Mike Bearden
Member
Kellyco sent the Gamma 6000 to me a few days ago for a short field test to see how well it would perform in my area.
I live in northeast Alabama where the ground is saturated with rich iron ore and clay, a great proving ground for any detector.
After I received the Gamma and took it of of the box, the first thing one has to notice is how lightweight it really is, and it feels sturdy built when swinging it too.
I had read the online 24 page manual on Kellyco's site before the detector got here so I was anxious to try it out, cold weather or not.
You can imagine that after several years of detecting my 3 acre lot with just about every kind of detector made, there isn't much to find here .. but hey, you never get it all.
First early morning out with the Gamma was after a hard freeze and the ground had heavy frost everywhere. The Gamma refused to Fast Grab ground balance over the frost but it manual ground balanced easily within seconds and off I went.
I worked my way towards the backside of my property finding can slaw, small nails and a few pieces of clad along the way. When I got under the large oaks the Gamma sang out a medium high tone and registered 80 on the display, I dug down about 5 or 6" and found a fat Indian head penny hiding under a root and also spotted a copper wire in the hole. The Indian read 63 on the meter after I had it out of the hole. Only 2 feet away the meter popped up 55 on the display and the depth gauge was showing 3 bars, at 7" down I found the nickel.
Being already familiar with Teknetics latest digital detectors over the last 2 years it was easy to tell the difference between trash and good targets by both the display and the sounds, if it hit clean and sounded clean .. it was good, if it bounced a few numbers on the display and sounded kind of blatty it was almost always trash.
On the 2nd. day I decided to take the Gamma to a local park at Lake Guntersville, it has a few playgrounds and lots of big oaks surrounding picnic areas. The normal ground readings I get from detectors in this area is pretty constant but can vary between the mid 70's up into the 90's so this ground is extremely HOT for the most part.
The Gamma Fast Grab ground balance worked fine here at the lake and no frost was to be seen anywhere close to the water. I checked the Fast Grab against the manual ground balance several times and it was dead on.
Didn't count how much clad I got while I was there but I didn't bring a finds pouch with me so I had to go to the truck and empty my pockets twice
Also tried every notch combination available on the Gamma and was pleased with the results, I can count on one hand how times a trash target slipped in between the notching program .. so a job well done Teknetics !
In 2 days of testing I found quarters, dimes, or lest just say lots of clad and a few pieces of silver, the fat IH, some junk jewelry, fishing weights, key chain, cheap money clip, toy cars,a religiuos medal, and plenty of misc. targets.
Now for the cons ...
I didn't think the stock round 8" coil did as good of a job as it should with separation of close targets and for what it's worth, my hunting area just about demands a DD coil because the ground is so hot but I thought the low frequency of 7.8 kHz should have done a better job because in my experience ... the lower the frequency, the better on hot ground.
The headphone plug-in is designed to a small 1/8" socket ... this sucks !!!
WHY did they do that ?
I tried to use my regular detecting headphones with a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter and the weight of cord kept causing problems with it pulling out of the socket so I was forced to use a cheap set of MP3 phones .... bad idea Teknetics ... you deserve a SMACK for this bonehead idea.
Now I'll address the big raised rubber push buttons on the control panel.
They are to close together for my liking and almost impossible to use with gloves on because EVERYTIME that I tried to hit the pinpoint button I also touched the ON/OFF button and lost all of my detector settings.
That's right, the Gamma does not retain it's settings once turned OFF ... but being fair about the situation, I have huge hands and once I got it in my hard head to remove my gloves before pushing any buttons .... it was NOT a problem anymore.
Anyway ... I know this was only a short field test and that many more hours in the field are needed to make a absolute decision on any detector if one considers it to be WORTH having in their arsenal.
So ... take this test with a grain of salt and make you own decision ... I always do
As a matter of fact ... don't think that this post was made to influence anyone whatsoever because what works or doesn't work for me may be just the opposite for someone else.
Personally I believe the Gamma is a power house in a lightweight package and with more time it could become one of my favorite park killers so I don't want to read anywhere on this board where I was beating up on Teknetics ... overall it's a pretty decent detector IMO but every unit has it's flaws.
I've include a few pics involving the field test, take a good look at the one with the gold/red stones on the ground ... that's high grade iron ore and it's found on the surface and as far down as you care to dig. The Gamma handled this ground admirably, I'll give it that !
