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Garrett 24k Maiden Voyage


phrunt

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Simon,

Great write-up and loved the pictures, I am glad that it is something that you will get a lot of use out of.

I know that some people in your part of the world thinks that the only real detectors are made in Australia.

Just goes to show you that some good things are made in the USA.

Thanks for sharing and taking us on the hunt with you. Good luck on your next hunt and happy hunting.

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20 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

Great info by all of you.The X-terra 705 had tracking offset over 10 years ago.A snake size coil in both concentric and in DD would be  nice. Garrett has a 3 by 7 coil mold they used for the  infinium.Steve did a report on that coil.My 4by 6 dd whites coil is not smooth like my concentric so i will get a snake coil for it. I need  a epoxy coil for my  GMX for the water.Simon you do need a snake coil for the terrain that you hunt with all those rocks.Also Steve should  have the smallest nugget  of the  month award contest. I also bet that for every gold bug 2 that is sold today there are 100 24 k's sold.

Yeah, track offset is not new. My V3i had it and there are others. Frankly I’d rather have an outright manual adjustment, but this does the same thing. Auto to get you 99% there, then offset up or down to do what a person would do with manual. I often bump 1 notch positive as I find many detectors ground grab to neutral, and I like to run slightly positive. Like my old Gold Bug Pro. I would ground grab, then bump up once with manual.

I owned the very first Gold Bug 2 sold in Alaska, and owned and used that detector longer than any other model I’ve ever used. I still consider it with the 6” coil to be a superb small nugget machine. However, pushes frequency so high at 71 kHz that it suffers on large gold at depth in bad ground, and time has proven the 45 - 50 kHz range to be a better balance of performance on all gold sizes under a wider range of conditions. That’s why Minelab went 45 kHz on the Monster instead up trying to set a new frequency record. But the Bug 2 is a tiny gold killer, no doubt about it. The problem from a dealer/retail perspective is it is a very old, fully manual machine.

The number one problem I had with selling Gold Bug 2 units as a dealer was people simply would not take the time to learn how to run them properly. It’s not hard, really, but it seems it is for lots of people. Ground balance and false signals tripped them up every time. Having a ground grab or tracking option is a near necessity now, and Minelab believes this so much their new machines all have full time tracking engaged whether you like it or not. I think that’s fine, but I still like the ability to lock as at least an option.

So I agree, the 24K will easily outsell the Gold Bug 2 at most dealerships. The machine is poised to have the best coil selection possible in very short order, and for me that’s a huge thing for gold detecting. And realistically, the $679 price in the U.S. equipped with rechargeable battery system is a great price for anyone. The only machine in the ballpark really is the NM Gold Kruzer, a good detector, but one that model never seems to have taken off. It had some coil knock also in early units, though I’ve not kept up on how they are with newer coil.

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