Buying A Metal Detector

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Bonacini said:
old hand has a very good point, i started off the same way with a vlf whites gmt and it was hard to get the hang of as they can be noisy in the gold fields
IF you don't know how to set them up and IF you can't distinguish between ground warbles and targets, experienced user can do this, i then had a gpx4000, i should have
kept this but i was not confident that i was setting it up right, i was finding lead and all sorted of bits of metal, i sold it bought the SDC2300 and found gold first time out.

great machine, i also had a whites sp and thats a PI and i struggled with that, so it can be very hard when you are new and not tuned to the sounds.

as a noob it can be easily dishartening and thats why people try to steer you towards these more expensive detectors, they are actually trying to save you money
in the long run.
Click to expand...

This a good post, as a lot of us have gone down a very similar road....me, whites mxt, TDI pro iz, gpx4500 and QED.
4500 the pick of these.
 
That's right Harry, people can post results or reviews on any detector they like here, though people who constantly try to hijack threads with irrelevant or misleading info will eventually be stopped from posting such nonsense.

Some of these people wont even post their finds so it makes it very difficult to believe that they have had any success. I think most people do the same as you and what others have said above, they keep going back to machines that work for them, plain and simple.

People who try to discredit known machines that work well in certain conditions and keep trying to flog others obviously have some type of agenda.
 
davent said:
Bonacini said:
old hand has a very good point, i started off the same way with a vlf whites gmt and it was hard to get the hang of as they can be noisy in the gold fields
IF you don't know how to set them up and IF you can't distinguish between ground warbles and targets, experienced user can do this, i then had a gpx4000, i should have
kept this but i was not confident that i was setting it up right, i was finding lead and all sorted of bits of metal, i sold it bought the SDC2300 and found gold first time out.

great machine, i also had a whites sp and thats a PI and i struggled with that, so it can be very hard when you are new and not tuned to the sounds.

as a noob it can be easily dishartening and thats why people try to steer you towards these more expensive detectors, they are actually trying to save you money
in the long run.
Click to expand...

This a good post, as a lot of us have gone down a very similar road....me, whites mxt, TDI pro iz, gpx4500 and QED.
4500 the pick of these.
Click to expand...

Im also looking at going this way! AT Max, Whites Oz pro and recently have had an over at a Gpx 4500, I was asking a guy I just met for some pointers in Clermont, he looked at me with a your using the wrong gear face before offering some training with the Gpx! An offer Im not sure about as the research Ive done on the Whites tells me its a good thing?
The only way I will know for sure is to run them side by side over undug targets!
The offer is still more than twice what I paid for the Whites.
Matt T
 
Listen to the advice about the other detectors mate, it's good advice, minelabs are expensive but they are without doubt the best at finding gold in Aussie conditions, if the others were better people would use them more. The whites are supposedly quite good but a GPX4500 is miles ahead.
 
I've recently located good sharp signals under virgin sandstone which are at least 18 inches deep.Try doing that with a 705 in extremely hot ground. I am not knocking the forum which is very good for prospecting compared to most forums which concentrate mainly on coins,only giving my impressions. I am sure we can work together if we keep out the abuse to a minimum.

Mod edit, Rob if you keep resorting to name calling we are going to have a problem
 
His budget was very limited...So he was looking at the 705..out of all the detectors around the few hundred dollars the only choise would be the 705 for gold in MILD... i repeat ....MILD ground...the 705 would be totally useless in anything hotter than MILD ground.The Impact was never in his price range. And I'm sure if it was he would get one ..Though I have not seen any utube vids showing gold finds with the impact..But I haven't looked that hard either. :Y:
 
Really if you want to find gold in an environment that is highly mineralised and you are going to put down hard earned cash. I would look around what is being used successfully. Look at the evidence and make your mind up. This forum is both supportive and evidence driven. (you have not found anything until you post the images). It is your choice in the end however, please do not discount Redfin, Heatho and others are only trying to help. Loads of experience who only try to help new guys. As for personal attacks on some of the guys, this forum has a very low tolerance. Please do not discount the experience and humor of some of these guys.

I was in your same boat a few years ago. Not sure and scared I would but the wrong detector and stuck with my choice. I visited a local prospectors group, went out, hired their detector spoke to the other guys and saw what really happens out the bush with the wrong choice. This confirmed what I was told. Purchased my first detector a SDC2300 and never looked back. But really as with all things in life it is up to you. Advice is free but you need to sift the through and see the facts for the area you are searching.

