Husband and Wife Combinations

[xcvator]

Just an update on what I'm doing/wanting
1st off I'd like to get either a new or good 2nd hand vlf detector to use for coins and treasure in my local parks and on the beach.(and maybe on the gold fields)

My budget for this unit is a maximum of $1000-00.

Then if my health and physical condition handles swinging for a full 4 or 5 days I feel I can then proceed with the 2nd part of the plan which would be to buy a 2nd hand gpx4500, hopefully with a few extra's included.

Does this sound like a feasible plan, considering I don't usually plan things, they just happen

 

[madtuna]

It's not about brand loyalty, it loyalty to what gives the best results. At the moment, that's a Minelab.
If something better comes along then my Minelabs will be on Ebay, no loyalty there.

As a wise bloke once told me, "you have Minelab and then daylight"

 

[Moneybox]

xcvator we use a secondhand GPX4500, an SDC2300 and a White's GMT. The 4500 easily finds the most of the gold by weight. The SDC easily finds the most gold nuggets by number but they are small. The GMT has found gold but struggles to work in WA's highly mineralised ground however it's a favourite.

The GMT is the most economical, light weight and fun machine we have. It's not the best gold machine but being a VLF it can work very close to one of the other machines without interference and when you're starting out it's nice to work closely together. The GMT is also the best detector for coin and treasure hunting if that's of interest.

The 4500 battery needs to be charged every day but it charges very quickly. The SDC needs two sets of batteries to last a day and the batteries take many hours to recharge. The GMT batteries last weeks or months without replacement or recharge.

Sometimes you can find very good value used detectors with accessories that have hardly seen the light of day. It's quite difficult for many people to get the time and money to travel to the goldfields and many find it a boring waste of time and money if they don't find gold early on. I bought a used 4500 that had never found gold at well below new price.

Happy hunting...

 

[user 4485]

The SDC needs two sets of batteries to last a day and the batteries take many hours to recharge.

2 sets of good batteries should last nearly 3 days in the SDC, although I'd change & recharge daily to avoid 2nd day shutdowns? You might have dud batteries?
The supplied charger isn't real flash. A good charger will recharge 2 sets within a few hours.

 

[Old Fred]

Why not buy one detector of u choice and a good probe to help the digger so whoever got the detector dont have to keep going back to hole to sus it out

 

[Gem in I]

Just an update on what I'm doing/wanting
1st off I'd like to get either a new or good 2nd hand vlf detector to use for coins and treasure in my local parks and on the beach.(and maybe on the gold fields)

My budget for this unit is a maximum of $1000-00.

Then if my health and physical condition handles swinging for a full 4 or 5 days I feel I can then proceed with the 2nd part of the plan which would be to buy a 2nd hand gpx4500, hopefully with a few extra's included.

Does this sound like a feasible plan, considering I don't usually plan things, they just happen

NO if you don't plan things then cut all the corners and get a zed. Don't walk around wasting your time playing with knobs and electronics if your not a scientificy guy . Get what you pay for gold = experience or visa -versa either way ***** friendly is what's fun when you don't have 5 lifetimes to learn something.

 

[xcvator]

Just an update on what I'm doing/wanting
1st off I'd like to get either a new or good 2nd hand vlf detector to use for coins and treasure in my local parks and on the beach.(and maybe on the gold fields)

My budget for this unit is a maximum of $1000-00.

Then if my health and physical condition handles swinging for a full 4 or 5 days I feel I can then proceed with the 2nd part of the plan which would be to buy a 2nd hand gpx4500, hopefully with a few extra's included.

Does this sound like a feasible plan, considering I don't usually plan things, they just happen

NO if you don't plan things then cut all the corners and get a zed. Don't walk around wasting your time playing with knobs and electronics if your not a scientificy guy . Get what you pay for gold = experience or visa -versa either way ***** friendly is what's fun when you don't have 5 lifetimes to learn something.

With an answer like that I obviously wasted my time here, bye

 

[Moneybox]

The SDC needs two sets of batteries to last a day and the batteries take many hours to recharge.

