goldbrick

I am frankly surprised that there has been no mention of the Tarsacci MDT 8000 on this prospecting forum. At least I saw none when I did a search of this forum. This detector intrigues me. Supposedly not a PI nor a VLF. Maybe ground breaking tech. Depth somewhere in between a GPX and a VLF but with almost full depth discrimination. It's mainly been marketed as a beach machine but the same features that make it excel on the beach may also be good for hot ground. I am sure it is not a panacea for whatever woes you have with your current machine. It seems you only have the choice of one coil, a 9x11. The tones sound different than what most people are used to. It's not as deep as a GPX or maybe not even a TDI? I don't know, not much info out there as this detector has only been available since mid-December. There are plenty of ways to pick this detector apart that I have not listed but let's look at the positive aspects of it. The Tarsacci may be the first detector that offers better depth than a VLF yet retains good discrimination both tonally and with a VDI number. The manufacturer does not tout it as being hot on small gold but there are a few anecdotal references on forums or youtube questioning whether it may be OK. I dont think it will equal a really hot VLF operating in a high KHZ range but I for one do not care. I get tired of scratching for fly-poop and would welcome a DISCRIMINATING detector that would give me greater depth in hot ground. I know that I am old enough if I dig ten deep nails I am about done for a while so the old proverb of "dig it all" doesn't work for me any more. One thing that really struck me is the ability to use the salt balance feature to totally eliminate certain(many?) hotrocks. I can think of more than a few scenarios where this detectors capabilities may produce some gold in the poke. So yes, I am surprised I see no discussion or even a mention of it as a candidate for a gold nugget machine. Tarsacci MDT 8000 Data & Reviews

Like Gerry I am a little late to the party as I boarded a tug about the time Strick posted his coin. Although I basically found NOTHING the entire weekend but 1 button and a couple common relics this was still one of the best hunts I have ever been on. Just being there as my partner was making these fabulous finds was one of the highlights of my detecting career. Even though Strick mopped the floor with me the entire weekend I still had so much fun, only once in a while feeling the sting of humiliation. LOL Just basking in the glow coming off my friend I needed shades. I like going to the heaviest iron a site has to offer and bearing down on it. So I had been going over a small area of heavy iron with my Deus with the HF elliptical most of the day for nothing. When he first called me over I could not believe how beautiful that dime was. Then when he called again I could tell by the look on his face he had a big find. That gold coin looked so awesome laying there. I must ruefully admit my friend taught me a lesson that day I won't soon forget. He taught me that maybe if the iron isn't producing you may be better off casting around. Don't focus so intensely on the nail beds, something better may be right over yonder. Like Strick I had not been hunting much lately but his finds have renewed my desire to find my own bucket list items. I feel new vigor and excitement for relic hunting and can't wait to get back out there again.

I have never found one so I am jealous. Post the video if you have time.

That is an old coin for the west coast. You must have been stoked.

Some great finds there. Thanks for posting the video.

Strick, do you sell detectors on consignment? LOL My problem is whenever I think about selling any of my detectors I experience "separation anxiety" and my resolve quickly turns to inertia.

This is just an awesome find. Imagine the stories the watch could tell.

The stuff of dreams, for sure.

Either grip as long as it is attached to a detector that weighs less than 3 lbs.

That's a pile. Gotta love it.

I liked your story. Thanks for posting.

Ray, I really enjoyed your friends video. They are finding some nice relics. I subscribed so I hope they keep filming. Thanks for posting.

That steam whistle is an awesome relic! Congratulations on the find.

We had some good times relic hunting lately. I won't be back until the desert starts heating up. I am having a blast down here in the nice weather.

What England has beats the hell out of our Antiquities Act.

I had one. Nothing but problems. Would not buy again.

That is an awesome coin. My mind is simply a whirl with the possibilities. Love it.

Thank you David for sharing good advice so freely.

Yes Steve, I really like my Racers although I never did buy a Racer2. Just how many metal detectors does a man need? The Impact has so many options and since I am somewhat of a metal detector nerd I know I will have fun exploring them. It will be interesting to see what Nokta/Makro comes up with next. Hopefully whatever it is will be at least 30% lighter.

Paul, Equinox? I don't think so. I don't have enough time to run the detectors I already have. LOL Chuck, thanks for posting those pics for me.

