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Phrunt... My 6 is headed my way on the big brown truck and the heat will have me sidelined for at least a week. So with the 6 showing up during the heat wave I'll be sitting out I've decided to shorten up the Monster like you did and retire it temporally as a PP'er for the 6. Question is this....does all the wire wrapping that close to the 5" coil cause you any problems or make the Monster react any different? Thanks!!!!

Found the pinpointer is not up to it, gave the Deus a go but it interfered (coil being on seeking RC) with the Z now will the Monster save digging those Z19 holes so big.

I’m heading up to Georgetown gold fields, in North Queensland Australia soon. Do not want to get into the new GPX 6000 or GPZ 7000 yet and besides that I do not live close to a gold region. I currently own a CTX 3030. I know that the Monster is not in the same league as the more expensive units but at just over $1,000 it is an option to purchase. But my thoughts are that the CTX I already own may do pretty much the same as the Monster, plus it has discrimination ability. Could someone please enlighten me. Thanks.

The only ML offering I can honestly say was junk is the GM1000. Owned one for a month and that was a month too long. I was way better off keeping my GB2. So glad I upgraded to the 24K. Cant wait to try the 6000 though!

I heard from a buddy that Minelab was discontinuing this model. I hope it's not true! I also heard from another buddy that they are no longer going to make single frequency Gold Machines. I know rumors are what they are but wanted to reach out anyway. Thanks! Walt

The original Minelab Gold Monster design simply always ground tracked. You start using it, and it is ground balancing all the time. However, if the mineralization changes a lot, it was a little slow to react. So they added this ability to put it in quick balance mode. Long press the Detect Mode button, the coil symbol flashes, and for a few seconds the ground balance speeds up. Basically it is just a ground grab button. Bill Southern talks about this new function in this video. Like Bill says in the video, most people might never use it,and sure no reason to buy a new machine. It’s a small time saver, nothing more. I’m curious, for those that even know about this, are you actually using it?

I recently had the very fortunate opportunity to use the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 for 30 days. During that time, I was able to discover the nuances of the machine that, like any metal detector, can only be fully realized by logging lots of hours behind the control box and investigating lots of targets. In Steve's excellent review, he has covered most of what the GM 1000 is capable of doing, as well as the features and functions of the machine, so I will not rehash those here. Instead, I will relate my experiences with the detector and its unadvertised abilities that have come to light during my sojourn with it in hand. I first powered up the Monster at Rye Patch, Nevada, and after a very brief automatic frequency scan, the unit emitted two short beeps, signaling that it was ready to start swinging with no pumping of the coil or ground balancing necessary...nice! The first thing I did was to bury a small 3 or 4 grain test nugget a couple of inches into the damp alkali soil, so as to fiddle with the manual and automatic sensitivity settings in order to find the most distinct target response. Right off the bat I noticed there was no audible threshold...a little unnerving, but I decided to just roll with it and trust that the engineers at Minelab know what they are doing. In all-metal search mode at low sensitivity settings there was no response from the conductive damp alkali ground, and very little to no response from the tiny test nugget. Increasing the sensitivity to 6 or 7 made the nugget start popping much better, but some slight feedback from the ground was also noticeable. At a manual sensitivity setting of 10, the conductive alkali response was overwhelming, but as soon as I increased it to 11 - which is the first automatic sensitivity setting - the screaming ground response completely disappeared and in it's place was a crisp, clear target response from the test nugget...very impressive. Advancing the automatic sensitivity to 12 (auto+), the signal response from the test nugget was even louder and more intense, but there was also some ground response as well. I decided why listen to ground noise when the test nugget is plenty audible at a setting of 11, and went with that. With any new detector, I dig every target, even if reads 100% ferrous, just to familiarize myself with how the machine responds to various different targets. The few hot rocks that signaled on the Monster, both positive and negative, completely pegged the gold chance indicator all the way left into the ferrous zone. Soon I was finding extremely small bits of foil, lead and iron. Then I started to notice something quite amazing to me; the iron targets - even the tiniest ones - were making a subtle "boing" type of a response like a negative hot rock, whereas the nonferrous targets were more zippy and lacked that subtle boing quality. After a while, I found that I no longer needed to look at the gold chance indicator to determine whether a target was ferrous or not, just by relying on the sounds; I was really starting to like this detector. Then it happened: a fairly strong response that was pegging the gold chance indicator all the way right, into the non-ferrous zone. After digging a couple of inches, out popped a beautiful little crystalline nugget weighing a mere 2.4 grains - the first Monster nugget! With the northern Nevada weather being uncooperative and still quite wintery, I headed for the sunny warm deserts of Arizona. First stop...the Yucca Dense Collection Area north of Lake Havasu City, formerly known as the Franconia meteorite strewn field. VLF machines make the best meteorite hunters, and the Gold Monster 1000 did not disappoint. I took it to an area that is carpeted with basalt hot rocks that make it extremely difficult to operate a VLF while retaining any shred of sanity. The Monster was incredibly noisy in auto sensitivity, but adjusting it manually to a setting of 4 mellowed it right out and within 5 minutes the detector nailed its first space rock! and then another a while later... Although finding meteorites is fun, the GM 1000 is a gold nugget detector after all, so it was on to the famed gold fields of Quartzsite, Arizona to see what the Monster could do in beat up old patches that have litterally been detected by hundreds, if not thousands of detector operators. Well, suffice it to say it didn't take long to find the first sub-grain speck of gold. And another... The ground in Quartzsite is much milder than the alkali rich soils of Rye Patch, but has lots more hot rocks including magnetite, which is super hot and very magnetic. As I was detecting an old nugget patch littered with these super strong magnetite hot rocks, I decided to see how the Monster responded to them; waving the coil over one resulted in a very sharp and intense zip-zip. Slowing my sweep speed to see if the signal would broaden, I slowly raised the coil an inch or two above the magnetite to see if the signal would drastically decrease in strength (an old VLF hot rock identification trick). Slowly lowering the coil back down above the rock, I was suddenly incredulous at what I was now hearing...absolutely nothing! The Gold Monster had completely tracked out a magnetite hot rock! I placed my test nugget right up against the magnetite and was stunned to hear the nugget respond loud and clear, with absolutely no interference from the hot rock. Even this guy couldn't hear that hot rock: I also found more meteorites in Quartzsite with the Gold Monster...the full story here: In my limited time swinging the new Minelab Gold Monster 1000, I can definitely say that it is unique and can do things that I haven't seen from any other single frequency VLF gold nugget detector, all in a light weight simple to operate and competitively priced package...kudos to Minelab!

I was just wondering if there was any plans of aftermarket coils being produced for the Minelab GM1000? I can think of a couple reasons why they would be welcomed. The coils seem to be impact sensitive, and the coils do not have good edge sensitivity. Am also wondering if a concentric coil can be built to work on the gm1000? I tend to prefer concentric coils over dd's for vlf nugget detecting.

Posted by Metal Detecting For Arizona Gold July 4, 2020 In this video I go out to the Double J claim to gather up some mineralize soil for the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 depth test. I use 7 different Gold Nuggets and conduct the test using Auto 1 and Auto 2.

I just picked up my Gold Monster 1000. The first one had a low volume issue and was replaced by the dealer. The second one appears to suffer from bump falsing. This may be due to lack of experience with the machine. I used it for the last 2 days and was able to find some really small gold which is awesome. It did a falsed badly with the small coil and some with the large coil during those 2 days. I tested it when I got home by holding starting it and ground balancing it in a clear location. Using the small coil. It falsed badly in 10 and 9 less in 7 and 8 and barely in 6. The issue is not as bad with the large coil. I then held the small coil up in the air and tested for falsing. The issue was still there but 10 was more like the setting of 7 when grounded. I moved the cable while in the air and there was no falsing. I used my scoop to tap the coil and cable so my hand wouldn't effect the result. I have generally concluded that the issue is due to high sensitivity setting more than coil or software issues. I would like to verify this by comparing my machine to another. Some other users could do the same test and see what your results are. This would give us a baseline for what a GM1000 should perform like. Test procedure Turn on and balance on clear ground at setting manual 10 or highest possible manual setting with small coil. tap coil lightly with scoop or something that wont be detectable. Reduce sensitivity until falsing is a non issue. Record this setting Then perform same test in the air and record that setting. Post results on this thread My results would be Grounded 6. In the air 9 or possibly 10. This will obviously vary due to the ground you have and how hard you tap the coil, so the more tests we have the more accurate the data will be. Thanks

All - wondering if any of you out there have any experience with using either of these detectors inside hardrock mines or on hardrock ore, veins, etc. I recently purchased both of these detectors and I am interested in the discrimination on gold in an old hardrock mine area. I have found that the Equinox will find arsenopyrite very nicely in samples, and I have found the GM does not respond at all to large chunks of pyrite in samples I have. However I am interested in discrimination on gold in rock and veins where there are arsenopyrite, pyrite, large amounts of chalcopyrite, lead, zinc, etc. Anyone with any experiece with the Equinox in prospecting mode sounding off on any of these minerals (besides gold)? Anyone with experience with the GM 1000 on any of these minerals in Gold non-ferrous mode? Since some of the veins have extensive pyrite, chalcopyrite and base metals, I was hoping I could discriminate gold from the other elements in some of the hardrock areas and tailings I've come across in my wanderings. Thanks in advance for sharing any thoughts around these detectors on minerals like that in hard rock and how they would likely respond to them.

I just bought a GM1000 and was under the impression that the external audio is quite loud. Mine is defiantly not. The headphones are loud but not the external. Its brand new and I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping to use it tomorrow but now I think I may have to take it back to the shop. Kind of takes the excitement out of a new detector. Is this fixable at home? Thanks

When I swing the coil over a target from left to right I get signal return but when I sweep in the opposite direction no signal detected. Is this normal or do I have a defective coil. Both coils that came with the unit do the same thing. This is my first metal detector so I'm not familiar with their technical properties.

Hey Team, First post, long time lurker. I am right on the brink of buying my next detector. I previously had a GMT w/nugget coil shooter 4x6", which I had dialed in very well, and it detected small good very well. Where I am from everyone uses a GB2, and has good success - they are however hard to find in Canada, and I am leaning towards the 24K/GMX. I like the fact the GMX is waterproof, and I can use it for underwater sniping, as well as never worry about weather and or moisture. It comes with the 6.5" concentric coil, which I have never used, but in my understanding would make it even MORE sensitive then the 4x6" DD coil solution (at the cost of mobility). Do you guys think the new 24K/GMX w/ 6.5" concentric would be a better overall unit for small placer gold then the tried and true Gold Bug 2 w/6.5" coil? I don't want to do this twice is possible. The ground I am in is in the East Kootenays of BC, and is not too hot, but does contain some "spicy" rocks and very jagged bedrock as a platform. Most of the gold I need to detect will need "depth" as utmost importance. It has been picked over very well in the past, and I really need something that will shoot a little better then a hot GB2. The GMX platform comes currently w/ the 6.5" concentric, and the 4x6 new DD coil for $1140 CAD all in. Would the Gold Kruzer perform equally to the GMX/24K platform? It is about $300.00 cheaper for the entire 2 coil waterproof package. Anyways please try to confirm my belief beyond Steve's signature which says he kept the 24K and got rid of the other VLF's lol. Also Aureus's review of his 24K had me sold when he said he was turning old ground into "new" ground. Cheers! 🙂

I know it is really early in the bout. But possibly is the new kid on the block going to knock out the reining champion of many many years in the gold nugget VLF sport? I'm hearing so many good things about the GM 1000. And I'm really leaning on getting one soon. Hearing so many good reports from " Average Joe" dectectorists. I have had way more experience and success with Minelab detectors than any other brands. So I guess I speak Minelabbian better than anything else. My gut feeling thinks that we might be crowing a new Welterweight Champ. I guess time will tell?????

