phrunt

I've always wanted a vintage detector and never been able to get my hands on one, I've always got my eyes open but missed a couple for sale, perhaps one day I'll get my hands on one. My closest is a Fisher Gold Bug 2 🙂

One of the things I like most about VLF's is their target ID's. I'm amazed with detectors being able to ID targets. Where I hunt I prefer to dig as few holes as possible so I heavily rely on Target ID's. My front yard is the most difficult place around my area for coin's to ID well, it has the EMI of my house nearby, the worst seems to come from my long range wireless router, I'm also abut 100 meters away from some high voltage power lines that carry power from the nearby windmills to the town. Once away from my front yard the results of this test do not change much, the ones that shine in this test are even better away from the EMI and the ones that struggle in this test while they do improve their overall performance ranking on Target ID's doesn't really change. What I've done with this video is tweaked the detectors the best I know how to handle the EMI with as high sensitivity that keeps them stable and gives their best hope of a good ID, some run fine maxed out in sensitivity while others needed high disc to operate. If I lowered the sensitivity anymore on the ones that are struggling with the EMI they would no longer detect the deeper of the two targets so I have to allow some EMI interference to get that deeper target. I've put white rocks on the grass where the two targets are located. The target on the left side is the deepest at about 8" while the right easier target is the same coin at about 6". They've been there around 2 years. Both are NZ $1 coins. 1 dollar coin specifications Alloy Diameter (mm) Weight (g) Edge thickness (mm) Edge treatment Aluminium-bronze 23 8.00 2.74 Intermittent milling Not all detectors are running equal coils, this is part of the equation of course on how well they perform. While the bigger coils get more depth and can accurately get ID's often better than the littler coils they do suffer more from EMI and also on the deeper target they're often more affected by the nail that is about 4" in front of the deeper of the two coins. The entire area of lawn is covered in roofing nails from when the roof was replaced some years ago. The roofers just throw nails down all over the place while removing the old roof. So this test wasn't to say some detectors are bad or good, it was just showing why I like certain detectors for hunting in my conditions around here, and why I think some excel over others in these conditions with the coils that I have for them. Each have the coil I find best out of the coils I own to suit this test. If I put smaller coils on some of the detectors they are unable to detect the deeper left target at all for example the 6" coil won't see the left target on the Nox at all. If I had to rank these detectors out of which will give me the best target ID's in the soils around here I would rank them as follows: #1 Vanquish so very close in performance to the CTX/Nox but just that tiny bit better as the Vanquish handles EMI the best. #2 Equinox / CTX 3030 are so close in performance I'd say they're about the same, although I have very limited CTX knowledge so far being very new to it. #3 Ace 300i (In this video it suffers the most from EMI but get it 100 meters away from my house and it shines with good depth and ID's ONLY with the Tornado coil giving it the #3 ranking) #4 Gold Bug Pro / Detech Ultimate combo, change back to any other coil I own and it's performance drops a bit. The AT Gold, and Teknetics T2 come in at the bottom, I'm not yet sure if the AT Gold is due to the smaller coil size or not, I only have that one coil for it, the T2 is a depth monster but it's ID's are poor by comparison I think, and the smaller coils on the Vanquish and Equinox easily give more accurate ID's on the shallower of the two targets than the AT Pro and even in the best conditions its ID's are nowhere near as accurate as some others when targets get deeper. Now please don't read into this in any way that I'm bagging out certain detectors or something, that's not my intention and while the T2 might be at the bottom perhaps in other conditions it might be on the top, I do not know. The AT Gold I only have the standard coil for so it's instantly at a disadvantage. What I'm doing is showing why I prefer the detectors that I do for the conditions I hunt in for my coin hunting where I rely on Target ID's for dig decisions. This video really shows why I like the Vanquish so much around here for coin hunts. I'm looking forward to learning more about the CTX it seems very promising and is doing well on silver coins in my local spots so far. Sorry for the Ace section, at 1:05 I switch to the deeper target, I was too close to the screen with the video so it is hard to tell when I switch targets, especially with the Ace giving similar ID performance on both targets. What stands out to me is I could tell a local person hunting in my area if they just wanted to find a bunch of coins and some rings or something without spending much money they could easily just buy a Vanquish or an Ace and do quite well, and not really be left miles behind over someone with something like a CTX, keeping in mind once you're away from my yard junk levels go down to next to nothing, iron junk is very rare in our parks and sports areas around here, with the main junk being bottle tops and pull tabs, and low value coins 🙂 Obviously this changes for people with very high trash or different soils or whatever variable makes it invalid.

