Garrett Metal Detectors
Garrett Metal Detectors Have Something For Everyone
A Garrett metal detector can be bought for beginning treasure hunters as well as models that have more advanced features for the experienced metal detectorist. These Garret metal detectors range in price from under $200 to over $2,000. Every Garrett metal detector is made in the USA.
Breakdown of Popular Garrett Detectors
The Ace series of Garrett metal detectors are popular with people who are new to metal detecting and for anyone who wants an affordable all-purpose metal detector. This line includes the Ace 100, Ace 150, Ace 250, and the Ace 350. The Ace 150 metal detector is one of their lowest priced models. It is often purchased for young people who are being introduced to the hobby.
The Ace 250 costs about $100 more than the 150 and is one of the bestselling metal detectors. It is recommended for coin hunting, fresh water hunting, and use on dry beaches. It also has a mode for jewelry and relic hunting. Garrett recently introduced the Ace 350. Like the other models in this series it is meant to be a general, all-purpose metal detector. It is similar to the Ace 250, but has enhanced iron resolution, a higher frequency, and it comes with a DD coil.
Advanced Models
People who want a more advanced detector may be interested in the GTP and the GTI line. This includes the GTP 1350, the GTI 1500, and the GTI 2500. The GTP stands for Graphic Target Profiling. This Garrett metal detector uses digital signal processing to help its performance. It is used by detectorists who are interested in hunting coins, relics, or jewelry. It works well on dry beaches, in fresh water, and can also be used in the surf or for prospecting. The GTI Garrett metal detectors are known for their accuracy at pinpointing. They show both the target size and depth of the target.
The Garrett AT Pro works well in all terrain. While other detectors often have trouble with ghosting or finding targets in some terrains, the AT Pro was designed specifically for use in wet, dusty, or humid environments. The user can do ground balancing manually or use the fast track ground balance to do it automatically.
Gold Detectors
The Scorpion Gold Stinger Metal Detector was designed for gold prospecting and it is also a good choice for anyone who wants to hunt for jewelry. It uses 15kHz groundhog circuitry to search for gold in highly mineralized soil.
Underwater Detectors
While all of these detectors can be used in water, Garrett makes two metal detectors specifically for hunting in water. These are the Sea Hunter Mark II and the Infinium Land and Sea. These can both be used for treasure diving and surf hunting. The Sea Hunter comes with a submersible search coil and submersible headphone.
It ignores the salt water which can cause faulty readings on other detectors. The Infinium is for use on both land and sea. While the search coil is submersible, it has land headphones. It is good for detecting in ground environments that are heavily mineralized as well as the sea.
Along with this range of metal detectors, Garrett makes a pinpointer that can be used alongside the detector to help find the target while digging, more advanced search coils that can replace what comes with the detector, and various metal detecting accessories.
A Brief History of Garrett Detectors
For more than 40 years Charles Garrett has been an active treasurer and manufacturer of metal detectors. The desire to develop a better metal detector sprung from his expertise in electronics coupled with his hobby of treasure hunting. He started a company in 1964 after designing his own detector.
The Garrett Metal Detectors company is recognized worldwide as the leading maker of highly developed metal detection equipment. A broad range of hobby detectors for treasure hunters of all levels of skills and interest have been developed by Garrett's company. In 1982 he became the very first to engineer a security detector.
In the same year, his use of a computer chip in a metal detector was rewarded with the first US patent for this design. Charlie Garrett also has other inventions such as the basis of all modern metal detectors; target discrimination. The Garrett Detectors name assures quality backed by the credentials of Mr. Garrett as a NASA engineer and multi-patent owner.
Personal Experience With Garrett Metal Detectors
In the last two years using the GTAx-550 I have found an 1850 large cent, a small silver cache, a number of other coins and relics as well as a six-inch-deep 1877-S dime in a park I had previously hunted for nearly twenty years.
This is an excellent mid-range detector. Estimating conservatively, the GTA-500 (the predecessor to the GTAx-550) I had used for approximately twelve years paid for itself four or five times over. The GTA-500 lead me to colonial era coins, and a rare War of 1812 US Light Dragoons beltplate I was able to sell for $1,000 in spite of it being bent, corroded and ugly.
Among the (very) few faults I find with Garrett machines:
Jumpy target ID. (It is possible to interpret some of the strange readings with a little "reading between the lines". Nearly all machines will give erratic readings over targets such a a large piece of iron.)
Other brands seem to have more accurate discrimination. (occasionally it will still beep and ID targets it has been set to reject.) It is possible my sensitivity is too high. However, I have gotten much cleaner discrimination from the Bounty Hunter, Fisher, Tesoro, and Troy detectors I have used
Even with reduced sensitivity this machine performs poorly on a salt water beach. The manufacturer's beach performance claims for the GTA-500 didn't match up with my inability to ever get it to work at all on the beach. Although the performance was not up to par, I have been able to get the GTAx-550 to work.
People using less expensive Garrett detectors, however, seem to have beach use success. I am not proficient in beachcombing accounts for some but not all of the poor performance.
Available owner's manuals have not been user friendly or helpful. While some useful information was presented, it was far outweighed by the effusive self promotion of the prodduct.
These few issues are my only criticisms. Otherwise, Fisher puts out some of the finest metal detectors out there.
The Garretts (GTA-350, GTA-500, GTAx-550, GTI-2500) I have used perform nail and bottlecap rejection reasonably well and better than other brands I have used. It seem every detector has some item of trash it picks up regardless of settings. With the Fisher I found that item to be nails. Foil often appears in the nickel range with the Garretts.
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