Gold snoop pro/Nugget snoop or Etrac?

Hi All,

I'm wanting to buy another detector (have a SD2200D) for beaches, parks etc. Don't want to use the 2200 for this.
I've been looking at the Etrac and from what I have read in forums/reviews its a pretty good unit. However, because I'm not sure if I would like detecting beaches and parks etc until I get out there and do it, the Etrac is costly. Sooo......I've been looking at the Gold snoop/Nugget snoop as a cheap alternative. No great loss if I don't like doing beaches/parks, and I may be able to use it in the goldfields.

Just thought I'd throw this into the forum to get some feedback from users of the Etrac and the Gold snoop/Nugget snoop. Maybe someone has both of these?

Hi tonyde,

I also have a 2200 for the goldfields but before i got that i made the mistake of buying a gold snoop.
Do not bother taking it to the gold fields! I was going to throw it out but i decided to try it in the park, it goes good except it does'nt have a good discriminator like some of the better treasure hunting detectors. I've also had it at the beach where it goes ok but starts to play up when you go near the wet sand.

But it works finding change and bits and pieces.
Cheers Matt

G/Day tonyde,
If you want to detect saltwater beaches and parks and gardens then get a machine that was designed for that purpose. The Snoops will sort of work at the beach but in the end they will turn you off beach and probably gold detecting forever. The E-Track will do the job very well but is a bit of an overkill with features you will probably never use and don't drop it in the water.
An Excalibur(waterproof) Sovereign XS or Explorer will be great but the Excalibur gets a bit heavy in the parks after a while. The Tesoro sand Shark, White's DF, garrett Seahunter MK 2 and the Infinium are great beach PI units but are a bit of a handfull in the parks and gardens. The White's Beach Hunter ID is a great VLF Ground Cancelling Target ID beach machine and does a way better than average job in parks and gardens.
I have an old Sovereign XS that is still one of the best (I think, The Best) parks, gardens and beach machines today and they won't cost an arm and a leg.

Cheers,
Adrian SS

Thanks Matt..........I think it comes down to 'You get what you pay for'.
I wouldn't knock the Gold snoop, it has it's place I guess, and besides not having used one I can only go by what others have experienced with it, but I think for my level of experience I would probably get frustrated with it.

Cheers.....Tony

Hi Adrian SS

The gold snoop is off the list, and your probably right about the Etrac. I do prefer something without too many bells and whistles. I like the look of the Sovereign GT and it's about $500 cheaper than the Etrac.
It certainly pays to do a bit of research before jumping onto the first unit that looks good. Wouldn't it be great if you could try out every detector and then take your pick.
Thanks for your help. I'll let you know what I end up with........ I'm not in a hurry.

Tony

Hi Tony,
Have a good look around, there are a ton of great beach, coin and relic machines out there.
All of the top players have excellent coin, beach and relic machines but if you go with the GT then get the Target ID meter as well, it helps a lot. Also give the Quattro a thought. 8 to 10 inch coils will give buckets of depth with these detectors and the 15 inch (recomend beach and relic only) will have you digging to China while still retaining good sensitivity to small ring size items.
Since fitting the 15 inch WOT coil to my SOV I have never taken it off (beach and relic work only).

Cheers,
Adrian SS

Hi Tony,
Have a good look around, there are a ton of great beach, coin and relic machines out there.


That's the problem, it's difficult to pick one without having tried them. The Musketeer Advantage is another one that appeals to me (so far), for $700, I haven't read a bad thing about them yet.

The search continues............

tony

Not that I have one, I am still lookin at which coin/relic machine to get as well.

The garrett GTI2500 has a lot going for it. some blokes are getting good results with it, and the other front runner is the minelab Etrac. From what I've seen it is a toss up between the 2.

cheers dave

HI Tony,
The Muskteer Advantage is a fairly basic machine that runs at 5khz,has fixed or manual GB and is Silent Search. A great little coin and relic machine but will not like going into saltwater or wet salty sand. Not a machine I would choose if I had 700 bucks to spend. My opinion only, there are a lot of people who like this machine.
if you want to detect the beaches then you should aim for a unit that has a good salt Mode and or a GB mode that will eliminate the effects of the salt in wet sand or a PI unit. The PIs will detect everything but are super hot on iron . The Garrett Seahunter is an excellent PI with some Disc ability (and has been known to locate some coins and rings at better than 18 inches in the wet sand) but not as good as VLF discrimination. Almost all of the good stuff is to be found out in the waves below the low tide line so a waterproof machine would be handy, you don't have to worry if you drop it in the water.

There is plenty to be found up in the dry sand where almost any detector will work OK but you will soon get tired of not being able to go into the water where the watches, gold rings and chains are.

