minelab x-terra 305 or minelab fast tracker 16000

hello again,

I am going away tomorrow with the family and was unable to hire a detector due to most places i rang have them all hired out and others only have the latest gpx and told me that some were not returned and they dont really want to hire out unless you pop in and speak with them (so they judge you on appearance) i would assume, anyway just want some opinions on the following detectors one is old but hardly much info on the net about it

Fast tracker 16000
x terra 305

which is better or pros and cons
thanks
DrAGON MAN

Hi Dragon Man,
I can only tell you about my personal experience with the FT16000 as I used to have one in the early 90's. I do not have fond memories of the FT as I found it a very noisy detector to use. It did find it hard to handle the mineralised ground and consequently was very erratic with the sounds and noise produced. I did find a little bit of gold with it, but only because in those days gold was a lot more plentiful. Recalling now the way I used it, I believe that some of the noise was caused by my lack of understanding the limitations of the machine. I was taught to use it in tracking and not fixed which I believe made the processor auto ground balance too often and too quickly, causing the machine to be continually noisy. Knowing what I know now, I would have attempted putting the detector in fixed rather that tracking and maybe that might have corrected the issues with the noise. Anyway that's old history now, so in conclusion, the FT16000 can find gold, but in my experience, it is no match to even a SD2000 PI machine running a 11" or 14" DD coil, both in depth and ability to handle the mineralised ground.
Cheers

Had the same problems as you costas ! But in hindsight I'm nodding my head in agreement with what you are saying!

G'day Dragon Man as CostaDee and Ark have said I would go for a more updated machine for gold prospecting. The 305 would be ok if your only going to search for coins etc. hope this helps.

Cheers.

Mike.