Gold Century GC1023?

[metalmolly]

Anyone have any experience with this cheapie? A couple people on another forum talked well of it and I was thinking about getting one as a backup. They say you can get one for about $60. Yep, it's Chinese made and build quality and quality control are no doubt a question mark. But users have said that performance is surprisingly good with decent depth and very good target separation. And it has a one year warranty. Also has some nice features including automatic ground balancing, two tone disciminate mode and all metal mode and pinpoint button. I'd prefer to buy American but $ is really tight right now and I can't afford to spend the $200 or so that the majors charge for their entry level detectors so I thought this might be an alternative as a backup. I'm hoping to hear from anybody who has actually used this unit rather than just those saying it's junk because it's Chinese when they haven't used it.

 

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[gleaner1]

metalmolly, the GC1023 has come up on this forum and I thought I wanted to buy one but I cant find it on Amazon or the Gold Century site.
Maybe discontinued? But they have some other interesting machines that I'm eyeballing. I hear that they are a rock solid machine that can pull coins up to 6" no nonsense.

 

[TORRERO]

metalmolly, the GC1023 has come up on this forum and I thought I wanted to buy one but I cant find it on Amazon or the Gold Century site.
Maybe discontinued? But they have some other interesting machines that I'm eyeballing. I hear that they are a rock solid machine that can pull coins up to 6" no nonsense.

I did not have trouble finding it...

http://www.gold-century.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GC1023PK

 

[Michigan Badger]

The GC1023 is the only pure Chinese unit that I like. They had them on Amazon but so many bought them they may be gone now. I have one myself as a backup and loaner.

The performance is better than the Fisher F2 but not up to the F70 due mostly to a smaller coil. The build quality is lower than the F2.

It has true all-metal, tones, and a very excellent discrimination mode. The recovery speed is equal to that of the Fisher F75.

Me and several others here have tested it and on coins it will consistently hit hard at 6 inches deep with finds up to 8 inches. I dug a quarter last summer at 8 inches with a nice loud signal. But the ground conditions were nearly perfect.

I'm an old Tesoro lover but the GC1023 beats the Silver in total performance.

The meter on the GC1023 is simply a signal intensity meter and they shouldn't have bothered to put it on the detector.

This machine is feather light and will find coins in places you thought you hunted out due to it's amazing target separation.

Personally I have wondered if this "Gold Century" Chinese firm is making the boards for 1st Texas? The GC1023 pre-dates the Fisher F series by at least 2 years.

Many have told me they found "Made in Mexico" stickers inside their Fisher detectors.

 

[metalmolly]

Michigan Badger - Thank you for your honest opinion and for posting it, I know from reading your previous posts that you know your stuff. I know for a lot of people it's hard to believe that such a cheap detector could have such fine performance. I'm a little bit amazed myself. I'm a proud American, I've always driven an American car and buy American whenever economically possible. But when a foreign detector apparently offers so much for so little my personal finances (which aren't in very good shape these days) take preference and I'm looking forward to getting and using a GC1023.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Michigan Badger - Thank you for your honest opinion and for posting it, I know from reading your previous posts that you know your stuff. I know for a lot of people it's hard to believe that such a cheap detector could have such fine performance. I'm a little bit amazed myself. I'm a proud American, I've always driven an American car and buy American whenever economically possible. But when a foreign detector apparently offers so much for so little my personal finances (which aren't in very good shape these days) take preference and I'm looking forward to getting and using a GC1023.

It's a good machine for the price. At one time these were selling at up to $300 which was ridiculous.

All detectors no matter the brand are way overpriced.

Like you I'm an American brand lover but that era is gone. We lost our true American made products years ago. Now what we have are mostly American assembled products. Even our so-called American made cars are made from parts imported from all over the world.

I was having lunch a while back with several important hospital persons and the discussion at that meeting turned to: "What is American made today?"

One lady spoke up and said "Chinese Soy Sauce and babies." The place blew up in laughter.

American greed sold our jobs and future security to our enemies decades ago. The America some of us knew is gone forever.

Badger

 

[EddieR]

I've had a GC1023 for a couple of weeks now. It's performance is........stunning, to say the least. Note I said performance, not build quality. I just got it because I was curious since I had read good things about it. I'll never leave the American detector companies, but I just wanted to try one out. It's lightweight, and gets good depth. Nothing like the better machines of course, but hey....60.00....it's not gonna compare to them, ya know

Where the 1023 shines is its recovery rate. If you've seen the video on youtube showing the F75's recovery speed...well, the 1023 is right with it on recovery speed

When I first got mine and was air testing it ( I know, I know...air tests aren't accurate...but it was cold outside ), I was surprised to see that the machine would beep on a nickel a full inch and a half further away than it would a quarter ....all other coins seemed to beep an average distance from the coil, about the distance expected from a lower to mid-priced machine. I'll post more results when I can get out and test it more, hopefully this weekend.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Glad it's working for you Eddie. I was wondering what happened to you?

One thing you'll see after using it this summer at actual hunting sites is the tones are very accurate down to a good depth. The problem I had with my F2 was the tones and meter readings were way off after about 3-4 inches deep. In air tests the F2 was very great but in ground it wasn't impressive at all. But other than that I liked the little machine. I put it for sale a couple months later and a guy on another forum traded his Fisher Coinstrike for it. I hated the balance and weight of the Coinstrike so I sold it on ebay. Anyway I ended up getting more than my original money back.

But for me the GC1023 gets the best depth in discrimination mode with discrimination set as low as possible.

