Detectors That Have Earned A Permanent Place In My Collection

[Steve Herschbach]

I have been trying to consolidate my detector collection the last couple years to conform to my new reality of life in Reno. Lots of detectors have gone away, but new ones keep sneaking in as I fine tune the mix. I am making progress though.

1. The GPZ 7000 - this detector got the most detecting time last year and found nearly all the gold that matters. Lots of people have issues with the GPZ 7000 but I get along really well with mine. It works and works well and for me it is a joy to use. I have no doubt most of my detecting hours this year will be with the GPZ. It will not go away until Minelab pulls the next rabbit out of their hat. My main nugget hunting unit.

2. Garrett ATX - if I am in the water with a mask and snorkel it will most likely be with the ATX. It performs well at places with intense mineralization like Hawaii or Lake Tahoe. It is bullet proof and folds up nicely for travel. I also can cherry pick coins fairly well with it and so it gets a bit of park use. In theory it can handle hot rocks that would trouble my GPZ but so far I have not found a place where I have had to resort to that. Even if Garrett came out with a light dry land version I would keep this machine as my primary water hunting unit.

3. Makro Gold Racer - Goes where my GPZ goes. It can find tiny gold my GPZ can't find and so is a good specimen hunter and bedrock sniper. If the ferrous trash gets too thick for the GPZ, I am getting out the GR. I have only done it once so far but I was thoroughly impressed with the 15" x 13" DD coil on this machine and it would be my choice for hunting big cobble piles or other tailing piles where large deep junk is lurking. It is rapidly becoming a favorite for hunting jewelry. The Gold Racer is the highest frequency machine sporting adjustable discrimination and a target VDI and I have yet to fully explore its potential. My main VLF nugget detector and a sleeper for jewelry detecting.

4. White's DFX / Bigfoot Combo - this is more about the coil than the detector. The Bigfoot is unique in its ability to skim large areas like sports fields for shallow targets. I use a pinpointer and screwdriver only; the name of the game here is quick recovery of lots of targets. I run the DFX in 15 kHz un-normalized mode which expands the low conductive VDI range and run in full tones. All this combined with the DFX Signagraph display is a superb jewelry hunting combo. I have used the MXT with this Bigfoot and gave the V3i several tries but the DFX finally won out. The V3i is appealing but ultimately overkill. I thought the MX Sport might have a shot with its 20 tones at replacing the DFX with the bonus of my getting a VLF water hunter, but I am pretty doubtful of that now. Regardless, the Bigfoot goes nowhere, only the detector attached to it might change. My main dry land jewelry unit but the Gold Racer is challenging it lately.

That is the core units and they account for most of my detecting needs. What is missing there is a good deep silver machine for parks and yards, a good machine for extremely trashy old camp or cabin sites, and a waterproof machine with discrimination. One machine might do all that but I may settle for two, putting the full collection at no more than six units. I expect to be there by the end of the year. Current units in play...

1. Latest version Minelab CTX 3030. I sold my last one when the warranty expired. I honestly was thinking that since it has been over three years that a CTX 4040 might appear this year. I would like a better display, faster processor, and one more programmable target bin (split the ferrous). What we got instead was a minor 3030 update with better battery seal and locking armrest. I have one ordered and expect it soon. This machine can hunt the deep silver, hunt the old sites, and is waterproof. There is a high probability it takes position five in my permanent collection and there may be no need for a sixth.

2. XP Deus waiting on V4 update. Pretty much the top iron hunter at this time, and the ability to run 40 kHz intrigues me. The idea there for me was nugget hunting but I have a hard time thinking it can knock out the Gold Racer. I doubt there is a better iron unlocker, but truth is I do not do a lot of that. And the Deus fans will never convince me that buying a $500 smart coil is great when all I need is a cheap wired dumb coil. Fabulous machine though and very fun to use so who knows. It has a shot at the optional position six, which may just be for machines that come and go.

3. Makro Racer 2 - a really great all around detector. The main problem I am seeing is it overlaps so much with various specialty machines I also have. On the plus side it gives the Deus a serious run for the money and right this second if I had to keep one it would be the R2 due to my personal preference for the way it goes about doing things. That is not really fair though and I have lots of time yet to put on both units. The Deus V4 update with smaller coil could be a game changer.

