Don71

We have hot ground in Washington State. (Liberty Area Basalt, been detecting since 2008)

Thanks,
Don Newell

What settings do you guys use to hear the "missed beats" or pauses in tone on the GPZ?

-Don

Thanks for the coil tests Steve! I have the 6" smart coil for trashy areas.

I am new to the CTX but I have found that maxing out the sensitivity at 30 gains a lot of depth compared to Auto +3. Using the 6" Smart coil, I get about 6 inches in Auto +3 but 10 inches in Sens 30 on a dime.

-Don

Hello Steve,

Have you had a chance to compare the 6" Smart Coil to the Coiltek elliptical coil yet?

Thanks,
Don

I spoke to somebody that is involved with Minelab coil testing. He said there is a small GPZ coil in the works. We might get some details in the next 1-2 months. I hope this is true because in my terrain and inside the local mine tunnels a small coil is needed before the bigger ones.

Hello Merton, I am a coin & jewelry hunter with the CTX. Relics are not really worth my time unless made of precious metals. (I don't live on the East Coast where there are good historical relics to dig.) I would buy the Deus for plucking old coins from the trash as you say.

I will order Andy's book on the Deus and see what I can learn. I am looking at the 9" Deus Coil or waiting for the new elliptical coil. (V4)

-Don

Thanks for the response Steve. I might pick one up when the V4 9x5 coil comes out for those heavy trash situations. I know there are a lot of people out there that love the Deus. For now, I am still learning the CTX. (I bought Andy's book)

-Don

Steve,

How is the XP Deus working for you? Is it really a worthwile addition for a CTX owner with small 6" smart coil for unmasking?

I tried the Nokta Relic. I wanted to like it but too many false signals had me digging tons of trash.  Some iron gives high signals even just 2 inches down in my dirt, out of the hole it goes low signal. I don't have time for that. Coins go into the upper nineties for target ID so a nail & coin look the same. I understand it's different in other States with milder soil.

I finally bought a new CTX instead. These machines work here!

I never seem to be able to get away from a Minelab. (Fisher has been good as well. Accurate target ID)

-Don

I would like to hear about how the field tests of the 14x9 Evo coil go. I saw 2 people on an Australian forum say they are noisy. One may have just had a bad coil. I have been thinking about picking one up over the 12" round.

Dilek emailed me that the Gold Racer coils work on the AU Gold Finder.

However, the little GR19 coil I received today was defective straight out of the box.
Super noisy with intermittent overloads when held in air. Yuck!
I think something is wrong with the connector cable wiring.
When I hook up my 5" round coil in the same spot, everything goes back to normal. (Quiet operation)

Nokta/Makro needs to get their act together on quality control.

-Don

Hello Steve,

I have the AU Gold Finder (Gold Racer Circuit) and have been using it inside a large drift mine in areas that have been hunted with every Minelab (including the SDC) except the GPZ 7000. The AU Gold Finder has been finding a lot of little nuggets in cracks where bedrock and soil is hot using the 5" round coil. I use ALL METAL and it works ok but some tiring ground feedback from variable ground. My very favorite setting is SINGLE TONE in DISC with very little ground noise. In 2 Tone the unit will make pops and clicks (or broken signals) in the hot ground on tiniest of pickers. But in single tone, I am getting the tiniest nugget signals loud & clear. (Use Disc Filter on LOW of 5 or sometimes ZERO if scanning a cleaned off crack for the strongest signal, MAXIMUM sensitivity of 10, IMASK at 2-3 in my ground, Almost maximum volume.)  Give it a try if your prototype version has single tone. I usually operate in "Disc 2 Deep" when I am using single tone. It has been a great addition to get every last picker. The only problem is that my Whites TRX pinpointer cannot get these tiny nuggets and it gets time consuming looking for that tiny piece(s) stuck in a bedrock crack.

I have the new small 4" wide elliptical coil on order. (waiting...)

-Don

Thanks Steve, I will look into the Minelab Safari and have been thinking a long time about a CTX 3030. (The CTX is just so darn expensive.)

John,
I would like to have a PI for coin detecting but we need to wait for the GPZ 8000 for that discrimination.

-Don

Great post Steve!

