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Hello, I headed back out to the old channel area to move up river some. atleast I think it is upriver. There is old diggings everywhere. So I started at one end and zig zagged everywhere. surprisingly I really never got a patch going. Most the pieces were not even close to each other. Everytime I found one, I stopped and searched the whole area really good. but no patch evolved. so I moved on till the next piece then repeated my technique. nothing but lonely pieces every once in awhile. I had to cross small creeks, fight my way thru thick brush and even jumped a bear. I was a little nervous at jumping the bear because I forgot my 45 pistol at home. when I jumped him it was in a box canyon with steep walls so I had him trapped between the walls and me. luckily he flew up the steep hill like it was flat ground. also saw about 20 lizards today, but so far no rattlers. it was a beautiful day in the woods but very physical. Luckily the Gold Racer sniffed out some gold and made the day not to bad. Only found 6.53 dwt for all that work. Not sure how much the area will produce. But I will try it again soon.

I am just starting to get used to this website so I hope you will all pardon me If I have (and I have) started threads here that has similar achieves already at this website for all to read. Before posting this I did a check and didn't see any previous posts directed toward the upgraded Racer so I went ahead with this post. In my search for a reasonably priced detector as an addition to my GPX that can serve as an occasional beach and coin detector as well as a gold prospecting detector for use in high trash areas I am starting to get a short list. One detector on that short list is the Fors Core and in the process of learning more about it I came across the Makro Racer 2. Not a true gold detector for sure but I liked almost everything I have seen and read about the Core other than having to set up and make changes to the settings via the side panel screen. The Macro Racer 2 seemed very, very similar but runs at 14khz, weighs only 3 lbs including batteries and the Racer screen is right in front of the user. The price seems very good as well on either but the Core pro package offers 3 coils including the 15" X 13" coil and the Makro Racer 2 only offers only 2 coils for about the same price. What drew me to the Core is that by all accounts offers great depth and appears to be very useful in trashy areas to separate the iron from the good stuff. In looking the specs for both machines, it appears they took the best features of both and made the Makro Racer 2. My question here would be directed to anyone who has used either the Core or the new or original Makro Racer and their feelings about the usefulness of either for general detecting and gold detecting. Thanks in advance, Terry

First time out with the Racer 2 http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,101950 The small brass next to the nail came in at 11-12 from most angles but with bounces into the iron and occasionally a high hit in the 20's. Out of the ground it reads 25. Can't say for sure but the expanded non-ferous range probably saved the day on that one. With the original Racer's 0-40 iron range I might have passed on it if there were more iron sounds coming in. Monte suggested in a post to lower the iron tone break from 10 down to 8 and seeing this I'm in agreement. Tom

