Yet another 1st 'tecta question thread. I have parameters!

[Caconym]

Hi all. I'm sure you're all sick to death of these threads, and I've read through a lot of them and seen nothing but helpful replies so I figured I'd try my luck. Please help me with the agonies of choosing where to drop a grand!

Me:
I've done about fifteen panning/sluicing trips. Got the bug. I want to try detecting for nuggets. I'll be happy if I turn up some coins/jewelry/relics, and might waste the odd afternoon down at the park, but it's the gold I'm really after. I'm fit and young(ish) with no elbow problems yet, and I love hiking. I already own a Pro-Find 35 Pinpointer that I thought would be good for poking in crevices. It has yet to tell me anything I didn't already know.

Budget: $900. That's not "$900 and maybe I can stretch it". That's "$700 but let's be honest; I'll stretch it to $900".

Area: Around Canberra. Primarily Captain's Flat to start with since I know somebody who lives out there. I've had some great walks around there, and turned up a couple little specks in the Molongolo there after an hour or so with the pan. I've heard tell the soil is hot and I believe it, (I've seen what looks like chunks of actual iron ore in clay that I've dug). There's also ferrous trash everywhere. If I have to dig every target I'll probably try to recreate the ending of Waltzing Matilda. My research for panning locations has given me some other ideas to try, like Michelego and Major's Creek.

Detectors I've been looking at.

I was initially leaning towards the Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold pack, but I think I can do better.

The Minelab Gold Monster 1000 looks pretty decent and can be found for $700-$800 on Gumtree. Seems like a solid "pick up and go" unit.

I've also seen good things about White's Goldmaster range, maybe a GM2 or GMT. I like what people have said about learning the nuances of tone, and I wonder if teaching myself on a device where I have to set the threshold etc manually would be a solid foundation for skill.

Others I've glanced at: The Equinox 800, Gold Bug 2, Kruizer and Nokta Fors all seem just out of my price range, but maybe one will come up used. I haven't seen anything that made any of them really stand out though.

InB4 "get a 2300!"... I'd love to! Will you sell me yours for $900?

Thanks in advance!

 

[7.62marksman]

Gold Monster would be my recommendation but i am sure others will be on soon

 

[Dave79]

Yeah, gold monster seems to go pretty well on the small bits and can handle hot ground.

 

[Northeast]

You mention that you might get down to the park and things like that.

I have just sold my Gold Monster and I have an Equinox 800 and the Equinox is infinitely more versatile - especially if a park is on your radar. The Monster would drive you nuts at a park with all of the cans, pull tabs, etc.

But, the Monster is great on gold and the added bonus is it comes with the small coil which is great for the hard to get at spots.

Selling the Monster is going to allow me to get the small coil for the Nox so that is issue is covered for me.

A second hand Nox might come in around $900.

Or, Anaconda, BCF, Rays, etc on their 20% off weekends brings them down to just over a grand (I know, too much ).

 

[AussieChris]

Near new GM 1000 and Nox 800 on Gumtree for $700 and $850 respectively. I have the 6 Nox coil but have yet to go swing it on nuggety ground. Seen a few blokes succeed though much to the disdain of the naysayers.
The GM 1000 is made for small nuggets though, if its what you can afford for now go for it.
You can grab a SDC2300 down the track if the fever does not subside. :goldnugget:

 

[roy cobb]

You mention that you might get down to the park and things like that.

I have just sold my Gold Monster and I have an Equinox 800 and the Equinox is infinitely more versatile - especially if a park is on your radar. The Monster would drive you nuts at a park with all of the cans, pull tabs, etc.

But, the Monster is great on gold and the added bonus is it comes with the small coil which is great for the hard to get at spots.

Selling the Monster is going to allow me to get the small coil for the Nox so that is issue is covered for me.

A second hand Nox might come in around $900.

Or, Anaconda, BCF, Rays, etc on their 20% off weekends brings them down to just over a grand (I know, too much ).

