auminesweeper

That is a good price, I paid about $131.00 plus about $10.00 for postage, there are not many options when it comes to waterproof detectors, John.

Well from the outside looking in, I think you might find the CTX a lot slower than what your DFX is, and if you have mastered the DFX then I am not sure if you will be happy with the CTX, Although it is a great machine you have been use to having 100% control over what the machine does, At a rough guess I would say that the V3i and the Nokta Impact are closer to the DFX in terms of how they operate in terms of adjustability which would lessen the learning curve from your point of view, I was always a coward when it comes to the DFX and the V3i because I haven't the patients because I like to Rev it up and Dump the Clutch, lol. If you don't mind me asking what are they asking for the 12x10 SEF, John.

I have been checking out the dealers about the impact and I think the Impact suffers from the same issue with the 3 frequencies in the same way the Eureka Gold did/does in that it seemed to work better in one of the frequencies because many have said the Impact is quieter in the 20khz setting but it is noisy in the other frequencies, when because they are lower by rights they should be quieter, So if that is the case then maybe the coils are optimized at 20khz, 3 frequency machines seem to behave the same except the V3i but they are too complex for my liking, where I would rather detect than mess with settings, either way I am not sold on the Impact, which is a shame because I was really taken by its features but the reality is it is not a step up from what I already own and mine has earned it's place in history and that is something that I am not prepared to risk loosing. J.

To be honest rave reviews can also have a damaging effect to new would be buyers, back a decade or two, lol. I use to read all the Mags and listen to the dealers and spend money like water, but it was seeing what a machine could do that made me buy it, since then I have put in 6-7000 hours in to testing plus detecting time, and there are many detectors that I like but none of them will be replacing my main machine, because despite what comes out we have really not come that far, Recovery and disc has been two areas that some progress that has been made, But in terms of depth the VLF market has gone backwards, I have a 28 year old VLF that can still go deeper than the best latest and greatest, Some of the worse reasons for buying machines is because of biased reviews or dealers with only one goal and mates who know a bit about detecting but do not understand the true principals of what they are actually doing, In OZ I think many are blinded by brand loyalty and that when they come up against an Issue they carry on regardless that stems from past history where Aussies have a saying where they say "She'll be right mate" which normally means they are going to keep going anyway or they are happy no matter what. It is only in recent years that Aussie's have started to embrace the virtues of what modern American and European machines can actually achieve, where in the past only a few American machines paved the way until home grown product seemed to be the way to go, even though they only work well in some situations. and If you tell about 85% of people to do their homework they interpret that as reading reviews and listening to mates, Well I did that and in the early days it cost me well in to 5 figures along with time lost walking many miles aimlessly. There is only one good detector in the world that has ever been made and that is the one that suits your needs the closest, other peoples views are only a guide. I am where I am at with detecting and detectors because someone showed me what a machine could do and it made my machines look stupid regardless of their high prices, then I read many stories and reviews and dissected peoples results, and I checked out how often such people were successful, One of them was a young man from AK Mining in Alaska and then those around him were also making finds with the same machine that I only dreamed of, So I bought that machine and I was making finds like no tomorrow and after a while I started to think *is that all there is to it?* and then I started doing my own testing and I kicked it up a gear taking it further than anyone else, The results of that lead me to where I am in that nothing on the market really impresses me, Yes there are a lot of good machines out there but I would not spend $1.00 more to change to one of them from what I have because with the exception of the XP Deus with it's ultra light design there is just not enough advancements been made to warrant me to change. Unlike ever before within this hobby the toughest question to answer is * which is the best detector for ??? * because all of them have their version of technology that came out years ago along with most of us have never been there or know the conditions or know that persons skill level and the list goes on, and the only way we/anyone can compare two machines that are exact opposites within IB *Induction Balance" scale is to take the two machines to where you want to use them because beyond that there is no way of knowing. I apologize for this long winded post but it reflects the pit falls and the lack of understanding by people who do not realize what is involved. J.

