Would the Nokta fors handle pickers?

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,535
9,072
Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Still in the market for a good all around land machine, something that can handle relic hunting, coin shooting, and even picker hunting. If such a beast exist? I'm only going to have room for one land machine and a few coils so I need to to get the most bang for my buck. Already got the Excal and various coils for all of my water hunting.

Here's a link to the machine in question:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/b...-core-beach-review-new-detector-consider.html
 

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I'll be following this thread with great interest.Here's a bit more detail as to why.


Starting in April/May of next year I'll be leaving to hunt my way into Colorado, arriving there in late or early June. Once in Colorado I'll be joining Mark Smith, an accomplished hunter, author,and web designer. Colorado will then be used as our base of operations and then from there we will begin to travel to many destinations in search of a wide variety of treasures.


At present there is a website under construction that will offer a means of interaction for those who wish to follow/joinus on these adventures. This site is going to house some really good content - including video content.


We do have plans to hookup with other hunters from time to time as this entire adventure is going to be about the various experiences encountered, with many of these being entirely new to us. As this trip draws nearer and the site becomes operational I'll let you all know.


This should make for a lot of fun and adventure and we're really looking forward to getting started but there is still a lot to arrange and to prepare for. It's just something we've always wanted to do so why not? You only live once. This is why I'm scouring the globe for a few preferred machines to accompany me on this adventure,the targets and conditions varying greatly. I hope these reviews come around fairly quickly because I have to acquire those machines and familiarize with them before the actual trip begins.
So I'll be watching with great interest, indeed.


Thanks to Nokta for responding and thanks to all of those who took part in this thread. I hope to hookup with some of you next year. Man, this is a great hobby! :thumbsup: A lot less frustrating and a lot cheaper then golf! :laughing7:
 

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Been watching califoriniagolds posts and these threads for a bit mostly out of curiosity about Nokta's device but mostly for his experience with it.
Nokta and other European machines have been on my radar for a long time so I'm happy to finally see good reports on one of these devices.

It'll be nice to see what some of our stateside heavy hitters say. However I appreciate what TreasureHunter says about working members reviews about their own experiences; these are the kinds of things I've been waiting for in concern to Nokta and its products. I was mildly surprised to see Nokta come on board here as a supporting vendor and it makes sense that they do. Europe has some interesting, and possibly innovative, stuff coming to America and if Nokta comes online here it'll be interesting to see if they shake up our Big Dogs in metal detector manufacturing. Minelab is the only outside competitor here in the USA that I'm aware of and its innovations have spawned some interesting results in or manufactures just for PI's. I've already got the SDC2300 on my wish list :) A good gold VLF would be a nice edition as well.
Thanks californiagold. Luck for ya Nokta. And to the Big Dogs~ let the games begin.
 

Best video I have found of a Nokta Detector finding a 24 gram nugget here in Arizona in what looked to he very hard ground by the sound of the pick hitting the dirt. Nice Nokta...

 

Gee I thought according to you it don't count unless someone well known found it.With a nugget that big anything would work BUT California Gold "tiny" nuggets are the norm and that's where the majority(99%+) are found. Hense his post a better norman normal representation of hard to find nuggets. Great find yes but definately not the norm.John
 

Gee I thought according to you it don't count unless someone well known found it.With a nugget that big anything would work BUT California Gold "tiny" nuggets are the norm and that's where the majority(99%+) are found. Hense his post a better norman normal representation of hard to find nuggets. Great find yes but definately not the norm.John

John, it's still a nice video in English that we all can understand and relate to. Obviously. you know CG first hand so you can speak from a different perspective in regards to CG, the rest of us don't. The FORS Gold is or will be in hands in those we have come to trust in these forums, not saying CG is not trust worthy, just like to see other opinions of the FORS. As many have said in these forums whether its a sluice, drywashers, MD, pans, classifiers, etc. Having knowledge and opinions from others adds to the credibility to any product.

CG may be at the top of his game but he is just a username to 99 percent of us. Obviously from a statement you made earlier in a post CG went by another username at some point either in these forums or other forums. Personally I like to be an informed and have opinions from a vast group of individuals and I believe most in these forums would agree. I learn a long time ago to trust very few and opinions matter.

You are correct what CG found is more the normal. Now I have no clue where you came up with this quote, (Gee I thought according to you it don't count unless someone well known found it.) Cause I never said that. What I did say I would like to see the FORS placed in the hands of Ray M, Rob A, Steve H, Chris G, Steve G for them to test and review.
 