So I'm new to the site but cheers to all. i've heard a lot of people asking about the high-frequency metal detectors out on the market I own both the goldbug 2 and the Makro gold racer. And my gold-mining partner usually runs with the GMT and occasionally goldmasters 2 and 3 vsat To be honest, you can't beat the goldbug2 on sensitivity to gold. 70 +kHz is brutal paired with a concentric coil(concentric coils slap on gold but suffer greatly with hot/cold rocks and ferrous trashy ground) it picks up with a 6" shooter coilgrains of gold at inches air bench test...yum. Downfalls... In highly mineralized areas and tailings she's a nasty girl very very hard to use and differentiate targets out of all the booing, chatter and uneven return from threshold.But if your like me you know your tool well like a weapon and can decipher each click and tone from the harsh ground. ? Gb2 lacks a DD coil series. What the $&@! Fisherlabs help a brother out. Advanced ergonomics, discriminations, coil types, auto tune features are non existent. I still love analogue, easy, precise, never a doubt and bulletproof. the larger concentric coil sizes seem to weaken the bug and I feel reduce the performance. Stick with the 6" shooter coil in my opinion, better on rough ground, so so sensitive and I'd take sensitivity for micro gold and a midrange depth, to "deep" depth and performance drop any day. Overall the bug is my baby ,my go to, she has pulled the ounces tried and true. Have the nugs to show Next the Makro gold racer. Just picked up the pro package of this a couple weeks ago. It has already pulled a couple grain size pieces lode gold. I am new to all digital and it's interesting features. I run it in all metal with manual ground balance audio boost on all time and drop the isat to as low of a setting to get her running smooth and boost my depth. It's a very interesting machine I love its shooter coil. Not so happy with the 10.5 I don't like it's hollow internals makes too much noise when I'm scraping the ground for really small Nuggets. Cool features haven't really made my mind up what I don't like setting wise but it has some really cool discrimination modes. The gold bug , "I find" more sensitive to super fine gold. Makro does punch the nastier ferrous soil quieter and smoother with the DD than concentric. I am liking it as a secondary to scan over ground I hit with the goldbug( it can hot rock over target hits. picked up a missed target last outing with the gr ) Overall I like the Makro for its easy use and advanced features. Runs surprisingly well on rough ground, I'm loving that DD coil compared to concentric . Is very sensitive and will hit the smaller nuggets like gb2 just a tad behind it though on air test.Has some design flaws if you asked me and I'm not liking how frail the racer is I can literally throw my goldbug down a ravine get her soaked and dusty. No problem.makros Back mount headphone jack. Dumb!!!. If you love your wired headphones you'll hate this thing ripping your phones off every set down and mauling your wire. Been through a pair already with the makro. But wireless soon I'm excited for that... im not a whites guy.... But I've seen the gmt fail time and time again. Things a joke. Don't know why. Bad model? Bunk frequency?Watched it run ground silently with no targets (No my partner is not a noob or dumb dumb detectorist he's nugget slayer) Ill come behind with the goldbug2 or Makro slapping gram and grain sized nugs two inches + in ferrous soil on low sensitivity. On multiple occasions. I convinced my faithful whites partner to retire his gmt to the closet and take out another model. He has a gold master2 and 3 vsat (he collects whites lol) and wow the old goldmasters just blows the gmt away. No comparison I was impressed He was hitting grain sized pieces at goldbug\makro depth. Surprised me very much to see the older whites smoking the gmt And right on depth with my gold bug2. He runs DD shooters on the gold masters FYI. Overall if you want something easy to use and sensitive get the Makro. You want something on goldcrack super sensitive get a goldbug2. but you better learn that thing and have some patience. And if you go whites... I'd try to locate an older whites analogue gm2, gm3( be careful though these old ones are a brick. You could loose an arm swinging those metal monsters around. They are all good detectors and have seen all pull good gold at depths, just pluses and downfalls for each. The gmt eww use it for coin shooting or a coat rack. If someone does love that machine out there, I'm sorry for you, but I'd like to know your secrets lol so chime in. Anyone else ran with these high kHz vlf badasses? give me your opinion on the matter. Remember don't be nasty, this is just my experience and opinions. Hopefully it will hive you a good field view. Ray

My Makro Racer 2 meets my XP Deus....

