Customer Reviews

You Can Find Gold: With a Metal Detector: Prospective and Treasure Hunting (Prospecting and Treasure Hunting)

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
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The authors have so much enthusiasm for their topic that I truly wanted to write a positive review, but unfortunately their enthusiasm is the only redeeming quality of the book. True, you can learn some things about searching for gold with a metal detector. And although the authors disclaim any purpose to sell their products, they refer to them exclusively on the grounds that they are most familiar with them. Well, OK, but it still has an uncomfortable feel to it. And I felt I was unable to translate many of their instructions to generic terms (for use with any brand metal detector).

Early on you are advised that terms are defined in the glossary. But they should also be defined in the text so that one does not have to continually stop reading and refer to the glossary. This is basic to didactic writing. For example, the term "placer" is used many times before it is defined. Ground balancing (canceling) is treated the same way.

There are several passages that are repeated verbatim in different chapters and you are left wondering if you have somehow read the current chapter already! It appears that the editor of the book was in a great rush, or extremely inexperienced. I could not find any reference to RAM publications on the web. The editor was found, and seems to be mostly associated with the works of Garret and Lagal.

Was it worth the price? I suppose, as I at least felt the excitement of hunting for gold. But it would be better titled as a companion to one of the Garret manufactured metal detectors. I still hope to find a book on using the metal detector as a hobby that is a better-written "how to" book that speaks in generic terms about metal detectors.

The improvements in technology have corresponded inversely to the number of prospectors. Erosion during the past century has exposed millions of tons of virgin substrata for prospectors of today, and metal detectors will increase the chance of discovering new placers.

There's no better expert on metal detector technology than Garrett. Great as those detectors are, they require some training to use them. Garrett provides the best 'how-to' advice available. His book will give you the straight-forward means to practice with it before you begin trekking into the canyons or sweeping old school yards for coins.

Learn how to do it and you still mightn't find gold, but you'll certainly find the greatest treasure of them all: solitude.

Has lots of good information to help beginners find gold with a metal detector. However, it includes plenty of hype; it's not as easy as the author makes it sound.

The author's major business is selling metal detectors (he manufactures them). So it's to his benefit if you buy the book, get excited about detecting and buy a Garrett metal detector. I still recommend buying the book if you like prospecting and have time and patience and are not afraid of lots of hard work.
Go for it! Have fun out there!

This book contains very little genuine information. It basically says that Garret's patented pan and detector are the best suited for gold prospection.
It develops at length the setting of the ground balance of the detector which is famous for its difficulty to use.

Unless you have a Garrett or are thinking about buying only a Garrett detector this book is of little value. Thinking that this book would contain valuable information from one of the industry founders I was excited to purchase. From the start the author says he has a love for Garrett detectors and the book is meant to advise and help in genera and not push one brand of detectors. However throughout the book the Garrett detectors are pushed and referenced as the best choice. There is little reference made to any other brand and the book gets very specific as to utilizing Garrett devices. I found the book to be little value as I had not yet purchased a metal detector and really wanted to learn in general about the hobby from one of the greats... While there is some good information concerning general metal detecting I found the majority of the book giving praise to Mr. Garrett and really just a long sales brochure for Garrett detectors. Disappointed.

I asked Bill Gates one time Why with all his money he still kept going after even more? He said it is not the Having it is the FINDING that makes his day brighter. I retired from a 9-5 job in 1990. I was 40 years old. I love to find gold. My preferred method is to use a Metal Detector. I have a collection of books written by Charles Garrett. All of them on different ways to use a Metal Detector to find gold or other items of great value. Now you might think that a silver dime is not worth much. Still if it has a great history behind it. I could have been the dime someones father used to call your mother and ask her to marry him. Where would you be if that call never would have been made. This book is into the finding of GOLD like I have said it has a shine like no other. The first thing I found with my latest Infinium LS metal detector was a bracket off of a lawn mower or some such. I would not lie to you for this report. The second item I found with it was how ever a small 1 inch by 1/2 inch by 1/3 inch piece of quartz that had some metals inside of it. I have not ground it up to do an assay on it yet. Still I like to think it has GOLD inside of it. I for one really like listening to Charles Garrett tell us how to find gold or any metal with a detector. I also love it that he is not bad mouthing other metal detectors to try to make his detectors seem better. I do have some of his detectors and I love them. I know one thing listening to him tell about using a metal detector has made me a much better fossicker. Which is how they say it in New Zealand.

73
dray

Our family has been in something of a cash crunch since the late 1970's, so the jaunty optimism in this book's title caught my eye the moment I spied it on a local shelf. It was written by the doyen of metal detection - Charles Garrett, creator of the eponymous Garrett Infinium LS detector, as well as the "ultra-advanced, deepseeking GTI 2500," among many others. His book is a sober introduction to the art of wealth accretion by way of magnetic broom. All is covered, from the first "bench test" before a detector's maiden search, to techniques for keeping the search coil level, to the famous "screw-driver probe" for pinpointing buried objects. Shortly after I bought this book my four-year-old son and I passed a pleasant afternoon on a Chatham beach seeking to re-enter the ranks of the upwardly mobile. By nightfall our plunder included an oversized wing nut (almost certainly from a pirate's ship, I assured my son), three discarded soda cans (good for fifteen cents, or twice that should we make the journey to Michigan, where one can gain double the local redemption rate through ruthless arbitrage), and three pennies that my son regularly planted in front of me to allay his boredom and my flagging spirits. All told I expect that we would have found more precious metals by combing the beach with a Geiger counter, and certainly would have had more success at spooking the locals (as it was, my cover story of being a minesweeper on secret business for Tom Ridge had few takers).

Prospecting information is presented that is useful and informative