From back in May when i first found my little nugget patch. Some of the smaller pieces of gold in this spot would ring up to the iron side, but since almost every target in this spot is gold, it shows you that on small gold the probability indicator should be ignored. Some nice gold for only an hour or so spent detecting. Will have more videos to come, im slowly working through my backlog. Thanks for watching!

Some of you may know what it is like to swing a large PI detector. It can turn into a job and not be fun even though the weight of gold found is good. I have used a GB 2 since it first came out and when I break it out I call that therapy. Recently Gerry's Detectors helped me obtain a Goldmonster to add to my many detectors. Thanks Gerry. I did not know what to expect , I just needed something to have as a loaner. Was not really impressed by the rod as it is a 3 piece screw together type. The big coil looks funny and the ergonomics are sort of out of balance. Well that all went away when i turned it on. The photo shows the result of the first three outings. I am very impressed. I never thought i would put my GB2 in the corner. Fisher needs a wake up call. Sorry I am the most die hard GB2 fan out there but this detector with the 5 inch round coil is amazing. Turn on and go. Rechargeable batteries and great response on the smallest gold. Did not even use headphones. The Bug 2 is better in some ways (hot rocks) but is in need of a total update. Heavier cables , push button, possibly a 71HZ Gold Bug Pro type package. I hear the Equinox is as good for gold. I guess i have some testing to do. I could easily put the heavier GPZ away for awhile and just go back to small coil detecting. If I can figure out the Equinox I could find old coins and small gold with one machine on the same day. This must be Steve's approach. Tired of heavy detectors.

New Treasure Talk entry... http://www.minelab.com/anz/go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/understanding-the-sensitivity-control-on-the-gold-monster-1000 What the Automatic Signal Processing is actually doing (advanced description) Another performance advantage of the two Auto settings (hidden from the user) is that both the sensitivity resolution and adjustment range actually go way beyond what can be displayed via the LCD segments: Where there are ten Manual settings to choose from, the GOLD MONSTER signal processing will automatically make the optimum choice from well over 10,000 incremental steps. Where Manual 10 is the maximum level that can be user selected, the auto level selected may range above 10 if the ambient and ground conditions allow, giving a greater sensitivity than manual will ever be able to achieve.

Hi all, just wanna show u this find ,was in a breccia pipe, its not gold but its beautiful too ,cuprite crystal with native copper thanks to the gold monster, regards ?

Just wondering on peoples thoughts on how the GM would go on the beach, I am looking at buying one to use for hunting nuggets and cleaning up patches, but I go to the coast several times a year so it would be nice to still have a swing while on holidays. I have seen some commentary about them being okay at finding gold chains etc and I know I will dig a lot of junk, just after thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Hay guys so I live in nz and I sold my gm1000 and nox 800 to clear few bills etc great machines found alot small gold with both .. kept my gpx4500 but thinking of getting a whites 24k double coil pack to try out here in nz as my vlf but I am alittle worried as they have been out for few months now but I cant find one video on them on you tube apart from dealers ones or people with dealers . I would of thought by now someone would of did some testing or direct comparisons to gm1000 etc. Also as theres now no whites dealers in nz does anyone know a good one in aus that ships to nz ? I'm hoping with right set up they will be as good as monster on small gold in low to med ground but less prone to coil noise at high sensitivity and advice opinions welcome. Minelab Gold Monster 1000 and White's Goldmaster 24K gold nugget detectors