I have used many metal detectors over the years, and right now I have to say that the new Makro Racer 2 has perhaps the easiest to understand, best laid out, most practical display and menu system I have ever seen in a top end detector. Now, you can sure say you hunt by ear and do not need a screen and I get that, but if we are going to put a screen on a detector, then let's do it right. Simple detectors with few functions are easy to make screens for - there is not much you need. But even then just the basics are often wrong. Machines that feature target id numbers, what is the thing you will most look at on screen? The target id numbers! Yet these are often way too small or off to the side as if an afterthought. The Makro Racer 2 id numbers are huge, much larger than on the original Racer and Gold Racer, which are already good sized. The number 88 display in the diagram above is fully 1.5" x 1.5" in size in real life. Other machines have some pretty big numbers but I think this sets a record as I can't think of any machine with larger id numbers on screen though some are close. Makro Racer 2 LCD display and controls Makro Racer 2 screen layout Makro Racer 2 screen and control descriptions The number can be the ground balance number, target id, or depth reading. You get a text display just above the number confirming which it is. Below the numbers are three zone references, Fe, Gold/Non-FE, and Non-Fe, that are used to set tone breaks and audio for the three main zones or bins as they are sometimes called. Another basic feature lacking on a lot of machines - the meter backlight. With the Racer 2 you get off, intermittent, or full time backlighting, and it includes the translucent red control buttons. The control ranges between 0-5 and C1-C5. At 0 level, the keypad and display backlight are off. When set between 1-5, they light up only for a short period of time when a target is detected or while navigating the menu and then it goes off. At C1-C5 levels, the keypad and display will light up constantly. I do not know of anyone doing a better backlight. The right side of the meter is informational - ground phase (ground balance number), mineral % (ground magnetite content), coil warning notices, and a six segment battery meter. Across the top below the 0 - 99 reference sticker, is a series of 50 "bullets" each of which covers 2 target id numbers. Open bullets (which appear gray in the diagram but are invisible in real life - see top photo) indicate accepted target id numbers. Blacked out segments show what discrimination and notch setting you have programmed in a single quick glance. When a target is detected, the big number on the display will be mirrored by one or more of the bullets flashing dark. The four control buttons are simple as can be - up and down takes you through the left hand menu area. Right or left lets you set each function selected by going up and down. The menu is basically the entire feature list just laid out right there for you to see. You want to know what this machine can do, just look at the screen. Most other machines you have no clue without reading the owners manual or at least pushing buttons to see what functions appear. Some settings like the backlight are system wide for all modes. All other settings like Gain are independent in each mode, and can be saved independently in each mode. This means you can play neat tricks like setting up a couple modes with dramatically different settings and then flip back and forth easily between two modes for target checking. You even get to decide what mode is the default start up mode. The Racer 2 starts up in the last mode where the save function was performed. If you always want to start in Beach mode, just modify and save something in Beach mode. Next time you start the detector, you will be in Beach mode. It is simple. It makes sense. No cryptic abbreviations or acronyms. No sub menus. It is, in metal detector terms, a work of art. Whoever designed this should sign it so I can frame it and hang it on my wall.

Hi all, Just a bit of a video I put together reviewing the Gold Racer. Got a couple more coming.

Sounds great Steve (Makro Racer display as described here)....if your a computer programmer and like buttons.... :) I am just a simple nuggethunter. It's coming down real soon for me to pick the one vlf out of all these new ones that have been coming out last few years. My ole 4500 is my primary and has served me well, but lately my sites and opportunities to hunt gold have got me endless massive tailings piles stretching miles. I am finding the PI a bit heavy and a need for a vlf to be more effective and speed things up so I am not digging ferrous so much. My two choices as of today.....ForsGold+ or the Makro Racer....I would love some advice from those who like simplicity but a very effective on tailings...if you were to choose which detector would you pick for this specific job ?

ID'ed @ 43/44 Chris detectoraid.com Meanwhile in Nevada :)

After staying hunkered down on saturday with the big storm blowing over, I woke up sunday to unexpected partly cloudy skies. The forecast was for more rain today, but it actually looked to be a long ways off. So I headed back out to same area that ive been detecting lately to try some new area. I wanted to get to the very back diggings of the gold area, but I stopped halfway at some of the other diggings about 120 yrds from last trip. I brought out the Gold Mak with 2 coils and I thought I better try to see if it could run in this bad ground. I previously only had Fors plus there. And the plus did all right there but Gold Mak is alot stronger. I had brought along the large 15" coil to try out and see if I could get a patch going and cover some ground quick. The ground was very wet from the storm and I had a hard time detecting with the big coil. It picks up too much bad ground at once to stay stable in all metal. It did run ok in the disc modes. It probably will run good there if the ground was dryer. So I changed back to the 10x5 dd. then the hunt was on. After finding a slew of lead, I finally found 1 tiny piece. little gold on gold mak really does hit good. Then another 10 pieces of lead before I got a little patch going with 4 more pieces. Then all at once the wind started blowing like a hurricane and within 10 minutes it was a full blown monsoon. I didnt bring the greatest coat for rain or the rain gear for gold mak. So as they say in kansas I got the hell out of dodge.surprisingly it was nice and sunny 1/2 hour before the downpour. Well that was the end of the day. I managed to find 5 pcs for .7 dwt. And found a little patch that might produce more later. My settings on gold mak today was all metal, sens. 65 threshold 25, isat 8, id mask 10. No tracking.Was a good setting for the area and still hits small gold loud. Good luck