The Impact has a few extra bit that are user adjustable which makes it a good contender, Using VLFs for prospecting at one time is all we had and then the PI came out and they are very productive in certain environments as stated in that link, Sometimes a VLF may serve a person better, because PI's do not like junky ground and they don't like wet or sodden ground, VLFs do like wet ground a day or two after the rain and they hate mineralization and hot rocks, and from what I have seen the GPZ is a hybrid and has awesome power/depth but it too has it's dislikes too, from what I have read it does not like salt flats and it does like Tree Roots having caused people to dig them up thinking that there was a nugget near by, So you see as stated many times before there is no perfect detector As for how the Impact deals with mineralization appears to be better than most, But mineralization comes in many forms with about at lease 4 versions of it, you can have + and - variants of Iron or Alkali's, being low mineral /Hi Iron, Hi mineral/low Iron, low mineral/low Iron, hi mineral/hi Iron and then you have all the variants of those with high and low magnetic properties thrown in. No detector has a simple complete mineral readout that is in plain and simple English, The GMT has half of the Info in one window and all of the info in another window, where it gives you the mineral percentage in the left window and the GB phase setting in the other,, The MXT gives you the Ground Phase only and all that tells you is the high numbers above 50 equals high in Iron and numbers that are lower than 50 means higher in Alkali meaning the lower it is the high the reading, All this talk of two Bars, Three bars etc is a thing that Fisher bought out on the F-75 on the FE reading along with GB setting, I wish someone would just add a screen that has the Iron % and the Alkali % and a magnetic % and of coarse the GB setting in numeric figures, with the GB setting or any of the other readings being user selectable as to which one they want on the home screen, because too many people read their GB numbers and think that they are mineralization levels, The fact is about 90% of users do not understand what these readouts are actually saying, J.

Trying match detectors to people via the internet is like throwing a Dart at a map and saying the treasure is there, Only the person who detects there will know what works and what does not, I took mine to OZ and it workd and I have used it here to, at best all we can do is make a list of options and the rest is down to that person, when a certain machine is the wrong choice it will drive you nutz and it won't settle down regardless of the coil fitted, Every machine out there has it's quirks that make for some serious head scratching, It took me a few $kk to get where I am so I am not going to mess with what ain't broke, John.

Mike, being a fellow Aussie I think you might of misread Steve, when I first came over here I Ironed out 2 blokes in the Pub next door due to a slight misunderstanding, Lol, No social graces some people I think something gets lost in translation somewhere along the way, When I first met Steve via the internet 10 or 12 years ago I use to have to go away and think about my answer and work out what exactly he was saying, Having a short fuse did not make it any easier either, All modern VLF detectors can see Gold but it just depends on the size of the Gold, as expensive as the CTX is, It does have it's limits when it comes to small Gold, It can see bits within say 1 or 3 grams machines like the MXT and the Impact they can see bits as small as 0.006 to 0.003 grams if it is on the surface scrubbing the Coil but they will see bits around 0.02grams within an inch or two. Well the reason for that is that in clean areas you can cheat and either use it in All Metal or use a more powerful GPX or the SDC/7000, Mike I don't think you realize just how important a good VLF is when it comes to nugget hunting, Yes hot rocks can drive you nuts at times but you can ground balance them out and tweak the disc and remove them altogether, or almost, One thing that PT did not say is that in clean ground that if the Gold is small then the Impact will most likely see small Gold a little better than say as GPX45/5000 but things in that respect are changing because companies are learning how to make PI coils a lot hotter to small Gold and another thing you need to remember is if the mineralization is Low or normal a good VLF will match most PI's anyway, A link I post here the other day a Guy got a very loud signal using an MXT with the standard 9.5" coil and he thought it was a soda can under the surface which turned out to be a 10.64 ozt nugget over 18" deep and I know of another person who hit a 1ozt nugget with his MXT at 18" using that big 12"/300 coil, so with the right coil and plenty of practice your impact will do magical things. PT post lists a brief report so he wrote what he thought got his point across, He left the rest of the info to kicked around by people like you and me, Read this review by Steve about the MXT but remember the section below the Specs Box halfway down the page could apply to your Impact and be 99.99% Accurate and applicable to you and your Impact, because when it comes to using them for prospecting they are almost Twins, Ok, So stop worrying Take care, John. http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/whites-electronics-mxt-metal-detector.htm

Well those SEF coils do tame the dirt give most detector more depth so maybe you should seriously give the 12x10 a good work out, From a performance point of view Whites Coils are extremely hot but that can work against you, this is where the SEF coils come in to their own because the have a little less sensitivity but in a good way that they allow you to run the Gain higher which re-increases the sensitivity which in turn adds more depth, But because the coils them selves are not too hot they resist ground noise a bit better than the factory coils. I prefer Whites factory coils but in Hot dirt Detech SEF coils are the way to go, hope that helps, John.

