GARRETT INFINIUM LAND & SEA METAL DETECTOR

Hi guys,
GARRETT INFINIUM LAND & SEA METAL DETECTOR


My budget is limited to around a grand , unless the bug gets me good enough.
Will this thing find small nuggets under a gram? If so what depth approx.?
Can you recommend something new or second hand thats good value for money.
Thanks much appreciated...

You can get Minelab SD 2100 for around $1000.
Put SD 2100 in the search box on this page and do a bit of reading.

I own several detectors among which is a suped up infinium. It is the latest model with an accessory ( gps recorder and booster ) of my own design to enhance its abilities a bit more. Im one of those guys who will fall in the deepest point of any creek around or drop the most expensive item im caring into any waterhole within walking distance. Im pretty tough on my gear so it has to perform and be well built. Sadly Minlab decided not to seal their units from dust, dirt , water or anything else for that matter. It really wouldn't have cost much to do this but they decided to produce a dedicated waterproof unit instead. To any detector modifier reading this , work out how to seal these properly and you will make a fortune. Untill then I will stick with a detector I can use in driving rain ( which I have done several times ) and I do find gold so im happy. But if Minelab get their act together and redesign the casing so it sealed instead of just tweaking the algorythyms that do all the work I might have a another serious look at them again. Buy the best detector you can afford and the one that suits your needs. You can always get aftermarket coils for it or if your like me, make your own.

Axeman wrote:You can always get aftermarket coils for it or if your like me, make your own.

how?

Im an avid readed at the make your own metal detector forum. There are several pdf books you can download about coil reonance and design. The rest is inspiration. I've made 4 coils so far and they al seem to work well.

Well within your budget is the VLF's. F75, AT Gold, T2SE, all within the $1000 mark. Less time making gear & more time swinging it. Have a look at my T2 starter pack in the commercial advertising section on here. You don't have to have a PI to find gold.

I chose a Infinium as my first detector. They are well constructed and the coils can take a absolute flogging banging against rocks as they are solid and waterproof. For dedicated gold field gold hunting, I would not choose a infinium because I found both the 8" mono and the stock DD do not see smaller sub gram gold.

+ side, I think it is a great all-rounder. Brilliant on beaches, under water and parks, coin and jewellery ability and can find very small pieces of iron trash like the best of them. Easy to begin with and is a great back-up machine to let friends use because of its simplicity. The kind of detector you leave in the boot of your car and take everywhere, and to clean it just hose it down afterwards.

I know of is made by Infinium circuitry SD 2100. so there is no reason to buy the old SD, better buy a new Infinium!!!'''''''

Chuckles wrote:You can get Minelab SD 2100 for around $1000.
Put SD 2100 in the search box on this page and do a bit of reading.

As my first detector I am tommorrow buying an Infinium off and old bloke up here at Tibooburra. Yes, I know they all told me "get a Minelab", But the price is right and it has 3 coils and other bits&pieces.
I did a bit of research and found an article by a Seppo named Steve Herschbach. Although he also is a Minelab man he had a play and reckons you could set it up ok. With a 7" I may be able to find the smaller pieces and properly set with the DD should have exceptional depth-maybe I dream, but I would laugh if I covered Old Mates Ground where he's been with his Minelab......and found something. Apparently they are extremely sensitive-which could be a plus if properly set-or a Big Bad negative if not. Mineralised ground and salt is apparently where they excel. The info in his article tells more than the manual and in parts contradicts it. Luckily Old Mate has a few pieces from 10gm down,so I will be able to have a good little experiment before I get serious. Maybe it's just a case of Ford vs Holden-ism?? The Minelabbers eyes probably glaze over before they give it a chance...hahahaha

Good luck out there ole mate. I guess my eyes are glazed over.

cheers dave

Notice how I am not buying into this thread ]
Notice how I am not going to tell you how good and how versatile the Infinium is and I am not going to tell you it can find smaller than one gram bits and that I won't tell you it will find 0.5 g bits as easy as. No I won't tell you any of that coz I will get shouted down by the pro's..... So yez didn't read any ov vis did yez
Almost forgot that there is no way I can tell you how good it is over the salt lakes and 200 foot down at the bottom of the ocean, in the rain and swamps and rivers......Nup I can't tell ya any of vat coz I dun wanna cause any argyments

Hmmm the infinium with an 8" mono is a very very nice detector. Hip mount it & swing all day

G'day Adrian

I like to read what the other brand detectors will do, no matter if it's a Garrett or Whites or what eva, I do like my Minelab machine, and I do realize there are a couple of thing it won't do as well as one of these other ones can.

Thats why I like to read, and see what out there, and what they can do.

cheers dave

Infinium LS is fine and dead easy to use, but it has been associated with some outstanding claims in the past..............performance and price ways it has found its own level.