When I was looking into these detectors as an AT Max popped up very cheap nearby and I was considering getting it I watched this video that compared the AT Series. The seller of the AT Max here said it's very chattery but not faulty, they'd had it checked. They basically didn't like it but were new to detecting. In this video the Max likely had the best depth by a little bit but it was in my opinion very unstable compared to the AT Pro and AT Gold with the chattering you're talking about. I think it's because they've got an At Pro and cranked this thing up as high as was possible to make the AT Max on the edge of stability so running a little lower on the gain is probably not that detrimental. If it's anything like my T2 the performance is better on 60 gain out of 99 than it is at 99. Either way, this video is worth the watch, the AT Max does do arguably a bit better, but you have to put up with a noisy detector which I don't like.

That's what I want to get. If you find one make sure you make it public 🙂

When I was about 20 and surfing chasing some good waves I stumbled across a nudist beach on the Sunshine Coast in QLD/Australia. I saw things nobody deserves to see, the image I had of nudests and the reality of the nudists were two very different things, damn well scarred me for life. As we got there at first light there were none of them there, by the time we came in for some food they were everywhere, we had to navigate through them to get out of there, dodging all sorts of things. I wouldn't even consider taking my detector to a nudist beach with what I know now, also, with no pockets for the coins to fall out of they're unlikely to lose many coins anyway 🙂

I am chasing some advice, I recently swapped my QED PI detector for a Garrett AT Gold. I basically never used my QED and it was gathering dust and wasting cupboard space which with my growing collection is becoming an issue, I've never gotten rid of a detector before, I even have my first detector from when I was about 9 years old but I decided the QED had to go. I offered to give it to a friend but after trying it out in my backyard he decided detecting isn't for him as it was too complicated 🙂. An opportunity came up to swap it for an AT Gold to a guy in Australia who offered to swap his AT Gold plus some cash for a QED, I just took the direct swap with no cash involved to keep it simple so I jumped on it and sent the QED on it's merry way on an international flight the next day. So now I have an AT Gold, I've messed around with it and the gold performance is not near the VLF detectors I prefer to use for gold more on par with my other 19kHZ detectors from other brands that also spend their life in the cupboard and nowhere near the performance of the higher frequency VLF's that I do use so I figured I'd get a bigger coil for it for coin hunting, not because I'm expecting it to compete or compare to my other coin detectors but just to give it another purpose as I'm unlikely to use it for prospecting, although maybe the odd creek trip being waterproof might be in it's future. It's in tidy condition, the owner was a GPX 4500 guy and in the land of OZ with high mineralisation so the AT Gold was a cupboard decoration for him too. He sent the Garrett headphones for it too but I have a phobia of headphones so they're stashed away now never to be seen again. So, what should I do for coil options for it? The Garrett NZ dealer only has the coil I've already got for it in stock and the 9" x 12" PROformance Concentric Search coil, I am in mild soils so perhaps this concentric would serve me well for coins? I prefer aftermarket coils in general and especially in comparison to standard Garrett coils that I've got with my Ace 350, 300i and now the AT Gold, so would I be better off getting a Detech Ultimate, Nel Superfly or Tornado for it? I have both the Ultimate and Tornado for other detectors and really like them and I love that I even have the option of getting these coils with the Garrett as it is one of the things I absolutely despise about the other brand that doesn't allow aftermarket coils. I've tested the stock coil on it and the target ID's are pretty poor on my usual coin digs, my Ace 300i with Nel Tornado is giving me deadly accurate Target IDs on deep NZ coins at 6+ inches in depth and the AT Gold with stock 5x8' is all over the place on the exact same targets, very unreliable ID's and won't even detect a 8" coin that the Ace 300i hits on with ease with the Tornado. Yes I know, big coil, little coil.... this is what I want to improve. On Ebay there are a brand of coil I've never heard of available for the At Gold, Magic Coils, made in Russia and they look quite good, Youtube personalities like The Hunter GT have left them very positive reviews but I can't find too much info on them, I'm always willing to try new things though, you never know when you'll discover something special others aren't willing to try. Here is one for sale for the AT Gold https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/292834716248?hash=item442e4f2a58:g:ijgAAOSwkB5b~EMv So what's my best option from people using one of these higher end Garrett VLF's, Nel? Detech? Magc? or the good old trusty stock coils? if so which one? As at the moment for coins my Ace 300i is flogging it for target ID stability and depth using the Nel Tornado vs the 5x8" Garrett DD on the AT Gold, even on shallow coins the ID's are more stable on the Ace. Also, is it worth getting a Nel Snake for it to get a decent little gold coil? I have one for my GBP's and it works well, again no match for the higher frequency detectors I prefer to use, has anyone used a Snake on an AT Gold? I don't expect it to compete with higher frequency detectors but even if it handled hot rocks better or anything it might be an option worth considering.

