Just thought I would sign in and say gday to you all. Im from Victoria and my interest in PMs is on the rise. I do some gold detecting as a hobby and sell some of my finds to cover costs. Many of my nugget buyers are stackers and I have taken some of their advice and picked up a few rounds to supplement my nuggets. You may wonder why Im not on a prospecting forum. The reason is that prospectors and detectorists can be a bit grumpy and make issues out of irrelevant things. I know how to find gold so I dont need to discuss the best detector to use. Im here to learn about PMs and wise investment and hope to meet some good people while im at it. Hope I dont offend any detectorists who may be here. I come in peace.
Yes Redback, Im a Minelab man. Nuggets are hard to find but small finds accumulate over time. I love Victoria's natural nuggets and am glad I have a good machine to do it with. Keeps me fit and reasonably sane.
Its an awesome hobby,never bothered with all the forums was much nicer getting out bush and digging. Wasn't a hard guess so to speak,defiantly a healthy and interesting hobby. This Forums pretty great,hope you enjoy Take care REDBACK
Detecting is a great hobby if you like walking in the bush and meeting wildlife (mainly mosquitos and bullants), and tripping over things and spending hours digging all types of things that arent Gold then it is a great thing to do. My finds are all small but ive found 5 ounces in the last 12 months by being persistent. Biggest piece is only 2 grams but it adds up.
I use a Minelab GPX 4500. It has a very good track record at finding gold. A second hand one in good condition is worth around $4000-$4500. The model before it the GPX 4000 is also a great machine worth around $3500. The latest model is the GPX 5000 which retails for just over $6000 and is supposed to be brilliant. Cheaper detectors are ok for coins and relics but if you want to find gold in Victoria you really need to spend the money to get the right machine.
Welcome EM. I have never tried metal detecting but would like to do that one day, even just for the fun of it if nothing else! A great day out I should think.
Welcome, pretty hard core stacker if you go out and dig it up yourself. I have been trying to convince my wife that detecting would make a great hobby and that the machine would pay for itself within a week but she isn't buying it! I guess if they could put the gold fields a little closer to the city centre so she could get a decent hotel room and sit in a coffee shop all day it would help. I dragged her up to Gympie, took a few hours in the car to get there and there was nowhere decent to stay so after about three hours paddling around in a leech infested cow urine filled creek looking for gold we turned around and went home. A bit dissapointing and you would think it would put me off but back in 2000 I came to Australia on holiday and stopped off to go gold panning in Kalgoorlie, found three tiny specks and now I have the bug. Anyway...enough about me, how are you?
You describe the art of prospecting rather accurately. "paddling around in a leech infested cow urine looking for gold" is the place to be but my local creeks are filled with urine from native animals. Panning is still a good way to find gold, research and learning also helps.
Some people get lucky and find big nuggets with little experience. Same goes for Tatts. It helps if you have easy access to the right areas. It can be an expensive pastime if you have to travel long distances and camp or pay for accommodation. I am fortunate to be able to travel to many good areas within half an hour of my home. The gold is small, but it is there if you work at it.
