Thinking of dipping a toe

[Billinoregon]

I have had a number of machines over the years, primarily for basic coin hunting back in Oregon. I still have my good old Tesoro DeLeon, best coin detector I have used. I was sorry to come back to detecting after several years' absence and find Tesoro out of business.
Anyway, to get to the point, I now live in south-central New Mexico, and while there isn't a lot of super-serious gold country here, there are a number of areas where it has been mined, along with silver, of course (as in Silver City). I don't know what kind of mineralization issues there are here, but I am considering investing in a dedicated gold machine. Ease of use is probably a little more important to me than finding the last pennyweight. So I am hungrily reading the threads here to try to get up to speed on what is currently hot and what is not. So far the Nox 800, Goldmonster and Makro Gold Kruzer look interesting.
Any guidance most appreciated.

 

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[cpomike13]

Can't get any easier or as good as Goldmonster 1k. You'd be able to find super small gold pieces, even copper nugs (don't know bout silver, but shouldn't be a problem) the only hassle with the monster are of course, hot and cold rocks. Watch some video, like nuggett shooter- Bill Southern. He'll give a true showing of how the machine performs.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Second on the Goldmonster 1000

 

[minerjosh]

I have had a number of machines over the years, primarily for basic coin hunting back in Oregon. I still have my good old Tesoro DeLeon, best coin detector I have used. I was sorry to come back to detecting after several years' absence and find Tesoro out of business.
Anyway, to get to the point, I now live in south-central New Mexico, and while there isn't a lot of super-serious gold country here, there are a number of areas where it has been mined, along with silver, of course (as in Silver City). I don't know what kind of mineralization issues there are here, but I am considering investing in a dedicated gold machine. Ease of use is probably a little more important to me than finding the last pennyweight. So I am hungrily reading the threads here to try to get up to speed on what is currently hot and what is not. So far the Nox 800, Goldmonster and Makro Gold Kruzer look interesting.
Any guidance most appreciated.

All 3 of those are good choices! If ease of use is the most important than the goldmonster wins. Everyone that has one is happy. You can't go wrong there at all. The nox 800 is the most versatile, going to cost more and you would want to get the 6" coil that is an extra $180.(goldmonster includes 2 coils). The nox has a learning curve. I just got one and have been out a couple times and I'm starting to get the feel for it. It's an amazing machine with a lot of potential. I'm finding some of the smallest targets I've ever found but I have a lot to learn with it still. It takes patience and time to learn this one. I dont know a lot about the gold kruzer but I've had a makro gold racer and I liked that and found gold with it. The gold kruzer is supposed to be better than the racer. The kruzer is the most cost friendly and will definitely work..im just not sure how user friendly it is or isnt. If the price difference doesn't matter and ease of use does than goldmonster gets my vote.

 

[minerjosh]

.......or if the price really doesn't matter and you want to get real serious the GPX6000 is about to come out at a cool $6,000!!! ��

 

[cpomike13]

.......or if the price really doesn't matter and you want to get real serious the GPX6000 is about to come out at a cool $6,000!!! ��

And the 6000 is coming out, there will be a number GPX 5000 that some people will be selling a lil but cheaper than that, because they want to buy minelab latest detector.

 

[leadnugget]

Before you buy a gold detector make sure you have ground to run it on.
I have read that NM has a lot of tied up land.
Also shallow bedrock, lots of gold at 5 feet deep won't do you any good.
I haven't read a lot about beeping gold in NM, but if you can, it might be
pretty good with less competition in the area.
I would get the monster really easy to use. Or if you really want to use it for coins too, the 800 with the small coil.
Looks like there is some areas close to Alamogordo.
https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/resources/minerals/metallic/gold/placer/home.html

 

[Billinoregon]

Leadnugget, thank you for your reply. I really appreciate the link to the placer deposit map. I knew there was gold in the White Oaks area, Orogrande and Hillsboro. Now I have more places to look into.
I was going to ask if the Gold Monster was useful as a coin detector too, although obviously not a dedicated machine for this purpose. The DeLeon works well for that.

 

[leadnugget]

The gold monster is fantastic on, shallow, very small and of course large gold, on mild to mid ground. I even use it on really nasty ground,
the best I can.
Not a coin machine by any means, but.
Here's a story.
A long time ago 1995/97 when I was starting out nugget hunting I bought a tesoro gold demon 2, all metal.
Cost about 350. That was a lot for me back then.
I only had a 79 Camaro to get around in, not the best for a gold mining rig. So I wanted to get a feel for how the detector worked.
I took it to a lot of sand volleyball courts here in phoenix and, well I had found enough just in change to pay for it in a month.
Not to mention the gold rings and silver I found. I think the discrimination on many coin machines can be detrimental to what you might be looking for.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Lots of good suggestions as per the Gold Monster 1000, and I agree with that choice if you're looking for ease of operation. As for silver, highly conductive, and the Gold Monster flips left (on the screen) for ferrous, and flips right for non-ferrous, so finding silver should work out quite well, though I've never chase silver with mine, only gold. However, the principle seems sound.

The key to finding gold will be your research, do as much as you can, maybe join a local prospecting club to get some information from in-the-know people in your area, invaluable really.

All the best, and I hope you find a piece of gold or silver big enough to stub your toe on!

Lanny