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No one review by ANYBODY counts for much. You have to get a detector into as many hands as possible in as many different situations as possible to see how it all shakes out. Each and every person who uses a detector and takes the time to comment is appreciated, but the more the merrier.

Besides John, you have always cautioned people about jumping on the latest and greatest when one of the old reliable units might serve as well and for less money. Does a Nokta at 15 kHz really blow away a Lobo at 17 kHz? I kind of doubt it. But it does offer full range target id while in all metal mode, something the Lobo lacks and which could be very helpful for some people in some situations. There are other extra features besides, and so at the end of the day I have no doubt that at $999 the FORS Gold is a decent unit with decent performance at a reasonable price. I do not expect it to set the world on fire and neither do I expect it to disappoint. Frankly, VLF tech is just too mature for much in the way of surprises but I do think more options from more manufacturers is a good thing. And no matter what, slowly but surely, we do get better machines. There is no way I want to go back to using older detectors because personally I do derive value from the newer detectors. Every time I get nostalgic and get some model I parted ways with years ago and give it another spin I am invariably disappointed. The new stuff by and large really is better.
 

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I have pics of dozens of miniscule nugget finds with the Notka recently by CG and associate. I wish you could have seen the PMs sent to CG telling him off,reprimanding him for posting the info, blah blah blah-the story goes much deeper -Yes I caution as spending $5-$6,000 is a huge investment and I have for over 20+ years respected your work and reviews at AMDS as you well know for 20+ years.This toxic atmosphere here is amazing as newer folks try to run off posts from new owners with honest finds and yes I digressed to his level and as such am ashamed but his attacks/pms and bs from the state of AZ has make my old skin thin. As always respect Steve no matter what-John
 

CG should report the PM attack to mods as it violates our rules.

All members who receive PM containing attacks or insults in them should report to mods, a mod will advise member sending PM to send no more derogatory PMs to member, if it continues mods can fix it so they can't send any PMs.
 

I did this reporting to the gpaa mod and they said they cant do anything and gave me the run around for awhile. I ended up quiting after 15 years a member and ill never go back.........esspecialy now that new management has taken over and from what I hear, local gpaa clubs have been quiting "their" organization. thei gold show put it to the local clubs east of the muddy and are pizzed!
 

I did pm CG but I was polite. Here is what I copied and sent to CG. Nice try John...

Hi California gold,

I was not trying to discredit your thoughts or test of the Nokta FORS Gold. I truly believe what you have said, but like Steve said he likes to see reports from others as well. I have a Gold Bug Pro with two coils and I had been thinking of buying the ATX until I read your post. Its such a new machine with very few reviews. Again my apologies if I offended you in anyway. By the way whats your name so that we can be at least on a first name bases.*

Keith
 

John your a bad apple starting BS. Remember the mods can look into pm's and see what was said. Be a man and stop spreading your BS cause it gets old.

POST.jpg
 

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All, stop the insults and attacks now...
 

I, for one, have found myself crash-coursing on many different fronts within our hobby of late. As well as I know my own beaches I am always looking for that extra edge wherever it might be found. Now that I'm crash coursing on so many fronts I'm looking for it anywhere and everywhere. I'll take whatever bit of experience and knowledge I can get. :thumbsup:
 

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Hello all, I received the Notka unit from UPS on Monday. I was impressed that the box that the detector was in had been wrapped in plastic for waterproofing. It also shipped pretty fast considering is start location was in Istanbul, Turkey. It had two stops by imports also before it got to me. When I got home from work I opened the box to find a nice soft cloth bath in which everything was packed. The bag while not really fancy is adequate for carrying everything needed if an individual wanted to keep everything together while in transit. Zippered compartments inside hold the various items included with the detector.

The unit comes with a battery charger for the four AA rechargeable batteries. I had to go out and get an adapter for that charger so it would work here in the states. I have already contacted Kellyco who is a Notka dealer and found out that they do supply an adapter for the charger, so that will be no extra cost for anyone making a purchase of this detector. The batteries are good quality "Varta" batteries. You get a wall charger and a car charger. VARTA Consumer Batteries - Home

The unit comes with three coils. The large coil is 15.5 x 13.3 inches, the next size coil is 11.2 x 7.0 inches and the third coil is the small one, 5.2 x 4.7 inches. All three coils come with coil covers. They are not taped on the edges, so that is something a person would have to do. I have only tried the small coil so far and I will talk about that in a bit. The coils and the power cords are equal if not better quality than some VLF's currently on the market. This is my opinion.

The unit comes with a set of Phillips headphones, model SHP2000. Open Box: Philips SHP2000 Full-Size Wired Over-Ear Headphones (Black) - Newegg.com The headphones are good but most people will probably opt out for their favorites. The headphones provided will work.

