WOW! Who-da thunk it?

[willy]

I picked up a GMH (the first model) for my buddy Cliff (if he's still alive) and was doing some air testing with it. A bit of a hassle because it didn't have a battery holder so I used a low voltage regulated 9v camera power supply to power it up. Anyway, air testing, I took my 1 grain test 'nugget' and decided to see if it could see it. Now, this little piece is difficult for ANY detector to find..next to unheard of for a low KHz machine to see it. I switched to AM mode, with the 8" concentric coil and whadya know, there was a response! Well, not an ear bangin' one, but sure 'nuff. Well, the AM mode with it's slow autotune is next to useless here, but the disc. mode will work fine. Switched it over to disc. and.. an ever so slightly more distinct response was heard. Huh! Well, I'll be getting a GMHIII in a couple of weeks and will be taking the whole works up to one of my favorite testing spots, the Coquihalla river. They'll quite possibly tank there, and so far only air tests have been done, but that old GMH has already outdone a Vaquero (had one, tested it, ditched it) in small gold sensitivity in disc. I'll also try out an F70 that's on the way. Personally, I don't really thing that either the Fisher or Garrett can hold a candle to my MXT when it comes to nugget hunting (also had a GTI 2500 and it couldn't either) but for coin/jewelry/relic hunting they'd probably prove to be the better units.
Well, if the weather holds I'll rig up an extension and see how the GMH does on in-ground low conductors. Have another 4-5 grain test nugget (which I'll have to root around for) and I'll see how it does with that one. ..Willy.

 

[metalhead]

Hey, I'm glad to see that you're enjoying that old GMH. Sorry to see that you don't have a battery holder for it. that sux. Did you try some of those shops that work on older machines( Like Pro Stock or East Texas)? Impressive results on the test nuggie. I used mine for prospectin' beck in the late eighties, before the Scorp came out. I didn't really have much luck nugget huntin' with it, but I did make some pretty good finds with it back in the day coin shootin' and relic huntin'(silver coins/minnie balls, CSA beltplate, etc). I hope you enjoy that CXlll. I love mine. It was my main machine before that GTI 2500 came out. I hope it's a PowerMaster unit. They sure got alot more depth than the units had before. Yeah that MXT is a great all around machine and really hot on nuggets. Too bad it doesn't have a manual ground balance option like the GMT. I always like to have that option, but it's auto ground balance is great. I don't own one, but I have swapped out machines with buddies in the past and played around with it for a few weeks. Got me some color with it, too. I partial to my Scorp and Infinium, though. Thanks for sharing those results. Happy Hunting.

 

[willy]

I dunno.. wasn't too impressed with the GTI 2500. For some reason, it lost a fair amount of sensitivity when the 5x10" DD was put on it. Also, the crummy ground I hunt gave it fits and the TID/size/depth readings were commensurately degraded. Not too happy about the 6c cells in the GMH's, but rechargeables are available on the net at reasonable prices. It might be hard to choose between the GMH III and the F70. How fast is the recovery speed with the GMH III? Supposedly, it's faster than the CZ's or XLT, but how much? The MXT has a really fast recovery and the F70 is supposed to be even faster. I wonder if the GMH II can compete in that department. I really like the surface blanking feature, not to knock out coins, but to get rid of larger, often deep but sometimes shallow, junk that can drive a person crazy at some places. It kinda works like the sizing on the GTI's but gets rid of the target instead of sounding off on it. The F70 doesn't have this feature, or ground tracking, but would probably be a better choice for coin/jewelry/relic hunting than the MXT.. I HATE HATE HATE constantly having to look at the screen. In that respect, the MXT disc./ID system is rather primitive. ..Willy.

 

[metalhead]

Yeah, that surface elimination is nice to have, especially in trashy areas. Man, I'm sorry to see that you were disappointed with that GTI 2500. I've found more goodies with my GTI 2500 than with any of my other machines.
The recovery time sux on any of the GMH units. From what I've heard that F70 has a fast recovery. GMH is built like a tank, though.Happy Hunting!

 

[willy]

Any young punk hassles me I'll club him down with the control box! Seriously though, if the surface elimination is set to the minimum and I scan the coil just a bit higher, almost all the large junk (at depth too) is knocked out and I can still get surface coins. gotta luv it. It's gonna be hard to choose between the 2 because of the different feature sets. Thing is, I already have a 'reasonably' HF detector in the MXT and a lower Hz might be nice. As for depth, I read that the loop-drive voltage is a bit higher in the MXT. ..Willy.