AT Gold also have outstanding claims............some time back there was mentioning of testing both side by side..........as said then, it would be an interesting comparison
.
It's always an inspirational lesson, to SEE just how much power can be squeezed out of a detector, by a competent user.



ivanll

Infinium also works well on a large 12V 7.2 ah Battery. May walk with him all day without a recharge!

Sorry my message went somewhere, I wanted to say to Adrian : you have made my day , it happens to be Christmas Day . Cheers

superale wrote: I know of is made by Infinium circuitry SD 2100. so there is no reason to buy the old SD, better buy a new Infinium!!!'''''''

Chuckles wrote:You can get Minelab SD 2100 for around $1000.
Put SD 2100 in the search box on this page and do a bit of reading.

Yes .. But SD2100 no can be used underwater .. I'm looking for gold under the water!

.....

I find the infinium is a nice light detector. Mount it on your hip & save your shoulder from tiring out. I enjoy my 8" mono & I'm glad it was suggested to me to use. It's also handy for beach detecting as pin pointing is easy with a smaller coil.

buzzbuzzjanko wrote:Sorry my message went somewhere, I wanted to say to Adrian : you have made my day , it happens to be Christmas Day . Cheers

Sorry I am bit late in responding.
No worries mate.
Cheers and I hope your Christmas was a excellent and that 2013 brings a bit of gold to you.

I bought my infinium because I was told it was the best Garrett for gold in Aus. A month later the AT Gold was released. Is the Infinium still the best for gold? Or would the AT have been just as good?

Also I could have used the AT in parks etc. as well because of its descrim, pinpointer and TID

AT Gold is great for small gold close to the surface in tough ground, it has much better sensitivity to sub gram gold that the Infinium.
ATG is good for coins , jewellery and relics but not recomended for the salt beaches where it will struggle in the wet sand.

The Infinium will kill the ATG in highly iron mineralised ground for depth on nuggs from 0.5 g and up, it will find smaller stuff but you have to listen carefully.
The AT Pro would be a better choice for coins, jewellery and relics because of the better discrimination ability and with carefull use and tuning it does a fair job in some of the lesser iron mineralised gold fields...That said. I have heard of people finding gold in tough ground with this detector.

Just an opinion.

Any discrimination affects the depth and sensitivity of the search! Must be sought, without discrimination and dig all signals! If you are lazy, you will never find a treasure or gold ... There is nothing wrong with what you dig a ton of iron trash! - Earth will be cleaner!

Absolutely true and that is why I am a Dig it all detectorist.
However being able to pick and choose what coins and rings you find at the beach is handy at times and does save on time that would otherwise be wasted digging a lot of rubbish. For instance if I want to find mainly one and two dollar coins with the occasional 50 cent as well as large 9-18k gold rings, zero bobby pins and sparkler wire them the disc on my Sovereign is hard to beat. Also if you are looking for a lost item and have another similar item on hand then the detector can be set to respond well to that particular item and your chances of recovering the lost item is improved by the fact that you will waste less time digging other stuff and will be able to cover more ground in any given time.

Anybody got any videos showing what a small buried nugget sounds like with the infinium? I hear slight wavers in the threshold but when I dig them they disapear so I figure they are just mineralisation. I have not found any gold yet to know what they buggers are supposed to sound like at any depth.

Small gold below approx 5g will sound Hi/Lo in normal mode and Hi/Lo in rev disc at a somewhat reduced sig strenght. If the sig disappears in Rev Disc then uncover the target enough to get a signal back when the coil can be placed closer to the target.
Larger nuggs can be mainly Low/Hi in Normal Mode but will be Hi/LO in Rev disc at a reduced sig strength.
All gold is Hi/Lo in Rev Disc at a reduced sig level to the normal mode.

Don't simply switch to Rev Disc and search for Hi/Lows, you will miss a lot of small stuff as well as large deep nuggs.

Only use the Rev Disc to seperate gold from iron. It is not ALWAYS correrct but it is fairly good and will work to very near to the detectoin depth of the detector on any given target. Trying to use the disc to seperate different coins from each other is a bit iffy but with a bit of practice it can be of help at the beach.
Very small gram and sub gram stuff may only cause a waver in the threshold rather than a tone change from hi to low. So long as it is a repeatable sig (in the same spot) it is best to check it out.
The Infinium does on occasions give a tone on very hot rocks and often they will be a drawn out tone and can be either Hi/Lo or Lo/Hi and will not disappear or change tone in Rev Disc.

