About Us

Rick Radke – I started prospecting for gold in 1983 while stationed with the Navy in Concord, California. One weekend a buddy of mine said let’s go gold panning, well having nothing better to do we took off to the American River out of Colfax, CA. We got there and the river was full of dredges. All I could think was what a bunch of crazies! After hiking up the river a couple of miles my buddy said lets try here, so we did a little digging in the bedrock and WOW there was gold in the pan. That’s all it took, pretty soon I had a sluice box, then a 2” dredge, and soon I had a 4” dredge, before long I needed a 6”. The Gold Bug had bit me hard. The first time I inquired about metal detectors for gold the response I received was “ They are only good for finding pockets of black sand, you will never find any gold with those things” so it went till I moved back to Montana.

Times and technology change and so did my mind, to the point that I primarily only use a detector for gold. In the past 15 years I have been very successful using a detector for gold, having unearthed thousands of nuggets, and leading others to finding gold of their own with a detector.

I opened the store called Modern Prospector in May of 2000 and I have had a full time prospecting store ever since. We pride ourselves in offering the best available equipment on the market today, always keeping up with cutting edge technology.

What I have found over the years are people will buy a detector use it a couple of times and throw it in the closet. Why? Lack of proper training and not taking the time to understand the detector.

Here at the Modern Prospector when you purchase a detector at our store, we will provide you with training and a place to go use your detector! I have claims that are set aside just for customers that purchase detectors from me. I believe in having happy customers.

I could go on and on about things we have done and accomplished and all that blah blah blah, but you’re here to look at my store. So go shopping!