New Prospector - Old Fart

[Dragon Man]

G'day,

I'm Ken, 60 year old, finally decided to get into prospecting after thinking about it for the last 40 or so years :lol:
Interests are Harley riding, Astronomy, guitar, hunting, and now prospecting :Y:

I live on the western edge of the Victorian goldfields only 2k from one of the popular detecting forests.
Been spending days in the forest with my 23 year old son with his Minelab Go-find 60 and so far we have found hundreds of .22 shells, bolts, brackets, horseshoes and all the usual 'stuff' to be found in the old diggings. No Gold yet, but we live in hope

Even if we don't find any yella stuff we are already winners by spending lots of quality time together as father & son
To me that's more valuable than Gold.

My aim is to buy a Garrett AT Gold and maybe upgrade from there over the next few years.
I hope I can contribute to the forum in some way.

Cheers,
Ken

 

[BigWave]

A big welcome to PA Ken. Having that time out there with your young man is what it's all about. The gold will come in good time.
Cheers mate :Y:

 

[Old Fred]

One old fart too annother . Welcome

 

[Jaros]

Welcome to P.A. you young whipper snipper.
Jaros

 

[Tassie Daz]

Hi Ken. Yep me too....welcome. From an even older fart the AT Gold would be a great chioce and with the 8x5 coil ad a backup for the tiny hard-to-get-at places. Itll cost you about $1400 I think so for a little more you might score a used GPX4500. Think about it. Good luck. ( For the record i have an AT Pro a ATX and now a 4500)

 

[RM Outback]

Welcome to PA Ken your living in the right place all you need now is the right machine. Tassie Daz's suggestion of saving a little longer for a 4500 is worth the effort imo. All the best when you do get out there.

 

[Dragon Man]

Thanks everyone. including the even older farts LOL!!!!

Yeah, I half expected a simple welcome to become a 'you should really try buy this model' type of response :lol: It was inevitable.

But I don't blame you all for making suggestions. I do it in the Astronomy Forums. Recommend better telescopes and accessories when people say they are going to start with particular basic models.
But for me the AT Gold will do for now. Give me time and I'll step up to something else and go deeper. Maybe the ATX or the 5000. But that's in the future.
Hell, were having fun now with the Go-Find 60 :lol:

At the moment I'm just enjoying being out there. :Y:

 

[Tassie Daz]

And goodonya mate. Its a great pastime even if we go home with zip. Who'd want to miss the experience of being out in the bush going about one's fossicking and coming across a mob of Kangaroos belting through the bush at top speed........Happened at Dunolly at Bet Bet creek. Scared the crap out of me, but wouldn't have missed it for quids.

I only mentioned the 4500 to perhaps save you the agony of taking a machine out to the diggings and getting all dejected because you may not find anything. I paid out $3k for the ATX and found precious little.........but with the 4500 found gold on the first outing. Luck?????? Yes probably.

 

[Dragon Man]

Yes Daz. Being out there is 99% of the fun. :Y:
Finding gold is the Bonus