Makro Gold Racer Gets A Run, Finally

[Lanny]

Tried out a new detector on Saturday:

Due to some unavoidable delays, I finally made it out with my Makro Gold Racer on the weekend to see what it could do.

I don't know about where you live, but winter here just didn't want to let go this year. I mean, we had one of the coldest, longest winters we've had in forever, and snow, snow, snow (we're about four feet over the average mountain snowpack at the higher elevations as I write), but Old Man Winter finally took a breather, and so I got a chance to head to the mountains to swing the coil again.

The place I picked was one that didn't have a lot of exposed bedrock, just a small section really, with the rest of the ground covered with six to eight feet of overburden on top of the bedrock, and that's just too much overburden for the size of gold I commonly find.

As for the weather that day, it was a true mixed bag. I mean this time of year, we can get all four seasons in one day! Saturday was no exception. It rained early in the morning, then the sun came out and it was nice and warm, then it clouded over, started to rain again, then turned to snow, then the wind blew a cold blast of air for about an hour, then the sky turned blue and the sun came out once more, the wind stopped, and the weather did its best spring imitation for the next three hours.

I unlimbered the Gold Bug Pro first, and you can't make this stuff up, within three minutes, I'd found a three gram nugget, one my wife said looked sort of like a four-leaf clover. And, Nature indeed had made it look kind of like one. The nugget was sitting in some tough clay that held a lot of former river stones, so it seemed to me that it was likely what used to be the bottom of a crevice long ago, as the surrounding bedrock had been cut down at least a couple of feet by the former placer miners whose actions would have left the sort of deposit I've described.

I kept working the exposed bedrock and any places I could find where bedrock had been tossed out in case some gold had ridden out with it. (I have found nuggets this way before.) I really took my time and went slow, because I wanted to be sure I'd cleaned the area before I broke out the Gold Racer so I'd have as accurate a comparison as I could. By the time I'd finished with the Fisher, I'd gathered another gram and a half of small stuff that I'd thrown in the bottle.

My wife had wandered off, and I found her panning near the foot of channel wall, but she wasn't having much luck; however, she pointed out something to me that I'd have completely missed. To the north and east of where she'd been panning, there was a short section left of what had been a bedrock drain, and there were small sections of bedrock still exposed that the boulder clay hadn't reclaimed.

Nevertheless, I headed back to the original bedrock I'd worked with the Gold Bug Pro, and I broke out the shiny new Makro Gold Racer. The ground balance worked flawlessly, and setting the sensitivity was a breeze. The ground was moderate to a little hot, so I didn't have to worry about adjusting the ISAT, and I was pretty familiar with the types of hot-rocks I'd likely find, so I knew most, if not all, of them by sight. 

I started by running the coil slowly over the areas I'd hit with the Bug Pro, and after a few sweeps, I had several quiet but distinct signals. When I dug down, the signals got louder. I called by wife over, and she took the dirt with the signals and panned them out. Neither one of us could believe the tiny gold in the pan! The Gold Racer really did deliver on finding small gold. However, the first bedrock area was not where I realized how good the Gold Racer could perform.

Remember I mentioned the bedrock drain? I headed over to it with both detectors. First, I scanned the small exposed areas exceptionally carefully with the Bug Pro, and I got a few small pieces, then I ramped up the sensitivity on the machine as far as I could, fought the background chatter, and all in all, liberated about half a gram of gold from the bedrock. 

I swapped out the Bug Pro for the Gold Racer and covered the same areas again. Almost immediately I had a signal. I couldn't believe it, but the signal was clear, and I could see a previous dig mark where I'd nailed some small stuff with the Bug Pro, and the Racer was giving a crisp signal, quite unmistakable, right in the same dig hole! To make a long story short, three inches of bedrock later, a nice picker was in the bottle! This blew me away, as the Gold Racer had found the target while running nice and quiet, with the sensitivity not ramped up, yet the signal was very clear.

I kept at the small sections of bedrock, and kept getting quiet, but clear, signals until I'd added another gram and a half of small gold to the vial. (Sometimes I'd get a break in the threshold too, but when I dug down, the signal either disappeared or it turned out to be a target. [Some heavy iron deposits in the bedrock did give a weak signal, but I soon learned that due to the broad nature of their signature exactly what they were.]) 

What this weekend's outing made me realize is that if I'd have given the Gold Racer a run the end of last summer, I'd have undoubtedly recovered a lot of small gold, and I do mean a lot, that the Bug Pro just couldn't see (this test was carried out with virtually the same coil sizes on both machines, elliptical shapes and DD's as well), and knowing now what I likely left behind last summer makes me a bit sad. (Out of six grams of gold for the Saturday, a gram and a half was fine stuff from the Gold Racer, and that's a pretty good added portion of gold recovery I'd say.)

In fairness to the Gold Bug Pro, let me say this: I've found lots and lots of gold with that great little machine, and it's super easy to learn how to use making for a quick learning curve. In addition, I don't have an unkind word to say about the Fisher as it's paid for itself many, many times over, and I will continue to use it, and I'll continue to train others how to use it as well. Moreover, let me say that the Bug Pro doesn't run at nearly as high a kHz, so it's unfair to compare apples to oranges that way, but I wanted to see what I was leaving behind, that's all.

