Muddyshoes
New member
Greetings all!
Well, after about 15 years of married and homelife, I'm back into metal detecting again. I'm a old-timer. Not so old, but remembering of the days when there was no VLF and barely a TR. Think Garrett BFO. As a teen, I'd go around with my hunting buddy who had since passed away.
From the BFO, I bought a Bounty Hunter TR-840, then my first Garrett TR then after selling each year's silver, I upgrade to the Garrett ADS Deepseeker, Then to an ADS Groundhog because it was lighter, then the Garrett Freedom 2 Coin Commander, then a GTA 500, and then I stopped for a while.
After getting the bug recently, I dug into my closet and found my Freedom 2 Coin Commander, (Man, I love that machine...) and my GTA 500. I looked around in the paper and picked up a GTAx 550 from Craigslist for $150.
I was hoping to get some advice from you folks, and while I realize everyone has their own opinion, let me share what my current situation is with metal detecting and maybe that can help.
I'm thinking of selling off my three detectors (The GTA 500 needs some TLC from Garrett I think) and buying either the AT Pro or maybe one of the three higher end "green" GTA detectors.
Reading the specs of these detectors doesn't really help much. The line of Yellow Garretts seem pretty fragile. The black AT Pro looks like it's main advantage is the underwater capability and the ground mineralization elimination capabilities and the green line (for lack of a better term) seem to be just high tech analyzers.
I am primarily a coin hunter..old parks, old houses, old yards, etc. Beach doesn't really thrill me and scanning for gold in the Yukon really isn't my style. I just like a nice signal that I can learn to associate with a shape, size and depth with occasional verification from the digital display. I'm slightly rough on my equipment and the Garrett Yellows and even the AT Pro seem so 'dainty.'
On the other hand, My Freedom 2 Coin Commander with the 7 and 10 inch coils works perfectly and I'd hate to get rid of it, but then again I am just a sentimentalist after all.
I'm thinking that once I'm done selling these, if I do sell them all, I'll have around $600 to spend or I can sell off some of my remaining silver since dimes are going for almost $4 now on eBay. So my question to you is, are the newer detectors really that much better, or should I just upgrade the searchcoil of my GTAx 550 to a "DD" or something else?
I live about 20 minutes from Kellyco so I have every new detector to try out but I've been a Garrett guy for 30 years. Seems the sales people are all pushing the frequency that these things operate at as if that was the determiner of what makes a detector good or not.
Lastly, I live in Orlando, and would love to find a new partner to hunt with. It feels good getting back into metal detecting again, but man, those silver coins are so much deeper now than when I started in the 70s
I bought from first detector from Kellyco around 1976 at their original location. Anyone from Orlando may remember when they were on Horatio Avenue in Maitland (outside of Orlando.) Took several trips with Mr. Auerbach the founder, to a couple indian reservation back then. Good times!
Anyway, thanks for any advice,
Ron Jaffe
Orlando
Well, after about 15 years of married and homelife, I'm back into metal detecting again. I'm a old-timer. Not so old, but remembering of the days when there was no VLF and barely a TR. Think Garrett BFO. As a teen, I'd go around with my hunting buddy who had since passed away.
From the BFO, I bought a Bounty Hunter TR-840, then my first Garrett TR then after selling each year's silver, I upgrade to the Garrett ADS Deepseeker, Then to an ADS Groundhog because it was lighter, then the Garrett Freedom 2 Coin Commander, then a GTA 500, and then I stopped for a while.
After getting the bug recently, I dug into my closet and found my Freedom 2 Coin Commander, (Man, I love that machine...) and my GTA 500. I looked around in the paper and picked up a GTAx 550 from Craigslist for $150.
I was hoping to get some advice from you folks, and while I realize everyone has their own opinion, let me share what my current situation is with metal detecting and maybe that can help.
I'm thinking of selling off my three detectors (The GTA 500 needs some TLC from Garrett I think) and buying either the AT Pro or maybe one of the three higher end "green" GTA detectors.
Reading the specs of these detectors doesn't really help much. The line of Yellow Garretts seem pretty fragile. The black AT Pro looks like it's main advantage is the underwater capability and the ground mineralization elimination capabilities and the green line (for lack of a better term) seem to be just high tech analyzers.
I am primarily a coin hunter..old parks, old houses, old yards, etc. Beach doesn't really thrill me and scanning for gold in the Yukon really isn't my style. I just like a nice signal that I can learn to associate with a shape, size and depth with occasional verification from the digital display. I'm slightly rough on my equipment and the Garrett Yellows and even the AT Pro seem so 'dainty.'
On the other hand, My Freedom 2 Coin Commander with the 7 and 10 inch coils works perfectly and I'd hate to get rid of it, but then again I am just a sentimentalist after all.
I'm thinking that once I'm done selling these, if I do sell them all, I'll have around $600 to spend or I can sell off some of my remaining silver since dimes are going for almost $4 now on eBay. So my question to you is, are the newer detectors really that much better, or should I just upgrade the searchcoil of my GTAx 550 to a "DD" or something else?
I live about 20 minutes from Kellyco so I have every new detector to try out but I've been a Garrett guy for 30 years. Seems the sales people are all pushing the frequency that these things operate at as if that was the determiner of what makes a detector good or not.
Lastly, I live in Orlando, and would love to find a new partner to hunt with. It feels good getting back into metal detecting again, but man, those silver coins are so much deeper now than when I started in the 70s
I bought from first detector from Kellyco around 1976 at their original location. Anyone from Orlando may remember when they were on Horatio Avenue in Maitland (outside of Orlando.) Took several trips with Mr. Auerbach the founder, to a couple indian reservation back then. Good times!
Anyway, thanks for any advice,
Ron Jaffe
Orlando