Good detector for gold beginner?

Hi there... As an opal person gold is new to me and was wondering if I could get some advice n what would be a good reliable starter. Regards

Hi Dez
If money is no problem the best to start with would be a Minelab 4500 or 5000 .
Althought they have a lot of settings , the factory presets in "Enhance" makes a quiet newbie friendly machine in my opinion.
Hireing first is a good idea to start without a huge $ commitment.
If on a budget any of the GP series are good reliable ( and still very capeable ) detectors.
Cheers
DB

Thanks for your reply mate, I did a little research and I thought they were like flying a plane from what I could get from the little I saw and thought they might be too confusing for a beginner but I will keep looking into it, thanks for the advice, appreciated. Regards

try this link dez.

http://goldcitydetecting.com/Beginner-Information.php

Hi Dez. My recomendation would be a Minelab 4500 beginner or not they are hard to beat.
I started out with a ML 2100 had a little success but since i purchased the 4500
i haven't looked back
Cheers and welcome
Phill.

thanks mate, interesting read...

thanks bull ant, I think it is going to have to be a minelab:)

Welcome Dez, If you first want to try detecting to see if it's for you, you can't go wrong with a Fisher Goldbug 2 with a 6.5 inch coil. They only cost about $850 delivered to Australia, and it will find you gold.

Devil woman would be impressed if I could get away with spending that much, I suppose I might just sit back a bit and wait till I sell the leases and hopefully in that time I will have a better understanding of it all and be able to make an informed decision... Appreciate all the responses

The 3000 thats just come up in items for sale is a bargain, and a decent machine ...

shiraz wrote:Welcome Dez, If you first want to try detecting to see if it's for you, you can't go wrong with a Fisher Goldbug 2 with a 6.5 inch coil. They only cost about $850 delivered to Australia, and it will find you gold.

Shiraz are you sure the gold bug 2 will find me gold

Positive Badboy, just have to release those negative waves, and you will get what you deserve

Thinking hard, been googling away... don't want to over capitalise but don't want to waste, might hire one soon and have a play.

Hi Dez.
Have just retired from the business you are in and bought a gpx4500.
No "wizzkid", but found the unit very easy to understand and manage.

I reckon if you get the other half of that nice split you are holding, turn it into $'s, you wont need much more for a used gpx5000.
At least you are starting at the top of the tree and have a very saleable unit if the idea doesn't work out.
If the gold is there, it gives you the best chance of success.
mike

Dez wrote:Devil woman would be impressed if I could get away with spending that much, I suppose I might just sit back a bit and wait till I sell the leases and hopefully in that time I will have a better understanding of it all and be able to make an informed decision... Appreciate all the responses

Mate if money is tight and the missus is not keen on you spending the money then don't do it, it aint worth the grief if your plans go wheels up.
Try before you buy otherwise you will be spending good money on something that just might not pay for itself for quite a while.

boobook wrote:Hi Dez.
Have just retired from the business you are in and bought a gpx4500.
No "wizzkid", but found the unit very easy to understand and manage.

I reckon if you get the other half of that nice split you are holding, turn it into $'s, you wont need much more for a used gpx5000.
At least you are starting at the top of the tree and have a very saleable unit if the idea doesn't work out.
If the gold is there, it gives you the best chance of success.
mike

Cool so where were you doing your thing mate? Tunnel rat? I got a few splits lying around and was hoping entry wouldn't be much more as the minister of funds and warfare has been trying to curb my toy buying, devil woman doesn't get me getting out of one hole into another when i have just bought acreage and some other toys (she thinks I won't have the time and it will be another thing filling up space in the garage). I am hoping to get out and about a bit and travel once I have settled in and thought it would be a good way to relax when there isn't fish to be caught...

Adrian, I am not expecting to strike it rich by any means and know it won't pay for itself for quite some time, if at all. It is more curbing the impulse thing and making a right choice as well as getting rid of things I have but won't use to keep the nagging and whip cracking to a minimum or I will have all the time in the world (by myself) to do whatever I want...

Thanks guys!!!

[quote="shiraz"]Welcome Dez, If you first want to try detecting to see if it's for you, you can't go wrong with a Fisher Goldbug 2 with a 6.5 inch coil. They only cost about $850 delivered to Australia, and it will find you gold.[/q

Anyone use fisher gold bug 2. how do they handle groond noise, mineralisation , also can they find larger deeper nuggets, alot cheaper then the minelab 4500 but how does it compare

Those two detectors are from different planets and are totally different machines.
The 4500 will work almost anywhere except underwater; It has great sensitivity and depth to small nuggs and large nuggs in extreme iron mineralisation and is fairly easy to learn. I don't know how well it goes on salt lakes.
The GB 2 is a high frequency vlf and is a ball biter on small and large nuggs in quiet to medium ground. it will not get much depth in high to extreme iron mineralisation, maybe just a few inches but a lot depends on the nature of the target and how well you have learnt the machine.
The GB does very well on and around the mullock heaps where the gold has been tossed out with the pipe clay from below. I have always liked the GBs, they will find the gold if it is there but you do need to master the ground balance of these machines otherwise the ground noise will drive you nuts in high mineral ground.

Just an opinion.

