Meteorites and Metal detectors

[Fluid_Thought]

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to all this metal detectors and meteorite hunting but am wondering which detectors work best for this. My current detector is a Garrett Treasure Ace 200 (no longer produced) but has found a great many things of interest. Just curious what everyone else?s thoughts are.

 

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[omnicognic]

Welcome to the forum! If you are really serious about finding meteorites, I would recommend a PI (Pulse-Induction) machine you will get better depth, and if hunting meteorites discrimination is not as important. This being said, any md can find a nickel-iron meteorite as long as the discrimination doesn't notch it out. HH omnicognic 8)

 

[oldestjim]

My 2-cents worth:

There are 3-types of meteorites: stony, stony-iron, and the irons.

Most meterorites act to a detector as does a terrestrial (earth) hot rock. Thus, in one way, you are now looking for "hot-rocks." Most should be shallow and not deep. The stones are the hardest to idenify as they may contain little nickel-iron.

Since this is a "TreasureNet" forum and most of you subscribe to W&E magazine. Check out the article "Silver, Gold, And Meterorites." W&E Treasures Vol 36, August 2002, on p, 28-32. (Also, for those who also happen to subscribe to LT, tedativey there will be another meteorite article by the same author in the November LT magazine

Basically meteorite hunting is a variation of nuggethunting. You are looking for falls. The individual fall may be(??!!) part of a strewnfield with thousands of others in an elipticlal pattern.

The strewnfields and falls are not "random" as many may think. To survive the impact of the hitting the earth; they, like one of our spaceships, must come in at an orbit to overtake the earth, and not approach it head on.

The earth is obiting counterclockwise around the sun at head on speed of 66,000 mph. At the same time it is also counterclockwise rotating on its axis at 1,000 mph to give us daylight and darkness.

The meteorites to successfully land need to overtake the earth's orbit and come in at a "good angle" so as to be captured by our gravity and not deflect, skip, or ricochet out again into space. Thus, if this is all done; the meterorite can make a soft landing and is cold to the touch.

All of this is simplication, just food for thought.. Highly recommended is Richard O. Norton's book, "Rocks from Space." Also, the web is loaded with information. Just go a search engine and punch in "meteorites,"
or "meteoricist." Or even some varations worded "rocks from space," or "space rocks."

 

[ghost surf]

I have a rock that is very magnetic and brown and is rusting.It has orange colored round rocks in it and does not make a streak.It also is the only one I found that looks like it in this huge feild I was working in.I am going to take it to our local highschool teacher who is a geologist and knows his stuff very well.At a very close look with my small loop type magnifier it has sparkles in it under the sun,the color of nickle.It is just those round egg shaped orange colored rocks that make me wonder.

 

[MalteseFalcon]

When I was a child in Wichita, Kansas, there was a field a block from my house, which was at that time on the edge of town (1967). In that field was what appeared to be a piece of rusty iron, that looked burned and pitted...and unlike anything I had ever seen. Surrounding it, in a circle perhaps 20 feet in diameter, were many smaller pieces, as well as a lot of pieces of a greenish colored obsidian (glass-like rock). I had some of the obsidian in my rock collection for years, but the collection disappeared somehow in the late 1979s....sometime after I went off to serve in the Army.

It never occured to me at the time that it coud be a meteorite, but once I became an adult, I would remember that place, and my opinion eventually became that it was a meteorite.

Heck, I know now that they can be fairly valuable....I would not mind finding one again someday lol!

 

[ghost surf]

Never stop!!! ..for every 90 -160 acres you should hopefully find a meteorite..I was told this by the Meteorite Man Mike Haag.....Farm fields, plowed land(for older meteorites New ones too!!) and non used open land..... Most will be found in Arizona type land But the earth is surrounded by stars and we have been here a long time ...so sooner or later one will pop up and they claim there is a lot to be found!I found one when I was younger but lost it and it was not that old! So think of it this way...No one knows for sure only how much is out to be found .....You have to look thats where it all starts!Ask permission first,though if you plan to hunt plowed un-planted farm land (before they plant seeds in the field!).Thats my favorite place of all hunting areas.Then they help bring the old stuff up to you!10-4!

