New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi whoever you are.
we are a very friendly bunch of people and help a lot each other. sharing tips and tricks.

BUT. it would be very nice and polite if you
* introduce yourself,
* tell us what gear you have or planning to use for detecting
* what objective you have? like getting fit/active outdoors, or get some extra coins... or maybe collect all predecimal NZ pennys.

Regards,
Max

Welcome to the forum & hobby Dyl,

For gear to start with you will need:
1. a detector
2. a sharpened digging tool (normally a type of gardening trowel).
3. pouch for finds and rubbish (a builders apron or bum bag can do to start with)
4. A Pin Pointer (mini hand held detector). This isn't 100% necessary but will help a lot.
5. Gloves. Those cloth gardening ones with rubber coating on the palm and fingers work well.

The detector will of course be the most expensive item. Any of the main brands have good starter detectors, but always buy the best you can afford so budget for $350 - $1000 as a minimum. Recommend these suppliers and brands:

Fisher or Technics from Puiaki Supply
Minelab from DetectNZ
Garrett from an overseas supplier like Kellyco or Texas Premium

All these have a good reputation and the 2 NZ suppliers (DetectNZ & Puiaki Supply) are also forum members.

When looking for places to detect choose any public park that isn't too manicured (no cemetery's, playing fields or schools) from parks shown on the Walking Access Site.

Search this forum for "Hamilton" and you will come across posts by other local members. Also and most importantly before hitting public land experiment digging tidy plugs at home, under the clothes line is always good for finds! Search YouTube for examples of how to do dig up the finds correctly.

Lastly follow the guidelines listed in this post by Creamer: MD Code of Ethics
Detecting is a misunderstood hobby for a lot of the public so to avoid it being banned on public land keeping up a good image is a must.

Oh, also if by Showgrounds you mean Mystery Creek - even if you can get permission I personally wouldn't bother. The car parks might be alright but the Field day area itself is so paved over that there will be few finds. Also it originally started off in the late 60's at Te Rapa so there will be no old finds.

i use an ace 250 and its a good machine but youl probly get a fisher F2 cheaper than an ACE250 its also a good machine!

yep to be honest with ya if i had to start over again id go straight for an atpro!

Seems you were already planning on the Ace 250 it's not a bad machine but is dated. I would be paying attention to Andy's suggestion of the Fisher F2 more features for NZ$350. Keep in mind he has an Ace and I have had one previously as well. With my limited experience with the F2 I'd still choose it over the Garrett which I spent many many hours with.
Both are good machines without a doubt. The F2 has numerical target ID which helps take some of the guess work out but as the Ace isn't as descriptive you may not overlook a good find as easily. Ace uses 4x AA so is nice and cheap to get good rechargeables and from memory isn't as thirsty as the F2. But if you have a spare set or don't go on mammoth hunts it really isn't an issue.

Best of luck with your choice either way you will be happy.

If you're interested, I'd probably be keen to join you in metal detecting if you have any places lined up. I live just out of hamilton but usually free and keen to get out. I havent really started on hamilton yet.

Hey Dyl..... me n tezan are based in Hamz love to hook up n take u out fr a detect. Im fairly new to the gme too.... Findn loads of stuff and havn fun doin it.... Gona post finds wen i gt the time

hey Dylso57 I noticed you post is about a year old have you got any updates . what machine did you end up going with ?

thnaks