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Advice On Using The Makro Gold Racer


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Steve:

I spent about a month learning my Makro Gold Racer this summer.  I went out almost every day.  Most of the time I worked bare red soil over siltstone (ground balance values about 67) in and close to old pocket gold diggings in the Klamath Mountains.  I didn't find any gold this year, but next summer I hope to do better.

I have a few questions.  Your answers might well help me succeed.

1)  Would you advise I change the following protocol:  In All Metal mode I ignore anything less than ID 5 or greater that ID 90 (lots of hot rocks here). I'm not inclined to dig anything that shows a dominate signal above ID 65 or anything that mostly grabs onto ID 20/21.  However, most of my targets show multiple IDs (mostly in the teens and 20s with a few IDs above 70), and I dig any of these that show a few indications in the 40s or 50s amid the other IDs.

2)  Do you feel you get useful information from careful attention to differences in the audio response?  I discard responses giving the null-beep-null pattern even though I have seen some using a test nugget.  Otherwise I ignore differences in the audio.

3)  In one of your posts you dismiss using the Gold Racer in highly mineralized ground.  I will have to deal with a lot of this next summer.  Would you discuss the issues you had with highly mineralized ground?

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The best advice I can give you is that if you detected almost every day this summer in or close to old pocket mines and didn't find a single piece of gold, would be to dig all those "iffy" signals.    Sometimes gold doesn't always sound or display like gold.

You probably went over a piece or two......

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My experience with discriminating detectors when searching for gold is to dig everything unless the audio tones suggest otherwise . In other words lean towards the audio cues rather than the ID numbers , quite often mineralised soils can play havoc with numbers simply because of the the background mineralization that the detector is working to try and neutralise. Sometimes ID numbers only become reliable enough to rely on when the target  gets close enough to the coil for the the mineralised ground to loose its influence. With the  X Terra series I would listen to the tone and sound profile and only use the numbers when the target was on the ground and ready for separating . With the Gold monster I do the same and just watch the ferrous - non ferrous graph once I have the target out and the dirt flattened on the ground and even then I will still investigate if there is any hint of the graph showing into the gold side. There is a you tube video of a man and his son finding a good sized nugget in Bendigo Victoria using an X Terra 705 with a larger mono coil , he gets a big signal and checks the I'd numbers and finds them good for gold and then removes the leaves and finds a good sized nugget in the first handful of dirt from the surface . The lesson here is if it's close to the surface and is at least a couple of ounces your safe with the numbers . However if your looking for small pieces at any sort of depth in mineralised soil dig anything that sounds clean and non ferrous. 

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I love it when people chime in with answers - thanks gents!

I will answer the third question first. In one of your posts you dismiss using the Gold Racer in highly mineralized ground.  I will have to deal with a lot of this next summer.  Would you discuss the issues you had with highly mineralized ground?

That is nothing to do with the Gold Racer per se. I tend to dismiss all VLF type detectors in highly mineralized ground in favor of the PI models or GPZ. The ultra hot detectors like the Gold Racer are even more problematic in severe ground. They can be made to work, but there is a point where a PI makes more sense.

Other than that, I agree with the previous responses that you may be trying to hard to avoid digging. Normal operation while nugget detecting is “dig all targets”. If I get into ferrous trash I will skip what I call “hard ferrous hits” which on my Gold Racer are target id numbers in the 20-22 range.

From there it is mostly about how much digging you can stand. As particular undesired items are found if certain numbers keep coming up trash or hot rocks you might ignore them also. Always remember however that every target skipped increases your odds of skipping a gold target. In highly mineralized ground almost all targets read ferrous past a certain depth, including sizable gold nuggets.

Hang in there. I have been shedding detectors lately and I took my Gold Racer, Gold Bug 2, and Gold Monster for testing in some VERY severe ground. Serpentine bedrock and soil running close to 50% magnetite content. The Gold Monster at 45 kHz and Gold Racer at 56 kHz easily detected test targets in the soil that the 71 kHz Gold Bug 2 could not touch. The Gold Bug 2 has an edge for the tiny bits, but its depth on larger gold in severe soil is actually quite poor. I have known this since the Gold Bug 2 came out but it is eye opening to see it again so plainly. Part of that is the ultra high frequency, part of it the concentric coils. The Gold Racer can do better on deeper gold, but also is more complicated and harder to tame in bad ground. Long story short I am ditching lots of detectors but the Gold Racer stays.

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Thanks guys.

I did a study last summer.  I dug the first 20 "hot rocks" < ID 5 and >ID 90.  All were hot rocks.  Still I wonder about these targets.  Next summer I'll re-do the test with maybe 50 "hot rocks."  Finding 50 "hot rocks" here will not be a problem.  :  )   If I still don't get anything, I'll kiss off "hot  rocks."

I'll also follow the consensus here and dig anything else that doesn't lock on ID  20/21.  After a couple of months, I'll re-evaluate.

I'll also do more testing with test nuggets in hopes of learning more about the audio signal.  Training my ear will be a priority.  I'm utterly in the dark about audio.

Any further advise from forum members would be much appreciated.

Thanks again guys.

 

Oldmancoyote1

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Nuggets can make almost any sound. The classic is “zip-zip” but nuggets on edge can produce double blips. Specimen gold can make all sorts of trashy signals. Naturally occurring gold comes in infinite mixtures of shape and purity, and this makes anything more than generalities dangerous. All each person can do is through trial and error determine what is true of their particular location. Whether you skip targets because of target id or audio, the fact is it is gambling of a sort, with the odds only increased by field experience. Anything other than digging it all is more art than science.

I have dug a lot of nuggets over the years from other people’s holes and dig piles that they abandoned as “no good”. This 3.5 ounce specimen for instance came out of a shallow dig filled with leaves. I got a really broken trash signal. I figured it was trash and dug it mainly to get rid of it. Imagine my surprise when this popped out with a single scoop!

Anyway, I like you plan. There is always something to be learned, even if it is just digging trash and hot rocks. Less than 5 and more than 90 are pretty safe to pass on however. It is the borderline areas where it gets more interesting.

fisher-f75-2-oz-gold-nugget.jpg

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"I'll also follow the consensus here and dig anything else that doesn't lock on ID  20/21"

 

If you were waiting for it to lock on 20/21 to dig, I guarantee you went over gold.

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