So, I learned my lesson well on Saturday, and I gained a whole lot of respect for the little Gold Racer for how sensitive it is to small gold, how good it punches into the ground to find it, and how quietly it goes about its job of doing so. Furthermore, The Makro is a great little gold machine I can swing all day long, and I'm looking forward to really taking it for a long, dedicated run this summer to add more gold to the poke because it sure gets the job done in style! (How I wish some fine company would produce a light-weight gold-hungry pulse machine with excellent capabilities or that Minelab would find a way to lighten the technology package of their GPZ 7000. Wouldn't that be great?)

(I'd like to thank Steve for pointing me in the direction of the Gold Racer, and I'd like to thank Dilek at Makro for her exceptional customer service.)

All the best,

Lanny

[AU_Solitude]

10 hours ago, Lanny said:

How I wish some fine company would produce a light-weight gold-hungry pulse machine with excellent capabilities...

The SDC! Just kidding, I know some people find it cumbersome but I've gotten used to the weight and am very fond of the machine.

A great story as always Lanny! I'd never thought of checking disgarded bedrock in the area you described, definitely something I'll have to keep in mind.

[Lanny]

Indeed the SDC does love small gold. Touché as the French say.

In my wish list, I was referring more to the big brothers (SD/GPX) that allow a choice of coils, something that might have made the SDC just that much sweeter.

All the best, and thanks for your kind comments about the story,

Lanny

[Lanny]

7 hours ago, kiwijw said:

Awesome Lanny. Great post & great reward. Where are the photos? . Well done mate. You would have been chuffed. Thanks.

Best of luck out there

JW

I know, no photos this time as I left my phone (only camera I had on the trip) in the truck as I wanted no possible interference from the device while I was conducting my test.

Thanks for dropping in to say hello, great to hear from you as always, and all the best,

Lanny

[DigsAlot]

Macro gold racer is a beast. I have one and love it. I was able to keep up with a gold bug and a sdc2300. Found stuff they missed and they would ask me to check there holes lol. Great unit and a good price. I too am waiting for a macro PI unit.

[Steve Herschbach]

I can’t say I have used my Gold Racer much the last year but I won’t let it go. It was a unique machine at the time and the 56khz design with discrimination options appeals to me. One thing I am curious about in this day and age of the Deus high frequency coils is how the Gold Racer compares to a Deus HF coil for sniffing non-ferrous relics, especially when running the concentric coil on the Gold Racer.

Great post Lanny, thanks!

[Lanny]

11 hours ago, Stephen newell said:

Macro gold racer is a beast. I have one and love it. I was able to keep up with a gold bug and a sdc2300. Found stuff they missed and they would ask me to check there holes lol. Great unit and a good price. I too am waiting for a macro PI unit.

I certainly was impressed!

I wonder if Makro has a PI in the works?

Thanks for dropping in, and all the best,

Lanny

[Lanny]

11 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I can’t say I have used my Gold Racer much the last year but I won’t let it go. It was a unique machine at the time and the 56khz design with discrimination options appeals to me. One thing I am curious about in this day and age of the Deus high frequency coils is how the Gold Racer compares to a Deus HF coil for sniffing non-ferrous relics, especially when running the concentric coil on the Gold Racer.

Great post Lanny, thanks!

 

Thanks Steve for all of your write-ups on detectors. You've done the detecting world a great service by providing such concise reviews of such a wide range of detectors over the years. You sir are a study in excellence!

I plan on giving the Gold Racer a hard run this season to see what it's capable of.

All the best,

Lanny

[tvanwho]

Love your stories Lanny.....but I can't recall where you live?

We actually struck gold in a new area this past weekend, in a 2 foot wide ditch  in a farmers field near Galena, Illinois.

It wasn't but a few colors and some pretty red rocks in gravels  but it proves gold is in this old lead mining area.

How do we tell if its glacial gold or native to the area?

-Tom V.

[Lanny]

19 hours ago, tvanwho said:

Love your stories Lanny.....but I can't recall where you live?

We actually struck gold in a new area this past weekend, in a 2 foot wide ditch  in a farmers field near Galena, Illinois.

It wasn't but a few colors and some pretty red rocks in gravels  but it proves gold is in this old lead mining area.

How do we tell if its glacial gold or native to the area?

-Tom V.

Thanks for dropping in Tom.

I'm located in Western Canada, and I chase most of my gold in Montana, and British Columbia, though I have chased a few nuggets in Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Alaska, so I still have a lot of places yet to try.

Where I live, glacial gold is tiny, hammered flat, and it floats very easily in the pan if it gets any chance to do so. This is due to the hammer-mill or roller-ball effect of the slow but continuous grinding motion of the gigantic glaciers of long ago. Imagine a sheet of ice miles thick pressing down on everything underneath it with titanic pressures and you'll understand why any chunks of gold were ground to a powder.

When I find nuggets, some of them are hammered flat as well, but they often still have character (lumps and bumps, crystalline structures,  sometimes attached quartz, etc. that won't survive an extended period of hammering action by rocks). So, if you find any pieces of any size with character, you'll have a much better chance of being close to a deposit of some sort. One of the best ways to get an idea is to check the government geological reports for your area as many are quite comprehensive in their reports on any precious metals found around your location.

All the best,

Lanny