The GTI 2500 has been around for a while in one form or another and is a lot of detector for your dollar.
I think it has a salt mode but I know nothing about this machine as far as beach detecting is conserned, maybe someone else can comment on that/

I always recomend digging all targets at the beach because a lot of gold items will fool the VLF discriminators if you have any disc set in.

Adrian SS

Hi Adrian SS

Again, thanks for your input. I've decided to go for the Sovereign GT when I can get the spare cash together for a new one. Will keep an eye out for a second hand one as well. I think this detector will serve me well.

Tony

HI Tony,
Good choice mate.
Keep an eye on Ebay; There are some good deals to be had there if you choose carefully.
I have picked up some great detector bargains from the Used Metal Detectors section from Australian and American Ebay and the GT sometimes shows up there.

Adrian

I have got to say, as suggested by adrian . You wont need a 180 metre for beach on the Sov GT but its a great tool for the parks.At the beach listen to tones, dig everything. You will learn to pick out Rings and coins.

I have just sold my great GT , all factory retested and new covers . Pity you are too late, sold for $730 on ebay and that was a steal(a loss) for me.

Its a great park and beach detector.

Grab a 2nd hand 1 is my view, $800 well spent

Regards

John

Gday

The Minelab Sovereign GT is an excellent choice, I had one for a couple of years and sold it, as I didnt think I would have the time to use it due to work ect, as it turned out I miss it and wish that I hadnt sold it, I give my own bum a kick every time I think about it.

It paid for itself more than twice over during the time I used it,(I bought it new for about $1350) and gave me many hours of pleasure to boot, one time I scored $530 worth of one and two dollar coins after a music festival, not to mention swags of cheap jewellery, good jewellery, and many more bits and pieces from beaches and parks when I wasnt able to get away gold prospecting.

If you can, I would also suggest that you buy a coiltek 15" wot coil for it, that will give you great ground coverage and depth, this is a bonus on the beach, the standard coil is good for parks etc, where you need to be more precise with your pin pointing of targets that are buried under the grass, and because both are submersible you can detect in the water as well, so you can detect the shallows for the best stuff.

cheers

stayyerAU

Thanks guys. Will keep an eye out on Ebay and forums for a second hand one.

Madmax800:
I'll stick to listening to the tones, for now, rather than get a meter. I like to think that I have a pretty good ear for listening to different tones. Besides, I don't mind digging holes and I find it hard to walk away from a signal even if it sounds like junk. This way I am 100% certain. If I am in the right state of mind, digging heaps of holes for nothing/junk doesn't bother me. This is however, my goldfields experience and I have no experience with doing beaches/parks, etc. with a vlf detector, which to me is a totally different trip.

The GT you sold on Ebay sounds like it was a great deal. Another one will come along I'm sure.

stayyerAU:
You can always get another one.
I've heard a lot about the 15" wot coil, will definitely be a bonus for the beach.
How long did it take you to find the $530?
Just wondering, since you live in WA, how often do you go out in the goldfields?
And.......did you use the GT in the goldfields at all?


Happy detecting
Tony

I sold a 15"WOT also $110

Great combo, GT and WOT..

I think he found $530 in 1 day, after a concert.

I have had days $200+ then others $1.00

I dig all in the Goldfeilds, Thats why its nice to use discriminate. The GT is a ripper

The Whites MXT is a great detector also have you had a look at them?

chopppacalamari wrote:The Whites MXT is a great detector also have you had a look at them?

I did check them out, but I will stick with the Sov. GT.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Minelab-Soverign-GT-Brisbane_W0QQitemZ270513019575QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Gadgets?hash=item3efbd51ab7

madtuna wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Minelab-Soverign-GT-Brisbane_W0QQitemZ270513019575QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Gadgets?hash=item3efbd51ab7

I've been checking it out. Looks pretty good with a meter. It's only an hour 15min from my place. Worth checking out.

Thanks
Tony

stayyerAU:
You can always get another one.
I've heard a lot about the 15" wot coil, will definitely be a bonus for the beach.
How long did it take you to find the $530?
Just wondering, since you live in WA, how often do you go out in the goldfields?
And.......did you use the GT in the goldfields at all?


Happy detecting
Tony[/quote]


Gday Tony


Yes I will definately get another one when I have more time on my hands, I have been prospecting semi professionally for the last few years, and now I am having a break back home for awhile, the wot coil is good for the beach but it is what I mainly used to cover the large grass areas at the concert venue.

The first time I detected the area was directly after the concert, next day or so, I went there a little unprepared, at first I just started sticking the coins in my pocket, but after about an hour or so I was holding my pants up and had to waddle back to the car to empty the pockets out, I did this quite a few times, some of the coins were sitting on top and I was also specking them as I walked about.

