Detector under $1000

Whats the best second hand detector you can buy under $1,000 for finding gold or would they all be pity useless in that price range?

probably an sd2000

i would say the sd 2000 is your best bet
cheers
stoppsy

Been some 2000's going for 800 lately. maybe a 2100 may be in the price range?

Thanks yes the SD 2000 or 2100 is what l thought, but l was also thinking about the x terra 705, how would that compare to the SD 2000, what it be no good in mineralised ground in comparsion and not find the small stuff?

I havent used a 705 but seen one in action, and i was very suprized at its capabilities...

I've had a Xterra 70, great allrounder but if you really want to find gold, get a SD, GP or GPX machine.

There is some good advice there for sure, but it also comes down to what sort gold prospecting you are going to do, if you are going out to known diggings and spend the day going over mullock heaps you might find using a VLF machine beneficial and with its ease of use could be a good starting of machine, I don't know if they come into your $1000 budget but visiting your local dealership will give you all the options. If you are a little bit more serious and want to cover diggings, gullies open ground yes I would be looking at a ML PI machine SD as mentioned by the other guys would be a good start, make sure it's standard so if you want to upgrade you can trade it in.


Cheers Brian.

Hotrock, Consider getting yourself a secondhand Fisher Gold Bug2. I use mine as a bck-up to the 5000, designed for finding small gold and really good around the heaps and in amongst the scrub, amazing depth and not hard to use, even in the Triangle, Plenty of instruction vids on the net. The new Fisher Gold Bug Pro is out now but from what I have read from USA users it is not as favoured as the older machine. I quote from the Gold Bug 2 handbook "The Gold Bug2 was designed and engineered by Fisher engineers from the ground up for the sole purpose of finding gold nuggets, small gold nuggets, large gold nuggets, deep gold nuggets and gold nuggets in highly mineralised soil" I use mine mainly in wash-outs and creek beds, should be able to get one within your price constraints. Best of luck.
Hotrocks

Hotrocks wrote:Hotrock, Consider getting yourself a secondhand Fisher Gold Bug2. I use mine as a bck-up to the 5000, designed for finding small gold and really good around the heaps and in amongst the scrub, amazing depth and not hard to use, even in the Triangle, Plenty of instruction vids on the net. The new Fisher Gold Bug Pro is out now but from what I have read from USA users it is not as favoured as the older machine. I quote from the Gold Bug 2 handbook "The Gold Bug2 was designed and engineered by Fisher engineers from the ground up for the sole purpose of finding gold nuggets, small gold nuggets, large gold nuggets, deep gold nuggets and gold nuggets in highly mineralised soil" I use mine mainly in wash-outs and creek beds, should be able to get one within your price constraints. Best of luck.
Hotrocks

Thanks, how does the fisher goldbug compare with the minelab SD2000 regarding mineralisaled soil, is it just as good?

Fisher Gold Bug operates at too high a frequency to be useful for anything below the surface *(I think it runs at 71 khz which technically isn't even in the VLF range). It's very sensitive on small gold ON the surface.

The X-Terra 705 would be your only choice at $950 (it's on special at that price) but the Eureka Gold would perform more effectively in terms of slightly more depth.

Yes, an aging SD2000 might be the most effective detector for under $1000 if you can get one that works fine. Kinda wish they SDV2 series was still available.

So the gold bug would be good for match head sized pieces, just say there was a nugget the size of a $2 coin how many cm's deep would the SD2000 find in compared to the gold bug.

hotrock, there are 3 gold bug models. The latest one operates about 16 khz and goes much deeper than the gold bug 2. It would be my choice over an Xterra and I have used both.

Goldbug2 with six inch coil great for shallow depth micro nuggets and anything big
then change to a 14inch coil for depth but loose some sensitivity on the small stuff.

or Sd2000 with a selection of minumum 3 coils eg very small, medium and very large coil.. ( use as area dictates)

Hope that helps a bit... Then get as much practice and experience as u can.

The SD2000 uses 17 year old technology. Not something I would want to swing and hope to find much gold. A later model Minelab would be much better option if you can afford it. If not, then a VLF may be another option provided it is a dedicated gold nugget machine. The best VLFs are Whites GMT or the Fisher Gold Bug 2, however, they do take some getting used to. The Gold Bug 2 is deadly on small gold around shallow quiet ground, such as old dryblowings and scrapings. It will outperform late model Minelabs under the right conditions (more on this later). The X-Terra 705 is not a dedicated gold machine, but rather an all-round general purpose gold/coin machine.

Where to best use high frequency VLFs
Locating reefs and leaders
Anywhere where specimens are plentiful, particularly if low grade. Latest GPXs leave them behind!
Loaming to a source
Detecting areas that are shallow (less than 2") and reasonably quiet. Its surprising how many hundreds of tiny nuggets can be picked up in old dryblowings dumps that have been passed over by Minelabs.

Below is an example of what can be achieved with a high-frequency VLF in capable hands. On the right are my nuggets for one-and-a-half days work in heavily flogged dryblown ground using a GPX 4500 and an 8" coil. On the left was my wife's findings using the Gold Bug 2. My tally was 5.2 grams and hers was 4.7 grams (but I cheated a bit). Ground depth varied between 2-4 inches (average) with low mineralisation.



www.prospectingthemurchison.com

I'd think about saving just a little bit more and fish around for a gp extreme or 3000. I got my GP 3000 for $2200 and it finds gold in heavily mineralised areas with no problems. If you are going really cheap IMO i'd go for an sd2000 over any vlf in that price range...17 year old technology seems very old but I know people that still use them and find gold often. Just my opinion tho and i'm only very new to gold detecting. Cheers, nuggetninja69

Hotrocks if your after gold don`t bother with a VLF machine it will most likely drive you nuts, a 2000 would be in your price range quite a few on the market have been upgraded with newer components and are quite sensitive, with the right coil you will find gold thats for sure, many a good tune is played on an old violin

CJ wrote:Hotrocks if your after gold don`t bother with a VLF machine it will most likely drive you nuts, a 2000 would be in your price range quite a few on the market have been upgraded with newer components and are quite sensitive, with the right coil you will find gold thats for sure, many a good tune is played on an old violin

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big gold still out there

Post GoldstalkerGPX on Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:29 pm
Hi all, Can't say too much Very Happy But there has been a find of a multi ounce nugget 20+ ounces found in the triangle with a vlf detector in the last couple of weeks. Funny how the big stuff stays quiet. Laughing

Keep swinging people!! it's out there

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Gold bug pro dp operates on 19khz. It's going to find gold down to pin head size. As for them not being able to detect sub surface gold, well I've seen the proof.