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how much to pay for a reasonable metal detector

clarky		Posted : Sunday, 19 June 2011 2:32:46 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		Hello All, I have just become a new member and am as green as it gets to the whole subject of hunting for the elusive gold stuff! I have vague childhood memories of our family going to the West Coast and my father using a home made gold cradle with little or no luck. I am looking at getting some basic equipment to start off my fossicking adventures and am interested to know how much I would expect to pay for a second-hand detector that will actually do the job satisfactorily, keeping in mind I have a average income. Would also appreciate a heads up on where other members would suggest as a good starting location to go for a look? Thanks for any help and look forward to posting a blog on finding my first success
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cavey		Posted : Sunday, 19 June 2011 2:54:33 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 19/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 145 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 42 times Was thanked: 22 time(s) in 18 post(s)		Hi clarky welcome to the site not sure how much you would pay for a second hand metal detector i wouldnt mind one for my self but money a bit tight so will have to stick to my gold pan and sluice box west coast gold fossicking areas all ways a good place to start they get hammered tho but you always meet other people keen on the gold and most people are helpfull i always find goldsbrough a good place to start good camping ground always get a bit of colour . Hope that helps Cavey

kiwijw		Posted : Sunday, 19 June 2011 5:54:18 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 28/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,152 Thanks: 92 times Was thanked: 658 time(s) in 324 post(s)		G'day Clarky, Welcome to the mad house LOL :) 2nd hand detector.....You didnt mention what sort of detecting you were interested in. Gold or coin/relic. There is a big difference in detectors & also a big difference in price tag. You generaly get what you pay for. Buy cheap & you will get cheap. It also depends how serious you really are & how often you are going to use it. Is it just a hobby & fun thing to do or are you secretly hoping to make the detector pay for itself & then earn you some money? We all dream of hitting the goldfields & making our fortune. Reality is very different & some will stick with it & may do well, others will wrap their detector around the nearest tree or give up in a heart beat. Any way....let us know what form of detecting you are looking at getting in to & we will take it from there. Have a brouse back over the posts on the forum & you will uncover some answers to your other questions I am sure. Regards JW :) Edited by user Sunday, 19 June 2011 5:55:40 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified

oroplata		Posted : Sunday, 19 June 2011 11:24:07 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered, Moderators Joined: 16/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,040 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 23 times Was thanked: 211 time(s) in 152 post(s)		Yes, you need a very good detector if you are hunting for nuggets. A cheap detector might be good enough to find a large nugget, but someone else with a cheap detector has already found most of those and it's mainly the smaller nuggets left and for those you need to spend big money. For someone on a tight budget, I would recommend crevice hunting as a better and cheaper option. I just hope you can handle cold water. :)
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Eagle		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 12:11:49 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 3/03/2011(UTC) Posts: 71 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 3 times Was thanked: 15 time(s) in 12 post(s)		Hi Clarky Go for a Minelab PI machine if ya want to seriously chase nuggets, if you do the time its well worth the investment,but you do need to be commited. eagle

clarky		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 12:32:44 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		how much would you pay for a Minelab PI? either new or second hand
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fastangler		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 1:20:08 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 1/10/2010(UTC) Posts: 37 Location: christchurch Thanks: 17 times Was thanked: 14 time(s) in 9 post(s)		theres some nice cheap sd2000's and 2100's for sale on ebay oz for around 1500au but if you want to get serious about it you at least need a gp3000,you should be able to get one for under 2500au. only one and a half oz to pay it off.

clarky		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 2:31:00 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		Cheers for the info, looks like I,ll have to get out there with the pan and start saving the pennies!
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Eagle		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 2:34:55 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 3/03/2011(UTC) Posts: 71 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 3 times Was thanked: 15 time(s) in 12 post(s)		Go hard Clarky. They are not cheap mate,but if you get one you will be stoked. eagle

