My First Post Lots of Q

[garyw]

I am in Oregon. I have decided to buy an mxt. I just retired and have too much time on my hands. My wife and I had an antique store so love all old items. I just got a Gold Pan kit for Christmas and in it was a book about panning and metal detecting for gold. My dad had a white detector in the early 70's. I used it a little but never knew how to properly operate it. I have been at the white site and they have a special going. If I buy a mxt or mxt300 The 300 is $100. more I t has a 12" coil. The mxt has a 9.50 coil I want to be able to go to the coast and do the beach but will probably look for coins alot and I only live less than an hour from free goldpanning area in the Quartzville area of Sweet Home area. I want to be able to find nuggets with the metal detector if I can as well while I am up there panning. From what I have read you do not want a 12" coil when trying to find gold you want a smaller one. What would be best for me. Also there is an offer for about $100. to get a pair of headphones and a shooter and an additional coil. What I am wondering is would it be best to buy the 300 with the 12" coil and a smaller coil for gold or buy the mxt with the 9.50 and get an extra coil and what would be the best machine and coils for me. This purchase is a lot of money for me and I am not afraid to spend an additional 100 bucks if it is worth it but I do not know what would be the best deal I do not want to make a mistake as I may not be able to buy an accessory later. I bought a kabota tractor once without a bucket loader and could have bought one with for $500 more then after I bought the tractor and did not get the bucket loader I could not afford one as they were 2 thousand more and I could not afford one. Just a comparison. What should I do I hope to get alot of response from you as I live 25 miles from the White Factory and intend to buy one this week. Thanks for your help.

 

[Nancy-IL]

Hi Gary,

There are so many that like this coil and that coil. What to buy and what not to buy. There is a lot of discussion on the forum here in previous posts about the same questions you are asking. We could all start over again and have a mass of answers, but it would be ones own opinion as to coils, etc. I suggest you scroll through the past posts here and do some homework on the coils. I don't want or mean to sound rude about not wanting to answer your questions, but others are so much more into gold prospecting, etc. I love the simple playgrounds and hunting for that old lost coin that has been buried for over 100 yrs. I wish you the best of luck and HH, Nancy

 

[BarberBill]

I'd probably go with the MXT 300 and the shooter etc. as you can't buy the 12" for 100 by itself. I use the 6X10 DD a lot as well as the 5.3 and the 4X6 shooter. Don't use my stock 9.5 much at all. :You will probably want something between the 4X6 and the 12" and there are a number of options available between Whites and Kellyco's Excelerator series. My two bits.
BB

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Welcome to the forum.
Cant help you for Gold nugget detection as there's no gold in this part of the country other than jewelry.
Good luck with your choices!

 

[jog]

GARYW.
Purchased a MXT about 6-7 months ago.I live in Tillamook Oregon,the first place i hit was Quartzville creek.Had a blast(couldn't keep my kids out of the river).I didn't have the correct coil for sniping nuggets (950 ECLIPSE).I did find pockets of iron and classified them,and then ran them through a sluice.Found some OK gold.Not bad for a first timer.I am planning on purchasing a 5.3 coil before going back.GOOD LUCK and might see ya there when the weather gets better.

 

[cosmic]

For the high mineral soil in your area a DD coil is what you need..The 4x6, 6x10 or the new 10"DD.. For gold the 4x6 and the 6x10 have produced their share of gold.. If only one the 6x10 would be a good choice but the 4x6 can get into tighter spaces and under brush better..

 

[garyw]

Thanks for your responses, Also if someone could tell me if the 12" that comes with the 300 is in your opinion better than the 950 that comes stock on the mxt and if that is the only difference between the two. Or has the 300 been upgraded since the mxt has been around since 2002. If you were going to get the $100 coil package which one would be best to go with the 950 or the 12"?

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

Gary, If you are wanting to prospect gold the best all round coil will be the 6 X 10 DD it is the coil of choice of most prospectors using the MXT. The MXT is a very good gold machine, I rate it up there with the Whites GMT and Fisher Gold Bug II. If you go back through some of the posts you can see gold I have found using the MXT and 6 X 10 DD. It is basically the same coil that comes on the GMT............MXT + 6 X 10 DD = GMT..........

If your interested I can let you know of some good areas around you for gold prospecting.....

 

[garyw]

I met a man over 30 years ago when I was younger that witched water. He was an avid miner and knew all about aquafirs and so forth. He told me the best places to find gold in the western valley was at eagle creek near Estacada oregon and Quartzville. He told me at that time when the price of Gold was at $35.00 per oz that you could easily make $75.00 a day panning in those areas. Quartzville was a community of miners that they claim was over 2,000 population around the turn of the century. Now a section of the river is designated for public use. However there is lots of BLM and forest service land all around it with creeeks everywhere. I know virtually nothing about prospecting now but have too much time on my hands. I figure with the economy going sour it may provide a little extra income as well as something to do. Maybe I should pass on the extra coils they offer for a hundred bucks and find a used pair of ear phones and buy a 6 x 10 dd coil. I still want a good coil for coin finding.

 

[jog]

Check the mining claims in that area there scattered out everywhere.

 

[garyw]

I understand that. When I was a kid a high school buddy had a claim up there and all he had to do was make a $100. improvement every year to keep it. Unfortunately when they built green peter dam his claim was submerged. Just out of curiosity don't you have to post signs of your claim on all sides?

