Gold Monster Outing And Review

[1864hatter]

One of the guys at my workplace has been tagging along on some of my recent gold trips and has thus been inspired to purchase the GM1000 from a local dealer as soon as it became available.

As a first outing we went to a claim I am a partner in for some detecting. We went as part of a group of 5 that had 4 different types of detectors with them. We have detected this river claim extensively and unless there is a flood that moves some material and exposes bedrock we don't find a lot anymore. Consequently we often dig by hand and scan the bedrock that we expose to recover the gold.

Once at the claim three guys got to work digging a hole while myself and my friend with the GM took off up the creek in order for me to teach him how to use a detector. The plan was for me to use the GM1000 for a while and get him to watch me work while I told him what I was doing and then gradually hand over to him.

First gold came after about two steps in a bedrock crevice. I had detected a small nugget in the same crevice before on a previous outing but obviously the GM was more sensitive and had managed to find something. There were two tiny prices in the crevice. We continued up the creek and found a few pieces here and there, all were small to very very small. Some bits well below 0.1g.

After about half a dozen bits I left my friend to carry on on his own and joined the other three guys with digging the hole.

After a couple of hours the man with the GM returned successful, he'd found his first three pieces of gold and was very happy. After that I got my hands back on his detector and found more pieces up and down the creek.

The main points of interest with using the GM1000 I found are;

Pros-
#easy turn on and go operation
#very sensitive to small gold
#light weight
#quite reliable ferrous / non ferrous indicator
#lack of threshold easier for amateurs to interpret
#clear signal from targets
#excellent pinpointing

Cons-

#picks up hot rocks
#signals when entering water
#sensitive to coil and coil cable banging (although, what detector isn't)

Generally I think this detector is a top performing VLF that is ideal for hunting gold in bedrock crevices or other shallow ground. Ideal for getting the last scraps from gold producing areas. Not so good for outright depth or areas with a lot of hot rocks as, despite the ferrous indicator, they still make a signal to burden your ears. Much of the gold that we got with the GM seems to have been quite small and other detectors simply missed them. We were calling these pieces monster flakes! 

Clarifications,

Detector was run in maximum sensitivity in the deep / all metal setting. Bedrock is generally un-mineralised with isolated bands of noisy rock. 5 inch coil was used.And the total loot in the picture below, biggest bit is 1.39g (found with SDC2300 but anything could have found it). All but I think three pieces were found with the GM1000.

If you have any questions I will do my best to answer.

[mn90403]

It finds gold.

[Norvic]

That is a straight forward uncomplicated review, thank you.

[Ridge Runner]

Thanks for the review on what the GM 1000 can do and not what if can't.i'd say the people that are banging the Gm spend more on toilet paper in a year than the cost of the GM.

Finding gold is what we buy metal detectors for.

Thanks again.

Chuck