Yes the S.E.F. coils work well and they seem to tame hotter soils and they stop your detector from failing over, I never like the early ones built within the first year or so but since then they really have the goods and you never hear a bad thing, Detech/SEF make great products J.

Well if you find enough Alloy you can make Gas money on a good day, I use to collect all the shrapnel from the WWII, Most of it was Bronze and I made good money from it and the Alloy boosted the total, I saved it up over a few months along with the lead too. John.

Bhogg, You have 3 of the most practical machines on the market, I might of failed to point out a couple of things when you first asked my why I use the MXT, Since then you have acquired the GM-1000 and the SDC, Some of your sites you might find that they might be too hot for your GM where you have to reduce the Gain a little too much and because of Iron junk your SDC is going to make you want to pack up and go home, A wise prospector as Steve has pointed will have a few machines on board, This is where your MXT comes in to play because it slots right between you GM and your SDC in terms of dealing with tough Ground conditions, but not as well as your SDC but a little better than the GM due to it's frequency, Add to that site a load of junk that is driving the SDC Nutz then that is the time to break out the MXT, So what you now have is a machine that not only handles the ground better than the GM but it also goes a bit deeper and it is saving you a lot of donkey work digging junk and with the right coils and the right conditions the MXT will have you digging holes well past 18" deep, Not mention that there are enough coils made to fit your MXT that you can fine tune it to go from the beach to the Gold fields and beyond. I really rate the SDC but If I owned your machines depending on how you get on with the GM I would either sell the SDC and add a GPX4500/5000 because the GM can find the small shallow bits and the MXT can find some of the bits in between and the GPX can see bits almost as small as the SDC but it goes a lot deeper on the larger targets, In my world I would keep the lot, Remembering that the MXT and the SDC and the GPX have all found hundreds if not thousands of ounces of Gold each, not between them but each over the years, everyone of them can hold their heads up with pride. Personally I would keep them all and add the GPX so you had a Full House then you are ready for any thing that comes your way. I hope this helps and if you get a GPX as well just in case the good lady goes nutz feel free to blame me. hope that helps, John.

Sorry folks, This is Phasetechs post that Mike is referring to, Which is his reply to answering a member of Prospecting Australia forum when asking about Non-Minelab Detectors, https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=358045#p358045 John.

Here ya go Mike this is a thread "PhaseTech" started over on Prospecting Australia, hopefully there is some info there for those who have not read it already, Don't forget that Nokta are a really new brand in Australia so there really is not too much around about them. PT is going to rate it higher than the MXT for a few reasons because It is a modern machine and it is a multi frequency machine and lastly not that I doubt PT for one minute because he is one of five or six Detectorist that I admire and Trusd, But he also is the Nokta Dealer, But I trust every word he says just the same. Again I think it is more about personal choices but they can all find Gold and even the worst detector will find Gold in skilled hands. PT Said that he ranked the MXT second to the Impact and then had a list of others and the other machines he listed are all Trail breakers so every detector is in elite company. Aussie's won't believe anything off the cuff unless it is about minelab so you will struggle in OZ to find many glossy reviews about other brands, I posted a reviews about the MXT a couple of years ago and I was told it was fake among a lot of unkind things, The fact is VLF's will work in Australia and in the GT all be it with a reduced Gain in the very worse places and the MXT certainly does I know because I have used it there, and I believe every word PT said about the Impact, If he said it then it is true as far as I am concerned, You have an awesome Detector in the Impact so get to it Mate there is Gold with your name on it. John. Anyway try this and enjoy. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23216

Geeze I'd hate to upset the bloke who can swing that 8 hours a day,

WOW, A Girl who likes Guns and Detectors ? what a perfect World this Is. John.

