Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

GTI 2500

ohiogal

Member
Is the GTI 2500 still a relevant detector or has the what I call smart phone detectors, eg. Minelab equinox, made it obsolete?
 
Good question........most would say that the latest technology has made older machines like the 2500 a bad choice but you have to compare the machines in actual detecting conditions.For example,if i had the equinox and you had the 2500 and we went out detectingon a field......how many targets that the equinox picked up would be missed with the 2500,i bet it would be hardly any.There may be certain instances where the newer machines may have a very slight edge but in reality and after owning many different machines myself,my personal experience is that technology hasn't made a massive difference to finds rates over a seasons detecting.
 
Here's an opinion ... hoping it's helpful.

First, some background, just to get a feel for it. I've been detecting since 1989 in fields, woods, and beaches. That includes in New England and in Florida. I've been in clean fields, trashy parks, curb strips, and beaches. That is just to paint the picture of personal experience through 30 years.

Past detectors: Fisher CZ-7a Pro, Fisher CZ-70, Garrett AT3 Beach Hunter, Teknetics Gamma 6000.

Current detectors: Teknetics Omega 8000 (Version 4), and Garrett GTI-2500.

Humble opinion: the Garrett GTI-2500 is the best detector I have ever used. It goes as deep, and accurately, as any other detector that I have used.

It has the one thing that ALL the others don't have: the GTI-2500's "Target Imaging". When pinpointing, you get a visual readout of both the "size" and "depth" of the target.

With the others, you might (for example) have a coin at 5 inches. Or you might have something larger than a coin, deeper down. You can of course swing your coil back and forth in different directions over the target, and try to figure out if it's "small and shallow" or "large and deep". In many cases, it's a similar reading. So, you dig. After you get down 8 or 9 inches and your pinpointer tells you it's still deeper, you begin to figure out it's not a shallower coin. After 9 inches, after you swing your pinpointer around in a pretty large and deep hole, your pinpointer starts showing you it's a large target down there. Now maybe you want it, or maybe you don't.

Hey ... no harm done, except that you had to do that digging to find out.

OK, now with the GTI2500. When you pinpoint the target, you get two kinds of information. You get them both at the same time. You get the depth of the target, and the size. (Size matters.) If it's a coin-size target at 4 inches, you know it. If it's larger than a coin at 8 inches, you know it. You can dig if you want to ... by my experience is that the GTI has been very accurate for both depth and size.

Something to think about. You can spend your time digging that hole, or you can spend your time going forward through the field.

OK, long message. I hope it's been helpful, and hasn't bothered anyone.

Bottom line ... I have enjoyed every detector I have had. All have been good and fun to use. Still, I treat the GTI2500 as the one to use for serious detecting.

Cheers,

Joe
 
Since 1972 I have been out there with a great many machines. Never had a chance to go to England.
I have had a Garrett GTI 2000, 2500 and many others. Still have the GTI 1500. I loved the accurate size and depth of these machines. I never figured out how deep they went, but when it said it was a quarter or a dime and you sized it, That is what it was.
 
I had a GTI-2500 with the original white coil. Never liked it when it was new, back in 2003; too much false triggering. So it sat in the corner of the basement collecting dust. About 18 months ago, I took it out, put in new batteries. Of course, I'm 16 years older, and to me it just seemed heavy. It still false triggered like crazy making it useless, so I called Garrett. I obtained and RMA and sent it in for repairs. They completely rebuilt the machine, right down to the labels. All that was original was the shaft, arm cuff and battery holder. It also received the standard ProFormance coil. The cost for this rebuild was very reasonable.

When I received it from Garrett, it looked brand new, and worked like a champ. It was a little lighter with the black coil, still rather heavy, but killer on coins at the park. Like the posts state above, when it imaged a coin, it was a coin. You could tell an aluminum can from a coin easily. Alas, I sold the near-new detector on Ebay in a search for something a bit lighter to swing.
 
