Newbie...which one for me??

[oziswinger]

Hi All,

I've been interested for a while in this hobby, and have decided to do something in the way of buying a detector.

I've enjoyed this forum, and even though I'm looking at an Australian product I love the way yanks just have to mod the hell out of everything (I'm into an old Polaris atv as well, and have enjoyed that forum as well).

I'm in central QLD (Australia), and there are some goldfields in the area including a small abandoned operation 10 minutes from my house.

I would imagine that I'd be looking at 50% beachcombing, 25% parks/demolision sites/etc and 25% gold hunting. Well....that's the plan anyway.

After much study, I'd come to the conclusion that a Sovereign GT might fit the bill. Hardly a bad word said on any of the forums.

The aussie dealers (and minelab themselves) have told me that an X Terra 705 with the 2 different coils would be better.

They have said that the GT won't pick up nuggets small than a gram.

Can someone please offer me some advice.

I'll put this in the X Terra section as well, so I get both sides.

Cheers,

 

[Neil]

I had the Xterra 70 awhile back and would say thats the one that came to mind also while reading your post on what your after. Sounds like your dealers are steering you in the right direction.

 

[Critterhunter]

Look into the MXT if you plan to do both gold nugget hunting along with rings/coins. A great dual purpose machine in that respect, but not as deep as a GT on rings/coins and with less tones. Just that the Sovereign isn't as sensitive to tiny little gold nuggets

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,1080847,1080847#msg-1080847

 

[oziswinger]

Thank you for your replies.

I am still leaning towards the GT after thinking realistically about how I would use a detector.

I have never been to the gold fields around here, and would be much more likely to use the detector on the beach and parks, most likely as some fun while I am on a camping trip or picnic.

To be honest, the prospect of "treasure hunting" with the kids appeals to me, and the wife is keen as well.

I like the idea of a solid unit with dials and switches, as opposed to a digital touch screen. I am keen to master the recognition of tones and settings, rather than read numbers.

I also collect old coins, in particular pre decimal florins.

I am sure I would get great satisfaction from finding them.

So, if I accept the advice given (which I do) that this is not a gold machine, but a great coin detector which requires some patience to master, I should be happy.

If am am to take the hobby further into gold prospecting, I realize that I will need to buy another detector specifically for that purpose.

From my perspective, everyone I have seen post on the GT loves it.

 

[synthnut]

The Sovereign is a wonderful machine ....... You might want to consider trying to find one with a meter unless you want to dig pretty much everything that gives you a good repeatable signal , which isn't a bad thing ....... The meter will come in handy in the early stages so that you can identify the pitch of the tone , with the target .... After a while you will recognize the pitch and equate it to what you will probably be digging ..... No meter , you are kinda guessing what's down there, but then again , this can be fun with the kids ....You never know what lies beneath the ground !!.....Good Luck and enjoy the Sovereign should you get one .....Jim

 

[kered]

Maybe you could go for the GT or other Sovereign second hand and maybe an xterra 70/MXT second hand rather than just one new, that way you cover most of your necesities, The Sovereign(any version) will wop most on the beach but take second place in the gold fields. Your beach finds could quite easily fund the second detector with the finds, summer is upon you so you should do well.

I found it better to learn the sounds before using a meter, one gets too complacent watching numbers and the habit sticks, especially at the end of a long day when your worn out from the digging.
Good luck either way

 

[Tony in FL]

If beachcombing includes shallow wading you may also want to consider the Excalibur, which is basically a waterpoof Sovereign.

 

[JHM]

I like the xterra 70. It's easy the learn and lighter weight than the sovereign. I'm my opinion it's not quite as deep but deep enough. Now for the bad part, I've know several that have had the display go bad. and the ears on the coils are bad to break. They're not built as strong as the sovereign.

 

[jbow]

If you want to mostly do coin hunt in non-mineralized Florida hunting i'd recommend you wait a week or so and check out the new Garrett AT-PRO. It sounds like it may be just what the doctor ordered. Usually at the beach you don't want to creep along looking for deep targets, there are some places where you may want to but at most beaches the best tactic is to move quickly because most targets aren't that deep, especially if there are regular hunters. Shallow coins, rings, and watches will sound off... you wont miss them moving quickly and the AT is waterproof to 10 ft. However, I have never used a Garrett at all so... I am just going by the ads on the Garrett website. Some testers are hyping it, I don't put much credence in that but from the pictures and the specs it looks like it will be a good machine and it is light.

If the weight doesn't bother you and you are not getting in the water... the E-TRAC is the best detector on the market for general use. The V3i is a little hard to learn but can be adjusted to hunt fast or slow, shallow or deep. those two machines are the best, IMO.

My go to detector in the past has been the SovereignGT because I can chestmount it but I think those days are over because I rarely, if ever, find anything in the wet sand... it is always in th dry sand and most any machine will work well there, at least in that FL sand. If you are going to hunt mineralized sand you need a Minelab. I have also done very well on FL beaches, in the dry sand, with a T2 and I imagine the Omega-8000 would really work well, it is a stable coin magnet, easy to use and very lightweight and runs on one 9v battery... it shares DD coils with the G2 that is soon to be released. The G2 is a gold and relic machine that runs at 19khz. The Omega/G2 combo should be killer fo any hunting. The Omega works well in my mineralized ground and less minerals don't pose a problem for any detector.


God luck!

J

 

[Mentez]

The thing about meters, in my humble opinion, is that I don't think that if you're looking for something with any age to it (ie over a couple of hundred years old) they are very helpful. A coin or relic will give different readouts over time and one old colonial coins, for instance, will more than likely give a different readout to the exact same type of coin a little further up the road.

In my experience of detecting "old things", rather than modern beach stuff where one coin is exactly like the next and modern, I would say dig every "good" signal.

Most of the modern display machines are just trying to talk the user out of digging up a target. The only things you need are a decent machine with decent discrimination and a shovel. Maybe I'm taking a skewed view owing to not being a beach detectorist, but it works for me. Old objects give different signals to each other even if they are the same thing. Don't let a number within an operating range on a machine talk you out of digging anything, or you'll lose some nice things. I mean, even bad signals can be good stuff, there is a whole thread about them somewhere on here!

Oh, and yes; the GT is probably the best for doing what I've been going on about - it detects deep targets in soil, with good discrimination, and it beeps when it does this and doesn't beep when there are small iron targets. Perfectly simple in that respect.

 

[dbsmokey]

The thing about meters, in my humble opinion, is that I don't think that if you're looking for something with any age to it (ie over a couple of hundred years old) they are very helpful. A coin or relic will give different readouts over time and one old colonial coins, for instance, will more than likely give a different readout to the exact same type of coin a little further up the road.

In my experience of detecting "old things", rather than modern beach stuff where one coin is exactly like the next and modern, I would say dig every "good" signal.

Most of the modern display machines are just trying to talk the user out of digging up a target. The only things you need are a decent machine with decent discrimination and a shovel. Maybe I'm taking a skewed view owing to not being a beach detectorist, but it works for me. Old objects give different signals to each other even if they are the same thing. Don't let a number within an operating range on a machine talk you out of digging anything, or you'll lose some nice things. I mean, even bad signals can be good stuff, there is a whole thread about them somewhere on here!

Oh, and yes; the GT is probably the best for doing what I've been going on about - it detects deep targets in soil, with good discrimination, and it beeps when it does this and doesn't beep when there are small iron targets. Perfectly simple in that respect.

Eloquently stated Mentez. I wish we had such "old things" on the West Coast of the USA.

 

[oziswinger]

Thanks very much for your replies. Much appreciated.