Makro Racer vs FORS Gold+ For Tailings

[Au4Gold2]

Sounds great Steve (Makro Racer display as described here)....if your a computer programmer and like buttons.... :) I am just a simple nuggethunter.  It's coming down real soon for me to pick the one vlf out of all these new ones that have been coming out last few years. My ole 4500 is my primary and has served me well, but lately my sites and opportunities to hunt gold have got me endless massive tailings piles stretching miles. I am finding the PI a bit heavy and a need for a vlf to be more effective and speed things up so I am  not digging ferrous so much. My two choices as of today.....ForsGold+ or the Makro Racer....I would love some advice from those who like simplicity but a very effective on tailings...if you were to choose which detector would you pick for this specific job ? 

[Steve Herschbach]

You 4500 is the perfect example of a machine with a hidden convoluted control scheme that almost nobody fully understands and you have survived it!

Nugget detecting is not like other metal detecting and frankly that other thread was more for people looking beyond just nugget detecting. If you are usually digging everything all you need is beep/dig. At the very most going VLF for nugget detecting you need ferrous/non-ferrous so a machine that either eliminates/blanks on ferrous, or a dual tone machine. There are very many you can choose from, and a lot of it is based on stuff like how the grip feels in your hand and how the machine feels on your arm. And that is where I honestly can't help you much.

Since you put me on the spot I think the FORS Gold+ is a pretty safe choice for a new machine, though if you look at my Steve's Picks it is not there yet. Instead you will see the Gold Bug Pro. Why is that? I place value on a machine having a track record with a lot of people all over the world, and the Gold Bug Pro has that in spades.

You being a Minelab owner might take more immediately to the FORS design, which was obviously borrowed in many respects from Minelab. However, I consider the 4500 hand grip to be excellent. The FORS hand grip is problematic at best. It is superb in putting all you really need in your hand (the tiny LCD is a gem) but it has your index finger always resting lightly on the trigger, which means your other three fingers take the brunt of supporting the machine. Some people swear they love it. Me, not so much. However, the FORS is a much better design if using the larger coil in particular, and even with the stock coil it balances better than the Racer, which tends to be nose heavy.

The FORS Gold+ like the 4500 can save settings, so once you get it where you need it it can be pretty much a turn on and go machine. No need to refer to the control box side display at all.

Bottom line is I have no problem recommending the FORS Gold+ as one of the best VLF options currently available for hunting tailing piles for gold, with the caveat that A. reports from places like Australia (the worst ground) are minimal at best - it's too new and B. the grip may not suit some people.

[Au4Gold2]

Thanks Steve I totally understand your view. My last vlf was the MXT E series and I found it simple and adequate for my relic hunting needs. Since than I acquired a Minelab PI and sold my MXT to a friend of mine....should have kept it.... :) So it's been a while since my vlf days and since than all these new vlf have come out. The only reason I ask is I was not sure if the new ones would give me an edge on this particular job.hunting lots of tailing piles than lets say the MXT. Like your aware of...here in the Sierras there's a lot of ferrous junk, so its nice to have an option on those days you just get tired of diggin it all. I do like the two tone and also vdi numbers. I do appreciate your advice.

[Steve Herschbach]

Truthfully, almost nothing from a down and dirty standpoint has changed in VLF land since the MXT, with the exception of target recovery times. The MXT with the elliptical DD coils is still very good at sorting through ferrous trash - still among the best machines for that use. Machines like the Deus (over priced for just prospecting) and the Nokta/Makro units are getting an edge not for depth, but in being able to work in very thick ferrous trash and pull targets the MXT might miss because they have lightning fast recovery times/real time audio responses. In more open ground with scattered trash or tailing piles the MXT still sets a standard of sorts that really has not been beat in any significant way. Yes, for hair splitting nitty gritty carpet of nails stuff the newest units have an edge, but we are talking fringe performance. For most tailing pile hunting in normal scattered deep trash scenarios single frequency VLF tech hit the wall long ago for basic depth. I still if I had to take off and hunt with you would rather grab the FORS Gold+ instead of the MXT but if I ended up with the MXT and you the FORS Gold+ I would not be crying either. A proficient operator will do well with either or honestly can't claim to be very proficient.

[PhaseTech]

The 19 kHz on the Gold+, iSat, and 10x5" and 5" coils as standard make the Gold+ a very competitive package if gold is a primary target, and it just happens to be a handy little coin and relic unit as well. The Fast mode definitely cleans up a target signal in bad ground but Boost definitely has more depth, so it's great having a choice of two depending on conditions. I was initially disappointed to see the 19kHz Fors Relic not having iSat as it would have in many ways replaced the Gold+, but after some thought, I'm glad Nokta decided to keep the two units separate. 

• CoRe - general purpose coin & relic
• Relic - hardcore relic hunters machine (and will be kick-ass on jewellery) 
• Gold+ - gold, jewellery and a bit of coin in thick iron, not thick aluminium (iSat means this has the best all-metal search mode) 

I have no problem with the hand grip now that I've used both the Gold + and the CoRe for some time. I have two fingers under the pin-point button, my middle finger rests on the pin-point button, and my index finger sits under the LED light switch.