I sold off my older GTI 2500 with treasure talk and bought a used 2015 GTI 2500 with almost no use on it. I am very pleased with this purchase and have been air testing it in the front yard with various combinations of coins, jewelry, and iron objects with the 9-1/2 PROformance Imaging coil. The settings were sensitivity at 9 and using search with image, belltone, bi-level tone, and "zero" discriminate mode, to hear the iron grunts. Items were placed on flat ground clear of any buried metals. I have made the following observations which were quite interesting and also have given me some confidence in this unit for finding certain items.
1. Placing a silver Washington quarter 1" away from a common 12D sinker nail centered on the long dimension of the nail: The GTI will bong on this coin from any angle and up to roughly 10" to 12" above the coin. The response was loud and clear all the way out to where the signal dropped off abruptly. Contrary to some of the older videos on youtube, this newer GTI does not have a slow recovery speed at all and I could literally whip this coil very fast and still get a positive response on this quarter with accurate target ID and accurate imaging depth to 6"-8". It appears to completely ignore the nail. Farther than 8" had inconstant imaging results with the quarter being indicated as a much larger object at 10". Maybe the imaging was influenced by the nail. The quarter ID'd correctly as quarter out to a full 10". The pinpoint also ignored the nail and favored the coin dead center. Very cool!!!
2. Trying the same test with a large men's .925 silver and 14kt gold rings produced the same results with correct ID's. The gold ring ID's in the nickel range but locked on to solid and consistent ID.
3. Trying the same test with a mercury dime resulted in no detection of the dime except for an occasional chirp. The larger iron object overshadowed the small dime sized object and the detector indicated a larger iron sized object correctly but nothing to do with the dime.
4. Placing a 3mm 14kt gold braided ladies bracelet on the ground with no nails: GTI is impressive on gold chains. In "zero" discriminate mode it accurately picked up and ID'd this chain loud and clear at a solid 4" and slightly out to 5". The ID was below nickel in the foil range as would be expected. This was actually about the same as my Fisher Gold Bug Pro could do. In all metal I could pick up the chain out to 6" or so but the ID drops out any further out.
5. The same gold chain test including the 16D nail an inch away completely masked the chain.
6. The 16D nail by itself is rather strange. When sweeping along the length of the nail the center of the nail is silent with an iron signal only at the ends of the nail. When sweeping perpendicular to the long dimension, the nail is detected with an iron signal. Depth and size were accurate out to 6"-8".
7. Small ladies 14kt gold hoop earring: Easily found in discriminate but shallower than the chain, maybe 3 inches depth at the most. ID was just above iron in the lower foil range. This is still very impressive and challenges the Gold Bug Pro in discriminate mode. In all metal it finds this earring maybe out to 4 or so inches but the response is a very very faint whisper.
Conclusions: The GTI does very well on larger targets in the quarter size and up mixed in with nails. However I did not surround the coin with nails which may have masked the coin. I will try this next time. The GTI will do well on smaller micro jewelry and chains as long as any iron is smaller than the target. If I were using this on our fresh water beaches I would search in all metal and dig every signal in order not to miss any chains and other smaller gold.
I wish I had the 5x10 scorcher or 5x8 DD to see how these do on separation. I'll bet they are really good on this newer GTI. I will be looking to purchase one of these coils in the near future.
1. Placing a silver Washington quarter 1" away from a common 12D sinker nail centered on the long dimension of the nail: The GTI will bong on this coin from any angle and up to roughly 10" to 12" above the coin. The response was loud and clear all the way out to where the signal dropped off abruptly. Contrary to some of the older videos on youtube, this newer GTI does not have a slow recovery speed at all and I could literally whip this coil very fast and still get a positive response on this quarter with accurate target ID and accurate imaging depth to 6"-8". It appears to completely ignore the nail. Farther than 8" had inconstant imaging results with the quarter being indicated as a much larger object at 10". Maybe the imaging was influenced by the nail. The quarter ID'd correctly as quarter out to a full 10". The pinpoint also ignored the nail and favored the coin dead center. Very cool!!!
2. Trying the same test with a large men's .925 silver and 14kt gold rings produced the same results with correct ID's. The gold ring ID's in the nickel range but locked on to solid and consistent ID.
3. Trying the same test with a mercury dime resulted in no detection of the dime except for an occasional chirp. The larger iron object overshadowed the small dime sized object and the detector indicated a larger iron sized object correctly but nothing to do with the dime.
4. Placing a 3mm 14kt gold braided ladies bracelet on the ground with no nails: GTI is impressive on gold chains. In "zero" discriminate mode it accurately picked up and ID'd this chain loud and clear at a solid 4" and slightly out to 5". The ID was below nickel in the foil range as would be expected. This was actually about the same as my Fisher Gold Bug Pro could do. In all metal I could pick up the chain out to 6" or so but the ID drops out any further out.
5. The same gold chain test including the 16D nail an inch away completely masked the chain.
6. The 16D nail by itself is rather strange. When sweeping along the length of the nail the center of the nail is silent with an iron signal only at the ends of the nail. When sweeping perpendicular to the long dimension, the nail is detected with an iron signal. Depth and size were accurate out to 6"-8".
7. Small ladies 14kt gold hoop earring: Easily found in discriminate but shallower than the chain, maybe 3 inches depth at the most. ID was just above iron in the lower foil range. This is still very impressive and challenges the Gold Bug Pro in discriminate mode. In all metal it finds this earring maybe out to 4 or so inches but the response is a very very faint whisper.
Conclusions: The GTI does very well on larger targets in the quarter size and up mixed in with nails. However I did not surround the coin with nails which may have masked the coin. I will try this next time. The GTI will do well on smaller micro jewelry and chains as long as any iron is smaller than the target. If I were using this on our fresh water beaches I would search in all metal and dig every signal in order not to miss any chains and other smaller gold.
I wish I had the 5x10 scorcher or 5x8 DD to see how these do on separation. I'll bet they are really good on this newer GTI. I will be looking to purchase one of these coils in the near future.
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Of all the detectors I have owned I really feel this is the most enjoyable to use. Can't explain it but I just like it. It really comes in handy for identifying small shallow targets vs deep targets. Most of the time it is correct. Sometimes it is wrong. But this is true with all detectors. The detector just feels solid. Not as prone to EMI as most of my other detectors. I like the hard rubber handle vs the foam handles of most others. It is built like a tank. Came with a nice carry bag. Just hope the zipper holds up.