How good are our fancy new metal detectors?

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My wife and I have about 20 rod and reel combos between us and yet each time we go fishing she takes the rod and reel i bought her 35 years ago and I take a 1 piece I had made and the old Alvey and a small flickstick for a bit of fun. All the other stuff just sits in the shed gathering cobwebs.
 
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We have the new GPX6000. It's super sensitive, finds tiny gold deep and of course any other metal that's there as well. However since getting this detector a year ago I've continually wondered whether it is really doing the job as well as our previous detectors.

We started out like most, ignorant nubies with big dreams. I'm not sure when we purchased our first detector but it was just a few weeks before the release of the SDC2300. ( MINELAB RELEASES SDC 2300 GOLD DETECTOR 09 Jul 2014 )
We were trying our luck at panning at 6 Mile on the Tanami Track just south of Halls Creek in Western Australia. We were getting the tiniest of specks of gold and I couldn't see that sort of result in my future. I climbed to the top of a mullock heap, googled metal detectors, called Ray at Karratha Minelab and ordered an SDC2300. Ray said that he would have it delivered directly from Minelab. The next day I called again to be told that the SDC would not be released for another couple of weeks. I thanked him, hung up and called The Prospectors Patch in Perth and ordered a Garrett ATX. It was delivered to the freight depot in Broome a couple of days later.

We never found anything but hotrocks and rubbish on our way home to Capel but we were already several thousand dollars out of pocket so seriously committed. One thing was clear, Mrs M needed a metal detector as well so once home I ordered a Whites GMT for her.
It soon became very clear to me that we needed help from others with experience in metal detecting for gold. We joined the Detecting West Australian Gold forum and put our name down to attend their annual Muster. This was a week out with a small group of dedicated gold seekers at the Niagra Dam near Kookynie. I was a little surprised and disappointed to see how little gold was found, in fact some didn’t find anything at all.

We got lucky and with a bit of guidance and good advice by the end of that week we had our first nugget, a nice little 0.8g piece of gold. Shortly after we were prospecting off on our own so nobody could see us making a fool of ourselves when the ATX picked up a huge signal under the caprock. The rock was not terribly hard but still took ages to dig down to the coke can in the bunny burrow below.

By the time the group broke up and headed home we had the fever so there was no going home for us. We’d learned enough to know how to find a pending lease so we headed north to try our luck on a new patch. We continued to dig bullets and rust until Mrs M lost interest and wandered off up a steep rocky hill nearby. Once again the ATX detected a deep target, it wasn’t loud but clear enough to have me dig a hole about 400mm deep to uncover our second nugget. I yelled to Mrs M “We’ve got gold” she called back “How big” I replied “An ounce”. Well it took her just moments to make her way down that rocky hill and join in the celebration. The nugget weighed in at 35g.

The next morning we left and headed further north to find more gold. We ran into a couple and showed off our find. Their response was “What are you doing here? You never leave a spot like that” so back we went. That same day I pulled out a 6g piece less than a metre from the first and nearly as deep.
After a thorough search for more we moved on to a new pending patch. There Mrs M found her first nugget, a 2.8g piece with the Whites GMT.

We went home with swelled heads thinking we knew it all....:rolleyes:

After several more trips out we worked out that Mrs M needed a better detector so we bought our first SDC2300. It was my original choice anyway and after a frustrating start it proved to be a good choice. We bought it new from The Prospectors Pick on our way to the airport. We were flying out to Hawai and planned to detect the beaches for war relics. It was a huge disappointment because the SDC was way too noisy to use with the supplied earphones and embarrassingly noisy to use without. We ended up throwing it back in the boot and detected with the beautifully well behaved Garrett ATX.

Some time later I we made friends with a couple, he had an ATX and his wife had the GPX5000. They worked out that the Minelab was finding more gold and by that time I’d noticed the difference in the gold we were finding. I was finding bigger and deeper gold and Mrs M was finding small surface gold that the ATX couldn’t detect. Our friend sold his ATX and bought a GPX5000 and encouraged me to do the same. I did.
I sold my lovely Garrett ATX and bought a second hand GPX4500 fitted with a Coiltek 14” Elite coil. It was a good move because the Minelab detector still found the big nuggets but also found a lot more smaller nuggets.

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This photo of Mrs M holding our finds was taken 2/10/2016. It was our first trip away with the GPX4500 and the SDC2300. We were still learning how to detect for gold but every year after that was better.

I first noticed how well we were doing when our friends traded their GPX5000s for a GPZ7000 each. They were well experienced detectorists by then but the results of their change was not encouraging. Then my brother decided to buy a detector and joined us on our annual trip away swinging a GPZ7000.

His finds were disappointing even though we were on the same ground but I put it down to his inexperience. The following year the result was the same, and then the following year. He didn’t usually come out for the same period of time but while he was there working the same ground I’d constantly find near double the gold with the GPX4500.

