Garrett 1986 Metal Detector Catalog

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks to a generous donation from GB_Amateur (thanks Chuck ) we now have a full color copy of the 1986 Garrett catalog available for download

I'm not shooting for every year, but I am putting a few key older catalogs into the Downloads Area. These cover ranges of older machines, and have at least basic specification information for those who are looking. An older catalog every 5 years or decade will do the trick, just to catch major lineup changes, which were slow to come back then.

Anyway, its a lot of work to scan a catalog into a pdf, and Chuck did a great job for everyone's benefit, so thanks again Chuck!!

Garrett 1986 metal detector models:

Master Hunter 7
Master Hunter 5
Freedom 3
Freedom 2
Freedom 1
Freedom Ace
Beach Hunter AT3
Gold Hunter
American AM-2
Master Hunter DS
Sea Hunter XL500
Sea Hunter XL200
Accessories

[GB_Amateur]

Thanks for expressing your gratitude, Steve.  It's always nice to be appreciated, but my contribution was minor.  Sometimes being a pack-rat works out.  Other times...??

I do have a couple questions while this catalog is in the limelight.

1) Page 12 covers two pulse induction detectors -- Sea Hunter models XL500 and XL200.  Where do these rank in terms of chronological history of commercially available PI's?

2) One of the bullet points for the Sea Hunters is "ignore salt water and iron mineralization".  And in the intro paragraph it says "whether it's land, lake,... the Garrett Pulse Induction Circuitry performs."  Finally, on page 15's matrix of all Garrett's detector offererings and their properties, Battlefield/Relic Hunting is listed as an application for the Sea Hunters.  Meanwhile the "ground elimination" boxes are not checked.  Are all these claims of (dry) land capability limited to very mild ground?

Interesting note:  their American AM-2 model (p. 11), which appears to be a slightly watered down version of the noteworthy Gold Hunter (p.10, previously called 'Ground Hog'), is listed on the summary matrix (p. 15) as weighing 3.2 lb.  Compared to the many other detectors of that time, I wonder how it ranks weightwise.  This and the Gold Hunter are the only models operating at 15 kHz, all other VLF's operating at 5 kHz.

[Steve Herschbach]

Before there were ground balancing pulse detectors there were non-ground balancing pulse detectors. They relied on the pulse delay as being the ground balance, and a long pulse delay never sees the ground. So these old pulse machines often advertise "automatic ground compensation" or some other terminology that sounds like ground balance, but is not. It gets people in trouble, as I have heard often from people who try and use these old beach machines for gold prospecting. Hot rocks almost always defeat these machines, and so they can only be used where the ground is relatively homogenous.

The older machines all employ long pulse delays to ignore saltwater, and so all will ignore gold that reads in the salt range or lower. The XL models are the predecessors to the Sea Hunter models, analogous to the White's Surf PI and Tesoro Sand Shark.

Garrett has used the almost identical 15 kHz circuit in dozens of models, with few changes to the circuit all the way up to the Gold Stinger. The 15 kHz AT is a newer design by far.