Meteorite Detectors

[applevalleyjoe]

I'm looking to buy a reasonably priced detector which I can use, among other things, for meteorite and gold detecting. I've come across comments/suggestions regarding the Fisher Goldbug series, the Fisher F75 used by the Meteorite Men, and White's GMT. The Minelabs X705 Gold and Eureka Gold have also been mentioned. An advisor at Kellyco reommended White's V3i as the ultimate machine capable of coins, gold, and meteorites detecting. Other than the fact that these are all relatively high kHz machines, necessary for prospecting and meteorites, noone has mentioned the role of other features or other specific reasons supporting the purchase of any these particular models .

Can you hunt effectively for coins with a 48 plus kHz single freq detector such as the GMT and Goldbug? Will a Minelabs Safari or Explorer SE II do the job well across the spectrum: coins, gold, and meteorites? I've yet to see or hear of any Minelabs Safari or SE II owners using detectors for gold or meteorite detection.

Appreciate any input from the experts out there.

Thank you.

[russellt]

what a great thread.. i dont have any relavent info but i suppose any detector could be used... some would be more effective of coarse, i just dont know which one :dontknow:

[Lowjiber]

I hunt meteorites a lot in the southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona (Gold Basin) areas of the Mojave. Looking at your location, I assume you're going to be hunting space rocks in the Mojave too.

In the desert, a good magnet is a great tool for finding meteorites as most are on top, or only partially buried. I assume you have a good one attached to a pole already.

I have three detectors that I've used...MXT, V3i, and Gold Bug II. Of the three, the one that I like the least is the V3i. It's simply too heavy and more cumbersome for my style of meteorite hunting...without any advantages over the other two.

My favorite is the GBII. It's light and, at 71kHz, serves me well when hunting washes for gold too. However, the GBII offers no discrimination, so it's pretty much if you hear it, dig it. :rolleyes:

The MXT (using 6x10 DD coil) is a nice machine for the desert as well. As you know, the desert is highly mineralized and the MXT's excellent ground tracking provides plenty of stability. Obviously, the prospecting mode helps a lot when hunting washes as well.

Strictly from a meteorite hunting perspective, I can't see any significant advantages to a higher frequency. Meteorites stick out like a sore thumb at almost any frequency. In fact, I've heard rumors that Fisher is introducing a new version of the Gold Bug with a lower operating frequency than the older GBII. The higher the frequency, the more trouble with heavy mineralization (IMHO).

[M-Taliesin]

Howdy Pard!
Not every machine manufactured is ideal for hunting gold. You'll notice, as Kellyco was brought up, they have a section exclusively devoted to gold machines. The reason for that is, gold machines tend to be a specialty product designed for gold hunting in particular. Does that mean you cannot find gold with any other machine on the market? No. However, the farther removed from specialty gold machines, the less likely your odds of finding gold.

I haven't done meteorite hunting specifically yet, but hope to do so this coming year. Maybe. Perhaps.
And for that particular style of hunting, any iron meteor is going to sound off on any detector made.
Iron is one of the most easily detected metals.

If you want a machine that can find meteorites, the MXT should do nicely in that regard. But then again the MXT is also pretty darn good for finding gold. It was built on the GMT (goldmaster) platform, and the frequency is high enough to find reasonably small gold. It won't find gold as small as the Gold Bug2, but you won't be driven nuts by constant ground balancing with the MXT compared to the Gold Bug2. Ground tracking with the MXT is outstanding. The newer MXT Pro also has a Grab button to readily update ground balance on the fly while hunting, just like the GMT. Plus the MXT won't let you walk over coins without letting you know!

For general, all around hunting, and with gold especially, the MXT is outstanding. I haven't used Fisher F75 or Minelab gear, but believe the MXT can stack up well against other machines costing much more and still cover the bases of relic hunting, coin shooting, gold prospecting and most anything else you'd hope to find.

The V3i is capable of doing all the above, but again, will cost you more than an MXT Pro by several hundred dollars. It is claimed the V3i will find smaller gold and have greater sensitivity than the MXT, but the machine isn't user friendly in my opinion. I don't go hunting to fuss over settings all day. I'm out for results, and while another will be adjusting settings on a v3i, I'm out finding gold!

This is all my opinion, but I hope not uneducated opinion.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin