Mixed reviews on the 2500

[Tesoro-CoinShooter]

As I mentioned in a post a few days ago I just got a new GTI 2500. Unfortunately right when I got it the weather took a turn for the worse. I only got about 4 hours swing time with it and I took it to a heavily worked over park near me. I did manage to find some coins and I was impressed by the detector. I've been surfing the web on sites with metal detector reviews and I'm amazed at the mixed reviews on the 2500. They range from "the best detector ever made" to a "big waste of money". I've also read where people said that it had excellent depth and others said it had poor depth (In discrimaination mode-They pretty much all said that it had good depth in all-metal). I've also read where they said that the treasure imaging is only good up to 6 inches. I'm just curious what some of you 2500 users think of these reviews that I've read on other sites and would greatly appreciate your input on the machine. Like I said from the very limited use I got out of mine before the weather turned bad I was very impressed. Thanks for your input on these mixed reviews that I've been reading about the 2500. Craig

 

[Jims]

Well any reviews are a particular person's point of view. So you have to read them with that in mind. Some might be from disgruntled newbies who spent $1000 and thought coins and jewelry would come flying out of the ground into their hands when they swing their detectors 40 MPH across any piece of ground. Some might have switched brands and just don't like Garrett's push and go simplicity. Some of the bad reviews I read are from people who got bad machines. My Garrett shut down the second day after I bought it and wouldn't turn back on. I had to send it in for repair and was a little ticked off on having to pay to ship it back to them and losing a month of detecting time with all the shipping back and forth. I didn't write any reviews, but if I did it wouldn't have been a positive one at that time.

I haven't used any of the other new detectors from the other companies, but with my two months of experience with the GTI 2500 I can say it works great. The imaging isn't perfect, I would say 80-90% accurate which is pretty good in my opinion with all the variables thrown in. I was out the other day and got a nice signal 4 inches, sized B, said it was a quarter. When I get those it usually is ALWAYS a quarter, dug up a nice quarter sized washer LOL. I'm finding alot of coins, no silver yet but I think that will come, found a silver ring and silver Catholic medal.

All that matters is if you have fun with it when you are using it. You got one of the best all round detectors on the market.

 

[Tesoro-CoinShooter]

I also read in one of those reviews that you should dig "A" sized targets because it could be a coin on edge, and that a "C" sized target could be a cluster of coins. Anyone have any similar experiences?? Thanks for your valuable feedback in helping a "Garrett newbie" learn a great machine. Craig

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

Previously I only owned Tesoros - So my account name was Tesoro-CoinShooter. Out of respect for Garrett users I've created a new account to use in this forum with the name of CoinShooter-Craig. I figured some people might get mad seeing a name with Tesoro in it in a Garretts forum. Keep em Beepin , Craig

 

[D&P-OR]

Naw---Nobody's getting mad at you for haveing that handle Craig. --Looks like a real nice bunch of guys here on this forum & they've been giveing you some very good info. & advice.--After owning & useing many detectors over the years--I'm just now getting my second Garrett (a GTP 1350)--wanted to try one out.---and it ain't even one of those new fangled upgraded 1350's! ---Del

 

[cwilk]

I dig almost everything size C down to A. "A" size targets around cent and dime notch are usually dimes. Groups of coins sometimes indicate size C. I have lone nickels indicate size C once in a while. Large intact ring pulls frequently image as size C. Partial ring pulls and pop tops usually as size B or A. After some experience you will probably be able to make a good guess using the notch and size as to whether you want to retrieve each target. That said, if I had to guess I would say 95 percent of my keepers image as size B. I still think imaging is the best feature of the GTI detectors. I would have a hard time detecting without it now.