G'day Dez.
We have been open pit mining Eromanga region last 16yrs.
For last couple of years things much tougher, oh&s requirements, fuel costs, maintenance on aging machines and certainly not the least, Aging Bodies!
So after getting rid of the excavator, tidying up the leases etc., at the end of this last winter decided on a bush/fishing excursion into the Kimberly.
The luckiest fisherman ever caught the unluckiest barra of all time which hit a lure in the King river (Wyndham).
At 120cm. there was enough fillets to last a while so we then went down into and through the old goldfields regions.
Finding this sort of bush life so similar to what we are used to, wandered home (nsw) and bought the gpx4500 in readiness for a longer trip over there next year.
Very much on a learning curve with the machine, finding plenty of lead shot, bullets of all calibres (some .45 lead ~400grains) and 1x 0.5g. gold about 15cm.depth.
This from an old known gold area in nsw, so hoping for more results.
mike

Cool, I have spent a bit of time there myself a few years back checking out the rivals... I am glad you are enjoying yourself, I look forward to the farming life to be honest, a few chooks and a cow, growing some veg and taking it easy! As devil woman says, there's no use working hard and getting too old and broken to enjoy it, so I am just looking forward to enjoying doing nothing except potter and enjoy the fruits of my labour. I am currently waiting on the murray for the cod season to start up and hopfully get a few decent fish. So far have found a nice spot for some redfin, got two yella bellies but geeze, the bloody hoons in these wake boats!!! If we did a tenth of the damage they do to the banks we would have the epa all over our arses like flies on ****... It is a shame really, it is so bloody tempting to pop a few holes in each of the hulls from 50 metres (they wouldn't hear a bloody thing), what's the point of going somewhere relaxing with a v8 boat that the sound system drowns out?

Oh well, must be getting old... time for a cuppa and a nana nap

Dez wrote:wondering if I could get some advice n what would be a good reliable starter. Regards

hi dez
if you think you are going to continue with detecting , i would think get a minimum of a 4000. you can get a 4000 these days for around 3 grand and they are a capable machine. just look at the little bits stoppsy gets. a 4500 would be even better but they are about 1 grand dearer
cheers dave

Buying a metal detctor is all about what you can or cannot afford. If you have the means to purchase a GPX 5000 then that is the way to go. If you don't have $6500 then my advice would be to purchase a secondhand minelab detector in excellent physical condition. Normally is the detector has been well looked after it will appear to be very clean and even in some cases look new even though it may be several years old. I have been detecting for about 32 years and have owned virtually every detector ever made since my first Whites 5000. I sold my GPX 5000 to someone in the Sudan a few years ago when things were really going crazy over there. I then purchased a GP Extreme, and after much consideration I had it modded by Woody in Frankston. He had guaranteed me that I would be more than happy with the detector. I went over old ground and was amazed by how quiet the detector was and how sensitive it was. I brought a new GP Extreme when they first came out and although they were a revolutionary detector on small gold they were also noisy on most Victorian Goldfields due to the mineralization. I still use the modded Extreme and I am very happy with it. I went to Tibooburra last year with 16 other people all with GPX 4500 and GPX 5000 and my Extreme held its own against all these models. I purchased the Extreme for $2000 and spent another $1000 for the mods. For $3000 I have an excellent detector and I feel very confident that I can find as much gold as any detector on the market. A very good friend of mine runs a detector tour company in Victoria and he was very impressed by the performance of the Extreme. I don't do a whole lot of detecting these days but when I do I always come home with some gold albeit sometimes quite small. The good old days of the late 70's when you would have been ashamed to go back to the Dunolly caravan park with any nugget less then an ounze or so are well and truely over. Just as a footnote to this article, I also have an x-terra and my son has a Garrett 250. We can run them both with small coils and pick up quite small gold. One of these would be excellent for the person on a budget for only a few hundred dollars and they are fantastic at the beach and in the park. Of course the alternative to detecting if you want to be assured of coming home from a weekend away with some gold is to buy a small 12 volt sluice. They are great fun and the whole family can join in. Good luck and happy hunting to all who read this article.

Guest wrote:Hi there... As an opal person gold is new to me and was wondering if I could get some advice n what would be a good reliable starter. Regards

Hello Dez, renting a metal detector just to try it can be a good idea, but the results are different when you own your own machine, I advise you not to go below a GPX4000, find gold nowadays is hard enough without the handicap of an old machine.
I do not believe in buying an old metal detector and mod it, start with one of the best machine or you risk losing the interest before even begin.
But this is just my opinion. All the best.
Goldquest

Renting a detector is certainly a good idea and would probably put quite a percentage of people off continuing with it as I am surprised how many people think that gold is quite easy to find. They may be dissappointed when they go out and find nothing. Too many beginners have too higher expectations of finding gold. For those critics of modded detectors, I think that if you have not tried one you should try one before you pass comment on them. If you haven't used one you would be pleasantly surprised as I was. The thing is that with a modded GP series detector you must use an enhancer to get the best results. As I have said, I have owned every detector since the Whites 5000 and consider myself to have a fair handle on detectors capabilities and there is really no need to spend a fortune buying a new one. Remember that it takes a lot of gold to pay for a new machine.

hi Dez
If you’re willing to develop the hobby, the expense must be taken into consideration. As an experiencer, it is not necessary to buy a professional one. For example, you buy a professional one and one day you get tired of it when fresh time gone . So the cost are wasted. My early learning metal detector from King Detector can definitely satisfy my needs.It's my humble advice. And it does not cost much.

johnnyblair wrote:hi Dez
If you’re willing to develop the hobby, the expense must be taken into consideration. As an experiencer, it is not necessary to buy a professional one. For example, you buy a professional one and one day you get tired of it when fresh time gone . So the cost are wasted. My early learning metal detector from King Detector can definitely satisfy my needs.It's my humble advice. And it does not cost much.

G'day johnnyblair

I hope your not just here for a spamming exercise to promote and sell the "King Detector" your first post as a new member is not a good one.

cheers dave