Old Groundhog question...

[elBuro]

I have one old Groundhog, a "Master Hunter" with 7" and 10" coils. I just purchased a newer "Gold Hunter" with audio adjust the older one doesn't have. I have not received the "Gold Hunter" yet. Both are the small Groundhog box with master vlf/tr toggle switch in the handle.

Question: Was the Gold Hunter tweaked for prospecting or was it just a sales gimmick name? Any different in performance/depth etc?

Thanks

 

[Sven]

Ground Hog Originally made for Australian Gold fields had a single turn ground balance control from what we have seen and became very popular. Then Garrett renamed it GOLD HUNTER for the South North Central America's, Americanized version, with a 10 turn ground balance. To capitalize on the performance and success it had in Australia as sell it as the new gold machine in North America, wouldn't you buy a detector than found 2lb nuggets consistently.... eventually the Gold Hunter. See any similarity in the name Ground Hog vs. Gold Hunter........the first letters GH. The Hogs were really great for hunting for very raw silver nuggets hunting the tailing of the old silver mines here in Northern Canada.
If the machine works it' a very desirable unit, just a bit heavy, eat your wheaties.

And then there was the Australian CM42 (using orig. Ground Hog) Custom Mode 42:
Can't find the picture, hidden on my drive. But, here's the scoop on it.

"okay, took a look, hard to tell much, but it is a very old Garrett detector, I would say it is older then 1985, as I used to sell a bunch of Garrett Gold Hunters back then, and they were similar to this case, but newer machines than this machine. So I will analyze this puzzle of the Modification 42, and tell you just what I think the modification is.

Now I have a Garrett catalog, with Garrett ADS III on front cover, and it has "pretty much" the identical same meter, but slightly different, as the Australian model CM42. The catalog is dated May 1983.

Going inside this May 1983 catalog, and looking at the models, Garrett had ADS 1, ADS II, and ADS III models, and they were all Master Hunter models, 5.5khz. The Groundhogs were in it, but each model had a slightly different meter display. By 1983, they had begun to change the meter displays. The ADS III still had the "almost" same meter display as your CM42, but the ADS II and ADS I had a older meter display, which featured the yellow (left arrow) and green (right arrow). The numbers shown on the top of the CM42 Groundhog/ADS III meters, were for the coin depth circuitry of the ADS III machines. A variant of that meter, for the models without coin depth came the next year, in 1984.

Now by 1985, Garrett had the Groundhog model, called the Gold Hunter, which I sold a bunch of them. Our Groundhog model had the same meter as the CM42 Groundhog, but our models had more features. So I am thinking your CM42 machine, most likely is from the 1984 year. This is as close as I can get to your CM42 Australian Groundhog, and of course, it definitely is a 15.5khz detector, not a 5.5Khz detector!

I am enclosing a photo of this 1985 Gold Hunter model, which has to be the newer version of your CM42 Groundhog. It was a very hot detector for gold nuggets, and one guy used to go spend each summer in Alaska, at the town of Rooster Alaska, and he used to take this Gold Hunter, which he bought two of them from me, along with him. He sent in all his friends to come and buy them from me too, and I sold a bunch of them that summer in 1985.

If you look at the photo, it says "Americanized Version", designed to be used in North, Central, and South America. So it is likely that the CM42 was the Australian version, from either 1984 or 1985. More likely 1984.

Now the solution of the CM42...


If you look at your CM42, the ground cancel does not say "10 turn", so I am guessing, that the CM42 modification is a replacement of the standard ground tuning control, with a American "10-turn" tuning control!!!!! Probably bought them in quanitity from Garrett. And most likely, he did NOT tell anyone, just what he modified! And he had to buy the 10 turn controls from Garrett, as he wanted them to look normal, and not different, so not to create attention to a different control. Put the original knob back on again, so that nothing appeared changed on the detector. So if you looked inside it, you could not see anything different. Pretty slick operation...

So this Australian figured out, that he could change the normal ground cancel knob, with a 10 turn knob, like the Americans were using, and charge some extra money for the fantastic CM42 modification, and sell more machines than his competitors!

That is why he had the label printed, publicizing his CM42 modification! I bet he sold a lot of them back then. Even the guy who sent you the photos, was impressed with this CM42 modified Groundhog metal detector!......The CM42 stands for Custom Modified, it was not done by Garrett Electronics, it would have been done by this detector company, that has the label on it. Do not have any idea what a "42" stands for, it was something unique as a selling point by that metal detector dealer. I thought I knew all of the gimmiks from back then, but this is a new one for me..."

Don't forget to check out my website, eventually will have most of the Garrett catalogs posted: http://treasurelinx.com/garrett.html

 

[metalhead]

Hey, thanks cool info Sven. Awesome!
Yeah, I'm still trying to "Find An Ounce of Gold a Day" Here's my old Coin Hunter VLF/TR "Groundhog"