The GTI has a very deep true all metal mode, single tone, but with icon-curser/ID identifier still working. The GTI 2500 is also still designed to be utilized with the deep seeking 2 box system. Comparatively speaking, it is much larger and somewhat heavier then most new designed detector, however, it is well balanced and easy to use. The information on the screen is quite legible. It is a coin shooters' dream utilizing the sizing feature, also available on the discontinued GTI 1500 detector. I still use mine occasionally.


eagle.jpg


Here's a pic of the GTI 2500 with the eagle eye attachment, which measures larger targets in feet, not inches.

scorcher.jpg


The "TREAURE TALK" feature is no longer available. To me, it is a collector's item. I am never going to part with my GTI 2500.
 
Last edited:
The GTI 2500 is, in my opinion, a dated model that is not one of the more versatile detectors for a majority of everyday hobbyists. Does it work? Yes, for some people and for some applications. For me? Absolutely not. I had one back in 2001 with the white coils and I will give it credit for providing pretty decent depth in the threshold based all metal mode. in the motion basebased discriminatediscriminant mode, it had a delayed response, did not provide the response and performance that I needed, and the device was heavy.

I use lighter-weight detectors whenever I can, and because I spend the bulk of my detecting time Relic Hunting in dense ferrous debris ghost towns and similar old sites, and places with a lot of brush, rocks, building rubble and trash, I rely on smaller size search coils and have usually used 5" to 7" coils ... 95+% of the time since 1968. For the GTI 2500 to provide its 1 glowing feature, Imaging, it requires the larger size search coils. So again, it doesn't provide any benefit for me.

Just my thoughts regarding and almost vintage detector that might serve some folks okay but doesn't work for me.

Monte
 
Gti 2500 love it. target Id is great been detecting with mine for 7 years but if there’s a lot of trash in the ground the target id can throw you off or sometimes if the target is deep or multiple coins in the hole from my experience it could say trash or can sized object so don’t rely on it 100% but it’s definitely gives you a better idea of what’s down there. It’s heavy but after a few hunts you’ll get used to it. I actually inherited the machine and hated it at first but now I wouldn’t trade it. I found these a couple weeks ago at a small park that has been hunted to death. Honestly don’t know how they were missed the park is tiny. Old lipstick case barber Rosie
 

Attachments

  • 99060140-93B6-4C2A-9B40-183C3843E7E6.jpeg
    99060140-93B6-4C2A-9B40-183C3843E7E6.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 175
  • FDD79ABC-116E-41D1-88F5-A00BD0340C4D.jpeg
    FDD79ABC-116E-41D1-88F5-A00BD0340C4D.jpeg
    600.9 KB · Views: 157
Gti 2500 love it. target Id is great been detecting with mine for 7 years but if there’s a lot of trash in the ground the target id can throw you off or sometimes if the target is deep or multiple coins in the hole from my experience it could say trash or can sized object so don’t rely on it 100% but it’s definitely gives you a better idea of what’s down there. It’s heavy but after a few hunts you’ll get used to it. I actually inherited the machine and hated it at first but now I wouldn’t trade it. I found these a couple weeks ago at a small park that has been hunted to death. Honestly don’t know how they were missed the park is tiny. Old lipstick case barber Rosie
This is a brilliant example of somebody has spent the time to get to know their machine.The GTI 2500 is an old design but there is a reason its still going strong........it works and it works well.Ive owned loads of machines that have supposedly been superceded that are just as good as anything on the market.
 
The GTI has a very deep true all metal mode, single tone, but with icon-curser/ID identifier still working. The GTI 2500 is also still designed to be utilized with the deep seeking 2 box system. Comparatively speaking, it is much larger and somewhat heavier then most new designed detector, however, it is well balanced and easy to use. The information on the screen is quite legible. It is a coin shooters' dream utilizing the sizing feature, also available on the discontinued GTI 1500 detector. I still use mine occasionally.


View attachment 10723

Here's a pic of the GTI 2500 with the eagle eye attachment, which measures larger targets in feet, not inches.

View attachment 10724

The "TREAURE TALK" feature is no longer available. To me, it is a collector's item. I am never going to part with my GTI 2500.
Why was the treasure talk removed ? And wasn’t there a back light already before they put the backlight button where the treasure talk button was at?
 
Top