Pro-scan II and Minelab XT 17000 metal detectors

[southy]

hi guys

been helping clean up my uncles place in Goulburn who was big on prospecting (I only ever tried it a few times) any way he has a heap metal detectors there, one being a Pro-Scan II metal detector, just wondering if anyone can give any details on weather they are any good and if it would be worth the hassle of trying to sell..... I cant find anything on them on the net

cheers

 

[Goldpick]

Pretty sure I had a go at using one of these in the early to mid nineties for a brief moment. Another guy I worked with owned one whilst working up in the Tanami, can't say that I had any idea on how to operate it at the time, even though it only had a few controls.

Here's a link with a bit of info:

http://forum.kimbucktwo.com/index.php?topic=6553.0

 

[southy]

cheers, the only info we could find on it was a receipt from when he bought it back in 1994 for $1970 from a guy by the name of Bill Frazer

 

[Goldpick]

Yikes, that would have been a fair bit of cash back then. It may be of interest to collectors considering there weren't too many Oz made detectors around at that time other than Minelab. What other detectors were lying around and are they in sellable condition?

 

[southy]

there's a 5 or 6 of the scanning bits (coils I think they are called) plus theres 2 more detectors there (will get there details later in the week when I go back down) and I also brought back a XT 17000 xtra tracker detector? battery packs, he also has boxes of different minerals, gemstones etc also a gps with all his "spots" programmed in...

he used to have jars and jars and jars full of gold but he cashed them in a while back im told

 

[Goldpick]

The Minelab XT 17000 will still fetch a few hundred dollars on ebay if in good condition, if not for parts considering it is long out of production - they were a good gold detector for the time.

Just need to figure out which coils belong to which detectors, as they can also command a few dollars for those still owning the respective detectors. The XT 17000 coils will have "Goldsearch" in black over the red Minelab logo (see pic) If you have any troubles identifying them, just post up some pics or descriptions, and I'm sure we can help you out.

 

[nicko61]

id like a go with the 1700,be interesting

 

[Goldpick]

It was pretty innovative for the time, though pity I had no idea how to use it properly way back then. I was too young and all I wanted to find was the next Hand of Faith, instead all I found was buried fencing wire.

Sold mine later on in the early 2000's for over a grand, the purchaser even drove from Vic to SA to pick it up.

 

[rotor]

I've still got an XT 17000 sitting in the corner and could have used it a couple of days ago under some high voltage lines ........ had the SDC out and they let you know when your getting near the HV lines, but the 17000 was always good around or under them. They were also good in hot ground - the latest at the time was the SD2000 and if I remember rightly these hated hot ground and HV wires. They mightn't be the latest tech and they might not have the depth of the latest but they work and you shouldn't walk over too many nuggets with them!

 

[southy]

ok just got back from another trip down there, there was 2 Garrett detectors (1 was a Garrett A.D.S VLF/TR Deepseeker? the other was a Garrett gold hunter A2B vlf/tr Groundhog?) there was also 2 Groundhog coils & also a larger Garret Coil there which was a Deepseeker?

 

[Goldpick]

I'd definitely clean them up and put them up for auction or for sale on the forum, there are still people out there buying/collecting those older detectors, so should have some luck.

 

[southy]

have decided to keep the XT 17000 for myself and have a go with it, but after talking to my mother to see what she wishes to do with the rest of her brothers stuff she has asked me to sell the rest of them...... I'll post them up in another thread and would really appreciated any input as to their rough value

Thanks guys

 

[Jon]

Pro Scan was a slightly suped up Goldseeker 15000. It worked ok but was not as good as the people who made it claimed it was. Much of its internals were said to have been a direct copy of those in the 15000, I believe though, a mate owned one and he came out with me a few times with it but found nothing, that they handled the hot ground a bit better. The same makers later went on to try and produce a PI that would rival Minelab but after burning up tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of investors dollars they folded and disappeared. The 17 is by far the better machine. I never thought much of it nor of those who made it.

 

[old hand]

Why not try putting one up for sale on the forum regards john

 

[Argyle 1]

hi guys

been helping clean up my uncles place in Goulburn who was big on prospecting (I only ever tried it a few times) any way he has a heap metal detectors there, one being a Pro-Scan II metal detector, just wondering if anyone can give any details on weather they are any good and if it would be worth the hassle of trying to sell..... I cant find anything on them on the net

cheers

Were they any good? Well they turned on, were extremely simple to use and hit metal, but had quite a funny tinny sound and were extremely hard to pick up deep signal responses with.
In comparison to units at that time, no they were not much chop. Ground Balance did not act efficiently enough either which was the most limiting factor.
I was hoping they would be good because they cost me much more than the minelab units over that few years, and they had a nice size stock coil on them. Plus a small control box.
But like the Bridgewright, Goldscan and the Midis's, the Proscans were a quick flash in the pan.
Sad really, because if either 4 units were engineered better they'd still be in business today and we'd be using them.

But it would definitely be worth the effort in detailing it up and selling it Southy... As you'd get quite more than just a few hundred for it. Especially if a buyer already has one or two, he'd never run out of spares.

 

[PhaseTech]

Saw a Midas in action in WA, now that was one smooth VLF!

 

[Argyle 1]

Yeah I had a couple years ago when they came out ( I'm a sucker for new toys) they reckoned they were 'factory calibrated' whatever that meant, for the original Fisher Bug coils. But they had two other plugs on the box to take the Minelab VLF 5 pin coils at the time, and a Tesoro plug for tesoro coils.
The Fisher coils did suit them and they ran very much like the Bug in it's non-threshold Mode (I think the internals were very Bug-like)
I could only run the 8" minelab coil as the 11" seemed to upset the unit, and they were nowhere near as good as the Dual Ace, far from it.

The Tesoro coils were absolutely horrible coils anyway, so I think that was the problem running with the Tesoro coil pin connection.

They made a second more refined model, which is I'm pretty sure were the ones I had, because the first run developed problems quickly.

I really do wish they could have kept improving, all of those new brands, because Aussie innovation was really kicking on again around that time.