So my new Whites 24k arrived this morning finally after some issues with New Zealand post "before I begin I must give a big shout out to the guys at sneedens who are brokers for customs etc they made everything very simple for me... Right back to the detecter.. I wasn't sure what to expect as there is very little information out there bar the odd person and dealers pushing it. As I've owned many detectors over the years minelab grew on me as my favorite mainly because they were simply superior to the rest. Anyway I wiped up a unboxing video I then moved on to do some playing just with air tests and tho they are just that air tests I was pretty dam gobsmacked to say the least as it was pouring down out side icouldn't venture out to do some ground tests but from the air tests it's got the monster for depth The rain finally gave up this arvo so I grabed some gold ranging from non registering to 1.68 gm and in between. And set out for a spot close to me that was one of the big gold rush areas , now I'd taken the gm1000 here before and it was quite chatty in the upper sensitivity regions as the gm1000 is generally. Now once there I had a play with the 24k just with settings etc and to my surprise the ground there registered 90 on the ground balance to hot as hell was no wonder the gm1000 struggeled here but I was running the 24k max sens 10 vsat lowest it goes and the threshold was rock stable I was using locked ground balance and I do have to say that both the ground grab and xgb was incredibly quick to balance. No the ground is full of black sand so it did kill the depth on targets but not as much as I thought and I could still get the 0.00 non registering bit even with a layer ground on top . But I have already found a quirk with this machine that's a positive if you put it in xgb but run it with a negative ground balance of about - 2 for 30 seconds or so then lock it change it to positive 2 and then manual ground grab the machine goes as quiet as a church mouse with just the threshold hum no hot rock or ground feed back only targets make any noise.. But it hit every target clean and at good depth that 6 inch round is impressive but I can't wait for the 4x6 early next month... Now I also found the threshold as almost to stable for the sensitivity as I said I started on max and was stable as with bit of ground noise that I was able to get rid of as mentioned above. Now when I turned the sensitivity down to 7 I gained depth.. Lol yes gained I think on 10 it was geting over loaded by the black sand abit even tho my threshold was rock solid I gave up playing with my gold targets and went for we hunt knowing people use it for sighting in rifles there and I managed to pick out lead fragment one after the other as I went along.. Also worth noting there is Zero and I mean zero coil noise you can bash it scrape it knock it on things and not a peep... its going to be a learning curve to learn its qurkes but so far I have to say it beats the monster in just about every aspect apart from the monster being able to be custom made on broom stick or bush branch lol..

