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Nokta Impact Questions


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Hello.

I'm still considering acquiring my first metal detector. My main target would be gold nuggets in an area where gold has been mined before for millennia and there are plenty quartzite veins in granite rocks and a good number of small winter creeks. However I would like to also use my detector on nearby beaches and finding coins and relics is also a possibility around here, because of a rich historical background. So I guess I would need a solid all-rounder with could operate on a frequency high enough to make it hot for gold nuggets. It should be priced around the 1000-1250 mark and I cannot justify a second, specialized metal detector.

I recently looked at the Nokta Impact and got interested. Do you think it would fit the bill? What configuration would be more effective? Or are there other alternatives that you might recommend - like the minelab X-terra 705 (my previous favorite choice)?

Thx

Ricardo

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Guest Tnsharpshooter

Richardo,

I read your post.

Based on my use of Deus and what I have read about Xp Deus as it relates to the new offered HF coil..

Based on your budget,,if you could find a used Deus priced right,,then buy the HF coil to go with it,,you would be set nicely to do what you are wanting to do.

I have seen complete Deus units come up for sale in the $850-$900 range.

HF coil had new for around $400-$425.

You would have to decide though if for your used setup,,would you want the 9" coil or the 11" coil.

Impact at 20khz,,likely not quite high enough frequency wise for good nugget hunting.

I have zero experience at nugget hunting,,do read quite a bit about it though.

Do have an Impact detector too.

I am sure someone else here will comment.

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Lots of gold has been found with the 14 kHz White's MXT and 19 kHz Fisher Gold Bug Pro so the Impact frequencies are fine, just not in the same league as the over 30 kHz dedicated nugget detectors.

My big picture view is that the First Texas 19 kHz models like the Fisher Gold Bug set the benchmark in the mid-frequency class. The 18 kHz Garrett AT Gold, 18.75 kHz Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold, 19 kHz Nokta FORS Gold+, 17.8 kHz Tesoro Lobo ST, and now Nokta Impact all have performance close enough to the First Texas 19 kHz models that I am not going to debate over it. The XP Deus even at 18 kHz is in the running. The new high frequency coil may put it a notch above the others.

All these detectors offer similar all metal mode (nugget detecting) performance. I personally feel I can find gold as well with any of these as the others so when choosing one it is more about the other things they do than how they do on nuggets. 

If you want a really good all around detector you will get just that but then have to live with the fact that people with specialty dedicated over 30 kHz nugget detectors will have an edge over you. Anything running that high however will not play well around salt water and are generally too hot on tiny trash for park detecting.

To sum up the Impact at 20 kHz certainly is in the running with the others. To flip it around it also has nothing in particular that sets it above the others as a nugget detector.

Details on mentioned models here

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Hi Ricardo, 

I have used the Impact in the goldfields and it is well up to the task.

The all-metal mode is really nice, and has everything you'd expect a good nugget shooter to have, but it has even more:

  1. A true motion all-metal mode
  2. A very fine adjustable threshold
  3. Volume control
  4. 100 step tone adjustment! 
  5. iSat control
  6. Very good target definition, even on faint signals
  7. Target ID readout in all-metal (use it if you want, ignore it if you don't trust it)
  8. Auto GB (grab), manual GB and tracking - run it how you want
  9. Lots of coil options

I have tested it with the IM19 7" elliptical coil, vs the Gold Racer with it's 7" elliptical, and the Impact is no slouch and is only a whisker behind the Gold Racer. Even with the stock coil, it picks up my American Certified Bullion One Grain 24K Gold at 3 inches. 

And as an added bonus, the Impact (together with the Racer 2) is one of the best VLFs I've used on beaches. The 705 is also quite capable with the right setting tweaks and 10.5" round HF coil. 

Hope that helps.

Cheers

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Ricardo, For US$850 buying the Impact you are getting a brand new machine with the latest technology from a company committed to producing world class detectors at a very affordable price.I got my Impact early June with the latest software version and have spent 30 odd hours using it in the Golden Triangle,Victoria,Australia, an area famed for producing the worlds biggest gold nuggets.To me it is all about how stable a detector is in our very highly mineralised ground that we have here if it is going to have a chance of finding gold nuggets.After the first day I was simply amazed at how stable the Nokta Impact was on our goldfields.For the novice user the default settings are optimized for each mode so the unit is very easy to use.However using it in parks and beaches for coin and relic hunting as this unit is clearly marketed for is very different to gold prospecting, and different settings and a different approach may be called for. I prefered to listen to the threshold sound in GEN mode when hunting for nuggets as the highly mineralised small patches of about 2 feet long can be easily identified against a genuine metal target which gives a spiked signal and thus I acquired the initial confidence as a novice using the Impact in our very trying conditions.I later got sick of digging up all the hot rocks and decided to turn the discrimination setting in GEN mode up to its minimum setting of 01.Thus when I swept over a hot rock I got the normal signal but when I slowly swept over it I got the iron low tone. After a while I tested the VLX2 mode at 20 Khz on a 1 gram gold specimen and it gave a faint but spiked signal at a fair distance in air whereas GEN became more broader as you increase the distance, something to consider when you get lots of faint signals.The 20 Khz is very sensitive to small gold of about 1 gram size as against 14 Khz. which will give a weaker signal in air at the same distance.Bear in mind the higher frequency machines will find very fine gold better but they are susceptible to the high mineralisation found in most goldfields and they will not be as stable.Also using larger coils on these machines will incur penalties of instability.So all round 20 Khz is ideal in very highly mineralised ground.When the ground becomes extreme you have the option with the Impact to lower the frequency to 14 Khz. or even 5Khz. and still keep the gain at a reasonable level. Where the Impact overloaded in a large patch of extreme ground I opted for the COG mode but that only happened once.

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I would have to agree with Nenad and Mike. I've used the Impact with the small coil searching for nuggets in AZ and I am very happy with it's performance. Very stable in Gen mode. A very capable VLF for nugget shooting.

 

Dean

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48 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Welcome to the forum Mike - nice informative first post!

Thanks for the warm welcome Steve.I also found your posts on operating the 15.5 inch Im 40 coil on the Impact, and prospecting for nuggets in Nevada very interesting. 

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