 

[jog]

That's what i thought but they are not all posted.If you have some free time go to the forestry center in sweet home.There is a guy who will show you how to run whats called LR2000 reports(don't remember his name right now .ask ladies behind the desk.)very nice guy.He took me to his computer and showed me how to do it but it has been awhile and i have not had a chance to work with it.Gives you all the mining claim info.Is green peter lake the one that they drain on a regular basis,if so can you get to where your friends claim was when it's dry.I talked to a guy when i was there who told me his dad has a claim on Quartz creek up high but they find more gold down low in the set aside part.This is what i found when i was there.

 

[garyw]

That looks pretty good to me Jog. way to go. My friend had his claim about 1970 and was not real active when he had it. We were just high school kids. The lower lake is Foster and above that is Green Peter. They drop the levels of both of them in the summer so they have room for the snow melt. When I was a kid the upper river almost dried up in the summer time and had quite a stench. Nothing looks familiar to me anymore. but the river looks lots better because the dams hold more water up there. and they control the water flows for the steel head and salmon runs. I think I am going to go over to Sweethome tomorrow and stop at the factory and the shop on main street to get more of an education. I may even come home with something. I really want to get a coil for coin shooting and one for prospecting. I really did not even realize you could use one in conjunction with panning or finding some black sand to pan This is going to be fun.

 

[garyw]

Anyone have the rechargable batterys? are they expensive with the charger. Seems like 40 hours on 8 batteries would cost a lot and last about a week or two when you are new and trying to wear one of these out. Are the rechargables like a camera battery if you don't use them ennough they die? or will they recharge good after sitting a month or two? I am full of questions.

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

Gary, its cheaper to get the rechargeable AA batterys and use them, then to buy a battery pack for the MXT. I have found they also last longer.

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

Gary, you can find placer gold:

Linn County: Quartzville Creek, and its tributaries, including Dry Gulch, above Green Peter Reservoir.

Lane County: Sharps, Martin and Steamboat Creeks, southeast of Cottage Grove.

Marion County: possible placers on the North Santiam River, especially along its tributary, Gold Creek, in the northern part of the county.

Lincoln County: beach placers, between Yaquina Bay and Toledo.

GPS Readings:

Linn County:
Quartzville: GPS 44* 35' 19.39N { Yellow Bottom Campground }
122* 22' 15.85"W
GPS 44* 34' 35.16N { S-W corner at creek }
122* 19' 11.18"W
GPS 44* 34' 30.38N { S-W corner at road }
122* 16' 59.00'W
Lane County:
Brice Creek: GPS 43* 40' 12.39N { Cedar creek campground }
123* 08' 31.83"W
Sharps Creek: GPS 43* 39' 42.35N { Sharps Creek Rec. area }
122* 48' 19.27"W
GPS 43* 38' 31.19N { N. end of road }
122* 39' 24.85"W
GPS 43* 35' 52.08"N { south end at road }
122* 38' 4.25"W

If you got a GPS unit I just put you on top of some great gold bearing areas, work them well you can't get it all. Have fun.....

 

[Monte]

First, let me suggest that when you reply to anyone, do it under their post and don't make a new post. Also, it makes it easier on forum readers if you'll comment in the 'Subject' box something about your reply and not just do a 'RE:' (regarding) response. All too often someone will respond with something like: "Way to go!" or "Hey, those are some great finds!" but do it in the Message box and not in the Subject box. That just calls for more clicking and loading and reading and backing up.

Okay, now to your posts:

I am in Oregon. I have decided to buy an mxt. I just retired and have too much time on my hands. My wife and I had an antique store so love all old items. I just got a Gold Pan kit for Christmas and in it was a book about panning and metal detecting for gold. My dad had a white detector in the early 70's. I used it a little but never knew how to properly operate it.

Welcome to retirement, and to a modern-day White's. There've been a lot of changes!

I have been at the white site and they have a special going. If I buy a mxt or mxt300 The 300 is $100. more It has a 12" coil. The mxt has a 9.50 coil I want to be able to go to the coast and do the beach but will probably look for coins alot and I only live less than an hour from free goldpanning area in the Quartzville area of Sweet Home area.

The only real difference between the two MXT's is that the standard version with a 950 coil has the glossy black paint, while the MXT 300 had a flat powder coating. Appearance wise, I prefer the MXT 300's finish. But they have the same electronics.

The other obvious difference is the standard coil. The 950 coil can be a better pick for a lot of day-to-day coin hunting, and it will do OK at the beach as well. The 12" coil is one that some like to use at the beach for coverage, or for some other applications where they might want a little more coverage per sweep, or they are looking for larger, deeper targets.

As for being close to known gold producing areas, just be cautious and make sure you know where you can and can't go. A lot of claims in that area. Also, the MXT can make a very good gold nugget hunting unit, but 'nugget hunting' isn't the easiest to do, so make sure you have a proper search coil and do some research.

I want to be able to find nuggets with the metal detector if I can as well while I am up there panning. From what I have read you do not want a 12" coil when trying to find gold you want a smaller one. What would be best for me.

That's correct, the 12" coil is not the one you want. Instead, consider a smaller coil and/or a decent Double-D coil. From White's offerings you might consider the 6X10 DD as a general-use coil, or perhaps a smaller coil would suit you r needs better, such as the 4X6 DD or the 5.3 Eclipse. Personally, I am very partial to the 5.3 Eclipse which is a 6

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

Monte, what was that all about? You act like you are scolding someone!!!............

 

[jog]

WOW!
I don't know about all that BUT if you do go into sweet home,there is a little prospecting store on main street.They have some books in there and this one i have found very useful, it's worth the 22 $.

 

[garyw]

Jog I will have to get together with you sometime. I did go to sweethome today.Thanks to you and all the others for your comments and help.