Note: The Chinese now make a new GC1023 with an advanced 12" coil that some believe is as deep as Fishers F75. However, with the bad economy importers don't seem to be willing to bring in new machines right now. This same machine is called the "Gold Snoop" in Austrialia and is a good seller there.

http://www.goldhunterdetectors.com/gold_snoop_pro.html

Badger

 

[EddieR]

Glad it's working for you Eddie. I was wondering what happened to you?

One thing you'll see after using it this summer at actual hunting sites is the tones are very accurate down to a good depth. The problem I had with my F2 was the tones and meter readings were way off after about 3-4 inches deep. In air tests the F2 was very great but in ground it wasn't impressive at all. But other than that I liked the little machine. I put it for sale a couple months later and a guy on another forum traded his Fisher Coinstrike for it. I hated the balance and weight of the Coinstrike so I sold it on ebay. Anyway I ended up getting more than my original money back.

But for me the GC1023 gets the best depth in discrimination mode with discrimination set as low as possible.

Note: The Chinese now make a new GC1023 with an advanced 12" coil that some believe is as deep as Fishers F75. However, with the bad economy importers don't seem to be willing to bring in new machines right now. This same machine is called the "Gold Snoop" in Austrialia and is a good seller there.

http://www.goldhunterdetectors.com/gold_snoop_pro.html

Badger

Man!! I would love to get one of those 12" coils!

 

[Michigan Badger]

Man!! I would love to get one of those 12" coils!

I contacted the Chinese firm and they said you can't just buy the coil. Each coil must be tuned to its own detector.

If we had them in this country they could be sold for about $79. Not bad for a machine as deep as the F75.

 

[P.B. and Dylan]

I bought one for my son a month ago.
Very impressive.
I would buy another in a second.

 

[gleaner1]

I finally found the GC1023 on Golden Century site, its about the #9 down on the list but its called the Time Saver detector but if you click DETAILS the next screen calls it the GC1023, very confusing. Its interesting to note they have 2 or 3 detectors that are out of stock. Also, one of the most expensive they have about $130 looks like it has a display pod similar to the whites machines. I wonder how good that machine is??.

I'm gonna go for the GC1023. I cant see how anyone could go wrong just having it around for the price. Mbadger and a few others give it good reviews. I cant wait to get my hands on one. The fast recovery is what sold me.

As far as Chinese made?...seems like nothing is made here anymore anyway. Even if its a good old American company, the production factories were farmed out offshore and south of the border as soon as NAFTA and the WTO took root.

Temps still in 10's and 20's, maybe 40's this weekend. Worst winter in recent memory. No new machine yet so I think I'll dust of the old Garrett Freedom II (made in USA in 1984). I had it re-furbed by garrett, new board and the works, they charged me 70 bucks (incl shipping) back in '97 and it still works like a dream.

 

[EddieR]

Gleaner....you are gonna be blown away when you get that little 1023! You said the fast recovery rate was what sold you on the machine...well, this morning I got out my 1023 and decided to see just how close I could place targets and still get a signal on all of them. For the test I placed 4 quarters and 4 nickels on the floor (quarter, nickel, quarter, nickel, etc.). Using an average sweep speed the 1023 had no problem reading every coin when they were placed as close as 1 and a 1/4 inches apart. It will signal when they are closer together but the recovery speed is so fast that the different tones mesh together

Just for kicks I tried some of my other detectors on the same test. Umm....don't get me wrong...I love my machines and will never give up on them, but the 1023.... well....lets just say it SHINES, and we'll leave it at that

 

[Michigan Badger]

Gleaner....you are gonna be blown away when you get that little 1023! You said the fast recovery rate was what sold you on the machine...well, this morning I got out my 1023 and decided to see just how close I could place targets and still get a signal on all of them. For the test I placed 4 quarters and 4 nickels on the floor (quarter, nickel, quarter, nickel, etc.). Using an average sweep speed the 1023 had no problem reading every coin when they were placed as close as 1 and a 1/4 inches apart. It will signal when they are closer together but the recovery speed is so fast that the different tones mesh together

Just for kicks I tried some of my other detectors on the same test. Umm....don't get me wrong...I love my machines and will never give up on them, but the 1023.... well....lets just say it SHINES, and we'll leave it at that

Haha! Good job Eddie!

I never told this before but if you promise not to spread this I'll share it with you.

The 1023 is one of the reasons I finally sold my Explorer. I'd read somewhere that Minelabs are mega deep in more open spots but null out and miss lots of targets when there is trash iron within a few inches of the target.

I thought that was a bunch of crap so I took my Explorer and cheap 1023 out into the backyard for a test. I laid a RR spike 4 inches from a quarter and tried the Explorer--Nothing! I tried the 1023 and it hit the quarter everytime. I didn't try the 1023 with the coin closer to the spike but now wish I had.

Minelab has a great iron reject feature but unfortunately this feature also misses lots of targets mixed in with trash (masking). The thing to do with Minelabs is to put on a small 6" coil and then they'll kill in high trash areas.

One trick I've always enjoyed is the nail and coin trick. You know, discriminate out the nail, then hold the nail in front of the coin and wave them in from of the search coil. In other words the nail is between the coin and the coil in this air test. The 1023 passes this test as well or better than all other models that will do this.

Badger

 

[Trackerman]

I Have one there ok but sound sorta anoying when not in disk mode no id display just a needle and a pinpoint button and disk notch all metal modes.Some what hard to use woth 57 like i paid thats it.Maybee a really expierienced user might get good with it.But not a easy user friendly detector just ok.

 

[metalmolly]

Thank you everybody for the help! I'm looking forward to getting this detector and using it. Will report on it here when I do. I do like a TID or VID or whatever you want to call it, but for under $60 shipped I can live with a beep and dig.