Need metal detector help

[CiscoKid]

Thinking about doing some prospecting. I live on a farm in northern VA that is not only in the gold-pyrite belt, but is also in the middle of Civil War territory. Many big battles were fought around my farm and the river that is one of my property lines was used to ferry troops and munitions. Therefore, I am looking for a detector that will find relics in my fields as well as grains of gold in and around the river. Currently looking at the Tesoro SuperTraq and the Fisher Goldbug2. Can anyone provide a recommendation for either of these machines? Or perhaps suggest another? I hear the MineLab SD and GP series are good but I really don't know anything about them. Given my location, I think the odds of finding relics are probably better than that of nuggets but one never knows. I dig up lots of large chunks of quartz when I drill post holes. And there were lots of gold mines in the area prior to 1947.

[BeefJerky]

My property is in the heart of it as well complete with trenches and connects to National Park land on two sides.

I don't metal detect. But the people that I have allowed to detect on property seem to prefer and swear by White's metal detectors. It is amazing how proficient some of these guys are.

[Sampson]

I have a Teknetics Gamma and have had great luck with it. It is a fairly cheap model and i am really impressed with the discrimination circuitry. It easily finds bullets, coins, metal buttons, etc. down to at least a foot depending on object size. It squeels well on nuggets over 0.5 grams in the all metal mode but has some trouble with ground balance in highly mineralized soils.

Detecting is a unique process and to do it well you must have the patience of a rock. If you have not spent much time detecting i would suggest you skip the $5000 gpx 5000 or equiv and stay with the cheaper models under $1000. If relics are your most likely target then just about any middle of the road detector will perform well, especially on larger objects. Discrimination is a must for relic searching especially in trashy areas. For the first year or so i dug every target and spent a lot of hours learning the different tones and features to discriminate....mostly against foil/pull tabs, etc. I still dig almost everything but am getting quite preficeint at determining the target's potential before i dig it. Nothing like hitting a signal and saying "yupp, thats an old iron nail" ... then to dig up an old iron nail. Then the next target "yupp, another old iron nail" but instead it turns out to be an old iron button or pocket knife etc.

Nugget shooting is a whole 'nother deal though and you surely get what you pay for in that regard. Although it takes a lot of little nuggies to add up to the price difference of my detector and a gpx-5000. There are some really good detector forums out there if you do a quick search for it.


Sampson

[CiscoKid]

Thanks. Looks like I can get a Gold Bug-2 for under $800. The reviews seem to be good and people really seem to like the iron discard feature that helps to sort out trash and hot rocks. I'm wondering if it will work under a foot or so of water or if I need to buy a much more expensive machine for that. My budget is anything under a grand. Might get some pans while I am at it. I don't think I will get rich doing this - I just think it seems like a fun way to get outside and search for gold.

[budfox]

I've got a minelab xterra 705. Excellent machine. Has lots of automatic features

[Sampson]

I don't think I will get rich doing this - I just think it seems like a fun way to get outside and search for gold.

Well, you're starting with the right attitude. That is exactly what i thought 7-8 years ago when i started prospecting .... and now i own a small mining company with two active mine sites. I'm still not rich from it but it has been one hell of a fun way to spend the last few years.

From everything i have heard about it the GB-2 is a great machine for the price. Even if the coil is not listed as being waterproof it is very easy to apply some liquid tape (or equiv) to make it waterproof. The main points of water entry is the plug, where the wire enters the coil, or the seam around the coil. Protect these areas well with some sealant and dunk her deep. Just make sure to keep the control box dry unless a true underwater version. I use a clear shower cap over my control box in teh rain so i can still see the display.

If using it for nugget shooting then get a couple small plastic pans, plastic scoop, and plastic classifier (screen) to go with it. When you get a squeeler (target) then scoop the gravels up and wave the scoop over your coil to make sure you got the target. Once the target is in the scoop dump it into your pan through the classifier and pan it down quick. Don't forget to check the oversize from the classifier to make sure you don't throw the big one back. After you get the target then re-scan the spot it cam from to make sure you got it all. Some people just like to pick the nuggets when they get a target but if water is close i like to pan it down and can find some nice smaller pieces with the bigger piece that made the squeel.