Hello, I am new to the forum and new to detecting. I have a little over a month park detecting with a couple of flea market acquired Bounty Hunter detectors. I am ready to pull the trigger on a nugget focused detector and have narrowed it down to 2. I am looking at the Gold Bug Pro and the Makro Gold. I live in South Eastern California, I am a half hour away from an area that has proven gold.....small gold. I dry wash occasionally so the Chocolates and Cargos are somewhat familiar to me and close. I am not looking for answers on which detector to buy. I am looking for opinions/pros and cons on the 2 detectors mentioned, given my current inexperience and the area that I will be prospecting. Thanks in advance. Wendell Clark

Nothing too exciting, but the Makro has given me the confidence that i will always get something with it. I can't wait to get out of the park and get on some tailings or old workings with it..... https://goo.gl/photos/ZxxvANsW14W4Wy9C9

Hello It was finally a decent day today with some sun. So I made it out to a spot not far from home to field test the new Makro gold racer. This detecting place has pretty hot mineralization. It ground balances between 85-89. I ran the Racer in all metal. I kept the sensitivity at default 65 setting. The ground has quite a few hot rocks and the racer wavered a little. So I increased isat up to 8-9 and the wavering after going over any hot rocks was quickly remedied. It does run quite smooth in all metal for a pretty hot area. With isat it retunes quickly and dont miss a beat. The signals even deeper or small were easy to hear. This detector is very strong on tiny targets. I didnt try audio boost. But I had no problems hearing the signals. It stays ground balanced good and I had no issues with bump sensitivity. I didnt have alot of field time today, but the Racer was very comfortable in that time. I only tried the 10x5 dd coil, but I will have to try other size coils one of these trips out. Gold racer found about 50-60 pieces of lead. But did manage to find some nice gold too. First time out with gold racer found 2.4 dwt for the day. It is definitely a good gold hunter. The gold racer was a nice surprise. Thats it till next time Good luck I have a few videos I will post also

Well, well..... She came a 4-6 inch snow last night so the obvious thing to do today is to see how the Makro Gold does in the snow---- right? One thing the snow does do well---- is protect my skid cover and keeps the coil a comfortable distance off the screaming aluminum shards ( i am saving those for Steve) I notice no change in the mineralization of the ground due to the snow--So... I would like to add that to the benefits of the Makro Gold--- it can really handle snow well.-- Now I am back in the safety of the 5th wheel--- and it looks like the rest of the day will be a chili day!!!! I have a link showing how the Makro handles the snow---these videos are too big to load directly to the post ---so you will have to put forth the effort to click on the link---lol It is well worth it---- https://goo.gl/photos/iU4d6dsdmhX7QPqq5 So there you go californiagold---- that's how we do it in the snow belt!!!!!

Here are some pics and a few rough videos of me playing around with the Racer --- Trying to get some time in on it before i sneak off to the gold fields with it.... This thing is deadly on coins... and FOIL, but if you get lazy like i did after awhile you can just pull pennies and quarters..... If it works as well on gold in trashy mining camps,,, i wanna go there NOW! https://goo.gl/photos/9bzUrMsxkZANha9j9

In sort of a sign that the Makro Racer has "arrived" NEL coils have announced that the entire NEL lineup of coils will now be available for the Makro Racer. These coils will not work of the Makro Gold Racer due to its much higher operating frequency. This means there are now eight more accessory coils available for the Makro Racer. Visit the NEL website for details.