Now you might say some people find more gold than others. That’s true but we’ve spent half of our lives together and we usually do equally as well at whatever we do.

This year told the story. My brother saw how much small gold I found with the GPX6000 last year so this year he turned up with a GPX6000 as well. The result was that we found almost exactly the same amount of gold in the same time. The results pretty much confirmed my original thoughts. When he bought the GPZ7000 he spent all his time digging tiny pieces of gold and rubbish that I couldn’t detect with the GPX4500. Instead I walked on covering a lot more distance but finding a lot more gold because I only dug the bigger pieces.

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This is the gold I found last year on our annual trip away. Mrs M was not there but I was armed with a brand new GPX6000. I got 800 pieces for 169g. Not near my usual 500g with the GPX4500 but I was only away half of the time.

Every year the Garrett ATX or Minelab GPX4500 found gold nuggets in excess of 20g in size. So far the biggest I’ve found with the GPX6000 is 10g. Now I’m not saying that the GPX6000 and GPZ7000 can’t find big gold. Of course they can but we spend all day digging microscopic pieces of rubbish, lead shot and tiny nuggets that the older detectors ignored. Because of the extra ground covered in the same time the GPX4500 found big gold on a regular basis.

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I recently revisited a patch where Mrs M and I cleaned it out and brought home about 80g or so of gold. I got the bigger gold with the GPX4500 and Mrs M got all the small stuff off the surface along with an awful lot of shotgun pellets using the SDC2300. This is the result of my revisit swinging the GPX6000. I spent a morning digging about 40 shotgun pellets that were too deep for the SDC2300 and three tiny nuggets that I couldn’t detect with the GPX4500 and Mrs M most likely missed.

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I’m not leaving the GPX4500 at home next time......
I remember you at the Niagra Dam muster......From memory you found nothing, even though we did point you to where we had found gold with our Minelab detectors. My wife Lauren found the most gold that muster with her 2300. You wouldn't hear a bad word about the Garrett back then, although we tried to tell you. Glad to see you finally came to your senses and went Minelab.
 
I remember you at the Niagra Dam muster......From memory you found nothing, even though we did point you to where we had found gold with our Minelab detectors. My wife Lauren found the most gold that muster with her 2300. You wouldn't hear a bad word about the Garrett back then, although we tried to tell you. Glad to see you finally came to your senses and went Minelab.

HaHa, Yes toadskin we were a bit green back then, I got a 0.8 up the other side of Kookine on a pending patch. We walked over to a guy working there and he told me we actually found it on the edge of his lease. After everybody left we took the dirt road north to another pending an picked up a 35g nugget, our second piece and the following day a 6g bit right beside it so the Garrett did find gold :)
 
Great story Phil . I very much enjoyed reading it. Have you thought about putting all your trips into a book ? If you have the patience to write one i reckon it would be a best seller.
 
Great story Phil . I very much enjoyed reading it. Have you thought about putting all your trips into a book ? If you have the patience to write one i reckon it would be a best seller.

HaHa, no I don't think I have the gift. Besides that my literacy skills are quite limited, I rely on Mr Google to help me out on a daily basis ;)
 
I really enjoyed this whole forum Moneybox. It’s been a revelation for me, especially about the newer technologies on the market nowadays.
I believe I’ll be focusing on my GPX5000 and forgetting about everything else Including others opinions on the differing machines out there. I bought the 5000 for a reason. That reason is still very valid today. It’s a great machine. Simple.
So thanks very much for sharing and reminding me of that.
Cheers - Mr Tee
 
The EMI on the 6000 is not just your problem. I've learned to turn the volume to the minimum on the detector and adjust if necessary on the headphones but keeping it as low as I can. That way the detector can carry on all it likes and you still pick up most targets. It has a good distinct target response that can usually be heard over the constant chatter.

The most serious problem is that the detector is so unreliable that I need to carry a spare. That's not good enough when you fork out $8000. I'm fortunate to have plenty of detectors lying around but for many their new GPX6000 is their only detector and in a lot of cases it doesn't last the trip out.
That is a real problem the reliability even though you can get it replaced or fixed .It's the frustration of it not being able to use on your trip. I was thinking about buying 1 second hand but now no I think I would be buying trouble . Thank you for your appraisal I don't mind the little pieces but reliability would have me pulling my hair out.
 
That is a real problem the reliability even though you can get it replaced or fixed .It's the frustration of it not being able to use on your trip. I was thinking about buying 1 second hand but now no I think I would be buying trouble . Thank you for your appraisal I don't mind the little pieces but reliability would have me pulling my hair out.

My new GPX6000 has performed flawlessly for a few weeks now :)
 
My new GPX6000 has performed flawlessly for a few weeks now :)
Do you prefer your 6000 over your 4500? I'm trying to decide, I saw and used the 4000 and was able to go 10-12" deep on 0.2g nuggets whilst ignoring hotrocks in WA, I'm trying to avoid a detector that blips and chirps.
 
