it is quite true that the old timers threw gold into those piles as they could not see it with their eyes, the same is true today if you can not see the gold and if you do not have a detector that will sense it then it will get thrown out. A detector that costs $800 will not sense to more than about 8". A detector that costs $6000 has the ability to sense/detect say two feet down and that detector weighs many pounds and each battery costs about $500.

Metal detecting for gold is one of the non-easy things to do in life. Once one learns their detector it becomes easier. Reading Lanny's thread on metal detecting for gold will help a lot so start there, "Bedrock and Gold: The mysteries", it is located in the detecting for gold section. If you read the entire post it will be 2014 and new detectors could be out by then and that might work in your favor.

Those tailings piles literally cover a lot of ground, the machine will only read a few inches down, it will be hot and humble work during the summer and you will wish you stuck to panning and sniping though every now and then some one wins the lottery so you could walk out to you first pile and hit it big the first time out.

IF you do purchase a Gold detector and I am talking about a machine that is built for prospecting Only as personally I do not believe in the multi-purpose machines, so if you do then you need to practice a great deal with it at home. Use different sizes of lead as targets, teeny tiny to pinky nail size. Include some rusty nails as targets as you will want to know what your detector says about 'other metals' and rusty steel/iron is common out where one finds gold. Hot rocks as well as cold rocks are another problem to deal with. A detector purchase is a responsibility, it says I've made up my mind to hunt for gold electronically and that takes time and usually it is quite some time before the detector owner finds their first piece of gold.

Without really knowing your machine and I mean really well both with the preset positions for "turn on and go" MDing as well as knowing what happens when you go higher as well as lower than the presets, again, I feel it is a waste of time to go out into the hills with a detector. Once you are truly familiar with you machine do you even stand a chance of finding gold with it.

In 2010 I worked on the 'down river side' of a large boulder and behind the "large boulder" there were many other smaller boulders. This arrangement caused a perfect condition for the capture of gold that made it to this location. The area was difficult to work with a detector as there were so many boulders to bump into so I moved boulders and dug dirt into a bucket. Now I needed to work the 5 gallon bucket of dirt by panning. I thought about that for awhile, picked up my detector and found a spot on the gravel bar that caused a minimum of chirps/beeps/'sounds' to issue forth from my detector. I poured the bucket of dirt onto that spot and detected the dirt. There were no targets in that first bucket so I did not put any further effort into that bucket full of dirt, I saved a great deal of time in this manner as panning a 5 gallon bucket of dirt takes time and it kills your back. I continued this process till the GMT detector gave me that wonderful zip-zip sound then I processed that pile of dirt, yes the entire pile as now I wanted to know what type of gold sample I was working with. That effort showed to me that I had nuggets as well as pickers and fines. In other words to do this right I needed a sluice box but that is another load of equipment to haul in so I will stick with just the detector portion of this hopefully helpful 'note'.

So, the detector saved me work, saved me time, detected when I had gold and when I did not have gold in the raw sample and by using sorting methods, taking a sample of the sample and waving it over the coil it would tell me if there was any "detectable" gold in the cup and this in turn saved me from panning out ALL of the bucket full. Since that time I've learned more about my detector and how to use some of the manual controls and it is "Cool"! I read Lanny's inputs on finding gold in bedrock, solid rock, and though it sounded crazy I tried it. Odd thing was I found gold in solid rock but I needed to apply what I knew about the manual settings as this really helped to make certain it was worth my time to pull apart the bedrock that looked solid but actually had cracks in it. I found/detected gold under ~ 8" of bedrock, not nice "sassy nuggets" but small pieces as I'm not as fortunate as Lanny. Small pieces of gold add up quickly so save all of it including the fines!

So, I believe in using a dedicated gold detector for finding gold as it will. You are faced with deciding if you want to take the plunge for the detector as well as a set of 'good' headphones and I recommend the TDK WR 700 wireless set purchased from newegg.com as they work and not having a cable in ones way to hang up on 'everything' is so nice. Then if you decide to you must then figure out which machine out of several IS the one for you, good luck on this choice as it will be devil the dickens out of you!!!!!!!

There are many resources for you on this site including the sponsors list way, way down at the bottom of the home page. Between all the members on this site all of the full time Gold detectors are owned by all of us and we all have our opinions about "our" machine. I suspect that all the machines will find gold and once that happens that owner is sold on their brand and machine. It is up to the owner of the machine to take the responsibility on themselves to really learn their machine!

Good luck with your mission, the best of success with your choice and remember to look up every now and then and enjoy where you are at and do not let prospecting take all your time away from you enjoying your family................63bkpkr

Classified raw sample on gravel bar being detected for gold

First picker/nugget

First days finds

Total take sitting on top of a U.S. half dollar and it was a lot of work to get it and it was worth every ounce of sweat to have had the adventure.

Enjoying being out there

 

[sidvail]

Just what I was looking for. Thanks guys.

Not in any hurry to purchase yet, so will keep reading and watching videos. Definitely a different direction for me, but any excuse to get out side is fine with me. I have friends who loved their 'Gold Bug' and enjoyed wandering around the desert with it before they passed away. Always thought of giving it a try one of these days and maybe I will. No place better to learn about them then here. Of course you never know if you'll like it until you give it a try.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Fisher Goldbug; Whites GMT/GMZ; Tesoro Lobo Super Traq; Teknetics G2 There are quite a few tailing pile detectors out there - Join that club!

Great post and advice. Holler if you have questions! Love to help you.

 

[Fullpan]

svail - i'm a detector washout. Just didn't have the patience to swing for hours at a time (also kept getting a "kink" in my neck) Final straw was beeping
bedrock in Washington creek (Nevada Co.), looked ahead three feet and saw a "baker" nugget sticking out of a crack! The detector confirmed it, but WTL?
never found enough to pay for the batteries, much less the machine. I admire the folks who use them, but as 63bkpkr says above, it is not a glorious task.