I am just back from a little detector outing and while I was at it I reflected on how once again I seem to do things a bit differently than other people. I am usually shy of talking about my specific settings because I am the last person to claim I know what's best when it comes to other people and how they detect. Ground conditions vary as do people's personal styles and preferences. Therefore I will include my usual caveat here that I am not claiming what I am doing is "the best" way of doing things. On the other hand I do seem to be able to make detectors deliver for me and I am willing to share how I do things in case it may help somebody else. Hopefully that proves to be the case with this post. For me the key is knowing my detector and how it reacts on my ground. I then let the detector tell me what to do when it comes to balancing sensitivity and ground responses. The task at hand has a lot to do with it. The Minelab Gold Monster 1000 is from my perspective two different detectors in one package. There are two basic tasks I usually expect to perform with it: 1. I have an acre of ground I want to detect from end to end. This for me requires using the larger of the two coils included with the GM1000, a blunt tipped 10" DD elliptical. Due to the GM1000 being a very high gain detector in more ways than one, my basic goal here is stability. I want the machine to be well behaved so that I can cover ground relatively quickly without having to deal with spurious false signals that require analysis. I am going to sacrifice a little theoretical "hots" in order to efficiently cover large areas, areas that may or may not contain gold. 2. I have a 20 foot by 20 foot area that I already know has small gold in it. My goal here is not to cover ground but to clean out the gold. This will at minimum mean running the Gold Monster as hot as possible, and may very well include going to the smaller of the two coils, a 5" round DD. However, I can find gold down around the 1/10th grain (480 grains per Troy ounce) region with the 10" coil and it will hit the larger bits at greater depth in milder ground so I am generally going to stick with the 10" coil unless I really am trying to get the very last flyspecks. What follows is predicated on the moderately mineralized ground of northern Nevada, where alkali (salt) ground is as much or more a consideration as small hot rocks. Even small depressions like a hoof print will collect water during a rain, and when almost but not completely dried the small damp spot may create a positive signal if the Gold Monster is running at high sensitivity levels. Once again I will warn that the specific settings I mention will vary under different ground conditions. Under the first scenario where I am trying to cover large areas I have found both manual sensitivity and auto sensitivity to be useful. Deciding between the two is as simple as knowing how variable the ground is. If the ground is relatively homogenous with minimal variation then manual sensitivity can work very well. If the ground gets too variable requiring constant burdensome adjustments of the sensitivity control to keep up, then going to auto sensitivity is more efficient. What does that mean in actual practice? Let's go over that but first I need to discuss the power up procedure. Much has been made of the necessity to hold the coil in the air as opposed to on the ground when the detector is first powered up. I will admit I am perhaps less stringent as regards that procedure. If I have any nearby electrical power sources, like a power line, cell tower, another detectorist nearby, etc. then I will raise the coil off the ground and point it directly at the tower or other person. This gives the GM1000 the best chance of "seeing" the interference during the few seconds frequency scan so possible interference can be eliminated or at least reduced as much as possible. However, in the interest of being completely honest, I have not found the Gold Monster at 45 kHz to be particularly sensitive to electrical interference and while in the middle of nowhere Nevada I often just turn the machine on and go about my business will no ill effects noted. The raise coil and point at nearest electrical source is a very good habit to develop, but in my experience at least it is not as critical for me as it appears to be for others. I am always going to use the deep seeking all metal mode whenever possible. This is not just because this mode goes deeper, but also because the coil is more forgiving about reporting items that are not centered well under the coil. The discrimination mode has the net effect of reducing the overall size of the detection area under the coil. This means that when running in the iron discrimination mode more care should be used to overlap sweeps. When my goal is covering ground that little bit of extra ground coverage per sweep does add up and all metal mode helps reduce the chance a nugget will be missed on any given sweep. The Gold Monster is noteworthy in that Minelab finally seems to have realized that the speaker actually needs to be loud enough to hear! I am quite enthralled by the boosted audio and the way the smallest targets pop even with my admittedly poor hearing. In fact, the Gold Monster bangs out so loud without headphones that I will often run a notch down from the maximum volume setting - it's so loud that in quiet locations it can be too loud. The volume control is also a secondary sensitivity control in a way, and so I usually run it full out. I do this as much to help create a forced threshold sound as to enhance my ability to hear small targets. More on that later. One of the greatest features on the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 is the automatic ground tracking. In my ground at least it is very efficient at effortlessly keeping up not only with ground conditions but in taking the edge off many hot rocks that would be problematic for other detectors. The beauty of this is that it eliminates the need to keep up with and make small adjustments to the ground balance control as would be the case with a detector that lacks an efficient automatic ground balance. I think most companies are equivalent when it comes to many features, but