At one time before its release I had been interested in the Nokta Impact. Speculation ran rampant and I got sucked into the vortex. I already owned a Red Racer and a Gold Racer so I knew that Nokta/Makro made good detectors. As so often happens life intrudes on our metal detecting plans. In the last year I have not detected near as much as in years previous so I had shelved my interest in the Impact. Yet recently I have been able to detect more so I went ahead and acquired one. As usual, I first read the manual(what a geek). While the Impact is a more complex detector than either the Red or Gold Racer, the excellent menu tree and my perusal of the manual had me up and running in short order. At my first opportunity I took the Impact to a location that has had a serious pounding with the Deus, CTX, and who knows how many other detectors. I started detecting with the stock elliptical affixed to the stick. Although the Impact weighs about 4 Lbs. I thought it was nicely balanced so swinging it did not overly fatigue me. This machine has a mode for about any type of detecting you would want to do but on my 1st day I only tried 4 of them. GEN D, DI99, DI4, and VLX2. After a couple hours trying the different modes and learning the tones on the Impact I had found some non-ferrous items that were missed by all other machines but nothing that was a keeper, mainly miscellaneous bits of brass and copper. I thought it was time to switch gears so I threw on the 7" elliptical. I had previously been running mainly factory presets in the various modes but with this coil I wanted to gain back some of the depth I knew I would lose with the smaller coil so I bumped the sensitivity up. I worried about increased EMI but with this coil running hotter, EMI did not cause me any problems. I really like this tiny elliptical. It's the perfect size for working in the iron while still getting more coverage than a 5" or 6" round. I took this little football coil into the heaviest iron at the site and once again while I was able to pluck some non-ferrous targets out of that mess I found nothing to write home about(story of my life, LOL). I did try out the 15" coil. Honestly I am not a big coil guy unless I am swinging a PI and going for max depth. I love working in the iron with VLF's so usually a small coil is welded to the dirt end of whatever machine I am swinging at the time.This 15" is a coil I would use for very specific circumstances only as I would need to wear a harness if I was going to swing it very long. With the 15" mounted up to this machine it was very nose heavy and my arm hurt in no time at all. The wireless headphones seemed to work well. I did not notice any lag that would affect target recovery. A few times I thought I detected the slightest lag in heavy iron, but it was near the end of the day and honestly I was getting tired and probably a little cranky. Likely my imagination. At the end of my first day with the Nokta Impact I was favorably impressed with most aspects of the machine. My main gripes were 1) while well balanced it is still 4 Lbs. I am used to a Deus so when you grab this detector you wonder why it can't be lighter. 2) The tones are very digitized sounding. Some people may love these tones, me not so much. 3) The wireless headphones do not have a long enough adjustment band for me to wear them comfortably with a baseball cap. They rode up on my ears and irritated me. A few days later I decided to do a shoot out between the Impact and some other detectors I have to see how they performed with iron masking. This test was not done to rigorous scientific standards. LOL. Just a test I did for my own information. I can't post all the individual settings and results. I had to come to work on a tugboat and I forgot and left all my notes at home. I will give a quick synopsis of my findings. I hope some one finds it useful but it is just my own opinion. Others are likely to have different results. My friend Chuck(Strick) will post photos of the test for me because he is a good guy and has that down pat. The machines tested were; CTX 3030 with 6"R coil. Red Racer with OOR coil. Deus with 9" LF coil. Deus with Elliptical HF coil. Impact with 4x7" coil. I made sure the dirt was clean of targets befor flipping over a rubber welcome mat and inserting a 1926 SLQ and a 1855 seated dime into holes in the backing. I did this so the square nails I placed near the coins were slightly elevated over the coins. I manual GBed all the machines except the CTX. The dirt under the mat is kinda hot. It lights up most of the bars on the Deus FE meter. The results of the test were surprising to me. First that the CTX did so well in comparison to most of the other detectors. On the first scenario( quarter with one small square nail and one big square nail), all the detectors except the Deus with HF coil could generate a diggable signal on 25% +/- of angles swung on the target. The Deus with HF coil could get a diggable signal 360 degrees around the target. On the second scenario(dime with 3 nails), all the detectors except the Deus with HF coil could not generate a diggable signal from any angle swung. The Deus with HF coil could generate a signal 360 degrees around the target. As I said before I was a little shocked the CTX did so well in the quarter test scenario compared to most of the other detectors because I have seen the Red Racer, and Deus HF and LF coils eat it alive when comparing signals on live relic digs on un-dug targets in heavy iron. I thought the Red Racer would do better as I have also seen situations in which the little OOR coil on the Red Racer seemed almost magical on targets the Deus LF and other detectors have failed on. As far as the Impact is concerned I felt its performance in these two scenarios on that day in that dirt was was nothing to write home about but to be fair it did as well as any detector besides the Deus with HF coil. I was hoping for more as far as separation/unmasking ability from this detector with the 7" coil onboard. But I must say that a detectorist that I respect very much and I believe is a straight shooter tells me the Impact with 7" coil does beat the Deus with HF coil in some scenarios. Anyway, on that day in those two scenarios the Deus with HF coil spanked all the others. I am sure other detectorists will have different opinions or results and that is fine by me. I don't own stock in any of the companies manufacturing these machines. In summation I would say I do like the Impact. It has many fine features and I know I need way more hours on it to leverage all of its capabilities to my advantage. In my world the CTX is my park and lawn machine. The Deus with the HF coil has become my main relic machine for heavy iron. I love the Deus for its light weight, speed, and versatility. But now there is a new kid in town- the Impact. LOL . When I get time I know I will enjoy learning the nuances of this machine. I am looking forward to spending more time in the all-metal modes and some of the other modes I haven't explored yet, like Deep mode.

Haha Mitchel. I am glad to see you are still here keeping us on the straight and narrow. I do hope that gentleman can enjoy this hobby but lets face it, what we hope for and what is reality are often times two different things. My first detector was a used GP 3500. It was like brand new, only a few days of use on it. Why? A big fat guy thought he would love metal detecting. Well he probably did but what he didn't love was getting up and down a lot. Saved me a lot of money over a new detector.

SteveG, you really hit the "nail" on the head with that post.

Hayesman 76, I am not trying to be a dickhead or burst your bubble but if you have bad arthritis in your knees this may not be the hobby for you. Please don't spend a lot of money on equipment until you figure it out. Try this, get down on your knees for a couple minutes grubbin around. Repeat sixty times. This may replicate a easy day nugget hunting. Throw in a couple miles hiking over uneven ground and a couple slips, trips, and falls and well, you get the idea. I hope it works out for you.

I have no suggestion other than I have forgot to re-GB after switching frequencies and caused myself problems.