What Made You Get Into Gold Detecting?

Moved to Belarus after living in Australia for 68 years and finding a few large nuggets.Plan to detect the 1812 battlefields in Belarus and Russia so a big step up for me and on a higher level.Living in a small village which for miles around is virgin ground for detecting including beaches at a lake and large river.I expect I will find a few kopeks though.Our village was a German fuel dump during the war and hope to find some Deutschmarks.
As to what got me started I bought a yellow Sandman in 1980 and used to go up to Wedderburn with the wife and kids for weekends,we bought a canvas tent 12X9 with enclosed large annex mosquito and snake proof and I used to walk miles cross country exploring the hills and gullies.It took me 6 months to find a small specimen and I shelled out heaps for petrol,so I was not getting rich but rather it it was the thrill of adventure like when I was a boy and explored Merri Creek.

If it was a fuel dump, you may find a few buried fuel drums , old tools and medals . Seen a few found on the history hunter channels.

I got hooked on gold prospecting at Sovereign Hill Ballarat when I was about 5 or 6 yrs old someone salted my pan of gravel with some real gold. Been hooked on digging holes and searching for gold and minerals ever since.

jethro said:

I got hooked on gold prospecting at Sovereign Hill Ballarat when I was about 5 or 6 yrs old someone salted my pan of gravel with some real gold. Been hooked on digging holes and searching for gold and minerals ever since.

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My dad grew up in Ballarat. His first loves were eel fishing & rabbit hunting. Detecting came third.

God said to me "Annie, go forth and spend a shite load of money on yourself instead of the kids and grandkids on detecting gear so you may hunteth for the elusive treasures that await you in the bush, and there ye shall find more joy than your weight in gold by being in the company of like minded souls" :lol:

My wife's aunt (vera) is actually responsible for my detecting/prospecting passion....

Back in the late 70's a massive nugget was unearthed around Snake Valley out of Ballarat, it must have taken her fancy she bought a detector and joined a gem (?) club around Preston/Coburg ....... needless to say she asked me to help her out ...... I had no idea on how to use a detector and of course we found nothing using that Whites Coinmaster.

Fast forward to my retirement and although fishing was my passion I realised I couldn't do that 365 days a year ..... lightbulb moment .... why not give Gold prospecting a bit of a bash. 8 years later after fiddling around with an xTerra 705 and MacKirk sluice to start with I'm now swinging a GPX and SDC and have enough Goldrat product (not really can never have enough) to involve all the family and finding gold on close to 100% on my outings (2 -3/week in non Covid times).

Since then I've had the pleasure of introducing others to detecting helping many find their first (and biggest) pieces.

Sadly Vera has since passed on (aged 93) .... I celebrated her life by making sure a few of my species were buried with her.

Teemore said:

Fast forward to my retirement and although fishing was my passion I realised I couldn't do that 365 days a year ..... lightbulb moment .... why not give Gold prospecting a bit of a bash.

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That is exactly where I find myself at this point in time. Love my trout fishing, but needed a secondary pastime to cohabit with fishing.

Sadly I can only dream of retirement!

Living within a stones throw of the turon did it for me but having no work out there ,made me move back to the city gee I hate it here :lol:

I knew River Ron and his father , they lived in a shack on the Turon .

They only cut enough fire wood for the day , made me smile !

Anniegee said:

God said to me "Annie, go forth and spend a shite load of money on yourself instead of the kids and grandkids on detecting gear so you may hunteth for the elusive treasures that await you in the bush, and there ye shall find more joy than your weight in gold by being in the company of like minded souls" :lol:

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Best one so far Anniegee.

My father, his job was to look for the old guns which were left from the war, but with time he transformed into a gold searcher

I guess I got into detecting because I was, am intrigued by the notion of finding stuff that others have held in their hands years before. Coins, relics, or other things intrigue me, and what those people felt when they lost them.
This intrigue just followed onto Gold a few years later, when I yearned to hold a piece of precious metal that has never sparkled in the sun before.
I wish I could say I have experienced the satisfaction is releasing lots of gold from its hidden depths but sadly thats not the case. I live to release more.