I do think when it comes to automatic ground tracking technology that Minelab has been and continues to be the industry leader. I was a "manual tuning only" diehard for a long time, but my experiences with the Minelab SDC 2300 in particular taught me to let go of that old thought process. The automatic ground tracking shifts the burden to the sensitivity control as the prime operational control on the GM1000. Minelab has positioned this control close enough to the center of the control panel that it is easily manipulated up or down with a thumb press by either left or right handed individuals. To summarize, I will raise the coil and point it at the nearest electrical source and then I will power the detector up and wait until it completes the frequency scan. The Gold Monster defaults to the last settings and so my machine will already be in all metal mode, but if not I will switch to that. From there I will go to manual sensitivity setting 7 and do a short walk around sweeping the coil over the ground. For me this means the coil is sliding lightly over the ground or no more than a few millimeters over it. So far for ground I have been frequenting the magic settings are 6 - 7 - 8. With the Gold Monster at full volume what I am seeking is a very minimal amount of ground feedback. These are very soft sounds that are quite unlike the hard edged pop of a genuine target. These sounds are created by the sensitivity being so high that ground noise is just starting to overcome the ground tracking ability to silence the ground. The problem with a silent search machine while in manual ground balance mode is that without a threshold you can end up leaving some performance on the table. If a setting of eight generates a little ground feedback, and you decide to go with 7 to make the machine completely silent, there is nothing wrong with that per se. However, if the ground changes and gets milder you may have the ability to run at a higher level of sensitivity, and without a change in the audio to alert you to a change in the ground, you will just leave the setting where it is. In my case if a setting of 7 is completely silent, I will bump to a setting of 8, and this almost always gives me that little ground feedback I want. If 7 is too noisy, I will drop to a setting of 6 and this will probably do the trick for me. The range between each setting seems about perfect for a person to settle on a range of three settings, too little, too much, and just right. For my areas 6 - 7 - 8 are the magic numbers. For worse ground the range may shift lower, to 5 - 6 - 7. Try and picture this. At sensitivity 7 I am just scanning along, coil lightly on the ground, with soft ground feedback, waiting for that hard little signal that even the tiniest target will generate. Then all the sudden the machine goes dead quiet. I have entered less mineralized ground. One thumb tap to sensitivity 8, and I get my "false threshold" back. Or, at a setting of 7 the machine gets noisier. Maybe a little alkali patch or more mineralized ground. A quick tap down to 6 reduces the feedback to my desired minimal level. What I am doing is letting the ground tracking do its job, and then just bumping the sensitivity up or down a notch to ride the ragged edge of best performance for the ground. "Gee Steve, sensitivity 6 - 7 - 8, aren't you giving up lots of depth running at 6 or 7 or anything less than 10"? My air testing...." A pox on air tests! They have uses but have little bearing on how to get the best performance out of a detector in the field. I do like to run my detectors hot and that does often mean with some ground noise, but it has to be kept within manageable limits. For the purposes of covering a lot of ground pushing the GM1000 to the edge is good but any farther and everything sounds like a target and knock sensitivity shoots up dramatically, especially at the hyper sensitivity settings of 9 and 10. The reality from what I have seen so far is that the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 at settings of 6 - 7 - 8 will match or exceed most detectors in its class. Let's save manual sensitivity 9 or 10 for my next detecting scenario up next. Again, a reminder that 6 - 7 - 8 is working well for me in moderate ground. In more mineralized ground it may be 5 - 6 - 7 or even 4 - 5 - 6. If you simply listen to the machine it will tell you where you need to be. Too high, too low - just right. I have actually found gold with the sensitivity as low as 3 when in some nasty salt encrusted ground. People seem so adverse to lowering sensitivity I often wonder how many would just give up before going that low. It just can't find gold set that low, can it? Yes it can. You either tame the ground or go home and even though depth is reduced you can still find gold a low sensitivity settings if that is what it takes to get stable performance in the worst ground. So what about auto sensitivity? Simple really. If you are finding that you are having to bump the sensitivity up and down too often (you will know when that is for you) then it is time for Auto sensitivity. Auto sensitivity is different than manual in that you can trust it to keep the detector at the optimum level even if running silent. In general Auto is the silent running mode whereas Auto+ usually introduces a slight amount of ground feedback at full volume. As I mentioned earlier the volume control acts as a secondary sensitivity filter and running it lower can reduce or eliminate slight ground noise while still allowing targets to sound off loud and clear. Auto+ works best for me in most places but if need be I can drop to simple Auto for more difficult variable ground where Auto+ may get too noisy. OK, we have been hunting as described above and get a target. What next? If you are digging everything, a good practice, then just recover that target. If it is faint, either bumping the manual sensitivity up two points or dropping out of Auto into a high manual setting can aid greatly in pinpointing and recovering the target. What about trash? Too much and I don't want to dig them all? I am hunting in all metal mode and I rely on the meter to make a dig or no dig decision. In some ways it is a probability thing. If a few sweeps over the