 

[whiteknight38]

Hey folks
As this topic has not been posted in in over 120 days, I thought I'd start it up again.
Meteorite searching is going to be my primary use for a detector, but I'd like to get one that works underwater as well.
As a backup, I'm thinking about an Ace 250, because my local Craigslist has at least six for sale at around $175
Will the Ace be useful at picking up Irons?
And any suggestions for a divable model?
Thanks
Paul

 

[Texas_Meteorite_Hunter]

The ace models are near worthless for meteorite hunting. These things aren't coins, they're not dropped and sink in a few inches. They are meteorites and could have fallen 2000 years ago or 2 years ago. They get buried by several FEET of topsoil. If your hunting irons with anything less than a PI detector with a 18" coil, your just wasting time.

Stones, well, I think hunting stones with a detector is a waste of time. But if you do, you'll need a nugget hunting detector with a big coil.

I've found over 20 meteorites, 10 of them being irons, and 10 from farmers (I know better than to detect for stoneys).

My PI coils are 18" (for pinpointing), 3'x3' and 10'x 3' (for target acquisition). I use 2 shovels and hire diggers. Does that give you an idea of what your in for?

I can tell you all about how deep these can be, even in the same strewnfield. Over 1000 years creeks rise and dump soil, other places soil errodes. So from 3 inches to 3 feet deep. Steeves finds up in Kansas are from 2' to 8' deep. A little Ace 250 is nothing but a toy used for pinpointing when it comes to meteorites. So re-think your approach.

 

[Fluid_Thought]

Well when I first got my 250 I wanted to get out an do some meteorite hunting. however living in a city puts a bit of a damper on that. Well one day while working on a local park, I came across a rock that was small but heavy and very happy to cling to the magnet I carry in my pack. Once at home, I did the preliminary test for meteorites and it passed so out of curiosity, I took a Dremil tool and sanded a very small part from a corner only to find that this things was solid metal.

Well to make a long story short, I took it to the local University and has it tested, the folks there doubted it was a meteorite as it lacked the nickel but yet the other characteristics of the rock said something different. So until I can get around to getting it tested again, it's a small but effective paper weight.

 

[Galactic-Stone]

If you look in areas that are ancient alluvial fans, you can find old weathered meteorites laying on the surface or near the surface that were left behind when the glaciers retreated. Wind, water and soil shifts and it will cover some things and uncover others. I have seen reliable reports and in-situ photos of stonys found on the surface in the deserts of the SW. The problem is, they look just like Earth rocks, so people tend to ignore them and walk right past them. But if you have a trained eye, you can spot them better than a metal detector. A metal detector helps with *some* stonys, but the best meteorite detector is the eyeball and brain. Buy a few meteorites from a reliable source and get acquainted with them first hand, and then go to known strewnfields and start hunting there. A strong rare-earth magnet on a stick, a diamond file, and a 10x jeweler's loupe is the only detecting equipment you need, besides your eyeball.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

A few years back I conducted quite a few tests with several different brands of detectors and made a website of the results. Irons are easily detected by most any machine. In an odd quirk, the older detectors that had problems which made them near-useless in mineralized soil are often very sensitive to stony meteorites. I recommend using a detector as an aid in air testing samples found by eye.

-Ed

www.whiteriverprep.com/meteor/madness.html

 

[jb7487]

So I'm new to this and a little fuzzy on the details of discrimination and meteorites. It sounds to me like there are multiple types of meteorites so they would all react to different discrimination levels. If I set my discrimination to rule out iron then am I ruling out a large number of meteorites? From what I've read it sounds like that is the case. Also, which types are the most valuable?

 

[whispers]

I really never went after one,but after my find I have to admit I did go back up there and do a haphazzard at best search in a 20 ft. circle to no avail.Perhaps I need to go 30 or so.?I really don't want to waste my time but I guess since I was lookin for coins to begin with I might find one of those.