After the event at Back Creek, was looking to supplement the Nox 800, so have seen the Gold monster in action but are they really worth the expenditure?
I have a GM1000 and I am yet to find gold with it after a couple of trips to the west (but it could be user, location or detector at fault there).
But I can say a few things: in particularly hot ground it becomes pretty useless. Even in relatively normal ground it is rather chirpy. I am personally rather annoyed by the constant chirp and run in a lower sensitivity than I should (possibly hence my problems finding gold). If you want to detect creeks (which, especially on the west is seemingly the only place to detect) it can become incredibly chirpy and for some reason beep every time the head is moved in and of water, making finding underwater targets almost impossible. The discriminator is useful-ish, far more basic than the Nox’s; it is convinced (much to my repeated disappointment) that lead, copper and aluminum are gold (because they’re non-ferrous). One positive of the scale is that ground noise normally appears on the ferrous side, but having said that I have dug targets far on the non-ferrous side for them to just petter out. Another thing that gets on my nerves is that at moderate to high sensitivity it becomes very bump sensitive, making boulder filled areas hard to detect. The bumps also tend to appear on the non-ferrous side of the scale. A final thing that annoys me is how at high sensitivities my hand beeps the detector! I learnt this the hard way, sitting in a creek confused that my basically empty shovel was beeping the detector. I honestly thought I had a tiny gold nugget stuck to my hand, but alas that was not the case. Depth penetration also isn’t great: I have never retrieved a target deeper than 4 or so inches.
As you can see I have a slightly negative view of the GM1000, although this could change the day I actually find some gold. I also have never really used any detector apart from it so the problems above could be universal. In all honestly it’s performance is probably largely comparable to the Nox. From what I can tell it shines best when you’re for tiny dots of gold close to the surface in a relatively unmineralised area that PIs might miss. I have certainly found some tiny bits of cans and foil in areas that appear barren of all other targets (other detectorists perhaps?)
Hope this hopes a bit!
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Thanks for the input good and negative all helps
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From my experience, getting a 6" coil for your equinox would make it very similar to the gold monster for a lot less money. If you want something that will perform well in water and mineralized ground you will have to spend a bit more and get something like an SDC2300.
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Hey Batmaximus, what qmot said is exactly what I would of thought about the GM1000 It operates at a high khz frequency this makes it sensitive to hot rocks and ground mineralization in general. With no notch disc. you have no options but to put up with the chatter. As qmot points out the nox is nearly as good at finding tiny pieces of gold but it gives you more options. Dave also pointed out that the 6" coil is your best bet, he’s a good operator, have a look at the tiny pieces of gold he’s found with his nox. With the 800 you already have a great VLF, I know, because I have one, stick with that and get to know it, the GM is a switch and go machine for beginners, in mild ground it will out perform the 800, but by the narrowest of margins, in hot ground it’s, to quote qmot pretty useless. Just to finish off the the coiltek 10x5 elliptical coil has as sensitive “nose” for tight spots and has good reviews, nearly as sensitive as the 6" Both together would be a cheaper option than a new detector.
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I’m not bagging the GM1000 in the right ground it’s a very capable gold machine, one of the best, but it’s lack of options swayed me to buy the nox 800.
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Great words of wisdom to consider.
Thanks Blackjack!
Looking at a new 6" coil for the nox 800.
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