Garrett GTI2500 for Gold Nuggets???

[JohnnyThunders]

I had a Garrett CX that someone stole from my garage in the past few days,I never really used it but now i want a new toy lol...
Thinking of getting the Garrett GTI2500,since I will be useing it in the east coast in the Poconos and in Montauk on the beach...
I will be going to different parts of AZ and Calif looking for GOLD,,,will this pickup up any goldHate to buy a metal detector that i will only use once a year on the west coast looking for gold nuggets or anything close.........
Will The Garrett GTI pickup GOLDJohnnyT

[Willy]

Hi Johnny. The 2500 will pick up gold.. but what size is the question. In disc. mode it's not the most sensitive to the smaller stuff, in all-metal is another story. I don't know how the regular AM mode compares to the PP AM mode, but when I had my GTI 1500, I could get a signal on a 1-2 grain nugget in PP mode. I was surprised, to say the least. It seems like Garrett really jacked up the gain on these detectors. The thing to try is using a DD coil over some nasty ground to see how it responds to small low conductors. In a couple of weeks time I'll be doing a head to head between A QXT, GTI 2000, and a Cobra II. Seeing as the ground here is as tough as you'll find anywhere, it should be pretty instructive. A lot of people put down Garrett detectors, but the hell of it is, thet're really good machines & can hold their own with anything out there. I've used a GTI 1500 in the AZ desert & it had no problem with the ground.. went pretty deep too. We did some tests outside of Arivaca with ( if I remeber right) a 2 dwt nugget, and it did pretty good on it. Can't remember exactly how deep, it being about 5 yrs past. I'm not hooked on any one brand, but it ticks me off when people gratuitously slam a product, and it seems that Garrett has been subject to a kind of bad PR campaign by others. Just take a look at what happened when the Infinium came out. The Minelab PI boys were all up in arms and bringing, up any explanation they could create to show why the Infinium was not a decent nugget finder. A friend of mine used one with great up in AK in highly mineralized ground. I was there & witnessed it.. also saw a couple of SD 2200d's being used... they didn't do any better. On the other hand, the Garrett Scorpion is kind of a dog. It's sensitive and all, but overpriced, a bit antiquated, and has an absolutely ******ed battery replacement scheme. No kudos there. While I wouldn't go as far as to claim that a general purpose coin detector will outperfom a dedicated nugget machine (GMT, GB2), it might be surprisingly effective. ...Willy.

[Monty]

I have a GTI2500 but have never searched for gold. There is a section in the manual that addresses that topic. You can pull up the manual on Garrtt's web site. Monty

[ChuckNC]

Johnny,
I talked to a Garrett rep last year about nuggett hunting with the GTI2500 and a CXIII. I was tiold to use them in motion all metal vs non-motion all metal. Seems that the motion all metal will pick up smaller gold. Also, a DD coil would be easier to pinpoint with.
Hope this helps.
Chuck

[JohnnyThunders]

Yeaaa all been very helpful.........I see many newer Used Whites Detectors on Ebay and not many people with garretts selling theirs...
I am sure that they are not as good as the Gold detectors but i am sure they are still pretty good to take on vacation.
I see KellyCo selling the garretts 2500 for around $850 with tons of free stuff like a case headphones and many DVDs with places to seach at.....I still see whites are made out of metal and afraid water,sand mosture will get in there.And I like the plastic houseing on the garretts......
Years ago I was looking in a stream about 1 1/2 hour northwest of Lake Tahoe and saw a pretty big Nuggett,walked into the stream and almosted slipped with my bear feet and could have hit my head on the rocks lol.Lost sight of the nuggett when i slipped...JT

[Seamuss]

Yeaaa all been very helpful.........I see many newer Used Whites Detectors on Ebay and not many people with garretts selling theirs...
I am sure that they are not as good as the Gold detectors but i am sure they are still pretty good to take on vacation.
I see KellyCo selling the garretts 2500 for around $850 with tons of free stuff like a case headphones and many DVDs with places to seach at.....I still see whites are made out of metal and afraid water,sand mosture will get in there.And I like the plastic houseing on the garretts......
Years ago I was looking in a stream about 1 1/2 hour northwest of Lake Tahoe and saw a pretty big Nuggett,walked into the stream and almosted slipped with my bear feet and could have hit my head on the rocks lol.Lost sight of the nuggett when i slipped...JT

I use a Garrett Scorpion for nugget shooting and I'm going to get GTI2500 for up-grading and treasure hunting. I have a couple friends that have this machine and one uses it mostly for treasure and the other friend uses his mostly for nuggets and their both satified.

[beaks]

the 2500 is a great gold detector(that is what i use)

My wife uses a 250 and it picks up small silver and gold even in hardrock(tried it today and it worked pretty fine)

for the really deep stuff i use a whites TM 808 and it will sound off up to 8 or 10 feet(never tried deeper yet)

[Bearkat]

I found a 4.6 dwt nugget in Georgia with my GTI 2500 and a 1.4 dwt with it in California. Great all round detector. Very sensitive for a 7.2 freq machine. Very powerful all metal mode.

Alan