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Makro Gold Racer Help. New Detectorist Here.


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8 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Welcome to the forum!

I have a long response to this but am busy at the moment. Give me a couple hours. In addition to answering Pauls settings question, what number or numbers are you predominately seeing?

Thanks for the welcome. I've have the sensitivity set anywhere between 70-90 trying different things out. Threshold between 20-30. Other than that ive not messes with much else besides switching to discriminate mode to test out. Numbers I'm seeing are all over the board. Bounces all around on a "possible target". I'm thinking this might be mineralization but not confident in that statement. 

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5 minutes ago, vanursepaul said:

Ok...now you got Steve on it....

Listen to him and you will love using your MGR..... I can tell you when I get a good target and what it is 80% of the time..when I'm coin hunting. I love it for that..

I gotta get it over some gold tho... Although rings with diamonds on them would work too

 

And yes I've been reading Steve's posts for a few weeks now trying to learn.

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8 minutes ago, SLGuin said:

Greg,

It just takes a little time to get to know the GR. Search this forum for the best available information anywhere, and do not hesitate to write to the authors of posts that resonate with you. Spend some time playing with it, read some more, then use what you learn. Rinse and repeat. The GR is actually quite easy to use once you get the hang of it, and is about the best available gold vlf in my view. It will be a little more challenging to learn if it is your first detector, but practice will get it done.

All metal will always be noisier than discrimination, but that noise carries information that is useful.

 

 

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

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1 hour ago, usaflaginmaine said:

I've read the manual s few times but being a new detectorist i don't totally understand some of what my machine does. I'll definitely be watching some videos. Thanks for the suggestion.

Maybe you should highlight and jot down some of the things you don't quite understand and ask some of the folks here for help?  Just post a question or two, or maybe send some of us an e-mail.

Monte

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8 minutes ago, Monte said:

Maybe you should highlight and jot down some of the things you don't quite understand and ask some of the folks here for help?  Just post a question or two, or maybe send some of us an e-mail.

Monte

What is frequency shift?

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Frequency shift is for the mitigation of electrical interference from outside sources. If two Gold Racers are run close together they will interfere with each other, and simply shifting one or the other to a slightly different frequency can help deal with that. Despite what the manual says the shift is so small it has minimal impact on the actual performance of the detector.

Gold Racer Owners Manual page 19:

image.jpeg

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First of all the Gold Racer is a very high performance detector. Make life easy on yourself and do not head straight for highly mineralized ground. I am a big fan of familiarizing myself with new nugget detectors by hitting the nearest location with sand - sand boxes, volleyball courts, freshwater beaches, etc. or schoolyard equipment areas with wood chips. Now just dig everything that goes beep and learn the machine. The main goal believe it or not is to see how small an aluminum item you can find. Aluminum is a good gold surrogate.

Target ID stability is a function of numerous things. The hotter a detector, the more numbers jump around. Also, the more numbers the scale is divided into makes a huge difference. A detector with only 12 segments or target ID numbers or "bins" will have more solid locks than a detector that divides the same scale into 100 segments. The more mineralized the ground, the jumpier the numbers. If there is electrical interference it can lead to instability. And with nugget detectors in particular, the smaller the nugget, the harder to get a lock. The higher the sensitivity setting, the more erratic the numbers usually but sometimes more sensitivity can firm targets up once you acquire the target. I have been known to use the fast mode switching on the Gold Racer to set one disc mode up with moderate sensitivity and the other jacked up. I might hunt with the more moderate mode then flip to the hotter mode to see if it gets a better hit and therefore better ID lock.

Smaller coils can see less ground and sharpen up target responses.

Be sure the coil cable near the coil is firmly fixed in place and connector quite snug to the control box. Any looseness can cause instability.

All of this matters but what matter most perhaps is coil control. The sweep speed, centering of the target, and distance from coil varies every single swing. If you were a robot you would get perfect target locks because the swing would be 100% the same each time. The best thing you can do is go to that nearby sandbox and practice swinging on a tiny target. The more consistent your swing, the tighter the spread will be in the numbers. Note that as the target gets larger, it is easier to get solid locks. A scrape of the surface with a boot to get the coil even an inch closer can make a big difference.

Almost all good detectorists first acquire the target, then work it carefully to firm up the target ID numbers. Mental averaging is applied and the numbers that come up most zero you in on the ID.

In theory 0-40 is ferrous and hot rocks. 40-100 non-ferrous. In reality I find hot rocks normally come up with very low numbers in the teens or lower. Common small ferrous trash will hit fairly hard at about 21. Numbers under 21 I ignore. Targets that give a consistent near 21 reading are ferrous. Anything that refuses to lock at 21 and dances around above that I normally dig. If I am cherry picking I will only dig targets that give solid readings of about 35 and higher but resist the urge to get too picky unless buried in trash.

The reality is hot VLF detectors get harder to use the more the ground mineralization increases, and there is a point where even experts will struggle. This is the reason PI detectors exist and machines like the SDC 2300 can handle ground with ease that drives hot VLF detectors bonkers.

If you are dealing with hot rocks, the trigger method of ground balancing does ok but manually shifting the setting up or down slightly can help reduce the hot rock signals and increasing iSAT can help. Automatic tracking is sort of a last resort but can smooth responses considerably if needed. You must experiment! A small test nugget or aluminum or lead surrogate glued to a poker chip can be invaluable for finding settings that best enhance your test target while most reducing ground and hot rock noises. Do not be afraid to lower sensitivity!

Finally, the Gold Racer is very much like a Whites GMT but with target ID. See pages 18 - 21 of the GMT Owners Manual for tips that apply just as much to the Gold Racer as the GMT.

I hope this helps. I hate to say it but I am not too optimistic about the realities of nugget detecting in Maine. What kind of gold size have you found panning and dredging? Do you know people who have had success detecting gold nuggets in Maine? It is possible to find sub-grain gold with detectors but if that is all there is panning, sluicing, or dredging may just make more sense. For me the main reason for using a detector is the possibility of larger gold, but detectors unfortunately can't make the stuff.

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I went to S.D. for the weekend and I just got back to CA .......The guy sitting beside me wants a metal detector..he just told his wife that was going to be his next purchase...as soon as he found out which one would be best for him...

The Time literally flew on the way back to Arcata from San Fran...

I had a captive audience (and I wasn't quite as shy as normal)

He will be signing up tonight probably Steve...

And he still read this post for sure,

Thx for starting this thread!

 

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