Good to hear you sold the gold monster there Norteast did not take too long

But as per the question I would look at a gold monster or the nox and see what you can pick up second hand how did your monster go on the gold Northeast
Roy

 

[aussiefarmer]

Your pin pointer will work well if the golds coarse enough , if you have some pickers from panning do some air testing with the pointer , they are a little disappointing how large the gold needs to be and you will also find the pointer has sweet spots.
As for detecting it all depends on your budget , most gold machines will also find treasure and trash , but not all treasure detectors will find gold.
P.S. if theres no coarse gold where you plan to go stick with a pan :Y:

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Caconym.

Spent a lot of time this last winter testing the NOX on gold and found quite a few pieces with it. It was ok. (Notice the lower case ok) Had a mate using the monster on the same ground and it was ok. I found that the NOX handled the ground that we were working far better than the monster. It was noisy and didnt like the mineralised soil. I have no experience with the monster and all I can comment on is observations that I made. No matter what settings my mate tried, he couldnt get it as quiet as the NOX. He did find some small pieces of gold with it but they were small. I wont mention the other machine that were were testing against as you said you didnt want to hear about that detector. Working the creeks and panning is as much fun as detecting for a lot of people. I enjoy a day on the creeks as much as any day on the electric stick. If you are lucky, you may find the odd bit with a cheap detector but there will be many days where you will come home empty handed (bullets and scrap metal dont count) Panning will at least provide you with a take home almost every outing. I own a NOX and have access to a monster if I need it. If given a choice between using a NOX, a monster or a pan for a day out, I would take the pan every time without even thinking about it. But thats just me in my local area. Im sure that there would be heaps of people who would disagree but thats OK.

Cheers

Les

 

[Caconym]

What are you people, just hovering around on the site waiting for a newbie to ask for assistance so you can bombard them with friendly, helpful information? What sort of forum is this??? (Edit: sarcasm!)

I'll probably jump on the Gold Monster then (unless something better jumps at me in the meantime), but I'll certainly take a second look at the 'Nox 800 before I do. Curious the GMT didn't get any mentions. I guess it's the nostalgia keeping them going rather than competitiveness against newcomers?

Your pin pointer will work well if the golds coarse enough, if you have some pickers from panning do some air testing with the pointer , they are a little disappointing how large the gold needs to be and you will also find the pointer has sweet spots.

I still haven't found a picker, just fine alluvial gold. I know Canberra kinda sucks, being in the middle of a bunch of gold with not a lot of it nearby. The pinpointer works fine on my tiny collection of gold (that you could lose under a bitten fingernail) when it's all together in the corner of the jar. It definitely has sweet spots, too. I had images of myself sticking it under rocks and finding hidden nuggets, but I think that was wishful thinking. No regrets though; I don't doubt it will get to see some small nuggets over the coming years, even if I have to go further afield to find them. That's part of the appeal of trying detecting; it should open up more places to go and throughout more of the year (call me a sook but I don't like the idea of sitting in a river in the middle of winter).

 

[Dron]

I've heard tell the soil is hot and I believe it, (I've seen what looks like chunks of actual iron ore in clay that I've dug). There's also ferrous trash everywhere. If I have to dig every target I'll probably try to recreate the ending of Waltzing Matilda. My research for panning locations has given me some other ideas to try, like Michelego and Major's Creek.

Sounds like you've got the bug bad, and also have been doing some good research into detectors. You might struggle with a VLF in mineralised ground but all the detectors you mentioned are capable of finding gold.

If you really want to find gold nuggets you might have to end up jumping into a billabong though because digging thousands of ferrous targets is part of the game.

I seem to recall coming across a promising newspaper article about Michaelego on Trove at some point, but I can't find it now.

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Caconym,

Interesting response. Thought you were looking for a bit of advice or help. Sorry my mistake. Must have misread what you were asking. I will however make an offer to you. I live less than two hours drive from Canberra. If you would like to come down for a visit, I can take you out for a days prospecting. Could take you to an area that has produced gold and you could use my NOX for the day. At the end of that time you could then make up your own mind. It may be exactly what you are after. Only trying to help out if I can.

Cheers

Les

 

[Northeast]

What are you people, just hovering around on the site waiting for a newbie to ask for assistance so you can bombard them with friendly, helpful information? What sort of forum is this??? We are the most boring people in the world according to the good lady :lol:

Roy - most of my GM finds are here. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/4137-northeast-and-the-gm-1000/

The GM can be quietened on the ground that I frequent but I feel the Nox can be just as quiet yet still pack a bit more power/punch.

