Ytcoinshooter
Well-known member
A little background why bought the Racer. I decided to sell my IDX Pro since I only used it for an annual competition hunt or as a loaner. That left a void to fill, replace detector #8....yes my wife knows I can never have enough detectors or gear. I decided that I could find something light weight to replace it that I could use for other applications too. I looked at several options from Teknetics and Fisher mainly. I've eyed some of their offerings in the past but none were really offering anything over my present selection of turf units. The XP Deus definitely offered up what I was considering and a couple of times in the last year I came close to pulling the trigger on that purchase. In watching a few YouTube videos on the Racer and learning about the Nokta Fors CoRe I was
I was impressed with the sensitivity under a variety of conditions. The recovery speed and ability to handle bad ground just stuck with me. I have a step daughter that lives not far from Culpepper Va. and my experience hunting in the red soil and red clay there in 2009 with my old DFX was a lesson. Nasty soil to try and find anything small that is even a little deep...NUTZ!
Mentioning some of the notable the areas I took my new Racer to included a hard hunted park built on old farmland (I used to find plenty of silver an occasional draped bust LC) that saw much activity from the 1940's - 1970's it's still used today as open space but retains many features from its heyday. On another day I tried the racer at a drained lake bottom that used to be an old swimming area and I have been over this with several detectors up for a little over year now and is very little left. In the northwest area of CT I hit a very low reservoir
that had seen swimming activity in a couple of semi secluded spots over 40 years ago but not permitted since. After the reservoir I headed to a park that had been a Berkshire Hills summer camp from the 1920's into the 1970's and contains difficult ground that rarely gives up anything these days. I did manage to locate a small green lead howitzer, shown where with the junk and coins from the lowered reservoir 
I detected a popular saltwater beach with extreme sand mineralization. I was able to ground balance on the beach at 02 where the water was receding with each wave. Moving a few feet to where tha sand was still wet from the tide but the water was not lapping the GB was 30 - 32. Moving to the dry sand my GB was 40. Further up from the water before the dunes the sand is extreme red and some areas were clearly black magnetic mixed with red,
GB varied from 72 to 84 depending on the mix and concentration of those sands. I have to go on to say the saltwater beach testing impressed me to where the Racer had the best performance of any single frequency detector in that environment, it knocked my socks off. It is capable of competing with the dual, multi frequency & BBS units I have tried there and own. I kept repeating to myself "this is sick", I wish I was not alone when testing it there because I was so impressed I felt I needed a witness. I had seen the YouTube videos of the racer on a salt beach and shook my head in disbelief until I got hands on. I rarely these days even arrive at the beach with a detector unless it's a waterproof unit because I've mainly been a surf hunter except in the colder months when I will hunt out of the water from the lapping shore to the dunes. The Racer is perfect for this type of hunting where the digging is easy and anything above iron is potentially a keeper.
The sensitivity (and separation!) plus the stability of the Racer in every place I took it was outstanding except my front yard (EMI / RFI) where no amount of frequency shifting and reduced gain could get quiet enough to my liking. My back yard was a little better. The 60 cycle overhead power lines are tough. I don't expect this to be a major problem but if my front yard was a hunt site I have other units that fare a bit better. I decided to just chalk it up to extreme sensitivity the Racer possesses. I also noticed quite a bit of two way cross talk (back and forth) with other detectors at last weeks club hunt in a farm field. One of my go to detectors causes others fits but remain stable for me when getting close to other units, the Racer was receiving interference as well as dishing it out.
Continuing with the sensitivity, this detector at the beach (especially) will be a killer on micro jewelry. Namely stud earrings, earring backings and very thin gold. At the drained lake area I was chasing extreme tiny bits of nothing a couple inches deep in the sand that the Racer was loud and clear on and my pin pointers were having trouble finding out of the hole. Both my TRX and Pro Pointer had me searching the piles for what seemed stupid long only to locate a foil flake or a bit of junk that seemed invisible to me.