As far as gold field work is conserned ALWAYS dig a target that is Hi/Lo in Rev Disc at a reduced strenght to the Normal mode.
Small nuggs can be tricky to pinpoint when they cause a double tone as each edge of the coil passes over the nugg, especially with the large mono and DD.
Gold tends to sound off inside the diam of the coil wheras iron gives a much broader sig that begins some distance from the outer edge of the coil.

If you have been using the detector in highly iron mineralised ground and then take it to the beach or a lesser mineralised park etc the GB can take a while to come back down to the lesser mineralised areas. At switch off the unit retains the GB setting for the last area detected.

It is mandatory to sweep low and slow with the finny, one to one and a half feet per sec. Otherwise you WILL MISS the weak signals. from small stuff close to the surface as well as the deep weak signalling nuggs.

Feel free to ask any questions.
Also Ivanl is a pretty cluey man where the Infinium is conserned. Hope he doesn't mind my dobbing him in

Cheers

thanks Adrian. I might have to record the faint signals myself and put them on YouTube so you can hear them. I have dug some holes looking for the source and found nothing. Not sure if these wavers are metal or mineral

Like any small target, if it disappears or moves about after you dug a bit of dirt out then there is something there. If it stays a waver in the same spot after you have dug down several inches then I doubt that it would be a deep metal target. The sig from a deep target will strengthen quickly after going down 6 inches or so. Mineralisation can cause wavers in the threshold but usually this tends to produce eroneous or shifting signals as you sweep across them.
Try slowing the sweep to a crawl at around 1 foot per 2 or 3 sec and see if the sig improves. The Infinium can respond to metal at much slower sweep speed than that, so you will not miss a target by sweeping extremely slowly.
Switch to Rev Disc and see if the sig disappears; If it does then it is likely to be metal if it remains then more likely to be hot ground.

My experience with the Infinium and quiet wavering threshold tones that repeat in the same place each sweep of the coil is that the target is almost always metal.

In extreme iron stone /ore ground the Infinium can produce a long quiet low tones or even some sharp loud low tones, these tones will normally remain unchanged in tone and strength in Rev Discrimination but the signal from gold and other precious metal will weaken.

Found this Infinium Review on the Infinium forum.
I am not sure who Barry is but the review sounds very realistic to me based on my own experiences with the Infinium.

Quote.

Barry in Western Australia -
I am a minelab freak and to date my GPX4500 for prospecting in the goldfields of Western Australia and my Sovereign GT for the beach were and still are a fantastic combination.

I did however have family coming over for a prospecting trip and wanted another machine that really could be used for prospecting without forking out another $5 grand plus for a GPX.

After doing a lot of research I purchased an infinium with the 8" mono additional with a little trepidation as intentionally or not I would compare it with my GPX4500.

Well, I have to say I am more than pleasantly surprised. Firstly this machine simply blows my sovereign away on the beach with the 8" mono both in depth and sensitivity - I am finding really small hooks and even the back shaft of an ear-ring at a good couple of inches. The depth on rings and small coins is ridiculous and when people talk about 15" plus they are not exaggerating.

On gold (using my small test nuggets) without going into too much detail. It will get you 5" + on a 0.5g nugget freshly buried with the 8 inch mono. The 8" mono will detect as small as 0.3g nugget at 2" depending on shape. The stock DD is less sensitive but for 0.6 gram up performs well.

Yes it is not quite up to the GPX4500 on sensitivity less than 0.5g nugget but as you get further above that the margin gets much less much faster. Value for money this is an outstanding machine and if you only prospect occasionally ie a couple of weeks a year, I would recommend it over the GPX for the price.

Further the discrimination using both tones and rev disc really do work and very well...you just need to play.

The really important thing about the infinium is that Garret compressed a lot of features into a housing that has only three selectors. This makes you think it is a simple turn on and go machine...BIG mistake.

This machine has to be frequency adjusted IF the tone is unstable both due to EMI and/or on hot ground to get an absolutely smooth threshold.

The discrimination is exactly that and just keep it at zero unless using the reverse descrim to ID a target that has a LO/HI tone. Drop descrim less than 1 and you start losing sensitivity to small nuggets.

The gain/power is directly linked to the threshold selector. If using a mono in extremely hot ground and the threshold is slightly falsing drop it to 3-4 anything above 5 is a waste as you lose the ability to note threshold change.

Also - very important. PI's in general and the infinium especially need the coil at least one inch above the ground in really hot soil.

I have used the 8"mono on the hottest ground I can find (above 38% iron ore) and got the threshold smooth as a baby but have to lower my swing speed and keep coil level.

All in all if I had to choose one detector for all occasions it would be my infinium. Change the shaft (minelab shaft works well just trim the coil attachment on the bottom of shaft)and LEARN the machine and you will be more than pleasantly surprised.

This detector is the most underrated you will find.
Unquote.