One major warning though ... Once you see that first shiny nugget gleaming in the bottom of your pan it can be amazingly addicting and everything else seems a little less important.

[CiscoKid]

I've got a minelab xterra 705. Excellent machine. Has lots of automatic features

Just looked at it. Plenty of nice features and it is within my price range.

[needler]

I have the tesoro compadre which only costs $160.

Iv been on metal detecting forums a few months now and my model is the most recommended in the under $300 price range.

It beats the fisher f2 and ace 250 and 350.

I bought my detector in either May or June I forgot but I found about $30 dollars worth of silver so far. Also Iv stopped for that last month detecting.

My camera is bad so not the perfect quality. A bunch of Canada silvers.

http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss320/needler420_photos/S3010133.jpg


A better pick of one of the Canada quarters I found 80% silver.
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss320/needler420_photos/5538004674_84af9c6754_z.jpg


Everything in the next pic is detecting finds all foreign coins mainly Canada 1 pennies and various foreign coins from other countries.
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss320/needler420_photos/S3010107.jpg
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss320/needler420_photos/S3010127.jpg


Iv stopped detecting about a month now because of the FL heat here but now that were entering fall I'm getting ready to break out the gear again.

Very fun hobby when you need something productive to do other then TV and video games.

The frequency on my detector makes it a gold magnet. I can find smaller amounts of gold deeper then I can find shallow pieces of bigger silver. Elites would say those looking for a gold prospecting detector to look no further then Tesoro compadre they say its comparable with $500+ gold machines.

I know $160 sounds like a little to invest but ill tell you what this ain't no radioshack beginners/entry level kids detector.

Just look at my finds.

My machine is what people who swing $1500 dollar etracs use as a back up for tot lots etc.

[CiscoKid]

Those are some really nice finds, Needler! I hope to do that well some day. I ended up with the Minelab X-Terra 705 with the 18.75 kHz gold coil. I am very pleased with it and have been reading the manual and practicing with known targets to get used to the different tones. I spent 20 minutes swinging it around the site of an old farm house and found an old rusty hinge. Your finds look much better, believe me. :D

[Weatherman]

I have heard that two target areas are worth looking at closely. Small coins would routinely be put into roadside mailboxes a hundred years ago, and those coins would often fall out and be lost there. The other location is where old outhouses would have been, to look for coins that dropped out of pants. Hopefully, time has sanitized those areas. :biggrin:

[Irons]

My wife unit got me a basic bounty hunter detector for christmas so I'll be joining the obsession with you fine folks! There is no gold where I am in MI unless somebody dropped or stashed it years ago so I'll be hunting for things lost or left behind.

Having spent every spare minute in the national forest up here hunting, hiking, fishing, mushroom hunting and just exploring I have a few dozen deserted places where people lived many years ago to go check out. I have to rig up a easy way to carry this on my KLR while keeping what it is hidden.

Do any of you fine folks use a pinpointer to narrow down your digging area once you have a target and do they save you time?

I'm going to be hunting old grown over CCC camps, river crossings, old road and RR beds and long abandoned homesteads.

I was looking at the garret pro pinpointer. Thanks!

[Argentium]

My wife unit got me a basic bounty hunter detector for christmas so I'll be joining the obsession with you fine folks! There is no gold where I am in MI unless somebody dropped or stashed it years ago so I'll be hunting for things lost or left behind.

Having spent every spare minute in the national forest up here hunting, hiking, fishing, mushroom hunting and just exploring I have a few dozen deserted places where people lived many years ago to go check out. I have to rig up a easy way to carry this on my KLR while keeping what it is hidden.

Do any of you fine folks use a pinpointer to narrow down your digging area once you have a target and do they save you time?

I'm going to be hunting old grown over CCC camps, river crossings, old road and RR beds and long abandoned homesteads.

I was looking at the garret pro pinpointer. Thanks!
I know this will seem like blasphemy to you, but there are a lot of guys shooting for native copper up in the UP. Not PMs, but it sounds like fun. IIRC, aren't there some streams in the UP that have some placer gold?

[newmisty]

My wife unit got me a basic bounty hunter detector for christmas so I'll be joining the obsession with you fine folks! There is no gold where I am in MI unless somebody dropped or stashed it years ago so I'll be hunting for things lost or left behind.

