My Review Of White's Goldmaster 24K

[Aureous]

Hi, I just had to register and reply to this thread. I own a Fisher Gold Bug 2, a Gold Monster 1000 and now a Whites Goldmaster 24K. Ive also owned a Goldmaster Vsat, Goldmaster III and a GMT. Having used all of these, I have to say that the 24K isnt the most sensitive of the high frequency VLF's out there. Right now, the old Gold Bug 2 with the 6.5x3" is still king of the heap and the GM1000 is able to beat that under some circumstances. BUT, the 24K has the smoothest ground balance Ive ever used and rock-stable threshold. It finds deeper sub-gram gold than all of them using that 6.5" concentric coil. I had the opportunity to run side by side with a friend using a GM1000 and although he got 6 bits of gold to my 2, all but one of them was under .05, whereas my 2 weighed .4gm. I also found 22 bits of junk, versus his 4. All of this was from a patch that has been completely hammered over 3 decades. Last few times I used a GB2 there, I got nothing. Methinks the higher coil power and the matched concentric coil along with the XGB tracking make for a very powerful new machine for small gold. I am very keen to try the upcoming 6x3 shooter DD coil soon as the 10x5 seems pretty good on hotter ground here in Victoria. I'll keep you all posted with my finds. One thing I MUST say about the GM1000 in comparison though....some guys here are using them to great effect by ignoring the basic rule of reducing sensitivity to allow proper ground balance. They run them flat out at manual 10 sensitivity and then cannot even ground balance....but on quiet or mild ground, the digital audio of the Monster eliminates much of the noise and the tiniest gold can be 'plucked' from the pops, clicks and farts of the SAT adjustments and hot rock re-tunes.....but only by those people who have their 'ears tuned' to the sounds properly. Me personally, these noises are maddening and I rush back to the smoothness of the 24K and listen for the bigger, weightier targets. Stay tuned for results here folks!

[Desert Dawg]

Thanks for your indepth review of the 24K there is not too much feedback out there about this machine on the forums. Will be interesting to follow your finds with the 24K

[Aureous]

Soon as the weather cools down a little here, I'll be out buzzing every day with it. All on ground Ive hit hard before. No holds barred either, I'll say it like it is ☺️

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Aureous,

Can you answer a couple of questions for me?

1) how many points of iron disc does it have and how does the iron disc setting equate to the iron disc bars?   Like is there 10 numbers to a bar?   

2)how many points of hot rock reject or bars does it have?

None of the reviews go into the setting very well and the operating manual isn't very clear either.   All I have to go by are some pictures, some that show one bar of iron disc, another picture on another site that shows two bars of iron disc, and then another picture on another site that shows three bars of iron disc.   One video show up to 9 or 10 settings, another video shows where they ran it up into the twenties, but there isn't any definitive information about it anywhere by anybody.   

Same questions for the hot rock setting.  

Hate to play 20 questions to buy something but nobody is talking much about it.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[Jim McCulloch]

Mike, the Iron Cancel Mode on the 24k has 62 degrees of "iron" rejection. There are 6 bar settings: NO bar (1-4) one bar (5-14) two bars (15-25) three bars (26-41) four bars (42-61) and five bars (62).  As would be expected, each higher number represents a higher degree of "iron" rejection, ranging from rejection of severe soil mineralization, then rejection of small hot rocks, rejection of larger hot rocks, small iron, larger (but still somewhat small) iron, and some steel alloys. Although not an exact science, due to varying circumstances, especially differing types of soil, hot rocks, and iron type/size/degree of rust, it is really an outstanding aid to eliminate the aforementioned "targets" WITHOUT undue discrimination "overkill" and extreme depth loss incumbent with other models of "iron reject/gold only" mode detectors.

For example, here in the Mojave Desert my 24k can, optimally tuned, can find microflakes of gold as small as 1/15th of a grain. That's about 1/7200th of an ounce. With gold at $1300.00 per ounce, such a flake would be worth 18 cents. Employing "no bar" severe soil mineralization reject, such targets would be "iffy," but 1/4 grain bits (68 centers) still come through loud and clear. Using one-bar (small hot rock reject) 1/4 grainers are iffy, but 1/3 to 1/2 grainers sound loud and clear, with NO discernible loss of  depth. Yes, with higher settings, there is a progressively higher loss of depth. BUT, thanks to the XGB ground balance system, combined with one-bar severe soil mineralization/small hot rock reject, I can hunt black sand washes which defeat lesser machines, can reject small "zipper" hot rocks, but still get sub-grainers, without the upwards of 60% depth loss with full-iron reject.

Regarding hot rocks: some cannot be reliably rejected, but such even pose problems for PI's.

Regarding "amping up" 24k performance: employ "b2" (boost 2) target volume, ultra faint threshold, medium self-adjusting threshold, and the  highest gain setting which still provides the smooth, stable, operation for which the 24k is renowned. Hope this helps: HH Jim

[Jim McCulloch]

Aureous, you will find that the 24k, fitted with the 6x4, will give the GBII, fitted with the 6.5x3, a run for its money in the ultra small nugget category. The 24k/6x4 combo will find 1/20 grain (and maybe smaller) pieces. Still, for me, the 6.5 concentric gives the best combination of depth, sensitivity, and maneuverability. And yes, it IS making "hammered for decades" patches productive again. We look forward to reading more about your auriferous exploits once the weather improves. HH Jim

[Mike Hillis]

Thank you Jimmy.   That helped a lot.  

 I am looking for processed gold, particularly fine chains and bracelets and fine gold earrings in sand and turf locations so iron reject is important to me.   From your response I believe I can say it should have the iron rejection control I'll need.  

I feel much better about going ahead with my purchase now.

HH
Mike

 

[Aureous]

I've now used the 24K in the field for only 3.5 hours and although the gold is flowing, its all small bits on ground I've already flogged hard. But still fun finding a little bit every few minutes ? The iron discrim I haven't  had an instance where I needed to change off factory settings yet. But that time will no doubt come one day. One thing I WILL say....that 6.5" concentric coil continues to surprise me with its ability to handle mineralized ground and its sensitivity. The threshold stays solid and hot rocks are easily cancelled out. 18 bits of gold and counting......

[Aureous]

On 3/7/2019 at 2:30 PM, Jimmy M said:

Aureous, you will find that the 24k, fitted with the 6x4, will give the GBII, fitted with the 6.5x3, a run for its money in the ultra small nugget category. The 24k/6x4 combo will find 1/20 grain (and maybe smaller) pieces. Still, for me, the 6.5 concentric gives the best combination of depth, sensitivity, and maneuverability. And yes, it IS making "hammered for decades" patches productive again. We look forward to reading more about your auriferous exploits once the weather improves. HH Jim

Jim, is the 6x4DD coil available yet for the 24K??? 

[Jim McCulloch]

No, not yet.