Good luck

HH
 
oldtimerROB said:
RR. This being a Minelab forum you will always get crackpots more than willing to discredit the Nokta Impact cos its such a good detector and they feel threatened- not meaning you but others on this forum.Nokta have programmed the settings for use in every situation, starting with the gain at 70 ideal on goldfields.For coin hunting in parks with little mineralisation you can increase it up to 95.All you have to do is change the standard 14 Khz to 20 Khz on goldfields and away you go, very simple. I was looking at the 705 2 years ago cos I had very little money but decided against it from what I saw on the internet. The Nokta Gold + seemed a good choice but the Racer 2 operating at 19 Khz was a better design and one stop menu system..I decided to wait 6 months for the new Impact and have not been disappointed.I was out recently and found a deep target in Deep mode and dug down through the fissured sandstone 12 inches and still getting a loud signal. The target is over 12 inches deep and possibly up to 24 inches but the depth is beyond my ability due to a heart attack 6 years ago.We tried a SDC 2300 but it could not register anything. They are good for 0.001 to 0.01 grams at shallow depths,and it would need to be a big object for them to go deeper.For shallow and very small targets down to below 0,1 gram and in low/medium mineralised soil the Gold Racer is ok but no good in very hot ground and that includes all 56/60 Khz detectors.I am sure that it can find gold in the GT as there are many areas where the soil is low/medium mineralisation,but only not where I go.For very deep targets and larger targets in very highly mineralised ground the Gpx 4500 is the the best cheapest option and the Impact is its poor cousin as it is about $ 3000 cheaper. In the all metal mode the Impact will find 0.1 gram bits at 3 to 4 inches deep in medium soil but not found any in hot soil. All in all the SDC will find gold almost anywhere and much quicker than the Impact as the small stuff is almost everywhere and also in your back yard but you need to pan it in water to actually see it as it it is so small.The Whites Vlf is optimized for silver and does not have 20 Khz and so will not go as deep as the Impact on gold.The Equinox 800 is multi frequency but in goldfields I only use 20 Khz so it would not be of any advantage for gold nuggets unless they are 50% silver. There are a lot of large nuggets still unfound in Victoria but they are very deep and 2-3 meters deep.All the surface stuff around 6 to 12 inches has been found.There are still some left at 18/24 inches deep if you are willing to work for them and are fairly young.
Click to expand...

Over the years I have found that you can go over a patch of ground with one machine and then go over it again with another machine and still find more stuff, I have followed a few Reps from the major companies who have been testing a new machine and I have found what they missed and it is a fact that if you give a skilled user an Average detector and then give an Average/Novice a top of the line machine the skilled user will always walk away with the finds,

Regardless of the Brand there is no such thing as the perfect detector whether it be a PI or a VLF, Most people don't like my machine because they say it is "Chatty" where as I see that chattiness as a source of info which I put to good use, Because when it is chatty it is reporting every single Item in the Ground which to me highlights the traffic hotspots, Having been at this for longer than I care to remember and having seen just about every machine that ever beeped I have learned that the only good machine is the one that suits your needs the best, A PI will torture you in places I have detected and yet in other spots a VLF will howl like a Wolf,

The reason I buy the Machines that I do is because they have a proven History at finding Gold and they are very fast in Iron filled site, But it was their proven Gold finding Ability that sealed the deal for me and it was less than a week before the machine paid for it's self in a big way and the finds over the next few weeks started to mount up and I have never looked back,

Basing a persons choices of Detectors on Productivity/Success "Only" there are 4 possibly 5 Machines in History that have Proven them selves above all others Excluding the GPZ, and it is a Proven fact that anyone who buys one of those 4 or 5 Machines will be rewarded soon after if they stick at it and Learn that Machine, If Gold is a persons main Objective then choosing anything other thing than one of those 4/5 machines then a person is placing the their chances of success in the hands of fate and not Technology.

The Best Detectors are the one that have gone down in History as Gold Machines.
 
who cares what machine you use if you want to spend heaps go for it if you have a budget pay what you can afford if you spend so much time telling people what you think the best machine is or the brand you follow well you have to much time on your hands the main thing is get out there and have a go way to many arm chair experts out there more worried about the brand get out into the bush meet some interesting people and have fun
 
227dick said:
who cares what machine you use if you want to spend heaps go for it if you have a budget pay what you can afford if you spend so much time telling people what you think the best machine is or the brand you follow well you have to much time on your hands the main thing is get out there and have a go way to many arm chair experts out there more worried about the brand get out into the bush meet some interesting people and have fun
Click to expand...

I agree, just buy what works and have fun :Y:
 
There are no references to Impact finding gold on Youtube or any of the detector forums worldwide I can assure you on that,except for one of our local lads who have done so on this forum. I have only tested the Impact and informed members which only seem to want to ignore and discredit the Impact. I will admit the Impact gave me false signals recently on a hill and I only found out after I dug down 18 inches and they had moved or split up.The Impact could easily ground balance on this hill but it overloaded every few feet due to the extremely hot ground anomalies,and that included the COG mode.This happens rarely with the Impact. The false signals may be able to be eliminated at the expense of depth by increasing the Isat level until it stops.
And amazingly the Impact will find tin foil and beer cans for those of you who have a dull sense of humour.
 
I know exactly what the problem you are having is with your machine, If you are prepared to listen I will tell you, If not then keep going as you are. It's up to you. ?
 

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