4. MX Sport - this machine had a shot at being a waterproof VLF that could hunt deep silver and thick ferrous trash plus maybe replace the DFX. Multiple possibilities. First impression did not go well but I am trying to put that aside and see how round two goes. Now that I have a CTX coming things just got tougher for the MXS.

5. Nokta Impact - I am liking the thought of a selectable frequency machine that could replace at least two other machines. The Impact has just been revealed as having planned but not set in stone selectable frequencies of 4, 14, and 21 kHz. Given that it will no doubt borrow much from what is learned with the Racer 2 and my preference for wired coils this machine could replace both the Racer 2 and Deus in this shootout. All three should be playing together before the end of the year. I am drifting towards the idea of machine number 5 being a true multi frequency unit (CTX) and machine number 6 being a selectable frequency unit (Deus or Impact or ?). Selectable frequency is an underserved detector category at this time that I see as providing a marketing edge against the huge number of single frequency machines on the market so I expect we will see more of them going forward.

6. Fisher CZX? White's Half Sine or Constant Current? Possible wild cards are coming but I do not make plans around stuff like that. We will see them when we see them and other than rumors nothing appears imminent.

Anyway, just a ramble, nothing more. Kind of gelling my own thoughts about where I am heading I guess. Everyone has to make their own choices for their own budgets and detecting needs. In my case it may seem like a lot of bucks wrapped up in detectors but people that know me know that I am otherwise quite the frugal freddy. Detecting is my passion and I forgo other things to spoil myself there. And the fact is they do pay for themselves - not many big boy toys have that possibility. Swinging a golf club is a money pit - I would rather swing a detector!

[vanursepaul]

Thanks for the insight, Steve..

BTW, 

I'll give you 40.00 did that old wornout BigFoot !

 

[fredmason]

That is an impressive list!

I can barely remember how to run the two I have...7000 and ctx3030....but then i ain't very smart.

fred

[Steve Herschbach]

Well Fred I have to say if I could only own two detectors a GPZ/CTX combo basically covers it all, and since they share a bit by way of hardware and software a pretty compelling solution for a do it all detectorist.

So I am not buying the not smart act!

Sorry Paul, $40 won't even get you the scuff cover off my Bigfoot.

[tvanwho]

You said the Gold Racer has Discrimination and VDi? Does that mean park and schoolground hunting can be done with it as I can do with my old fashioned MXT? Any Notching ability?

[Steve Herschbach]

Yes you can park hunt with it but not as deep on coins as the MXT and no notching. Tons of info on the forum Tom....

http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/tags/makro%20gold%20racer/

[klunker]

  Hey Steve- send me all your detectors and I'll try to dismantle them and solder all the right pieces back together into one detector with a 6  position switch and you can just switch one detector that will perform like 6 different detectors. I just know I can do it.

[Roughwater]

6 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well Fred I have to say if I could only own two detectors a GPZ/CTX combo basically covers it all, and since they share a bit by way of hardware and software a pretty compelling solution for a do it all detectorist.

So I am not buying the not smart act!

Sorry Paul, $40 won't even get you the scuff cover off my Bigfoot.

Steve,

It's a very powerful statement you make when you say: if you could have only 2 detectors it would be the GPZ/CTX.  Someone else I respect a lot suggested the CTX as his first choice beach machine.  

I hesitate to go that route due to the cost of the CTX but I do see that it could take the place of at least a couple detectors.  I know some seem to use it for prospecting with some success.  What do you think of it for that purpose? 

Thanks in advance,

Terry

[Steve Herschbach]

Even Minelab does not list nugget detecting in the list of things they think the CTX excels at. You can of course find gold nuggets with it, but it is not its strong point. The BBS and FBS machines excel at coin size targets and so are coin and ring killers. For nugget detecting the CTX lacks the punch of dedicated single frequency units optimized for pulling gold out of mineralized ground.

With the GPZ/CTX combo the GPZ is the prospecting machine. The CTX is for everything else. You can of course beach hunt with a GPZ and nugget hunt with a CTX. A two machine combo is not my preferred solution as I would be compromising in several areas. But for many people two machines are more than enough.

There are plenty of threads on this forum about using the CTX for nugget detecting.

[LipCa]

klunker,  maybe you could put in revolving coils?