My New Garrett 24k Initial Impressions And Quick Tests

[phrunt]

It normally wouldn't matter, for someone in the US buying the detector the dealer would have covers and they'd add one to their purchase at the time and they cost next to nothing, I was so keen to get one I had it sent from the USA and didn't think about covers at the time, and I'm very glad I did as it's rapidly become my favourite Gold VLF.   The local dealer I'm sure at the time when they stock the detector will have coil covers and it would be no big deal for someone buying it then.  It's more my fault than anything for not thinking about it 🙂

The Aussies haven't been able to sort out the customs issue yet, and don't know if customs has destroyed the parcel, they're waiting to find out as Australia Post has now opened an investigation into the case to see what has happened.

The Serious Detecting package is on it's way so that's a good start, they didn't have a 10x6" cover but they had the 6" Whites coil and a cover for that, and when Garrett comes out with a 6" coil I'll order that too and just buy a cover for the 10x6" at the time as I am sure the Garrett coil will have improvements over the Whites, I want to buy every coil they make for it. 

The scratches on it are purely cosmetic and just look worse than they are due to it being a glossy black surface, I'm just fussy with this sort of thing but I'm sure the coil is tough enough to take it, many brands of aftermarket coil say you don't even need a coil cover, maybe the Garrett survives fine without one.   In fact my two Ace detectors don't have one, and I'd never even noticed and I've put those coils through their paces 🙂

I'm actually quite surprised how sensitive the 10x6" coil is, I only used the 10x5" on the Gold Monster a few times and put it away never to be used again and stuck with using the 5".   The 10x6" is doing remarkably well on my small gold tests, exceeded my expectations on that and it's absolutely not bump sensitive even at highest gain with the SAT off.  Running with the SAT off is working well here.

You'll see how much I like the detector by how much effort I'm going to for it, it's a fantastic detector.  Quite a few detectors I've bought and used them for a few days to try them out then put them in the cupboard only ever to be seen again if I want to compare their performance to another detector, not this one, this is becoming my primary gold VLF and I am genuinely very impressed by it.  I haven't even read the manual yet, I just used Steve's videos to get an idea and off I went.  It's really easy to use. 

I'm under some Covid restrictions at the moment where I can't leave my region into the next, and the next region is where the gold is, even though it's only an hours drive away I'm not legally allowed to drive there.   That's expected to end in under a week and I'll be off like a kid to a candy store to find my first 24k gold!  I'm itching to go. 🙂

 

[Joe D.]

   Good on you Simon,

   I'm glad your having a good time with it! I'm genuinely happy for Garrett, to have a second detector out that is getting great reviews! And the Apex seems to be finally finding some fans here!

    One of these days, I want to see a picture or two of your detector cupboard! It must be quite full by now!🤣

    Can't wait to see your gold finding results with it! But in the meantime, there is still all that silver around for you to pass the time until then, with your armada of detectors! Poor baby!!🤣👍👍

Good Luck, my friend!🍀

KFC🤪

[Cascade Steven]

Phrunt:  Thanks for the update.  I'm really looking forward to your next update from the gold fields.🙂

[phrunt]

4 minutes ago, Cascade Steven said:

Phrunt:  Thanks for the update.  I'm really looking forward to your next update from the gold fields.🙂

Thanks, so I am, it's painful looking at the detector knowing I'm not allowed to drive only an hour away to use it.... so all I can do is play with it around my local area where there is no gold to be found. 🙂 

[Jim McCulloch]

Simon, sorry to hear of your dilemma. But, when you get the six inch coil you will absolutely love it. Probably 98% my White's Electronics 24K customers bought both coils at the time of purchase. Probably 98% of them exclusively use the 6 in. It is really awesome in cramped, rocky areas. If you have an online subscription to Western and Eastern Treasures magazine, check out the  October 2018 issue for my field test report. You can see some of the really tiny nuggets the 24k is capable of finding. HH Jim

[Dances With Doves]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Thanks, so I am, it's painful looking at the detector knowing I'm not allowed to drive only an hour away to use it.... so all I can do is play with it around my local area where there is no gold to be found. 🙂 

Do you have gold in your creek and do you fly fish it for trout.

[Dances With Doves]

25 minutes ago, Jim McCulloch said:

Simon, sorry to hear of your dilemma. But, when you get the six inch coil you will absolutely love it. Probably 98% my White's Electronics 24K customers bought both coils at the time of purchase. Probably 98% of them exclusively use the 6 in. It is really awesome in cramped, rocky areas. If you have an online subscription to Western and Eastern Treasures magazine, check out the  October 2018 issue for my field test report. You can see some of the really tiny nuggets the 24k is capable of finding. HH Jim

Whats  the smallest nugget  you found with it?Is the 4by6  coil more sensitive then the  6'' coil  for surface gold in mild ground? My 4by 6 coil  gives me  plenty of false signals and drifts a lot so I think I have a bad coil. My 6''coil is very stable.