If there is one thing I'm not it's a detector snob, I'm always willing to give anything a go and more often than not I'm pleasantly surprised, detectors that aren't the flavour of the month can still be very good detectors especially in my soil and low junk conditions. I'm quite disappointed I didn't buy the F75 SE that was for sale, it was only 30 minutes drive away and was only $287 USD with two coils and rarely used, it looked brand new. 😞 The reason I didn't is I've already got two T2's, one with DST and one without. I much prefer the DST model. For me to even buy an aftermarket coil for it would almost cost the price of it and I knew if I bought it I'd want another coil for it 🙂, I've been kicking myself over that as buying US made detectors here is quite rare as the market is dominated by ML and Nokta. If I see another ever pop up, or more than likely that same one I'll grab it and give it a go.

it sucks they're even more expensive in Europe! 😞

It seems you get 5 free articles on NY Times a month, you must have read your 5, unless they just let internationals get 5 free... Out for a hard day detecting 🙂 Say, that's a nice finds bag. I must get one.

Oh I don't know Jeff, It might be nice to read an Ebook while you're detecting 🙂

This woman goes detecting in high heels 🙂 The article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/style/metal-detectorists-ring-finders.html Below is a segment of the article so you can decide if you want to click on the link to read the rest People have been metal detecting since 1881, when Alexander Graham Bell invented a device to find the bullet lodged in President James Garfield. But it took several more decades for recreational metal detectors — devices that resemble “sort of a skillet on the end of a pole,” as one newspaper put it in 1927 — to develop a serious cult following. Now, that cult following is growing. Detector makers are reporting record sales. According to an annual report from one brand, Minelab, in 2020 the company sold 30 percent more detectors than the previous year, which had climbed 18 percent the year before that. And we are in a bit of a detectorist media moment. New York magazine is making listicles of the best metal detector models. Drew Barrymore is giving them away on her show. The teenage sketch comedian Parker James is wielding one before his six million TikTok followers. In England, Carey Mulligan is making it mainstream; on Nantucket, millennials are making it fashion; and in the gaming industry, a romantic thriller-meets-metal detecting video game will be released this summer.

Nope, it's crazy profiteering! Taking advantage of the shortage.

You can just buy it from the NZ Dealer, he ships overseas. These are what is left from his second batch, I got one from his first batch. https://www.dredgenz.co.nz/product/10x5-equinox-coil/ Works out about $212 USD + shipping. He's a really good guy too, he'd sort you out.

Right, this one is a true classic, the counterfeiters in China have outdone themselves on this one. It's a cross breed of a GPZ, GPX, Digital Photo Frame, Mp3 Player, Movie Player, Ebook Reader and all metal gold prospecting metal detector all in one. You name it, it can do it. It comes with various colour schemes, one to suit every taste. The shaft looks like a cross between the GPZ and GPX. The Arm cuff looks like a GPX arm cuff somehow they've mounted on a GPZ body using wing nuts. The battery clips look like a decoration. The buttons are fancy, I wonder what identify mode is, maybe they've done a ZVT detector with Target ID's! My dream has come true. A calendar would be very handy while out in the field, don't want to miss those appointments. And without further ado, a video of this bad boy in action!!!!! The specifications: High Precision Underground Gold Scanner Machine ZVT Technology For Archaeology Quick Details Signal Frequency:9.6KHZ Audio Frequency:400HZ Power supply:DC12V Certificates:CE/ROHS/ISO9001 Single package size:85X40X15 cm Single gross weight:4.0 kg Package Type:standard package Specification: Application: Gold Prospecting (Waterproof coil to 3ft) Technology: ZVT Frequency/Transmission: Zero Voltage Transmission (ZVT) Coil (standard): 14" x 13" Super D Configuration with skidplate (waterproof to 3 ft) Audio Output: 1/4" non waterproof socket, Wi Stream wireless signal transmission Headphones Supplied: KOSS UR 30 100 ohm with 6.3 mm plug (1/4 inch) (non waterproof) Visual Display: Full colour LCD (320 x 240 pixels) Backlight: Yes USB Connectivity: USB interface for XChange 2 PC software Detect Modes: Gold Mode (High Yield, General, Extra Deep) Ground Type (Normal, Difficult, Severe) Discrimination: All Metal Audio tone: 1 100 Ground Balance: Auto and Manual (Quick Trak trigger button) Sensitivity Adjust: Level (1 20) Tune / Noise Cancel: Auto and Manual (256 channels) Threshold: Level (1 50) Pitch (1 100) Target Volume Adjust: Range (1 20) Limit (1 20) Battery: LiIon Rechargeable Pack (7.2V DC, 72Wh) Low battery alert: Yes Feature: High-brightness LED panel can generally displays the detected metal type according to the signal strength. The all-metal detection mode is suitable for searching metal objects on the ground, and can be a simple recognition of metals In addition to LED panel display, it can distinguish metal type by tones 9.5-inch disk waterproof probe that can detect in the shallow water. Equipped with an external headphone jack ,connected to a single-channel headphones (headset-owned), easy to use; built-in high-capacity rechargeable battery Worked continuously for more than ten hours when full of power. I assume I don't have to warn anybody here not to buy one? 🙂

