northern nv vaquero

[nv49er]

Hi fellow treasure hunters,

I grew up in imlay and winnemucca in northern Nevada prospecting with my dad. He died in 2008 and I took the hobby back up. I do ok, find a little gold here and there. In the beginning of the summer I was down by the humbolt running concentrates and my nephew found a broken 1800's colt pistol frame sticking out of the bar ditch. Im glad he found it, but at the time it made me a little sick. How much cool stuff have I missed over the years?

This has inspired me to buy a metal detector. I have a budget of 500 dollars and im leaning twords buying the vaquero. The places I go are highly mineralized lots of pirite and magnetite. I would also like to be able to look for nuggets. I know this is asking alot from 1 md but thats all the money I can spend on it. Thanks in advance for any advice and happy hunting!

 

[Chris R]

You can get a used lobo super trac St on fleabay for the price of a new vquero. In your ground it would be deeper and find that sub gram gold. It would also work well on relics.

 

[Chris R]

The lobo would also auto track ground balance. With the vaquero you would be constantly adjusting you ground balance.

 

[nv49er]

Thanks chris! I will check it out.

 

[TAB.HUNTER]

I'm in Ely and there is some seriously bad ground here. I had been using the Lobo for about two years now and always thought the ground was mild! I found out after getting a Silver U that the Lobo was just doing it's job. The Silver went berserk in some areas. Be sure to read the manual. It seems that the consensus on this forum is that in discriminate mode it becomes a preset ground balance. I believe that is a little misleading. In discriminate mode, the machine is still quiet in areas where the Silver U isn't. The manual states to ground balance in "all metal" before switching to discrimination. The auto ground balance is disabled when switching into discriminate but I believe the user has the ability to "preset" the ground balance in that mode. You also have the ability to adjust for different ground conditions via a three position switch. I moved my control box back to under my arm for better balance. The only mode I can't really use this way is the pinpoint, which I never use anyhow. If you intend to do this, get any extra coils with the long cable.
BTW, there is a seller listing NIB old Lobos on EBAY starting at $250.00. The original LOBO had a manual ground balance that some users prefer & also ran at 20hz. I'm not sure if the current coil selection will work on that unit since the new LOBO is 17.6 hz. Maybe someone on this forum can address that.

 

[kaolinwasher]

in that soil if you use the VAQ in disc mode you will find nothing, its not going to handle it .

 

[TAB.HUNTER]

Interesting. I couldn't discriminate it out with the Silver U; even set at max discrimination. A magnet will pull particles out of the dirt here. I could actually reduce the false signals pretty well with the Outlaw. Of course he wants to look for gold so I think the used Lobo is the way to go.

 

[kaolinwasher]

at least the lobe is made for those conditions

 

[nv49er]

Hey tab hunter, I killed my first elk up berry crik a few years ago. I found some great sheds up there to! I have decided to get the lobo supertraq im gonna order it payday(friday) I cant wait!

 

[TAB.HUNTER]

Better hurry. Seems like the Feds are closing every road they can. I can see some of the ones that are hard to tell if it is a road or where two elk walked side by side but come on, get real.
I want to try it in the meteorite strewn field below Great Basin, I bought a small meteorite from the "Meteorite Men" on Ebay. The 5X10 does pretty good air testing it.

 

[nv49er]

Finding a used supertrac is seeming difficult. If anyone has a link to one i would appreciate it.

 

[Topo]

if you can't afford the lobo or you will only hunt nuggets once in a while, go for a dd coil for the vaquero. The Vaquero is a good detector, you should get some gold with it

 

[nv49er]

I ended up ordering a new vaquero. I got to use one for a few hours yesterday and it sold me. I couldnt get over how light it is. I have a lot of free time over the next month. Hopfully i can master it. Thanks for all the input fellas!

 

[Topo]

I ended up ordering a new vaquero. I got to use one for a few hours yesterday and it sold me. I couldnt get over how light it is. I have a lot of free time over the next month. Hopfully i can master it. Thanks for all the input fellas!

good decision, the vaquero may surprise you

good luck!