I'm going to be hunting old grown over CCC camps, river crossings, old road and RR beds and long abandoned homesteads.


Sounds like we may have heard from Irons for the last time. Between his obsession for gold and a owning a new metal detector, the only thing standing next to him and the afterlife is a trowel and extended battery life...

[Irons]

I know this will seem like blasphemy to you, but there are a lot of guys shooting for native copper up in the UP. Not PMs, but it sounds like fun. IIRC, aren't there some streams in the UP that have some placer gold?

Had some placer gold is more like it. The Yellow Dog river area in the UP had some nuggets, along with the Boyne river closer to where I am and a couple more spots that were scooped out pretty quickly years ago. Thats pretty much all private property now and the gold had taken eons to wash out of the surrounding glacial morans.

If one wants to risk getting shot or disappearing in the UP you are better off poaching diamonds, there was a rush of ice hunters in the 1970's that got a bit violent and ended with debeers owning all kinds of property. Wrong move up there and they won't even find your tire tracks. ~ :redface:

[Milanion]

My wife unit got me a basic bounty hunter detector for christmas so I'll be joining the obsession with you fine folks! There is no gold where I am in MI unless somebody dropped or stashed it years ago so I'll be hunting for things lost or left behind.


My wife got me one as well (was on my list). My house is 100+ yrs old with the rest of the neighborhood in the same range, so I'll be using it around here to find some lost or left behind.

[CiscoKid]

Do any of you fine folks use a pinpointer to narrow down your digging area once you have a target and do they save you time?



I was looking at the garret pro pinpointer. Thanks!

They are fine to have hanging on your belt if you end up with a big hole and just can't quite find the target. I only use it for one out of every ten holes though. And, yes, the Garret Pro Pinpointer is the tool to have. Get yourself a strong magnet and epoxy it to one side of your digging pick. Helps to quickly find the ferrous targets. Good luck hunting - sounds like you've got some prime territory.

[Irons]

They are fine to have hanging on your belt if you end up with a big hole and just can't quite find the target. I only use it for one out of every ten holes though. And, yes, the Garret Pro Pinpointer is the tool to have. Get yourself a strong magnet and epoxy it to one side of your digging pick. Helps to quickly find the ferrous targets. Good luck hunting - sounds like you've got some prime territory.

Thanks, I'm excited to go looking. I live right by a major indian, trapper and settler crossroads (Mackinaw, Saginaw trail).

The first trading post outside of Detroit is right around here along with one of the major river systems in the state.

The indians along with early explorers all followed the rivers and streams as travel routes and camped along them.

A short walk from my back yard is a small collection of foundation remains that are now just a couple inch high dirt humps you can only find in the spring when the leaves are flat. I know of lots of places like that, early spring mushroom hunters find all kinds of stuff before things grow in.

EFF this snow I'm ready to go hunting!!! :coolbeer:

[917601]

I use a Whites, 2 circuits,one for gold and the other artifacts,etc....As with any "tool",requires practice practice and experience.The handheld pinpointer priceless,picked up an old square nailhead(1/4 by 1/4") which lead to the full square nails which discovered the old rumored farmhouse and 1920's Boy Scout camp,which lead to old pocket knives under the trees,junk silver,etc....After I dug the area,I let the local club dig, they filled a bucket up with junk silver-missed by my inexperience.

[Garyw]

Best two on the market are minelab and white mxt. the Minelab way expensive but you get what you pay for. White is not cheap either about 800 bucks. Minelabs go up into the thousands.

[<===Foolsgold]

I bought a Whites DFX but never used it. This is motivating me to get it out of the closet.

[Irons]

Hey guys I took advantage of the nice weather and went detecting at the __________ state park today. I'm freaking obsessed with this new hobby.~:bear_w00t:

I was out for a little over an hour getting a feel for the controls and managed to find a few pennies, a nickel, a dime shell casings and other junk but it was enough to convince me that I like it. I also found a home made pot pipe and several metallic rocks.

The rocks were the easiest to get used to, they give off a funny squeal unlike anything else. Those old pull tabs from the 70's are a pisser though the dam things sound just line a coin.

Supposed to be nice sunday too!