 

[Northeast]

Les - he was just kidding I think. Sarcasm doesn't always come across in the written form

 

[Caconym]

Hi Caconym,

Interesting response. Thought you were looking for a bit of advice or help. Sorry my mistake. Must have misread what you were asking. I will however make an offer to you. I live less than two hours drive from Canberra. If you would like to come down for a visit, I can take you out for a days prospecting. Could take you to an area that has produced gold and you could use my NOX for the day. At the end of that time you could then make up your own mind. It may be exactly what you are after. Only trying to help out if I can.

Cheers

Les

Oh god! I was being tongue in cheek! I was absolutely asking for advice, and was feeling humbled by how much helpful friendly information people were offering. I'd expect people would be sick of the "need a detector, what should I get?" questions, and frankly most corners of the internet aren't as friendly as this. I'm sorry, tone doesn't communicate well over text. My bad.

That's a really generous offer. Thank you. I'll give it a think

 

[Caconym]

If you really want to find gold nuggets you might have to end up jumping into a billabong though because digging thousands of ferrous targets is part of the game.

Now you tell me? And panning means shovelling bucket loads of mud with water in your boots and a yabbie hanging off your bum. I'm beginning to think there's no cheap, easy way of recovering large quantities of gold :/

I seem to recall coming across a promising newspaper article about Michaelego on Trove at some point, but I can't find it now.

Google Earth Pro with the relevant layers has been my favourite "research" tool. I could spend hours looking at it. You'll see there's a large number of "gold" pins around Michelego, along with a bunch down around Bredbo and beyond. Most of my panning has been done a fair way downriver of Michelego, and the fact that I'm finding the small amount I'm finding, working by myself lazily and with low tech equipment, tells me there's probably a fair bit of it around there. But I'm far from an expert. A lot of the land is private/locked up around there though.

 

[Lesgold]

Hey , no problems. I just wasnt sure where you were coming from. That doesnt change anything. The offer still stands. When you end up with a detector, views from a variety of people are important but often you need a bit more than that . Having time to swing the machine, get a feel for what it can do for you and also see some of its limitations can help in the decision making process. Hiring a machine is a reasonable way to go but unless you have someone to help you it can be a pointless exercise. (to a certain degree) When you get enough posts up, message me if you are interested. Im only 15 minutes from the old gold fields.

Cheers

Les

 

[Caconym]

Thanks again Les, that's a really generous offer and I may well take you up on it. Or if I end up choosing a device based purely on research and recommendations, I'd sure be keen to go out with an old hand and learn the ropes.

Let's play the money game!

What if I could stretch my budget to $1100? Does that open up other possibilities? I see there's a White's SPP (entry PI) on the classifieds if it hasn't already sold. I started this thread thinking I was set on the Gold Monster, and now... Buy once, cry once, right?

This is money I've been putting aside towards buying a 4x4 to get me into more remote places on my adventures. But the gold bug is biting hard. Every time I go out bush the hills are whispering to me of what may lie just below the surface. Every time I walk down an old dry creek bed I wonder...

 

[adem]

Hi Caconym......in case you don't know, there is a trick you can do to get 1 inch extra depth on your pinpointer. Thats how much I get with my profind 25. You can find it around the net, just search 'pinpointer extra depth'. As far as I know it works on all/most pinpointers.

 

[Caconym]

Cheers, I'll have a look at that pinpointer mod.

Is this SD2200D for $1,000 the bargain I think it is?

 

[RM Outback]

Hire a machine and try to meet up with someone who knows the machine you hire. Doesn't mean you'll come home with full pockets but you'll have a better understanding. How's your budget regarding financing your preferred purchase without taxing your ability to save, can you borrow against a mortgage. If you can borrow finance the entry machine I'd suggest is the SDC2300 if finance isn't an option hire before you buy will help with your investment decision. Gold Monster or Equinox 800 should retain a decent resale value just something else to throw into the equation if you plan to upgrade down the track.