Golden Possum		Posted : Monday, 20 June 2011 4:59:06 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 18/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 5 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 10 times		Hi Clarky , while on the topic of which metal detector to get to find gold with, i see on the Kellyco's site various 'gold detectors' , namely :Fisher Gold Bug Pro & Gold Bug 2 Pro ,Minelab X-Terra 705 & Minelab Eureka Gold. These 'gold detectors' range from $650-$1000 US dollars, i'm curious to know how smaller 'nugget' these machines could find in our NZ conditions ? Would they find a 1grammer ? How deep can they go to detect gold ? Cheers , Jono

East-Auck-Fossicker		Posted : Sunday, 26 June 2011 9:40:01 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 12/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 84 Location: Auckland Thanks: 10 times Was thanked: 21 time(s) in 11 post(s)		I don't mean to up set everyone here , I think you're all missing a very important point about cheap and not so cheap metal detectors. More expensive machines can handle materialized rocks better ( that means less folse alarms)and have a pin point to zero into a target. You can also see what sort of metal it is before digging it up , but most people dig up all targets any way. I sent $1400 on a Garette GTXa 1250 about 2yrs ago. Last Christmas I was camping at Broken Hill Coromandel D.O.C. ( not a good gold prospecting site ) and a young lady who had a $250 machine who was searching the same area as me found 2 very nice silver nuggets and I with my $1400 machine with good experence found nothing ! It's like the time I went fishing with my grandmother as a kid and I had a brand new flash fishing rod and my grandmother had an old hand line. You know who cought the most fish ! I think lifes trying to tell me something here !
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overdog		Posted : Sunday, 26 June 2011 10:12:36 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 2/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 418 Location: nelson Thanks: 69 times Was thanked: 82 time(s) in 68 post(s)		Jono-Saw a video on You Tube(will try and post a link)air testing various gold detectors.The Gold Bug picked up a TINY flake-couldnt have been more than half a gram.Seemed to be the most sensitive of the 3 or 4 dedicated gold machines he tried.Couldnt tell you what depth you get with 1-try rgmcbrid on this forum-hes got some for sale and I will be getting 1 soon!

kiwijw		Posted : Sunday, 26 June 2011 3:48:42 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 28/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,152 Thanks: 92 times Was thanked: 658 time(s) in 324 post(s)		East-Auck-Fossicker wrote: I don't mean to up set everyone here , I think you're all missing a very important point about cheap and not so cheap metal detectors. More expensive machines can handle materialized rocks better ( that means less folse alarms)and have a pin point to zero into a target. You can also see what sort of metal it is before digging it up , but most people dig up all targets any way. I sent $1400 on a Garette GTXa 1250 about 2yrs ago. Last Christmas I was camping at Broken Hill Coromandel D.O.C. ( not a good gold prospecting site ) and a young lady who had a $250 machine who was searching the same area as me found 2 very nice silver nuggets and I with my $1400 machine with good experence found nothing ! It's like the time I went fishing with my grandmother as a kid and I had a brand new flash fishing rod and my grandmother had an old hand line. You know who cought the most fish ! I think lifes trying to tell me something here ! Hi there EAF, That is very interesting about the silver nuggets. I am very familiar with that area having spent a fair bit of time fossicking there. I wont say what methods were used but did find some gold in a few different places. Very fine & probably some of the highest purity I have ever got in the Coromandel. How big were the silver nuggets & are you sure they were silver & not a metal coated with mercury? I am sure you are familiar with the mining history of that area. You do know that there is currently a hard rock mine being worked there in one of the old drives. The Battery Level Drive. Very rich in places. http://www.youtube.com/w...IvU0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/w...p;index=3&playnext=2 http://www.youtube.com/w...mfu_in_order&list=UL Happy hunting JW :)

digger37		Posted : Monday, 27 June 2011 1:15:49 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 26/04/2010(UTC) Posts: 34 Location: Nelson Thanks: 7 times Was thanked: 16 time(s) in 8 post(s)		Hi Clarky, With a metal detector it depends on what you want to do with it, if you are serious about spending days roaming the hills and Beaches for gold nuggets & coins etc then spend the money, get minelab etc. However if you want to have a bit of fun with a detector occasionally then go for something like the gold bug, I have the (gold bug 2) $1250 (rgmcbrid) on this forum, I have found round flakes of gold as small as 3mm just under the surface, 1 gram peaces 50mm to 100 under the surface. Don't expect to find your fortune the first place you go to..... Digger

