need quick help .... lobo super traq or whites gmz?

[blynch35]

hay guys i need some more help i have never been metal detecting before but i have read alot of info on nugget shooting i have a question....

i have a chance to buy either a lobo super traq or a whites gmz for 400 each i really like the stories and reviews of the goldmasters in fact i plan on saving and getting a GMT one day but i can get one of the others right now im only planing on gold prospecting with them from what i have read they are pretty close to being the same but the lobo is better all around but like i said im looking for gold only.

thanks guys i plan on getting one tomorrow...

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Went to my 'local' dealer who sells, White, Tesoro, Garrett, and several other brands- oh, and Mine Lab too. Asked him which one he prefers- he said "Mine Lab, hands down" and then proceeded to show me all the fine nuggets and smaller gold he had found with the Mine Lab detectors. He nugget hunts from Alaska down to Arizona, and has the gold to show for it, plus the many years of experience. On his advice I went for the Mine Lab X-Terra 705 since it has two distinct circuits, one for relics and non-gold, and one for gold so I can have options if I get tired of looking for gold and want to do relic or cache hunting.
He would have sold me any detector I wanted, but I wanted the best for my bucks. For what it's worth . . . . .

Minelab 705 is a fine machine, but no better than a GMT, LST, or Goldbug II. The 705 Gold Pack retails for $730.00, and the additional 9" 7.5kHz coil was probably an another $100.00?

 

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[blynch35]

hay thanks guys for all the replies man things have gotten out of control here i just had to move and get a new place looks like me and the wife are going our seperate ways i do really thank you guys on here for all your great advice i think i just might go with the gold bug pro to start off with or i might just love it i know i really like the price and as i stated before i get 50 dollar gift cards all the time for bass pro shops i could get it now for only about 200 out of my pocket but i think i will have to make some bartering at work to get some more gift cards. man lots of great relies on here i hope its helping others too with there choices tobad we cant rename the title to somthing more like first nugget hunting detector selection or somthing like that ill check back in and update when i get a chance thanks guys blynch35

 

[blynch35]

hay hoser john

thanks for the invite if i ever get a chance to get up that way i might have to take you up on it im so green at metal detecting it's not even funny well kind of but you get my point lol thanks again.

 

[charlotte49er]

Went to my 'local' dealer who sells, White, Tesoro, Garrett, and several other brands- oh, and Mine Lab too. Asked him which one he prefers- he said "Mine Lab, hands down" and then proceeded to show me all the fine nuggets and smaller gold he had found with the Mine Lab detectors. He nugget hunts from Alaska down to Arizona, and has the gold to show for it, plus the many years of experience. On his advice I went for the Mine Lab X-Terra 705 since it has two distinct circuits, one for relics and non-gold, and one for gold so I can have options if I get tired of looking for gold and want to do relic or cache hunting.
He would have sold me any detector I wanted, but I wanted the best for my bucks. For what it's worth . . . . .

I hope you have better luck with the 705 Gold than I did. I have been using a detector for 35 years and I couldn't get the 705 Gold to hit on anything smaller than .2 gram picker. (In air tests!) 18 khz coil. I sold it on ebay.

I think the Tesoro Lobo St is a very good machine for the money. I do think the AT Gold is better, if it's in your budget. (And no, I'm not a Tesoro or Garrett dealer.)

 

[blynch35]

i have seen the at gold on the digger show but due to budget i have to get one from bass pro shops and they dont offer that one there.

 

[blynch35]

so i talked one of the guys into giving me another gift cert so im up to 475 now im looking at 245 out of pocket for the gold bug pro i might wait a couiple mre days to see if i can pull some more legs and get a couple more cert's. in the mean time are those deluxe fisher labs headphones any good or should i hold out for the koss there about a 65 dollar differance but i guess you might get what you pay for, or are they pretty good?

