abenson

It really comes down to the ground handling capabilities of the 2000. If you have areas that no other machine can run in, then the 2000 is the clear choice.

My 2 cents on setting the GM2 up correctly for a site. The default setting when the GM2 is turned on is difficult, A2 sensitivity and echo audio on. I think that's great when you're first learning the detector. But after you have a few hours under your belt, adjusting to the ground conditions will get you better performance. How do you know what kind of ground you have? You can tell just by playing with the different modes and sensitivity settings. If you started in Difficult A2, try going to manual sensitivity of 10. If the machine is still running smooth, switch to Normal A2 and see where your auto sensitivity adjusts to. If it's riding at about 7 or 8 and a smooth threshold, you can probably stick with that or even try running manual sensitivity at manual 8 or above. If it's riding up to 9 or 10 then you can try running Benign A2 and see where the sensitivity level settles. While in Benign if the auto sensitivity is adjusting to numbers in the 5 or 6 range, it's probably best to go back to Normal. The issue with running the machine too hot or too cold is loss of depth and sensitivity to small nuggets. I'll give some examples of issues I ran into in both testing and actual in field testing. On one occasion while running in Difficult manual 10 sensitivity, I couldn't locate a target with the GM2 the Manticore found. When I switched to Normal A2, I could hear the target. On the other side of the scale. While switching to Benign A2 to better pinpoint a hard to hear target, the auto sensitivity self adjusted to a level so low the target disappeared after multiple coil passes. I also witnessed the same thing when testing a buried .50 gram nugget against the Manticore in one of my videos. As Gerry pointed out, switching to Normal from Difficult or from Normal to Benign to pinpoint a target can be very useful. But you have to be careful when in A2 sensitivity settings as the detector may lower the sensitivity level so low to meet the ground conditions that the target disappears. The main thing to remember is the GM2 was made to handle really bad ground and find small gold other metal detectors missed. But that doesn't mean you should run it like that all the time when ground conditions don't call for it.

In ground conditions that shut down many other gold detectors, I’ve watched the GM2K keep running smoothly and keep finding gold. Most of my areas don’t demand that level of ground-handling performance, but it’s reassuring knowing I have it when the conditions get tough. I'm looking forward to the larger coil coming out and when it does, the GM2K may become my dedicated VLF gold detector simply because it's so easy to make adjustments to. It will also make a great companion to a good PI.

Ive been meaning to stop by that place on my way to Rye Patch a few times, but it's hard to stop at a place when there are other sites close by that you know produce good gold.

Yea I'm thinking the GM2K is going to be a great detector in those trashy areas in hot ground like Culpeper VA with that bigger 6x10 coil. It would be real nice if Minelab would offer an 11" round coil at some point, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Nice test and video Jeff. Deus 2 looks like it handles your ground about the same as mine. I'm really looking forward to the 6x10 coming out for the GM2K, it should close the gap on the Manticore for both depth and audio response. Although the GM2K is much better at handling the bad ground. GM2K is definitely a well mannered machine and is great for new people as well as those that want a quiet running VLF.