Hello all, here are some pictures of the Makro Gold Racer in the field. The Racer was used in areas previously detected with other VLF's. My detecting partner Chris was using the Racer and I as following up with another VLF going over the same targets. Many of the same targets could be heard easily by both units, however there were a bit less than a quarter of the targets that only the Racer heard very well. The targets that were in some of the deeper and grittier soil gave a weaker response. Both VLF's read the target but the as I said the Racer sound was much more distinct and in fact heard some an inch or two deeper. The ICMJ featured an article that I wrote titled "Piles of Gold'' just a few issues back. If you look very closely at the first picture you will see the Makro Gold Racer in action. That particular pay pile that we were working had been gone over with other VLF's and a few pieces were heard in the highly mineralized material of the heap. We assumed that was all we were going to get until we went back another day with the Gold Racer. Once we found other pieces we started taking the pile apart. We pulled a bit over an ounce of gold off that pile and have since found other piles. The video shows how many targets we were hearing sweeping the Gold Racer over the ground. As mentioned earlier, some of the targets could have been heard by other VLF's but the Gold Racer was ultimately what made us decide to tear into the pile. Chris did have a bit of luck with the Racer one day along a creek where the alluvial gravels had been worked. That piece was 14.8 pennyweight. One thing that really impressed me about the Gold Racer was its ability to give a better target response to some nice pieces that were on edge in the bedrock. Most of you know that flatter pieces of gold, especially lying flat, will give a better target response than round, marble type gold targets. The Racer showed me no difference in discerning round to flat and I like that. The unit is very light and maneuverable and I like that. Anyone who has detected with me knows my favorite saying "what brush?" and "that's not thick". It can be short shafted or long shafted so it works in the brush for me very well. As mentioned in an earlier post, I will let Steve do the technical assessment as he is much better at that than I am. I know that the unit is well built and many changes were put into the final product. I will be using it quite a bit. A few videos can be seen on TRINITYAU.COM I will have them posted by end of day 11/23/2015 Thanks, TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS Take it away Steve... Steve, I did my pictures the way I normally do but they came out large, reduce them if you need to, Ray

Now if we could get a comparison between the Fors Gold Plus and the the Gold Racer? But maybe we should wait for the new Whites MX machine next month too? -Tom V.

Dear Valued Members: The Gold Racer is now available for pre-order. We will start shipping dealers early January in the same order the orders are received. PACKAGE CONTENTS Standard Package - MSRP: $699 GR26 - DD Search Coil - 26cm x 14cm (10'' x 5.5") Headphones 4 x AA Alkaline Batteries Pro Package - MSRP: $899 GR26 - DD Search Coil - 26cm x 14cm (10'' x 5.5") GR13 - DD Search Coil - 13cm (5") Headphones AC & Car Charger, 4 x AA Rechargeable Batteries Carrying Bag Rain Covers Extra Lower Shaft OPTIONAL SEARCH COILS AND ACCESSORIES GR40 - DD Search Coil - 40cm x 33.5cm (15.5'' x 13'') GR26C - Concentric Search Coil - 26cm x 14cm (10'' x 5.5") 2.4 GHz Wireless Headphones and Dongle You can find the Gold Racer brochure and the User Guide at the link below: http://www.makrodetector.com/gold-racer-metal-detector.html