That looks a great solution for headphone and earbud use. I like the SP01 setup, perfect.

I doubt it, it was probably some persons first day on the job and with English not being their spoken language in Malaysia they probably didn't even know it was upside down, or perhaps just a moment on inattention. What puzzles me is it comes in a fancy display type box and the person who packaged it into the box didn't even notice it was upside down which is why I see no quality control taking place. Either way, after getting two faulty ones in a row within a couple of week period (most of the time it was with shipping back and forward to the dealer) I gave up on it. I had the one that completely died after a week so I had it long enough to realise the product isn't viable now with better faster options available anyway so I was not all that upset when it died and I had to send it back for a refund. They paid the return shipping both times, where I lost out was paying the original shipping, they didn't include shipping with the refund. At the moment I'm searching for a similar solution myself, the ProSonic would have been perfect for me had it been better quality and lower latency. I wanted it for the external speaker with a fast small transmitter with long battery life. Basically an aftermarket ProSonic is what I am looking for so I should be able to find a low latency transmitter and then I need to find a suitable belt mount Bluetooth speaker with good volume and dust/water resistance and an audio output for headphones to plug in for the odd occasion that maybe necessary.

Yes, it's from the NZ Minelab dealer and both attempts to get one have gone to Minelab for RMA. I assure you it's not a fake 🙂 I couldn't' believe it myself they'd ship them upside down with absolutely no quality control.

Whatever you do don't bother with a ProSonic, I bought one for one of my GPX's recently. The first one arrived with the decal upside down so all the lights and buttons didn't line up, power was the volume button and volume was power and the lights were under the logo instead of in the clear circles for the lights to shine through the decal, so I sent it back and received a replacement. The replacement lasted one week before it would no longer turn on or charge. I've since requested and received a refund and given up on that product, the price is far too high for what it is and it's latency. It's outdated yet they sell it at a price as if it was the latest equipment on the market. Here is my first attempt at one. While it did work I wasn't overly impressed with the latency of it either with a noticeable delay. I was much happier with the Quest Wirefree Mate on my other GPX.

What's the deal with people putting tape all over the coil where they run their scoop over it? I'm seeing it on so many GPX 6000 photos and videos. It was done to the coil in the second video posted here too, some sort of fashion trend 🙂

Good one Gerry! A good contest idea and very generous of you, also congratulations Jeff, I'm really pleased you won it. You'll put that Monster through its paces. I really like the Monster and I'm sure you will too.

I've already asked Minelab if I could buy a replacement pod only as I have multiple coils and a share shaft and arm cuff. Minelab said NO. They will not just sell a pod, only if the detector you own is faulty and out of warranty will they sell you a replacement pod, I would assume once they've verified yours is dead.

Yes, a total non-event. It's at least next year now by the looks of it. The competition will likely have their new model sitting ready and waiting to release just before this detector hits the market to ensure when this does come out it has a hard time getting anywhere. They probably would have been better to keep it tight lipped about this detector until it was a few weeks off release, not tell us about it a year or two before it hits the market.

Here was the live stream, you may want to skip through a huge amount of it, looks like it'll be next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGbJPoSeQ0 Good to hear it's going to be capable of prospecting.

The main difference I found between it and the standard GPZ coil was the weight, noticeably lighter. I think with coils the standard rules apply for most coils though with the same winding type, the smaller the coil the more sensitive to small gold and that's what I've been finding. It's a good thing for people that find the standard coil heavy, and now with the lightweight 6000 out anything to lighten up the 7000 a bit sure doesn't hurt and the NF coil feels a fair bit lighter 🙂 I've only used it a couple of times prospecting, other than that just some experimenting and comparing.

Yours has the same logo as mine, I believe that was the logo used on the first batch then it changed over to a new logo for some reason.