New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Creamer,

I don't know anything about the Garret, but wet conditions should not be a problem. You would not want to get the controller part of the detector wet of course, but coils are typically water proof. I was detecting in an on and off light rain last weekend and simply put a plastic bag over the controller. By the end of the day the detector and I were pretty muddy so I washed it off and let it dry in the house.

You don't need an expensive detector for hunting gold; I sell Gold Bugs for $800 (shameless promotion) that are very effective at finding even small nuggets. The fancy expensive detectors like the Minelabs that many people on this site use are capable of going deeper (using big coils) and still picking up the small nuggets. As a general rule with metal detectors higher performance costs more. In my opinion $600 is about what a good quality entry level detector (as opposed to a toy) will cost. Hope that helps.

hi creamer i have a good used gold detector for sale it is a tesoro lobo and the smallest gold found with it was o,1 gr and it is a good beach detector aswell. my mate is going overseas and is not leagal to use them there, and it comes with headphones, carrybag and manual.pm me if interested

I think Tesoro's have a lifetime guarantee.

Creamer

Legally.......you are not supposed to detect or fossick for gold on any DOC land unless it is a public fossicking area or you have a claim...blah blah

eagle

True.....you dont need an exspensive detector to find gold. But it sure as hell will increas your chances hugely in finding a LOT more gold than a cheaper one. The Cheaper ones being the VLF detectors & the more exspensive being the Pulse Induction (PI) detectors.

With out getting in to too much techo stuff the frequency of a detector will determine its sensitivity & the strength of depth of signal in to the ground. In short, coin/relic machines run lower frequencies to utilise discrimination ability & to get a reasonable punch in to the ground while trying to maintain a good degree of sensitivity. Frequency strength is a trade off between sensitivity & depth of punch in to the ground. The higher the frequency the more sensitive but lacks depth of punch in to the ground. So for your VLF gold detectors that run at higher frequencies like the Fisher gold bug & Whites GMT, they are deadly on quite small gold near the surface but lack punch of depth in to the ground. Even on a biggish nugget that is down a little bit. So they are very good at shallow bed rock detecting.
The thing with gold is that as a metal in nature it is never of the same purity in any one location. Gold is always mixed (alloyed) with other metals. Mostly with silver but also copper & others & always in differing amounts. This has a huge effect on its condutivity & what the detector sees & tries to tell the operator what it is seeing. Hence why you cant really use a discrimination mode detector on gold. You need to run in an All Metal mode when hunring for gold & dig every signal. Coins/relics on the other hand are made by man & there metalic make up is known & with coins they are able to have very accurate discimination ability detectors that will tell you what coin you have found before digging it up & also what depth it is at.
Of course with discrimination detectors, ferrous (magnetic) metals & non ferrous (non magnetic) metals are able to be determined. Thats a great help. Most Good targets are made of non magnetic metals. Hence most coins & jewllery & things that are worth a few dollars.
Gold is a very different kettle of fish. As has been mentiond, it comes alloyed with god knows what other mixers of metal, even iron. So with gold you have your mix & association with magnetic & non magnetic metals. Also gold is distrubuted by nature & can be at any depth in the ground & always has come up from below. The exception being the resorting & distribution of alluvial gold by streams, glaciers & errosion. But even then it is trying to work its way down deeper. Coins & relics are lost by man & so have been lost on the surface & are slowly on there way down so tend to be shallowish compared to gold.
So in a nut shell....there you have it & why you cant get ONE detector that will excell at every form of detecting. For the serious & not so serious hunters looking for gold you need at least two machines. A very good VLF machine & a Pulse induction to cover most avenues. There is always going to be trade offs with frequency & sensitivity verses depth & size of gold & vlf's with discrimination verses depth, size of gold, junk & sensitivity.
The thing you need to remember first most is.....for every piece of gold found that is one less piece to be found & it is not being replaced. THINK ABOUT THAT.....The first & easiest gold to be found it of course the nice big fat ones on or very close to the surface. The kind of gold that any detector would find. Guess what.....these are the very first to have been found & just arent there any more. Dont forget....you are not going to be the first person to wave a coil over these areas. Many have been before you & many will go after you. The difference is in technology to improve on depth verses sensitivity both for small gold & bigger. Your cheap detectors wont cut the mustard here & you are competing with the likes that have the latest & greatest technology. That comes at a price.
So if you want a chance of finding reasonable amounts of gold you need the best detector for the purpose. You need to learn how to use it & what it is capable of & what it isnt capable of. You need to learn where the gold is most likely to be. You need to be VERY PATIENT....it is a huge learning curve but if you stick with it & really have the passion you will do ok.

Happy hunting

JW :)

Edited by user Wednesday, 29 June 2011 3:21:16 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Very well said JW.

The easy gold is gone ....long gone!!!

Location Location LOCATION!!!

We are not chaseing $1 dollar coins.

Eagle

"GOOD POST" John.

Regards---Colin.

P.P.S.Don`t worry! I noticed your <DIG> earlier on!!!

Edited by user Wednesday, 29 June 2011 3:12:34 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yes the ace 350 has arrived and its all good. Buzzed up and down the driveway. The backyard went crazy. And to an isolated camp spot near Waipapa. Best find was a 1971 new penny. With a half on it, just outside my front door. 4 dollars 10c old coin. Half a knife. molten Aluminium. Led. etc The ace went off continuously on "foil"or 5c. I did not dig them. It loved beer/aluminium drink lids (bottle caps). And aluminium Ring pulls. The beach next.

The 1971 penny(with the half on it) came in when decimal currency kicked in in england. So as not to loose money when rouding off to the nearest cent. It was the smallest coin and apparently not very popular.Something like that.

Oh the yellowfin oops....

Edited by user Friday, 15 July 2011 6:55:02 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I've found so many of those little 1/2 pennies in my garden in one spot - I'm convinced someone must have had a jar of them and dropped it or something at some time! Some poor little kids slush fund I guess.