target from various directions produce a series of "hard left" ferrous meter responses, the target is likely ferrous. My goal is to try and coax a non-ferrous response with the meter kicking to the right. Just one non-ferrous response raises the odds you have a non-ferrous target. Even then I might pass in a trashy area, but two or more non-ferrous responses and you had better just dig it. Small nuggets in mineralized soil are fighting the ferrous content of the soil itself and in bad ground the ferrous ground response often wins. If you are looking for gold look for reasons to dig targets, not reasons to walk away. The amount of trash will help determine just how aggressive or lax you decide to be in these dig or no-dig decisions. Running is disc mode should be reserved for situations where there is no other option. It may be needed to eliminate a certain hot rock response. Or there may be multiple trash targets per swing - you can't analyze them all. The iron discrimination mode can be a real lifesaver in these instances. However, consider the borderline nugget that will read ferrous seven out of ten swings. That means you only have a 30% chance on a single pass over the target of having the machine give an audio non-ferrous report while in iron discrimination mode. The odds are even worse if you are not perfectly over the target, a bit too high, or swinging a little too fast. If the detector decides ferrous on that first pass, you get no sound and go right by, never knowing it was there. This is where detectors with a ferrous tone have the advantage in alerting you to every target so you can double or triple check. With a silent rejection system you get just one chance at the target and if the detector is wrong, the nugget is missed. Minelab Gold Monster 1000 Iron Discrimination Mode Versus All Metal Mode All metal is more forgiving in multiple ways, but mostly by alerting you to every target, allowing you to stop, get the coil lower if need be, slow the sweep, change the angle, etc. all with the goal of trying to coax a non-ferrous response from the target. I highly recommend that if you use discrimination you use it sparingly and conservatively, and only go to full blown iron disc mode it you must. We all have a different threshold for when that will be but rest assured hot rocks or thick trash will pretty much force the issue. That sure sounds complicated! In practice, hunting at sensitivity 6, I am going to get a signal. If it is faint, I will bump the sensitivity a couple notches now that I am on target. Too hot for general hunting but fine for spot checks. The target response will enhance, giving much surer results on the discrimination meter, and allowing for easier pinpointing and recovery. Target in pouch, sensitivity back down two notches and I am on my way again. For extreme ground JP has a bit more complicated method for getting back into the hunt as described here. For me personally hunting in moderate ground simply going back to my base sensitivity setting and swinging away is working fine. Again however, I am discussing just general detecting at this point, not getting the best and finest edge on the performance. Which leads me to.... ...that 20 foot by 20 foot spot I want to clean out. The 5" coil has an edge on the really tiny gold and in more mineralized ground in particular it "sees" less ground and is the coil of choice for cleanup duty. In moderate ground I run the Monster at manual sensitivity 10 and much like running my GPZ 7000 fully maxed out with Steve's Insanely Hot Settings I tame the machine strictly through coil control. This means moving at a crawl, and because at sensitivity 9 and especially 10 some knock sensitivity is introduced, I employ my magical ability to keep a coil 1 mm off the ground while never touching anything. In severe ground sensitivity 9 or 10 may not be attainable at all, and as always I defer to JP and his operating procedures for dealing with really bad ground. But for my milder ground I can crank the GM1000 all the way up and even with the 10" coil hit gold down to around 1/10th grain and with the 5" coil smaller yet. Again, extreme coil control is the answer here but the catch is that you are never going to cover much ground in a day doing this. If covering ground is the goal, stick with more stable settings. But if you want to chase flyspecks (they do add up) then be very patient while working the coil and the Minelab Gold Monster is pretty amazing in what it can do. I do hope this helps somebody somewhere. Again, all I am doing is telling you what I am doing and what is working for me. If you prefer to do something different by all means - I am not trying to say these settings are the "best settings" as in my opinion there simply is no such thing. The best settings for my wife would probably be Auto sensitivity while in disc mode. "Here honey, swing this closely over the ground, and if it goes beep, dig it up." Different ground and different experience levels mean different settings. Never be afraid to experiment. If you only use settings you find on a website and never experiment yourself you will never truly learn any detector and what works best for your circumstances. Good luck out there and above all, have fun! More Information On the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 Sensitivity Settings Photo below: Some gold I just found, 4.9 grams total. The top four nuggets were found with the GPZ 7000 (largest nugget 2.2 grams) and the bottom nine with the Gold Monster 1000 (smallest flake ?? gram) using the methods described above.

Finally go the video finished of comparing equinox 800 to the gold monster 1000 on in-situ targets in the field. This is my no mean the comprehensive review as im sure the settings on the equinox could be tweaked more produce even better results. But from what i saw on my ground they were vary evenly matched. The gold monster seemed to pop a little harder on the targets, but the equinox still hit all the targets the gm1000 hit. Since i detect mainly creeks the equinox has a leg up since its water proof and i dont have to worry about it getting wet or falling in the creek. Hope you guys enjoy the video and ill take more footage as i work this little patch.