I hope it is like the Musketeer Advantage with a meter and a proper tracking system, they were deep little devils and lightning fast, hopefully with a 5khz and 15khz switchable. I had so much fun with the musketeer, In fact it was part of the reason I use the machine I got. J.

Yes I remember Eric's Deep Star that was a deep machine, A friend still has one, It seems the QED was working ok until the upgrades now it has issues, like you say we have seen this before with other companies, given the chance they will sort it out, I hope so, It just seems over complicated to set up now which is moving away from the original format according to some of them posts and there was a time when I was wondering about the TDI's when I first got them. J.

I have been watching a thread over on PA and it seems there are a few problems, But some of the replies from those pro qed folks seem a little daunting when you consider that the main issue is the ground balance and threshold, which brings to mind JP's review. I find the TDI's a bit worrisome as in when to deploy each of the conductivity settings and find it is much easier to run the SL set to ALL, the QED would drive me nuts when you take the latest reply in to account having to do a Math equation to set the GB/Threshold, anyway here is the link maybe one of you wiser people can translate it all in to common English. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23399

Well I got to thinking about the cost of certain detectors, As a stand alone Item some detectors can be seen as expensive but if you look at the whole picture, IE 4x4, camping gear, camper trailer, and all the junk I just bought to go in my truck, in the long run the detector is just a small part of it, because by time I have finished the truck will have cost 4x as much, what drives up the costs is not the detectors it is our ambitions and dreams and then there is the big boys who haul goose neck trailers and instead of a pick they buy a D9, I think it is the size of our dreams that cost the most. John.

Well say no more, That Nexus with that coil will be a force to reckon with, and really for the size targets you are hunting I don't think you need any frequency higher than 22khz, also another thing to take in to account is that LF machines can loose depth due to their frequency more so in hotter ground where a normal VLF could prove to be more productive below 20khz ish ? John.

Yep for sure, using the GMT for searching farm land over here is like turning on 3 machines set to All Metal with the disc wide open and trying to hear a good targets, personally I think you might be better off using your Deus with the HF coil on it or using one of it's high frequencies because at leased you can disc out some of the junk, The GMT is a first class Gold Getter but it's a ****er of a machine to use anywhere but in natural Gold baring areas, It will find targets faster than a Telex machine and will drive you nuts, and it will find targets that small that it will take 45 minutes to locate it and you can't use your hands because it will pick up the minerals in your hands which means using a plastic scoop and then you have to locate it within the scoop, I found a bit of lead with the MXT and a small coil and after I dug it out it then took me 20 minutes to locate it so multiply that by 10 and you are getting close, Steve has detected over here ask him how he thinks the GMT would work doing that, Prospecting is a different beast, but farmland will be murder because it hits targets so fast one after the other it's like swinging an UZI. anyways mate give it some thought, But it you want to use an LF machine then maybe the Gold Racer might be the better option because at leased it has some form of Disc built in. John.

Well you better take a cut lunch with you because the GMT will give you the Mutha of all work outs in UK trashy sites, I tried it I know for a fact you won't clear a 6 foot square in one day, because it will find every bit of metal or rust or alloy possible, Trust me Rick you will sleep well that night for sure, John.

I am so jealous, That's the cream of the VLF ( LF ) crop right there, Nice find JW, now don't rub it in, I'm hurtin real bad, Lol. Great pics, thanks for posting them think my heart just skipped a beat. John.

The Detech 14x10 Excelerator EQ2 coil adds 2 to 3 inches on a US quarter and it is roughly within a couple of grams +/- of the factory D2 coil and on larger Items it has massive depth and it can see bits of lead weighing only 0.02 grams, this has become my go to coil because of the extra depth but most of all because it has better balance than the D2 coil, you can buy them new for around $110-$130 ish Dollars. hope this helps. John.

Thanks Chris, that would explain why I did so much head scratching, I found the mineralization but not the black sand, I guess it might work if a person was in an area where people had not been where the black sand levels were fairly uniform and then suddenly shot up in an area of about 5 or 6 feet square, but like you said if the signal is weak because the sand is deep then you are going to miss it completely, and such areas do not allow for big coils to be used due to the ground noise, So then it's back to square one again. John.