[Tony]

Great review Simon…….I’d love to send you a few cubic metres of hot ironstone so you could build a test bed for me. I’ve got access to several trillion tonnes at short notice 👍 If possible, could you PM me where you purchased your 24K from (assuming you are happy to do so). I’ve got the MX7 so same size housing and battery tray.

Also, Australian Customs have no involvement in any parcels stopped. Australia Post security initiate this when screening exports but the system shows a “Customs” status. 

[phrunt]

10 hours ago, Tony said:

I’d love to send you a few cubic metres of hot ironstone so you could build a test bed for me.

Unfortunately this would not be possible, if you've even flown across to NZ you'd know how strict they are about Australian soil, for some reason you're not allowed any at all on your shoes, they actually check your shoes for dirt, even shoes in your suitcase and If there is any you can't get through customs with them and they take them away to clean them.  If you have a tent or anything in your luggage they have to check that too.  There must be something in the soil they don't like.

The dealer in OZ contacted Australia post and looks to have solved the problem, after being rejected by customs it left the airport, went out into a post office in a suburb in Brisbane now it's back at the airport and awaiting departure!

Big Boys Hobbies still has the Garrett 24k in stock.  I'm not sure if they'd ship to Australia.  Garrett assisted me in getting one directly from them as the NZ dealer wasn't going to be stocking them in the near future.  I'm sure the Aussie dealers will get them a lot quicker being a bigger market.

[phrunt]

Well, after being rejected by customs twice in Australia before even departing the country as "dangerous goods" and the poor dealer in OZ having to spend hours on the phone to Australia Post my Whites 6" coil arrived!  I should say a big thanks to Justin at Lost Treasures in Brisbane Australia, my old stomping ground for helping me get this coil, he really went out of his way to help me.

The good news is the White's coil cover fits the Garrett 10x6" Coil perfectly!  I took a bit of a gamble getting a Whites coil cover for my Garrett coil seeing I was ordering the Whites coil anyway so the dealer could slip it in the same package.

A nice snug fit.  At first I didn't think it was going to fit as it was quite hard to get on, but once on it was locked on tight 🙂  So if anyones considering getting a Garrett 24 (I would be) and sees some dealer clearing out old Whites 24k coil covers, grab some!

A design feature that may go unnoticed is the tapered edge on the 10x6" coil which you can see in the photos above, it'll help it glide over small stones when being scrubbed on the ground with less impact.  I like that.

It's quite funny as my 10x6" is a black coil with a White cover..... and my new Whites 6" coil is a white coil with a black cover 😛  I still have another of these 6" Whites coils coming from the US, it's currently in Erlanger, Kentucky.... I'm kinda hoping that's where KFC came from! 🙂

I've taken the 6" for a quick test run and really like it, sensitive little sucker and runs nice and smooth although I think that's the norm for the 24k, it's such a smooth running detector.

The little 6" is a bit bigger than I expected, not quite 6" it seems but still, small enough, and I'll be getting the Nel Snake coil when it's released as my tiny coil anyway, this 6" size is still a good one with reasonable ground coverage for a smaller coil.

It's noticeably bigger than the Equinox 6"

I can't wait for Garrett to come out with their 6" coil, I'll be ordering it straight away as I think it's going to be the most used coil for the detector, with the Snake being the specialty coil.  The 24k has taken over as my primary gold prospecting VLF from my GM which I retired to use my Equinox and now the 24k.    I never really took to the GB2, sure it had the sensitivity I desire I just found it fiddly and missed having Target ID's.  The GB2 also was terrible with it's recovery speed or something, put a hot rock near a bit of gold and the blanking out of the hot rock in disc or even just the sound response on the hot rock made it completely miss the bit of gold.  This isn't apparent on the GM, Nox and 24k and as many of my areas have a lot of hot rocks the GB2 just didn't cut it, they'd need to release a modern version of it for me to show interest in using it much, and well... we saw what happened there.

I have yet to go to the gold prospecting areas with my 24k as my area in NZ had it's first Covid lockdown since March last year right as my 24k arrived, we've come out of that now so I'll take off for a gold detect in the next few days and be the first in NZ to find gold with the Garrett 24k 🙂 A title I'll wear proudly.