New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

i was being funny, i completely agree with you, i use a gp extreme which has payed for its self but only after an 18 month learning curve befor my first nugget, my brother worked with the big gear i mentioned out at moa creek for a while, after wages, breakdowns, the tables freezing, and profits to the claim holder, and re-establishing the land back as they moved, i wondered how profitable it actually was, as the gold varied quite a bit. lots of testing/drilling can determine how it might go commercially but this is costly too.ps i enjoy reading all your contributions to this site.

yes, the gp takes alot to learn, some days i look at the sky and if it has dark storm clouds i know it will be noisy and hard to use, even jetstar flying can effect it or wind blowing towards me from the direction of pylons, i use a 17'' mono coil and find it far better than the standard coil and even the 5x10 coil i have, the gold in my user pic was found with the 17'' the big bit was 8grams and the smallest bit was 0.13grams. i have tried a fisher gold strike but had no luck, but i know people with gold bugs that do well, also much easier to use for long periods, but i think most detectors can find gold if you swing it over it. having a minelab usually means i have to dig deeper holes to find junk-but nearly all the gold i detect has been on or near the surface so most detectors would have found it.

"but nearly all the gold i detect has been on or near the surface so most detectors would have found it."

That's interesting, I had wondered if that would be the case or all different depths. I wonder why that is? Deeper just harder to find/detect perhaps?

Hi folks,

I thought I'd see how many e-trac users we have out there. I am just learning how to drive the thing at the moment and thought we could have a topic to share settings and advice.

I have reduced mine down to 2 tones rather than the symphony that it normally spits out - I think it is helping me work out good signals to bad at the moment
I've also loaded Andy Sabisch's coin shooting settings - I am not sure if I like those over the stock coin settings or not.
They both seemed to work ok at the park I spent an hour at the other night.

I still seem to be getting Fe and Co numbers that jump all over the place though.
I think I need to bury more stuff in my garden to test with - anyone have a half sovereign they could send me? :)

The numbers I have recorded for finds so far are:

Target Fe Co
$1 and $2 12 38-39
Current 10, 20, 50c 35 50 (This is the same for other steel too)
Pull tab 12 12
Chunk of tin 12 43
Bottle Caps 12-13 7-9
5c piece 12 7
Old 10c 21 26 (But this changed dramatically once it was out of the hole)

Air Test
Wedding Ring 9ct 12 35ish




I will make a spreadsheet over the next few days - I know there are ones available on findmall.com but I am more interested in NZ coins in NZ conditions
It would be great if you could add to my list, but I figure I will be digging any good signals anyway even if it is just to catalogue them for now. It makes for interesting finds anyway.....I dug up an old serving spoon at about 6 inches but I was laughing about it and forgot to record the numbers :(

Also - Thank you Chris (Nzpoohbear40) for some good advice and a bit of company the other day - All that interferance with my detector must have been the big overhead lines as it has been much more stable since.

Hi guys

I am just starting to look a getting a metal detector. I have very limited budget and have found a couple on trade me that my bank manager (the wife) has agreed to.

http://www.trademe.co.nz...er/auction-522808175.htm

http://www.trademe.co.nz...er/auction-523550588.htm

Any recommendations on the two. I realise would be better to spend more as you quite often get what you pay for but money is limited ( untill I hit it big lol) I also have 3 kids (3,6,8 yrs old) who I know will want to have a go.

Thanks
Andy

oompalompa, I would steer clear of those chinese detectors. The first looks like a knock-off of the Garrett Ace, for starters.

The electronics in a metal detector is not really anything special. The components are just low-noise op amps and other generic components. Most detectors would have around $20 of components in them. The tricky bit really is the coil. The coils on those chinese cheapo brands are likely to be of poor quality. Poor quality usually means bad discrimination. To get really good discrimination the coil has to be manually tuned.

You would be far better off spending that sort of money on a second hand Fisher or Garrett (or even a new Fisher F2?). Another benefit of buying a Fisher or Garrett is there are experienced hunters here in CHCH who can show you how to use them and you will get up to speed a LOT quicker.

Some of us also have kids the same age as yours, which means the handbrakes will let us out more often at the weekends as the anklebiters will have some friends to play with while we dig our treasures. My experience is that 4-8 year olds will be dead keen to help (they will dig trenches rather than plugs), but that will only last 10-15 minutes before they will want to wander off and play on the road, and you cannot concentrate on digging and watching for traffic at the same time. So good to go somewhere with other families.

It's a tough call, alright.