Worth upgrading to GPX 5000 from 4500 for relics?

[steve herschbach]

I was asked the following question by PM. Do not be shy people just post them here.

"I have a 4500. I'm in Scotland and use it for coin/relic hunting. Would the additional and different timings on the 5000 benefit my type of use? Is there an advantage in using the 5000 over the 4500 for my type of hunting?"

My response - no, having used both I do not think there is any reason to ditch a 4500 to get a 5000 for coin and relic hunting. In fact for most nugget detecting that I personally do my old 4500 would do me as well as my 5000. But when I spent a month in Australia I spent the majority of the time running the new Fine Gold setting on my 5000 and that alone made the upgrade worth it for me. I doubt intense ironstone is an issue in Scotland relic hunting so that is unlikely to be of any real help.

The new coin/relic setting sounds enticing, but it is for ground that has such low mineral content that I have not heard of anyone actually using it. Maybe for clean white sand Florida beaches? It is a timing I need to experiment with more than I have. Any comments regarding the Coin/Relic timing would be welcome. If you have ground where it could actually be used that setting alone may be worth the upgrade, but again, it only offers a benefit in extreme low mineral ground.

If buying new I would not hesitate to get a GPX 5000 but for most people running a GPX 4500 it is hard to justify the upgrade unless you are putting a lot of time on the unit and finding a lot of gold. Then the upgrade may have a shot at actually paying for itself. It is in my case also a psychological thing. I like the confidence I feel having a top-of-the-line unit in my hands. I never have that feeling of "if I only had a XYZ" and that does count for something.

 

[iron bark]

I cannot comment on coil/relic hunting but patches that have been gridded with 4500 if the same patches are done again with a 5000 gold will turn up.

 

[filternozzle]

Steve,
Have you found the Salt Gold timing to be of any use for general searching in respect of coins/artefacts? And in your experience has Salt Gold on the 5000 proved more flexible or useful than the Salt Course on the 4500?

 

[steve herschbach]

Absolutely for nugget detecting in Oz no question. But that is a far cry from relic hunting in Scotland.

 

[steve herschbach]

Someday I hope to use a GPX on a saltwater beach but for my use the salt timings have never so much as been turned on. No salt/alkali flats in Alaska!

 

[filternozzle]

Steve, In respect of coin/relic hunting are your settings generally the factory pre-sets and what level of discrimination do you use?

 

[steve herschbach]

I never use discrimination on the GPX. Something I need to adress as it has improved and I have friends that seem to have it figured out somewhat. I had a bad experience early on with the Minelab discriminator (big specimen shallow called as iron) that caused me to leave it off ever since.

I just run in Normal with factory presets and bump gain as high as I can while remaining very stable. Even a poorly adjusted GPX blows any VLF or other PI out of the water so I do not worry much about getting that last half inch. If I run out of stuff to dig then I will worry, but so far that is not a problem!