Detailed Review Of Makro Gold Racer By Steve Herschbach

[Steve Herschbach]

The secret to jewelry detecting in my opinion is not much different than nugget detecting. Job one is site selection. That comes about from being a people watcher. Hands tossing is good. Sports fields, swing sets, beaches, frisbee are all obvious examples.

If I am on a good site I no more cherry pick jewelry than cherry pick gold nuggets. If the site is good, I dig all non-ferrous. But that is just me, there are lots of strategies you can use. I do cherry pick if time is limited and I only have one shot at a location. Of just want to cherry pick!

The best books, especially as regards cherry picking/upping the odds, are by Clive Clynick at http://www.clivesgoldpage.com/ He tends to feature certain machines but the strategies apply to all. There is a lot of overlap in his books so you do not need all of them. Two good ones that are not machine specific to start with are:

"The Gold Jewelry Hunter’s Handbook: Finding Lost Gold at Beach, Park and Shoreline Metal Detecting Sites"

and

“Site-Reading for Gold and Silver: Understanding Beach, Shore and Inland Metal Detecting Sites”

Coin hunting is ok as I do like silver but I like gold a lot more. Takes a lot of change to be as good as even one gold ring. Silver coins are getting so hard to find I would personally rather put my effort into jewelry. Now gold coins, that is another matter!

Anyway, the Gold Racer is a prospecting machine first and foremost, but no reason a guy can't do well with it jewelry detecting also. Best eye opener you might read is by Tom Dankowski. Download Fisher Intelligence Fifth Edition and go to page 14 for an article on hunting micro-jewelry. The Gold Racer is perhaps the perfect machine for this use.

[Cabin Fever]

Thanks for the info. Steve. I will order those books.

I understand what your saying about bang for buck on coin vs jewelry hunting.

I'm not sure what draws me to the old coins. Maybe it's the challenge or history.

I don't think of making a profit when detecting and it's funny if you think about

how excited you get finding a stupid silver dime that's only worth a buck or two.

Although I did find a couple that were worth around a hundred bucks this year.

Same with nuggets. Even the tiniest nugget can put a smile on your face.

Who knows. When I do find my first Gold ring it might fire up the fever and change my whole

perspective..

Thanks again for your insight and time.

Bryan

[tvanwho]

I've hit a few gold rings totally by chance and then hit nothing but tabs and foil the rest of the day in school yards.Of course that was years ago and I was using my Tesoro Lobo ST with the 8 inch round coil, disc at 2. Might need to go back to that 20 year old machine.Found a number  of gold pendants and gold chains  including 2 Playboy Bunny pendants, 1 in a schoolyard playground and the other in a swim hole.The black sand mode really helped in the swim hole.It quiets down the noise but cuts the depth in half but it got me that gold pendant. Of course, the Lobo has no meter to watch, sound only.....sure wish Tesoro would update it with a nice meter and Ground Grab, etc...I tweaked mine for more coin depth using Keith Southerns tips. Its more chattery but I gained 4 inches on a quarter or half dollar air test.

[Lanny]

Loved the review. You've really given some great information, and you've got me thinking about adding another detector to the arsenal. I'm waiting, as others likely are, for more field reports on the machine, but from what I've read so far on Ray's experiences with the Racer, it looks very good indeed.

 

All the best, and thanks for the huge chunk of time you invested to do the write-up,

 

Lanny

[Cabin Fever]

If you have the patience for micro jewelry hunting I think the Gold Racer is up to the job.

Like the first time I took the Gold Racer out I was amazed at the targets in the ground that

other detectors just don't see.

The small charms, earning and the other tiny finds were from a beach that is hunted so

hard that it's almost silent when hunting it with my CTX. I also pulled a small pile of foil

gum wrappers.

The copper gold plated ring, coins and the other bigger things were from the park.

Micro jewelry hunting in a park would be almost impossible.

The amount of foil in the ground is staggering.

Someone is going to learn how to dial this detector in and kill it on micro jewelry on

"cleaned out" beaches.

My finds aren't great but I think they show how sensitive the Gold Racer is.

[Steve Herschbach]

Good digs!

 

I have never found a spot yet with too much aluminum for me to detect. I guess I am just odd but I don't see the problem with it. Way easier that digging nails one to two feet deep day in and day out for weeks on end.

[Cabin Fever]

Good digs!

 

I have never found a spot yet with too much aluminum for me to detect. I guess I am just odd but I don't see the problem with it. Way easier that digging nails one to two feet deep day in and day out for weeks on end.

The amount of aluminum that my CTX sees at the park doesn't bother me.

I run around with an open screen.

The amount of foil the Gold Racer sees at the park is a whole different story for me.

Every swing is rapid fire multiple hits..

I didn't play around with the settings much in the park but I'm sure it could be tamed somewhat.

It picks up amazingly small targets.

[Sourdough Scott]

Steve, just wondering if you had a chance to take the factory version out yet? Wondering if there are any differences from the prototype and your write up in November?

[Steve Herschbach]

The screen layout is fabulously better than on the prototypes, which were like the original Racer. And that itself was good. The new screen was needed though for all the extra functions.

The new handle is a toss up, for some it will be better, some not as much. New coil ears much beefier.

Except for a tot lot outing have not been detecting but noted no performance differences. Hope to do more jewelry detecting soon now that snow melted in Reno.

Prior to getting the Gold Racer I had a GMT, Gold Bug 2, and Gold Bug Pro. All three were sold when I got the first prototype Gold Racer and I have not regretted it. I am not saying the Gold Racer is better than those detectors and people looking for magical solutions in ancient VLF technology will inevitably be disappointed. The Gold Bug 2 with 6" coil may still have the slightest of edges on tiny gold but not enough to be evident without doing some hair splitting. I would be curious to hear someday from anyone able to put the Gold Racer head to head against a GMT in really hot ground. It is not worth my getting another GMT to find out personally.

For me I just need a light weight compact hot VLF to back up my GPZ 7000 for the tiny gold it can't find or trashy areas I do not want to tackle with it. All in all the Makro version of vanilla suits me better than the Fisher or White's versions of vanilla for my particular purpose. The Gold Racer I can't help but think is what White's could have done with the GMT if they had not stuck with an old design for so long. Maybe that will change now that White's seems to be waking from a long slumber. The kicker finally was that large coil which is ideal for hunting big trashy cobble piles. The GMT and GB2 have no option like that so the Gold Racer just won for me with overall versatility. Performance questions as a whole will not be answered until many more people are able to get out in the field and do their own comparisons and reports. Like all things VLF it just depends on the ground and coil combo plus operator and I would expect the Gold Bug 2, GMT, and Gold Racer variously to each have a tiny edge under any given set of circumstances.

Pretty much final word in that subject based on that last statement - if you already have a Gold Bug 2 or GMT and are happy with it, no need to ditch them to get a Gold Racer per se. If you do not have a very hot VLF and want one, these three are the options, and all I can say is for right now the Gold Racer puts a serious hurt on the GMT as an option. The Gold Bug 2 still has the hip and chest mount features, no nonsense iron reject, and best little coil ever made, so wins points there. The GMT I struggle to find reasons why anyone would want to buy one over a Gold Racer given the pricing, feature set of both machines, and clunky GMT box. Time for White's to redo the GMT as a serious nugget prospecting VLF instead of a nugget detector stuck in a coin detector box. That bad decision made by White's with the GM4/B still haunts the machine.

[Sourdough Scott]

Thanks Steve! In a nutshell, what you stated above is why I purchased a Makro Gold Racer. The coil options, target Id, versatility all played into my decision to get it. Now just need some free time and nicer weather to learn it in the field.