I made a trip out to Northern Nevada this past weekend and met up with Steve H, Steve F, and Art. The weather was beautiful for early November. Two of us brought along Gold Monster 2000s to see how they would handle the alkaline ground out there—terrain that can be tough for many VLF detectors. The soil itself isn’t highly mineralized, and in some spots, I can even run the Gold Monster in Benign mode. But once the ground gets wet, it becomes quite conductive, and even the GPX series can start reacting to the ground. Add in areas with plenty of hot rocks, and it made for a perfect testing environment for the Gold Monster 2000. I also brought the Minelab Manticore on the trip. I began by locating targets and then comparing how the Gold Monster 2000 and Manticore responded to each signal. I’ve posted a video of those comparisons below for anyone who wants to see the differences firsthand—it’s a bit long but should be useful for those interested in performance in real-world ground. So how does the Manticore stack up against the Gold Monster 2000? In the conditions I typically hunt, the Manticore can run smoothly in about 80% of the ground with no adjustments. The remaining 20% requires tweaking sensitivity, recovery speed, and some notching to quiet things down. Based on just the 5" coil on the Gold Monster, I’d personally still pick the Manticore and think it would have easily found all the targets the Gold Monster found (see video and pics). However, once the larger coil becomes available for the Gold Monster 2000, I’ll likely switch to it for most of my VLF nugget hunting simply due to how quick and simple it is to adjust on the fly. If you already own a Manticore, don’t hunt gold very often, and are confident in tuning it correctly, you probably don’t need to spend another $2,000. But if you frequently hunt for nuggets and deal with challenging ground, the Gold Monster 2000 could be well worth the investment. As for using the Gold Monster 2000 itself, it’s extremely straightforward to set up and run even on tough ground. I ran it mostly in Normal with A2 sensitivity, switching to Benign or Difficult as needed. In Northern Nevada, when the ground is wet, conditions can change every 10 feet or so, and the Gold Monster makes it obvious when it’s time to switch modes. Over two days, I found nuggets ranging from 0.016 grams up to 0.46 grams in an area that has already been worked hard with detectors such as the GPZ 7000, GPX 6000, Garrett Axiom, Garrett 24K, Equinox 800, Manticore, and others. Not to say that the others would have necessarily missed them, but it is getting harder to find decent sized gold there, though Steve H did manage one very nice nugget—I’ll let him tell that story if he wants. Gold Monster 2000 – Pros and Cons What I like: *Very simple to use and set up *Handles alkaline ground and hot rocks surprisingly well *Lightweight and compact *Hot rocks and iron are easy to identify once the target is close to the coil What I don't like *Not waterproof *No wireless audio *Needs the larger coil (which is coming) Steve F also had the Gold Monster 2000 on the trip and hopefully he will add his thoughts and pictures of his finds.

There are different types of mineralized ground. Red clay is made up of iron oxide along with other minerals. The ground I tested in is high in magnetite, so 2 completely different types of soil. Red clay situations the GM2 may very well have the advantage over the Manticore. In areas of high magnetite like the Rocky Mountains it's pretty obvious the Manticore has the advantage. Until multi came out, single frequency metal detectors were pretty useless at getting much depth over 5" in my area on even dime sized targets. So hitting a .50 gram gold nugget at 5.5" with the Manticore is saying a lot.

A2 is auto adjust, I also tried that setting and didn't get better results that 10. When I was running it on my ground it was constantly adjusting to a setting as low as 5. I personally would run it on 10 as long as the machine doesn't get to noisy.

No threshold is not adjustable. Overall it's pretty limited on what you can adjust.

This test was done in hot ground and it's pretty clear the Manticore has an advantage over the Gold Monster 2000 in this scenario. Couple of observations-GM2 is much easier on the ears than the Manticore and that might be best choice for some people. GM2 is also way easier to setup where as the Manticore you have to make a lot of initial adjustments on a new site to get it to run decent on various ground types. The Manticore also is running a slightly larger coil and if the GM2 had a 6x10 on it may have hit those deeper nuggets just fine. I've heard a few early users say they could cherry pick targets with the GM2 and I think you're making a big mistake if you think that's going to be the case. Just in the few hours I've run the GM2, I can see it's just as prone to calling good targets junk, as any other VLF out there. So it's still a dig it all machine unless it's a surface target IMO. Overall I think the GM2 is a pretty solid machine, especially for new users or people who just want a mild mannered good performing gold nugget VLF detector.

I had that same issue with the update to 3.10, had to let the remote battery totally drain just to get it out of the update mode. Tried it again after signing out of XP and signing back in just to have the exact same issue a second time. Had to let the remote battery die again. The next time I tried the update I moved to a different computer and had no issue at all. Maybe cookies were causing the issue on the first computer of something, I didn't think to clear them until after I had updated on the second computer.

I don't have the Fisher AQ but I do have the Garrett Axiom. I've also run and compared the Whites Big Box TDI to many other PI machines on salt water beaches. I'm guessing the AQ has better depth than the Whites TDI and based on that I'd say it will get better depth than the Garrett Axiom. This is based on tests done on US nickels. Whites TDI with 12" coil gives out at about 16" and the Garrett Axiom with the 11x13 coil gives out at about 14". I was unable to run the 14x16 Axiom coil on the beach.

Here's an advertisement in American Digger magazine for the new Legend 2 https://www.noktadetectors.com/the-legend-2/

Good to hear you got the shirt and like it. Thanks