I like this question a lot and was just wondering how other people get into this hobby. Personally, I started because of my grandfather. I watched him metal detect for years before actually trying it myself. I finally started when I was 20 and I haven't looked back since.

My family were early settlers. Mums side came here, non convict, from the Isle Of Wight and set up fruit orchards in Victoria. Dads from Scotland looking for a better life searching for Gold. My fathers great grandfather? He my dad is gone a while now so sorry can't 100% confirm but am pretty much on it, came hear searching for yellow in Ballarat. My grandfather was born there but then went to fight in the war. He was honoured as a hero there on the trees near Ballarat and from all records was 100% a true hero. My Dad loved looking for it and I naturally had it in my blood. At one stage my Dad in the depression, along with 2 of his sisters, were sent to an uncles home in NSW, Tarnagulla, edit, so funny because I lived in Tarna for 8 years and cant get it out of my mind, he lived at Tarcutta NSW, that uncle was well known in the family as a gold prospector in NSW and was just known as Nugget! For obvious reason as he once found a good one there in his prospector days. Unfortunately when my dad went to live with him he was lost on the grog. My dad said he loved him but he eventually went mad and one night when his fox terrier dog went off and would not stop barking at a fox nearby one night went out and chopped its head off with a tomahawk. My dad left soon after under age and joined the Navy lying about his age. He said he loved Nugget and his time living there but after that he was naturally terrified.
So yeah, it's been pretty much in my bloodline. One way or another.

Desperation...still desperate.. :argh: :argh:

JD3 said:

He my dad is gone a while now so sorry can't 100% confirm but am pretty much on it, came hear searching for yellow in Ballarat. My grandfather was born there but then went to fight in the war. He was honoured as a hero there on the trees near Ballarat and from all records was 100% a true hero.

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Many similarities here. My dad also was born & raised in Ballarat as one of 11 kids. He also went to war & was a POW on the Burma Railroad. Received a medal for saving 2 lives during a mortar attack. Returned from the war as skin & bones & recovered in Adelaide, where he met mum who was a nurse there. Later he went onto metal detecting in the GT, but he like eel fishing more.

EVIE/BEE said:

Desperation...still desperate.. :argh: :argh:

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I love these stories, so thank you.
For me it wasnt so much detecting but GOLD itself. As a boy1960 with my Dad and Uncle Bob ( respect in those days for elders) we spent our holidays at Hill End, Sofala, Cudgegong etc with a metal gold pan blackened with smoke over the campfire and seeing them fill tablet bottles over the next 3 or 4 days. That transferred to a mates homemade tector 20 odd years later. Never found anything but never say never and dig everything.
Cheers
Mackka

fwdoz said:

JD3 said:

He my dad is gone a while now so sorry can't 100% confirm but am pretty much on it, came hear searching for yellow in Ballarat. My grandfather was born there but then went to fight in the war. He was honoured as a hero there on the trees near Ballarat and from all records was 100% a true hero.

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Many similarities here. My dad also was born & raised in Ballarat as one of 11 kids. He also went to war & was a POW on the Burma Railroad. Received a medal for saving 2 lives during a mortar attack. Returned from the war as skin & bones & recovered in Adelaide, where he met mum who was a nurse there. Later he went onto metal detecting in the GT, but he like eel fishing more.

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Liked reading that. Not from the sad war side, but from the similar story. Yep my grandad returned looking similar my dad said.
Funny similar too my dad was a mad fisherman too. If it swam he fished for it.
Awesome to hear.
Good luck out there mate. :Y:

Mackka said:

I love these stories, so thank you.
For me it wasnt so much detecting but GOLD itself. As a boy1960 with my Dad and Uncle Bob ( respect in those days for elders) we spent our holidays at Hill End, Sofala, Cudgegong etc with a metal gold pan blackened with smoke over the campfire and seeing them fill tablet bottles over the next 3 or 4 days. That transferred to a mates homemade tector 20 odd years later. Never found anything but never say never and dig everything.
Cheers
Mackka

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One of the best pieces of advice ever there Mackka...dig everything!

Lots of great times are spent around a campfire...something we all miss at the moment.