I did find that for me the Racer is not suited for traditional cherry picking. I will preface the following comments with this. I fully understand and expect sensitive detectors to occasionally read a deep iron nail (for example) or the target ID sometimes will "wrap" around the ID scale. Nonferrous targets mostly do not exhibit this reaction on the detectors I know well. There are two reasons why casual cherry picking ain't the Racers forte. 1) there is a big variance in the target ID of some very common trash items in the ground I often encountered targets that's read well into the 80's and even beyond that when dug out reverted to their expected ID range. I lost count of the foil I dug that read into the mid 80's with a reasonably smooth sound, especially if it was wadded up. Out of the ground these offenders would ring up in the 50's mostly, small near surface pieces of foil that were irregular were more identifiable and showed 40's+. I kept listening for any raggedness as the audio rise - peak - fall, expecting the raggedness on the front and back ends. It was not always coming through to let me know it's junk. I encountered ring pulls that would spike into the 80's only to show low 60's out of the ground. Crown caps depending upon their composition varied from easily identifiable by audio & visual to those that rang up into the higher VDI's with smoother - though not silky audio.
The most exciting VDI is nothing - blank with a high tone and a depth reading of greater than 4". Pot luck and the occasional copper or silver coin would turn up.
This is a "diggers" machine that won't miss targets unless it's just too deep or you tire of digging. My 10" planted quarter is out of its range in my soil. I also have enough EMI to where I couldn't turn up the gain in all metal beyond 80 to get a good test because of this interference. In the 2 & 3 tone I was able to test the gain up to max (though a bit unstable) and the Racer didn't make a peep. Something tells from messing around me I might get a one way response in AM at the highest gain setting.
Battery life - after about 20 hours on 4 fresh alkaline the indicator just dropped by one segment. I don't get why they put the rechargeable kit in the pro pack with this kind of battery life. In fact while mentioning the pro pack it could have been made better by deleting a couple of the fluff items and substituting with an extra lower rod and hardware for the 4.5" x 5" oor. Those headphones in the pack? Let's be real, they are not suited for detecting by their construction and a silly 1 meter straight cord. I haven't evened opened them. The 32 ohm rating is ok but beyond that they are best for your mobile audio or computing device. I like the environmental covers yet the one that fits under the armrest does not protect the rotary knob in the event of rain. I did find a fix for this by easily placing a factory Whites cover from my old XLT / DFX detectors over the neoprene Makro cover.
I am learning the nuances of the audio & visual responses. I walk a circle around the target trying to see if the audio / visual response degrades. This detector is made for difficult sites where there is a trash concentration and / or difficult soil exist. I may have made a lot about the lack of target resolution, especially for the lower conductors but Monday some things began to click. It doesn't change my opinion of the visual target ID system and how it "upward averages" deeper targets. The two silver coins I dug Monday silver coins were standout signals visually & audibly. The 1944 quarter rang up at 90 and was no more than 4". Seeing the edge in the clump never gets old
The 1941 dime rang up in the 85 - 87 range and was around 4" down
. For me what was remarkable is that I've walked over both these silvers countless times on the exact same path with many detectors since the 1980's. Having pulled 100+ silvers from the site it has been a place to run every different detector I acquired. The area is trashy with more being deposited every year. It was the Racers fast recovery in the junky stuff that helped. 
Those long pieces of rusty wire rang up real nice on the Racer, thought I had a good silver coin. It was found as one piece but it busted trying to get the pia trash out.
I ended up with 3 hard won silvers from a truly difficult place that I fortunately could dig freely to get to know what the Racer was trying to tell me. The small green cannon came from a little strip of turf in the former summer camp that would have been located just outside the door to the post office / camp store. The original buildings are long gone, but I had detected years ago when they all were there, took photos and drew a map of the original layout. I and others have beat it to death. The prime area outside that former building is about 15' x 60' that held barbers, newer silvers and coughed up one "CC" seated dime all 20+ years ago.
See those tire valves in the pic below? Rang up like a dime....