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Definatly hold out for good headphones like the Koss UR-30's. I use Nugget Busters and Grey Ghosts, all three of these are $90 to $110 and they work great. The best are the Pro version of the Koss's and the Sun RAY Pro Gold for about $129.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Why do you say the AT Gold is better than the LST? Is it just because it's fairly new? Steve Herschbach said in a post just recently about the AT Gold, that it's not better than any other VLF currently out there and that included the LST. Also he said that it does nothing more than any other detector, and since it doesn't offer any significant improvment over what is currently on the market, nugget hunters are not abandoning what they use and buying the AT Gold in significant numbers. The price of the Lobo Super Traq and the AT Gold is the exact same, but the Tesoro offers a life time warranty, and nine accessory coils to choose from.
I'm not trying to start a debate or anything, I don't really care what people buy. In fact if there are a lot of people that jump overr to the AT Gold, that means that it will be at least a year or two before they get enough hours in to really know how to use it, so they'll miss gold and I'll just follow behind them and clean up what they miss. But Really, I just wanted to know your reasoning behind your thinking that the AT Gold it better.

I think the Tesoro Lobo St is a very good machine for the money. I do think the AT Gold is better, if it's in your budget. (And no, I'm not a Tesoro or Garrett dealer.)

 

[blynch35]

thanks nuggetshooter ill hold out for the good ones and do it right. i just found out that they are now offering us amazon gift cards too i wrote kellyco today to see if they could list the gmt on amazon so i could use my gift cards that would be awsome if they can its only about 100 more than the gold bug pro at there website.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

The argument cuts both ways when they are about the same price. There is nothing glaringly wonderful about the Lobo either that makes the AT worth ignoring. I did say the AT is not particularly better than a Lobo for nugget detecting but neither is it particularly worse. The AT is waterproof and offers superior target identification for those who want more than the Lobo single turn preset ground balance disc circuit.

I can grab any one of the detectors currently out running from 15 kHz to 20 kHz and do about as well with them nugget hunting. It is splitting hairs in my opinion. I lump nugget detectors into three categories:

1. The Minelab PIs
2. The GMT and Gold Bug 2
3. Everything else.

 

[Hoser John]

It's the man behind the machine and how well he WORKS to learn it. Yep your welcome as have local claims and open areas too. 3 machines to play with and compare yourself. If a bud a mine come makes it 5 kinds!!! Always remember one mans love may be your ungodly nightmare when running detectors,just like my past few wives John

 

[nuggetshooter323]

That's what I got from your other reply Steve, but I was just wondering why this guy thinks it's better. I've seen some people who have just bought the AT Gold making
claims of finding up to 12" deep nuggets. I think that claim is a little too fantastic for real life. I think that Tesoro service and accessory coils are better than Garrett. I guess if people have to have the water proof feature and the TID in one package, then the AT Gold is the latest and greatest.

The argument cuts both ways when they are about the same price. There is nothing glaringly wonderful about the Lobo either that makes the AT worth ignoring. I did say the AT is not particularly better than a Lobo for nugget detecting but neither is it particularly worse. The AT is waterproof and offers superior target identification for those who want more than the Lobo single turn preset ground balance disc circuit.

I can grab any one of the detectors currently out running from 15 kHz to 20 kHz and do about as well with them nugget hunting. It is splitting hairs in my opinion. I lump nugget detectors into three categories:

1. The Minelab PIs
2. The GMT and Gold Bug 2
3. Everything else.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

The Tesoro LST is highly regarded, with a proven track record over many years. How the AT Pro will fare by comparison remains to be seen. Frankly I have no interest in either of these units at the moment, but have had a look at their features. Below are a few feature set comparisons between these units.

Waterproofing is a great asset if you ever plan to search in and around streams.. Not everyone hunts precious metals strictly in a desert. Many of the detectable gold producing areas of North America are not desert areas. I saw a video of a guy using the AT Gold in the Chaudiere River system of Quebec. He located a signal in mid-stream, placed his AT Gold down into the fast flowing knee-deep water while he extracted what turned out to be a really nice gold nugget. Can you imagine how much more difficult that scenario would have been using a non-waterproof unit?