clarky		Posted : Tuesday, 28 June 2011 2:57:43 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		Thanks Digger, Yeah mate the more I read up on the topic the more I,m not sure what to look at getting! Really only interested in something that will give me a good chance of finding gold but it sounds as if there are plenty of multi-purpose detectors that would do that and also do the relic/coin thing as well but are alot cheaper to buy. As I am only starting out in the hunt for the elusive gold stuff I am tending towards a more general purpose detector as the price is a major factor in my decision making. Great to get all the feed-back through this forum all the same. There is a wealth of knowledge here and I have been readily digesting all that I can. All going well I,m heading out this weekend for a pan and see if I can get a bit of a handle on what,where and how to go about it. No matter if I don,t have any beginners luck it will be good just to be out and about giving it a go Clarky
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kiwijw		Posted : Tuesday, 28 June 2011 4:26:00 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 28/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,152 Thanks: 92 times Was thanked: 658 time(s) in 324 post(s)		clarky wrote: Thanks Digger, Yeah mate the more I read up on the topic the more I,m not sure what to look at getting! Really only interested in something that will give me a good chance of finding gold but it sounds as if there are plenty of multi-purpose detectors that would do that and also do the relic/coin thing as well but are alot cheaper to buy. As I am only starting out in the hunt for the elusive gold stuff I am tending towards a more general purpose detector as the price is a major factor in my decision making. Great to get all the feed-back through this forum all the same. There is a wealth of knowledge here and I have been readily digesting all that I can. All going well I,m heading out this weekend for a pan and see if I can get a bit of a handle on what,where and how to go about it. No matter if I don,t have any beginners luck it will be good just to be out and about giving it a go Clarky Hi Clarky, I hate to tell you this but if you get a general pupose detector then dont expect to get much gold. Having said that I will give you three models that I think would be your best bets for an all round detector. Minelab Xterra 70 & the newer 705. Whites MXT. & the Fisher F75. Note I am talking all round detector not dedicated gold detectors. Happy hunting JW :)

clarky		Posted : Wednesday, 29 June 2011 12:55:11 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		It,s all sooo confusing!! Not really eh,will just have have to save the dollars to get a dedicated gold detector I think. Thanks for the feedback JW Clarky
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kiwijw		Posted : Wednesday, 29 June 2011 3:30:51 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 28/03/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,152 Thanks: 92 times Was thanked: 658 time(s) in 324 post(s)		D'day Clarky, It may seem confusing at first but it isnt once you get your head around detectors & how they work & what detector does what & why that is. You will then understand why there are different detectors for different applications.EG Gold verses coin/relics & VLF's verses pulse induction etc. Until then....IT WILL DO YOUR HEAD IN. Stick with it & you will get there. Happy hunting JW :)

cavey		Posted : Wednesday, 29 June 2011 4:25:35 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 19/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 145 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 42 times Was thanked: 22 time(s) in 18 post(s)		Good luck for the weekend if you get a chance to go out let us know how you get on. Cavey

clarky		Posted : Thursday, 30 June 2011 4:06:37 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Dust Groups: Registered Joined: 19/06/2011(UTC) Posts: 9 Location: Ashburton Thanks: 5 times		Yeah will do Cavey, the weathers looking fine which is a good thing, however that means it will be bloody cold and thats not such a good thing!!! It,s all good just have to work it a bit harder. Heh JW thanks for the heads up on those models, will take note but not going to rush in just at the moment unless something comes along at a price of which I can afford. In the mean time I,m just going to enjoy getting out there and doing some panning. Have been looking at some of the sluices other members have built and I think that is definitely on the list of things to do. Have started to look around for some materials to build my own one. Cheers Clarky
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