[Irons]

Heavy duty stainless steel beach/gravel scoop for cheap, add your own handle. Make the seller an offer he took mine!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120847543633

[smilershouse]

What a coincidence the subject of metal detects should happen now.

I am on the way out of this 'area' and moving onto to new lands in the back wood. There is plenty of fishing and wild foods there and, excellent growing potential. It is as far as anyone would live to commute back to this town on the east coast.

Back on topic, I have learned that a couple of now pulled down buildings were a magnet for both the rich and poor. Done some research, cannot wait to get out there. The place was a buzzing with all types in its hey day.

Thank you all for your feedback on the detectors. Better advice than I will ever get from a salesman.

SH

[CiscoKid]

Being that you are in Australia, I would probably lean towards a Minelab. If you are anywhere near gold country you might consider one of their pulse-induction machines and poke around for nuggets. :s11: They're pricey and the battery is contained in a small backpack, but I've seen them work and they are impressive.

[Lugnutzpop]

Thinking of giving this a try. Lots of beaches and parks where I live. Lots of tourists and old deserted farms too.

I did some quick looking and found a Fisher Labs 1270X on Craigslist. According to the add, the detector is unused and still in sealed box. Comes with new pair of White's headphones and batteries. Seller is asking $500 firm.

I know nothing about these things, so wondering if that is a decent price and any thoughts on the Fisher Labs brand in general.

-L

[Irons]

Thinking of giving this a try. Lots of beaches and parks where I live. Lots of tourists and old deserted farms too.

I did some quick looking and found a Fisher Labs 1270X on Craigslist. According to the add, the detector is unused and still in sealed box. Comes with new pair of White's headphones and batteries. Seller is asking $500 firm.

I know nothing about these things, so wondering if that is a decent price and any thoughts on the Fisher Labs brand in general.

-L

I don't have a Fisher Lugz but they have a huge following by all reports are great machines. The one you asked about it looks like the guy wants retail price for it.


http://bigboyshobbies.net/shop/fisher-1270x-metal-detector/

http://www.fisherdetectorstore.com/product/fisher-1270x-metal-detector

For that price I would go with a dealer who you can call and talk to about issues, warrenty stuff and more than likely get free or reduced prices on accessories like pro pointers and lesche digging tools.

Those guys can put together a nice package and ship the entire kit for free.

Last thing about that particular model is the controls look pretty advanced. For now I like the digital screen that tells me whats under the coil by numerical rank. As I get more experience the screen might not be a necessity but for now I rely on it.

Good Luck out there!!

[Lugnutzpop]

Thanks for the info Irons....

I'll check those links out and see what I can fit into my price range.

Appreciate the input on the controls, I'll try to keep it simple for now.

-L

[Irons]

Thanks for the info Irons....

I'll check those links out and see what I can fit into my price range.

Appreciate the input on the controls, I'll try to keep it simple for now.

-L

When you decide on a machine call Bart, he will give you a better price in person than whats on the websites.

Bart Davis Friendly Metal Detecting forum sponsor
Bigboyshobbies.net 405-206-9010 Bart@BigBoysHobbies.net
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[Garyw]

I live on the west coast where we usually coin hunt or we can nugget hunt if you have the right equipment. I do have a white mxt. Which you can use for coins or nuggets or iron. It is good to excellent on all three modes but some that are dedicated to one or the other usually are stronger. But if you want to hunt it all Mxt is the one for you. I only live 25 miles from the White factory so I am prejudice but they do have the best service guarantee period. They fix them fast and ship them back as quick as they can. If you can bring them into the factory they give you a lifetime guarantee. No other company will do that. They are also one of the oldest companies around. I have friends that like the minelabs and do well with them but most are over 2 grand. Mine was about 800.00 and came with a second head and an extra lower rod so you don't have to switch heads by themselves. They have specials on their web site. Mine gives me different sounds for different coins and they show up on the screen. Strong signals are usually accurate. weak signals are iffy. bottle caps fall just under pennies and nickels are just below pull tabs. They are easy to learn but the more you use your machine the better they work. I also have a pinpointer that is plugged into my machine not cheap but the best way to go. I can get right over any object with it that is 3 inches or less from the surface. The mxt is the only white machine that has the coin,iron and prospecting modes.