SittingElf Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Lunk or someone I'm sure will be doing a comparison between the Gold Master 1000 and the Equinox 800 for hunting Meteorites. Looking forward to that comparison to determine whether I want to add the GM1000 primarily for Meteorite hunting while keeping the 600 and 800 for more general purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunk Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 I will do that comparison, but I'm afraid it will have to wait until next winter when I'll be back in Arizona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U_U Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 I did ask Minelab several weeks ago, and the tech support does not have an opinion regarding this. I am not sure what is wrong with meterorites as targets, and why metal detector manufactures are ignoring these items. It is up to users to purchase detectors and testing them. There is so much mumbo-jumbo and little actual information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Lunn Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 I spent a day and a half last week in Franconia searching the Yucca Dense Collection Area. I used the GM 1000, the Equinox 800 and the GPZ. The heat was intense in the 108 range, and I did cut my trip short. I have only modest skills and can not give an in depth comparison the way Lunk will next winter but here are my preliminary observations. All three machines can easily find meteorites. The two small ones I found (2gm and 4gm) were loud and clear. Both were down less than one inch and maybe were on the surface. I boot scraped them before looking. The GPZ covers the most ground because of its larger coil and handles the hot rocks best, but the weight is a real issue .... especially in the heat. The GPZ is also difficult to get under and around trees, dips and larger rocks. I ended up using the Equinox most of the time. I preferred it to the GM 1000. I felt the Equinox handled the hot rocks better and did not false. On the Equinox you can program the one-click user-defined button to switch frequencies to help eliminate hot rocks. I also found the Equinox discrimination valuable. Most lead and brass shell cases were correctly identified by the Equinox. The size of the non-ferrous “junk” influenced the target ID numbers but the meteorites strongly registered iron (i.e. negative target ID’s). I used Field 1 and Field 2. I am not yet comfortable enough to ignore the non-ferrous targets, but I might get there. A day and a half is not much of a test. More hours are needed. I look forward to hearing how others compare the different detectors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredmason Posted May 14, 2018 Share Posted May 14, 2018 Thanks, Randy! where are the pic's? fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SittingElf Posted May 14, 2018 Author Share Posted May 14, 2018 Great Info. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Lunn Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Fred, I gave the meteorites to my brother but I will get a picture soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DolanDave Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 This is only my opinion.... My Equinox 800 is not very good with meteorites if you have any kind of discrimination on. With the detector wide open, Franconia is just full of hot rocks and sets the detector off big time, even though it does hit on the detector in wide open mode. But you will be hitting a thousand hot rocks before finding a Franconia. I have tested it on both Gold Basin, and Franconia meteorites. Not sure about GM 1000, as I dont own one. The best detector for meteorite detecting is still the 7000, or pulse detector.... Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Lunn Posted May 18, 2018 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Dave, no debate that the GPZ 7000 is the best machine for meteorites. I totally agree as I noted above. The only drawbacks to the GPZ is its weight and lack of a small coil option. However, the EQ handles the hot rocks better than the GM. The point of my post is that SittingElf should not buy a GM for Meteorite hunting if he already owns an EQ. As you know (and this is mostly for SittingElf) there are several techniques to successfully work around hot rocks including (1) slightly lifting the coil to reveal the weak signal of hot rocks, (2) changing frequencies to recognize the signature of hot rocks, (3) learning the look of hot rocks in the area you are detecting and (4) a quick kick of the suspected hot rock. On “desert pavement” these techniques seem to work well. They become second nature after a while. Lunk has had great success with the GM finding meteorites. He may have additional input on the techniques he uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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