Sorry if I'm long winded, rambling, I really spent the time using all I've learned detecting to give this detector an honest shake. After yesterday I'm at about 25 hours on it. Beach, relic and pounded sites is where this detector fits in for me. Having the Racer, for me, the way I intend on using it is a bit of a luxury, definitely not as an "only" - or primary detector but as a tool that will help me milk worn out hunt sites, dive into trashy sites, work the beach in a light form factor and cut into tough soil conditions without too much fussing with settings. It performs well!
HH - Bruce
I was impressed with the sensitivity under a variety of conditions. The recovery speed and ability to handle bad ground just stuck with me. I have a step daughter that lives not far from Culpepper Va. and my experience hunting in the red soil and red clay there in 2009 with my old DFX was a lesson. Nasty soil to try and find anything small that is even a little deep...NUTZ!
Mentioning some of the notable the areas I took my new Racer to included a hard hunted park built on old farmland (I used to find plenty of silver an occasional draped bust LC) that saw much activity from the 1940's - 1970's it's still used today as open space but retains many features from its heyday. On another day I tried the racer at a drained lake bottom that used to be an old swimming area and I have been over this with several detectors up for a little over year now and is very little left. In the northwest area of CT I hit a very low reservoir
that had seen swimming activity in a couple of semi secluded spots over 40 years ago but not permitted since. After the reservoir I headed to a park that had been a Berkshire Hills summer camp from the 1920's into the 1970's and contains difficult ground that rarely gives up anything these days. I did manage to locate a small green lead howitzer, shown where with the junk and coins from the lowered reservoir 
I detected a popular saltwater beach with extreme sand mineralization. I was able to ground balance on the beach at 02 where the water was receding with each wave. Moving a few feet to where tha sand was still wet from the tide but the water was not lapping the GB was 30 - 32. Moving to the dry sand my GB was 40. Further up from the water before the dunes the sand is extreme red and some areas were clearly black magnetic mixed with red,
GB varied from 72 to 84 depending on the mix and concentration of those sands. I have to go on to say the saltwater beach testing impressed me to where the Racer had the best performance of any single frequency detector in that environment, it knocked my socks off. It is capable of competing with the dual, multi frequency & BBS units I have tried there and own. I kept repeating to myself "this is sick", I wish I was not alone when testing it there because I was so impressed I felt I needed a witness. I had seen the YouTube videos of the racer on a salt beach and shook my head in disbelief until I got hands on. I rarely these days even arrive at the beach with a detector unless it's a waterproof unit because I've mainly been a surf hunter except in the colder months when I will hunt out of the water from the lapping shore to the dunes. The Racer is perfect for this type of hunting where the digging is easy and anything above iron is potentially a keeper. The sensitivity (and separation!) plus the stability of the Racer in every place I took it was outstanding except my front yard (EMI / RFI) where no amount of frequency shifting and reduced gain could get quiet enough to my liking. My back yard was a little better. The 60 cycle overhead power lines are tough. I don't expect this to be a major problem but if my front yard was a hunt site I have other units that fare a bit better. I decided to just chalk it up to extreme sensitivity the Racer possesses. I also noticed quite a bit of two way cross talk (back and forth) with other detectors at last weeks club hunt in a farm field. One of my go to detectors causes others fits but remain stable for me when getting close to other units, the Racer was receiving interference as well as dishing it out.
Continuing with the sensitivity, this detector at the beach (especially) will be a killer on micro jewelry. Namely stud earrings, earring backings and very thin gold. At the drained lake area I was chasing extreme tiny bits of nothing a couple inches deep in the sand that the Racer was loud and clear on and my pin pointers were having trouble finding out of the hole. Both my TRX and Pro Pointer had me searching the piles for what seemed stupid long only to locate a foil flake or a bit of junk that seemed invisible to me.
