What made you get into detecting?

Okay guys i was just thinking what made me start this hobby. it was back when i was 18 my dad and me lost our jobs and we thought we would have a go at detecting. we brought an sd 2000 and just headed out, we found a lot off coins and no gold. after doing it for a few years we just stopped.... then about 10 months ago i thought i would get the old sd out and have another go, this was when i found my 1st nugget 1.6 grams then that was it i was bitten... now i'm glad that i did start again with a lot off findings and been out in the bush loving it.... so what made you start?
cheers
stopssy

Well I was hooked at about the age of 6 or 7. My Pop and uncles took out a miners right claim at Tarnagulla, bought a detector (Whites 6000d) and would go up prospecting on long weekends. This was about 1982. I remember them breaking out the detector in the back yard of my Pops house in Blackburn and finding a 5c piece with it. I was hooked on it and found an old oil heater tank dipstick and swung it around upside down as it resembled a detector to my 7 year old brain. I was looking for diamonds with it.
I acquired my first detector at the age of 12, a Tandy job, then bought a whites 5000d when I was 14 with money saved from a paper round and washing cars. I sold that and bought a Garrett Deepseeker and found me first nug with it, a half gram piece.
I soon upgraded to a FT 17000 and found a fair few more with it and then struck a 12 ouncer. I sold the nug and bought a 2100 when they were still top of the range and never looked back.
I used to spend a lot of time camping in the bush prospecting in central Vic. Now I am happily married with 4 kids and rarely get out looking for gold but I wouldn't swap it for all the nuggets in Aus!

G'day Stoppsy.

The adventure.The thrill of the hunt.Seeing all the different sights of the out back,meeting many a different people along the way,not to mention the peace and tranquility its brought into my life and what a life its been Stoppsy.Prospecting for gold can not be understood through any book, it has to be lived to be understood and what a pleasure its been living it.
PS,What really got me started Stoppsy is that i fell short on doe one day,decided to buy a metal detector and hit the gold fields in the hope id have my first million in a couple of weeks.
Moonlight,i presume you mean an FT 1600.The XT was the 1700

Cheers kon61.

kon hi
the 1600 was the ground tracker (gt1600). i still own one
cheers
dave

Both the Minelab GT and FT were 1600s Dave.

Cheers kon61.

sorry kon
i thought the fast tracker was a 1700
cheers
dave

No sweat buddy.

Cheers kon61.

i got into this game years ago because i wanted to be rich. i`m still not rich but i still have the very first nugget i found with a garret a2b ground hog. (i`m using a three pence i found with my ground tracker)
cheers
dave

My wife started by reading an article in the post magazine written by Jim Foster about the lost chinese diggings in Victoria.So we bought a 17000 from Grahame Pepper in Clermont in 1994 and have not looked back. The only regret is we started so late.
Regards Dave

Nice looking speci and three pence Dave.Well done.
Bundy06,Its never to late to lob on to a new patch or a whopper.

Cheers kon61.

it's great to read how people got started and why...as everyone thinks buy a detector and get rich quick, that's what we thought as well and never happen but it's the best hobby you can have. the other best thing is catching up with other prospectors and turning into a friendship.... the other is chating to the people befor and when the detectors come out, i love listening to them storys...
cheers
stoppsy
PS very nice bit dave

Hi Guys,

Well I was living in Hillston at the time, and went down to Geelong to do a training coarse for work. On the way back my girlfriend wanted to go to Ballarat to sovereign hill. Me, the tight a$$, did not want to go and I fought and fought , what a waste of time I thought. In the end I gave in. Got in there looked around and then discovered the panning area Found quite a few specs, the whole place had just about closed and I was still there panning away <<<< sucked in big time!!! Well I was well and truly bitten by the bug. It was not long after that that I bought my detector as I was going to Pambula for a week. And then due to undesirable work circumstances not long after that, left Hillston and moved to Victoria, that was a great idea!

Cheers Mick

Stoppsy,many of us might have thought we'd get rich quick in this game,butt I thank my lucky stars that i haven't,or i might not have enjoyed this hobby as much as i have over the last 20 odd years or so.Ive gained far greater riches in terms of knowledge and experience than many could ever ask for.That in itself is rich enough for me.

Cheers kon61.

that's so true kon61, i just great how you can learn so much from this hobby. if i hit it big i think i would keep detecting anyway i think i would go mad if i stopped... mechanic that's something different it a good one tho, you should thank the other half for changing your mind off going ..
cheers
stoppsy

Stoppsy, I think she regrets making me go!

Yeah I think you are right Kon, it was the XT. I cant remember as it was 15 years ago and minelab brought out a few in a row starting with the GT 16000. Origionally I was going to buy a Goldseekers 15000 or Eldorado Mk 2, both by minelab I think too but the salesman talked me into the White's.
Cheers, Chris

My son bought a radio shack $20 detector in the specials basket.We got home and took it out to the local school yard and found a penny at the amazing depth of 1".I noticed a old timer also detecting and said hello.He pulled a handful of silver coins out of each pocket and told me not to bother with the other coins just turn the discrimination on full(obviously I didn't have or never heard of such a thing).And so a hobby was born.

phoenix wrote:sorry kon
i thought the fast tracker was a 1700
cheers
dave

They were FT16000 & XT 17000................Not 1600 & 1700

Adrian,not to mention the XT 1800 (Tripple frequency) model.