Depth in discriminate is tricky. I would say on my 2500 it is adequate. I find coins in discriminate mode down to around 6-8 inches. Not often. That is probably more the sites I choose. My 2500 almost never indicates depths of coins at greater than 5-6 inches on the display. My digging tool is 6 3/4 inches long to the guard and I have found quite a few coins where the guard was an inch or two below the rim of my hole. A silver dime from last Sunday was almost exactly 7 inches down. The GTI called it a dime, imaged it as size B, at a depth of 5 inches. I asked around after I got my 2500 to see how deep most detectors detected to in motion discriminate mode. 8 inches seems to be the line. Luckily All Metal goes quite a bit deeper than that and even makes a guess as to what it has found. Not usually accurate at great depth either. Teseros have a reputation of being very deep detecting machines but they are dig it all machines aren't they? I could nver go back to that type of detecting now and that is why I rarely use True All-Metal mode. If a site is very clean I like to use it, though. Finally, technique is very important with the GTI machines. Sometimes that heavy 2500 makes it harder to swing low and steady depending upon how many hours I've been out. I had a fellow detector come over toward the end of a long hunt and tell me my technique was awful. I got pretty mad in my mind but I realized he was right and that after about 2-3 hours in the field I get very sloppy. His comment was something like "You must not find too many deep items swinging that detector so high." I fixed that problem and next time I see him I owe him a beer. Now when my technique gets bad and I can't fix it I just go home. You see I used to be addicted to this hobby.

I use a 2500 exclusively. I have found almost 15,000 coins with it since I got it last Fall. If you take the time to get to know it I bet you will have good success with yours.

Chris

 

[John-Edmonton]

All metal detectors using any type of discrimination with electronic circuits are all a probability. Never 100%, because you can rarely duplicate a perfect lab condition in the real world. Now having said that, we all want to somehow get the best probability possible with our machines. How best to attain this? Practice practice practice! Once you get to the point where you can tell the machine what is probably under that coil, not the other way around, then you have mastered that machine. Will the 2500 get a good probability of sizing a target beyond 6"? Depends on soil type, sensitivity, coil size and program you are using. Will it accuratley size an object at 12"??? Probably not. What I am getting at is you have to learn your machines limitations, AND what it is telling you beyond these limitations. Then yes....you can guess a good probability of size beyond 4", 5", 6",7", 8" and more.

As far as it getting bashed by others, perhaps they never put in the time to learn such a wonderful piece of electronics. Perhaps they were beating the drum for some other make of detector. Of course, the same could be said in retrospect..."why do some people do so well with the GTI 2500, while others couldn't find a penny in an amusement park".

 

[Uncle Willy]

Most people who bad mouth the 2500 don't know how to use it and won't take the time to learn or just can't learn. I ran into that constantly when I ran the Garrett Classroom a few years back. There's nothing wrong with the 2500. It's one of the best detectors on the market.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

WE don't care what name you use.

Bill.

 

[kickback]

Funny you should ask.I bought a 2500 this summer and have hunted with it a lot.I haven't been finding the deep coins I had before I started using it.Yesterday I gridded off a square of grass in a school yard.I set the 2500 with just iron disc'ed out.sensitivity 7.I hunted the area north to south then east to west.I marked 9 repeatable coin targets.Targets that gave 2 way belltones.I then hunted the same area with my old detector with just iron disc'd out sensitivity 4(8 is max).I got an additional 22 targets.The other detector "hit" the same 9 targets as the 2500.Four of the additional targets were junk,2 were smashed flat screwcaps.I knew what they were when I pinpointed them.The other 2 targets were round thick pieces of aluminum.These targets sounded good enough for me to dig with the other detector.The 2500 correctly ID'd 3 clad dimes,6 zinc and copper pennies.I ran the 2500 over the additonal marked targets the other detector found.I couldn't get a 2 way hit that was repeatable unless I switched to all metal.With the other detector I dug 2 quarters,5 additonal dimes,6 additional pennies and here's the shocker(to me) 5 nickels.To of the dimes were 8 inches,measured with my Lesche digger,one nickel was a hair over 6 inches deep.Today I took both detectors to a place I've been finding some silver coins.I marked 2 coin targets with colored golf tees..I found these with the other detector.The 2500 wouldn't hit them in discrimination mode.I dug an 8" 1956 Washington quarter at 8'' and a 7-71/2 inch deep 1952 Roosevelt dime.I sold the 2500 tonight and ordered a new multi freq.detector.Garretts are well built.The imaging was wonderful.My issue is with the depth in discrimination,If I turned the sensitivity up it would false no matter how slow I swung it.

