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Best Gold Prospecting Detector on This List.
- Thread starter ToddB64
- Start date
ToddB64
Active member
Salida said:
Salida.........You are correct that "It's not a gold machine" per se........I just stuck it into the line-up because I had a phone conversation a few months ago with Tesoro's Robert Martensen about gold machines and he said it would find gold, but not the real small or deep gold. Since starting this thread, I've done more research and evaluation and now, realizing that most of the gold usually found in Ohio and Indiana is very small, my best choice will be a dedicated Gold machine and I must revise my price range downward to approx. $500.00 and I do want a new unit.
In view of the above, I'm going to eliminate (3) of the more expensive machines from my list (White's GMT, Technetics G2 , and Minelab X-Terra 705). So, that just leaves the two below for consideration, to which I have added the lowest price I could find and this was on Kellyco's website. These are both VLF detectors of course.
#3..Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger....$479.61 (tax included and Free SH)
#4..Fisher Gold Bug....$529.99 (tax included and Free SH)
At the moment, I'm leaning toward the Fisher Gold Bug, due to it's slightly higher frequency of 19 kHz and lighter weight of 2.3 to 2.5 lbs (weight varied on two different pages of the Fisher website.), plus the more modern design, 5 year warranty and it only requires one 9V battery.
The Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger by comparison has an operating frequency of 15 kHz, weighs 3.3 lbs (heavier than my Ace 250 that now hurts my age 70 shoulders.), older design, 2 year warranty and requires 3 x 9V batteries. Also, I read a few negative reports, i.e. that the manual was poorly written and it might take around 100 hrs. to learn how to operate the machine effectively. Other reports say it's a very good machine once the nuances are learned and I suppose you could say that about most machines.
Anyone care to offer pro/con opinions on the above two units........fire away ! ...Your comments will be appreciated either way.
Thanks,
ToddB64
TURNMASTER
Active member
100 hrs to learn any machine. Hundreds more for it to speak to you. IMO
I hunt nuggets rarely, but have a couple thousand hours on my Xterra then add the AT Pro and Explorer. I have researched electronic prospecting heavily. Here is the thing; You need a machine you will use. Then you need a machine that will work in your area. Also you need a machine that will find the types of gold in your area. Some of this is from memory, GB and GBII will find VERY small gold along with one of the Whites machines. PI = DEEP but limited on small. Xterra can find some of the weird stuff missed by others. Several have differences on how they handle differing iron conditions.
Just because a machine works well for me here does not mean it will be the best machine in your neighborhood, and visa versa.
EVERY MD will find gold, period, Ace 250 too. If you get to looking around you will find this to be true. Though maybe not as well as some others, smaller, deeper, better ground handling and etc.
I would talk to the local prospectors and find what they are finding gold with and then determine weather or not they are shining you on. Gal I work with runs an MXT and prospects alot (alot) only to find out she does not find much gold and rarely ever uses her MD ( something like 20 hours???)
Another guy runs his MXT a lot for coins and took it to AK and hit real AU (14 Oz nugget).
Which one stands the best chance of hitting MD gold? The one who knows the machine!
Know your machine, Know your area, Know your gold.
Read this
http://www.akmining.com/forums/showthread.php/13-Latest-Nugget-Detector-Recommendations-for-Alaska
Jeff
I hunt nuggets rarely, but have a couple thousand hours on my Xterra then add the AT Pro and Explorer. I have researched electronic prospecting heavily. Here is the thing; You need a machine you will use. Then you need a machine that will work in your area. Also you need a machine that will find the types of gold in your area. Some of this is from memory, GB and GBII will find VERY small gold along with one of the Whites machines. PI = DEEP but limited on small. Xterra can find some of the weird stuff missed by others. Several have differences on how they handle differing iron conditions.
Just because a machine works well for me here does not mean it will be the best machine in your neighborhood, and visa versa.
EVERY MD will find gold, period, Ace 250 too. If you get to looking around you will find this to be true. Though maybe not as well as some others, smaller, deeper, better ground handling and etc.
I would talk to the local prospectors and find what they are finding gold with and then determine weather or not they are shining you on. Gal I work with runs an MXT and prospects alot (alot) only to find out she does not find much gold and rarely ever uses her MD ( something like 20 hours???)
Another guy runs his MXT a lot for coins and took it to AK and hit real AU (14 Oz nugget).
Which one stands the best chance of hitting MD gold? The one who knows the machine!
Know your machine, Know your area, Know your gold.
Read this
http://www.akmining.com/forums/showthread.php/13-Latest-Nugget-Detector-Recommendations-for-Alaska
Jeff
thedeserttortoise
New member
TURNMASTER said:
Plus 1 on Turnmasters post... they all find gold!
Silverado6x6
New member
I did not set a limit on the parameters when I bought my first MD except I wasn't going to buy a GPX 5000 , my requirements were in a minority class, first off I had no interest in coin collecting, I am after gold. The smallest of nuggets will make more money than the average days haul of coin at the beach.
Since I live next door to gold nugget areas here in Alaska it was my first objective to find a MD that performed better than most but was also user friendly, in effect had either the program or the hardware to auto tune the ground balance.
A budget detector does not have that, I am a mechanic by trade, any brand of tools will get a job done but the pros will seek out a better longer laster tool, and with it comes a price, sometimes its a royal penalty buying a famous name brand and the markup.
So I recently bought a Whites Goldmaster GMT with its 48khz coil,some say the Gold Bug 2 is better but the GMT has a few extra whistles like the auto balance, with it a pair of Sunray Pro Gold headphones and a Garret Pro pointer, sure it all cost a few bucks, but you just have to accept it. Either that or build your own.
I see lots of people wanting the gold, but they want it on a budget.
Since I live next door to gold nugget areas here in Alaska it was my first objective to find a MD that performed better than most but was also user friendly, in effect had either the program or the hardware to auto tune the ground balance.
A budget detector does not have that, I am a mechanic by trade, any brand of tools will get a job done but the pros will seek out a better longer laster tool, and with it comes a price, sometimes its a royal penalty buying a famous name brand and the markup.
So I recently bought a Whites Goldmaster GMT with its 48khz coil,some say the Gold Bug 2 is better but the GMT has a few extra whistles like the auto balance, with it a pair of Sunray Pro Gold headphones and a Garret Pro pointer, sure it all cost a few bucks, but you just have to accept it. Either that or build your own.
I see lots of people wanting the gold, but they want it on a budget.
The Scorpion has the record of being the longest detector manufactured by an American Manufacturer.
It had many options, one of which was TR with discrimination. It was not a full time gold specific detector.
The Gold Bug 2 is still the king of all other gold specific VLF-type prospecting machines. It will hit a "bit"
of placer at about an inch and 1/2 depth. The "bit" could be as small as 0.25 of a grain, and some will
say even smaller; 0.10 of a grain. It also has pretty good depth in moderate mineralization (as measured
by the amount of magnetite in the soil).
It had many options, one of which was TR with discrimination. It was not a full time gold specific detector.
The Gold Bug 2 is still the king of all other gold specific VLF-type prospecting machines. It will hit a "bit"
of placer at about an inch and 1/2 depth. The "bit" could be as small as 0.25 of a grain, and some will
say even smaller; 0.10 of a grain. It also has pretty good depth in moderate mineralization (as measured
by the amount of magnetite in the soil).