Cheers kon61.

I started 25 years ago, panning for gold firstly and seeing some colour got me hooked on the stuff. Tried the Goldseker 15000 back then but couldnt figure it out so back to panning I went. Then came the GT16000, what a machine. Got my first nugget with it and put the pan into storage. Followed up with the FT16000, what a mistake, hated the noisy thing. Didn't take long to upgrade it to a Midas 500 heaps superior and lots more gold. Then the PI's came out, but thats another story.

32 years since I began detecting and I have loved every minute of it. I began with the Garrett Deepseeker in 1979 then bought the Goldseeker 1500 for my wife. Then the Eldorado that Cheryl moved up to, then the Eureka Ace. I found a lot of gold with the Eureka Ace, better known as the Green Machine, then the GT (Ground Tracking) 16000 then the Fast Tracker 16000 and that was a disaster but the FT17000 was the best of the VLF machines and we found so much gold with it we couldn't believe Minelab or anyone else could come out with anything better. Then the SD2000 arived and the rest is history.

This year we are heading west with two GP5000's. Heading for Sandstone, Mt Magnet and Meekatharra and any other spots over that way we can find gold. Good luck to everyone heading west this year as well as those detecting the Eastern States.

Cheers, Jim

Forgive me Jim,but I can't remember Minelab ever producing an FT 17000,could I be wrong?....
Jim,I have read so many damn good write ups in the G,G&Treasure magazines regarding technical information as well as your golden adventures accompanied by your lovely wife Cheryl over the years, which has enhanced my knowledge towards prospecting for gold Immensely.For this I would like to thank both Cheryl and yourself and wish you many more wonderful and prosperous golden adventures together.
Jim,this measage will self destruct in 5 seconds.

Cheers kon61.

Hi Kon61
minelab bought out a GT16000 a FT16000 a XT1700 and a XT 18000
Hope that helps Shane

Appreciate your info there Shane Cheers.

kon61.

Started this great hobby when in High School in 1981. Col Webster and Arthur Bisset (Avoca chap) came to our local town and gave a talk regarding gold detecting and showed a very good collection of gold nuggets they had found. I think they were also agents for Bounty Hunter metal detectors.
Well, with help from my parents I purchased the Bounty Hunter 840 vlf/tr detector.

That's when my learning curve started and I am still learning.

I then moved to a GT 15000 I.C. (improved Cunninghams warehouse model, a real rip off, the GT 15000), then to a true Minelab, the Minelab FT16000 and from there to a Garrett A2B.
The A2B helped me find my first gold piece and gained experience on the pipe clay mullock heaps, (the little A2B didn't like mineralised to well).

When Minelab released there P.I. unit the SD2000 I began to save and eventually had enough to buy one. About this time Minelab released their
next model the SD2100 and so I purchased one (might I add I procrastinated a fair bit; just being married and had lost employment from the 'Recession we had to have', yeah right).
The SD behaved how I first thought a detector should act, good depth and the ability to handle mineralised soil. It showed how the earlier vlf detectors could not 'cut the custard' when used on mineralised soil.
From then on I regularly returned home with gold.

This hobby is brilliant because it can 'pay' it's own way, if you put the time and effort in.

Scott.

That last sentence of yours,said it all in one hit Scott."The only Hobby that can pay its own way,if one is prepared to put the time and effort in".

Cheers kon61.

detector wrote:Hi Kon61
minelab bought out a GT16000 a FT16000 a XT1700 and a XT 18000
Hope that helps Shane

OK! Ok! orredy.
My catalogues all say 16000, 17000 and 15000. Uze blokes jus dun writin three zero's.
I az got catalogues for evry bluddy fing incloodin cata bluddy logues fer va catalogues. va only catalogues I dun av iz va wunz I dun hav .

Adrian,I need a cryptologist to decipher that language of yours.Oviously not pig Latin.Definately some form of advanced alian.

Cheers kon61.

Good Topic Stoppsy,

My father taught me to pan for gold at Vaughan Springs oooooo around about 1979 in the creek where they have a dip. They did have a huge silver slide there that we use to get a bit of speed up with turned inside out empty chip packets. Bought a Whites 5000 with a mate at around 1992 second hand, we found 12 dollars at lorne beach with it once, then it went back into the cupboard. A passion of mine always to do some serious detecting i bought a minelab in the last 12 months to destress from work and pick a hobby that wouldnt get me into trouble with the missus. The other hobby was the Tiger Woods hobby and that would have been a very expensive one, i picked the cheaper hobby hahahahahahahaha......Joke.... anyway i love detecting and everything about this hobby....

HueyDuck....

"The other hobby was the Tiger Woods hobby"

would that be Golf or Women?