I did find that for me the Racer is not suited for traditional cherry picking. I will preface the following comments with this. I fully understand and expect sensitive detectors to occasionally read a deep iron nail (for example) or the target ID sometimes will "wrap" around the ID scale. Nonferrous targets mostly do not exhibit this reaction on the detectors I know well. There are two reasons why casual cherry picking ain't the Racers forte. 1) there is a big variance in the target ID of some very common trash items in the ground I often encountered targets that's read well into the 80's and even beyond that when dug out reverted to their expected ID range. I lost count of the foil I dug that read into the mid 80's with a reasonably smooth sound, especially if it was wadded up. Out of the ground these offenders would ring up in the 50's mostly, small near surface pieces of foil that were irregular were more identifiable and showed 40's+. I kept listening for any raggedness as the audio rise - peak - fall, expecting the raggedness on the front and back ends. It was not always coming through to let me know it's junk. I encountered ring pulls that would spike into the 80's only to show low 60's out of the ground. Crown caps depending upon their composition varied from easily identifiable by audio & visual to those that rang up into the higher VDI's with smoother - though not silky audio.
The most exciting VDI is nothing - blank with a high tone and a depth reading of greater than 4". Pot luck and the occasional copper or silver coin would turn up.
This is a "diggers" machine that won't miss targets unless it's just too deep or you tire of digging. My 10" planted quarter is out of its range in my soil. I also have enough EMI to where I couldn't turn up the gain in all metal beyond 80 to get a good test because of this interference. In the 2 & 3 tone I was able to test the gain up to max (though a bit unstable) and the Racer didn't make a peep. Something tells from messing around me I might get a one way response in AM at the highest gain setting.
Battery life - after about 20 hours on 4 fresh alkaline the indicator just dropped by one segment. I don't get why they put the rechargeable kit in the pro pack with this kind of battery life. In fact while mentioning the pro pack it could have been made better by deleting a couple of the fluff items and substituting with an extra lower rod and hardware for the 4.5" x 5" oor. Those headphones in the pack? Let's be real, they are not suited for detecting by their construction and a silly 1 meter straight cord. I haven't evened opened them. The 32 ohm rating is ok but beyond that they are best for your mobile audio or computing device. I like the environmental covers yet the one that fits under the armrest does not protect the rotary knob in the event of rain. I did find a fix for this by easily placing a factory Whites cover from my old XLT / DFX detectors over the neoprene Makro cover.
I am learning the nuances of the audio & visual responses. I walk a circle around the target trying to see if the audio / visual response degrades. This detector is made for difficult sites where there is a trash concentration and / or difficult soil exist. I may have made a lot about the lack of target resolution, especially for the lower conductors but Monday some things began to click. It doesn't change my opinion of the visual target ID system and how it "upward averages" deeper targets. The two silver coins I dug Monday silver coins were standout signals visually & audibly. The 1944 quarter rang up at 90 and was no more than 4". Seeing the edge in the clump never gets old
The 1941 dime rang up in the 85 - 87 range and was around 4" down
. For me what was remarkable is that I've walked over both these silvers countless times on the exact same path with many detectors since the 1980's. Having pulled 100+ silvers from the site it has been a place to run every different detector I acquired. The area is trashy with more being deposited every year. It was the Racers fast recovery in the junky stuff that helped. 
Those long pieces of rusty wire rang up real nice on the Racer, thought I had a good silver coin. It was found as one piece but it busted trying to get the pia trash out.
I ended up with 3 hard won silvers from a truly difficult place that I fortunately could dig freely to get to know what the Racer was trying to tell me. The small green cannon came from a little strip of turf in the former summer camp that would have been located just outside the door to the post office / camp store. The original buildings are long gone, but I had detected years ago when they all were there, took photos and drew a map of the original layout. I and others have beat it to death. The prime area outside that former building is about 15' x 60' that held barbers, newer silvers and coughed up one "CC" seated dime all 20+ years ago.
See those tire valves in the pic below? Rang up like a dime....
Sorry if I'm long winded, rambling, I really spent the time using all I've learned detecting to give this detector an honest shake. After yesterday I'm at about 25 hours on it. Beach, relic and pounded sites is where this detector fits in for me. Having the Racer, for me, the way I intend on using it is a bit of a luxury, definitely not as an "only" - or primary detector but as a tool that will help me milk worn out hunt sites, dive into trashy sites, work the beach in a light form factor and cut into tough soil conditions without too much fussing with settings. It performs well!
HH - Bruce
LOL! 