Don't know if it helps but I have both.
I use 6000 80% of time and 4500 about 20%
But if i had to go to one detector it would DEFINITELY be the 4500.

My reasoning is,
Picks up the larger deeper nuggets that the 6 misses.
Increased coverage ( the 17 inch coil on the 6000 is a dog).
Even though I use it less I get more weight from the 4500 in return.
Definitely more reliable.
Better coil selection.

There are times the 6000 is unbeatable especially on shallow patches of tiny gold and it is a dream to carry.
But just about everyone I know since getting a 6000 has an increased nugget count but a reduced total weight of gold found.
 
I wonder if NF/Coiltek will be allowed to release a lightweight 18" Mono round coil for the 6000?

The threshold stability should improve as it averages more ground and depth must improve.

I figure that if ithe 6000 can knock the socks off an SDC 8" on small gold with its 11"coil ( which it it can), then it must be able to give the 5000 & 7000 a run for their money on the deeper stuff if it wasnt limited by having smaller coils.

Maybe ML doesnt want the internal competition :)

It would really break the nice simple marketing of SDC= small & shallow, 6000=medium & 7000= big & deep.
 
I wonder if NF/Coiltek will be allowed to release a lightweight 18" Mono round coil for the 6000?

The threshold stability should improve as it averages more ground and depth must improve.

I figure that if ithe 6000 can knock the socks off an SDC 8" on small gold with its 11"coil ( which it it can), then it must be able to give the 5000 & 7000 a run for their money on the deeper stuff if it wasnt limited by having smaller coils.

Maybe ML doesnt want the internal competition :)

It would really break the nice simple marketing of SDC= small & shallow, 6000=medium & 7000= big & deep.
Yep, I was extremely disappointed with the ML 17x13 coil for the 6000.
Totally unusable on mineralised soil.
 
Yep, I was extremely disappointed with the ML 17x13 coil for the 6000.
Totally unusable on mineralised soil.
Initially I wasn't too happy with it either but to be honest didn't give it much of a chance to start with.
Recently gave it a good full day in ground I knew had deeper gold & I've changed my mind. It punches deep & ran pretty well, albeit in lower settings etc. than I'd normally use.
Larger coils have always suffered more with EMI & been harder to tune. Unfortunately with the advent of more sensitive coils (Evo/Elite etc .) & more sensitive machines a side effect is the large monos now are more sensitive to surface mineralisation (as they are also more sensitive to small, shallow targets), regardless of detector, as well as consistent deep mineralisation or saturated ground. With older monos most would say a large coil could handle surface mineralisation better but not EMI. IMO that is no longer the case.
Unless something better comes along it's now a keeper for me & I was thinking of selling it. Definitely not my go to coil though but definitely not a "dog" either. Just needs good tuning, balance & settings.
 
Don't know if it helps but I have both.
I use 6000 80% of time and 4500 about 20%
But if i had to go to one detector it would DEFINITELY be the 4500.

My reasoning is,
Picks up the larger deeper nuggets that the 6 misses.
Increased coverage ( the 17 inch coil on the 6000 is a dog).
Even though I use it less I get more weight from the 4500 in return.
Definitely more reliable.
Better coil selection.

There are times the 6000 is unbeatable especially on shallow patches of tiny gold and it is a dream to carry.
But just about everyone I know since getting a 6000 has an increased nugget count but a reduced total weight of gold found.
What would be the typical size of nuggets found by a 6000? With my 3000 it was .2-.4 grammers, with the 4000 same but deeper in noisy ground.
 
Initially I wasn't too happy with it either but to be honest didn't give it much of a chance to start with.
Recently gave it a good full day in ground I knew had deeper gold & I've changed my mind. It punches deep & ran pretty well, albeit in lower settings etc. than I'd normally use.
Larger coils have always suffered more with EMI & been harder to tune. Unfortunately with the advent of more sensitive coils (Evo/Elite etc .) & more sensitive machines a side effect is the large monos now are more sensitive to surface mineralisation (as they are also more sensitive to small, shallow targets), regardless of detector, as well as consistent deep mineralisation or saturated ground. With older monos most would say a large coil could handle surface mineralisation better but not EMI. IMO that is no longer the case.
Unless something better comes along it's now a keeper for me & I was thinking of selling it. Definitely not my go to coil though but definitely not a "dog" either. Just needs good tuning, balance & settings.
Have to disagree on this, the 17 regularly does not pick up deeper nuggets found by the 11 ran them side by side for weeks on all settings, and over hundreds of nuggets.
Whats the use of a bigger coil that you expect to punch deeper and find it doesn't?
Also suffers from falsing badly, may be usable in mild soil but terrible in WA.
The NF and Coiltek coils also are no better than the stock especially the Coiltek (worst of the three) but an argument could be made that they are more reliable, we are now on number 5&6 of the ML 11s.
 

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