Good Hunting
Mike
I live in northeast Alabama where the ground is saturated with rich iron ore and clay, a great proving ground for any detector.
After I received the Gamma and took it of of the box, the first thing one has to notice is how lightweight it really is, and it feels sturdy built when swinging it too.
I had read the online 24 page manual on Kellyco's site before the detector got here so I was anxious to try it out, cold weather or not.
You can imagine that after several years of detecting my 3 acre lot with just about every kind of detector made, there isn't much to find here .. but hey, you never get it all.
First early morning out with the Gamma was after a hard freeze and the ground had heavy frost everywhere. The Gamma refused to Fast Grab ground balance over the frost but it manual ground balanced easily within seconds and off I went.
I worked my way towards the backside of my property finding can slaw, small nails and a few pieces of clad along the way. When I got under the large oaks the Gamma sang out a medium high tone and registered 80 on the display, I dug down about 5 or 6" and found a fat Indian head penny hiding under a root and also spotted a copper wire in the hole. The Indian read 63 on the meter after I had it out of the hole. Only 2 feet away the meter popped up 55 on the display and the depth gauge was showing 3 bars, at 7" down I found the nickel.
Being already familiar with Teknetics latest digital detectors over the last 2 years it was easy to tell the difference between trash and good targets by both the display and the sounds, if it hit clean and sounded clean .. it was good, if it bounced a few numbers on the display and sounded kind of blatty it was almost always trash.
On the 2nd. day I decided to take the Gamma to a local park at Lake Guntersville, it has a few playgrounds and lots of big oaks surrounding picnic areas. The normal ground readings I get from detectors in this area is pretty constant but can vary between the mid 70's up into the 90's so this ground is extremely HOT for the most part.
The Gamma Fast Grab ground balance worked fine here at the lake and no frost was to be seen anywhere close to the water. I checked the Fast Grab against the manual ground balance several times and it was dead on.
Didn't count how much clad I got while I was there but I didn't bring a finds pouch with me so I had to go to the truck and empty my pockets twice
Also tried every notch combination available on the Gamma and was pleased with the results, I can count on one hand how times a trash target slipped in between the notching program .. so a job well done Teknetics !
In 2 days of testing I found quarters, dimes, or lest just say lots of clad and a few pieces of silver, the fat IH, some junk jewelry, fishing weights, key chain, cheap money clip, toy cars,a religiuos medal, and plenty of misc. targets.
Now for the cons ...
I didn't think the stock round 8" coil did as good of a job as it should with separation of close targets and for what it's worth, my hunting area just about demands a DD coil because the ground is so hot but I thought the low frequency of 7.8 kHz should have done a better job because in my experience ... the lower the frequency, the better on hot ground.
The headphone plug-in is designed to a small 1/8" socket ... this sucks !!!
WHY did they do that ?
I tried to use my regular detecting headphones with a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter and the weight of cord kept causing problems with it pulling out of the socket so I was forced to use a cheap set of MP3 phones .... bad idea Teknetics ... you deserve a SMACK for this bonehead idea.
Now I'll address the big raised rubber push buttons on the control panel.
They are to close together for my liking and almost impossible to use with gloves on because EVERYTIME that I tried to hit the pinpoint button I also touched the ON/OFF button and lost all of my detector settings.
That's right, the Gamma does not retain it's settings once turned OFF ... but being fair about the situation, I have huge hands and once I got it in my hard head to remove my gloves before pushing any buttons .... it was NOT a problem anymore.
Anyway ... I know this was only a short field test and that many more hours in the field are needed to make a absolute decision on any detector if one considers it to be WORTH having in their arsenal.
So ... take this test with a grain of salt and make you own decision ... I always do
As a matter of fact ... don't think that this post was made to influence anyone whatsoever because what works or doesn't work for me may be just the opposite for someone else.
Personally I believe the Gamma is a power house in a lightweight package and with more time it could become one of my favorite park killers so I don't want to read anywhere on this board where I was beating up on Teknetics ... overall it's a pretty decent detector IMO but every unit has it's flaws.
I've include a few pics involving the field test, take a good look at the one with the gold/red stones on the ground ... that's high grade iron ore and it's found on the surface and as far down as you care to dig. The Gamma handled this ground admirably, I'll give it that !
Good Hunting
Mike
Hope you covered it back up real good