The unit comes with a nice little suede pouch with a clip-on attachment that is ok. You also get a handy dandy baseball cap with the Notka emblem on it.

After unpacking and looking at all the items I started to put the detector together. I decided to place the small coil on first as I wanted to check it's sensitivity to small targets. The fastener for the coil is a bit different and I like it. The shaft, or "stick" is equal to any other VLF's on the market. Actually, after running my fingers over the pop holes I was surprised that I did not cut or scratch my fingertip as I have done with a few other detectors that I have purchased in the past. Attention to detail appears to be one of the traits of this company. The control box was mounted next with the armrest. Again the plastic fittings provided for the attaching of the box to the stick are top quality and work very well.
The control box is very light and I think small for what it does. There is a arm rest strap provided. After the "put together phase" I found the unit to be extremely light and well balanced. I work in the brush a lot so I will comment on how the unit does in that brush down the line. I stick will adjust for a very long reach which comes in handy at times. The handle has two places where power cords attach, but they can be arranged so that they are out of the way, and should not get damaged. There is a screen on the control box that is on the inside of the left side of the box so it does not get the sun beating down on it. The handle however does have a small screen that is located at the top. I got some see thru sun glare tape from Ace Hardware and put over that window, it should se safe from any damage as well. There are power cord locks that are provided for keeping the cord in place on the stick/shaft. I will note that I would be happier if a more comfortable arm rest would be developed in the future.

Overall, I am very happy with what I have seen already from this company. From the shipping to the product itself, this company has done a very good job. There are some features on this unit that I will shed light on in the future.

I was eager to get the unit out and see what it would do in the field. I took off the next morning and went to a very nearby location that has been hit very hard with every detector under the sun. All I wanted to do on this trip was turn the unit on and play with the screen and check out the various functions. There are lots of functions by the way. I will go into detail much more in a few days after I am able to use some of the functions. I tried the flash light out the night before after assembly and it covered the coil area very well.

After seeing what a few targets sounded like I could tell that there are some subtle differences between the FORS Gold and my current VLF. They are good differences and I will touch on them soon, after a few trips out. The one function that I really wanted to try out was the Vibration Mode. I had it in my mind that it would work on the larger targets and wane away as targets got smaller. I was proven wrong as the vibration I felt in my hand was just as strong with a .22 round, 2 dwt nugget, Foil and Tin along with sub-grain pieces of gold and lead. I could not tell of any depth loss while using this feature at all. My testing was done with targets that I supplied on the ground and nine targets that were identified only after digging them out of the ground. To me this is a real nice feature to have. I am already thinking of Nevada during the colder parts of the year when the wind is blowing. It is very hard at times to hear and this feature solves that problem. I really like it. For you guys that have bad hearing this is a feature that will really help you to know that you have a target. I tried it over and over and it works.

The unit offers discrimination. I do not use discrimination at all, except when coin shooting. I found out many years ago not to use or depend on discrimination while detecting for gold. I have come behind people who love their discrimination mode and I have picked up nuggets that had lodestone, ironstone, iron stain, and magnetic black sands attached to a particular piece of gold.

Right now I like what I am seeing and will be taking the unit out for a few weeks of "out in the field" testing. When I am confident of the functions and features of this unit I will report back with my findings. It may be a bit of time before hearing back from me over the next few weeks as the ongoing try out for this unit continues. This is all I can offer right now. Thanks, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS
 

My charger similarly came with a European adapter but it did also have a US converter included. Also in what I thought was a very nice touch it also came with a 12V adapter and in what has to be a first for me, a USB charger adapter! So I just put the batteries on one of my many Apple chargers to top off.
 

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Thanks to the both of you for taking the time to review this model for us. Looking forward to more feedback.
 

Wow, this sounds sweet kodos T
 

bummer there goes the funnin part, oooh wheeeeeel
CG should report the PM attack to mods as it violates our rules.

All members who receive PM containing attacks or insults in them should report to mods, a mod will advise member sending PM to send no more derogatory PMs to member, if it continues mods can fix it so they can't send any PMs.
 

My charger similarly came with a European adapter. But in what I thought was a very nice touch it also came with a 12V adapter and in what has to be a first for me, a USB charger adapter! So I just put the batteries on one of my many Apple chargers to top off. Still, good to hear that Kellyco is including the needed 110v adapter.

Steve another option is to have a remote battery that you can charge from if your out overnight on a backpacking trip. Throw your spare set of batteries into the charger and into the backpack done in a few hours.

CHarger Remote.jpg charger.jpg
 

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