2 sets of good batteries should last nearly 3 days in the SDC, although I'd change & recharge daily to avoid 2nd day shutdowns? You might have dud batteries?
The supplied charger isn't real flash. A good charger will recharge 2 sets within a few hours.

mbasco I guess it depends on how many hours you put in. We never go out for a full day without the SDC dropping dead without warning. The original blue batteries, the ones that always lose contact, last about 6 hrs. The Coles rechargeable batteries last about 5 hrs. We've recently bought a new set of unnamed batteries from Reeds Prospecting Supplies that are the same capacity as the originals and seem to last a similar time to the original ones.

I guess it doesn't belong here but this is a fix for the constant blacking out of the SDC. I neat blob of solder applied to the positive terminal makes a good contact on the spring. The battery on the left has the solder.

 

[user 4485]

6hrs isn't a long day for me - average day. I was getting at least 10-12hrs from both the original Powerizer batteries & the Tenergy Premiums I purchased when I ran them until shutdown. Over normal 6-8hr or so days I never had a low battery shutdown. It always occured on the 2nd day if I didn't change them? I must've been a less powerful detectorist? :lol:
I was however using a different charger to the one supplied. Maybe it was the difference?

 

[Heatho]

I've never had the batteries run out on the first day either, always the second day as Matt has said. I was doing at least 8 hour days with them too.

 

[Gem in I]

My apologies xcvator I didn't mean to come across so harsh. I just thought if you are going to try and dedicate 4-5 full days sounds great, I didn't take into consideration any budget sorry. The machine I was talking about is pretty much just turn on and go it seems pretty automated but after re-reading your post it does sound like a top idea to gain experience and knowledge which is at least half the reward I suppose.

 

[Guest]

Buy 1 good detector, and leave the wife at home with the kids and bugger off for a couple weeks.

 

[xcvator]

My apologies xcvator I didn't mean to come across so harsh. I just thought if you are going to try and dedicate 4-5 full days sounds great, I didn't take into consideration any budget sorry. The machine I was talking about is pretty much just turn on and go it seems pretty automated but after re-reading your post it does sound like a top idea to gain experience and knowledge which is at least half the reward I suppose.

'sokay

 

[xcvator]

Buy 1 good detector, and leave the wife at home with the kids and bugger off for a couple weeks.

I like your thinking :lol:

 

[Bjay]

I always get a full day , generally 8 hrs or more out of my original battery's but when I stop for a bit of lunch I give em a top up. Got a heap of **** smiths cheap before they closed up but haven't had to try em yet. I keep them as backups. Back to the original question I've never been into doing parks and stuff but if yA can save up for a 4500 you can't go wrong. When I only had one noise marking machine me and the Missus both shared it and enjoyed working together.

 

[Moneybox]

I've never had the batteries run out on the first day either, always the second day as Matt has said. I was doing at least 8 hour days with them too.

Sorry xcvator, I don't mean to hijack your post here....

That's odd, we got the detector new and we've never got 8 hrs from a set of batteries and we have three sets now. We got the third set because the original charger was faulty and we didn't want to get caught out without a set of charged batteries. Perhaps it's the way we treat them. We always charge them until the lights go green and then continue until the charger fan stops. Then we turn it off for a minute or two and recharge them fully one more time.

The other thing is, we only ever run the SDC flat out....on '5' and mostly with the threshold on 3 dots.

We are a husband and wife combination and I think it's the only way to go if you can manage it. There are no problems getting time away because it's shared and then the same applies when you get home. You get to share in the enjoyment of the hunt and hopefully the find whether it be treasure or gold. When we get home (now) Mrs M sets about washing and arranging/displaying her treasures and I usually work on the gold, cleaning, weighing, melting, selling etc. Saying that I've spent nearly all day emptying the bottles and relics out of the bus and getting the bottles shelved ready for her to work with when she gets the time. While I was doing that she was weighing nuggets and working out a suitable sale price. We just do our best to share the whole experience

 

[Mike70]

No way my lady would go detecting with me, in fact, she would protest that I should not go either. Her idea of a good day out is going to Walmart. Not my idea of fun. Glad she is 14,000 miles away. Still miss her company though. Oh well, cant have everything.

Mike70.