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Do You Remember Your Old Detectors?


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I came across an old letter about metal detector I sent to a mate,

"My first detector was a hired Whites 5000. I got a new Garrett Deepseeker for the September school holidays 1980, for my wife. It was too hot (weather) in wedderburn for her during the first summer and I ended up with it. Got her a whites coinmaster 6000 for the next trip as it had motion discrimination and was easier and quieter in the hot ground. It took a while for me find any detector that exceeded the Garretts. However I found that my White goldmaster (1986 ) was much easier to use in the Victorian gold fields. I made a PI detector with a hand made Teflon coated wire coil before 1986 that would go deeper than the Garrett Deepseeker but was too slow to use in the field and I did not like the sound of the clicking sensor. .........."

Do you have fond memories of your first one (detectors that is ?)

 

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Bounty HunterRB7 was my first in 79, couldn`t source a Whites 600D or a Garret Deepseeker in OZ, too much demand. But don`t knock the RB7 it was a producer once the driver got the go, took nearly 3 years and the bloody stuff was just laying around. Recall running across another detector operator in about late 81, he had a pocket full and gave me that go......."slow & low ya not brush cutting" he said with a wink............40 years on and tis still the go. 

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Detectors were expensive back then, more than 4 ounces for a Garrett or Whites and latter the Bounty Hunter RB 10 (The red barron was our nick name for my mate). I did well with coins at first and learnt how to use it before finding nuggets and have three gold coins (the wife found them).

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November 25, 1972 I sent a letter to my mom. I was 14 years old and just got my first metal detector and mailed a copy of the ad with the letter. My mom gave me the letter and ad back recently...

My first detector in 1972 - a White's Coinmaster 4 TR for $199.50 (a lot of money then, especially for a 14 year old!)....

whites-coinmaster-4-tr-1972-herschbach.jpg

And from the letter, my very first detecting report...

"I went hunting at Goose Lake and Elderberry Park for coins. I only went hunting five times and I've found:

One 1964 silver quarter, seven silver dimes, including one 1936 mercury dime, four ordinary dimes, six nickels including one 1943 and one 1944 silver nickels from during the war, thirty pennies, the oldest a 1946, two bullet shells and one bullet, some parts of necklaces, and 10 billion pop can lids, gum wrappers, etc."

No discrimination yet in 1972, and aluminum was already showing up in quantity. Only a couple inches of depth, but as one of the first guys on the ground with a detector locally it was easier to find silver in those days then it is now.

I also mention in the letter I am saving up to buy my first gold dredge, a 3" Keene with no floats, for $379 new plus shipping. So my first detector in 1972 followed by my first gold dredge in 1973.

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  • The title was changed to Do You Remember Your Old Detectors?

Yeah, Geof I graduated up to the RB10, no doubt it was no slouch although didn`t have much of a following up here in NQ OZ. The Garret A2B was the machine that beat them both at those smaller pieces, until the GM2 & GB2 came along. The PIs...... pffff memories......... and the fever Zeds on, a privilege to live in this electronic gold rush age and of coz lots of fun.

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My first detector was a Compass Yukon (still have it, why I don't know)  and I believe that was in 1976, then a Compass Relic Magnum 7, after that was a White's 600 DI. I have a Metrotech that a friend gave me back in the 1980's.

My wife started out with a A.H. Pro Backpacker, then to a White's 6000DI. Still have the A.H. Pro Backpacker(two of them), a A.H. Super Pro V, and the Metrotech (again why, I don't know why. I guess it brings back memories of the good old days).

Found 13 ounces of gold amalgam in ghost town in 1980 with the Compass Relic Magnum 7. (sorry for the poor picture)

100_3296.thumb.jpg.eb6b538eb69c8dd2a20a7e280452874b.jpg

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My first detector was a Jetco Gold Star BFO. I was 12, mowing yards in the summer, and saved up enough to buy one through the "Bennett Bros Blue Book" catalog. Couldn't afford the one I really wanted, a White's, and I thought, "That Jetco looks like a White's so I bet it's just as good!" Eh, not even close.

In '78 I got a Kellyco catalog (still have it) which fueled my desire to upgrade to a Red Baron. Sold the Jetco, still couldn't afford a new Red Baron, but a barely used White's 6000/D showed up in the newspaper, and I met a guy at a McDonald's parking lot and bought it. Hunted years with that one, still got it.

The "JET" in Jetco stood for John E. Turner, the guy who eventually bought the assets of the bankrupt Teknetics and Bounty Hunter, and eventually sold that business to First Texas. And now I work for First Texas. Oddly, I also worked for White's, the first "real" detector I ever owned. Some years ago I snagged another Jetco just for funsies. Also have a Red Baron now. Both are here in El Paso:

Jetco_RedBaron.thumb.jpg.74706d96b04b4a590602344e44f3036a.jpg

 

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First one - 1978 I think - was a Compass. Don't remember the details. Then a Garrett Master Hunter which I had for years and years. A great beach machine.

 

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