- Jul 22, 2005
- 980
- 897
- Detector(s) used
- The Legend, Anfibio Equinox 900, Gold Kruzer, XP Deus, ORX, Fisher Gold Bug II, Tesoro Tejon, Whites GMT, Falcon MD20, XP MI-6, Fisher F-Pulse, Pulse Dive, Vibra Probe, UniProbe.
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
There's been a lot of debate recently on the best performing gold detectors. After four or five pages of comments there's usually a general consesus to the question posed, so most of the time members are able to take away something positive that they can use. I would venture to say that the recent posts on this subject have never been better, and a lot of that has to do with the fact the selection and quality of gold detectors is excellent. On another thread somebody was saying that they had about a $2000 budget to buy a good detector, I would say that you can buy several great ones and cover all your detecting bases.
Several times, people with a lot of experience mentioned that having a PI/VLF combo is the best way to miss less gold. A PI is likely to miss sub-gram gold, and a VLF is prone to missing gold around heavy concentrations of hot rocks and black sand. So if possible, go over the ground your detecting with a PI/VLF combo, you'll cover less ground but you may not be leaving anything behind.
Here a compilation of the impressions I came away with from all the posts on the different gold detectors. This is just another thread to help people choose the detectors that they want.
FISHER: Gold Bug 2: VLF operates at 71Khz, good ratings by users. It has a purely manual ground balance, and an iron discrimination circuit. Very hot analog detector, best for shallow sub-gram even down to grain wt gold. Not really a deep seeking detector because highly minerlized ground interacts with the extremely high gain of the circutry and limits depth, in extreme cases the GB 2 won't ground balance if the minerlization is too high. But, this same high gain allows this to be the best detector for shallow, small nuggets. Considered to be a good companion detector with a Pulse Induction, Whites GMT or any other VLF, but the GMT was specificlly mentioned. The GB2 was especially considered to be a good second detector with a PI unit like a Minelab, or a Whites TDI, because the PI units are notorious for missing sub-gram, and wire gold. The GB2 has no problem with these types of gold.
Gold Bug Pro: VLF operates at 19Khz, good ratings by users. It has a manual ground balance and a "Ground Grab" button the ground balances the machine with one push, as well as a display that measures various ground conditions. Very good all around, software driven, gold detector. Not considered a deep seeking detector, but a very good medium to shallow nugget machine. Users that only own this detector really like it, and don't feel like the GBPro is lacking anything to allow them to find gold. Some users that own the GBPro along with several other detectors tend, to look at the GBPro as a secondary detector because they feel other detectors do specific things better.
WHITES: MXT/MXT Pro: VLF operates at 14Khz, excellent ratings by users. Seen as the classic all around detector that does everything really well. It has an auto tracking and a "Ground Grab" button, and a display that shows specific information for each mode. Both versions of the MXT have three complete seperate programs, coin & jewelry, relic, and prospecting. The MXT Pro has had several updates one of which was to the prospecting mode. Whites added an iron "grunt" that indicates an 80% probability of iron. The circutry for the MXT prospecting mode was orginally derrived from the GMT, so the ability of the MXT approaches the GMT and the GB 2, but doesn't quite arrive. Users say that the MXT doesn't generally find as small gold as the GMT and the GB 2, but several have said that it will, but the operator has to work harder. The nugget size differences are so small and only noticed after a lot of comparison between the results of the three detectors. The MXT has found a lot of gold and will continue for years to come, especially since Whites just updated it.
GMT: VLF operates at 48Khz, and was given the highest ratings by all serious users. The GMT has the best of all worlds for ground balance. It has a manual ground balance, an auto tracking mode, a "lock" switch that locks the ground balance, and a "Grab" button to instantly set the ground balance while in manual or auto tracking. If the MXT is seen as the classic all around detector, the GMT is definately in that catagory for gold prospecting machines. The GMT is the fifth version of the Goldmaster series, and it's the best. Built just for gold prospecting, it's packed with features that undoubtedly make it a professional level detector, but the beginner can pick it up and be prospecting in 5 minutes. A unique feature in the GMT is the Variable Self Adjusting Threshold(VSAT), it's the only metal detector with that peticular feature. All serious user's find this feature especially useful. It allows the user to adjust the auto retune speed to match the soil conditions, very slow in mild condition with few signals to detect deeper. All the way up to ultra fast for use in trashy, hot rock, or cold stone infested conditions. This allows the GMT to reset itself for the next target before it passes over, and misses a target in the process. The GMT will detect down to Grain wt nuggets just like the GB 2, but user's have said the GMT will go deeper. The GB 2 will detect smaller nuggets, but the GMT make's up for that by going deeper. For this reason it's not a bad idea to own the GMT and the GB 2, so you can cover your bases shallow and deep. Another unique feature is the "iron analyzer". When you get a target your not sure about, in this mode, successive passes over the target allow the computer to decide what probability percentage that it thinks the target is iron and it shows the result on a graph on the display.
