Congratulations Team Nautilus! 2007 GNRS Winners

[Michigan Badger]

Once again Nautilus beats out all the competition (Minelabs, Whites, Tesoros, etc.).

How do they keep doing this?

Badger

 

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[EasyMoney]

I hate to burst a lot of people's bubbles here, but I had a face-to-face conversation with one of White's most important people about a year ago (name withheld so that I don't swim in any bad water). He was very impressed with Nautlus's depth, and agreed that (those) detectors do go deeper than any White's of equal type. He didn't compare them to other brands though.

I also wrote to the site mentioned with the "so-called' depth chart. I asked him why he is trying so hard to sell Minelabs? I also said that people are laughing at him on some forums.

I will not post his response for the same reasons above, but as he also wrote in his little preamble, he did not claim to be saying that all detectors work the same with different operators, or under different conditions. He is correct in his own statements, that for example, the detectors in one person's hands will work differently in another person's hands and in different soils. I think you get my drift. The idea of a Maplin or other Chinese-made detector outperforming a really good Garrett, Minelab, White's, Teknetics, or Fisher, Tesoro, or Baron is absolutely ludicrous, at the very least. I wrote to him saying that perhaps he should become more familiar with the detectors that he claimed depth on before he posted their depth in a chart such as that. If he doesn't like it, that's just tough because people need better information than what he posted. I currently own or have owned some of his "tested" detectors and brands and mine do a lot better (or worse) than what his success with them showed..

And yes, two of the (my) detectors above were Minelabs.

Something else to consider; Since there are over 300 entries in his "depth chart", he must have a lot of time on his hands to test detectors. The average detector take more than an hour to become familiar with, and to become really succesful with it and to be able to get maximum depth from it - even a low priced detector of any brand requires more than 3 hours of practice with.

3 hours X 306 detectors he "tested"?

That comes to over 900 hours of testing.

I have serious questions.

If it walks like a duck
Talks like a duck
Acts like a duck,

It must be a ...?

 

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[Michigan Badger]

I do agree with much of what you wrote, EasyMoney. I've always liked your postings and you seem like an honest sort of guy.

It's true that user ability does come into play here in a big way. And too, there are many variables in regard to the settings of each machine.

Like you I also wrote to him. The first time was shortly after he posted his chart. I blasted him for being a Minelab sales rep. Now, I don't know if he is or not but that was my attitude at the time. He made me very upset.

Then I started to actually test the machines on his chart and my personal findings were very similar and some were dead-on. A few months back I posted an apology to him on one of his threads at another forum. I also thanked him for the courage to post his chart.

I can't speak for everyone and wouldn't even try. But for me, I see him as an honest person seeking to help others.

Anyway, that's it for me.

Badger

 

[EasyMoney]

Good response Badger. You have some decent posts too.

Well, I didn't blast him, but I did send him some short chart testing I've done on my own. He was courteous but also honest in his answer to my email. I didn't find him inflamatory and neither was I to him. And as I just said in my last post there were some remarkable differences in depth findings though.

Another thing to consider is that his were "average" findings. He did not say that he was real familiar with any of the detectors either. However to a novice it appears that his charts are very viable AND dependable.

I did however tell him that I thought he should invest more time into famiarization with so many detectors before posting their "depth capabilities".

HH, and watch out for California dogs with California owners who think they own the creek banks if you happen to be hunting in them.

 

[Ascholten]

With so many settings and 'tweaks' on any of the machines, it is very easy for someone to 'tweak out' some depth, or some discrimination or some whatever accidentally and never know it. Im not going to say whites is a better machine, or minelab is better, etc etc the difference between the top set of machines from the reputable brand names is not a hell of a lot. contrary to what the "professionals" try to tell you.

skill with the machine plays very much into it as much as anything else does if not more. That skill includes learning how to program it and most importantly, understand what the machine is trying to tell you. It doesn't have to go BONG!! at times, silence is something you should investigate further.

There is only one thing that is going to potentially make someone really good at finding stuff.... years experience in the field with the machine of their choice... it's that simple.

Aaron

 

[EasyMoney]

Well written Aaron.

While I'm at it, I looked at a Minelab Eurika Gold in a pawn shop for $695 this evening. It looked like it was about as new as new could get, yet no matter where I set the knobs it still could not get more than 9" (no discriminate) on a little 2"X 1/4" hex driver I had in my pocket.

My question is: Is that normal for a $1000 machine?

I tweaked it so much that it's threshold was almost quivering (this is the best depth setting I could find). I tried setting it to different freqs, and to other settings, but it still never did get more than the 9" and it was sort of an off and on sort of swishy sound, but strong and loud any place less than that. It did have a pleasant tone though, and rather high pitched, much like the pinpoint on a CZ or a Tejon at high freq..

When I got home I tested my Sov Elite Pro and it gets 11" in an air test with that little tool with it's stock 10" coil, and although the two detectors look a lot alike, I would think that a $1000+ gold detector would do better than that. My Compass Scanner R&C does because I tested it too as soon as I got home. It's a nugget hunter too and one of the best and it gets 15" on the same little tool in all-metal with it's stock 8" DD coil. My Compass XP Pro gets 13", so I'm wondering if that model just wasn't made to use on iron or steel objects.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm thinking something is seriously wrong with that detector.

 

[Ascholten]

It's hard to say, something could have been tweaked way hard. Then again, where did you try it at, in the pawn shop.... was it on a metal shelf, were there shelfs around it, was there flourescent lighting? If so how much, and how close, was it the newer solid state lighting or an older set with big ass ballasts humming away? Stuff like that can affect a machine.

Then again, it's a gold machine, not an iron machine, maybe it didn't see the iron, if you are nugget hunting you don't want iron you want gold... if it's ignoring iron that might be a good thing, Id try the test with a gold ring, see how it behaves... and test it with one of the other machines next to it.... that way when you say it only got 8 inches where another can get 10 and a half, they were both tested under the same conditions and you know one wasn't biased by something external.

Worse case scenario... it needs fixing up... How much does it cost new? How much would it probably run to send it back to the factory and have if fixed? Is it worth it to you. On that though, pawn shops have a hell of a markup, you bring your machine in and your wrench and you show the guy hey, this thing is not all it's supposed to be, I am interested but if i did get it, id have to send it off for repairs... that price is kind of steep for a sick machine, you can do better than that.... see if you can get him to knock off another hundred or so, I bet he will. Then it will be worth your while.

I picked up my first metal detector, a whites spectrum for $150 bucks that way.

Aaron

 

[EasyMoney]

Yeah, I'm beginning to think it has been dropped or something. There were neon lights in that pawn shop but that doesn't affect my Compass Gold machine because I've used it in White's main showroom testing it against the MXT and DFX. I don't think the lights were the problem. Who knows though, maybe someone had a cell phone on or maybe even something more than that as in radar running somewhere near, it's hard to tell. It may have been an older model but so are the detectors I used to test the same little tool with.

Maybe I'll go back there and bring a piece of gold, or maybe a small gold ring. I have a little size 3 that I could bring along. I'll give it another shot in a day or two. It's the first Minelab I've ever seen within 100 miles save for one in a shop, or my own, so I was surprised when I saw it there. It had a lot of blue on it and looked a bit cheesey and felt that way too, more like a cheap Bounty Hunter, and a lot flimsier made than my Sov Elite. Maybe it was an older one..

Thanks Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

You are quite welcome easy. Please keep us up to date how it plays out for you if you do decide to go after the machine.

Aaron