I cant remember exactly what I found in the first day I think it may have been about $420 or so, actually it wasnt a whole day more like part of the morning, next time I went back I got another $110 worth, the later ones were buried and had been there for awhile in some cases, each year after that I went back but the cleaners had cottoned on to what I was doing and started taking more notice of the ground, each year after it was about $400 and then about $300 the last year.

Because of the amount of trash, particularly the tabs off drink cans I had the descrimination set to reject them and only allow the 1 and 2 dollar coins, the only silver coins I got I picked up by hand, most were on or near the surface, but I was also getting deeper ones that had been there for awhile, and also 1 and 2 cent coins.

I have taken the gt out onto the goldfields on occasion, and tried it out in several places, it worked well in the mineralised conditions, and I think it would be good for larger nuggets in the medium depth range, but not sensitive enough to get the little ones, the descrimination works well and is good for rubbishy town sites or camps where gold may have been missed.

As most of the times I was primarily looking for gold I used my pi machines, so I didnt use the Gt as much as I should have and never found any gold etc with it, as the coils it comes with are dd coils it runs pretty quietly, I also had an 8" coinsearch coil for mine as well, good for park areas but not water proof, like I said these machines are excellent for parks and beaches, and you can use it in the goldfields too but really only for hunting high trash areas for coins and relics, and maybe the odd larger nugget.


cheers

stayyerAU

stayyerAU wrote:

Gday Tony


Yes I will definately get another one when I have more time on my hands, I have been prospecting semi professionally for the last few years, and now I am having a break back home for awhile, the wot coil is good for the beach but it is what I mainly used to cover the large grass areas at the concert venue.


I have taken the gt out onto the goldfields on occasion, and tried it out in several places, it worked well in the mineralised conditions, and I think it would be good for larger nuggets in the medium depth range, but not sensitive enough to get the little ones, the descrimination works well and is good for rubbishy town sites or camps where gold may have been missed.

As most of the times I was primarily looking for gold I used my pi machines, so I didnt use the Gt as much as I should have and never found any gold etc with it, as the coils it comes with are dd coils it runs pretty quietly, I also had an 8" coinsearch coil for mine as well, good for park areas but not water proof, like I said these machines are excellent for parks and beaches, and you can use it in the goldfields too but really only for hunting high trash areas for coins and relics, and maybe the odd larger nugget.


cheers

stayyerAU

Hi stayyerAU

I would love to prospect professionally. Since my first trip out last year where I found about 1 3/4 ozs, I have not been able to get it out of my head. Gold fever?? Anyway, I will be coming over your way in May for 4-6 weeks. Not all prospecting though, as my wife's family is there, so will be spending some time with them. Waiting a year to get back out into the WA goldfields has been a l-o-n-g wait. Will be moving over there sometime in the future.

It's good to know that the GT handles the mineralised conditions in WA, not that I would use it primarily to look for gold, but as you said on trashy sites it would be good. My wife can use it while I'm using mine (SD2200D, can't afford a 4500 just yet). In the meantime, when I get a GT, I will be using it around here (Sunshine Coast, Qld). The one on Ebay at the moment (2 years old) has a starting price of $990 with a few extras. Will see how high the price goes. I can get a new one from Treasure Enterprises for $1295 with $150 of extras and a 3 year warranty on the box.

Maybe I can catch up with you when I come over?

Tony

Gday Tony


My apologise for not replying to your last entry, as I had not visited this part of the forum for awhile, its a hard thing to rid yourself of when you get the taste for gold, and its the hardest urge for me to deal with when I have to be stuck at home when all I want to do is head back to the bush.

I dont know what my situation will be in May as my wife has to go in to have some surgery in march and will be recovering for 6-8 weeks, so at this stage I dont know how I will be placed, usually thats the time over here that we hit the goldfields for the start of the new season as the nights become cooler, but it looks as though its going to be a late start to the season for me.

When you come over pm me and we may be able to catch up for a yarn--beer--etc


cheers

stayyerAU

stayyerAU wrote:Gday Tony


its a hard thing to rid yourself of when you get the taste for gold, and its the hardest urge for me to deal with when I have to be stuck at home when all I want to do is head back to the bush.


When you come over pm me and we may be able to catch up for a yarn--beer--etc

stayyerAU

Hi stayyerAU

That must be hard considering you live relatively close to the goldfields.

I'll pm you when I get there - end of April.

Tony

Hi StayyerAU

My apologies for not sending you a PM while over in WA. Caught up in family stuff.

Spent about 4 weeks prospecting. Didn't find much - 15 bits for around 1/2oz. Better than nothing, and it was great being out bush with the wife - our first time out together. Had a great time.

Tony