GTI 2500 tips and tricks needed

[ncpaul]

Hello All,
Thanks for reading. I am trying to adjust years of learning on an XLT to my new GTI with a 12" coil. I need to tame the GTI2500 (aka "Big Dog") to my soil.
In general, what is a good sensitivity setting for very mineralized clay?
Is it normal to go directly to Manual GB in order to "settle" this big dog down a bit?
Is there advantages to dropping down to the 9.5 coil in highly mineralized soil(clay).

Any other tips or advise are welcome. Really want this "Big Dog" to hunt ...


Paul

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Hi Paul.
I can only offer some very limited advice as I own the 1500, so it doesn't have all of the features of the 2500.
As the imaging coil has 2 receive coils, you will find that it is more sensitive to mineralisation than other concentric coils. For this reason, I would start out with the standard coil and run the sensitivity at 6 bars at first. I find that if I run mine higher than 8, it starts to give me some false signals. if you are running with the sensitivity at 6 bars or less and you are getting erratic signals, or all signals lock up at the 4.5 notch, then the mineralisation is too much for the coil and you will need to use the 10x5 DD coil.
It's going to take a while to become familiar with the GTI, so be patient with it. It's not that it's a hard detector to learn as such; you just need to get used to how it behaves. It tells you plenty once you tune your ear to it. Make sure you have accurately centred your target, when pinpointing, or the imaging will give an inaccurate size. The intensity meter or detuning are a great help at getting that right. To detune, pinpoint as normal, then hit the pinpoint button a second time.
Hopefully, other 2500 uses can give you some more advise than that.
Mick Evans.
P.S. I bought an XLT a few months back. Not a bad machine at all. I haven't been out with it much yet though.

 

[John-Edmonton]

You can get a new chip installed (if your model is more then 2 years old, you won't have the new one) for a reasonable charge from Garrett. Otherwise, you just have to turn down the sensitivity.

 

[Uncle Willy]

First don't apply any learning on the XLT to the 2500 as they are two different breeds. Start fresh with the GTI and learn it and it's quirks in and out. I would stick with the stock coil for now as the big one sees too much ground at one time and run your sensitivity at about 6 or 6.5. Very rarely will you ever have to use manual GB unless you are shooting for small nuggets in nasty ground and need to balance positive as Auto Track will keep your detecor continually balanced to the ground it is being swept over.. Fast Track will serve 99% of your needs.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Forgot about that as I assumed he had a model equipped with it. Unless it's still under warranty the charge is about 40 bucks.

Bill

 

[bearkat4160]

I used the 2500 with the big 12.5 coil in mineralized red clay in Georgia to hunt civil war relics. It was little more noisy than the stocker so I set it on 6-7.5 sensitivity. It was still very deep, and Image is awesome with that coil as it Images deeper on smaller stuff.

Alan

 

[larrykadra]

I find when using my standard coil i can crank the sensitivity up to the point where it starts to chatter a little, then i back off one notch, yes it doe,s chatter a little,but when you pay attention to the signals, and answer only when signals are repeatable and consistant you will notice a big differance, I don,t mind an occassional false signal,but this doe,s take patience and it works.

 

[Digger22]

I like to use the 12 1/2 inch imaging coil, however I'm not around highly mineralized soil. I try to run sensitivity at max, (it doesn't always work that way). If I cannot run it at max, my first try would be fast track, if that doesn't do the trick, I go to manual ground balance. When all else fails I drop the sensitivity. I would think the same approach would work for mineralized soil, except I would not expect to be able to use as much sensitivity.

 

[prospector 55]

I noticed all of my 6 metal detectors will give you a false signal including my TDI but most of the false signals from my 2500 are not false at all about 99% of them are very small pieces of rusty IRON that I thoroughly chased down with a rare earth magnet, I run my sensitivity at about 9 all of the time and it does not get noisy in my highly mineralized soil, try adjusting the frequency of the 2500 no one ever talks about that one I find adjusting the frequency between 1-7.5 k can make a real difference how this puppy hits targets, and if your unit is making to much noise it may have a defective chip or software, a few years back that was a common problem Garrett Q/C was having with the 2500 it would chatter like crazy for no apparent reason I sent mine in twice before it was repaired correctly, the best thing you can do is hunt with it a lot in all of it's modes follow all of the instructions and look some up on garrets web site it is a complex yet simple machine and will do anything pretty much any other detector will do except better!! the Green Weeny is a real keeper!!!