Can't get my video uploaded--1= gig

I was on fire to buy a Makro Gold Racer when it was announced they were finally going to be released. I mean who doesn't like having the latest and greatest? Since that time a little common sense has maybe crept into my purchasing decisions. I already own a Makro racer. When I first got the Racer I experienced many frustrating hours learning how to run it. He-hee - I already donned a Nomex suit before I typed that statement! I can already hear the flamers attacking me......"you dummy, the Racer you just turn it on, ground balance and go" or some variation of that. And they would be correct 90% of the time. Never have I owned a VLF detector that is so easy to operate. The Racer locks onto non-ferrous targets like my super magnet locks onto square nails. My frustration stemmed from my attempts to try recovering the final 10%. Those targets that are so compromised by ferrous masking that they are not obvious. With the Racer as with any VLF you get many high tone targets that could be non-ferrous targets but also could be iron falsing or wrap-around. In the beginning I felt I did good identify good targets versus iron in beds of nails. Targets were obvious and the Racer did not false too much as long as I kept the sensitivity under control. It was in areas where there were many disintegrated cans (flat iron) that I felt like bending the Racer around the nearest oak tree. These flat pieces of iron just sounded so good to my untrained ears and the VDI often lumped the numbers into the dreaded 82-83 range so it was no help. More than once I put the Racer away and used my Deus instead. Finally I got mad and determined I would never understand the Racer unless I kept after it regardless of the conditions. Now, I am happy to report after many hours of swinging the Racer the light bulb finally came on and I sort of understand the Racers language in cans. Oh, I still dig a lot of flat iron with it but I do so knowing that is what the target will likely be. I just keep hoping one of those targets will be a big nugget or a gold coin compromised by iron. For my VLF gold detector I want a machine that has kick a$$ discrimination so I can take it places I fear to tread with my Pulse Induction, namely old habitations around gold workings and/or trashy hard rock mines. You can keep your GB II with crummy iron discrimination and lack of GB options. Yes it is the king of fly-poop and that is great for some people but not for me. (flamers please be gentle) I like gold I can hear in the bottle. So maybe the Gold Racers 56 khz is not as important to me as some other features may be. The iSAT/iMASK might tip me over the edge in favor of the Gold Racer if it handles bad ground much better than regular Racer. I apologize for the lengthy preamble. The meat of this post are the questions "will the Gold Racer at 56 khz be worse at identifying flat iron than the original Racer at 14khz?" and " does the Gold Racer with iSAT/iMASK handle bad ground better than a typical VLF ergo regular Racer to justify the expense of switching machines?" Recently a well respected relic hunter(Keith) posted this on another forum in reference to Gold Racer. "Thanks for the tip.. Another one I might add is Stay out of Tin loaded 1880s type sites...LOL!! Ouch, those are my favorite type of spots. So Steve, Keith, or any one else that has ran both these machines, have you done any head to head testing or do you have any opinions/answers to my questions? Thanks in advance, Merton

Find the tiniest nuggets, micro jewelry and even coins with the most sensitive and versatile gold detector ever made! Specifications and Details on the Makro Gold Racer

I found this Posted else where and thought it might be of interest. Mastering the Makro Racer Clive James Clynick is the author of 16 previous detecting book titles and numerous articles. In this detailed and informative book he shares his 35–plus years of treasure hunting experience and outlines some proven methods for getting results with the Makro Racer Metal Detector. Topics include: 14 kHz Gold Hunting Tuning for Performance Understanding and Avoiding False Signals Recognizing Common Trash items Improving Your Accuracy with the “In Keeping” Method Getting the Most from the Racer’s Target Information Array Understanding “Out of Range” Responses Deep Silver Settings and Methods The Racer in Iron Beach and Inland Applications -and much more… 8.5 X 5.5 Softbound ($16.95) ordering: http://www.clivesgoldpage.com/

For those of you who like me have been waiting and waiting for the new Makro Gold detector to come out, I have good news. I e-mailed them last week and they said within 1-2 months before they are available. I have been waiting for at least 6 months for this new vlf that is geared towards nugget-hunting. I was going to just say screw it and get a GB2 or another vlf for my trashy areas but decided I would just wait and hope its worth the wait. According to the rep at Makro he said this will be a top notch vlf, so I am glad I waited this long another 2 months will fly by.