Tesoro Lobo Super Traq: A VLF that operates 17.8Khz with very high ratings from all users. A very high quality detector that always seems to work in all conditions. It has an auto tracking ground balance that does it's job perfectly. It has three operating modes, all metal(fast auto tune) , discriminate, and pinpoint. Seen by many user's as very versitile, as it will do great coin and jewerly hunting in the park as well as the gold fields. Being fully adjustable, it also has a soil condition switch, so you can go from "normal" to 'alkali" to "black sand". Two things that were impotant to me about the LST when I bought it was the lifetime warrantee and the nine coil selection that work on four different tesoro detectors. The LST will easily find sub-gram gold using the stock 10" elliptical coil, and will do even better using the concentric and the DD 5 3/4" coils.
Several times, people with a lot of experience mentioned that having a PI/VLF combo is the best way to miss less gold. A PI is likely to miss sub-gram gold, and a VLF is prone to missing gold around heavy concentrations of hot rocks and black sand. So if possible, go over the ground your detecting with a PI/VLF combo, you'll cover less ground but you may not be leaving anything behind.
Here a compilation of the impressions I came away with from all the posts on the different gold detectors. This is just another thread to help people choose the detectors that they want.
FISHER: Gold Bug 2: VLF operates at 71Khz, good ratings by users. It has a purely manual ground balance, and an iron discrimination circuit. Very hot analog detector, best for shallow sub-gram even down to grain wt gold. Not really a deep seeking detector because highly minerlized ground interacts with the extremely high gain of the circutry and limits depth, in extreme cases the GB 2 won't ground balance if the minerlization is too high. But, this same high gain allows this to be the best detector for shallow, small nuggets. Considered to be a good companion detector with a Pulse Induction, Whites GMT or any other VLF, but the GMT was specificlly mentioned. The GB2 was especially considered to be a good second detector with a PI unit like a Minelab, or a Whites TDI, because the PI units are notorious for missing sub-gram, and wire gold. The GB2 has no problem with these types of gold.
Gold Bug Pro: VLF operates at 19Khz, good ratings by users. It has a manual ground balance and a "Ground Grab" button the ground balances the machine with one push, as well as a display that measures various ground conditions. Very good all around, software driven, gold detector. Not considered a deep seeking detector, but a very good medium to shallow nugget machine. Users that only own this detector really like it, and don't feel like the GBPro is lacking anything to allow them to find gold. Some users that own the GBPro along with several other detectors tend, to look at the GBPro as a secondary detector because they feel other detectors do specific things better.
WHITES: MXT/MXT Pro: VLF operates at 14Khz, excellent ratings by users. Seen as the classic all around detector that does everything really well. It has an auto tracking and a "Ground Grab" button, and a display that shows specific information for each mode. Both versions of the MXT have three complete seperate programs, coin & jewelry, relic, and prospecting. The MXT Pro has had several updates one of which was to the prospecting mode. Whites added an iron "grunt" that indicates an 80% probability of iron. The circutry for the MXT prospecting mode was orginally derrived from the GMT, so the ability of the MXT approaches the GMT and the GB 2, but doesn't quite arrive. Users say that the MXT doesn't generally find as small gold as the GMT and the GB 2, but several have said that it will, but the operator has to work harder. The nugget size differences are so small and only noticed after a lot of comparison between the results of the three detectors. The MXT has found a lot of gold and will continue for years to come, especially since Whites just updated it.
GMT: VLF operates at 48Khz, and was given the highest ratings by all serious users. The GMT has the best of all worlds for ground balance. It has a manual ground balance, an auto tracking mode, a "lock" switch that locks the ground balance, and a "Grab" button to instantly set the ground balance while in manual or auto tracking. If the MXT is seen as the classic all around detector, the GMT is definately in that catagory for gold prospecting machines. The GMT is the fifth version of the Goldmaster series, and it's the best. Built just for gold prospecting, it's packed with features that undoubtedly make it a professional level detector, but the beginner can pick it up and be prospecting in 5 minutes. A unique feature in the GMT is the Variable Self Adjusting Threshold(VSAT), it's the only metal detector with that peticular feature. All serious user's find this feature especially useful. It allows the user to adjust the auto retune speed to match the soil conditions, very slow in mild condition with few signals to detect deeper. All the way up to ultra fast for use in trashy, hot rock, or cold stone infested conditions. This allows the GMT to reset itself for the next target before it passes over, and misses a target in the process. The GMT will detect down to Grain wt nuggets just like the GB 2, but user's have said the GMT will go deeper. The GB 2 will detect smaller nuggets, but the GMT make's up for that by going deeper. For this reason it's not a bad idea to own the GMT and the GB 2, so you can cover your bases shallow and deep. Another unique feature is the "iron analyzer". When you get a target your not sure about, in this mode, successive passes over the target allow the computer to decide what probability percentage that it thinks the target is iron and it shows the result on a graph on the display.
Tesoro Lobo Super Traq: A VLF that operates 17.8Khz with very high ratings from all users. A very high quality detector that always seems to work in all conditions. It has an auto tracking ground balance that does it's job perfectly. It has three operating modes, all metal(fast auto tune) , discriminate, and pinpoint. Seen by many user's as very versitile, as it will do great coin and jewerly hunting in the park as well as the gold fields. Being fully adjustable, it also has a soil condition switch, so you can go from "normal" to 'alkali" to "black sand". Two things that were impotant to me about the LST when I bought it was the lifetime warrantee and the nine coil selection that work on four different tesoro detectors. The LST will easily find sub-gram gold using the stock 10" elliptical coil, and will do even better using the concentric and the DD 5 3/4" coils.
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