I have been considering the Racer 2 for coin hunting but I have bad mineralized ground in Central Washington State. Do you think the Racer 2 would offer any depth advantage on a dime (for example) over the Fisher F19? I get a maximum 4-5" of depth on a dime in my ground with the F19. The F19 lacks depth but it's very fast and I can clean coins out of an area quickly. It also handles the ground very well.  I just feel the machine is missing the deep older stuff.

In addition, I have the AU Gold Finder (Gold Racer Circuit) and have been surprised at how hard it will hit on coins with great clear signals. But it also goes only to about 5" maximum depth on a dime. I managed to find a 1924 Silver Mercury dime by accident with it the other day. (Old mining camp in the town of Liberty) The AU Gold Finder handles ground even better than the F19.

Thanks,
Don

Thanks Steve, I have been thinking about buying a CTX 3030. I have tried some of the new Nokta detectors but I spend too much time with bad target ID's compared to better behaved machines like the Fisher F19. (The Fors Relic gives me a headache.) I don't have all the time in the world so when out detecting, I need to cherry pick quickly.

Has anybody heard when the next version (CTX 4040) is coming out?

The CTX 3030 has been out for quite a while now. I thought we would have seen an improved (recovery speed or deeper) version by now.

-Don

The other detector was the Fisher F19 which is supposed to be the Gold Bug Pro with notching, backlight, and other features added. I had the Gold Bug Pro before the F19 but sold it. I was suprised when the F19 couldn't see a 5 gram nugget at 5 inches in high mineral soil but the Goldfinder could. The F19 just barely grunted an iron signal in disc and in "all metal" it was lost in the background noise of the ground. The Goldfinder correctly identified the target as non-ferrous but only with iMask set at 1 or 2. In "all metal" it was an obvious signal. I do hear the Goldfinder making pops and clicks at high sensitivity. Also, if you turn down the disc below 10, it starts picking up a little more interference. I turned down the disc to see if there was any iron signal in a high tone, if there was some low tone, it was usually a junk target. This area is very tough on VLF detectors.

-Don

I tried out the AU Gold Finder for the first time today on my gold claims. (Very mineralized ground) This detector is a level above other brand VLF prospecting detectors and I have used quite a few in the past. I am very happy with the performance. I also noticed the small 5" round coil is more sensitive to tiny gold. I have a 0.03 gram wire gold piece that the 5" coil can see but the 5x10" coil cannot. Of course the 5x10" coil is deeper on bigger nuggets. The 5x10" coil can see all my 0.08-0.10 gram tiny wire gold nuggets just fine.
(The tiny gold test were in air.) I also buried some larger nuggets in the hot ground. I have another brand VLF prospecting unit that didn't make a peep on certain nuggets in the ground while the AU Gold Finder was loud & clear.

-Don

Never mind about wrapping around the control box. It doesn't work well, just tried it.

-Don

I am just going to shorten it myself. (cut & use the soldering iron)

I haven't heard of a choice between long & short cables. I think they all come with long cables on both coils. There is not a lot of room on the shaft for all the extra length. If you don't want to cut it, maybe wrap it around the control box like a spool.

-Don

I just received the New AU Gold Finder today.

Looks good but the first thing I notice is the cable is insanely long for hip mounting. Very sad, it ruins the looks of the unit to have this much cable for people not hip mounting. I am wondering if shortening it will cause any problems in the electronics. I know pulse induction components are sensitive to this.

-Don

Steve, will you be comparing the Fors Relic to the Racer 2?

-Don

Thanks Steve! I will probably buy a Gold Racer soon to replace my F19.

Hello Steve, did you test the new Nokta AU Goldfinder?

If so, is it identical in performance to the Gold Racer minus the target ID?

(different package, same detector)

-Don

iSAT helps to smooth out the threshold on variable mineralized bedrock. I have the Gold Bug Pro for getting the crumbs. It drives me nuts at times. Usually, I use the SDC or SD2100V2 for the bigger stuff. I was hoping the relic would be maxed out for gold as well. iSAT would be just another setting/tool to help hear tiny signals in highly mineralized ground.

It's irritating that they disabled iSAT on this detector to prevent dual use for gold prospecting & relic. Not a good deal carrying 2 detectors when you could easily have had one. -Don