The AT Gold has a “low-medium-low” fully adjustable iron tone breakpoint capability in the motion all-metal mode. No… I doubt it’ll work on larger iron at any depth… after all, what prospecting-capable VLF model does? But it should relieve some of the tedious digging of many small shallow iron targets. By comparison the Tesoro LST has no target ID or tones, but has a conventional discrimination circuit supported by a preset ground balance platform.

Batteries… AT Gold uses 4 batteries whereas the Tesoro LST uses 8 batteries for pretty much the same operating time.

Weight… the AT Gold is one-half pounds lighter by comparison… a difference many will appreciate.

Ground Balance: AT Gold has both autograb and manually adjustable ground balance controls. Set them over clean ground free of metals and you are properly balanced. Checking the ground balance becomes second nature, and periodically you can redo an autograb when necessary to re-establish proper ground balance.

The Tesoro LST relies exclusively on autotracking, handy for newcomers, to keep the unit ground-balanced in the all-metal mode only. There is no manual, or autograb feature. Nor to my knowledge can the autotracking be turned OFF or LOCKED. Autotracking will track into corrosion associated with some metals…particularly to the plentiful subsurface iron junk that litters mining camps and tailings.

Gerry McMullen is on video finding a # 9 birdshot with the AT Gold and small sniper coil over on the Garrett website. I have no idea how that compares to the LST.

Garrett: "Prospecting with the new AT Gold" video

Jim.

 

[blynch35]

i have seen some of those videos about the AT Gold it reaaly sounds good it seams alot like the gold bug pro. i dont know anything about detectors but im still leaning on getting the gold bug pro but the AT Gold is also sounding pretty good.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

You can see the progression in Dave Johnson's thinking over time. When he worked with Tesoro automatic ground balance was the big new thing, and the Lobo uses it exclusively. Then Dave moved to White's and the GMT and MXT. The MXT offers auto and "locked" while the GMT is both auto and manual with what may be the first "Grab" button. Whites added grab to the MXT Pro. Now Dave is at Fisher and eschews automatic ground balance in favor of manual or grab functions. I almost never use full automatic ground tracking but I would argue with Dave that I do want it as an available option for those rare times I might want it. Auto can be a lifesaver on a hot machine like a GMT in mixed cobbles. But by and large auto is a function used sparingly by most nugget hunters I know. Manual or lock/grab is preferred by most.

 

[Terry Soloman]

This is a great thread. I love "Ford vs Chevy" comparisons and testimonials. For me, all of the Dave Johnson gold machines are pretty much same-same. The differences in depth or sensitivity are so small as to be moot to the average nuggetshooter. Lobo Super Traq, Whites GMT, Fisher Goldbug II, Teknetics G2 – pick your poison.

For our school I chose the Tesoro Lobo Super Traq for these reasons:

It finds gold

It is the easiest gold nugget finding metal detector to learn and use

My clients can (and have) drop it, throw it, or use it to prop open the door of their Jeep - and it will still work.

It is made in Arizona, by Arizonans, and has the ONLY lifetime warranty in the industry.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

The Lobo is easy to operate. It is the only detector I could get my father to warm up to. We used the Lobo at our pay-to-mine operation at Moore Creek for similar reasons.

 

[blynch35]

this is a great thread i didnt realize it would turn into this but i knew it would hold some invaluable information as you guys have a lifetime of true hands on experiance and thats what i was really after. now im thinking after your guys new comments that mabey the super traq would be a good purchace as its only 30.00 more than the gold bug pro.

thank you guys for all the great info i do appreciate it.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I can assure you that it is you that will make the difference. Learn your machine, research, put yourself on good ground, work hard. And I'll wish you some good luck also. That never hurts!

 

[blynch35]

thank you steve