Makro Gold Racer reviews

[kenpodetector]

I wanted to toss an update out. I been using the GR19 coil with what I thought were better results at least in my ears it seemed to settle down the detector some and was till pulling some shot and small pieces of iron out. But I just did a coin test with a couple confirmed very irony hot rocks burred at various depths on my pretty highly mineralized ground here at home. Using only all metal mode the detector would not pickup a quarter at about 11 inches. Did not hit on a few dimes at 5 inches. Missed a hot rock with a penny under it at 4 inches. Did hit on a couple pennies at 4-5 inches. I cranked up and cranked down the sensitivity.. Re ground balanced, used ground tracking and then didn't. So now I am scratching my head thinking wow I have had this thing in the field and wonder what I have passed up. And now thinking about the time I have on the GR well I can't recall digging any deep holes. I am going to try the turn up the threshold very high and use audio boost and see what happens. Yes this isn't a coin detector but, we all know it should pick this stuff up. I will give it a pass on the deeper quarter. Let you guys know what I find out.

IMAUDIGGER Sorry you didn't offend me these forums sometimes are hard to judge how someone says something.
I have not done a shoot in the Fallon area but I am in Northern Nevada. I have a couple mining claims near Jessup. But there is plenty of exploring you can do in the and around the area. You can even visit the site of a underground nuke blast outside Fallon which is close to Sand Mountain. I stay out of Sand Mountain now days its kinda ruined in my opinion. Oh the internet show sorry had to edit here.. Its on You Tube Just search for Internet Gold Miner or you can link into it on my website http://www.johnnynuggets.com

 

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[kenpodetector]

Alright here is an update I couldn't stand it I went out and did the Audio Boost and cranked up the threshold and even the sensitivity and it did find another dime I buried but still nothing on the quarter at 11 inch or that penny under the iron hot rock at 4 inches. The machine kinda goes bonkers at times. I grabbed a TDI and whamo hits on all no issues, so then i grabbed the bounty hunter and it hit on all but on the deep quarter it barely made a noise a few times. So whats that say to me this thing doesn't get any depth. Heck I think the DFX is like a depth monster. Now we can say that I am pretty mineralized like halfway up plus on the scale but I should still see everything and give a slight pass to the deeper clad quarter. I will drag out the GMT but I am sure it will nail them as I have actually tested it at a park once. Now using the TDI is a little unfair because its a PI. But the crappy bounty hunter wow.. This is the second Gold Racer and I cannot say I will use it in the field ever again I have to many other proven machines for this. Now I have to go back and run the TDI over the areas that I detected with the Marko and see what I missed lol.. Better get to work..

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Hmmmm... did you buy the Gold Racer to coin detect or find small gold nuggets?

All detectors have strengths and weaknesses - the Gold Racer is no different. It is a single frequency 56 kHz detector optimized for small low conductive targets. As such it is great on small gold nuggets in particular. By its nature it is not hot on high conductive targets like quarters or dimes. If those are what you are looking for a lower frequency coin detector, like your Bounty Hunter, should be expected to do a better job.

High frequency machines like the Gold Racer and Gold Bug 2 are hot on tiny stuff but also light up ground mineralization, and so get poor depth on larger targets in highly mineralized ground compared to lower frequency VLF detectors or PI detectors. In very bad ground I would expect many other machines to do better on high conductive targets. No one machine does everything, and that is why very many prospectors have a PI and a hot VLF. One does not expect a hot VLF to do what a PI will do or vice versa. So yes, you would have to run both over the same ground if you suspect targets lurk that one would find that the other would miss. My GPZ 7000 easily hits gold the Gold Racer misses, and the Gold Racer easily hits tiny gold the GPZ 7000 misses. That is why I will have both with me when I head out today.

The only coin that should ever be used to compare nugget detectors is a U.S. nickel - a low conductor, unless your goal is to evaluate nugget detectors as potential coin machines. A nickel is electrically similar to some 1/4 oz gold nuggets. In reality if testing something like a Gold Racer I use gold nuggets. I assume you have some? If not small lead or aluminum pieces can serve. The gold nuggets I would be using would be around 1/4 gram or about 4 grains and smaller. A one grain nugget about the size of bird shot is a very good test target for the Gold Racer, or bird shot itself.

Hopefully this helps. I am heading off grid so will not be able to respond. Good luck!

 

[sycotoad]

The detector works fantastic I have had it out 2 times in Nevada here. And yes in pretty mineralized soils. I had a problem with plugging in my Koss headphones into it as the threshold went crazy up and down and made me think the detector was junk first time out. Second time out I discovered if I didn't plug my cans into it the threshold was perfect and the detector worked excellent. So the big question is this? Is this detector defective ? Someone else has the same complaint on the forum here. I am going to plug in a couple different sets today and see what is going on. There is zero reason why plugging in any set of headphones should cause an issue except bad engineering in my view. I know electronics and I would love to get a look at a schematic of the headphone circuitry as it could be a matching issue but that should not be effecting how the detector works and it certainly was on mine. I will post what I find. Other than that using it yesterday with no phones it did work great. I was impressed how it was working now lets address the headphone issue and will be good.