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

Thanks for the reply! I only got a couple of hours on mine until the weather turned for the worse , but I was very impressed by it in my limited experience with it. I just couldn't believe the how varied the opinions on it were on the metal detector review sites that I checked out. Like I said before - they went from best detector ever made to utter waste of money. I don't think I'll be able to get much more detecting time in this year with the weather in Northern Wisconsin turning so nasty. I hope next spring when I get to learn the machine beter I'll be one of the people saying it's the best detector on the market. So far so good in my limited experience with it. I found some coins in a heavily hunted park that a friend of mine and I had hunted a few months ago. He was using a Minelab Explorer XS and I was using my Tesoro Cortes that I used to own. Between the two of us we only found a couple of modern cents. I found more coins with my 2500 by myself in half the time. I think the 2500 is going to do just fine for me. I was just wondering why some people had such negative reviews on such a good detector and what some of the forum members here thought of their 2500's. Thanks again for the reply and Happy Hunting , Craig.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Learn how to use it properly and it will reward you well. People who fail with it just never learn how to use it.

Bill

 

[cc8137]

I own a 1500 and found that It takes experience using the machine to tell you what's in the ground. Even Garret tells you to hunt with it 100 hours just in coin mode. I know that since I've bought it, I've missed some targets simply because I interpreted it was saying one thing and was probably some thing else. Bottom line, I've been digging every target starting at "c" size and smaller. Too many variables involve such as ground mineralization, ground moisture and other influences that would make the machine say its coin and you dig a flip top. Most of time if it "repeats" a bell tone and coin target while pinpointing a "X" pattern, its worth digging.

That my two cents worth
Charlie

 

[dahut]

... It's Garretts top of the line. Garrett makes good, often excellent detectors.
Ergo, it too should be at least good, maybe excellent.
Give it a chance before you listen too ardently to the other opinions.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Ah yes the old GTI I still see it in operation every so often, my hunting buddy bought mine.
And as many others said the reviews are for the writers conditions, ideas, views and so on.

This naturally results in mixed reviews.

My views are negative on since the disc is very jumpy, some said that is the very help to ID coins but who wants to recall the jumps from 30+ coins? I found many coins jump around 7 times; some from the high right to the lowest left.

So for me the disc made me switch brands. (since I had no intention of learning all combo's the disc could jump onto, to lazy to put it simple)

And that resulted in me digging everything while I had it but this was in no way practical in the long run.
(I mean everything, even nails)

So for me in my conditions and grounds it was never "the best".

for me imaging was correct to about 8". (measured)

 

[Jims]

I found many coins jump around ; some from the high right to the lowest left.

I've noticed this myself on my GTI, been trying to figure out why it was doing that. I noticed that when it does this it usually ends up rejecting it and discriminating the target. My best guess is I'm swinging too fast and the jumping around is the microprocessor trying to analyze the target. Any other ideas from the experts with more experience than me (who had none)?

 

[Eu_citzen]

Now I do usally not discriminate anything out. And slowig down didn't help ME either, probably has to do with the compositions of the targets.
Some previously said I could have had a bad machine which is very possible.

WHile pinpointing it does usally lock into one place, maybe that can help you somewhat.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Jim.
I experience the same thing if I have my sensativity over 8. It's a lot more stable under that.
Mick Evans.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Craig.
I own the 1500. I spent a fair bit of the first 50+ hours hating it. I've got around 65 hours on it now and I'm starting to appreciate it. When folks are saying give yourself a 100 hours to get familiar with it, then I think that it's a good idea. The imaging is quite handy, but takes around 25 hours to get reasonable with it.
I think that in time, it will turn out to be a fairly good machine.
mick Evans.

 

[CoinShooter-Craig]

I'm no where near wanting to trade mine in (because my metal detector dealer would ring my neck for all the trade ins that I've been doing). I'm definately going to give myself plenty of time to learn the 2500. I was just wondering what some of you thought about such mixed reviews on Garretts top dog detector. I'm very impressed with it with my limited swing time. The only thing I'm worried about is the discrimination depth , because I want to find old coins. I figured such an expesive detector would have extreme depth capabilities. Maybe to find old deep coins I'll have to figure out how to use all metal beter since it does give you an idea on the target conductivity. Craig