My recent experiences with the GPX-5000 on a saltwater beach

[Bill D. (VA)]

I earlier made a post on several forums asking for tips on how to setup and hunt on a saltwater beach using this machine. After receiving only minimal input I decided to give it a shot and recently had a couple chances to try it out. I didn't have any issues setting up the machine to operate smoothly, and was able to hunt with a gain of 12-14 with no problems at the Va Beach oceanfront. Here are the settings I ended up using:

Toggle switches: General / Special / DoubleD / Fixed

Settings:

- Vol Limit: 14
- GB Type: General
- Special: Salt-Gold
- Manual tune: Set to local conditions
- Motion: Slow
- Rx Gain: 14
- Audio: Normal
- Audio Tone: 50
- Stabilizer: 10
- Signal: 16
- Target Vol: 8
- Response: Normal
- Tracking: Medium
- Iron Reject: 9

I didn't have any interference problems either. I was using the waterproof platypus coil, but was very disappointed that it would false badly every time the water lapped up on it. The same is apparently true of the new Minelab CTX-3030. So I had to make sure I stayed away from the water. But my partner that day found 5 rings down in the very shallow water at low tide with an Excalibur. That's usually one of the most productive areas so I definitely was at a disadvantage by not being able to hunt there. Other than that I was very impressed with the way the machine handled. I was able to disc out most bobby pins and small pieces of wire. They either nulled out or came in very erratically so after digging a few of those signals I learned to leave them alone. Before heading to the bebach I had done some air testing and discovered that even when using the max iron reject setting I could still solidly pick up even the thinnest of gold bans so I had no fear about that. It also got great depth on coins, but I already knew that would be the case. I dug a couple of nickels at around 15", and they came in fairly strong. The pinpointing with the platypus coil was very easy too, and it was lighter to swing than the stock DD. Anyway, based on my experiences I feel that using my Infinium is probably the best bet at this type of site. That machine is incredibly stable all the time, gets excellent depth, is easy to pinpoint, and you can move it in and out of the salt water without falsing. Its just too bad those bobby pins sound so good. And they slip through the sand scoop so easily. If they just made an Infinium with discrimination that would be awesome. I did hear a recent rumor that an Infinium II was in the works, but even the Garrett folks wouldn't acknowledge that. Guess I'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, I guess the bottom line with using the 5000 at a saltwater beach is that it will perform quite well as long as you keep it dry, but that will definitely limit your chances for success. And by the way, the pic below shows my best find in 2 short hunts with the 5000.

[attachment 238363 070612a.JPG]

 

[Jim Robertson]

Thanks Bill I have tried to keep my 5000 off the beach. I own the CTX 3030 and also the GT. Not long ago I purchased the Blisstool for the beach but that machine is not made for the beach either. I haven't got it to work. I guess it is time to take the 5000 back out again. Thanks for the settings I will try them in August. You know it's funny instead of buying more detector's when you already have the one that work's. O by the way I fixed the problem on bobby pins falling though the scoop. Just purchase a couple rare earth magnets and place them in the bottom on the scoop. They make them with holes so you can use a plastic tie to hold them in place. They work great even pick up the small pieces of fish hooks. Congrats on the ring nice find.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Thanks for the reply Jim. When I saw your name I thought it looked familiar. I think I know you from DIV. You're the VT guy, right? Me too if you remember. And you're the one that sold an Infinium or a coil (can't remember) to my friend Al a few years back. Hope I have the right Jim. Anyway, I've only taken my 6 m'onth old GPX-5000 to one DIV and didn't do very well as I wasn't sure what I was doing. Looking back now I realized my big problem was running the gain way too high. I figured if it was running smooth and was properly ground balanced I could crank up the gain as high as I could. I was running it around 18-19. But when I would get into an area with iron and/or relics it would be constantly overloading and I couldn't get any separation. I was also using the sharp timing which may have been a bit much. I don't think I knew how to set the level of iron reject either. I saw an earlier post you did where you provided all your settings, and those make a lot more sense. Guess it really doesn't hurt if you tone things down a bit as the machine will get super depth regardless.

I do have a little bit of experience with a GPX from a couple year ago when I borrowed John Hawkins' (FrontierWest) old 4000 machine to take to my hammered silver site. I was able to dig 3 more with his detector, and one was a 1500s sixpence from a measured 22". That was just unbelieveable! This fall I'm taking my 5000 back to that site with the 18" mono coil I have and give it one last shot. With almost 30 of those coins found there I'm sure I missed some and the 5000 should be able to find them. Fortunately the section of the field where they came from is very clean and the sandy soil has very little mineralization.

After I hunt that site again and go to the next DIV in Nov I'll probably sell the 5000 as I really don't have much use for it around here at the types of sites I like to hunt. I'm into hunting colonial homesites that are full of iron and other trash, and the 5000 is pretty useless there. I normally use my F75 to pick through all the junk, and have done quite well with that machine. However, last winter I did get into another early coin spill in some clean ground about 200 yards away from an early camp, and took my brand new 5000 there to recover the last 2 or 3 of the coins I found there. So it has an occassional application for me, but I just don't think its worth holding onto a $5000 machine for a couple uses a year. I was hoping it would work great at the beach and if so I may have been tempted to hold onto it, but that didn't work out as expected. I'd like to take the money from that machine and buy a real nice water unit, but I haven't been able to find what I want. They really don't even make it yet. Guess what I'm looking for is an Infinium with discrimination and a meter. But I'll be looking a long time to find anything like that.

Sorry to have rambled on here. Thanks again for responding, and I'll make it a point to look you up at the next DIV (assuming I have the right Jim ..... LOL!). See ya ...... Bill

 

[scoopjohnb]

Thanks for posting up your settings and results.
I'm looking into a GPX for the beach myself. Thinking is, why not try the best PI out there to combat sanded in conditions.
Most of my finds have come from halfway the low tide mark as below our beaches there are layers of clay where the finds rest up on.

Have had some nice results with the CTX and Excalibur, but in general I'm waiting for a window of opportunity where the beach gets stripped.
Just hoping to expand this window and be succesfull more of the time. Definitely need to read up on GPX machines, but as far as I have seen. We are boldly going where few have gone before.