TESTED:
Headphones that came from factory (32 Ohm) did okay usable but still not the same as listening to the threshold with no headphones. Having the phones in going over a area say showing hot rock or similar maybe ID 97 u can hear some slight static... unplug them and you do not hear that static. NOTE: all settings are stock in ALL Metal.

Koss UR 20 32ohm

Auvio 32ohm

Senheiser 32ohm

These headphones used to be all used in my broadcasting studio (ie radio station)

All gave chatter, made the threshold go up and down and made the target ID go all over the place when just set on the ground (not on a target).

I am not very happy with this.

If there is an issue with impedance mismatching then Makro should put that out there so myself and others can go out and find a set that will work.

I am glad you got it resolved in the end

 

[sycotoad]

Yup Mr Desert-rat I will ask for a complete refund unless they fix the headphone issue thats total bs 700 bucks I will buy a Whites.

May I suggest ever reliable MXS? -

 

[sycotoad]

Well made a run with the new unit and its a total different animal than the other one. Found about twice as much "stuff" as the old one in the same areas, head phones work great as well. the volume isn't as loud as the first one but that's totally fine its loud enough. on the first one I never got disc 2 to work every good, if something wasn't on the surface it wouldn't pick it up. with the new unit im picking up .05 grain down to about 2" and anything over about 1.5 grains im getting down at 3-4". I found a couple pieces that were either on the surface or really close to it that wont even register on my scale. to top it all off I ran it a total of about 5 hrs today and the batteries never got weak. the first unit was going about 4 hrs on a fresh set. oh yeah the ground balance is a lot better too. its not balancing at 90 every time like the first one did. hope that helps if anyone as any questions pm me. I try and at least get an hour a day in during the week so if any problems arise ill be sure to post as well as any success I have.

what happened to the old one if you dont mind me asking?

from what I have been accustomed to from the USA is that the manufacturers there will not do sweet FA until you ship faulty unit back - so did you have to ship faulty unit back at your expense? - if not, what do you have to do with faulty unit? - do you get to keep it? - if so, can you name another manufacturer that has a better support service than Makro/Nokta? - cheers & sorry for the many questions - just trying to find the best supplier for international buyers, that's all

 

[kenpodetector]

Steve thanks for chiming in on the subject. I purchased the Gold Racer after reading your reviews on it. So far I am greatly dissapointed in the product. So I am selling it and rather use the TDI or GMT any day. I probably been metal detecting as long if not longer than you, I own patent mines and claims all over the state and do respect your advise and have enjoyed your website so I figured I would pull the trigger on it and this is the 2nd one the first one was total garbage. I think they have serious quality control issues is what the main problem is. I have had the machine pull a good amount of tiny iron and lots of small shot (so yea it works) and such but its a very finicky machine, isn't deep and not as stable as say my GMT meaning listing to it in my ears all day makes me very tired. Of course your mileage varies with the ground you are hunting as far as depth and how you ground balance. I am not saying you sold folks a bill of goods just saying in my opinion I don't care for the Gold Racer at all.

As far as the nickel goes I disagree using it for gold detector testing, if you are going to test metal detectors you should have what is found in the fields you hunt in "in general" I am talking here. Nails, rusty garbage, nickels, pennies, barb wire, nugget etc etc. If you are testing a nugget machine you should have a test nugget to plant in similar ground. Anyhow that's again my opinion and I think we are pretty much on the same page.

I gave the Makro a good review on my show for prospecting but really do think its a bit light on power. Now the reason I did run the Gold Racer through my test field is because you had mentioned it wasn't a bad coin grabber in one of your posts I believe I read on detector prospector. So I gave it a run and didn't care for the results and or depth because I pulled the gmt out and it found 2 more hits more than the Makro. So that pushed me to pull the Makro and stick with what I know is working. The more time I have spent on the machine has brought up more questions on its performance. And the last think I want to be thinking about when I am out working is if the machine is really working right or not if you get what I am saying. We go out and do this hobby and put lots of blood and sweat into it and I want to be sure the gear I use is 100% and trust it. So I just have not felt I trust the Gold Racer this is my opinion and maybe its a little tarnished because of the first machine being a total basket case.

So for all the other readers here this is my opinion on the machine if you have one and it works for you more power to you.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I understand fully that when you get a detector and it does not work properly, it can blow confidence in the machine. I had exactly that experience with the White's MX Sport recently and dumped it in a heartbeat. Sounds like you are making the best decision for you. Happy Hunting!